party planning

It all started... with a nickname. Monster. and then a theme was found. little monsters. an invitation was chosen. pastel DIY print. and a PARTY was born.

I swear, I've been planning this party since before monster was born. But really I've been working on it more diligently since August. I thought at first I would just invite our immediate families (brothers and grandparents). Then realized that half of them wouldn't be able to make it. Sad. So I branched out and invited some close friends. Still more of them wouldn't be able to make it. Finally I realized that a lot of the husband's extended family hadn't met monster yet, so we invited them. Probably about 20-25 people actually came to our party! That is a lot for our little house.

I have been having so much fun planning this party that I am almost sad that it is over. ha-ha.  And, a party is a good excuse to get my butt in gear to clean the house! Especially things like vacuuming the stairs and the upstairs hallway corners. I made all the food but ordered the cupcakes from Hy-Vee. Yum. I did not take pictures during the party, which is a bummer. We did get some of monster and her smash cake exploration and a couple of the decorations beforehand, but that's it. What a sad thing. Oh Well. It was a fun day.

I used these posts for inspiration YoungHouseLove; ItsAllHappening; and AnniesEats.

I'll hopefully find some pictures of the birthday madness to show!

Traditions!

Getting started on monster's birthday bash! This will be used for decorating. I plan to use it year after year for her with some streamers in her bedroom or on her bedroom door. Starting traditions :)

I ordered the book Birthday Monsters! by Sandra Boynton and will to read it to my monster for her birthday every year.

I am working hard on planning her first birthday party. I thought I wouldn't go too big but it's mostly family and close friends who are invited, we do have a lot of family. Hopefully it will be nice and everyone can hang out outside. Otherwise, I don't really know where people will sit but I am excited!
Plans in the works include cute invites from chickabug on etsy, lots of monster decorations, and cupcakes from hy-vee (love their cupcakes and frosting). Mother in law is crocheting a monster hat for monster to wear and her godmother made a tutu skirt. I can't wait. I love birthdays!!

Speaking of traditions, what birthday traditions do you and your family have? In mine, we always had a family dinner, cake, and a special birthday prayer read before supper. For our little family now we'll start our traditions with monster and as they occur, i'm sure to tell you all about them.

Monster is 1 year old

Dear monster,

You are now officially 1 year old. To say this past year hasn’t been what I expected would be correct. You are a very cute little girl, no longer really a baby, and you are usually in a very good mood. You have started smiling, laughing, and giggling with no provocation (that I can understand) and make those around you laugh/smile every time you do this. I didn’t know what to expect with having a baby, would you eat, would you sleep? Would we figure it out? Well, sometimes I feel like we have it figured out and other times I don’t. It hard to say what life will be like from one day to the next, but mostly it’s on the level.

You are learning to chew and swallow your food and getting better with each day. We still do baby food but you will take some regular table foods, like toast or bananas, as long as we give you enough time to figure it out. You will sometimes feed yourself but your pincer grasp has yet to show up. Slowly, you are learning to palm grasp foods and Granpat says you do very well You eat a lot but apparently could eat a lot more since you are very small. We switched you over to whole milk a couple of weeks ago and it has been a very good transition. You stopped liking to drink your formula during the summer but now, you grab for the bottle in order to have more milk. I think this is also going to help you bulk up. We haven't figured out sippy cups or straw cups with you yet, so we're going to stick with the bottles and open cups for a while. I hope we can all figure it out, because once you feed yourself and drink for yourself, i think we will all be a lot happier!

You grew a lot in the last couple months and you look very tall for your size. You are tall and skinny, only weighing in around 16 pounds. I hope you stay tall :-) you can wear clothing from 6-9 months all the way up to 12 months. It really just depends. Still wearing size 3 diapers and probably will be for a while since they say they go up to 28 pounds, and that is almost twice your size. 

Your development is really taking off lately. I have noticed a difference and see you get stronger with every day. You are about the stage of a 6-month-old and are reaching out for things and playing with things more and more. It's fun to watch. We work on sitting and developing the muscles in your low back and upper chest in order to get you to sit up on your own and eventually crawl. It looks like you are really working to figure this out! You love to work with Katie, Mary Jo, and Emily from Early Intervention and they are pleased with the progress you have been making.

I love you lots you little monster. I hope your 2^nd year on earth is as good or better than the 1^st one.

Always,

Mama

Happy birthday!

Did you happen to notice where i mentioned vegan food/brothers decide on my menu plan? Yeah, its because little brother came to MN for a visit!!

nice to meet you uncle!

In June I came up with the best idea for my hubbs' birthday. His little brother lives in LA and hasn't been home for almost 2 years. They were missing each other, so I came up with a way to kill 2 birds with 1 plane trip. Little brother (not so little, 23 years old) bought a ticket and we pulled off an awesome surprise trip home. Though mother in law almost ruined it a few times but overall hubbs had no idea.

wake up!!

I had been telling hubbs that i had to work on Wednesday so he would have to pick up monster after work. I spent the morning cleaning the house for our guest and  then I went to pick up little brother and hurried home. When husband was pulling into the driveway/garage, little brother was standing in the garage.

Yay!! :) Happy birthday hubbs!