Birthday girl

The birthday girl!

This is an overdue post. But I kind of wanted to wait until both birthday parties were over to write about it. We had two parties--one in our home with our local friends (most kids around RaeRae's age) and another in Sacramento with our family and friends there. 

So my darling RaeRae turned ONE on February 6, 2012! I can't believe a year has passed since she was in my tummy and I was getting ready to give birth to such a miracle. I love her soooo much! I had so much fun planning her first birthday party(ies). 


February 4, 2012:


The first birthday party (in our home) was sooo much fun! It was nice to have an all signing environment. Nearly everyone was Deaf or an interpreter or involved with Deaf Education, or a CODA (Child of Deaf Adult). I never had that type of party growing up, so in a way, it felt like the party was for me too. 


DH and I decorated our condo the day/night before since I knew we would not have any time in the morning. The party was to begin about 11am, and it ended up going until almost 2pm. I was finally excited to put up all the decorations I spent months planning: 

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar wall decals we bought from Target
2. Handmade butterflies that hung from the ceiling (all supplies bought at Dollar Tree store; cheap and easy)
3. About 25 floor balloons
4. Table decor for the fruits from the story
5. Very Hungry Caterpillar cake-pops we made the night before the party (and sooo delicious!)
6. And more...

The birthday girl woke up about 7:30 in the morning, instead of her usual 6ish. So that meant no morning nap.  Guests arrived at various times between 11 and 12. Kids played, mamas chatted, and we ate fruit and lumpia. 
When it was time for cupcakes, we gave RaeRae one of the green cupcakes because I did not want to give her red food dye (and had failed at making natural red food dye the day before) from the cupcake-cake our wonderful friend Jane made. The cupcake-cake turned out fabulous! RaeRae was intrigued with the candles but not so much with the cake. She took her time and then eventually took a bit of liking to the frosting and cake. 

Now here are all the pictures from Party #1!

Party favors

Action shot of party: you can see the hanging butterflies and sort of see the caterpillar balloons and wall decals

Table set-up (missing cake-pops and butterfly snacks)

Close-up of butterfly snack for kids

Close-up of cake-pops

Close-up of hanging butterflies

Waiting for her cupcake!

Proud parents...let's get ready to sing "Happy Birthday!"

Is that for me?

It's for me!

Hm...

A bit unsure...

She sort of started liking it...

Collage pic

Tried to get a pic of ALL 12 kids! Impossible but fun.

Another collage pic my friend put together.

Sweet pic of RaeRae with friends

Cute pic of birthday girl with her daddy

Gifts time!

Totally cheesing it up for the camera. She had a fun party!

Then she took a 2.5 hour nap!! Party was a definite success and everyone enjoyed themselves!

February 11, 2012 (Party #2)


This party began at 3pm and lasted until about 5pm. I brought all the decor from last week's party for this party so it was nearly a breeze setting up. It was more fast-paced because RaeRae was tired and some of our family had to leave early. 
She opened gifts about 3:30pm and boy, was she spoiled! Lots of clothes, some toys, and a princess Coupe! She would not have anything to do with the red cupcake cake that my sister made using red beet powder for natural food coloring. She did an awesome job making those cupcakes. But RaeRae wanted to eat some of my cupcake when I held it so I gave it to her. She mostly just liked the frosting off her fingers. 


RaeRae was awake from 12pm to 8pm on this day and she slept so hard that night. It was a nice, sweet party. Nice to know she is loved. Here are pictures!

The food! And awesome cupcake cake my sister made.

Having fun opening gifts

Clapping after we sang "Happy Birthday!"

Here mama, have a taste!

Gave her my cupcake since she didn't want the red one.

Was sooo tired!

She got really into it!

The neat Princess Coupe she got! She LOVES it! From Nana and Papa

The biggest reason I cloth diapered.

The biggest reason I cloth diapered.

Rice Milk: Why it says not to give it to children under five.

Rice Milk: Why it says not to give it to children under five.

What’s with kids and Comfort items?

What’s with kids and Comfort items?

Very Hungry Caterpillar Invitations

The theme for RaeRae's 1st birthday is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. I wanted to try to include all of the books for the party, but that was getting to be too much work so I stuck with this one theme. There are hundreds of ideas for food, decor, party favors, etc on Pinterest. I first learned about this idea for the invitations through a web search that lead to me to this blog.


I nearly followed her directions for the invitations, except tweaked on the colors a bit and the poem. 
For my invitations, I added "ears" to the caterpillar heads like in the story. I tweaked it to match my needs (indoor party in my home versus at a gym, date/time, my name, etc). 
 
First green circle:

We can hardly believe a year has passed.

Our little caterpillar has grown so fast!

Join us for some food and fun.

RaeRae* is turning ONE!

 Second green circle:

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Time: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Crawl to:

 (My address, omitted here on blog for privacy)

 Third green circle:

Bubbles and balloons, and lots of play!

We hope you can make it to this special day!

Cake and finger foods will be provided.

(*If weather is nice, there is a park across street we can play at after the party)

 Fourth green circle:

RSVP to Mama Jenn

by: February 1^st, 2012

via: jenncoleregis at gmail...

*Please provide the age of children attending (younger-age driven party)

   

        Putting together these invitations were soo much fun! But a lot of work. I think it would have been easier if I had one of those circle cutters from Michael's or Joann's. But instead, I found something in my home and traced every single circle on cardstock/scrapbook paper. I bought the little scrapbook beads for half off at Michael's using a coupon. I cut each circle myself. I didn't do all the invitations in one sitting, but across a few sittings over a couple of weeks. Then I hand-gave most of them. It was fun to watch people's reactions opening them and ooh-ing and ahhing over them.

I bought the red ribbon on sale at Michael's, then later I found some confetti ribbon at the Dollar Store. I've been budgeting wherever I go.

*Again, name changed for privacy reasons.

11 months old!

*This blog originally started Friday night, but haven't been able to complete it until now! Ah, the life with a baby...

Today  Friday RaeRae turned 11 months old! I can hardly believe she is going to be ONE next month! It is bittersweet. I have loved watching her grow up and be part of it, but it also makes me a bit sad that she is growing older and soon will no longer be a "baby." She will always be my baby though.

To date, she: 

• has 8 teeth (4 on top, 4 on bottom);
• crawls a storm from room to room, and often chasing the kitties and sometimes us or wanting us to chase her; she also has two different types of crawls--one regular crawl on her knees and another bear-type crawl where her knees aren't touch the floor at all;
• understands words and signs for: mama, dada, kitty, more, and milk; 
• babbles with her voice a lot and can say "dada," "mama," "nana," "uh oh," and sometimes "hi"; 
• is starting to babble with signing (pointing, waving, making up signs, etc) and can sign "milk" (not too often), "kitty" (on the chest), and "dog";
• Also makes "mwah" sound or copies us when we do it (so darn cute!); 
• is cruising when she stands along the couch or against the walls, etc (soon she will be walking!);
• is starting to stand alone for a few seconds while maintaining balance (Friday she did her record of 8 secs!); 
• self-feed herself with finger foods (not yet spoon or sippy cup);
• turn pages of a book back and forth;
• make the connection between two objects or an object's meaning (examples: baby bottle to the baby's mouth; the door goes open and shut; mama's make-up brush goes on the face; a hairbrush is for the hair; or phone goes near the ear or for our iphones, she uses her fingers to trace along it like we do for the apps, etc)
• taps us to get our attention sometimes; 
• likes to eat oatmeal, broccoli, black beans, cheerios, rice, or anything she can put into her mouth that we give her;
• loves books, wooden toys, and pulling off socks;
• also loves to make a mess with her box of baby legs or help mama sort diapers...

So much! So busy at 11 months!  We are having such fun! 


Happy 11 months RaeRae! Next month: birthday post! We are doing the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle for the theme of her party. She has a dress with matching diaper and shoes all set for it. 

Milkshakes in the Morning.

A previous blog written by Dawn Papple, at Everything Birth, Inc---the business I work for. Doing some research on coconut oil lead me to reading this again and I wanted to share. Enjoy!


Milkshakes in the Morning.