Fascinating

This is Wordless Wednesday.

First Birthday Party REWIND

Yes. This is more fall stuff.

Atticus. My little Atticus. He turned ONE back on October 9th.

You may remember his invitation:

His party was a Goodnight Moon theme. The kids (and a few adults) even wore pajamas!

Decorations were simple. (They always are at my house.) I drew likenesses of the two framed pictures from the storybook and hung them up.

Then Noah and I made a "fire" for the fireplace to look like the one in the story. And perhaps my favorite thing was a tiny clothes rack Paul helped me make from a large one that Danyelle, my college roommate from freshman year, let me have. (She responded to a Facebook plea.) I clothes-pinned mittens (well, okay...many were actually gloves...because for whatever reason, I had trouble finding mittens) and socks to the rack. These were the party favors.

The cake table had "a comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush," a single red balloon, a "light," and a phone I borrowed from my friend Leanne, who also responded to a Facebook request. (Ah, Facebook. What did I ever do without you?) These are all items from the story, by the way.

The cake was a full moon, which I placed in a cake box with a window. It was meant to look like the window in the little bunny's room. I painted the cake box red like the window frame in the book and even made a striped "curtain" for it.

For supper I served "mush," which was two different kinds of thick, blended homemade soup. Lentil bean and tomato. Yum!

After supper, we did the cake thing. Atticus's "smash cake" was a crescent moon-shaped cupcake. And LOOK, I just so happened to have found a red balloon candle. I just love it when little details like this work out.

Atticus's little friend Matthew came by.

Funny thing about Matthew. His parents are from my hometown, but they live in Little Rock like us now. I'll never forget being on the phone with my mom (before we had told anyone we were pregnant with #4) and her telling me that my friend Leslie was expecting a baby in October. I was thinking, "Oh, my goodness! So am I, but I can't tell you yet!!" Anyway, fast forward several months when we were just getting to Postpartum after having Atticus, and wouldn't you know it? Paul ran into Matthew's daddy out in the hallway. Leslie was in labor! Matthew was born on the 10th, so we were all at the hospital together. (And actually, some friends from college were there having their baby, too!) So funny!!
Meanwhile, back at the party...

In addition to a pair of mittens, each child took home a red balloon tied to a little goody bag. I used cellophane bags with stars printed on them to wrap up homemade sugar cookies: a star and a moon, of course.

One of my favorite kid friends and I read the story to Atticus. 'Cause he's cool that way. He loves books, and he knew the story well.

We all had a great time visiting...and...well, just being in our pajamas, I think.

Atticus was so happy to see his family and friends and to eat his mush (and let's not forget about the cake). It was a happy birthday indeed.

Golly, I love this kid.

Project 365: Week 7

Sunday, February 7, 2010

We had some friends over to watch the Super Bowl. Well, I should probably clarify. The guys watched. We gals talked cloth diapers. And the kids ran around playing hide-and-seek. Can't imagine how I forgot to take a picture! I guess I'll just have to include another memorable moment of the evening.

Monday, February 8, 2010

We got tons of ice and snow during the night and woke up to a beautiful snowy day. I'm talking HUGE snow flakes. I hadn't seen snow like that in a long, long time. Gorgeous! We made snow ice cream for dessert--one of my favorite memories as a child.

I guess it was an ice-themed evening, because dinner was frozen pizza. See Gabe's messy face?

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The roads refroze during the night, so Daddy stayed home. Which, among other joyous things, meant wrestling!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

We made lots of valentines today in preparation for our class parties at Academy.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

After staying up late to get everything done in time for the Academy Valentine's parties, I finally sat down for a second to check my email. Wish I had done that earlier, because there was a message announcing that Academy had been cancelled due to icy conditions. Good grief. However, I was so incredibly thankful for a break. I needed to stay home! We vegged, to say the least. And this little guy got TWO good naps, as opposed to just one like he normally gets on Thursdays at Academy.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Flowers from my hubby!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay! Happy Valentine's Weekend!!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

This afternoon we attended a costume birthday party for a sweet, little friend.

That's my "Week 7" for Sara's Project 365.

Costume Party

Today we were invited to a costume party for the daughter of some friends of ours.

They live out of town, so on the way there we took in a little Toy Story on our family Christmas present: a DVD player for the car. Though we've only used it a couple of times, it certainly makes longer trips a whole lot easier.


Here were our costumes:

Atticus the cow

Saylor the Little House on the Prairie girl (Laura, of course)

Noah the cowboy

Gabriel the chef

A party's not a party without a little karaoke, right? Here's the birthday girl singing a few tunes.

Big brother (the Tornado) put on a show of his own. (That's the other brother (Peter Pan) in the background.) There was even a joke time!

Saylor always loves a good party!

The birthday girl (an Indian princess) turned three today!

After sufficient playtime, snacks, and cupcakes, we all gathered around for the awards ceremony.

The daddy of the birthday girl (a.k.a. the Knight in Shining Armor) presented the awards.

Atticus received his award with pride.

Then the kids played like mad. There were sword fights and cars rolling down stairs and playing with puppies and games of Jenga. The girls tried to do their own thing in the play kitchen, taking care of babies and such. You know. When they weren't being pestered by the brothers.

And Atticus discovered the joys of a balloon on a string. He played his little heart out, between the balloons and the train table. He barely ate a morsel of food, so entranced with his surroundings was he.

The bonus was that we stayed after the party and had dinner so we could catch up. These guys have been our friends since before we were married and were, in fact, in our wedding. The more children we have, the harder it is to get together, so it was a nice blessing to get to visit with them, even if we did keep the kids out too late.