Hungry Caterpillar Party Part 3

Here are the last of my party photos. 

(We didn't have an actual photo-booth set up, but the guests were still able to play around with the props.  Don't they look so gosh darn cute?)

Hungry Caterpillar Party Part 2

Click here for directions to make your own fruit balloon garland

Special thanks to brave hubby for holding the pinata while kids swung wildly with their bats.

I found it hilarious that the kids brought multiple bats to hit the pinata.

Can I be honest with you?

I initially didn't want to throw Baby Chuck a party.  (Does that make me a bad mommy?  Hopefully not.)  I didn't want a birthday party because I figured Baby Chuck wouldn't really remember anything... so why spend the money or put the effort in?  (Ay, I'm so cheap.)  But then I changed my mind after talking with some relatives.  It only took a bit of convincing and Pinteresting before I was on-board.  (Anytime there's a craft to be made, count me in!) 

Looking back I'm really glad that we did it.  Hubby and I got to celebrate the fact that we kept a baby alive for a whole year.  Wowzers.  Tita Tina, Ana, and I got a chance to craft.  Yes!  Baby Chuck will have lovely photos to look at one day.  Hooray!  And our young guests got a chance to let loose and enjoy themselves. Score!

You know what?  Here's my deep thought of the day:
There are so many tough and sad things in this world.  Life would be better if we threw more parties and celebrated. 

(Thanks Sam for taking these beautiful photos.)

Future biker?

I think Baby Chuck might become a rough and tough biker. 

He's picking fights with balloons...

P9095639.AVI from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.

and "riding" his big boy harley

P9055463.AVI from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.

We remember

What do you remember about the day the towers fell? 

My memories are spotty and brief.  I remember walking to my early morning college class and wondering why the campus was so empty.  I remember crowding around a small television set with my roommates and wondering what was going to happen to us.  I remember holding hands with dozens of other students and praying openly outside.  And I remember feeling relief when I finally reached my mom and heard that she and dad were ok.

As Baby Chuck and I hear the names of the deceased being read, I wonder how we'll talk to him about this event in the future.  I'm still trying to understand it myself....

Hungry Caterpillar party part 1

Hi everyone!

Last Saturday we held Baby Chuck's 1st birthday party.  I was a tad bit stressed out with all the planning, but everything turned out well at the end.  Hooray! Everyone seemed to have fun and enjoy themselves.  Thanks to everybody who helped out with the decorations, games, and food!!!

Because I was running around like a chicken without its head, I didn't get a chance to get too many photos.  Here are some shots that hubby managed to snap of our decorations and food:

Made by Tita Tina

 

Made by Tita Tina and Ana   (Click here to see more amazing cakes!)

Made by Tita Tina and Ana

Made by Grace

Click here for directions to make your own multi-colored crayons

     

Crapty Fridays- DIY photo filters

You probably saw this post and wondered, "Um, was that a typo?"

The answer:  No.

I've decided to try crapting something once a week.  Crapting is when I take a piece of junk (any worthless piece of crap) and try to make something from it.  The resulting item could be really neat or weird or really... well... crappy.  Whatever the result may be, I'm hoping that this crapty (hee hee) exercise will work out my brain, hands, and creative juices.

Here's my first crapt (hee hee):  A DIY photo filter.

After seeing the super talented ladies at A Beautiful Mess create photo filters using transparencies and permanent markers, I thought I could go crapty and use a disposable plastic snack container instead of a transparency: 

Ahh, sharpie marker on crap.

Here's what it looked like when I placed my crapty filter in front of my lens:

Ooh- Cheesy horror movie  effect

Here's what it looked like when I placed the filter in front of my flash:

Left:  Without filter                                                       Right:  With filter

With a night's worth of fun under our belts I was all set to toss out the filter.  But I changed my mind after realizing that nail polish remover could remove sharpie marker.   Ooh!  With a couple wipes and a doodles, I had a new filter to use.  (Cha-ching.  Double crapting points):

The next day I played around with this new filter.  Here are some of my better photos:

Thanks for joining me on my first crapty adventure!
What would you make out of a disposable plastic cover?
What should I crapt with next?

Messy memories

Currently Baby Chuck creates messes.... I mean "memories" everywhere.  Right now he's creating a lot of memories in the kitchen.  I guess that should come as no surprise as he likes things that are sharp, shiny, dirty, or dangerous.  When I see him climbing on something or grabbing at something I'm amazed at his dexterity and persistence.  Wow!  This little guy is growing up.  But then my happy feeling quickly passes when I realize that he's about to eat a magnet.

I finally got it.

Ooh! Let me bang this on the floor.

Yikes!  Mom's coming over.  I better make a quick getaway.

Lovely Central Jersey

During the long weekend hubby, Baby Chuck, and I visited Princeton, NJ.  We had a really nice time.  The college campus and surrounding towns were beautiful.  Here are a couple of photos from our trip:

Hungry caterpillar party prep- Crepe paper caterpillar

Ok, ok, I know what you're thinking.  This post looks like a Hungry Caterpillar craft and didn't I announce in my last post that I was no longer going to do anymore caterpillar crafts?  Well, yes, that's true.  But in my defense, I just wanted to post up this photo of a welcome sign that Tita Tina made  for the party.  Isn't it adorable?  I love his little feet.  I just want to tickle them. 

I have no idea how she made it (and if anyone out there wants to know, just leave a comment below and I'm sure she would explain everything.) 

(By the way, she isn't just a sign maker.  She also makes a-mazing cakes.)

I love how a child's birthday party can encourage us to create and craft things.    

Hungry Caterpillar party prep: DIY birthday banner

Ok, this will be the last of the party DIYs, I promise!  With the party only a couple of days away, we round off our DIY series with a Hungry Caterpillar birthday banner:

It was really simple and fun to make.  I cut out various shapes from cereal boxes.  Then, I just painted them with craft paint "Eric Carle" style and used Sharpie markers to write the letters.    

To see all the items we made for the party, click here

Up, up, and away

I'm so glad it's Friday.  

Hope you have a fun long weekend.

Hungry Caterpillar party prep: DIY multicolor crayons

I struggled with what to put in the children's goodie bags.  At first I was going to give them lollipops because that went along with the theme of the book.  But then I remembered that they were already going to get candy after bashing the pinata.  Images of screaming children on candy highs filled my mind, so I went another route:  DIY multicolor crayons.  (It sort of goes with the theme, right?  Colorful crayons.... colorful Eric Carle artwork? Ok...maybe it's a stretch...  Alright, you got me.  I just wanted to try this DIY out and I needed an excuse... )

Anywhoo... here's what I did:

(1)  I found a bunch of old crayons, ripped off their paper covers, and broke them up.

• Note 1:  My mom actually found these crayons at home...so that means they're at least 20 years old... ehhhh.... I think they're still good)  
• Note 2:  I had a tough time ripping off the covers.  So hubby and I ended up using a scissor to slice the paper right off.  Be careful!  I sliced my finger. 
• Note 3:  It was tough breaking crayons.  (Hmm, I sense a theme here.  I should probably go to the gym and work out my arms).  I ended up using my trusty pair of scissors and cutting the crayons up.  You could probably chop the crayons up too.  But I didn't want to get wax on my knives or cutting board.  

(2)  I put the broken crayons into some silicone candy molds.   (I've seen other people using cute ice-cube trays or cupcake trays.)

• Note 1:  You probably don't want to do this with a beloved tray.  The wax stains the silicone.
• Note 2:  I placed the silicone molds on top of a baking dish because I was afraid of spilling melted wax.  I spilled wax anyway...but at least it didn't get onto my floor.

(3)  Place the crayons into a 250 degree oven.  Bake for about 10-15 minutes (depending on how big  your crayon chunks are).  Watch them as they bake.  Take them out when the top layer is liquidy.

(4)  Once melted, take the tray out and let your melted wax cool and harden. (Mine took about 15 minutes to solidify.) 

• Note:  Melted crayons smell bad.  Really bad.  Open a window.  Wear a gas mask.  Do whatever you need to feel ok with this.... I kept reminding myself that crayons are non-toxic....*cough cough*

(5) Once cool, pop those babies out and admire your colorful handiwork.

• Note:  I placed mine in the  freezer for a bit before popping them out.  Some other blogger said to do that, but I don't think I really had to.

Voila!  An army of rainbow crayons ready to color the world!  Muah ha ha ha.

To see other things that we made for the party, click  here

Happy Anniversary!

It was our wedding anniversary a couple of days ago.  We've been married for 7 years.  Wowzers.  We celebrated the big day by going out for dinner... without Baby Chuck! (Thanks Tita Tina for being brave enough to watch our little monster!) 

I love my son, but it was really really REALLY nice to eat dinner without him.

Throughout the night we tried our very best to (a) not talk about Baby Chuck and (b) eat slowly.  Since becoming parents our conversations revolve around our son.  Dinner topics include dissecting his moods, sleep habits, bowel movements (tmi?), and skin.  I'm quite embarrassed by the number of times I start statements with"Baby Chuck did this today...."

Our manners have also seriously slid down the tubes.  We shovel a whole ton of food into our mouths as fast as we can.  Forget about savoring the meals.  Napkins?  Hah!  No time to wipe our mouths. Knives?  Nope.  That's a luxury.  We just use forks (or one hand.).   The other hand is always spooning, mushing, wiping or entertaining baby.  Dinner time is battle time.  Those who follow dinner etiquette starve.  Only the impolite survive.

So it should come as no surprise to you that we really appreciated that alone time.  Maybe we can try this whole date night thing again?  (Anybody interested in babysitting?)



Today I spent some time looking through some old wedding stuff.  I found these messages written by our guests 7 years ago.  (Instead of a guestbook we asked guests to write on paper "leaves" which were then hung on twigs.)  I laughed a whole lot when I saw these.  Some of our guests got really creative...