Mason's 1st Birthday

Ever since moving into this house, I've been feeling crafty.  I don't know if it's because I now have room for all of my stuff, or the endless miles of blank walls are inspiring, or what.  One of my latest endeavors was Mason's 1st Birthday Party.

I bounced around a lot of themes but nothing would really stick.  He's ONE.  Sure, he has an opinion on what food he wants next, but what theme?  Uh, no.  I briefly considered going the self-indulgent route and doing what would be fun for me, but that sounded pretty much like Alex and Zach's 1st birthday.  Add a layer of guilt because I never did get around to making Mason a Halloween costume, and, well, it needed to be decent party for Mason.

Combing through Pinterest I came across this party where the theme was what their daughter liked.  Their daughter was their theme.  I loved it and thus began Mason's Mason-y Birthday.

Before the party began, we ran into some snags.  We all caught RSV days before the big bash, so we pushed it back a week.  Then we found mold in our basement.  That's a key area for the kids (all 17!) to play during a get together, but we decided the upstairs alone would work.  People can suffer for 2hrs, right?

All of the photos below were taken by Lollipopz Photography.



The invite and the whole party had a subway art-esque look to it.  Mason hates getting dressed, so all the kids wore their pajamas for the party.  The food was what Mason (with only two teeth) could eat, including all of his favorites except spaghetti.



Our entry way and dinning room had balloons with captioned pictures of Mason attached to them.  Many of them were firsts like "Mason's first time eating Mexican" or "Mason's first time reading a Magazine." All of them were cute.  I also did gallery style decorating.  Color posters with his likes and dislikes alternated with black and whites of Mason.



I had about 150 pictures printed for the party.  Roughly 40 were attached to balloons.  Another 35 or so went into making a giant 1 to hang on the basement door.




Another 16 went into a game I thought was hilarious, but no one noticed/played/liked.




The rest were scattered on the tables for people to admire.  With the exception of the Mason game and the "1" all of the pictures went home with friends and family so they could set up their own shrines.



Since there wasn't enough mention of Mason on every available surface, I put together a home movie collage of him on the TV in the living room.  Yes, we went from 6 hours old and still in the hospital, to 11 months old and walking around in about 15min. 



The main attraction was the cereal bar.  Since I never over-do anything, we had a selection of 9 different cereals.  I ran out of bowls or it would have been 10.




Walmart sells these cool straws that flavor the milk as you suck it through.  They couldn't be passed up.

The cereal bar doubled as the party favor.  Everyone got a straw bowl, reclosable container for their cereal mix, wooden spoon, and straws to take home.  I got reports back of cereal for dessert that night.

Not pictured, and honestly not very interesting, was the rest of the food: pizza, juice boxes, crackers, fruit salad, yogurt tubes, and gallons upon gallons of milk.

I'm pretty much an expert at making my kids cry when it comes to cake time.  This party was no exception.  We have a strong aversion to icing in our family.

Since everyone (about 40 people in all) were stuck upstairs, we tried to give the kids things to do.  Alex and Zach's room already had beds with slide, so I called that good.  Mason's room was converted into a ball pit extravaganza complete with a flamingo.  This couldn't have been possible without two friends that made it happen.

 

 

Our front spare room had paper and crayons to draw.  Baby strollers and giant trucks were zooming around everywhere.  Fifteen kids under the age of 6 ran around like maniacs.  I pumped them full of sugar and sent them home.  It was a good day.

Square Foot Gardening

Last year in NY I had tons of gardening plans. I had prices to rent a tiller, a sunny spot picked out, and a plant list made. Many peas died on our back deck (Oops! They don't like warm weather!). Then we moved back to SC. Everything became too dynamic in my life to even try.

This year I'm going with square foot gardening. It had all if the things I was looking for: small/condensed, easy to setup, simple planting layout, and supposedly good yield. The idea of breaking everything down by grid is right up my alley.

So at this point I've got my frame done, bed filled, and the grid setup. It took two days of shopping and two days of work. I just need to get the seeds planted. I was hoping that would be today but 20 pounds of toddler sleeping on me is saying otherwise.

Our plan of attack is three squares each of Bibb lettuce, peas, carrots, and spinach. There will also be two squares of broccoli and potatoes. Later once the cooler weather plants are done, they'll be replaced with stuff like squash and corn.

I'm hoping the watermelon from last year will volunteer on their own. I left the areas they were in mostly undisturbed.

When I removed the old bed frame it was teeming with termites. Those are not attractive bugs. Naturally, I panicked and sent Jim a dramatic email. Apparently termites are everywhere and unless you want to use some nasty stuff, you just have to accept that they have a job to do.

Back but Different

I'm going to start posting again, but I'm going with more of a "This is what I'm working on." than "This is every detail the boys have done this week." For continuity, we have three boys now. He is Mason and a year old.

So this is the line in the sand. :)