Ceeeeee-lebrate Birthdays, C'mon! Birthday Boy Edition

September is birthday month in our house.  I am in charge of pulling off 3, yes 3 birthday parties within 11 days!  We kicked off birthday fever with my son's second birthday.  I decided to go with a construction theme and made the invites, decorations, and food myself.  I know, that doesn't seem very lazy momish of me but it is cheap momish and sometimes that wins out.  Also, birthdays are a big deal!  They are a day to celebrate how much we love someone, remember the year that has gone by, and eat cake.  We didn't invite many kiddos to this party - I mean really, how many friends does a 2 year old have?  So we invited family, neighbors, and a few close friends.  I have become very close friends with my Silhouette Cameo.  You'll see the results below:

 Invite I made using the cut and print feature.  I put our address as the Construction Site and my phone number for the RSVP.  The signs on the border said Caution 2 Year Old Ahead and Party Zone.  I loved these invites and they came out better than even I could have imagined.

 Another fun touch!  I made these from a template I bought from the Silhouette store.  They were SOOOOO easy to cut out and to personalize with the names we chose for the food.

  Our favors for the guests.  My college friend Tina from First Name Basis made these adorable and tasty cookies.  I created the sign and the wording the morning of when I realized people probably wouldn't know what to do with the cookies.

 This birthday banner was so easy to create with my Sihouette!  I added little trucks from templates I purchased online.  The punch was just lemonade.  As far as decorating goes, these were so easy and not at all labor intensive.  I probably spent about 2 hours of actual work on all of the paper items.

 I delegated the task of creating this sign to my husband.  He did an awesome job!  Not exactly construction themed but too cute to pass up.

 The next few pictures are just the general party decorations.  I got a lot of things from Dollar Store.  I so recommend checking out your closest store for table clothes, napkins, silverware, plates, streamers, and balloons.  

We had the best time celebrating this special 2 year old!  While he might not have been thrilled with the cake at first, he obviously changed his mind after he got a taste.  Happy Birthday Colby!

My Favorite 10 . . . Books

I've been trying to come up with something to blog about for a while now, but I haven't been able to think of something to say.  This morning, my sister gave me the right excuse.  She "challenged" me to share my top 10 books that have touched me in some way.  I thought a simple list was a little boring without the reasons why.  Being the lazy mom that I am, one of the things that I love doing with my kids is sitting in a snugly chair reading.  Sometimes I like it even better without kids and with a book that doesn't contain pictures.  So without further ado, my list of books, some adult, some children.

1.  Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
This is an amazing book about a small town in England that makes the decision that no one will leave or enter the town when The Plague arrives.  The heroine is one of the strongest female characters I've read in any book.  She endures, she survives, and she learns to live again.  I will admit to absolutely loving historical fiction, especially when it's done as well as this.




2.  My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Piccoult
Holy tear fest Batman!  I read this book when my daughter was 2.  If you read the book the significance of that age will hit you.  I think I started crying about 10 pages in and didn't stop until about an hour after I read the last page.  I haven't read any of her other books and I'm surely not picking this one up again to see if it stands the test of time.





3.  On the Day You Were Born - Debra Fraser
I dare you to read this to your kiddos and not tear up.  You wouldn't think that kids would enjoy it that much.  The pictures aren't exciting.  There's no real action.  The story isn't particularly exciting.  But the poetry of the language is magical.  Reading "We are so glad you've come." while your baby, regardless of size, snuggles in your lap is one of the best experiences of my life.



4.  God's Dream - Desmond Tutu

For those of you who know me, you know I'm not evangelical in any way.  I don't tell people that I'll pray for them, even though I do.  I don't talk about how amazing God is on Facebook, even though I think it sometimes.  I'm Christian, mostly, but I don't advertise it or talk about it.  So when our minister gave this to my daughter I was a little reluctant to read it.  What a mistake!  It's a beautiful story of God's dream that all people in the world will learn to live in harmony.  That we will learn that just because our outsides look different it does not change our humanity.  It's Christian the way I do Christianity and it's beautiful, filled with love and not an ounce of judgment in any way.

5.  The Night Before Christmas
This is the book my dad read to my sister and me every year on Christmas Eve.  I have many memories of spending the night at my Grandmother's house, sitting on the edge of the bed on Christmas Eve and listening to this book.


6.  The Politics of Reality - Marilyn Frye
The book that taught me how to think from a feminist perspective.  It has challenged me and pushed me.  I constantly go back to it and find new ideas that I haven't thought of or new ways to think about old ideas.









7.  Do They Hear You When You Cry - Fauziya Kassindja
In college I founded a group that worked to end violence against women.  It was the first time I had ever hear of FGM.  Fauziya Kassindja was on the same episode of Oprah where I learned about V-Day.  So I bought the book.  It took me two years to work up the nerve to actually read this account of a girl who sought political asylum in the US in order to avoid a forced FGM and eventual marriage.




8.  The Help - Kathryn Stockett
Honestly, the book itself was just okay to me.  Stockett's author's note at the end is what made this for me.  Her description of coming to terms with both loving her black nanny and being taught that black people were less than was one of the best explanations of those feelings I've ever read.





9.  Into Thin Air - John Krakauer
This is a book that makes you feel like a terrible person for liking it.  You know that pretty much everyone really dies.  It's a true story written by someone who survived.  Krakauer writes it so well though that you tend to forget it's non-fiction.






10.  The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams
I vividly remember sitting under a tree in a friend's yard sounding out the words in this book.  I think I was in Kindergarten at the time.  When I was finally old enough to read and understand this story I just thought it was cool that a toy came to life.  As an adult, the story of love is one of my favorites.  Love is what makes us real.  It's not often pretty.  And as most mommies know, true love often tends to have negative effects on our bodies - just check out those stretch marks from kid #2.  The good news is, love also doesn't care.

My Kitchen Today

Wow, I haven't been on here in quite some time!  I've had lots of ideas about writing but just never gotten the chance, the motivation, the energy, or whatever my excuse is going to be.  In that time, I'v ready so many blogs about cleaning or not cleaning your house, pins about easy tips for keeping your house clean, ecards about kids making memories, blah, blah, blah.  Every time I would think, "That's not what real homes look like!" or "Wow, I need a maid."  

It also got me thinking of what it would be like to really see a family's home for what it looks like.  Have you ever noticed that when friends come over there's a mad dash to put away all the junk that has accumulated on the kitchen surfaces?  So, while I was washing dishes (a job I rarely do because my husband usually does them after dinner) I looked around at all this "junk" that was crowding my kitchen and realized that this "junk" tells the daily story of my family.  The pictures that follow might be shocking.  They are actual pictures of my actual kitchen with no pre-cleaning done.  I know!  Scary!  Anyway, this might become a regular thing.  I'll tell the stories of the pictures too.

Yes those are boxes of every flavor of Girl Scout cookie we sell in Atlanta.  Well, except the Savannah Smiles because we've eaten all of those!  And those white specks on the stove, I think that's flour from whenever that last time we used flour to cook was.  I don't even know.

Ah, the most important appliance in our home - the coffee pot!  Also, peanut butter left out from my breakfast this morning, red potatoes that have sprouted and that I keep thinking, "Maybe I'll plant those.", and stains from spoons used to make dinner.

Ahh, the infamous clean dishes that are too much of a pain to put away.  This counter is almost always full of bowls that go in that bottom cabinet with the child lock (it takes too much energy to open it), plasticware (does anyone enjoy putting that crap away), random containers that I delude myself into thinking will get used for other things, and dishes that have just been washed (can't put those away until they're dry).  And of course a dog butt.

This counter never seems to be clean!  That stack of papers are all things that we need to do something about - papers that need to be signed, bills to be paid, and kids art work we need to put away.  The little pile of "junk" that looks like it has a red ribbon?  Those are SWAPS our 7 year old collected at World Thinking Day (a Girl Scout event used to raise awareness of other cultures).   The painting beside it?  A picture painted by that same daughter the next day at a birthday party.  Let's just say it was a busy weekend!

Yes, we brush our daughter's hair in the kitchen!  Those books were read by my daughter last night in an attempt to hit 320 minutes of independent reading this month.  I think we're at 260 as of this morning.  The Reese's cups were part of my lunch.

Another sign of our daughter's reading efforts.  This time, a cookbook!  Also, her GS tunic which hasn't been worn since Sunday at our cookie booth.  That's my shadow Miller, who is currently laying at my feet while I type this.  Granted, as soon as my son gets home I'll be abandoned.  Also notice, not a single chair is pushed up to the table, a sure sign that everyone rushed out the door this morning in an attempt to be on time.

Yep, that's Christmas wrapping supplies.  This bag has been in a corner in our den since just before Christmas, along with several rolls of wrapping paper.  My son loved pulling everything out of this bag and dragging around the rolls of wrapping paper.  I got tired of picking them up, so I guess it's time to put them into a closet until next year.

The family calendar!  We've been using a smiley system to encourage some better behavior in our daughter.  All that writing on the weekends - stuff we have to do!  We have somehow become that family with plans every weekend.  Hopefully, that will change come the end of GS cookie season.

So, that's my real house.  The kitchen is actually pretty clean right now.  My husband will probably cringe if he looks at these pictures.  I wonder what stories your kitchen would tell?  I wonder what mine might say in a few days.