Dr. Seuss Party-rific!!!

This past weekend we celebrated Little Moo’s 5th and Littlest Moo’s 1st Birthday with a Dr. Seuss Party. We had a fantastic time! I’m pretty sure this is the most planning and decorating I’ve ever done for a birthday party so I thought I’d share!

Let’s start with the invitation

I’m particularly proud of these as it took me HOURS to figure out how to use paint.net, but I learned a lot. In the past I have made the invitations by hand, and I will probably do that again in the future, but this was the best way to incorporate the characters. As would be predicted, after I finished these and sent them out various crafts stores started having Dr. Seuss displays with all kinds of fun stickers that of course would have come in handy to make them by hand. But hey, it forced me to learn how to use image editing software for which I am grateful!

And of course what is a party without food!

Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes! This was my first attempt at making my own frosting and using cake decorating tools. It is not the most delectable baked good I’ve ever made, but they turned out cute and fortunately when you’ve put a lot of work into something most people won’t spit it out in front of you and tell you how terrible they are. I will believe that they were good!

Multicolored goldfish are always a hit with kiddos!

Pink Ink Yink Drink anyone?

Yummy pasta salad from my brother’s girlfriend!

In addition we had Brown Barbaloot Truffula fruit (grapes, strawberries and watermelon), Broccoli Salad (which is so popular it never goes to waste and it made for all of family gatherings) , hot dogs, soda and chips.

Now for the decorations!

To decorate I just used some Dr. Seuss books that we have and set them up around the house as well as some wall decals that I purchased from a party store where I also found the Green Eggs and Ham balloons. I pulled the colors from the balloon to match. Dollar Tree is great for decorations as well as the dollar section at Target, they have great stuff!!! And in the living room we had the audio of Dr. Seuss stories playing in the background.

This is by far the most planning I have ever done for a party, coming in second to my wedding!  Some things the party didn’t have:

*expensive goody bags for the kids

*activities/games planned for the kids

*catered food or even fancy food

Guess what? I don’t think anyone noticed!!!! The kids had a great time playing in the bubbles (I set out a little bubble machine) and on the swing set and running around with each other and the adults. Sometimes all the fancy gets in the way of what is really important, celebrating!!!

And I think these kids had fun!

For those that say I could have done something better or it wasn’t big enough I kept coming across this quote while planning for this party and I think it is perfect

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” ~ Dr. Seuss

This is who we are! Nothing fancy about us but we sure know how to have fun!!!

Five Alive!!!

 

It is official, as of Sunday evening Little Moo is 5!  He is very excited about this. I was hoping (in an utterly delusional way) that some switch would turn and there would be a  return of the sweet boy I know he is. Apparently his switch was defective. Darn.

Well I suppose that isn’t entirely true. Little Moo has very suddenly decided he can (and will) do things on his own even if that means pulling up a chair to reach the cups to get he and his brother some water. One day he even asked for some snack and I told him after I went to the bathroom I would get them something to eat.  When I came out and he had gotten both he and Niecey-poo a snack and water, sippy lid and all. Sure there was a trail of water across the kitchen and goldfish crumbs everywhere because they had polished off the package. But he did it himself and he couldn’t be prouder. And neither can I. Do I like having to clean up his independence??? Not so much. But seeing how accomplished he feels fills my heart and makes it bearable. Kind of like when they are 9 months and poop everywhere, but they give you a huge grin and giggle and you can’t help but laugh. Sure there is crap everywhere, but you love them so you’ll get over it.

This year Little Moo received (from Zippercow and I)  REAL tools that are his size and his very own. He is beyond thrilled to be able to “help” Daddy. Now whether his Dad is just as excited remains to be seen. Fortunately Zippercow likes helping him learn despite the many white hairs if gives him, which is a big deal, he only has a few!

He is a jack of all trades this little boy is. He can be caught at night when he should be going to bed dressing up in costumes and dancing to the Phineas and Ferb soundtrack in the mirror then fall asleep with his pile of books around him. You add the yard work, wrestling and incessant who, what, where, when, why and how you have a pretty full day!

When starting this post I wasn’t sure if I wanted to just make it all mushy and starry eyed about how magical these last 5 years have been or complain about how frustrating they have been.  The truth is I wouldn’t change any of it for anything. Frustration helps to teach him and teach us and when the tears (mine) have dried we have some great stories to share.  He is a smart and talented  little boy and we are proud of our Little Moo. He continues to grow and frustrate amaze us and we look forward to what 5 brings us!

Birthday Season

Or otherwise known in our house as Christmas in July. Why is that you ask? Of the four birthdays in our family three of them are in July. The other one (Zippercow’s) is in December. So twice a year we have to figure out massive gift giving.  We don’t mind so much, but it certainly makes things interesting around here! I will be doing a series of posts highlighting each person’s birthday for this month. We’ll start with me!

This year I turned 29! I joke “29 for the first year” but really I’m not so worried about turning thirty. I know many of my friends are not very thrilled about the big 3-0 but I don’t understand why. That could be since I was twelve my mom would joke that I was “twelve going on thirty” of course  adding a year every year, but the same comment. I guess I’m looking forward to actually being the age I have acted most of my life. What’s better is that I know SO much more than I did when I was twelve! I enjoy that with every passing year I learn so much more about myself and the world around me. So if you ask me twenty-nine is just the lead up to the best year EVER!

This year I have a couple goals.

*Celebrate my thirtieth in misses clothes versus plus size. I don’t care if it is the very largest size in misses, just so long as it is no longer plus sized.

* Continue and improve our efforts to be more healthy and do more activities as a family

*I’d like to continue to learn about photography and actually catch up on my scrapbooking

(this photo was taken with my tripod and remote that I got for my birthday. Little Moo insisted I show him how it works. Now I just need to take one with all of us when Littlest Moo isn’t napping!)

* And of course most importantly spending lots of time loving all my boys!!!

Here’s to 29!!!

The Invasion of Phineas & Ferb

We’ve been invaded by catchy tunes, a boy with a triangle head, his brother and a secret agent platypus. What’s even more devastating is that it’s catchy. If you are unfamiliar with the Disney cartoon, Phineas and Ferb, I would suggest you watch an episode.

Now maybe you won’t look at me funny when I sing of squirrels in my pants (S.I.M.P.) because you too will be sucked into the catchy tunes. Mwahahaha!

Okay so of all things for Little Moo to be into at this time I would much rather this than Transformers or Spiderman or [insert other common comic superhero]. I blame my brother. While he is an adult he has always been a fan of cartoons. Usually I just roll my eyes and say “No Nustin, I haven’t seen that one”. But Little Moo had seen the show a couple times with him. I’m not sure what possessed me to watch it at our house, but now if the kids are watching anything, it is probably Phineas and Ferb. I enjoy the premise of the show. While it isn’t the educational programing I usually opt for at least the boys are being inventive and creative and I would much rather Little Moo act out the exploits of Perry the Platypus than shooting guns or karate chopping things/people. And the music is catchy and gets everyone dancing and singing along.

I mean, how could you not love this! Or even better

See? Everyone is dancing! Even Zippercow can be heard singing S.I.M.P. (which is hilarious by the way). It is such a hit that even the rest of my family who was over for the Fourth of July spent a good deal of time listening to the soundtrack, dancing and singing. Yes, to kids music. The songs are original and have catchy tunes. How can you not love the lyrics (this is from Little Brothers)

…Even when you break my toys,
You will always be my,
Little brothers,
Cause you're younger,
We're related, and you're boys.

Wow, did I really just blog about Phineas and Ferb?!?!?!