Checkered Flag Birthday

My husband turned 30 last week and you can't hit a milestone like that without a party right? So of course we pulled a big group of family and friends together for it. I have to admit I was doing my best to keep this one streamlined. I'm a bit partied out at this point (and have to admit that is shows in the photos too, sorry. I was more interested in playing hostess than taking photos). So I enlisted a bunch of help with the food and kept the theme really simple.
Sam is really into NASCAR, and since I had some black and white stuff left over from the last big party I decided to go with a checkered flag theme. A package of flags and a plastic checkered tablecloth is all it took to pull everything together. And I have to say, Sam walked into the party room and was impressed, so that's all that matters. And he said he had a great time - yay!

The decor:
-white tablecloths with a small piece of the checkered tablecloth (I cut it into six 18" squares for the tables, one large square for the buffet table, and used the leftover strip on the cake table). Then I alternated centerpieces. Some were black and white balloons tied onto a wooden block and others were altered paint cans with flags stuck in them.

The food:
-I wanted to go with a tailgate theme so we had hot wings, pigs-in-a-blanket (biggest hit of the party, I need to do these more often), chips, veggies, pasta salad, chinese chicken salad, and a nice selection of drinks. I set the drinks up on their own table, with the beer (that my hubby snuck in) in a big metal bucket. The cake (Boston Cream Pie) got it's own table, along with the other goodies.

The entertainment:
-well it's a grown up party so everyone is pretty happy just sitting around visiting. The only planed entertainment was singing happy birthday and having Sam blow out the candles. But I did grab a big race track game from the party store to keep the kids occupied.

Coat Racks

The lastest in my 2010 Quest to Get the House in Better Shape - coat racks. See where we used to have the coats in the laundry/mud room?

Pitiful right? Just be glad I didn't think to take the photo BEFORE we moved all the coats off because that just looked like a big ole' pile of coats and boots and backpacks. Ugly. And not enough space. Most of the time the kids stuff would fall off the hooks and then the wet dirty shoes would end up on top of them. And the stuff that didn't fit on hooks ended up hanging on the ironing board. Not good.
So as I stood looking at that mess a couple weeks ago I thought, hey there's LOTS more space on that other wall, wonder if we can move the coats? Turns out we can. And did. (hehe) Check out my new Wall of Coats.

Custom built by my wonderful handy husband. He was going for "sturdy" instead of "cute" but that's ok, I'm still in love. Because guess what - everything has it's own hook! And in such a prompt fashion too - probably less than 2 weeks ago it was that I mentioned I wanted new racks. And here we are - you all wish your hubbies were that on the ball doncha? :) That was due in part to me being lucky that he got MLK day off and had the time, but mostly he's just that good!

Stay tuned. I know exactly what I want to do with that space where the coats used to be. And Sam has a 4 day weekend this week!

Word of the Year 2010

I've spent the last week or so thinking about what word I would like to use for my Word of the Year. For those of you that haven't run across this concept before, the idea is to select a word for the year that represents what you want to focus on throughout the year. I first ran across this idea last year on Ali Edwards blog (and yes she is doing it again this year). My word for last year was Enjoy (see post here).

This year I am expecting a lot of changes - events that I won't really have a lot of control over. My husband is in the middle of a career change. The military (husband is in the Reserves) is also going to mess with our lives, possibly more than once. And life with young children is a constant state of changing plans and adapting. So my word for this year is

live

"Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed"

I want to keep my focus on living in the here and now, being happy with where I am and what is going on. I want to dial back my "planner" tendancies and go with the flow. I want to quit putting off doing things because I think there will be a better time for it (as in "I'll start eating better after the holidays" or "I'll take that class when my life settles down" or "when we get a bigger house I'll...").

Now that I have decided on my word, I want to explore it further using this Word of the Year Discovery Tool and figure out specific goals that fit in with this. Like how I'm going to manange to motivate myself long enough to finish losing this "baby weight" (I can still call it that even if the baby is 3 now right?). And of course plaster it all over the house so I can remember it - but that requires a craft day so the plastering will be cute as well as functional :)

Has anyone else been thinking about their own word for the year?

*I am also participating in the Feeling Fabulous Challenge over at Somewhat Simple. If you're wanting a ready made way to track/work on some of those typical New Years Goals, this is a great system.
*update (1/5/10) - I had the chance to sit down and make a few signs for me to put up around the house. (thank goodness for craft Tuesdays) Cute huh? I love that I was able to use up scraps from some of my favorite papers.

*linking to 2010 Word of the Year over at Tip Junkie

Magic Elves - 2009

I introduced our Elves to you last year (see this post) and of course they are back for more fun this year. Kaitlyn could not wait for them to arrive and checked the porch for them first thing in the morning on Dec 1st. And most mornings since then, the first thing she does is find the elves (and clean up after them if necessary).
Some of the elf-capades include:
-wrapping each other in wrapping paper
-stealing the chocolate from the advent calendar
-hiding in the stockings with new coloring/activity pages for the kids
-riding on Katy's Barbie horses
-making snowflakes and hanging them from the ceiling

-getting stuck in the cereal box while trying to find something to eat
-writing all over the bathroom mirror with the dry erase markers
-wrapping up in blankets on the couch reading books, including a new book for the kids
-leaving post it notes all over the house with messages for the kids
-making "snow" angels in the kitchen using powdered sugar

Happy List

You know those days where your brain and your emotions are telling you "I don't care what it is, today I JUST CAN'T TAKE IT!" That's the kind of day I had yesterday. I had reason to be having a rough day, oh yes I did. I've been dealing with a lot lately, including a sick toddler and very little sleep, and the stress from everything else in life was piling up I'm sure. I probably had a case of PMS too. :) And did I mention the part about Ty trying to be too independant and I found my ready-to-go-out Christmas cards in a puddle of spilled milk? Yup. The good news was that only 2 of the envelopes had to be replaced. But that was the part of the day, at barely 6:30 AM, where I just kind of crumbled and fell apart. I didn't know if I wanted to cry, scream and throw things, or just simply run away.

It took me a couple hours to get back on an even keel, struggling the whole time not to take my mood out on my sweet kiddos. Because goodness knows they didn't deserve it. A closer look at the milk debacle showed that my little guy had been trying to help. Not only had he decided to leave me alone and try to get his own drink, but I found a slice of bread at each of our places at the table and the peanut butter, honey, and bread knife ready and waiting. My 3 year old was making us breakfast! lol

Today, while thinking about how yesterday had gone, the concept of the Happy List came to mind. I remember reading a blog somewhere, months ago, about this list - a list of things that made the woman happy. She used this list when she was down to help herself get happy again. Because we all know that in the moment it's very hard to think about much more than just coping. But we also know that our moods and the way we handle each and every little situation has a profound effect on the rest of the day, and more importantly, on those little people around us. Being able to get past the frustration and regain our patience and positive outlook quickly is one of the most useful things we can do for ourselves. And that's where we need the list - to help us find/remember the fastest, easiest way to get happy when our lives are driving us crazy.

My list includes:
-a nice long soak in the tub (tried to hop in the shower yesterday to get a little time to myself and not 2 minutes later Ty was barging in, crying and complaining about his sister. So remember if one doesn't work, move on to another thing on the list)
-music. can't be unhappy when something upbeat and loud is begging me to sing along - or dance!
-chocolate.
-talking it out with a friend over the phone, in person, or online
-walking away from it - to another room, getting out of the house alone, whatever it takes
-having my guardian angel (my mom) take the kids off my hands
-scheduling something FUN to give me something to look forward to. This usually involves Girl Time or Date Night.
-straightening up the house. I always feel better about life when I'm not staring at piles of clutter or stepping on toy cars.
-a big old hug from the husband, usually accompanied by me crying on his shoulder for a few minutes. He also knows to feed me chocolate :) True story! I was having a meltdown a few months ago (more than a year now probably), practically in tears because he had brought home Miracle Whip instead of mayo and I couldn't make dinner as planned. (a true PMS moment when emotions are just out of control for no reason. Isn't it funny that I am only now finding myself acting this way in recent years? It must have something to do with having kids right? RIGHT?!? Tell me I'm not the only crazy one!) So off to the store he went and came home with mayo and Hershey's kisses :) He also ratted me out to my mom, who had happened to be at the store. She called later to make sure I was doing ok.
-immersing myself in a good book
-taking a step back and remembering how much I love my little ones. Hugs and other gestures of affection from them are good too.


So what's on YOUR happy list?

Black and White Birthday

A good friend of mine just turned 30. She has 4 kids and her birthday just happens to be sandwiched in between 2 of the kids' birthdays. And thus - no big birthday bash for herself on her agenda. So we offered to do one for her!

We went with a black, white and red color scheme - it's a favorite for both of us - and just took it from there. It doesn't take much to throw a good party for adults - a few cute touches and good food and they pretty much entertain themselves.

The invitation:

Decor:
-Happy 30th Birthday banner. I know we've seen these all over the place in blogland so of course I had to try one myself. Loved it! If I could get away with using it again for the next party I'm doing, I would. (my husband turns 30 in January. He'd like the black and white floral damask and polka dots right??)
For mine I used my largest circle cutter for the background, my scalloped circle Nestabilities for the mat, and just printed out the lettering from the computer and cut that into circles and layered them all together. Punched holes in each side of the circles and tied them together with ribbon and tulle.
-We wanted to do photo holders for centerpieces. And can you believe I couldn't find what I wanted ANYWHERE? But I did have all these leftover wooden cubes so we painted them up, added some patterned paper and had the hubby drill a few holes in the top. Then we took some wire (Home Depot, hooks and photo hanging section, thickest kind they had) and twisted it up into the shape we wanted. Then just used a little hot glue to hold the wire in the cube. We had her mom and sister send a bunch of photos that we stuck in the ends of the wire. We placed these in the center of each table, as well as on the gift and cake tables.
-Black and white polka dot fabric. Cut it down into 2' squares for the center of each table and larger sections for the food tables.

Food:
-a nice variety of soups. She's vegan so we went with meatless chili, minestrone, and chicken noodle (yeah not vegan, but most of the husbands would have protested the complete lack of meat)
-rolls
-caramel apple cider (yum!)
-yummy chocolate cake from Costco
We had a TV and movies, along with coloring stuff to keep the kids occupied. Didn't work very well. That's my one complaint about big parties for adults - you just can't keep the kids from running (literally) around unsupervised. Drives me nuts. Short of hiring a sitter to keep track of them all or having someone run activites for them I don't know how to avoid it. Anyone have a better solution to this problem?

But all in all, a nice party for someone who certainly deserves it. Happy Birthday Cheri! Thanks for making the drive up here for it :) And a big thanks to Alisha and Beau Dee, my co-conspirators.

Now back to our regularly scheduled holiday programming, for at least another week or so.

Farm Party

 Party has now been reposted on the new blog at www.alaynascreations.co   Click on THIS LINK to see all the fun details and photos of the party!