Creating Moments That Matter
Yesterday, right before the baby shower I was hosting, Jason tells me that there’s a mandatory evacuation in my In-laws county and they’re on their way to stay with me over the weekend.
So this morning I have to run to the post office and send out Dylan’s Invitations, the 230 bookmarks for Pink Christmas, then run to the grocery store and stock up on food.
When I get home, I’ll have to wash sheets, matrice covers, vacuum, and clean up from the baby shower.
Did I mention, I’m exhausted?
My good friend and neighbor is having her 4th baby and 2nd girl this week. To celebrate all that is this special women, Wendy and I threw her a baby shower. She did the girl method and the girl diet and was successful. {{unlike myself – diet? What?!?}}
Chanda helped me with the invitations and I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out. They were so easy! I was inspired by these.
Since it was in the evening, we decided to have a dessert bar. Wendy did most of the food and she completely out did herself! She made these without the stick. They were heaven.
For my table decorations, I was inspired by this and this.
Because I’m old school and love creative games. {{It’s my party and I’ll play if I want to!}} I made a baby shower game packet for the party. We got to know the mommy-to-be better with “Mommy True or False”, “How well do you know”, and “A little about Mom”.
I like people to leave feeling like they know the guest of honor better than when they came. I think that goal was successful.
For the party favors I made lables for selofane bags that said, “Thank you for helping us celebrate the ‘sweet’ Porter girl”. Our guests filled them up with the candy from the glasses on the table.
It was such a fun evening!
Dylan had his official 8th birthday on Tuesday. Dylan is such a sweetie. In years past, he hasn’t asked for anything. It’s so nice that he doesn’t want to be demanding. However, as a result I usually have no idea what to get him!
He’s completely the opposite of Davis who knows exactly what he wants, how much it is, and what special event he can negotiate it for.
This year Dylan had paused the commercials so he could delicately write down a couple items he wanted for this special birthday. I was so proud of him and did my best to accommodate. Dylan was so excited and happy with his new loot!
However, Drake was not. He wanted it!
The helicopter Air Hogs were a huge hit and they’ve been buzzing all over my house ever since. I’ll have to write a thank you note to the engineer who only gave the helicopters only 10 minutes of battery time before needing to re-charge. It’s been my saving grace. {{giggle}}
Of course I forgot the candles, but the evening was wonderful and it was so nice to see Dylan shine with excitement in celebration of his big day.
In the past, he’s been a little bummed because he didn’t get what he wanted. I have to constantly tell him that, “If you don’t ask then you won’t receive. Mommy has many powers but mind-reading isn’t one of them.” {{unfortunately}}
“Happy Birthday Dillie. You bring so much love and peace into our home. You are such a smart boy and a wonderful big & little brother. I feel so blessed to be your Mom. Love you more than the universe!”
I decided a couple months ago to be a sponsor for the Pink Christmas charity & swap. As a sponsor I have the opportunity to plug Tip Junkie a little and give each of the 230 participants a little something to remember me by and to Thank them for participating in the charity.
I had something else in mind that was easier but it was going to be way too expensive. So instead I did my “fall back”, my one-hit-wonder, the beaded bookmark.
I shrinky dinked one of my buttons instead of using a charm.
This time I used Krylon clear spray to spray each one so the ink wouldn’t smear. It’s amazing what you learn when you read the directions. It only took me 2 years to figure it out. {{obviously I’m a fast learner}}
There’s how they turned out. I love them!! This morning I’m putting them in a jewelry zippy with a label that says, “I hope you’ll ‘bookmark’ TipJunkie.com as one of your favorite blogs.” {{giddy}}
Big thanks to my Mom for helping me with the first 130. I have a cramp in my left index finger which is making it hard to type – but it’s all worth it! Pink Christmas ended up raising $500 for the NieNie relief fund and $2500 for a Christmas for a family that just moved here from Africa.
I’m glad that I choose to be apart of it.
Here are Dylan’s Baptism CTR Invitations. It’s a 3D card that opens up in the middle of the shield. The “C” folds through the card next to the “T” to hold it together. My Mom designed and made them.
So D2, middle dude, a.k.a. Dylan, is getting baptised in a couple weeks and he is over-the-moon excited about it. In my church we baptise our sweeties at 8 years old. We believe, that up until the age of eight children cannot be held accountable for any wrong decisions they make. Their sins are wiped clean.
I personally feel this is such a wonderful gift that we give to our children and inspired by the Lord. Not only at 8 are children solid in their concepts of right and wrong, but they can also remember being baptised. This is especially important when trying to constantly “choose the right” and “do what Jesus would do” while striving to follow the example of our Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ.
This also gives me great comfort knowing that my sister, who died when she was an infant, is awaiting us in Heaven, clean and pure, enjoying the blessings of eternal life. We were a year apart in age.
Naturally, we’re planning a fun celebration for Dylan. He is my most spiritual child and really understands the importance of being baptised and the covenants he’s making.
I’m so proud of him.
Tammy gave me this oh too cute bag of chocolate and post-its as a thank you for helping her organize the Saturday Spectacular (a.k.a. Super Saturday). Of course, I adore the sunflower glued onto it.
What I thought was really great was this, “Thank you for making our Saturday Spectacular “WonTruffle“!!
I had to share it with you. {{still giggling}
For Talk To Me Tuesday this week. Tip Junkie wants to know what my favorite post was in 2008. Well I would absolutely have to say it was this one! I had so much fun planning this party and the kids had a blast!
We celebrated Dylan’s 8th birthday Indiana Jones style! He picked such a fun theme and I was so glad that I found so many great ideas on the Internet.
As I mentioned earlier, I couldn’t find cheap Indy hats. So I spray painted these gangster hats brown. They turned out great! Dylan approved.
My mom used the Diego pan and made him into Indiana Jones. She covered a paper plate in icing for the brim of his hat. Brilliant.
She also made this skull cake and used edible glitter. Even the teeth are icing. They were both so yummy!
I made everyone little satchels so they would have something handy to fill with their treasure and other goodies found along the way. It doubled as their party bag. I basically used the Placemat Purse instructions in brown felt with minor changes.
With Halloween so close, it made the decor really easy. Skulls, snakes, spiders, and creepy things.
Dylan read different clues for our game which instructed the kiddos to go to different stations and find the idols in the end. The Doctor’s Wife did such an amazing job with the clues – I just used those. Thanks!!
Mummy Race – Self explanatory.
Archaeological Dig – I just put lots of fun things like candy necklaces, ring pops, gold coins, and several bags of rice for them to dig into.
Our airport hangar was outside where we did a Holy Grail Relay. I spray painted some cups and the boys filled them up from a cooler and then dumped it out and handed it to their team mate.
We skipped the 4th clue because the water grenades all popped from the sun. Drat! Next time I’ll hide them inside.
The lake was a blue plastic table cloth with a 2×4 board along the middle with water grenades all around it.
Here the kids had to reach into each bowl and find the idols. Which were spray painted army men. The snake guts was jell-o, the eyeball soup was grapes in water, and the monkey brains was spaghetti noodles.
Dylan loved all the presents he received. Thanks guys!
It was such a fun party and all the boys had a blast!
This week Jason’s been out of town and I’ve been on my own in the most stressful week I’ve had in a while. I thought it would be fun to do a week wrap up while playing “Good Mom/Bad Mom”.
Why? That’s just my life right now. I can’t win. I usually screw something up while doing something fun for my boys.
Bad Mom – Since Monday was a holiday, I lost an entire day of preparation. I shampooed my carpets Tuesday morning, which meant that I had to take all the boys with me to run errands Tuesday afternoon. They hated it!
Good Mom – I couldn’t find Indiana Jones hats for less than $6/ea for Dylan’s party. However, while we were shopping, I found some plastic gangster hats on clearance. Dylan was upset when I bought them because they weren’t brown. {{unbeliever}} So I spray painted them brown and voila!
Bad Mom – I lost Toby. Yep! While cleaning out the garage, I let him come out and hang with me. I thought I was keeping a good eye on him. But quite frankly bins make me giddy. I must have got too involved in my new black bins I was filling up. Drat!
We looked and looked for him. Gratefully, when I came home from Scouts that evening there was a note on my front door that my neighbors had him. {{whew!}}
I was too embarrassed to go over and get him so I sent the boys. I grabbed 2 snickers and attached the note, “Thank you so much for finding Toby. I hope we can ‘snicker’ about this later. We were really worried.”
Good Mom – The boys want to walk home from school every day. Honestly, I don’t completely trust that they will stay together and keep each other safe. So we’re doing it in increments. This week I met them at the stop sign in front of our neighborhood, 1/2 way home. They have felt so grown up. I’ve been quizzing them on the way home of various scenarios.
Bad Mom – I didn’t go to either of the boys orientations this week. Since Jason was out of town, I just wasn’t up for dragging all 3 boys. Dylan was really upset.
Good Mom – I went to the Grandparent lunch for the boys. My MIL wasn’t able to come to the party after all and my mom wasn’t there yet. Even though it was party day and I still had a ton to do – I grabbed some Sonic and ate lunch with them.
Bad Mom – I didn’t take Dylan to soccer practice this week.
Good Mom – I remembered to take cookies to school so Dylan could celebrate.
It was the most productive week I’ve had in a while. I got summer shampooed, scrubbed, and painted out of my house. It’s nice to have my house back the way I like it. {{relief}}
I missed my man terribly and realized how dependant I’ve become on him. My poor girlfriends had to take the slack. 🙂 Thanks girls!
It’s official, our IRS audit is now over! It’s been 16 weeks of stress, worry, and negotiation. We ended up hiring our accountant to represent us and she did her job. We ended up owing the IRS $0.00.
“I am Vindicated!
I am selfish
I am wrong
I am right
I swear I’m right
I swear I knew it all along!
And I am flawed {{oh so true}}
But I am cleaning up so well…”
I knew that Jason and I are honest in our business dealings and we didn’t take advantage of gray area deductions. I knew that this audit was completely unjustified.
I’m not going to dwell on the small fortune it took to get to this point. I’m just going to feel blessed it wasn’t worse. I have felt completely powerless and victimized and am so glad it is over.
I feel a huge burden lifted off my shoulders. I am relieved. {{teary}}
Holy Crap! I am freaking out right now because Jenn from Hostess with the Mostess announced the interview I did with her over on Tip Junkie. It was completely unexpected! YAY!
If you’re looking for a daily dose of eye candy and over the top entertaining ideas, add her to your Google Reader. Jenn’s got some crazy fun pictures and themed ideas.
{{Still screaming with delight}}
