Big Top Fun

Last day in the baby room! 3-15-2013

                                             

 

One of his teachers. He is gonna miss them!

So La-la brought cupcakes for his class in the afternoon. I couldn't post any pics with the other kids in them, but I got a lot of really good ones of him trying to steal their cupcakes.

On Saturday, the day of his party, I sent Bryce over to my parents house so I could devote all my time to setting up for the party. When I went to pic him up for his party, he was strolling around in his "new" car! It was Cody's when he was about 2.

Once I learned how to download fonts, I fell in love with this font. I used it on practically everything!

 

I feel so lucky that I was able to use the multi purpose room at work for his party!

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Such a labor of love. I bought some plastic table cloth on the roll at Party City to make this. The banner was also bought at Party City. It came with 4 banners and stickers to customize what you wanted it to say. I used red and white streamers to create the stripes.



I baked his cake and cupcakes the night before and then frosted them myself a couple of hours before the party. I used a pastry bag with a tip on the end to create the simple design on the cupcakes. I bought white icing and dyed it yellow. All of that I bought in the cake decorating section at Wal-Mart. The cake I also did myself (haha you can't tell right? lol. My hand was cramped up so bad from squeezing the pastry bag and I was in such a hurry that I didn't care that it looked awful). Cupcake liners, toppers, red and white stripped trays all came from Hobby Lobby. I used a red bowl from my mom's house and turned it upside down and used it as a cake stand.



Shout out to the Bug Man for letting me use their popcorn machine! Happy Birthday Banner came from Hobby Lobby.

More of the plastic table cloth on roll came in handy here. For the letters I just free handed them on poster board and cut them out. I then covered with scrapbook paper. Shout out to Chick Fil A for filling our balloons with helium.



Got lucky again because these glass containers belong to Peds Plus. I made the 1 for his photo shoot. I bought it at Hobby Lobby and glued scrapbook paper on it.



Cone Snow  Stand. I would have liked to do more here but time just didn't allow that.

Photo Booth. I saw the twisted streamer idea on Pinterest. It was not easy. You have to twist it just right to make it look like that. It was very frustrating and I'm sure I said a few curse words trying to do it. If you plan to use this for anything I suggest practicing it first. Once I got in a rhythm and figured out how to hold it just right, it went pretty past.

I bought these little tiny ducks in the party favor section at Wal-Mart. They were a disappointment as they only float bottoms up. That kinda defeated the whole purpose of the game, but whatev. The kids still liked it so that's all that matters.

There used to be a game like this a "Show Biz" aka "Chuck E Cheese" when I was a kid and I was addicted to it. So of course I had to have it as a carnival game! Got the cute red buckets at the Dollar Tree as well as the whiffle balls

I saved up some veggie cans and set them aside. I had originally planned to spray paint them red, but who has time for that? So I cut some scrapbook paper and taped it on! I bought the balls a the Dollar Tree. I wanted a ball heavy enough to knock the cans down, but one that wouldn't injure anyone or put a hole in the wall. The red basket came from my moms house.

So this was so simple to make. Would you think I was crazy if I told you at one point the whole thing looked like a circus train complete with "The Greatest Birthday on Earth" written on it? I tore it up a couple of hours before the party because I wasn't in love with how it turned out. This works too.

This is one thing I loved how it turned out. I ordered the collage from Walgreens.com at 11 pm on Thursday and picked it up Friday afternoon! I'm sorry Shutterfly, but you can't beat that. Its so easy to make. You just upload the pics you want, choose what size poster you want, and place them in the collage. I was so afraid that the picture quality wouldn't turn out great or the color would be off, but it looks amazing! I can't wait to frame it and put it up in our bedroom! Shout out to Christy Chance Photography for taking such amazing pictures! Red and white stripped box came from my moms house. It was holding the party favors.   

Bean Bag Toss. Shout out to Aunt Shelia for loaning this to us.

The hat was a gift from my mom. This is another one of his teachers, Miss Meagan.

Again, I love to download fonts! It relaxes me to make stuff like this. Shout out to fontspace.com for making this so awesome. The borders and banners were from http://www.fontspace.com/kimberly-geswein/kg-flavor-and-frames

As previously mentioned on the blog, I bought these pop corn holders in the dollar bins at Target. I cut the number 1 out of cardboard and covered with scrapbook paper. Yellow tissue to make it look like popcorn.

I bought these awesome paper straws at Target. I used a veggie can and covered it with raffle tickets. I bought the tickets at the Dollar Tree

The clown straw toppers came from Hobby Lobby

 

Printed off some of my favorite pics of him and arranged them into the letters. I taped them down onto some foam board and added the ribbon to add color.

What can I say? He is my son!

In the eye

Ms Stacey, his second momma

He loved this toy! He cried when I tried to set it aside to open more!



Hadley helped open some presents!

Faith helped too!

I love this pic of Bryce and Uncle Cody

A Letter To My Son On His First Birthday

Bryce,

This is not my first letter to you, and I hope that it is not my last. Your first year of life has been nothing short of a perfect mixture of joy, happiness, and love. The day you were born, I was so scared. Would you be healthy? Would I know what to do? Would I be a good mom? The day we brought you home, I was nervous. How often should I feed you? How long should you sleep? Would I know if something was wrong? On the day you first smiled, my  heart jumped outta my chest. Before I even knew what I was doing, I was crying with joy. This wouldn't be the last time. On the day you first rolled over I was so proud. On the day you first babbled I was so tickled. On the day you first slept through the night I was terrified. On the day you first crawled I was so relieved. On the day you first stood I cried again. On the day you took your first steps I was so thrilled.

I still look at you as you sleep and cant believe you are here and that you are mine. I can't believe how much you look like your daddy. I can't believe how much you act just like me. I can't believe you have your Pawpaw's temper! (not too excited about that one). I can't believe my scrawny, skinny, little 7 lb 10 oz bundle of joy can barely fit in my arms. I can't believe you are 1!

Over this year, we have loved getting to know your little personality. You are so easy going, we can take you anywhere. You light up the room with your smile everywhere we go. Your silly little laugh is so infectious. You are already very curious and are interested in exploring everything. And Lord help me if I can't feed you fast enough. You are so loving, compassionate, and love giving hugs and kisses.

So here is my hope for you. I hope that as the years fly by that you will keep intact the things that make you my Bryce-a-roni. I hope you keep smiling and bringing joy to others with your light. I hope you never stop showing your love towards others. I hope you never stop wondering and dreaming and exploring.

I try to imagine what you will look like when you are 5. I try to imagine what your voice will sound like. I try to imagine your life. Will you love baseball? Will you be artistic? Will you marry your high school sweet heart? The point is, I can't wait to see the man you will grow up to become. Well, I can wait. I'll savor every moment until then. Hopefully, one day you'll read this and know how much I love you.

Sincerely,
Momma

Top 10 Things I've Learned about Being a First Time Mom

Wow I can't believe I"ve been a mommy for a year now!

I've been thinking back over the past year, and here are the things that I have learned:

1) Call your mom. When your baby wont stop screaming, wont eat, wont sleep, don't hesitate to call her. She will know just what to do!

2) Trust your "Mother's Instinct". If something doesn't seem right, it probably isn't.

3) Don't think there is only 1 right way to do something. For example fixing the bathwater. We got one of those rubber ducky bath temperature toys that will tell you if the bathwater is too hot.I was constantly cooling down the water until the ducky told us the water was safe for a baby. Bryce screamed through every single bath for about 4 months. One day I had a thought that the water must just be too cold for him, so I filled the tub up with hot water (go ahead and call DHS on me). Since that day he has loved his bath. I blame this on the fact that he has .009% body fat.

4) Your baby doesn't have to wear pants. If it is 108 degrees outside, and you just want your baby to sport the onesie, go for it! Don't let anyone make you feel like a bad mom for not putting pants on your baby. Lets just be honest, if it is literally hot as hell outside, would you want pants on?

5) Don't let that "opinionated" mom get to you. "You know, you are not supposed to co-sleep with an infant" "You shouldn't let him lay on his back to drink his bottle, he will get pneumonia" "He is not supposed to ride forward facing in a car seat until he is 1." You think I don't know these things? I can do whats I think is best for my baby and my family, and if you don't like it, then just shut up.

6) Expect to spend some major cash at the after hour clinic. Because a baby can't get sick on a Wednesday morning. It will always be 11 pm on a Friday night and it will be something that needs antibiotics and can't wait until Monday.

7) Don't feel guilty about not breastfeeding.

8) Don't feel guilty about being a working mother. He needs that time away from me just as much as I need that time away from him. Even babies learn social skills from being at school. He has never cried when I drop him off and I know it is because we have been doing it everyday since he was 6 weeks old.

9) Men do not make good mothers. God knew that, that's why he gave the responsibility to women. When leaving a baby with a man, you need to explain even the most obvious things. Do not assume they know anything about how to operate a baby.

10) Hold your baby. Some of the most precious memories I've had as a mother have come from rocking my child to sleep in a dark quiet room and just staring at him as he sleeps. What is he dreaming about? Does he know I love him? Slowly I noticed he took up more and more and more of my arms. When I start thinking things like "I need to go do the laundry" I just stop and think "Katee, he wont fit in your arms forever, just stay."

First birthday sneak peak!

So the party planning started soon after Christmas. I went bananas on Pinterest for days on end gathering up ideas before I decided on a theme. I decided a circus/ carnival theme party would be so fun! I loved the colors and all the ideas I could incorporate.

After deciding on colors and a theme I had to start my shopping! I went to Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Party City, Dollar Tree, Walmart, Target,Vaness, and shopped on Oriental Trading, Etsy, And Amazon. Like the super nerd (aka super mom) that I am, I took pictures with my phone of everything I wanted to buy with the price tag and went back home and made a master list. I decided which stores had the best deals and what I really didn't have to buy. This also helped me stay on budget. This stage of the planning took a few weeks so its a good thing I started so early.

This is when the Party Planning Notebook came into existence. I know right? I made all sorts of lists. List of people to invite, list of things to buy, list of things to make, list of all food items, list of games to play. I made sketches of center pieces, decorations, cakes, and room arrangement. I know, I know! I'm that mom! This might be the only birthday I have any say in so I'm gonna enjoy it! Pretty soon he'll tell me he wants a Spider-Man party at Jump Zone and that will be the end of that.

Everything at the party will be a mixture of home made and store bought. Here's what I've made so far:

The invitations are simply red cardstock with a half inch smaller piece of yellow cardstock on top. Then I printed my design on standard white card stock that came precut to that size. It did take me some time to get the final look of my design on the computer. I had to download some super cute fonts. Once I learned how to do that, it really wasn't that hard at all! It was a lot of moving around and resizing to get it to fit just right. I really wish I knew more about computers because I felt like it took forever!

The centerpieces are not finished in these pictures. I bought the popcorn holders at target for a dollar each. I hot glued a dowel rod in the middle of each holder. I cut a number 1 out of cardboard, which was not easy. I then traced and cut 1s out of scrapbook paper and glued it to the front and back of the cardboard number 1s. Then I hot glued the 1 to the top of the dowel rod. All that is left is to crumple up some yellow tissue paper to put in the holder to look like popcorn!

Then last, the timeline pictures. This is pretty standard at every first birthday. I printed off 1 picture from every month and mounted on scrapbook paper. I then hung in the window to display. It will probably not be in the window at the party. I will probably just have it hanging up.

11 Months!

sick and not feeling like a picture

Height/Weight: 20 lbs 1oz and I have no idea about the height.

Size clothing: 12 months and some 18 months

Shoe size: 3 or 3 1/2

Milestones: Obviously the biggest milestone this month has been that he has taken his first steps! I really was not prepared for how fast they came. He has been cruising the furniture for some time now but hadn't stood with out holding on at all. Super Bowl weekend he stood by himself for a few seconds and by Thursday of that week he was walking! He hasn't really attempted much more walking because he has been so sickly this past week.  In other news, he finally clapped for the first time (in response to his walking). He has also learned to dance. Anytime music comes on the TV he stops what he is doing a starts bouncing up and down!

Firsts: First time being really sick. Up till this point, we've been really lucky. The only sickness he has had is one ear infection, one case of pink eye, and a few colds. This time he had the fortunate experience of having an ear infection and a stomach virus at the same time. They put him on a different antibiotic for the ear infection because amoxicillin usually upsets their tummies. Well that did nothing for his ear infection which caused it to get out of control and spike his fever to 105.1 after 4 days on the antibiotic. I do not recommend taking your child to the ER for any reason other than a traumatic brain injury or cardiac arrest because it is a waste of $100. I paid $100 for a Dr. to look in his ear and tell me he had an ear infection. No shit. They didn't even give him Tylenol. My advice is just administer Tylenol and then wait for your Pediatrician's office to open.

Mommies favorite moments: It's so hard to choose since he just gets so much cuter every day! Of course at top of the list is seeing him walk! Then I'd have to say how excited he gets over everything! He squeals and laughs and kicks his legs with excitement. He also has learned to wrestle! We do it almost every day now.



yall don't understand! This is his face all the time now! Who knew my straightener was so exciting?

This pretty much sums up our relationship!

High five dude!