A Dinosaur Themed Birthday Party!

This past weekend, we celebrated Sully's third birthday. I asked him a few weeks ago if he wanted a trains party or a dinosaurs party and he shouted dinosaurs! So dino themed it was.

We had a packed house full of his little friends, our friends, and some of our family. My best friend from Edmonton even travelled down for the party with her three kids in tow! It was so great that almost everyone we invited was able to attend. I forgot, like usual, to take a lot of photos, but that always just means I was having too much fun!

*water bottle and treat bag labels here
*food labels here
*dino colouring sheets here


Thank you to all our friends and family for helping us celebrate Sully turning 3!

A Very Bookish Baby Shower

This past weekend, my good friend Leigh threw me and Emmy a baby shower! The weather ended up being awful, making the roads and driving conditions less than ideal, so unfortunately, several ladies weren't able to make it. But, we still had a wonderful time anyway! It was nice to get out of the house (a rare occurrence these days), and chat and catch up with my aunt and friends. It's also a very rare occurrence that we get to do so without our toddlers running around beside us!

When I walked into Leigh's house, I was blown away by the effort and detail she put into the shower. I was just expecting an afternoon of some snacks and girl talk, but Leigh went above and beyond that. Knowing how much I love to read, she went with a bookish theme for the shower, which was both perfect and funny since Sully's baby shower was also a book theme! My friends know me too well :)

Even the food followed a book theme which I thought was so clever. We had:

• Meatballs- Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
• Quiche- Green Eggs and Ham
• Caramel corn- Hop on Pop
• Muffins- If You Give a Moose a Muffin
• Cookies- If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
• Veggies- The Tale of Peter Rabbit
• Fruit skewers- The Hungry Caterpillar
• Goldfish and blue whales candy- One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

For decor, there were children's books all over, as well as pictures of Emmy in frames. There was also a contest for guessing how many chocolates were in a jar (Alison guessed the exact number!), and gummy worms ("bookworms") for treat bags.

Emmy was spoiled with a ton of new clothing and some new books, along with some artwork for her nursery. It was all so thoughtful and I feel so lucky to have all these ladies in my life. They are my village here and most days I don't know what I would do without their love, support and friendships!

Thank you so much, Leigh, and thank you again to everyone who braved the roads to spend the afternoon celebrating Emmy. 

xoxo

Sullivan's 2nd Birthday Party

This past weekend, we celebrated our little man's second birthday! It feels like yesterday that we had just moved to Calgary and were planning his first birthday party! I can't believe how fast this past year has gone, and yes, I am very well aware that I will be saying that every single year from now on.

Anyway, I knew that this year his party would be much more low key for a few reasons. For one thing, most of our family and friends live in Edmonton and I knew it would be silly to ask or expect people to drive 3 hours to come to a birthday party. Secondly, until Sully understands what his birthday actually means, I personally don't see the point in going over board with the party planning. But that's also because I'm not a huge party person. I'm all for celebrating and acknowledging someone's special day, but I didn't want an overwhelming and large party this early in the game (of course, I might have felt differently about it all had we still be living in Edmonton. But that's neither here nor there).  This mentality worked out especially well for me this year since I was so sick the week before his birthday that I had no desire to plan much.

So simple it was! My sister came to visit this weekend so she could be here for it since she missed his birthday last year and we didn't get to see her at Christmas time either. My sister-in-law Patty and my two youngest nephews drove down for the party, and Sully had the time of his life chasing them around. My aunt Max and her husband Barry, my cousin Lauren, and Barry's daughter Kate, Kate's husband Dan, and their daughter Gwen also joined the party!

I relied on lots of balloons for decorations (because what two year old doesn't love balloons?!), provided some appetizers, fruit and veggie cups, and made homemade cupcakes. And booze. We had lots of booze, because I'm pretty sure every adult needs alcohol to get through a toddler's birthday party! The weather was so beautiful that day that the kids were actually able to run around and kick the ball in the field behind our house, and it's so sweet to watch Sully run after them.

I think the most memorable moment from the party was when Sully put his finger into the birthday candle flame on his cupcake. I've posted the video on social media, but I've also included it at the end of this post because it's just too funny not to share! Yes, I am that mom that laughs at her own son's expense! (And in my defence for not reacting quicker, I actually didn't see what had happened as I had pulled my camera to my face and thought he was just crying because that's what toddlers do!)  Don't worry, his finger is fine and I think his reaction was more of a reaction to how we all reacted. Oh toddlers. Never a dull moment!

Anyway, there's not much else to say, I tried to take lots of pictures, but that's almost impossible at a birthday party and getting your two year old to stop moving for one second is pretty much the hardest thing ever!

Thank you to all of our family who spent the afternoon with us to celebrate Sully's second birthday, and thank you to everyone who called, texted, etc to send their love on such a special day!

Happy Birthday, Sullivan! We all love you so, so much and you bring more delight, love and fun into our lives on a daily basis than you could ever know! xoxo

Sullivan's First Birthday Party

I knew well before Sully turned one that I didn't want to have a huge, extravagant party for him. But I did want to celebrate not only his day of birth, but also mine and Jim's first year of parenthood. Even though we had already technically moved to Calgary, we still hadn't sold our home in Edmonton, so we returned the weekend of his birthday to have a party surrounded by our closest family and friends.

I created his invite with picmonkey and emailed it out. to our guests. While it would have been nice to have created custom made invites through websites like minted or Shutterfly, it also wasn't necessary for a first birthday party. Plus, we all know I like to leave things to the last minute, and if I had had to mail out invites, I don't think anyone would have shown up for the party!

I kept the decorations simple, forgoing an overall theme, and focused more on photo displays of Sullivan's first year of life. I didn't really want to use up a good idea for a theme on his one year birthday where he's not even going to remember the party except from photos of it. It was also really hard to party prep when you're not actually in the space where said party is going to be. I knew whatever I decided to do - decor and food wise - pretty much needed to be done the day of the party.

{photo by Kala Rose Photography}

 

{photo by Kala Rose Photography}

{photos by Kala Rose Photography}

Food and snacks were also kept simple, things that could be eaten with minimal mess and without cutlery. And I tried to appeal to people of all ages. I made the cupcakes and the cake myself, although not from scratch. A baker I am not, and icing a cake is the hardest thing I've ever tried to make!

{photos by Kala Rose Photography}

{photo by Kala Rose Photography}

{photo by Kala Rose Photography}

{photo by Kala Rose Photography}

It was also really important to me that people came to the party just to be there, no gifts necessary. A one year old doesn't need much and since we were in between moves, I didn't want to be bogged down with lots of gifts that we didn't have space for in our temporary apartment. I encouraged people, should they want to bring a gift, that a book that they could sign would be more than enough (keeping in theme with Sully's baby shower). Of course, Sully still received some very thoughtful gifts, all of which we were very appreciative of!

I also started a new tradition, one that I'm excited to repeat for many birthdays to come. I picked out a really great birthday story picture book and had everyone who came to the party sign it to Sully. Not much makes me happier than reading the personalized inscriptions on the inside of a book and I think it will be so wonderful to read them to Sully each time we read this book over the years.

{photo by Kala Rose Photography}

{photo by Kala Rose Photography}

Of course, the one thing I failed on was taking lots of pictures, especially of our guests! Isn't this always the way it is?! But I guess that's a sign of a good party when you're too busy mingling to take photos! Luckily, my very good friend Kala was kind enough to take some photos for us while at the party and I'm so grateful she did! You can see more photos from the party on her blog here.

{photo by Kala Rose Photography}

{photo by Kala Rose Photography}

{photo by Kala Rose Photography}

{photo by Kala Rose Photography}

{photo by Kala Rose Photography}

Thank you to all our friends and family who came out to celebrate Sullivan's first birthday with us! It meant a lot to me that we were able to have the party in the home Sully spent his first year of life in. Next year we will be in a new house and in a new city, with not a lot of family or friends near by, so I'm very, very glad for the memories of this party.