Life Changes

Judging from this first party for my son, I may be in the process of becoming a monster when it comes to party planning.  This is the party I was able to pull together with the help of great friends and family but most of all my hubby who indulged my dreams.   The theme was nature.  My budget was small.  Supplies came from Miejer and Target. The throne of honor. Birthday Plate I made for Little Man to eat his cake on every year.  Carved by Daddy out of water melon. Animal Crackers   The generic goldfish crackers because they had more shapes. A Timeline of Little Man's Growth over the past year. Blue Kool-Aid, Ginger Ale, and sherbet along with sanitized bath toys.  Little Man's friend, The Z Man, fighting over who has more space in the boat. Oh here we go.  We can both fit.  Practicing walking with Nana and Pawdy. The amazing sugar filled cake m...

One of my bestest best friends (who we will call roomie, since we roomed together in college) in the world and I got to spend our day together.  Like normal life was an adventure.  We like to compare our selves to Lucy and Ethel because drama seems to find us.  Unlike Lucy and Ethel we don't try to create drama.  We have never decided which one is Lucy and which one is Ethel.  I think this is because on some days she is Lucy and I am Ethel.  On other days I am Lucy and she is Ethel. For example, there was the day that she comes barreling in our dorm room with two HUGE rubbermaid tubs of our laundry (that is right, she would take my laundry home to her house and do it for me in college.  She is amazingly kind.).  These two tubs are nearly taller than her 5 ft 4 in frame.  The door busts open and she says, "Here is our laundry."  "Roomie, did you carry those up by yourself?"  Our dorm room was on the third floor.  Roomie rep...

I was raised in a small suburb of Chicago.  Even though it was in the middle of all the suburban hub bub, it had a very small town feel.  There is  a homecoming parade which people come out to see.  There is a main street where there are picturesque antique shops.   The beach laps up to the shore just down the hill from main street.  I did not fully appreciate my small town while growing up there. I could not wait to get out and spread my wings and fly.  Now looking back I realize, in some ways I grew up in a Norman Rockwell painting.  Although I have no desire to ever move back there (winter there sucks) it was the perfect place to grow up. One of the fond memories I have is of memorial day.  There is a full out parade with the marching band, fire trucks, convertibles, etc.  We would try to make it every year.  I say try because the running joke in my family was, "We have to hurry, if we are late we will miss it."...