Adalyn's 2nd Birthday Party

Addie turned two on on Monday, January 21st.  Because her birthday fell on a Monday this year, we decided to open a few gifts and go out to dinner with our immediate family.  Just before leaving the house for dinner we let Addie open a few gifts.

How sweet does she look here!

 

One of her gifts from us was a small train set from IKEA.  She loves the train set she got for Christmas and I had bought this about a month before Christmas hoping she would like it.

Hands down, one of the best gifts you can give your kid is a train set.  They love it!

Dinner was a Red Robin (Yummmm!) and Addie had a corn dog & broccoli.  Her appetite is finally starting to come out.  

Anticipating the birthday sundae coming her way!

Look at her face!  She didn't eat all this, of course she shared with mommy!

It was a great night with really fabulous food.  When is it not good there?

I wanted to keep the decorations & party as a whole very simple.  So we did balloons & flowers.

The mantle needed a little sprucing up as well.  So again, some balloons & an easy to make banner (scrapbook paper, sharpie, hole puncher, ribbon).

And now to the cake.  This took me a little longer than I expected it would but it was worth it!

The cake was a 6" three tiered white cake.  The top is the number 2.  I just sketched out the number on poster board and then wrapped it with saran wrap.  Place it on the cake and carefully sprinkle with sprinkles!

And here is the hidden surprise inside!  Hidden circles!

This was the time consuming part.  I used a cake pop maker and used a box of white cake mix with fun food coloring.  It turned out awesome!  Follow this tutorial.

Here are the desserts.  I made the cake and cupcakes.  The cupcakes didn't turn out the way I had hoped so I probably wouldn't make them again.  They tasted fine but aesthetically just didn't come together well.

Somehow I completely missed capturing a picture of the food table.  I'm really disappointed in myself for that.  The food was awesome!

Next up was "Happy Birthday" where Addie looked like this.

Everyone singing and she's a bit confused.

We didn't practice blowing out a candle and surprisingly she knew exactly what to do.

Keep blowing...

Eventually she blew it out and got to chow down.

She loved it, what kid doesn't though.

Present time!

Uncle Zack helped pass her gifts around.  Lots of great clothes (needed!) and toys, books, etc.

A new mini four wheeler for up at Grandma & Papa's house.

And a new slide.

Let's wrap it up with one of my favorite shots of the day.

So hungry for cake.  Why use the fork?

Such a perfect day for a party and everything turned out really well, besides not getting a picture of the food, or of Addie, Rick and me together.  Maybe we should reenact that.

Happy Birthday sweet Addie!

-stephanie

Mommy Moment

My now two year old is beginning to show her personality more and more every day.  From her terrible sleep schedule to her sweet moments. A couple days ago I captured this image.

I walked into the living room and heard Addie softly saying, "hold hands".  My heart melted.  She looks like such a mommy here and it makes me even happier because she obviously picked that up from our parenting.  She loves holding hands and is mothering her babies so well.

-stephanie

Frustrations

I read another blog pretty regularly called Young House Love.  It's one of my favorite blogs because I get a lot of inspiration for home projects from John & Sherry.  They have a daughter named Clara who is about 2 1/2 who seems like the sweetest baby.  Every post about Clara is her smiling or being adorably  cute and independent.  I've read YHL for years and ever since Clara was born, I've been waiting for a post about Clara having an off day.  Day after day I would read and when the post was related to Clara I waited for it.  And day after day, it didn't come.  Then finally one day a post related to blogger questions came up and reader asked about Clara's disposition.  J&S mentioned, though Clara is generally a very happy child, she occasionally has her meltdowns or hard days.  I'll be honest, I was happy to hear that.

I'm happy to hear when other people have a tough time with their toddlers because my has daily meltdowns. She doesn't like hearing no and is constantly pushing buttons (literally and figuratively).  The word "no" to her is like a dare, a double dog dare.  The most difficult though is her sleep.

Addie's never been a good sleeper.  When we first brought her home from the hospital, we were instructed to wake her every 3 hours until she was back to birth weight.  Looking back, this may have been our first bad move.  Addie was born at almost 8 lbs and we should have just let her sleep if she was sleeping.  Yes, I was nursing so it was important that she didn't wake completely starving for her frustration as well as my supply, but we didn't need to wake her.  That may have been when we set in motion her bad sleeping.

At 13 months, she finally slept through the night.  From 9 to 7, it was great.  But then around 16 months she hit a sleep regression and started waking in the middle of the night.  She would eventually put herself to sleep but she was no longer consistently sleeping through.  Closer to 20 months she was sleeping through again but would wake at 6:30, then it moved to 6, then 5:30, and just last night she woke at 5am.  That was after waking at 2am as well.  My two year old is still not sleeping through the night.

It's rough, it's very hard.  I've maybe had a good nights sleep 10 times over the past 2 years.  That's 10 out of the last 730 sleeps which equates to about 1%.  I'm telling you this because not everyone has a great sleeper.  I don't, she's a terrible sleeper.  It's not easy at all.  This morning at 5am when she woke and screamed for 45 minutes straight, calling out "mama, are you?" trying to get me out of bed to come get her, I laid in bed and thought, this is the worst.  No sleep makes me cranky but hearing her scream for 45 minutes is painful.  I get anxious and think, should I get out of bed and get her?  No, don't do that because that's not going to help her future sleep pattern.  So I laid in bed, awake for 45 minutes listening to hear her scream and sob uncontrollably.

When I left the house this morning around 7:30, she was still sleeping.  Yes, she had spent about an hour in the middle of the night awake, but maybe this will help things.  Maybe, by us being more strict and not bringing her into bed with us, this will teach her that she needs to learn to sleep in her bed.  And just maybe, one day I'll sleep past 7am on the weekend.

I didn't intend for this post to be depressing or boring for any of you to read.  I wrote it because it's the truth.  Parenting is amazing, you get to watch your child grow and learn every day.  You get little baby kisses and hugs and she walks up to you and holds your hand or runs her fingers through your hair because it comforts her.  But it's also really hard work, it can be frustrating and exhausting.  I think we need to be truthful with each other and use other parents as a source to vent and talk about our experiences so we don't feel like we're the only ones experiencing the tough times.

-stephanie

Review & Giveaway: Yummi Pouch

If you're a mom, you know about food pouches.  You know the ones, they're great for quick, healthy snacks that you can easily grab and toss into your diaper bag.  They're amazing, but they can also get a little pricey.  Addie has always been a fan of these pouches and they've been a great way for us to guarantee she gets in her veggies.   So when I found Yummi Pouch I was in love.  Pouches I can reuse and know exactly what's going into them!

Yummi Pouch is a product encouraging families with young children to bring healthy snacks with them wherever they go. Our reusable squeeze pouches provide a way for kids to eat on-the-go without the mess of using a spoon. They are dishwasher friendly, freezer friendly, BPA-free, and phthalate-free.

Yummi Pouch has lots of great recipe options for you to choose from on their site to get you started but then when you're comfortable you can make your own recipes!  I had some fresh cantaloupe, strawberries and spinach on hand so I decided to make that combo for Addie to try first!

Spinach, Cantaloupe & Strawberries

3 cups chopped cantaloupe

1 cup strawberries

1 cup frozen spinach

Toss it in your blender and puree until smooth.  This makes about 33 ounces which is perfect for your 6 - 6oz pouches!  Then toss your pouches into the fridge until you're ready to use!

Yummi Pouches are perfect for the on the go family and priced perfectly at $14.99 for 6 pouches!  You'll never have to buy those other store pouches again and you know what you're feeding your kids!  The Yummi Pouch is reusable, refillable & resealable!  They're even dishwasher safe if you're like me and hate to hand wash anything!

Giveaway  The great people of Yummi Pouch are offering my readers the chance to win their own set of 6 Yummi Pouches!  And not one, but two of my readers will win!

How to Enter  Just follow the instructions in the Raffelcopter widget below.  Make sure you complete the first task as it is a mandatory task.  Once you complete the mandatory task, all other tasks are optional but do increase your chances to win!  The giveaway is open to US & Canadian residents and will close at midnight on Sunday, February 3, 2013.  Good Luck!

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Addie's Birthday Decorations - Year 2

With all of my pinning invitations, food, and desserts, the decoration ideas I was finding was falling into place nicely.  So here are a few things I'm thinking about for Saturday.  

Paper Lanterns

Balloons throughout the party

Confetti for the tables

Happy Birthday Banner

Confetti Garland

Yes I know, the party is tomorrow and I haven't started working on the decorations.  Don't you worry, I'm going to be busy tonight!  I'm excited to see how it all comes together because I don't have a set plan.  

In case you missed my posts earlier this week, you can read about the invitations, food, and desserts. I can't wait to post next week about all of her party details!

-stephanie

Addie's Birthday Desserts - Year 2

The best part of any party is the dessert.  Am I right or am I right?  Last year I went all out with a dessert table and though I'd love to do this again, we're trying to keep it small and simple.  So this year, I'm only doing a cake, cupcakes and some cookies.  Last year I made a single 6" cake for Addie's smash cake and this year I'm making a 6" cake but three tiers and a surprise in side.  Check it out.

Surprise Circle Cake

Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Mint Marshmallow Frosting

The last is iced sugar cookies.  I can't share the link because it's a family recipe and my mom would kill me if I did share.  I'll be cutting out the cookies in the shape of the number 2.  Last year I made rice krispie treats in the shape of a number one so the numbered food/dessert will become a theme in our house.

Sounds awesome right?  I cannot wait to see how the cake turns out and to eat those cupcakes!

Tomorrow is all about decorations.  You can read about the invitations here and party food here.

-stephanie

Addie's Birthday Party Food - Year 2

Yesterday I showed you the awesome invitations I was able to create pretty quickly.  I also mentioned that the theme is following the "circle" theme so my food is going to follow that to an extent.  I don't have time to get all crazy with a menu all being comprised of circle type items but some of the menu items will.  So here's a breakdown on what I'll be making:

Sweet Jelly Meatballs

Pizza Cups

Trader Joe's Hummus Dip & Pita Chips

Chicken Enchilada Dip Roll Ups

Revved Up Chile Con Queso

Veggie Pizza

I can't wait to eat all this good food!  

Desserts coming tomorrow!

-stephanie