gabriel’s graduation party

Mr friend, Mimi, asked me a while ago to help her with her son’s graduation party. I kind of love planning parties and readily agreed, even though I would have a newborn while planning and decorating for the party. It was on Saturday and it went very well. I was happy. There are a few things I’d do differently, but overall, it was great. Now here are 20 pictures to detail all of it :)

This was right at the entrance to the backyard. It was for people to leave a message or some advice for Gabe.

This was also right at the entrance (because it was also the exit). It is the favor/candy table. That thing in the middle of the table, holding the sign is a large clothespin. The lollipops are in boxes that say “lollipops” on them (I love signs and labels …. I’m crazy that way).

Sooo, the favor bags that you are supposed to fill with candy are in the glass jar next to the pictures of Gabriel. I made a custom sticker that said “Thanks for coming” on it.

I don’t know if you can really see it, but I made that box for cards and gifts to Gabe and it’s behind the clothespin sign. I love the glittery letters on the top that say “Congrats Grad”. I just love glitter.

The Gabe table. My favorite part? The white frames I picked out to display his senior pictures in.

That’s burlap under the centerpieces. And that picture frame is from IKEA (99 cents) and I hot glue gunned it to a coaster I found at Michaels for 50 cents. The lantern is IKEA also, but I spray painted it red.

OK, here is mistake number 1 and something I would do differently: the balloons. They totally look wimpy. I learned that with balloons, 50 is not a lot. I should’ve done like 200 balloons in the middle of the tent, to make a real statement. Next time, I will change that. Also, I need to remember that balloons pop in severe heat and sunlight. It’s a good thing they were in the shade of the tent, but even still, a balloon would pop every so often because of the heat. Scared the crap out of the people sitting at the tables under the tent. lol.

The drink table – another mistake and something I would do differently – the medal tree. See that thing in the middle of the table? It’s a “medal tree”. It is branches I spray painted red to match the decor with Gabriel’s medals from soccer and track hanging in it. The tree gets a little lost in the bushed behind it and it looks a little scary with the red branches. I think I’d do it bigger and with leaves on the branches next time.

This was on the deck and was the dessert/ice cream table. We hadn’t put the ice cream out yet, just a few toppings when I took the picture. But you can imagine … anyway, the display board behind the table took me forever and was a major undertaking, but I loved it in the end – because it was big. I made it from hardboard and 2×4’s, painted it white and hammered nails in it to hang some of the pictures from it and then I used painters tape to tape the rest of the pictures and certificates. Totally worked. In the center of the table is the cupcake tower. I made it from cardboard boxes, wrapping paper and crepe paper.

This was the hot dog bar and where the main food was. Again, we didn’t have everything out yet, so this is the only picture I got of this table, but it was mostly just food, not a lot of decor anyway.

And this is (thankfully) what Ray did the entire morning while I was setting up the party …

He’s such a good baby Ray :)

summer, so far

I have to admit, I’ve been feeling kind of guilty this summer. I feel like I haven’t really taken advantage of the summer because we had a baby and spend a lot of time and days indoors. I feel bad for Noah and Liam. I want them to have a fun filled summer, but I am not really able to do major trips or fun play dates all the time, so I sot around the house, nursing and watching HGTV and then just feeling guilty. But today at lunch the boys and I were talking. We were talking about how their friend Antonio had just gotten back from visiting his cousins and family in UT and how he flew there all by himself. I asked the boys if they would want to do that. Noah said no and Liam said yes. Noah said he would miss us and didn’t want to go. But Liam still said he wanted to fly on a plane by himself and Noah said, “well, then I would miss you a lot Liam. I don’t want you to go by yourself”.

I looked at both my boys and smiled. I guess it’s not so bad that they have all summer to play legos in the basement together. And it’s not so bad that all day they’ve been dressed up like Emporer Palpatine and Captain Rex and keep looking in the mirror at their outfits and laughing. And it’s not so bad that they run around shooting each other with squirt guns. They are best friends … albeit out of necessity, but they are. And they love each other and spend all day with one another. I was thinking about it today – this fall Liam will start preschool and Noah will be in first grade and at school all day and these days of running around in dress ups, playing with legos and running outside with squirt guns will be over … and it’s not so bad. So summer so far has been pretty good I guess.

We had the Ordaz boys over for a play date last week. It was the first play date at our house since Ray was born and it was a hit. The boys were in heaven. Here are some pictures to prove it:

Noah has always had some serious personality …. but when did Liam turn into a little silly man? He is a total goofball these days:

I came outside and had to shoot a picture of Liam in all of his accessories … check it out – he’s wearing not one, but 2 pairs of eye wear – sunglasses and goggles and he has a squirt gun in his swimsuit. Liam.

lol

I got distracted. I was supposed to be making labels for this graduation party I’m helping my friend with and I came across this picture in my documents. It is of Liam the summer he was born (2008) when Liz and Ian came to visit. This was their last hug to Liam before they drove home … hilarious. I love this picture. I forgot how much I love this picture. good times.

Ray, 5 weeks

I can’t believe 5 weeks has gone by. It feels fast. Christina keeps harassing me about putting up more pictures of Ray, so the pictures are for her. The update is for my journal. Here’s the update on Ray:

He’s a good baby. He loves me and calms down pretty much immediately whenever I pick him up and talk to him. He seems to know my voice and I love that. He smiles a lot. He sleeps a lot too, but he’s a loud sleeper, so we’ve had a hard time sleeping at night – Daniel and I have had a hard time – Ray seems fine.

Finally, last night, we put Ray in the office/nursery in his bouncer with the monitor. And we had the best night’s sleep we’ve had to date. Ray slept from 11:30 to 3 am, then he nursed and burped and hung out with me in our bed for an hour, then Daniel put him back in the nursery and from 4-7am he slept and we slept too. It was such a relief, to sleep that is. It makes a world of a difference to sleep. Then Ray spent 7-8:30am in bed with me, nursing and burping and then sort of sleeping/grunting. I have been so worried about having him in another room because he seems so young still – and he IS young, but it worked out great. It’s what monitors were meant for. Plus, we can buckle him into his bouncer so I don’t worry about him wiggling and skwirming his way out of it.

We took Ray to park day yesterday and that was the first time he’s been to the park and seen all my girlfriends – he was a hit. I dressed him up in plaid shorts and a matching polo and he wore his little soft skater shoes. I loved it. And Ray slept through the whole thing. He did wake up when we stopped by 7-11 on the way home to get a free slurpee (because it was 7-11-2012 yesterday … free shlurpee day), but I just held him and went in. It was fine. Here is a picture of Ray after the park … it evidently tired him out to sleep the whole time:

I worry about taking all three boys around. I worry, not because anything has gone terribly wrong thus far, but because I have been in some pretty crazy situations in the past. I have seen the pattern happen before, this pattern – I think, “wow, things aren’t that bad! I can do this, see everything went well, didn’t it?” Then I feel capable and I go out again with the boys and things fall apart – big time. Crying in public, flashing a breast on accident, poopy accidents in Target with no extra clothes, losing sight of one of the boys and panicking, dropping a jar of pickles in the grocery store, breaking a keg of alcohol in Costco, watching my boys run in opposite directions and not knowing which way to go first, fumbling at doorways, threatening/bribing the boys to stop whatever it is they’re doing …. major embarassment. And the last step of the pattern? Feeling major anxiety everytime I go out somewhere with all the boys. But so far, everything has gone well and that’s something to be happy about.

Gammie came

This is so late coming, but I have been a little out of it lately. OK, but she came and it was wonderful. She played with the boys (Noah and Liam) and had a million little activities for them to do – scavenger hunts, making books, collecting seeds … it was adorable. And she made dinner … every night. It was heaven for me. The only thing I felt bad about was when she got sick on the last day here. She was really sick – like down and out, crawl in your bed and take advil kind of sick. I felt badly that we sent her home that way. But after she left, the boys asked about her in the morning, “Where’s Gammie?” Like they expected her to be a permanent addition to our home :) It was cute. Here are only a few pictures I snapped while she was here. I should’ve done more, but I didn’t … again, I am just kind of out of it.

Noah explaining something to Gammie, of course.

Liz, don’t hate me for putting this picture in, but the boys’ faces are awesome. I think you didn’t know you were in the shot, sorry, should’ve told you.

So cute. The funniest part of the picture is the reason why there’s a blanket over Ray – Liz said this fluffy hair was tickling her face, so she put a blanket over his hair. lol.

Thanks for coming Gammie! We miss you.