Party of the Year

For us, at least, this was the party of the year. I suppose Christmas this year, which will be a party of 13 here, may be bigger, but this was the biggest party we'd hosted since this time LAST year, which really paled in comparison by scale. This was a TON of work and a TON of fun and I really enjoyed putting it all together and then seeing the fruits of my labor.

We held the party at a local dance studio...not the studio at which she takes her ballet classes...this is the much more affordable alternative that we WOULD have chosen, if their 2-year-old class schedule had meshed with our schedule at all. As it is, she's apparently at one of the most prestigious dance schools in Nashville, which is, you know, CRUCIAL at three years old!!!

So, it was an hour of dance and tumbling led by an instructor, followed by an hour of food and cake and running around screaming in typical three-year-old anarchist fashion. It was great.

So, the flowers on the window are just part of the studio decor, though it kind of played in nicely to our rainbow theme. I had originally planned to do something like Tomkat Studio did with the rainbow tissue pom poms, but when it didn't work IMMEDIATELY, I just didn't have the patience to mess with it and was quite happy with the rainbow chandelier, as Ouiser dubbed it.

So, the Husband hung the rainbow umbrella a LITTLE higher over the table than I meant him to, but that's okay. I know at least one person other than me noticed it.

Here's the thing with the crayons. It started out as a perfect favor idea because we had all these leftover broken crayons and, hey! Great way to use them up! And free favors! Then there were suddenly 20 kids coming to this party and we didn't have anywhere NEAR that many crayons. So we busted our bottoms making enough of these things, a process which involved all three of us peeling the labels off BRAND NEW CRAYONS and breaking the into bits to melt, which kind of defeated the whole utilitarian purpose of the thing, but whatever.

I remember doing this with my mom when I was little, but I think we spread lots of colors onto a cookie sheet and melted them into a big flat block, then cut them up. I loved that. The inspiration for the way we did it was found at Preschooll Doll's Etsy shop, though really you can do this any number of ways and online tutorials abound. Also, the coloring sheet was downloaded from Style Me Gorgeous.

The ribbon wands were a dangerous idea...arming three-year-olds with sticks...but the dance instructor worked them into her routine and the kids certainly loved them. That idea, as well as the pot of gold coins and the umbrella, came from Hip Hooray. I would have LOVED to have copied that table skirt idea as well, but DANG. The time and the money both would have exceeded my budget by a TON.

Water bottle labels and cupcake toppers downloaded from Paper Glitter (and printed courtesy of Mr. Ouiser, holla!).

It's really a shame that there are no blue or purple veggies. The best I could come up with was the blue corn chips.


Cake decor ideas also brutally stolen from Hip Hooray, and were so much fun to make! I LOVE paper punches! But THIS was the piece de resistance...

Now, this cake was super light, fluffy, and moist, and completely fell apart as I cut it. Also, the chocolate buttercream was pretty solid by this time and didn't cut well either. So, you lose some of the effect because of all the crumbling in this picture. But focus your attention to the edges, which crumbles less, especially the bottom left corner where you can see the perfectly delineated rainbow color combinations...THAT'S what the whole thing really looked like. It was AWESOME and TOTALLY got the dramatic response I was hoping for from the crowd!

For the record, there are tutorials for this cake EVERYWHERE online. Just do a quick search if you're interested. It's time-consuming, but super easy and REALLY fun! Even the Husband thought it was cool when he watched me make it. I don't know what happened with the whole rainbow-theme explosion, but when I started planning this party last summer, it actually wasn't incredibly easy to find inspiration...it took a fair bit of Google searching. But in the last month or two?!? Holy rainbows EVERYWHERE, Batman! And I can understand why...it's an incredibly easy and fun theme to work with. I had so many more ideas that I ran out of time and money to implement; I quite literally could NOT shut my brain off from generating more and more ideas. Which was great.

I should have more pics of the actual birthday girl later this week, but for now, I HAVE GOT to clean up the rainbow explosion all over my kitchen and dining room!

Hello, Birthday Girl

First words this morning: "Is it my birthday?" "Yes, sweetheart, it is. Happy birthday!" "Is there cake for me?"

Yes, sweet girl, there's cake for you. Cake and presents and songs and dancing and a small dinner party and lots of happy birthday wishes and hugs and kisses and proud, proud parents who cannot wrap their heads around how big you are. Big and beautiful and smart and funny and strong-willed and obstinate and determined and compassionate and opinionated. And ours. Such an obvious blend of our personalities, and yet like no one we ever could have imagined. Entirely your own person.

We love you to the moon and back, baby girl.


Last words tonight: "Is my birthday over?" "Yes, baby, I suppose it is." "I had a great birthday, Mommy!"

Three Years and Two Years in the Making

So, this is THE kitchen. The play kitchen that the Husband has been working on off and on (mostly off, let's be honest) for nearly TWO YEARS. This began as the inspiration of one of the Ikea Hack play kitchens so frequently featured on Ohdeedoh, and morphed under the Husband's influence (as projects so often do) into a behemoth of a play kitchen...of THE BEST play kitchen ever created, I swear. You guys, this thing is GORGEOUS. I'm not at all sure the pictures do it justice. I LOVE it and, more importantly, so does the birthday girl. My Liliputian is three years old today and woke up to this culinary wonderland this morning after the Husband and I were up until almost midnight finishing it up, rearranging the dining room, and stocking it full of play food.











(Note the drawers present in this picture that were absent in the first two. The polyurethane was still drying overnight. You can also see the talking alarm clock in the background that was a birthday gift, as well as the binoculars in her hands. Please do NOT note the unpainted status of my dining room since we knocked out that wall, um, a YEAR ago. It's a goal to have that room painted by the end of this month.)

She's a lucky girl. And I'm a lucky mama.

October in a Pictoral Nutshell.

This is going to be a post of few words and many pictures. Many of these pictures aren't even mine. Thank Scarlet and Ouiser and whomever else I may have stolen from via Facebook. The words are mine, though, I swear. That may, however, be nothing to brag about.

Buffalo. Wonderland's wedding reception. Heartwarming.












Austin (including Eagles and Norah Jones at ACL. Though clearly not pictured here.).





Sacramento. And Cocoa.



And Wawa.



Gentry Farms. Pumpkins. Sheep. Corn. Hayrides with no hay.






Halloween! That bag lit up from the inside with glow sticks. The phenomenon did not photograph well, but it was cool.




Third birthday sneak preview.




Random. Because, really...70s gym shorts, rainbow striped knee high socks, and a Colgate hoodie. I don't think I need another reason.

Giraffe

I'm not sure I've ever felt so much like I'm talking to an empty room.

So...remember those few months I needed to take off? The little break I wanted? When was that? A year and a half ago?

Oops.

I'm not going to say I'm back because I really don't know. I want to be back. I may be back. But I may bail again for another six months after this post, who knows?

I do know that I'm not going to attempt any sort of recap of the lapsed time. I'm not going to wax poetic about how fast she's growing up, how busy life gets, how time flies. We all know how true those things are, that's why they're so trite.

So let's keep it simple today. Here's a teaser/preview of the Liliputian's Halloween costume this year:

Big Girl

I've been sick this week. Just a virus, I'm fine, but I was up in bed resting last night after the Husband put the Liliputian to bed and went out to help Mr. Ouiser with the new-house demo. I was watching my eleventy-hudredth episode of Weeds on Netflix when I heard a squeaky doorknob over the baby monitor. So, I knew she was up, but she wasn't saying anything...usually she'll call for us if she needs anything...another song, "cover me up," "I need to go potty," etc. But I just heard her walking around, banging things, and repeatedly rattling the doorknob (thank goodness for old houses with antique crystal doorknobs that are tricky to open).
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She's been getting more independent lately. Like, all at once. We were at the lake last weekend (pictures, I know, I know, don't nag!) and she was All. Over. The place. All the time. Up and down the stairs, into and out of every room, opening and closing drawers, cabinets, the fridge, the doors to outside. It's like when she started walking at, what?, three months old? and didn't have the sense to keep up with her motor skills. She has no business getting out of the big girl bed upon waking in the morning, coming out of her room, turning on the tv downstairs, walking upstairs, getting a yogurt drink out of the fridge, coming into our bedroom, and scaring the bejeezus out of me when she's suddenly in my face saying, "Open it, Mommy." Nor does she have any business getting milk and eggs out of the fridge to feed the dog. But I digress.
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After about 15 minutes of her clearly being Up last night, I figured I'd better actually do some parenting, so I went downstairs to investigate. Her light was on. F*ck. I open the door. She's sitting in the rocking chair pulling panties on.

L: I wear panties. I a big girl.

Me: Uh...Yes, honey, yes, you are a big girl. But you need to wear your pull-ups to sleep. Did you take them off?

L: Yes, I a big girl. I wear panties. I go play with S [as in little Ouiser]. *she's going to get her shoes at this point*

Me: Dear lord, child, do you realize what time it is? It's dark out. Everyone's asleep!

L: No they not!

Me: Yes! Yes, they are! Here, look outside. *curses! Daylight savings! Dusk is not nearly as convincing as pitch blackness.*

L: I wear panties.

Me: Okay, fine. Panties over pull-ups. Done.

I told her she could stay up and read for a while, but she had to stay in her room. She was agreeable to this and about two minutes later called for me to come tuck her in, which I did, amused. I love this kid.

Pew!

The Husband has just regaled me with a story of about five minutes ago, when he went on to check on the Lilliputian who was supposed to be sleeping but was instead up and calling out for us.

The Husband: What do you need Baby Girl?
Lilliputian: I need my blankie.
TH: But you have a blanket...?
L: No, I need to HOLD a blanket.
TH: Oh, well, here...here's your pink blanket.
L: No! It's dirty! It has *****
TH: It has...trash? No, it doesn't, baby...?
L: No, it has gas.
TH: Your blanket has...gas?!?
L: Yes. It's dirty.

At which point he apparently gave up and offered her a different blanket. The offending blanket will get a stern talking to about manners in the morning.

Happy Easter!

This was the first Easter the Liliputian actually had any clue what was going on. She had no idea what the big fuss was with the eggs until I pulled the first one out. Then she was all in. Including for the eating of the hard-boiled colored eggs.

Saturday we went to the local botanical gardens for an egg hunt, face-painting, balloon animals, crafts, children's concerts, and sno-cones. We also stopped by the toy store to pet and hold some live bunnies.







Sunday we had lunch and another egg hunt with the Ouisers and their family. I swear, we did not coordinate the dresses. Great minds just can't help but think alike.

The Other Benjamin

The other night, the Liliputian was in bed for the night, but woke up yelling that she had to go potty. This happens frequently as she becomes more aware of needing to go, even when sleeping, and as we continue not to cut off the milk consumption at night (she's had it just before sleep her entire life! I'm just not ready to tear her away from that routine).

The thing is, I was watching LOST, and the Husband was in his office with his headphones on, so I don't think we heard her for a while. This is a suspicion given more veracity by the fact that, when I finally heard her and went in there, she said, "Mommy, I use my voice SO loud, but you not hear with your ears!" I said, "I know, honey, I'm sorry. I was watching tv and I didn't hear you." "Ohhhhh!" she says, in that voice that implies that I've just explained the mystery of the universe. "Mommy, you watching Benjamin Bunny?" *heart melty* "No, honey. Not exactly."

Random Friday Afternoon Happy

Kitchen Remodel Part 2

We're on day 2 of potty-training. Her record yesterday was 4-2. We've pulled out the big motivational guns: She's getting M&Ms for each successful attempt. Five successful number 1s in the potty get her a cupcake party. Five successful number 2s will get her a bike. She was getting the bike anyway, which is the Ouisers' old tricycle that S is too big for, but the Lilliputian doesn't know that... She WANTS that bike BAAAAD!!! We actually had a hard time getting her off the potty yesterday because she was so focused on earning that bike. I'll keep you posted.

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The kitchen is plugging along and has made some HUGE progress. The slate floor is in:


The walls and ceiling are painted, the hickory cabinets are in:


The cabinetry was custom-made by a local small business. Those are little, tiny mahogany in-laid squares in the corners of the doors. The two cabinets with the glass doors need to have the shelves swapped out for glass...we forgot to ask for that. The Husband installed lights inside them, and also task lighting under the cabinets.





Technically, the granite countertops are in now, too. The sink is installed, though the Husband is still working on the plumbing. He's also working on tiling the backsplash, so none of the appliances are back in yet (pictures of all that soon), but it's coming. It's coming.

Spring

It was about 60 degrees out yesterday. We aborted a plan for the science museum in lieu of brunch in Nashville followed by an afternoon in Dragon Park.


We had bacon, toast, and eggs....


...we conquered fears...


...we slid down slides...

...conquered big girl swings...



...choo-chooed through tunnels...

Hope spring comes your way, too, soon.