Calvin's 1st Birthday Mustache Bash!

Saturday was my baby's first birthday.

We had a party just for family at our house.

Unfortunately the weather was total crap so we had cram 21 people into our little house. It was definitely cozy but we had so much fun.

I decided to throw him a Mustache Bash, complete with fake stick-on mustaches, mustache straws,  and mustache theme chalkboard favors.

Here's the rundown:

I edited this image to remove my address and phone number which were under the RSVP.

The invitation was done by Stephanie at Pickle Noodle Boutique through Etsy.

She was awesome to work with and the invites turned out perfect.

I took the picture, sent it to her with the details of the party and she put it into the design. Then I just had them printed through Walmart. Easy.

I tried, tried, tried to take a picture of Calvin with a fake mustache for the invites, but he was NOT into that idea. I have about 40 images that look like this:

I was really hoping to have the party outside but mother nature had a different idea, so I had to adapt my outdoor decorating plan to work inside.

 Happy Birthday Banner

I put out big sheets of packing paper (from the office supplies section of Walmart) on the table and mason jars with crayons for the kiddos to draw.

The favors were little chalkboards I found at hobby lobby with mustache fabric rolls with chalk in them that I got from Mrs Crafty RVing on Etsy.

The rolls are actually crayon holders, but I thought the chalkboards were more relevent since I've documented Calvin's whole life thus far on a chalkboard, AND the colored Crayola Chalk fit perfectly in the rolls. 

Boom!

The mustache glasses are from the party supplies section at Target.

Speaking of the chalkboard...

 

I decorated the board for the occasion.

I had planned on putting it out by the front door, but it was raining (boo!) so I just leaned it against a wall inside.

The balloons are from Hobby Lobby

So I'm really into this website called Groopdealz.com . It's a daily deals website and I've gotten A LOT of super awesome things there. 

Including the silverware vinyl cut-outs below that I put on dollar store glass candle holders to make ridiculously cute and functional silverware holders that are PERFECT for parties.

 

paper straws, napkins and plates. 

I ordered these paper mustache cut outs from Sweet Party Provisions on Etsy and attached them to the straws with glue dots.

The cupcake wrappers were another groopdealz.com find.

Each pennant on the banner has a month picture of Calvin in front of his chalkboard. I really had to fight back the tears as I was making it but it was so fun to show how much he's grown and changed in the last year.

High chair decoration and Tie bib.

 If you really "mustache" I'm one! T-shirt was yet another groopdealz.com find.

Tristan and his Brother Schuyler had fun channeling Old Timey Boxers

Stick on Mustaches, but these one's are cooler.

We had a pretty awesome slider bar. Unfortunately, I was too busy to take any pictures of the food. 

Sorry.

I made homemade rolls to use as buns and we made the sliders in the oven. Then I just put out all the condiments and let people put whatever they wanted on them

There was also, BLT Pasta salad, fruit salad, Asian cabbage salad, a veggie tray and for the beverage I bought a gallon of Simply Raspberry Lemonade and added 2 liters of Sierra Mist.

It was quite delightful with a little vodka added to it... not that I'd know or anything... *ahem*...

Moving on.

Then we opened a ton of presents!

My Mustache Infinity scarf was yet ANOTHER groopdealz find, but the vendor was Retail Therapy GIRLZ and you can find their website Here.

After presents we sang Happy Birthday and let him at his cake....

I found the idea for Calvin's smash cake through Pinterest (shocker!).

I found a 6" round cake pan and cut it out like a yin-yang.

Here's a tutorial if you just can't picture it.

The cake and cupcakes were a roasted apple spice cake I found on Smittenkitchen.com with a fluffy brown sugar icing I found on iwashyoudry.com

The icing used egg whites which Calvin has had a negative reaction to in the past, so I just whipped up a quick cream cheese frosting for his cake and used some cocoa powder to make it brown.

The "cake smash" was a bit anti-climactic. 

He was content to merely stick his fingers in the frosting.

 

After we cleaned him up it was family time!

Reading his new book with my Mom, Step-dad and my Step-Grandma.

Uncle Michael and Auntie Dani, showing off his new Jordan's.

My brother and dad. Can you tell where Calvin gets his blue eyes?

With 3 of his Great Grandma's!

It was a great day. 

We are so blessed to have so much family so close. And Calvin is a very lucky little boy to have so many people love him so much.

I know this was a super long post, there were so many things to cover and I may have left out a detail or two. If you have ANY questions, please feel free to email me and I promise a reply.

1 Year Stats.

We Calvin's 12 month Baby Well appointment this morning.

Let's just say I will NEVER make a doctors appointment at nap time EVER again.

Sheesh.

Calvin is:

19 lbs. 5 oz (15th percentile)

30.5" tall (75th percentile)

and his head circ. is 18" (35th percentile)

He's a lean machine for sure.

Our pediatrician was really happy with how active and strong the kiddo is.

Admittedly it was hard to discuss anything with Calvin screaming at us.

Even the receptionist at the front desk said "Wow, that's not how he usually is during visits" as we were leaving...

How embarrassing.

But we were able to briefly talk about weaning him off of formula and on to whole milk. I wanted to make sure the doc wasn't concerned about his weight before I made the switch and he gave me the go ahead. Calvin's pretty skinny and formula has more calories than milk so I think we'll take a gradual approach, slowly replacing more and more formula with milk.

It was also suggested that I wait a bit longer before introducing foods with a high allergen risk because of a family history of food allergies and Calvin's own poor reaction to egg whites in the past.

So Strawberries and nut butters will have to wait a few more months.

Now that we got him home, napped and fed and he's in a much better mood thank goodness.

I've been working hard on a post about his birthday party.

Be warned, it's super long with a billion pictures.

Look for it tomorrow.

Pintester Movement the 3rd: DIY Shower Soothers

Sonja over at Pintester.com has decided it was time for another Pintester Movement!

I love the Pintester Movement because it makes me search the depths of my Pinterest boards for a long-lost project that I've been cyber-hoarding.

So here we go!

You guys, I LOVED Shower Soothers.

They were my favorite "feeling under the weather" tool.

Not only did they smell soooo good and help clear your nasal passages but you used them IN a steaming hot shower.

Sick. Person. Heaven.

But, for stupid reasons unbeknownst to me, the stupid manufacturers stopped making them.

(You can still technically find them on Amazon BUT only the Vanilla Mint kind and that is NOT the right one. Plus, they are ridiculously expensive)

Pinterest to the rescue!

 I found a few different "recipes" for these but this is the one that was on my board already.

It's from www.mrshappyhomemaker.com and here is the original post

It has but 3 ingredients:

1/3 C. Water (check)

1 C. Baking soda (check)

Essential Oils (sorta check)

The instructions say to use Eucalyptus, Lavender and Rosemary oil. 

I had Lavender, and I found Eucalyptus, but I wasn't going to make another stop with a cranky kid just to try and find Rosemary oil.
Sue me.
Also, apparently the Lavender oil is "Calming" and the Eucalyptus is "Exhilarating" so I prepared myself for an emotional roller coaster of a shower.

 It's a pretty basic recipe:

Mix Baking Soda with Water.

Pour into silicone muffin tin.
OK, This is the silicone muffin thingy I have. As you can see, it's not normal muffin size. It's a huge, Big and Tall version of a muffin tin, which is probably why my mom just gave it to me like 7 years ago.
An average size muffin tin (is it still a tin if it's made of silicone?) would probably work better.

Drop in some oils.
So.... I have no idea how much oil I put in each puck... I was busy trying to take pictures at the same time... hmmmm.

Put in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes.
Notice that I even remembered to put the floppy pan on a baking sheet... so smart.

So this is where I expected my house to start smelling like a spa.
But... that's not what happened.
It definitely smelled, but it was more of an "eye-burny, head-achy, over-powering, a eucalyptus forest is obviously burning down" kind of smell.
Did I mention I don't know how many drops of oil I put in those things?
In my defense, the instructions don't specify.

Take them out and let them cool.

Pop them out, drop a little more oil on each puck and store in an airtight container.

Put them in your bathroom for all to behold and wonder what the hell they are.
I should probably put a label on the jar.

Put one on the floor of the shower and breathe in the soothy-ness

Verdict:
  Meh.

I had this right in the shower stream and it lasted long enough for me to take a picture, get in the shower and wet down my hair. Then it was completely gone. So, it smelled good for about 4 minutes. Next time I will put it in the corner on the edge of the tub and see if that works better.

Because my muffin pan was ginormous, I only got 3 thin pucks. I feel like surface area is a pretty big factor in how fast these things dissolve in the shower, which is another reason I think a normal size muffin pan would work better.
Also, I feel the need to tell you all that even after a run through the dishwasher, the silicone muffin pan still smells suspiciously like eucalyptus.


If you're curious which projects I've done for previous Pintester Movements, see them here:
The Pintester Movement: Watermark Tee
The Pintester Movement V 2.0: Arm Knitting

Almost 1, Stuff We Love Now

As Calvin's birthday looms near, I find I keep tormenting myself by looking through pictures from when we first brought him home.

It's so bittersweet. Yes I want him to grow and learn and play. I'm really looking forward to the next stages. I'm REALLY looking forward to when he can tell me what he wants or what's wrong.
Like today, he's being a total crab-pants and I'm just not sure why.

But we're talking about my baby. The one that used to be so tiny.
*sigh*...

He's walking pretty well now, all the way across the living room from the couch to the window without any help. He's really enjoying his Fisher-Price Rock-a-Stack and sometimes can even get them in the correct order. And he LOVES anything that rolls. Balls, cars, trucks, you name it, if it will roll along the ground he wants to play with it. He even makes a "vroom" sound when he's pushing cars around. It's so cute.

Calvin has been drinking water from a sippy cup for a while now and I hated ALL of them because he couldn't use them by himself. So then we decided to try the straw sippy cups. We got the Nuby brand with the handles and they're ok. He uses them fine but they leak.
And then I found the Innobaby Sippin' Smart EZ Flow Straw Sippy Cup .
Seriously, I've become slightly obsessed with this cup.
It's wide, holds 10oz, the straw is weighted at the bottom which is GENIUS because it follows the liquid. Which means when he holds the cup upside-down (which he does) the bottom of the straw goes with the water and he can still drink!
And the most amazing thing of all.... get ready...  
IT DOESN'T LEAK!!!!!!!!
Sorry I'm not sorry for yelling, but it's a miracle.
It doesn't leak at all. Which is going to be WAY important when there's stuff besides water in it.
We only have one right now but I'm insisting we absolutely need three more.

 I'm also pretty obsessed with the Frenchie Extra Large Hooded Towel
 I got him the blue dog for Easter and I LOVE it. It's so thick and plush and Big! It's 40" x 30" which is almost twice as big as a couple of other hooded towels I have for him. We will be adding the Frog and Monkey to our collection soon.

I also want to quickly mention a couple of amazing baby proofing items that have kept Calvin out of a lot of trouble. We LOVE our Evenflo Easy Walk-Thru Gate and these Safety 1st Magnetic Locks.(the link for the locks will take you to the best deal I've found for them anywhere. Of course it's on Amazon) I can't recommend either item enough. They are life savers.

And last but not least, something for the home.
Calvin was amassing quite an impressive toy collection in the living room.
I really didn't want to have to drag them out and put them away every single day so I bought this BIG Smith & Hawken Square Basket from Target so I can just toss all his crap in it once he's in bed. It also comes in round and I probably looked like an idiot standing in the aisle with one of each on the floor trying to decide. But I have a strange affinity for square things so square it was.
It's super sturdy and fits TONS of stuff in it. And to top it off, It's pretty nice looking if I do say so myself.




I've been busily prepping for his birthday party and will post about some party plans & gifts we're getting him. Then after I've had a minute to recover from the actual day-of, I will do a HUGE post about the party.
Keep an eye out.

He Walks!

As my Instagram followers already know, my kiddo is walking!
If you'd like to see the video, check out my instagram account #threemoreweeks

Yes I know he's just standing. You try taking a decent action shot of a new walker.

He took his first three steps on Tuesday and has been adding to his "step-count" every day!

His current PB is 9.

This is very exciting and absolutely terrifying at the same time.

I knew it was coming. He's been cruising around the furniture and walls super fast lately. He'd also been standing on his own, mostly when he wasn't paying attention. As soon as he realized he was standing alone he would plop down.
But here we are, walking...
Damn.

Walking is awesome but it also presents a whole new set of issues.

Footwear

It's still pretty warm here, but it wont be for long. Which means I have to cover this newly walking kid's feet.

I don't know if you guys have noticed, but as soon as kids get old enough to walk, sock-makers stop putting the grippies on the bottom of their socks.

Why?!
Newborns don't need grippies, they're not going anywhere! My 11 month old that's just learning to walk does!

So after looking around online, I found this kick-ass pair of Robeez Mini Shoez which I'm told stay on really well and have a non-slip sole designed specially for new walkers. Plus, they're surprisingly cute.

 So we'll see how those work for him.

Bruises...Everywhere! 
A friend of mine just told me about Arnica Gel, which according to the Amazon description "is made from Arnica montana (for Mountain daisy) which has been used for centuries as a natural pain reliever, and today is one of the most popular homeopathic medicines in the world. Arnica is trusted... by savvy moms to treat playground bumps and bruises. And anyone who bruises easily will appreciate Arnica's ability to reduce bruise discoloration"

Sign me up! This little tube will be in my next Amazon delivery for sure!

He Steals Things
As hard as it is for parents to remember where anything is already, it just got a hundred times worse.
Calvin has already discovered that he can crawl into a room and take something from that room into another room and leave it there.
Until now our biggest problem was finding a specific shoe that he's wandered off with.
Now that he's walking he can reach more things... *sigh*
For example:
-Tristan's debit card was missing from his wallet for an entire day. It was under the computer desk.
-I found a bracelet of mine in his toy basket... in the living room.

Caught him putting daddy's glasses case into Alfie's Crate.

Is there a way to lojack everything in your house?


I leave you with a picture of Calvin looking much to big for my comfort.

My Cleaning Routine

I'm kind of a slob.

I'm WAY better at making messes than cleaning them up and I always have been.

 I'm sooooo guilty of pulling the quick "Crap, people are coming over! Throw everything in the basement and don't take anyone down there!" pick-up.

But I didn't want Calvin to grow up afraid to bring friends to our house because he's ashamed of the mess. Besides that, I'm an effing adult and I needed to get my shit together.

So, when I found out I was pregnant I started purging our house (nesting?). Which was a great start, but once the kiddo was born my cleaning stalled.

It's taken me almost an entire year of being a mom to finally feel like I'm kind of in the groove.

Not only do I have a daily routine for the kiddo (see it here), but I've given myself a weekly cleaning routine so I can try to keep on top of the seemingly constant mess.
Emphasis on Try .

I found a bunch of cleaning schedules on Pinterest, tweeked them to fit our lives and this was the result.

Now, I am in no way perfect and sometimes life can get in the way. If I miss a task I either try and make up for it on another day, or I just know I'll catch it the next week.

Every now and then (like once every 2 or 3 months) I will have a work day and not have any clients scheduled. They always seem to come in waves. Go-figure. When that happens, I take Calvin to the babysitters because I pay for her to watch him twice a week anyway, and I come back home and catch up on chores or run errands that are harder to do with a baby in tow.

In the interest of full disclosure I will readily admit that our bedroom is ALWAYS a mess. There  seems to be nothing I can do about it. And believe me, I've tried! My husband and I just have way too many clothes and absolutely NO storage.
Seriously, our closet is super tiny and we have one little dresser that was mine when I was a kid. 
Maybe someday we'll get a grown-up bedroom set... Maybe when we get a bigger house and have a room that a grown-up bedroom set would actually fit in. Ha!

What do you do to try and keep afloat?
Questions and new ideas are always welcome!

Labor Day Weekend!

Another busy weekend in the books!

Saturday I had to work so Tristan and Calvin had a bit of a boys day.

Sunday we packed up and headed to Coeur D'Alene Lake. 

Friends of ours rented an awesome lake house for the week and invited us to come play.

We swam, we boated, we paddle boarded, we drank ate ourselves silly.

Calvin was being a cranky-pants and didn't want to play in his floaty tug boat unless it was on land.

 

Paddle boarding was so much fun! Definitely a workout.

Monday was our niece Bella's 7th birthday!

We celebrated at her house with a Painting Party!

There were canvases for all the kids, palates with a rainbow of acrylic paint and bunches of brushes to choose from.

My sister-in-law Lacie always has such fun ideas and decorations for the kid's birthdays. It's going to be really tough to live up to the precedent she's set.

The budding artist in action. Can you believe she didn't want to wear that beret? I thinks it's absolutely DARLING!

Calvin went the finger painting route. I'm still trying to find a good place to hang his finished master piece.

When he was finished painting, the kiddo busied himself (and Tristan) on the big playset and in the sandbox. We don't even really have a backyard at home so I am very much looking forward to the day when I can send him over to his Aunt and Uncle's house to play.