You Are My Sunshine 1st Birthday Party

 

Happy April, friends! March pretty much tried to kill me with various ailments (tonsillitis, food poisoning, allergies, aches and pains), so I'm happy to be moving on to a fresh month. And look what I finally have to show you! I had way, way too much fun planning this party. I'm excited to share some of the pictures with you.

 

I told my husband I wanted the frosting to look like clouds, and well, my husband is awesome. He definitely delivered.

Tissue Paper Tassel Garland

Suns from the "Create a Critter" Cricut cartridge

Banner from the "Something to Celebrate" Cricut cartridge

Party Hat Template

Now I'll give a little run-down of the party. We sang "Happy Birthday" and let Elle have at her smash cake, of course. I loved how she daintily picked off slices of mango before tasting the icing. She is definitely my girl. She needed a little assistance to actually break into the cake.

 

We kept our guest list small to cut down on the cost for food and party supplies, so we had mostly family and a few close friends in attendance. The result was an intimate gathering of people who have been in Elle's life since she was just a few days old. Since the birthday girl couldn't quite make a wish of her own, I asked everyone to record a birthday wish for her in a journal. I hope to make a tradition of filling this book with birthday wishes each year. 

Another fun thing we did was ask the guests to bring an object to represent an occupation Elle might choose in the future. We got this idea from some friends in our old ward. Apparently it's a Bulgarian tradition to sit your one year old in the middle of a circle of objects and predict their future based on what they choose. Sounded fun to me!

Based on the objects, her choices were veterinarian, paleontologist, dentist, engineer, starlet, teacher, chef, artist, or ophthalmologist. The outcome was clear: she went straight for the calculator (representative of engineering). We did the test a second time to see what her second choice would be, and she went for the protractor (Dad had sneaked in two objects for engineering). Only time will tell if the test is right...

The next day I realized that I'd forgotten to put the party hat on Elle even once during the party, so naturally I had to remedy that ASAP. I put her in the brand new dress she received for her birthday, fed her cake, which worked out perfectly because we had A LOT of leftover cake to eat up, and played with the confetti. I'm pretty sure it was one of the most exciting weekends of her life. ;)

If anyone's interested, I created a Pinterest board to keep track of many of my online supply purchases and recipes (without a visual of what I'd purchased, my head would start spinning). I did what I consider to be extensive comparison shopping when it came to things like striped paper straws, baking cups, etc. and I found The TomKat Studio to have the best prices. My order also arrived super quick! Can't beat that.

26

A little over a week ago I celebrated another birthday. I wasn't very excited in the months preceding this one, but I've eased into my new age. I just remind myself that I'm not as old as Henry and never will be. ;)

The first event of my special day was birthday lunch at the flagship Whole Foods. I had some great "comfort food," Whole Foods style: chicken casserole, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and wheatberries. Oh yeah, and I drank this delicious, monster blood orange Italian soda. (Not all at once though; I rationed it throughout my birthday weekend.)

It was so hot up there on that patio, but I don't think you can tell by the picture.

That night Henry and I had dinner at Chez Zee for the first time. To be honest, I chose this restaurant based on a Yelp recommendation of their fried pickles, and we were pretty disappointed. The pickles were sliced so thinly that they were just like eating pickle-flavored potato chips. Salty and sad. The entrees were pretty good, but it was hard to recover from the dissatisfaction of the appetizer.

Afterwards we went to Ulta, Old Navy, and another Whole Foods store for some light shopping. It was a low-key day to be sure, but that's what I wanted. Last year I had a dinner party with lots of friends, and it was a lot of fun. This year I wasn't feeling up to the fanfare.

Late that night my parents arrived at our apartment ready for good food and family time. The next day we had TacoDeli tacos for breakfast, and then Mom, Henry, and I went shopping at DSW and Target. Later that afternoon we met my niece and nephews and their significant others for an early dinner at Trudy's (Mmm, stuffed avocado), and then we saw Midnight in Paris at the Violet Crown. Cute movie that the whole family (especially my dad!) liked at a hip, artsy downtown theater.

On Sunday we cut into my cake. It was exactly what I wanted: lemon chiffon with strawberry/lemon filling.

Courtesy of Kerbey Lane Bakery

 Henry and I added the citrusy slices to the top ourselves. Got the idea here (via Design Mom).

It was a good birthday. Twenty-six isn't so bad.

Laura's Lake Travis Wedding

I've been thinking about how to write this post for a day or two now, and I haven't really found a good way to organize my thoughts. We'll see what this morphs into. I want it to be part family record, part informational for those MOHs out there searching for ideas like I was.

Let's start on a sentimental note. This was my niece's wedding, and she asked me to be her matron of honor. It truly was an honor to be there by her side, so intimately involved in the planning. I've mentioned before that my family lines are kind of confusing (if you only knew the whole of it!). Here's what you need to know for this story: Laura is my oldest half-sister's daughter. She's four months older than me, so we grew up together. We spent a good portion of our childhood wearing matching outfits, scheming together, and laughing hysterically. She'd come for visits to Houston, and we'd drive up to Austin several times a year. We were baptized on the same day. We went to girls' camp together. She was my slightly taller, half-Mexican twin. Our childhoods very much intertwined. When I moved to Austin in 2003, we'd hang out, but as work and school took precedence, we didn't spend as much time together as I wish we would have. So I really appreciate the time we got to spend together as we planned her wedding. I feel like it brought back that closeness that we used to have, and I want to work harder to keep up that relationship from here on out.

I thought the wedding itself was perfect. The bishop from my sister's ward performed the ceremony, and it was short, but still special. The weather was perfect (in the 70's and sunny). Laura looked absolutely beautiful. I think we all teared up during the ceremony. The only thing that wasn't perfect was that I started getting sick the day before the wedding, but I survived and didn't feel completely terrible until the day after the wedding.

Ok, now for some of the details.

Beauty: I really spoiled myself in preparation for this wedding. I didn't do a lot of these things for my own wedding, and I kicked myself afterward. Wedding photos are forever, and even if you aren't the bride, you want to look your best. So...I think I blew my allowance for the next six months.

• I got a manicure and pedicure from Arboretum Nails and Spa. I will be a returning customer. I got to watch 13 Going on 30 while my hands and feet were worked over. My toes were painted a perfect raspberry color called Miss Bossy Pants.
• I got a spray tan from Palm Beach Tan. When I last checked, they had a coupon up for a free one at the Austin locations. Not orange, not streaky, just a nice bronzing to tone down the bright white. I do recommend two things though: pay the extra $2 for the scent and use a ton of that blending lotion on your hands and feet.
• Eyebrow threading + facial (marked it off my 101 list!) from Nahid
• Taryn of Bird's Barbershop did our hair and makeup. She made me feel really pretty, and she was super nice and affordable. Like I couldn't believe how little she charged me for a hair + eyeshadow trial plus the day-of updo and makeup. Awesome.

 Ceremony Details:

• Venue: Vintage Villas
• We walked to an instrumental version of U2's Beautiful Day
• She walked to The Section Quartet's Such Great Heights
• All of the flowers came from HEB (neither the bouquets nor the centerpieces were arranged the way she wanted, but we were able to fix it)

Dinner Details:

• Place cards were a good idea, but I wish I hadn't started them a week in advance because some people said they couldn't come/were moved to different tables at the last minute. I had to buy a new pack of cards the morning of the wedding and recycled many of the name cards.
• At first we were going to make a fancy seating chart, and then we were going to have ushers with an alphabetized list, but in the end people just kind of wandered around to find their seats. :/ It worked.
• Laura and Michael's sweetheart table with the birds and candles turned out cute.

Reception Details:

• Their first dance was to Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man.
•  My nephew Shannon, his girlfriend Christin, and their friend Brad did an amazing job on the photobooth. Christin made those flowers and the mustaches herself. The guests were streaming through there. I can't wait to see the photos!

•  Loved the cake bar. She got three cakes from 620 Bakery and two cakes from Kerbey Lane Bakery.

 Yum. I'm totally having that lemon chiffon cake with strawberry filling and candied lemon zest as my 26th birthday cake.

Is this now the longest post ever? Feels like it.

Congratulations, Laura and Michael!

Pink and Black Bridal Shower

We're nine days out from my niece's wedding. After what feels like many, many conversations and days spent planning, I think we're mostly prepared for the big day. All the big decisions have finally been made. All that's left is the seating arrangement cards and a few personal items for me like what shoes and jewelry to wear. Oh yeah, and the marriage license!

This past weekend my mom and I threw Laura's bridal shower.

It went something like this:

Friday--5 PM Mom and Dad arrive at my apartment.
5:15-6:45 PM I sit at the table and make lots of little paper birds. Henry hangs fuschia paper lanterns from the ceiling. I direct the placement of said lanterns.

6:45 Leave for Laura's dress fitting. Park Dad and Henry at David's Bridal while Mom and I shop at Ulta next door.
7-8:50 PM Laura tries on her dress, we debate whether one side is longer than the other, alterations lady measures and sure enough it is. Wait while the alteration people fix it. I try on the two modest dresses in the whole store. Mom tries on and purchases her dress for the wedding.
9:00 PM Head to Mimi's Cafe for dinner.
9:15-10:30 Eat dinner at Mimi's. Discuss options for bridal shower games. Choose three. Ask Laura questions for the trivia game. Look at cupcake options for bridal shower. Create a grocery list for the bridal shower.
10:45 Drop Dad off at my apartment and head over to Laura's.
11:00-11:45 Shop at HEB.
12:00 AM Come home and fall fast asleep.

Saturday is fuzzy, but I do know this:
8:45 AM-2:15 PM Henry works like a slave preparing all of the food. He doesn't even stop to eat breakfast or lunch. My husband is a superstar...or a martyr for the cause, you decide.

Somewhere in there, I created the documents for the games, took my mom with me to exercise at the gym, bought presents for Laura at Target, bought vitamins at Sprouts, showered, and cleaned the apartment as quickly as I could---with Mom's help. As I was running around like crazy on Saturday, I kept thinking that there was no way in the world that I would've been able to prepare everything without the help of my family. Even though some of us weren't the happiest about it, it was still neat to see us working as a team to get things done.

Looking back at these pictures, it doesn't look too fancy to me, but it was a lot. of. work.

I loved the fruit tray. Laura brought over her little crockpot set, and we melted chocolate for dipping.

1:1 ratio of Country Time Pink Lemonade and Sprite

Graham cupcakes with Key Lime frosting (Cupcake 32)

We ended up playing 2/3 games: bridal trivia and Laura trivia.

There was debate over Laura's actual shoe size, so she had to double check. =)

After the games, she opened her presents.

You see that mirror to the right of her? She didn't notice that it was a present. Her reaction when we told her she had one present left was pretty funny because it took her a while to figure out what we were talking about. hehe.

Once she finished opening presents, we set up my tripod and took 15 group shots. 15! I don't think any of them need to be posted on the Internet...

I think all in all it was a good party. It was just the right size for my apartment, and I think everyone had a good time. Most of us went over to Laura's apartment for the "after party" where we had our hair and makeup trials.

Here's a sneaky peek of my updo for the wedding. I'm excited about it!

Dad's 80th Birthday Bash

My dad's 80th birthday was last month, and we knew we wanted to do something big to celebrate. Mom and Dad planned the larger details like the venue, the menu, and the guest list, and Henry and I helped with some of the decorations. I love planning stuff like this, so I thought I'd share my most favorite things from the party.

1. The photo line

We collected photos from around my parents’ house and then went to Kinko’s to scan and print them in black & white. We ended up printing about 65 photos of my dad in various stages of his life—the oldest dating back to his 2^nd birthday in 1932. My mom already had some twine for us to use, and we just bought a pack of clothes pins to hang up the photos. It was pretty inexpensive to do, but it made a huge impact in the room’s décor. Plus I think all of the guests enjoyed looking at the photos. So many asked, “Is that really Clyde?” 

2. Eighty sparkling candles!

Kind of a beast to get them lit all at once {that's my lil bigbro doing the job in the photo above}, but watching my dad and my 9-year-old niece as they blew them all out was priceless.

3. The memory book

This was Henry’s idea. We bought an 8’’ X 8’’ scrapbook album, a pack of jewel-toned scrapbook papers, and a couple of archival quality pens. We wanted all of the guests to pick a paper to write a message for my dad, but we also wanted to attach photos of them to the paper after the party {my next big project}. We had the guests trace where they wanted their picture placed on the paper. I typed up a step-by-step instruction guide, which we printed, framed, and sat on the “guest book” table. Unfortunately we only got one picture of the set up...and it just so happened to be in the background of another picture. Senior citizens like to be super punctual {read: 20+ minutes early} to parties, so things got a little rushed with the documentation of decorations.

I know, amazing quality, but you can see the papers, our photo template, instructions, the box, etc.

Here's a scanned copy of the instructions.

 
Approximately 80 of my dad's closest friends and relatives ended up coming to the party. I was so impressed by that. It was awesome. I think my dad loved every second of it. Arranging for all 80(!) guests to have their picture taken was a bit of a challenge because the room was packed, but I think we managed to get nearly everyone’s picture. I think it will be a really neat keepsake for my dad.

4. The prayer

Henry offered a prayer at the party in which he basically thanked the Lord for my dad's life and asked for continued blessings of health and strength. Henry said several people told him that that was the nicest prayer they'd ever heard, and I think that made him feel a little bashful, but it was a touching prayer. 

5. Love of family and friends

 That brings me to my fifth and final favorite thing. The party was a huge reunion of family and friends, and there was so much love there. There were people my dad knows from his career in real estate, church friends, barbers, plant coworkers {he worked in a plant for 40 years}, and the largest gathering of my family I've seen in a long, long time. Even more amazingly? There was no drama. It was such a happy weekend. I felt increased love for my dad, especially as I looked through those photos from his life. He is a good, honest man, and though he may be a bit grumpy at times, he is a wonderful example to me of loving, working hard, and serving others. (And heck, I’m sure I’ll be grumpy too when I’m 80.) So really, I guess my favorite thing about the party was that I came away realizing again how privileged I am to have him as my father. Love you, Daddy.

It's here

I turned in the final version of my report on May 7th. Two weeks ago? Oh my, how time flies. All in all it was 61 pages long. To be honest, compared to previous grad school experiences it was a cake walk. I thought it would require lots of blood, sweat, and tears; I envisioned my second reader demanding large changes and me chasing my "committee" around trying to get last minute signatures, but in the end it wasn't so bad. Sure, I put in a ton of effort, but there wasn't a lot of stress surrounding the whole thing. So, so very surprising.

And now I graduate in TWO DAYS! I'm having my big shindig tomorrow night. Couldn't be more excited. I just hope my guests have fun. I'm excited to reunite with some of my best friends who are coming into town.

Right now I'm trying to throw together a party playlist...but I'm realizing I don't have very cool party music. And, confession: I have no idea how to use my Mom's Ipod. And I'm pretty sure she doesn't have any idea either. hahaha.

I think we need my brother's expertise.

Anywho, I've been working hard to plan this party these past few weeks, so I will post some pictures after all is said and done for you to see. This party was my inspiration. Lurv it.


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