Friday Short

Here's a look at my little Bubbles on all four of his birthdays.  How cute is he?

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!

Three

This past weekend, we celebrated Cullen's birthday with our family and friends.  The party was a great success, and by that I mean that there were lots of screaming kids, tired parents and one very happy Birthday Boy.

At times, it seems like my son was born with a spatula in one hand and a pot in the other, so I decided to have a cooking themed birthday party.  I made personalized aprons for everyone, the kids made their best rendition of personal pizzas and the cooking portion of the party hit a crescendo when the kids decorated their own cupcakes.  The ratio of icing to cake was definitely an issue with most of the kids, most of whom wisely decided not to eat their creations, but a $5 bet was on the table for any party guest that would; there were no takers.

Happy Birthday, Cullen.  We love you.

Nothing But The Best

Another Birthday shout out to my husband and love of my life, Jim.  Let me just tell y'all that I'm pretty sure that Jim and I have one of the most unique relationships that I know of, we incredibly loyal and sincerely happy; but we're totally honest with one another.  Sometimes, that honesty can be mistaken for meanness or one or the other of us being too harsh (mostly me), but it all equals out.  Jim is a wonderful father and the most dedicated partner ever, he literally spent a month waiting on me when I was on bed-rest with Cullen and he never once threw it in my face like I would have.  He never once abused the built in DD privilege while I was pregnant (and he should have) and he goes above and beyond ever day to make happy.

So, here's the thing, on the daily, I should be known as Franny Frugal, because I don't buy anything unless it's on sale, we almost exclusively buy generic and we cut corners as much as possible.  At least twice a week, I tell Jim that we can't do this thing or that thing because it's not in our budget and I'm serious, it's not in the budget.  But, that budget sort of goes out the window- or down the tubes, when it comes to him.

A long time ago, we made an agreement that we wouldn't exchange gifts for each other's birthdays and for the holidays- I have upheld my end of the bargain, he has not.  So, I decided that my man deserved the best and remembered this place that I had seen some pictures of that looked awesome.  We packed the kids up and sent them to Poppy's and then we road-tripped our way to this awesome spa in the middle of nowhere and we had ourselves a good old time.

As the old saying goes, you can take the girl out of budget world, but you can't take the budget out of the girl; so when I was asked what spa treatments we got, I was taken aback, "do you know how much those cost?"  And for dinner, we filled up on snacks from the overpriced snack bar to avoid eating too much at the crazy over priced restaurant.  See, I just can't fully commit to blowing all of our money on the finer things... it just doesn't seem worth it.

But, the hotel itself was fab.  It smelled like a love and happiness and everyone was more than accommodating.  We walked around, almost bewildered at the grandeur of the place, and made sure to take pictures of everything that we found to be "crazy nice."  Seriously, this is the nicest place I've ever stayed.  Ever... Nothing but the best for my man.  Happy Birthday, Jim!

How about a little tour, shall we?

Let me tell you how they gave us not one but two fancy-pants walking sticks to explore the grounds.  If we were hikers, it probably wouldn't have been such a novelty, but since we aren't even these damn sticks made me swoon.

Apparently, this hotel came to be known as the "summer" White House while James Buchanan was president and  as that little tiny sign explains this was the very desk that he worked at while he summered there.  Upon reading that sign, I immediately turned into a 5 year old and made sure to touch all surfaces where a former president may or may not have touched; and let's face it, you would've done it too.  So major props to having such a historical artifact open to the public, but a noticeable fail for the books, which I'm pretty sure were high school text books wrapped in grocery bags- you ain't foolin' me. 

Look at this chair?  I wanted to sit in it, but I didn't... it probably wasn't comfortable anyway...

The grounds were immaculate and even the steps were kinda fierce.

Yeah, we walked across that bridge... and yes, we did feel fancy while doin' it.

The middle of nowhere sure is beautiful, right?

These rocking chairs were just chillin' there, it was so Southern Hospitality.

Ok, so I'm obsessed with these glass door handles.  They go for like 30 bucks a pop.  Can you imagine and 30 dollar door handle?  Talk about fancy-schmancy.

This little room was just outside of of the elevator. You know what's just outside of elevators in the hotels that I stay in?  An ashtray and maybe a mirror if I'm lucky...

How beautiful is this?  I need this for my house and my life.  

This is the nicest hallway that I've ever walked through.  The tile was milky blue and the columns were pristine white, it was my version of complete perfection.

Look at this. They just have this little sitting area where anyone can  view original artwork that 's not behind glass, or complete a puzzle without fearing that some hooligans the night before stole a few pieces as momentos of a good night.

In case you're wondering, there are 49 frames on this wall (the opposing wall had just as many).  You know why I could never make this type of display in my house?  Because I don't the the dollar store even has 49 frames out on the shelves at the same time.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Dad

I'm pretty sure that every girl thinks, at one point or another, that her Dad is the tallest person she knows.  I still think that, probably because my Dad's 6'3" and I don't meet a lot of people that are legitimately taller than him.  The reason I mention this is because my Dad has not only seemed tall, but he's always seemed larger than life; a somewhat fabled person who, by in large, can do no wrong.

This weekend, my family and I had the great fortune of celebrating my Dad's birthday with him- we all gathered under one roof and for a moment in time we celebrated the man that we all look up to- again, partly because he's taller than most of us.

So, to my Dad and hero, I love you.  Happy Birthday.

We danced to Bing Crosby's Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral, which is the lullaby that he's sang to all of his children and grandchildren.

This pretty much is the best picture of my father and I, ever.  I think it accurately depicts our relationship, while I'm acting like a complete doof, he's silently smirking in the background.

Cookin'

Over the weekend, we celebrated Uncle Joseph's birthday at a Hibachi restaurant and it was especially awesome for Cullen since he loves, "cookin'!"  Here's how it went:

We waited patiently for the chef, but that didn't stop Cullen from greeting everyone that walked into the room as though they were the chef.

The boy will no longer look at the camera without be promised gum.

Pretty sure he's wondering if this chef knows what he's doing and no, he didn't because he was the waiter that Cullen kept calling the chef.

Preparing for the magic to start...

So, besides the practical cooking portion of dinner, there's also a little "showmanship" if you will.  I've been to other Hibachi restaurants and it seems to be pretty similar, in that the chef likes to get the crowd's attention with some sort of "fire" flare up on the griddle.  Well, let me tell you that when the chef did that, Cullen ran into my arms (notice the empty chair next to me) and talked about the fire, "it's not gonna hurt me..." for the rest of dinner.  Eventually though, he realized that watching a chef cook live outweighed his fear and he was able to make it back into his seat.

It's cool though, my face was hidden so you can't see me laughing, but I was.

Assuring him that everything was going to be fine and that the "fire" was all gone.

In the end, we had a fantastic dinner and Cullen thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  We will definitely be back.