Winter ONEderland

For J's first birthday we had a Winter ONEderland party! With a winter birthday (Feb. 15th to be exact) it seemed like an obvious choice. We had the party in a church fellowship hall so I didn't have much to work with. I knew that I wanted penguins and lots of them!

I found these ADORABLE penguins from Gwynn Wasson Designs on Etsy. They are on corrugated cardboard with a stand. For $29.99 you got four of these little dudes.  And did I mention they were ADORABLE? We also used Gwynn Wasson designs for the invitations.

 

Every month on the 15th, I took a picture of J so I wanted to display them at the party. I created a banner with each month, including newborn, up until his 11th month. I clipped each picture onto red and white polka dot ribbon with a small clothes pin and I hung the pictures over the food tables. I found both the penguin and the snowflake clipart on Google. 

On the food table I added a diy snowman. The snowman is made from fishbowls that I painted and super-glued together.The hat was a mini St. Patrick's day from the Dollar Store that I painted black.

We had J's party at 11:00 so we served lunch. We served chili and tomato soup with toppings and grilled cheese sandwiches. We also had veggie trays on each of the tables. Along with the veggie trays we had centerpieces with the same penguin and snowflake clipart in a vase that I painted with blue mod podge.I then wrapped red and white chevron ribbon around the vase and hot glued a snowflake on.

Behind where I wanted J to be for cake and presents there was a large mirror on the wall. One of my besties took two different colored streamers, twisted them and taped them over the mirror so that there wouldn't be flash in the pictures. We also hot glued some snowflakes on the streamers and put some blue twinkle lights on the present table.

The last piece to this party was J's shirt! I ordered him a personalized penguin birthday shirt from Pocketbaby. So cute!

 

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These are some of my favorite pictures from the day! Happy Birthday baby boy!

time to eat!

the birthday boy!

the boy and his penguin

mmmm cake!

blow out your candle!

so good! and so silly!

happy 1st birthday!

 

Hello big boy!

Hello Mr. Slept Through The Night!  From 9:30 to 6:15!

We are going to MU!

After weeks of trying to figure out what we should be for Halloween we finally decided! We are going to be Mike,  Sully and one of the PNK sorority girls from Monster's University!  So far we have one costume finished!  I bought the shirt at Hobby Lobby as well as the felt to make the face. I used fabric glue to glue the face on. I can't wait to see it all together on Halloween!

On the night you were born

Oh baby J. Your entrance to to the world was filed with so many ups and downs!  On February 14th your daddy and I drove through the icy roads to get to the hospital for our 6am induction.

The view from our apartment window!

 After answering the same questions over and over again and having blood drawn the nurses started the pitocin. All day your family waited for you to arrive. By 7pm nothing was happening so the doctor let me eat and everyone (except your daddy's best friend) went home.

 

 They started the medicine back up at midnight. The next day was more of the same. Around 5pm on the 15th, Dr.J came in and decided it was time for a c-section.

Just a few hours later you were born! They played your song at 7:11 p.m. on February 15th.  You weighed 7lbs 7oz and were 20in long. Watch out world!

Yankee Candle Village!

Magic.

Delicious.

Home.

Magic. It snows here every five minutes. Santa shows up at all times of the year. There is a giant Christmas tree and a miniature Christmas village. There are polar bears and penguins and a giant nutcracker.

Delicious. Popcorn. Candy apples. Fudge. Candy.

Home. The smell of Macintosh apples, strawberry pie, harvest wreaths, peppermint,  candy canes, Christmas, summer nights,  spring showers. All the seasons wrapped up into one candle.

Yankee Candle Village,  Williamsburg,  Virginia.

Howl-O-Scream!

Hey y'all! It's Fall!

One of my favorite things about Fall is going each year to Busch Gardens Williamsburg Howl-O-Scream! My family has been going since I was in high school which was only a few years ago ;) This year was extra special because I got to introduce baby J to Howl-O-Scream! He has been to Busch Gardens once before in the summer but he slept most of the time. 

At BG over the summer.

Playing in Dragon Land Summer 2014.

This time he is almost eight months old and enjoys being out and people watching. We went up to Williamsburg the night before and spent the night at a hotel so Saturday morning we could be up and ready to go the park opened. The process of going anywhere for any amount of time with a little one takes forever. After making sure we had the stroller, diaper bag with a million different outfit changes, blankets, socks, food, and a sippy cup we were finally ready to start our day!

Highlights from our day!

Oh hey pumpkin baby!

Watching Pet Shenanigans!

On baby J's first ride!

Conversing with the pirate!

On the sky bucket with Aunt Kelsey!

I'm back!

After a very long hiatus, I have decided to come back to the world of blogging! So much has changed in a year! The biggest change? I am now a mom! I still cannot believe that I am responsible for this tiny humans life!

J and me at the state fair!