Number One Daddy

I can't gush over Brian enough. He is a great Dad. Case in point:

Occasionally Caleb will wake up in the morning to find something like this to make him giggle. Brian really enjoys coming up with gimicks like this before he turns in for the night.

And who else but Brian would allow their four year old son to give him a haircut?

We love you Brian!

Cute as a Button

Finally. The baby shower post. Promised for months and long overdue. My nephew, baby Matthew, was born last December in Las Vegas; the son of my sister and Brian's brother. My Mom and I started planning the shower when we found out about the pregnancy and got to throw the party at the beginning of March. We did Cute as a Button and had a lot of fun putting it together. Great quality time with my Mom! She hosted the event at her home, which was perfectly decorated for the occassion. I always tell my parents that their home is like a museum: lots of antiques from their parents and grandparents and neat treasures they have collected on their travels. It has the perfect vintage feel. I feel like my party planning is finally starting to equal my vision (does that make sense). I love this stuff! And my Mom is the perfect partner with excellent taste and creativity!

Caleb and his newest cousin (his twice first cousin) for the first time together!

Colleen Sosbee at Sweet Sosbee Designs does all of my invitations! She is amazing at custom work!

The baby shower was the same week as the Spring Sale for Rhea Lana's. 10-14 hour workdays do not make for happy baking...so we ordered a cake with plain white frosting from my favourite bakery, Frost It. We also ordered button chocolote molds online and made our own decorations for the cake. We had to mix some chocoloate colours to get the right shades, but we love how it turned out!

My Mom made these precious favours. Luckily the Easter M&Ms were already in stores. We just bought a few bags and picked out the green, blue and yellow ones to use...the exact right shades!

I couldn't post pictures of all of the elements at the shower, but this is an example of one of the tables we decorated. It is in my Mom's front entry and we used baby Matthew photos and some vintage toys that my Mom has kept around.

I glued some buttons and rafia onto clear plastic cups to jazz them up a bit. One cup had a green button and we had a special prize for whomever ended up with it.

One of the daisy bouquets that my Mom made. She glued buttons onto a few buds and had soothers as a cute detail. LOVE IT!

Same idea as the cake. Frost It made the super delicious cupcakes with blue frosting and we added some button chocolates. I think the effect was very charming. Angie loaned us her amazing cupcake tree and the overall look was EXQUISITE!

The buffet table.  I love how it looks. And the food was perfect and catered to the many allergies of those in attendance (lactose intolerant, gluten-free, diabetic...you name it!).

A close-up on the food table. We included baby pictures of Cara-Lee, Brandon and baby Matthew so we could all compare and see who he looks like.

We cut some ribbon with different patterns and widths to  add a little somethin'-somethin' to my Mom's coffee table. We didn't want to overdecorate and this seemed like the perfect solution. We glued a few cute buttons on the ribbons and voila! We also had a "guess how many buttons are in the jar" game.

My parent's first story was almost completely re-decorated for the shower. My Dad's statues were gone from the mantle and replaced with baby Matthew photos and cute little birds. I made the button garland out of mix-matched scrapbook paper and buttons. Very fun! This picture does not do it justice...if I can say so myself.

The gift table. It ended up very packed with precious baby things!

This is what was hanging from the light over the gift table. I love my cricket!

We also had a photo mat for everyone to sign with well-wishes for baby Matthew and his parents. It also doubled as the guest book.

And of course, Baby Matthew. Precious, precious baby Matthew.

Advice Anyone?

Okay, so I made these for Brian's cousin, who had a baby girl last October and I just now got her gift to her....I think they turned out really cute (if I can say so myself). They are cupcakes made out of baby onesies. I had to use a bigger size since I waited so long, so if I use newborn sizes they will be smaller and easier to work with. So my question is this. Do I make more and sell them at the Rhea Lana sale in August? Good idea? Bad? Are they even cute enough for that? HELP!

I made these washcloth lollipops for my sister last fall. What about these?

Happy Playdates

You should all be familiar with Trevor and Tatum. Caleb's best friends or cousins? Depends on the day, they claim to be both. It makes no difference to us. We love them and love to watch them all play together. This morning the three of them happily played and played and played. I don't remember when it started, but Caleb and Tatum have a never-ending game of puppy and owner. They play it EVERY playdate! There was lots of dressing up, puppy barking and trains choo-chooing. The best way to start the week, hands down!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

We got home from Tyler at 4:45 yesterday afternoon and our Canada Day dinner party started at 5:30pm! We totally got it done! I credit my Mom for raising me to clean the house from top to bottom before leaving for a trip (so you come home to a pristine house) and my brother for saving the day with his pasta rescue mission. Pop, Uncle Matt and the Masters came over and made Caleb's day. Last year we built up Canada Day and realized the day of the Caleb thought we were going TO Canada to celebrate. He was so bummed. So I promised him a party for this year and managed to pull off a simple, happy evening for our dude. HAPPY CANADA DAY LOVED ONES! I thought of all of my Canadian friends and family all day yesterday. You are truly missed, appreciated and loved. XOXOXO

Reunions

On Friday we packed up and headed to Tyler, Texas for the second annual Alford family reunion. We absolutely HEART Tyler. It is hilly, green and full of trees. The houses and businesses are built into the trees, unlike here where they demolish them all and then build the concrete jungle. That sounds pretty harsh, so let me clarify. We love Frisco. It is our beautiful home. We love the orderly streets, the attention to making everything bright, new and beautiful. The endless opportunities. But Tyler's beauty is different...and more green. Going to Tyler feels like going home...even though none of us were born or raised there. Brian's Aunt Pat and Uncle Royce live there and host our large gatherings; their home is a dream. A ranch style dream. We love their home. It is calm and comforting and for whatever reason reminds me of the homes of my Aunties up North. So reunion weekends in Tyler are good for our soul. This weekend was no exception.

Caleb swam and played with his cousins, never slowing down...not even to eat! Cole is ten and loves lego and Caleb thinks he is ALL THAT. And Madison, Gabriel and Sadie let Caleb tell them what to do, which put him in hog heaven. He says that he loves playing with Madison and is counting down to our trip to Waco in two weeks. Bonus: Brian bought me some more Tyler roses to fill our flowerbeds and we even found brown-eyed susans. Heaven. But last night we all sighed with relief as we pulled into our driveway..during a torrential downpour! Caleb declared that he loved "home sweet home" and we couldn't agree more!

These pictures were snapped by resident photographer Caleb. He loves nothing more than to get his hands on our camera!

Madison

Grandad

Bedtime Buddies

The ever fascinating air conditioning unit in our hotel room...

Daddy!!!

And then some more...

Man Day

As part of Brian's Father's Day gift, I signed him and Caleb up for some Build and Grow classes at our local Lowe's. They got to go and spend some amazing quality time together building an armored vehicle that they got to bring home. It is absolutely the newest of Caleb's most precious treasures. The little dude even got a Lowe's handyman apron and a badge to commemorate the day. They are signed up for the rest of July and I imagine they will keep going after that! Of course, before they set off for this, Caleb and Brian set up our new slip and slide in the backyard and spent the early morning perfecting their slipping skills. The rest of the day we played games, ate yummy food and really enjoyed our time together. Before bed Brian and I talked about our perfect family day. If anything, we hope to leave an amazing load of memories for our little dude.

(oh yes...the dudes also got into our dryer to diagnose why it is so sick...)

Father's Day

(I had this ready the afternoon of Father's Day but wanted to wait to post it until I got a picture of Brian and Caleb together....my camera battery died before I could make that happen and now it is two weeks later. The best laid plans...)


Brian. You rock. We love you more than we can say in a blog entry, a card or a gift...no matter how thoughtful and awesome it may be!!!! =)  We are grateful for you Brian. So very, very much. We love you. We cherish you. We know you are #1! xoxoxoxoxoxo

I made hamburgers and fries today. Matthew says that they are the best he has ever had. Granted they are made from cupcakes, brownies and sugar cookies.... I love Bakerella. Love, love, love Bakerella. I love that she sees something precious (or comes up with it herself) and says "I can do that!" I love that she executes it perfectly and then shares with us how she did it. I saw these and had to make it happen for Brian and my Dad. They are completely gluten-free with natural colouring. A big hit with the men in my life (Brian, the Dude, my Dad and my brother)!

Dance Baby! Dance!

After the dance off we took everyone to feed the ducks. A grand day. Perfection.