Father's Day Flashback

Father's Day is going to be here before I know it and I haven't though of anything cute to make for Brad yet! So, as I think of something new, let's flashback to last year...

For Brad's first Father's Day I made him two crafty gifts! The first was a project that John and I made for him- his handprints with the wording 'Hands down, You are the World's Greatest Dad!'. Brad has it hanging up at work still! This was so easy to make even when John was eating the paper instead of helping me glue. :)

The second project was making him some 'Daddy Dark Ale'. I found this from some random blog back in the day and it was really easy to make. The lady who made them said to soak the beer bottles in soapy water to take the labels off the bottles. I was way too lazy for that and left them on. I printed out labels with different pictures of John and Brad together and taped them onto a 6 pack of Shiner beer- Brad's fav! He loved it and still has the empty bottles in the garage. I also made a sign for the cardboard box that the beer comes in so tie it all together.


The morning of Father's Day Brad woke up to his favorite breakfast (donuts!) and presents.




We had lunch at his favorite Italian restaurant (I think this was John's first time to sit in a high chair at a restaurant!!)




We finished the day by playing in the baby pool in the backyard. It was a wonderful and relaxing day!







This was such an easy way to make the day special for Brad without spending a ton of money...and getting to be crafty all at the same time! :) Anyone doing anything fun for Father's Day this year?

Airplane Birthday Party

I have been planning the MIL's retirement party and looking online at lots of parties. This makes me so excited to plan John's 2nd birthday party. And yes, his birthday is in December, but I am already thinking of a theme and saving ideas! :)

So, I wanted to reminisce a little on his 1st birthday party. Here is how it went...(some of this is reposted from my family blog!).

Birthday Prep!

**John's Party Invitation**
I got the idea from a similar one I saw somone's blog (sorry but I can't remember where I found it!!!). I spent about an hour or so creating it on the computer and just printed it out and mailed it. Very cheap! I got lots of compliments on it and it really helped to set the theme for the party.

**Month by Month**
For part of the decorations, I had thought of making a long banner with pictures of all of John's 'firsts'. Yes I was going to totally copy Kinsey's idea! :) But I figured that would take forever considering I took pictures of EVERY first. I mean, do people really want to see a picture of the first time John had juice? So I modified and made a decorated page of a favorite picture from each month. Then I 'helped' Brad hang them up in a grid on the wall in the kitchen. It actually turned out pretty nicely! I used the tons of scrapbook stuff I already had as well as a gift card that I had to Michael's. So this turned out to be about a $40 project, but I had TONS of stickers left over from what I bought at Michael's so I could have done this for much cheaper. {Notice in the pictures that my table of food isn't set up yet, so ignore that!}





**Mantel Decor**
I joked with Brad that my biggest problem was I didn't know where to put all the decorations that I was making! So a banner and paper airplane 'burst' adorned the mantel, along with a book and toys that my mom got John. Brad so kindly let me use one of his model airplanes as well. The airplane 'burst' was the most frustrating thing to make! I found the idea online but mine kept looking like crap. I finally made different sized planes and that seemed to make it look nicer. I am still not in love with it, but I think it is a cool little twist to the decorations!






**Party Favors**
I really wanted to make cute little favor bags that looked like suitcases. However, I am not that artsy so I just made a luggage tag for each guest and attached that to the paper bag. Each kid will get a pilot rubber ducky, a personalized sippy cup, and a little baggie of puffs and raisens. I set them up in our suitcase, even though I would have loved to have used an old bright blue hard-sided suitcase! I am too cheap to buy one from the thrift store though. :)





I also made little employee ID badges for each kid. It was super easy to make and it has John's birthdate for all the employee numbers. Thanks to my dad, Brad and I have been proud owners of a wing tip, but up until now I have banned that ugly thing to the backyard. However, it was perfect for our party! So, I put it on the dining room table so people could see it as soon as they walked in the door. I attached ribbon to it and hung the badges across it for the kids to get when they arrive and can wear them. Probably a little cheesy, but still cute. I figure that we can also put the presents on this table so they are out of the way!






Party Time!

I had two parties for John- one for the mom's group and one for the family. Although it was more work, there was no way we could fit everyone in the house at one time so we had to split it into two different days. Not sure if I will do that again this year though. :)

John's birthday was a very long but special day. We started out the day with some presents and then when I happened to look out the window, it was SNOWING! What a great first birthday present for John! After breakfast (egg-free!) at IHOP and a check-up with the doctor (John is doing great!!), we had a party for the mom's group. This was a blast! We had a total of 13 babies and 16 adults at the party which made for a crowded living room! I don't think the babies minded one bit.


birthday morning!

snowing in Texas!

yummy IHOP breakfast!

Miss B on the plane

Birthday boy on the plane!

cupcakes with cupcake toppers that matched the invitations

singing happy birthday to John John

Saturday's family party was so fun too! We had lots of yummy food, had an airplane-making contest (Grandma's was the funniest...especially when Dad said there was no way it was going to fly), and great cake. John LOVED his egg-free cake, although he mostly ate the icing. John had tons of gifts- he is so spoiled by his family! Between the two parties, we had toys sitting in their boxes for a couple weeks. It was so tempting to rewrap them and put them under the Christmas tree!

handmade birthday crown...that John wanted no part of!

the fam with their airplanes for the contest...Uncle Ty Ty won!

loved the cake!

Seriously, how is it possible that John turned one 6 months ago??!?!?!

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Sneak Peak!

Today was the big 'shopping and planning of the rooms' day with my sister. We got all the bedding picked out for John John's room, so that was awesome. Didn't get quite as far with the nursery so I may have to head to some more stores tomorrow. I decided since I am recovering an old bumper (yeah for garage sales!) I can use cheaper fabric because the baby will only use it for about 2 months. So JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby will be my next stop!

So, here is the sneak peak of the fabrics we bought for John's new big boy room. I am excited but VERY nervous because I have somehow assumed that I can manage to sew all of this myself. In over my head possibly?



This will make up the upholstered headboard, duvet cover, bedskirt, and pillows. Can you pick out which is which?

John's Nursery

This weekend my sister is coming over to help plan and design the new nursery and change John's room into hig 'big boy' room. My sister is an interior designer (check out her designLIFE blog here!) so I am really excited because I know the rooms will turn out great. I decided to reminisce a little and share how we 'remodeled' and decorated John's current nursery.

{SIDENOTE! :) So, my sister helped me a tad with John John's nursery. As in she helped hang the drapes. So I am making a note of full disclosure that if you think the nursery isn't at a 'professional level' it is because lil ol' me did it...not an interior designer! Want to see what my sister did with her baby's nursery? See her post here! She used way more fancy stuff than I did!}

Back on track now...

When we moved into our house, this room was a kid's room. It had some weird chair rail that was super high (do you even still call it a chair rail when it is that high!?) and I didn't like how the room was painted. We made it into our guest bedroom for a little while before we really knew what to do with it.







The summer before I got pregnant, we decided to start 'remodeling' the room so it could still be a guest bedroom but also ready to be a nursery when we needed it. We took off the chair rail, baseboards, and trim around the doors and replaced it with wider baseboards and prettier trim. That was not fun since most of the walls weren't straight so Brad had some choice words when trying to get the baseboards up! We also added beadboard which was also a not-so-fun project since you had to nail each indvidual piece to the wall. Talk about major headache! After going back and putting wood putty over all the nails and sanding, we were able to paint the trim and beadboard an off white color.









We decided to paint the walls green so it would fit for a boy or girl nursery. How cute to have a blue and green room or pink and green room! Unfortunately, I HATED how it looked and secretly knew I would ask Brad to change the color once I knew if we were having a boy or girl. :)

So, once I was actually pregnant and found out I was having a boy, we repainted the walls a light blue to match John's bedding. I LOVE how the color turned out. So much better than the ugly green! Brad was so sweet to repaint it while I was at a football game with my cheerleading squad.

My biggest issue with the room was the window. The window is huge and is rounded at the top which made buying anything pre-made very difficult...and expensive. Also, since the window is so long, it was hard to find long enough drapes. My sister helped me take pre-made drapes from Restoration Hardware and make them look more custom-made. Even though they were a tad pricey, I love the drapes because they are a neutral color and are black-out lined which is perfect for a baby's room. And actually, these drapes aren't quite long enough, but we were able to hide that fact with the 'custom' valence. Brad made a box out of wood (that my sister designed and gave custom measurements for) and hung it from the ceiling. Then my sister and I used the premade valance to staple it to the box, creating a box pleat in the front. I love that it wraps around the drapery panels and it makes the window look so big! We also later hung sheers behind the panels going across the window for when I want to pull back the drapes to let light in. Those sheers are super cheap from IKEA, but also are not very pretty. :) Oh well- no one will be examining my sheers anytime soon!





For the wall above John's crib, I got letters from Michael's and painted them to match John's room. Of course, after I painted them, I started entering the blog world and read how to decorate letters using scrapbook paper and modgepodge which probably would have been way cuter than how my letters turned out!



Throw in a crib, dresser, super awesome swivel rocker chair, rug, bookshelf, special artwork from grandpa, and some garage sale prints and you have yourself a nursery! I love how the room turned out and am sad that John is already old enough to need a new room!

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