Love Is

Love is getting a special piece of artwork, hand-made by a very special seven year old.  As a little girl, I remember coloring for hours- I actually thought, "Damn, I'm probably like the world's best color-er!  Look at how I outline the cartoon character all dark and then color it in all light; tres magnifique!"  And it's awesome to see my niece do the same thing; for seven years old, I think those flowers are pretty amazing.

But what gets me the most is the inscription, "L-sun-ve is nacher," do you remember when you used to have innocent thoughts like that?  I'm inspired by her positivity; that's something that I think you either have or don't, it's really hard to make someone into a positive person.  Being a positive person myself, I'm drawn to her energy and the spelling is just too much.  I mean, nacher instead of nature?  How adorable is that?  The answer is: too, incredibly adorable.

My Valentine's

I spent a few days thinking up a cute idea of what to do for the boys' Valentine's cards for our family and friends... and here's what I ended coming up with.  The boys had a good time and the cards were a hit, so everyone was happy.


The front of the card/email text said:  guess who stole your heart?

Mr Clean, Mr Clean

These little men are going to make their future spouses entirely happy; fighting over the vacuum cleaner is a serious event in our household, we're talking 10 rounds, at least.  I'm imagining that the thrill of the vacuum will wear off over time, but for now, I'm capitalizing on it as much as I can.  I have read a few articles that talk about when kids need to start doing "chores" and I always think that's so odd to have them start doing chores, because if you set it up right "chores" are just something that they like to do that become habits.  For example, if we take out the dustpan and broom without letting the boys help, there are some serious tears and likewise, there was some pretty intense "sharing" going on with the lint roller the other day.  Hopefully, my kids won't even have to do chores, but will just enjoy cleaning up because it's a good habit that they developed early... although, they are my children, so I'm not holding my breath.

Moment of awesomeness: my octopus rug; isn't it ah-may-zing?

BMOC

Sometimes this guy acts like he's the Big Man On Campus; he's all chillin' like he owns the place and that's what I love about him.  There's something to be said for people who are confident and I'd like to think that I'm raising two confident, yet self-aware little men.  Sometimes, I think confidence and arrogance go hand in hand, but that ain't the case up in this house, arrogance has no place here.

So, the next time that you're able, confidently but kindly invite someone to sit with you and share some happiness with them.

When In Doubt

Spike your mohawk and smile.

The Best In All The Land

Honestly, does it get any better than this?  That's right, we're crammed as a family of four into a booth, celebrating a happy occasion with family and friends.  And you know what?  I feel freakin' lucky at this point to have three handsome, funny, kind and caring young men with whom I get to share my life.  That's right, that statement pretty much makes my life (at least to me) the best in all the land.

To say that our family is perfect is not accurate, but it is perfect to me and Jim and Cullen and Arden and that's all that really matters.  Never, not even in my wildest dreams, could I have imagined that I'd be blessed with children who complete me and a husband that tries every single day to make me happy.  And I'm bringing it up here and now, for no other reason than just to capture this moment in time when, after a long day all I want to do is go to sleep, but instead, I write a blog post about my family and how lucky I am just so it's tangible and real.

p.s. Cullen totally looks like a young Buster Bluth, right?

He Turned Two

As I sit here typing this, I can't help but feel like George Banks alah Father of the Bride.  The party is over, everything was fantastic and just now, I have a moment to reflect on everything; it was delightful. And I mean that literally.  Every guest that came was important and appreciated, all of the love that was abounding from one side of the house to the other was awesome and in the middle of it all was my sweet boy- who spent a better part of the afternoon spinning in webs of balloons and attempting to fall asleep.

Since it was his Golden Birthday, Arden enjoyed a Willy Wonka themed extravaganza.  I will go into detail where necessary; almost everything you see was handmade and inspired by Pinterest or some other serious time spent Google Image searching.

Enjoy!

The candy buffet idea is a pretty common one.  I made the candy jars from pillars that I found from Target and then glued jars on top.  While they look nice, they're also sturdy; midway through the party Arden toppled over the gray pillar.  Needless to say, 100 or so Jelly Bellies scampered across our floor in a matter of seconds, but the jar and pillar remained intact.  I call that a success. 

These I purchased from a party supply store.  They look nice, but they are seriously annoying to fluff up; probably never doing this again.

So, we were going to have people "cheese" with the golden frame I got at Michaels ($7.99), but that never happened.  Arden was the only lucky guy to get a framed picture.

Easy.  Cute.  Cheap.

Dip large marshmallows into semisweet chocolate.  Next dip them into nonpareils and skewer.

Bought these at a party store.  Not necessary, but very cute.

My calling card: chocolate covered pretzels.

Glorious.

So, these were supposed to be edible teacups.  Let's have a little chat about Pinterest fails shall we, 'cause this is one of them.  Time consuming and fragile; but it's my favorite part of the movie, so I think it was still worth it.

Despite what you're thinking, the mark on his forehead is a bruise, not chocolate... so no, don't think that I just forgot to wipe it off or something.

By the end of the party, there were: Doritos, fingers, mac and cheese, animal crackers, marshmallows, rice krispie treats and probably a few things that I don't even want to know about, all dunked in the chocolate fountain; in other words, it was a huge crowd pleaser.  Side note: when someone asked me if I bought this, I said, "yes."  A friend of mine said, "You need to flip your hair and say, 'yea, I own a chocolate fountain now."  Apparently, chocolate fountains are a sign that a girl has made it, so consider me: made.

Absolutely adorable.

I love this girl; she's always down to party and appreciates the details like no one else I know.

i'm a big deal.  wow.  let's party.
Anyone who knows us, understands that those captions are spot on.

Clearly, the signage action was plentiful with the over 28 crowd.

Super simple, super cute.  I found this heart ramekin for $1 at Target.  I got a small styrofoam ball for $3.99 at Michaels and then I put a whole 'lotta Dum Dums all up on it.  Tip: angle the sticks towards the surface of the table and not horizontally; I learned that the hard way. 

I searched high and low for a tutorial on making these styrofoam lollipops, here goes: take a styrofoam disk ($5.99 at Michaels) and cover it in tissue paper; do not leave gaps, cover the entire surface.  (I purchased my tissue paper at the dollar store, it's much cheaper and works just as well.)  Insert a dowel rod into the bottom of the disk, I interred mine about an inch and a half.  Take iridescent cellophane and wrap the entire disk, tying a bow at the base of the disk where the dowel rod is sticking out.  Make sure to arrange the cellophane so that it appears as though it is wrapping the disk like a lollipop wrapper would.  Wha-lah.  Project complete.  They cost about $8 a pop, so they are nice, but pricey.

And what Willy Wonka themed party would be complete with out a Wonka bar and a purple top hat?

Happy Birthday, Arden.  We love you!

I Make A Difference... Oh Wait, No I Don't

Just when I think that this blog here cannot be anymore ho-hum, I go and get an email from one of my best friends, who let's me know that he made a connection with My Hambone post the other day... and for a split second I think, "I'm making a real impact here.  I'm making a difference."  And then I see that it's a Jack Handey quote and I realize that this is a blog and that I need to slow my roll.  In honor of keeping it real, here's what he had to say:

Subject: Hambone

Your post made me think of one of my favorite Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy:

“If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you think liked dolphins most? I'd say Flippy, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong though. It's Hambone.”

My Hambone

If there's one thing that Cullen has a lot of (besides personality) is nicknames.  The boy gives himself nicknames like "Captain Mickey" and "Duke," which I find adorable.  One of the ones that I use most frequently for him, and he for himself, is Hambone.  My brother, Uncle Gebby, gave him the nickname once while we were Skyping and Cullen was acting real silly; Hambone stuck.  So, he has become my little hambone and I like to remind him daily that he is so, because I find it endearing.  Typically, when kids are being kids, adults don't see if for what it is and we use words like "disciplinary problem," "actin' a fool," or "crazy," but I think it's nice that Hambone is just a cute little nice name for a boy who likes to have fun and be silly.