Color Party Decor: A Tutorial

We had a ton of fun at the annual Bankey/Piedfort/Lux Birthday Bash, and me being the big nerd that I am, I had a lot of fun setting it up. I'm obsessed with Pinterest (duh), and love looking at cool party themes for kids.  I pulled a bunch of ideas straight from Pinterest, and put them together using stuff I already had in my house along with some paint chips from Home Depot.  The cost for all the decorations was $0. :) 

The paint chips were free, I already had the string, and I already had orange and blue cups, neon pink utensils, and green napkins from previous get-togethers. Look through the pictures below to see the area labels, the 'come on in' sign for the front door, and (my favorite) the utensil holders.

 Area Labels

No matter what party I host, I have to have stations.  There is a food area, drink area, and usually a gaming area.  Therefore, the nerd in me must label them.  I saw these on Pinterest and copied.  Take paint chips from your local hardware store (go someplace you shop regularly so you don't feel guilty), then use a die cutter to cut out the letters.  Make sure the you keep all the paint chips in the same orientation so you don't have alternating color patterns.

Lay down your letters upside down and backwards so you can tape string across the back of each letter.  I used color coordinated string from my sewing kit, but you could pick string that matches your wall color so that its hidden and the letters seem to float.

You can see that I made a sign for the driveway (Birthday Bash), the drinks area, the outdoor games area, and food line (noms).  For those of you who don't know, 'noms' means food.  It's an internet thing.  Look it up. :)

Utensil Holders

I flipped out when I saw these on Pinterest!  The idea is soooo cute!  You take two of the same paint chips, put them back-to-back, and stick them together.  The Pinterest one was actually sewn on three sides, but I didn't feel like sewing 20 holders.  I went old school and stapled them. I think it worked just fine, but didn't look nearly as snazzy.  Then I put a napkin, fork, knife, and spoon in each one.  The guests thought they were so cute.

'Come On In' Sign

We have three yappy, annoying dachshunds.  We love them, but they looooove to bark, so every gathering we host we have to let people know to come on in. No knocking. No door bell.  Just come on in. I put this together from scrapbook sheets and used a colorful marker to write 'come on in'.  Then I started doodling.  Biiiiiig mistake.  I can't draw, and it looked awful.  Then I let Corgan go at it with a bunch of crayons, and that made it cute.  Stuck it on the door with rolled painters tape so that I didn't risk the new paint job.  Worked like a charm.

Since this was a party for adults I left the decor at this.  It would be easy to 'upgrade' this to a kids party by adding a bunch of crepe paper streamers and balloons! They would have so much fun with all the color!

Bankey/Piedfort/Lux Birthday Bash!

Last weekend we celebrated our annual Bankey/Piedfort/Lux Birthday Bash.  My dad's birthday is on June 22, and mine is on June 26.  For as long as I can remember, my family has always had a big dinner celebration for the both of us to celebrate.  (I got the princess parties to myself later on :) ).  In college, I started dating my future husband and found out that his birthday is on June 22 as well.  Icing on the cake? The man who introduced the two of us (a.k.a. Stuart's best friend) was also born on June 22! Did you follow all of that?  My dad, my husband, and our best friend are all born on the 22nd, and I'm born on the 26th.  Therefore, we have all celebrated together with a big family cook out each June.  I even tried to get pregnant with Corgan at a time when she would be born in June, but she had other ideas :)

Corgan helped me set up for the party by assembling the Ladderball game.  She is quite the genius child.  The connectors gave her a little trouble, but the piping system went together like a breeze! We didn't end up playing the game, but it was fun spending time with her.

The Grandmas (and Gigi) spent most of their time loving on the Little One.  She's been slightly under the weather, and she tends to get shy around big groups, so she did a lot of quiet sitting.

My child will never want for attention.  Yes, this is my dad, mom, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and family friend all staring at my child. Keep in mind, Corgan was still in the 'sitting there' phase of the day, so it was riveting.

 We busted into the cake, and Corgan perked up a little after that.  What won't wake you up like a sugar rush mixed with Tylenol :)

Corgan's Uncle Dude (my brother), got a small celebration as well.  My parents just got back from a trip to Yosemite, and they couldn't pass up the 'Endangered Feces' shirt that pictures different types of scat.

All in all, we had a great time.  We all ate waaaaaay too much, and we laughed a lot as well.  Poor Philip even crashed out on the loft with one of Corgan's fluffy monkey pillows.  I have officially thrown a party where someone passes out! Yeah!

Sick Kiddo

Last week on Wednesday I got the call from daycare that no mom ever wants to get, "Corgan has a fever. Can you come pick her up?"  However, we're pretty lucky, because Corgan never really acts sick.  She had a fever of 101.4 and looked terrible when I picked her up, and she even threw up for the first time on the way home (but I'll save you the details).  I gave her Tylenol as soon as I got home, and within 20 minutes, she was happy as a clam.

My Little One and me watching Blue's Clues while we were waiting for the meds to kick in.

The next morning was a joy. She had a tiny bit of a fever when she woke up, but more Tylenol nipped that in the bud.  Then we spent the morning outside (me weeding, her playing), and cleaning up the house.  It was all wonderful until 11:15.  That's right. I remember it to the minute.  We were in her bathroom, and she was picking things out of one of her drawers.  She found a bottle of rubbing alcohol, which I promptly took away from her.  That started a 75 minute scream fest!  She became hysterical, and no matter what, she wouldn't calm down! I almost feel bad sharing this video, because it makes me feel awful that I couldn't calm her down. I realize now that it wasn't me, and that she was just tired. But it wasn't fun at the time (except for right around the minute mark of this video):

After 60 minutes of this, without me being able to calm her down, I put her in her crib.  I remember my mom telling me, that if all else fails, put her down.  Let her cry it out.  She'll be fine.  It took 15 more minutes of screaming for her to cam down enough that she wasn't making the lights on the monitor go haywire.  She was just sitting up, staring into space, trying not to fall asleep. I caught this next video of awesomeness while she was trying not to go to sleep.  Watch closely and you'll see her continuously nodding off bit by bit. It's so cool:

She slept for 4 hours!!! She woke up starving, and in much better spirits. We finished the day off well, and she went down an hour later than normal without a peep. A few more days home with Tylenol and mommy-love made her all better.  She is back at daycare as of today, and all is well.

In Memory

Friday was a sad day for our household, and for many of our friends.  One of Stuart's good friends, who he has worked with for the past few years at Rackspace, lost his 2 year old daughter. It was completely unexpected.

I am writing this with tears streaming down my face as I watch Corgan play on the loft.  The gift she is in my life in immeasurable, and I can't imagine what it would be like to lose her. I am not one to ask for prayers, but when I do, I ask them from the bottom of my heart.  Please pray for Violet's family; pray for healing; pray for remembrance; pray for understanding.  We can never know why things like this happen, but we can be comforted in the arms of our loved ones and in the arms of God. 

I also ask that if you are able, please give some money to the family: click here.  Friends and family are helping to cover the cost of the funeral and medical expenses in order to ease a small part of the pain.  I know you may not know Violet's family, but think of your own children.  My heart tears open each time I imagine them saying goodbye to their tiny little girl.  Thank you for your prayers. I'm off to go hug my own child, and I suggest you go hug yours.

Foodie Friday: Lemon Shrimp Pasta

I told you I love getting in my food magazines.  It always tends to inspire me to cook something wonderful.  This week it backfired.  The recipe I'm sharing is the one we should've done.  Ours turned out pretty bland and we did ours in the oven, when we totally should've used the grill.

Lemon Shrimp Pasta

1 lb shrimp

1/2 stick butter

3 cloves garlic

1/2 pkg spaghetti noodles

1 pkg baby spinach

toasted pine nuts

lemon juice

salt and pepper

Bring the butter to room temperature and add the chopped garlic, some lemon juice, salt, and pepper.  Stir in the shrimp and let it marinate for a few hours in the fridge.  This will help with the flavor and blandness that we experienced.  We then steamed ours in foil pouches in the oven, but what you should do is put them on skewers and grill them! It would be luscious!  Boil the spaghetti, and two minutes until they are done add the spinach.  While the pasta is cooking, toast the pine nuts.  Toss everything together when the shrimp comes off the grill and season with salt and pepper. 

Accident Prone Corgan

Anyone who knows me understands that I am a walking bruise.  I move way too fast, and am way to clumsy, to exist any other way.  I am constantly walking into things, tripping, knocking my elbow on stuff, tripping, bumping, bonking... you get the point.  My offspring is the same way.

You may remember her first bad boo boo when she hit her head/eye on the corner of the book shelf.

Well, it's been a steady stream of boo boos and ouches since then.  She runs everywhere (and usually on tip toe, which doesn't help her balance), and is normally not looking in the direction she is going. My favorite is when she is running on tip toe, has her head back while drinking from a sippy cup, and is looking behind her.  Not a great combo. You can see the mark the corner of our wall left across her eye after this experiment in physics.

 However, you can tell that she's not too phased by it... What a trooper!

A Day at the Pool

Wow.  My 'Blog Interactive' idea totally backfired! I got one comment, and it said 'write everything.' I guess I have to burst through my writer's block/un-inspiration on my own :(  It's all good.  I'm feeling slightly eloquent today (not!).  I figure that I'll just go down my brainstorm list from my blog on Monday and see how far I get.  Today? A day at the pool...

One of the reasons we bought our house was because it is two blocks from our community pool.  We live on a quiet cul-de-sac, but we're sooo close to all the action. The other day we got all ready, covered Baby Girl in sun screen, and headed over to the pool.  We hadn't been since last summer, so we really didn't know how Corgan was going to react.

She was a little tentative at first (thanks for the swim suit Nana), but eventually we dragged her in.  She loooooves the bath, so we figured she would love the pool, but I don't think she enjoyed the water too much.

The little bit that she was in the water she was giggling and smiling.

But she really wanted to be out on deck wandering around.  This of course made me way more nervous that it should, but I know my kid. She is a dare devil and gets hurt all the time. Her favorite activity at the pool was trying to climb up and down the uber-slippery stairs to the bathroom. Not a whole bunch of fun for the parents, but she enjoyed it.

It didn't take too long before she was ready to go home (after stopping for a 'nack of graham crackers).  We had her in swim diapers, so it was really weird to see her in a normal diaper. I'm so used to seeing the cloth diapers that it was an odd relief.

All in all it was a fun afternoon.  It will be a definite repeat the next time Stuart and I can make it down together.  With his final semester of grad school in full swing it might be awhile.  Maybe the Grandmas can help out........