Fun, Fun, Noah Turns One!

This past weekend, we celebrated Noah's first birthday.  I cannot believe a year has already passed!  It seems like just yesterday, we were bringing him home from the hospital.

And showering him with kisses.

As much as I wanted to stop time weeks before his birthday, I knew I couldn't.  So instead, I channeled my emotion into creating his first birthday party.

I spent many late nights pinning ideas on Pinterest and finally decided to throw Noah a Dr. Seuss-inspired birthday.

I found inspiration from several different websites, including this one at "Hostess with the Mostess" and this one at "Annie's Eats."

Our invitation looked almost identical to the ones at "Annie's Eats" except we changed the wording a little, since it was Noah's first birthday.

I used my Silhouette cutting machine and Jason glued all the pieces together.  The invitation read

"It's hard to believe Noah is already turning one! 

Come one, come all, and join in the fun! 

Whether it rains or if it is sunny, we will have lots of good fun that is funny! 

You should not, would not want to miss a birthday celebration quite like this."


The color scheme was similar to that in "The Cat in the Hat."  All decorations were red, white and aqua.  I used a big piece of red and white polka-dotted fabric that I purchased at JoAnn's Fabric as a tablecloth for the food table.

I also purchased red and white vintage paper straws online.

Dr. Seuss books were placed around the house as part of the decor.

We served food inspired by Dr. Seuss books including Green (deviled) eggs and ham and cheese sliders (which were absolutely delicious!)  You can find the recipe for the ham sliders here at "Annie's Eats."  

We also served "Oodles of Noodles" (Pasta Salad)

The dessert table featured Oreo truffles, which were not inspired by a Dr. Seuss book but are incredible and were gone in less than 15 minutes.

In addition to the Oreo truffles, the dessert table also had Pink Ink Yink Drink (Lemonade punch),

Truffala Tree Cupcakes (cotton candy on pretzels for the trees),

the Cat in the Hat Cake & Strawberries on sticks (dipped in white chocolate and blue sprinkles).

For favors, guests received "WhoFoo Fluff on a Stick" (marshmallows dipped in blue white chocolate and sprinkles and wrapped in cellophane).  These were tied with a string and a note was attached that read:

"Today was good, today was fun!  Thank you, thank you, everyone!"

Imani and I made big tissue balls to hang over the dessert table in red, white and aqua (I should have removed the bronze wall hangings . . . oops!)

Noah wore a "One Fish Two Fish" shirt that we found at Target.

I made his party hat using my Silhouette machine.

I also made his birthday banner using the Silhouette.

We made a timeline highlighting pictures from Noah's first year.

There was a table set up that had Dr. Seuss' "Happy Birthday to You" book for guests to write a little birthday message to Noah that he can look back on when he is older.

We only played one game, which was to guess the number of blue gumballs and red sweedish fish in jars.  The winners got to take the candies home with them.

Overall, the party was a lot of fun.  There is so much you can do with a Dr. Seuss theme and it was hard to narrow down all the ideas online.

Most of all, I think we discovered that Noah loves being the center of attention!  I was nervous about how he would sit still opening all of the presents, but he enjoyed every bit of it:

Trying on his first camo hat and making faces for the camera,

and hugging bears in a book.

He especially enjoyed when everyone sang to him and he got to eat his  Truffala Tree cupcake!

He even shared with his sister!

Happy Birthday Noah!

New Toys

I never did tell you how great my birthday was.

Not only did I get to go out to dinner with two of my favorite people in the whole world, but they got me an awesome gift too.  You can imagine my excitement when I opened one of my presents and it was this box!

This is a huge step up for me.  I've been working with a little Nikon CoolPix point and shoot camera for the past year.  Half of my time was spent deleting photos and retaking them because the camera I had was
so awful!

This amazing camera is not only a great gift for blogging, but it's going to be great for capturing memories of our baby and Imani too.  I remember when we got married and our pastor gave us a few pieces of advice.  His first piece of advice was to invest in a good camera to capture memories.  We finally listened.

(If you missed our DIY wedding, you can read about it here.)

I have no idea what I'm doing with photography so I am excited and nervous to learn. 
Any suggestions from those of you who own DSLR cameras is certainly welcome! 

I'd also love website suggestions, blog article links, book titles or anything else that would help me to learn this foreign language of photography!

As if this gift wasn't enough to keep me busy, tonight this arrived in the mail:

I haven't even taken it out of the box yet. 
I'm a little overwhelmed by these two pieces of technology to be honest!

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I won this from a giveaway at Beneath My Heart a few weeks ago.

(If you don't follow me on Twitter, get with the program! All the cool people are doing it :-)  Just click the link in the top right of my blog).

I am so excited to learn how to use this fancy schmancy little Silhouette machine that I can hardly stand it.  If I wasn't pregnant and didn't need all my time off for my baby, I'd be taking a vacation day (or two) just to play with my two new toys!



Today's the Day!

Yes, it's the day that Verizon FINALLY will be offering the iphone 4, although I'm still not sure I'll be  getting it because now I'm addicted to my Droid, but you never know.

But today is also the day my parents brought me into this world more than 30 years ago :-)

Don't ask me why I have a Mohawk . . . My parents swear they didn't cut my hair that way but it does

look awfully straight, doesn't it?

In celebration of all things Stephenie, I am going to list 25 random facts about myself

(because really, I still feel like I'm 25).

1. I am a HUGE chocolate lover. I consider it a food group and eat at least one piece every day.

2. I played basketball, softball (and soccer briefly) in high school.

3. I originally went to college to be a journalist.

4. Then switched to teaching

5. And somehow ended up in sales.

6. I am always thinking of opening my own business.

7. Before I met Jason, I was a single mom -- an experience that gave me
more strength than I ever thought I had.

8. I prefer natural, unmedicated childbirth but I don't judge those who choose medication.

9. I am seven and a half month's pregnant with a little boy, who is still nameless.

10. I've always wanted to learn to downhill ski.

11. I loved to roller skate as a kid (my best childhood friend Jennifer and I RULED the roller skating floor with our backward skate!)

12. I have one older sister whom I adore.

13. I secretly want to stay home instead of work but I have a good gig and have trouble giving it up.

14. I love to read, but don't read as much as I'd like.

15. I'm an avid knitter.

16. I won a Home and Careers Award in the eighth grade
 (but I wasn't really crafty until I was inspired by magazines and blogs).

17. My husband and I love to work out and eat fairly clean
(except during this pregnancy and my chocolate each day:-)

18. I'm very social and like to host parties.

19. I love shoes.  They are my favorite part of any outfit.

20.   I like to dress up and wear make up.

21. I wish I were a morning person and have tried on several occasions to make myself one without success.

22. I believe in God

23. I tell my daughter not to wake me up before 10 am on weekends
(which will quickly come to an end once the baby is born!). It doesn't mean I sleep until 10 every weekend,
but the rule is in place in case I want to! 

I cannot believe I just shared that. 

Yes, I'm spoiled.

24. I don't really watch television but often wish I could get more into it
so I wouldn't feel out of the loop!

25.  I'm lucky. I win a lot of random things.

Thanks for letting me share 25 things about myself with you on my special day.

I hope you'll eat something chocolate today.

Birthday Wrap Up

It was a busy weekend celebrating Imani's 10th Birthday.

I kicked off celebrations with the birthday mantel.  If you missed it, click here.

Imani wanted to have a Justin Bieber themed birthday sleep over this year.  I don't know what possessed me to say yes to a sleep over when I'm seven and a half month's pregnant, but I did.

There wasn't much sleep in this house over the weekend and it took me a couple of days to recover.

I didn't go crazy with decorations this year, like I have in year's past.

Like the time we turned our entire basement into Hogwarts from Harry Potter to host Imani's seventh birthday.

Or the time we drew out all of the Spongebob characters for Imani's eighth birthday.

Instead, I let Imani decorate by hanging up a bunch of Justin Bieber posters in the dining room.

I was so proud of myself for not going through and straightening them behind her.

We played some JB games (trivia, hot potato, word search), and there was a whole lot of singing "Baby"

over

and over

and over. 

I wasn't sure Jason was going to last, but he ended up retreating to the office nook and searching for coupons.   I think it's become somewhat therapeutic. 

No, I'm not joking.

We ended up having two parties -- one for family and one for friends, so naturally we had two cakes.

Imani wanted a Justin Bieber cake, and I was at a loss for how to make one.

She had written Justin Bieber a letter about a month ago inviting him to her party and told all of her friends that he just might show up, even though I prepared her that it was unlikely.


So Jason and I thought it would be fun to use a little photoshop to make it look like Imani and Justin did, in fact, meet.  We had the image scanned onto a cake at our local grocery store and surprised Imani with the cake for her sleepover.

Some of the girls thought he actually did come over before they got there because apparently, they hadn't heard of photoshop. 

Of course there was a lot of debate over who would get the slice that had JB's head on it. 

The birthday girl won.

For her family party, I decided I'd attempt to make a guitar cake, since Imani loves music so much.

I used the book "Cakes for Kids" that my sister in law bought for Imani last year. It's written by Matthew Mead and is filled with a ton of wonderful, creative cakes. 

I found this guitar cake that didn't look too complicated.

Imani said she wanted her guitar cake to be blue and purple (JB's favorite colors, of course). 


I'm no master at cake decorating by any means, but the cake looked like a guitar, so I was pleased.



Here are a few of the cakes I've made for her in the past.

Elmo:

Barney and Friends

Camping Cake (one of my personal favorites):

And Spongebob Squarepants

With another birthday successfully behind us, I can now start to focus on the millions of other projects I have in my brain like

decorating for Valentine's day

refinishing our bedroom furniture

decorating the nursery

and

finding creative storage solutions in this tiny Cape to prepare for all of the baby stuff.

You Made Me a Mom

Although it is you who will unwrap gifts tonight after dinner,

it is I who received the best gift I could have ever dreamed of 10 years ago today.

You made me a mom.

Although it is you who is only ten and is discovering the world through innocent eyes,

you open my eyes to the  beauty around me that  I would otherwise overlook

because of the "busyness" of adulthood.

You made me a mom.

Although it is you who thanks me when I take care of you when you're sick or

when I ease your worrying little mind,

it is I who should thank you for teaching me

selflessness and self-sacrifice.

You made me a mom.

Although it is you who earns each and every "A" in school

high points in basketball

or praise for your musical abilities,

it is I who equally feels joy and pride.

You made me a mom.

Although it is you who sheds tears from time to time because of the cruelties of the world,

It is mine whose heart aches and wants to shelter you from pain.

You made me a mom.

Although it is you who thinks I am so smart and I have so much to teach you,

it is you who have taught me

unconditional love

forgiveness

kindness

innocence

honesty

self-respect

pride

selflessness.

You made me a mom.

Happy 10th birthday Imani.

I love you to the moon and back.

More than the stars in the sky

More than the sand at the beach

More than the grass on the ground

More than all the snow in Fulton. :-)

Thank you for making me a mom.