Everything Else

So, I have been very busy. My dining room table is an explosion of construction paper, glue, glitter, my trusty glue gun (I could write a love letter to whoever invented glue guns) stickers etc. It is crazy. We just kinda push everything to the side whenever it is time to eat. I found these adorable tootsie roll sea creatures online. I decided to make them since they cost like 2 dollars each! Caleb and I had fun. He still wants me to put mouths on them.





I made Noah's "throne" today. SO fun. I love it! and then I made seashells for the dining room chairs.


I am in the process of making some crazy tissue paper seaweed, bubbles, Birthday banners, favor bags and food name cards. I am trying to finish up the crafting this weekend so I can turn all of my attention to the cake and the rest of the food. I think I am going to serve one big happy adult beverage rather than buy beer. Am I stingy? I think some kind of festive drink my be fun rather than just plain old beer in a cooler. I should have a kids food side and a grownup food side... hmm... yes I really need to start nailing down the food. o crap- I have to get everything at the store too- o no. I better wrap up crafting.

Here are my bubbles, made out of plastic Christmas ornaments.

I made so many fish I needed to start hanging them up. Erik "wired" the living room and I just glue gunned all the fish onto fishing wire and then tied them up. I still plan to fill it with seaweed and bubbles and probably more fish. Noah looks up and says "ish" on a side note- I would prefer for him to just wake up on his birthday party day and see all of this- but realistically, it is hard to do all of this with him. So when he naps I decorate- early. Besides, I am sick of it by the time the party is over. Caleb's bug party drove me nuts when it was over- bugs everywhere, chaos- I just wanted to clean up and move on. This way they get to enjoy it a little longer. I am letting them play in the pool and blowup toys I got already. yup- that is how I rationalize preparing for the party early.
I love these sea horses. The flash kinda flattened it out a little, but I think it is so cute. bubbles, and shiny ribbon- textures for seaweed. Hopefully no one turns the fan on :) The end for today.

Productivity

Lots of stuff today! I made a cute little fish mobile and Erik even helped. He came up with the greatest idea! He will not allow any tacks or tape on the walls. So he yanked some really strong magnets out of some old computer hard drives and then hung the fish up with the magnets. My love is amazing :)

I found some really neat pool stuff at Garden Ridge for a total of $13 and Erik blew everything up for us. The kids were going nuts, I think Noah really likes the floats. I bought a giant whale float to hang in the welcome landing and he is Caleb's new BFF. So cute, he said "mommy can the whale watch my movie with me?" he has been going crazy riding him and I guess they needed some down time!



So I am the most excited about some dishes I am thinking about making. I saw a cute way to do an octopus and some oysters. I of course will take it to another level because my mind just keeps going- So here are my options- The octopus could be a fruit dip with an apple as the head of the octopus or it could be a chip dip with a red pepper as the head. Both could be colored with blue- so it seems like he is swimming.
The oysters could be crackers with like a cheese spread in the middle colored pink with a pearl onion in the middle or they could be vanilla wafers with pink frosting and a yogurt raisin
in the middle. OR another extreme I could dip the vanilla wafers in white chocolate and then put pink frosting and a yogurt raisin in the middle. hmmm just have to decide on the amount of time I will have for that one. SO savoury or sweet???? Kids love sweet- there will be adults at the party too.... I think I will also be serving peanut butter and jellyfish, shells and cheese and fish sticks. Pretty easy and kids love that kind of food.




Also working on some costumes. Yes friends- I am insane. Caleb wants to be a seagull. Ha! He came up with that all on his own- like asked if he could come to the party as a seagull. So funny, I told him that seagulls eat crabs and that it might be weird- but he insisted. So I am making him an easy easy seagull costume. Also- well there has to be a mermaid- right? I am trying to rope my sister into being the mermaid. I already bought her a shell bra!!! ha!!! Then she can paint kids faces or something.

Thrifty

Look at these adorable fish decorations I found! AND the best part is- I got them for FREE! No I didn't steal them :) I saw them hanging in a portrait studio and asked where they got them and they just gave them to me! These things are heavy duty- kinda like pinata's but with glittery paper on them. Noah loves them! I think they need names.

So today I worked on Noah's invitations. Although it is sometimes faster and even cheaper to get a card printed online, I like finding the paper and the stickers and creating the wording etc! Since I don't have the time or the funds to make each invitation I decided just to make color copies! I wish the picture had come out clearer- but overall I think they are pretty cute. Besides- although I love invitations people really just end up throwing them in the trash. So total cost on these babies is about $10-$12. Here is a picture of it!

The Cake

September 5, 2010

So little Noah is about to turn one already! I have decided to throw him an "Under the Sea" birthday party. When I was pregnant with him his big brother Caleb came to the ultrasound. When he saw the image on the screen he said "that looks like a crab". From that moment on he always announced "I'm having a baby brother and a baby crab". I thought it was kinda cute- so for Noah's welcoming birthday we had little crab birthday hats. Since I like to use the welcoming party hats at each baby's first birthday it only makes sense to have a full blown "Under the Sea" party.

Already my mind is spinning. I like to start the process of birthday party planning one month in advance- not a day before. That way I can enjoy the age they are and not go crazy spending money too far ahead of time. So since August 29th I have already had some main ideas.
I will catch up on my main ideas tomorrow. Tonight I just wanted to journal about the cake.

I am thinking maybe a strawberry cake colored blue, with strawberry frosting on the inside and a blue green buttercream on the outside. The sides could be decorated with a sea scene, fish seaweed, coral etc and the top could have little waves with white caps all over it.
For Noah's personal cake- of course it has to have a crab on it! But I don't like the thought of him eating too much red food coloring- so maybe just a frothy buttercream with a red fondant crab on the top that I could take off. hmm. I will be thinking about this tonight.
Tomorrow- invitations.