My Fishermen

After another rough day of not feeling well, I woke up from a little nap to find my boys gone and a hint as to what they might be up to. Caleb got a fishing rod from Brian's parents for Easter and has been asking to go fishing ever since. An empty fishing rod container lying next to me was my hint. A quick call to confirm and you couldn't keep me away. I grabbed my camera and it totally warmed my heart to drive up and see my dudes with their lawnchairs, feeding the ducks and playing with their new toy.

And guess what! We caught a fish!!! Oh yes we did! Caleb was jumping out of his skin with excitement! While Brian got the hook loose our dude got a close up look and felt its scales. He was the one to throw it back in the water too and we all cheered as it swam away. A very exciting day. It might not win any awards in the size category but it is our dude's first catch. Momentous!

The fish. Our mighty prize!

Trying to catch birds with his net.

He is a very persistent little dude...

Our Fourth

I hope and pray that you all had a wonderful Fourth of July! Ours was fun and special despite its imperfections. One of the blogs I read talked recently about embracing things not always being perfect, not always turning out just right every time. And our fourth certainly qualifies as an imperfect post. I was in excruciating pain the night before so I woke up well aware that I would not be able to do the themed breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus fun activities and decoration and the whole nine yards. I so want to get back to the point where I can make a whole day out of it. But for now, we took it slow!

Last July 4th Caleb got to wake up with his friends Trevor and Tatum and eat a fun red, white and blue breakfast before they were picked up by their parents. This year we got to wake up with their baby brother Trey! He was the perfect houseguest...so quiet and peaceful. Caleb relished the opportunity to take care of him and we all got a kick out of how much he loved our ceiling fan. Brian got to sleep in so I spent a wonderful early morning with two of my favourite dudes!

Keeping in mind my limitations I set about to make a fun patriotic lunch. This is where the imperfection really kicks in. I wanted to make Rocket Dogs for my men, but not having done them before, I think I used too much dough. Plus, their disinclination to yummies like mustard took away fun decorations. But guess what. Caleb loved them! He asks for them every day. So imperfect or not, I still made his day. I also made some marshmallow treats that looked like Eagle heads. Again, my dudes don't like coconut, so I improvised.

After a very leisurely day we headed over to Castle Hills at 5pm for Caleb's first parade and some bounce house fun. Unlike so many Independence Days, it did not hit 100 degrees this year and it was somewhat tolerable to venture outdoors! We did take the dude home to bed but put him in the car and woke him up for the fireworks. Boy does that child love fireworks. They started WAY later than they were supposed to, but the wait turned out to be worthwhile...especially when the sprinklers in the field next to ours went off and caught a lot of spectators off guard! So funny y'all! One poor guy had his chair positioned right over the sprinkler head. Caleb thought the squeals were quite entertaining. And yes, we did move our chairs off the field after that.

Happy Belated Fourth Loved Ones!

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