Category Archives: birthday

One

My Sweet Reesie-Bug…today you are one year old. One. ONE. 1. If you can’t tell, I’m still in disbelief. This last year has flown faster than any year in my life. And even though I’d like to ignore the fact that your birthday means you are that much closer to no longer being a baby, I can’t let today go by without acknowledging the one and only you.

Over the course of the last year, not only have you filled each day with joy, you have made our family complete.

It has been {and will continue to be} amazing to watch you grow and learn.

Over the course of the last 12 months we have learned that…

You are fierce. You are strong-willed. You have an amazing sense of humor. You are impossible to scare. You are a climber. You are our daredevil child. You are feisty. You have eyelashes that go on for days. Your eyes are fiery. You are spirited. You are loud. You are a snuggle bug. You have a thing for ears when you get sleepy. You adore your sister. You are very easy going. You love to eat. You are a mover and a shaker. You love the water. You have a smile that is contagious. You are intelligent. You are beautiful.

I often call you my little hurricane baby.

It’s hard to believe you’ve been with us for a whole year but we already couldn’t imagine our lives without you and I am looking forward to celebrating many more birthdays with you.

I love you more than life,

Mama

Reese is One

Ry’s Angry Birds Birthday Party

I had some major grand plans in my head about how this whole Angry Birds birthday party would play out but when it came down to it? I was too tired to stay up late at night to get stuff done. I bought a lot more than I had originally planned instead of hand making it. I texted a photo of the invitations instead of mailing them. I didn’t have enough boxes for my big giant life-size angry birds game. It rained on the day of the party so our game was played in the house and the piñata was setup in our woodshed. And the camera battery on my DSLR was dead.

It all ended up kind of ghetto-fabulous but guess what, the kiddos didn’t love it any less.

And so…here is Ry’s angry birds themed birthday party by way of crappy iPhone photos.

Angry Book Marks are Angry…{and ridiculously cute}
IMG_4831 “life-Size” Angry Birds Game AKA empty boxes they took turns trying to knock over by throwing balls at.IMG_4849

“Homemade” cupcakes, crappily decorated by yours truly.
{You’d never have guessed I used to decorate cakes as part of my job, huh?}
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Angry Birds Kabobs…three blueberries because when you tap the blue bird, he bursts into three!IMG_4858

Can’t believe my girl is FIVE!IMG_4854
The pinata…that little bastard was pretty tough to break.
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But that just meant all the kiddos got plenty of turns to try!
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We had our friends, good food, lots of treats and temporary tattoos…what more was needed?!


The nuts and bolts:

Decorations: I made the banner myself for Ry’s birthday last year. The swirly jobbers I got here. The piñata I got here. The cupcake topper rings I found here. The invite and bird printables I downloaded from here. The toddler life-size angry birds game I made out of wrapping various sized boxes in solid color wrapping paper. The table cloth and balloons I picked up at the dollar store. I also had Angry Birds color sheets out on the table.

The goodie bags: I bought Angry Birds corner book marks from my cousin’s hand made shop. I threw in angry bird Popsicles I found at the dollar store. I also included Angry birds tattoos from here as well as an angry bird disc shooter and sticker sheet I found at Target. I tossed them all into a brown paper lunch bag and topped it off with another printable from here.

The food: the angry bird kabobs were the only “themed food” we had…and I didn’t even call attention to it, so I’m 99% sure no one picked up on that. A pre-made veggie tray, cheese quesadillas and chips & guac rounded out the selection.

What am I missing? Eh, I don’t even know at this point. Feel free to let me know if you’d like any specific details.

PEACE!

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Rylee’s 5 Year Interview

Well here it is!

LIfe has been so crazy that I wasn’t able to get started on the project as early as I would have liked, but I like the way it turned out. She seriously cracks me up. My personal favorites are her answers to what she wants to be when she grows up and what super power she would have.

And at the very end, I started to feel like I have my own personal AT&T “It’s not complicated” commercial.

And so…on to the video…

The perfect metaphor for my life

Mother’s Day is right around the corner…such a great time to reflect on mothering and motherhood and junk…

Well, Rylee finally figured out the theme she wanted for her birthday party this year. Angry Birds won out over Dora, but I don’t think by much. In order to keep the momentum going toward AB, I started planning right away and made sure to keep her involved as much as possible. And so, 4-ish weeks before the date of the party we worked on the invitations. I downloaded a free AB invite from here and when filling in the info, I let Rylee choose the colors. We printed them out the next day, I let her do some of the cutting and she glued the invites onto colored backing.

That same night, I went into our “office” to look for the extra 5×7 envelopes I keep on hand for occasions just like this only could not find them anywhere. I figured, no big deal, I’d go to the store and pick some up on my lunch break or something.

Then a week came and went and those invites continued to sit.

Then with less than 2 weeks until party time, I hit a stroke of laziness genius. I snapped a photo of the invite on my phone and texted it to our friends with the following message:

Soooo…do me a favor and pretend that you got this in the mail and that I’m not just too lazy to go buy envelopes. Deal? I hope everyone can make it!

P.S. this is a group text because I’m also too lazy to send this individually.

Not exactly what I had planned, but it got the job done.

Then a couple of days after that, I was looking through my crafting stuff trying to think of creative ways to make this life size Angry Birds game I’ve promised Rylee. While I was thinking about whether or not just wrapping up different size boxes in birthday wrapping paper would come across as lazy or festive I found the 5×7 envelopes I knew I had…

Sitting in a pile of crap on our desk…

half-addressed for family and friends…

not yet stamped…

sealed up with Reese’s 6-week/newborn photos.

Six.Week.Photos. She’s NINE MONTHS OLD!

So…my reflection for Mother’s Day…mothering? Yep. I do it. Kinda.

I saw a photo floating around Facebook last weekend and I think I’ve found my new motto…

World’s okayest mom!

Happy almost Mother’s Day!

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Birthday Interview Prep

It’s May 1st and you know what that means!

Oh you don’t? Well, it means Little Miss Rylee will be turning 5 years old in 17 more days.

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FIVE years old.

ONE WHOLE HAND!

This is a big deal, folks.

Back when Rylee was two, I started a “birthday interview” tradition that has been really fun to look back on and see how she’s changed over the years. I have a list of “standard questions” that remain constant and then I always open it up for suggestions. So, this is your chance…if you’ve got any questions you’d like to ask Rylee, leave me a comment here and I’ll include it in her 5 year interview.

And, for funsies, here’s links to her previous interviews. Seriously…her voice at her two year interview kills me dead.

Ry’s 2 year interview.

Three Years. An Interview.

4 Years. Her Interview.

This is something I hope my crazy girl lets me do for years to come!

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{And oh yes you better believe I will be doing the same thing with Reese!}