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: My Little Pony is Four

Clara turned four just five days after Hays was born.  We've been planning her party for awhile, so we were prepared.  She has been so excited for this party since... well, probably since her third birthday party.

I wasn't going to go all crazy with this one.  Her snowflake party gave me party planning burn out.  But I still wanted it to be special and fun.  She requested a My Little Pony themed party with lots of purple.  She also wanted it to be a sleepover.

We made the cake well in advance and froze it.  We also made cupcakes and cookies ahead of time.  While I was at the hospital, Clara decorated the cupcakes with my parents.  Clara helped me decorate the food table a few days before Hays was born.

 

Her favorite pony is Twilight Sparkle.  She dressed up as Twilight last Halloween.  Who'd a thought we'd get some more mileage out of that costume?

The idea with the party was that each pony wrote Clara a letter.  Each letter had a special birthday message with an activity for her.

Fluttershy wanted her to go meet an animal friend of hers outside (A horse that our neighbor (and family member, Gail) let us borrow for a few hours). 

Pinkie Pie wanted her to eat cake and open presents.  (This was the majority of the party.)

Applejack wanted Clara to pick up apples like a real pony (AKA bobbing for apples).

 

Rarity had nail polish and a candy necklace for her at the "Carousel Boutique."

Clara had to pin the tail on Rainbow Dash.

And Twilight Sparkle had a new book about sleepovers (not pictured... instead, I show you a picture of popcorn, which is essential to any sleepover).

Let me just say that the coordination of the letters with the activities was not as smooth as planned, in fact, I might describe the event as a chaotic mix of present opening and eating.  But Clara had a ball, and that's the important thing.

As far as the sleepover goes, Clara and Paul slept in their teepee-tent and sleeping bags.  My mom even joined them in there for awhile before moving to one of the twin beds in their bedroom. A big cheer goes out to her for being such a sport!

Planning and Partying: A Diaper Shower and Other Useful Gifts

This is my third child. We also have not found out ahead of time the gender. This makes many people who are very kind and want to give us something for the baby scratch their heads: "What the heck do you get?"

Audra, Brooks' wife, was really thoughtful and threw me a diaper shower.  It was a lot of fun, and what mom wouldn't be excited to gain a six-month supply of diapers?!  Boy or girl, everyone poops. 

As I've been going through things and trying to prepare for this new child, there are some items that have come to mind as being useful for any pregnant mother. Please don't take this as a wish list for me: it's really meant for anyone who is stumped and needs some baby gift ideas that will be helpful to any mom. 

1. Diapers and wipes as I mentioned above. I'm still buying diapers for Paul and he's two. Need I say more?

2. Stain remover and laundry detergent. Okay this seems like a boring gift, but seriously, there are not many items more practical. I run through Shout like it's no body's business.  You could give the mom a splurge with some Dreft (which I never buy because I'm too cheap), or any fragrance-free detergent.  While I'm on the subject, you could make it a cleaning-themed basket with magic erasers, dry cleaning fluid, or other cleaning supplies that are practically essential with children.  (Excuse me while I pause to go "erase" crayon off my wall courtesy of Paul.)

image via slightly crunchy mom

 3. Frozen meals. You pretty much need to be a local friend for this one, but adding a new baby to the dinner routine makes meal prep frenzied, especially when everyone's trying to get adjusted to  a new routine.  Something homemade that can be microwaved or baked straight out of the freezer is WONDERFUL!  I hope to get a few extra things cooked ahead of time.  We're out in no-delivery land, but for those moms in town, you could also get them gift cards to the chinese or pizza delivery place nearby.

4. Teething necklaces. I don't own any of these, but they look cool and don't depend on whether baby is a he or she. Mom can be stylish while pacifying the baby. I'm thinking perfect for church or other "please be quiet" times.  The brand pictured above is called "Chew Beads," although I believe there are others.

5. Child or baby-sized clothing hangers. Especially ones for bottoms. Many outfits come with plastic hangers, but if this this a mom with other children, she's using those for her other kids' clothes. Buying some nice hangers is something she probably won't buy herself, although she wishes she did. As an additional item, you could make or purchase dividers that separate baby clothes by size.   There are a ton of tutorials on Pinterest that are really cute.

6. Baby Wash.  I still use baby wash on Clara and she's (almost) four.  Why not?  I often stock up on multiple bottles of the really expensive 'natural' baby wash that has been marked down at the grocery store to half-price (or less).  The fancy stuff really is a treat over the Johnson & Johnson.  You could always throw in a nice wash cloth, bath towel, or tub toy to complete the gift.

What have I left off the list?  Any moms out there have any other practical gift ideas for preggos?

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: A Recipe Shower for Audra

 

Another occasion for a party!  Brooks (one of Pat's older children) is getting married in only a few weeks. With some help from Gram and Leah, we threw his fiance a little shower focused around food (what else, right?).

Audra with long-time friend Elizabeth

Audra has not met many of the extended family, so the idea was to keep the shower within the family (give or take a few).  Guests were to bring a favorite family recipe, because, let's be honest, the majority of fun family times are while eating!

So what food did we have?  Gram made her delicious yeast rolls (which we stuffed with ham), and Leah made teacakes.  (Teacakes, a family recipe from Grandma Susie's Grandma, was the unanimous family favorite.)  I made some mini strawberry-peach cheesecakes.  We had veggies with blue cheese dip, grapes, and mixed nuts.  On the cake stand we had a cheese "cake" -- stacked cheeses (cheddar and baked brie) that resembled the traditional wedding cake.  Clara made chocolate-dipped apricots, and I made a citrus punch.

The decor was corals and pinks, keeping the color theme from the invitation.  We had paper lanterns and tissue pom-poms, a "Bride to Be" banner,  and of-course, flowers.  I had so much fun arranging the flowers.  Dotted throughout were references to the many years of dairying - the punch bowl and silver pitchers were actually cow trophies from years past.  Ribbons from cow shows hung under the mantle.  (Blue ribbons weren't included because they didn't match the color theme, but Pat wants me to be sure to let you know they won many blue ribbons!)

I only purchased the Snapdragons and Lilies - the rest were from Gram's yard!

We didn't play the traditional shower games.  We did a trivia game with questions from family history.  I knew Audra wouldn't know many answers, but it was fun to test the Rankins, talk about family history, and spark some conversation.  Kay was the winner!

We talked about the recipes, Audra opened a few gifts, and we enjoyed each other's company.  It was great to get everyone together.  I wish I had more pictures to capture everyone who came.

Madaline, Leah, and Julianna

These two girls had tons of fun playing during the party.

The parting gift was a bag of cornmeal, ground from corn grown here at the farm.

Now on to the wedding!