Partying: Another Year

Wow.  It's been a long time since I blogged.  Like this is over a year and a half old.  But I found this in the drafts and wanted to go ahead and publish.  Will be posting much more updated info soon!

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All my babies are officially one year older!  Things have been busy.  So busy that it is March and I haven't acknowledged any birthdays or Christmas.

My excuse (and the truth) is that I've been busy.  All at once we fixed up a mess of a rental house and started working on our own (which we had to move out of while they work).  Then throw Thanksgiving, Christmas, and all the usual busy-ness, and you might understand why blogging had to take a back seat.  But never fear: let me give you the recap!

We celebrated Paul's third birthday with another tractor themed party.  It was very low key, but almost all the family came out to celebrate, so we had fun.  Leah surprised us all driving a big tractor from the farm and gave Paul a ride.  

Hays and Clara had a joint birthday party.  The theme was "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / A Celestial Ball."  Basically we decorated the house with stars of various kinds.  I liked the Twinkle Twinkle theme, Hays really didn't care, and Clara was happy as long as she could dress up as Sleeping Beauty (so it became a "Ball").

So, here's my Sleeping Beauty.  Sewn the DAY OF her party.  Why I didn't just buy a Sleeping Beauty dress?  I don't know.  Well, I do know.   But I'm not going to get into that. 

It was twirly, and that's what she wanted.  Hooray again!

My man Hays was delighted when everyone sang Happy Birthday to him.  Other than that, opening presents and even blowing out the candles wasn't on his radar.  My mom was a big help in getting all the decorations and food put together right at the end.  We had lots of balloons  - some helium, some regular - that really helped to transform the space.

On Paul's birthday, I did manage to get one photo worthy of framing (and Christmas card-ing).  Hooray!  Merry (belated) Christmas!

Partying: Paul's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Paul's second birthday yesterday -- my how the year has flown!

As I said last year, this year I was not going to give myself fits getting his party ready.  Thankfully his love of tractors and farm equipment gave me a lot to work with that was readily available.  Hello, barn party!

We used one of the barns on the farm that stores hay.  It conveniently had both round and square bales already there.  I soon discovered that the hay barn is a very convenient "indoor" playground.

Pat drove a tractor down that morning and parked it in the barn. 

The indoor foliage you see is actually poison oak (eek), but it was in the right colors, so we went with it.

We used the square bales for seating (covered with a little fabric), hung a few balloons, and set up the food.

The party started off with presents.  Paul (and especially Clara) couldn't wait to start opening!  Paul got a lot of different tractors, which suited him just fine!  He also got some farm gear - boots, overalls, and an Auburn shirt (it's Alabama's ag school!), along with a nice set of truck books.  Of course all these fine new toys meant that he didn't have time to eat!  I think he did eventually slow down long enough to nibble a piece of fish and shove down some cake.

 

And last, but definitely not least, he opened the 1:20 scale combine.

 

So what did we eat? (Let's get to the important stuff!) 

Let me translate some of it: silage = coleslaw, "diesel fuel" = slightly sweet tea,  and moo juice = milk. Haybales = rice krispie treats and the dirt on the dirt cake was chocolate butter cream frosting with crushed chocolate animal crackers on top.

 Singing "Happy Birthday" went off without any tears (and yes, I'm referring to your 2nd birthday, Keri).

You didn't think I could just make a plain chocolate cake now, did you?

 

 The rest of the time was spent playing.

 

 We got a few cute posed pictures suitable for framing, too...

Check out the end-of day tractor line-up.  Quite a haul!

 

Happy Birthday to my big little boy, Paul!

Partying: Lumberjack style

 For Paul's first birthday, we had a Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Party.  I'm finally getting around to sharing the details of the party.  Let me first say that the weather was perfect!  That really helped make it a fun time.

Isn't that an awesome bonfire?  I have to thank Pat and his boy-scout skills for making that happen.  The main event for the party was the bonfire where we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  While that added a lot of ambiance, I still added a few other touches to make it a birthday party over just another weenie roast.

 

The party was out under the group of cedar trees in my mother-in-law's yard.  Why?  Cedars are evergreen and it was November!  That tree canopy made the party feel right.   I strung some Christmas lights in the lower branches for some extra twinkle.  Note Uncle Ray in the background sharpening our roasting sticks. 

The table had a big stack of firewood layered over a thrifted plaid blanket.  Tea lights in canning jars provided a little extra lighting for the table. 

I made the burlap banner that said "Happy Birthday."  It's just squares of burlap cut out and sewed (folded over and zig-zagged at the top) to braided twine.  Using Clara's finger paints, I painted the letters on.  Easy.

For the food, we had hot dogs (that we cooked over the bonfire) and kettle chips.  There were jars of ketchup, mustard, and relish to embellish the 'dogs,' and also some grated cheese.  I ordered disposable bamboo plates to enhance the lumberjack theme.  Oh and we had some pretzel sticks that reminded me of logs.

Then there was the s'more station with graham crackers, hershey bars, and campfire-sized marshmallows.

Clara had to inspect the marshmallows.  (She's standing on our cooler of IBC Root beer and Cream Soda.)

The mushroom meringue cupcakes will have a post all to themselves.

 

Then we sang to the birthday boy!

Parenting: Paul turns One!

My baby is already one!!  My this year has flown by.  It's surreal to think that just over a year ago at this time I was waddling around unable to see my feet.

Paul and Clara already have very different personalities and temperaments.  Paul has been far more difficult in a lot of ways. 

 

But he is a sweetie.  He smacks his lips to "blow kisses," he runs toward cars (dangerous, I know) waving hi or bye to them, and he loves anything with a wheel.

Happy First Birthday, my young man!   I love you!
 
P.S.  I've been busy the past month (or two) gathering and organizing and strategizing a party for Paul.  The theme?  Lumberjacks.  (Paul... Paul Bunyan... Lumberjacks... you get it.)  Stay tuned for a slurry of party prep posts in case you're interested in the nitty gritty deets.

An Indoor Picnic in the Three Hundred Acre Wood

Clara turned two at the end of January, and we I had to throw her a party, of course.  So, given her recent interest in Winnie the Pooh, my love for the original A.A. Milne story with the E.H. Shepard sketches, and the similarity in Clara's haircut and Christopher Robin's, it was practically mandatory to have an "Indoor Picnic in the Three Hundred Acre Wood."

Warning: I'm having some fun using the instagram app on my iphone - hence the filtered pictures.  Carry on. 

I started by making a "Clara Bee Robin" outfit.  Christopher Robin wears a blousy white shirt and red shorts in a lot of the original drawings, so that was my starting point. 

 

I turned hers into a dress (so you really couldn't see her shorts too much).

And of course Winnie the Paul needed something for the party, too.  You can see this link for more of his clothing details.

Then came the difficulty of transforming our living room into a forest...

 

Large swatches of Cedar and Privet provided the majority of the greenery.  Their size combined with the natural style of the party made the decorations go quickly.  The mantle was flanked by two arrangements of Cedar (from my mother in law's yard) and Privet with little blue berries (from down near the hay barn).  Pine cone garland was hung under the mantle. 

I hung two large swags of the cedar and privet on the front double windows; a little burlap helped hold things together.

 

The table centerpiece was more of the same, plus a few red berries for fun.  Oh, and a gingham red table cloth - it is a picnic, you know!

 

A close up of the pine and pine cone garland - the pine swags were saved from my Christmas garland - including the wire - sweet!  The pine cones came from Wal-mart's after Christmas super sale.  Pine trees don't grow close by.  It feels silly to buy pine cones, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

And we had to have an extra large blue balloon so Pooh could get honey from the honey tree!

Then it was time to eat!  Everyone grabbed a picnic basket and loaded their food inside.

 
The meal included cuban sandwiches, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, Eeyore's blue "thistle" chips (aka Blue Terra Chips), stuffed eggs (thanks Ann!), Tigger's "spring" water, and Rabbit's broccoli salad.
 

The "Sumthing Sweet" table included a honey tasting, "haycorn" cookies c/o Piglet, and honeycomb cupcakes.  Pat had some fun cutting wood slices that I used for a cakestand and platters with his dad's new chainsaw.

No cake at this party - I opted for cupcakes made from my mom's honeybun cake recipe.  The bees were made from pipecleaners - super fast and easy!  A yellow iced hexagon cookie on top of the cupcake made the arrangement into a honey comb.

 

The honey tasting had 4 different types: raw local honey, blueberry honey, cotton honey, and tangerine honey.

The tangerine was the overall favorite.

A "haycorn" cookie (Piglet's way of saying 'acorn') is just a hershey kiss, nilla wafer, and butterscotch chip held together with a little frosting.

I enjoyed putting this party together so much, and it really came together just about as well as I had imagined.  The best part was Clara's wide-eyed amazement as she woke up from her nap and saw the Hundred Acre Wood.  I think she really enjoyed it.

Reading with Aunt Ann under the picnic table was pretty fun, too.

Patrick and Brooks were sports to sit on the picnic blankets with Clara.  It was a really wonderful family get together (plus the adopted Mrs. Pino and Lee Jack).

Happy Birthday, Clara Bee Robin!