Lorianna's First Birthday Bash Part 1

Recently, my nephew, Lil'Gee, embarked on a new adventure in his life. He became a DAD. This was very special to me because he is my first nephew and I've known him since before he was born, when he was still in his mom's belly. He is my special LOVE. So, when his daughter, Lorianna, was about to turn 1, I knew I had to make the decorations for her party. Her mother and I were in constant communication over the party details: the theme would be Pebbles Flinstone. I offered to do the banner, centerpieces, favors, water labels, stations, and party hats.

I turned to Pinterest for patterned paper, party hat instructions, and the favors (white chocolate bones!).

Here is the WELCOME Banner I used pink and brown as my patterned paper.

A closeup of the banner

Ms. Pebbles laughing.

My youngest nephew, Geovanni, Lorianna's uncle, helped me with the letters.

It was so cute to see him working my Cricut machine. He did a very good job!

Then I made about 30 party hats! I found instructions online and tweaked them a bit to make small hats and larger ones. I then covered them with real Fruity Pebbles! I used tissue paper and bags cut up as the toppers for the hats! You know I love to recycle!

My son and my mom testing out the hats!

I love my little munchkin! He was a great model!

More in an upcoming post!

Father's Day Gifts From Baby Henry

It's Father's Day y'all!! Whoop whoop!!! For some reason I'm in such a great mood! 

Even with this little guy tearing up my craft room. This is what he does... EVERY... DAY... NO... LIE...

But I don't mind 'cuz he lets me work.

And he's super cute. How could you get madd at a face like this??? You just can't. He's a good baby. Baby Henry chillin' like a villin' in summer! What what!!!

Okay back to Father's Day stuff. So Baby Henry decided he wanted to give Daddy and Grandpa something for Father's Day. 

Here's Daddy's gift. (P.S. It's Pinterest-inspired but you already knew that.) I took the "Walk a Little Slower, Daddy" poem and translated it into Spanish since Daddy is fluent in Spanish and is still learning English. While Daddy was asleep I took his sneaker and stamped it in yellow paint then onto the printout. Then I took Baby Henry's foot (while he was awake, not sleeping! that wou;dve been a disaster!) and painted it orange and stamped his footprint over Daddy's. 

For Grandpa, I used Baby Henry's palm print. First I painted the water scene. Then I painted Baby Henry's hand yellow and imprinted it onto the painting. He's a little fishy! And he's hooked on Papa!!

Dad and Granddad loved it!

Marjorie's Bridal Shower Invite

My bestie is gettin' merried ya'll!!! Whoop whoop!! I'm so excited! AND she picked me as her Matron of Honor!! Double whoop whoop! I love me my bestie!!! Of course being the crafter that I am you know I had to do her bridal invites. Enter Pinterest the lifesaver! I found ideas and shot them Marge's way. We settled on one we both liked and 30 invites went her way.

These invites were SOOOOO easy to make!!! I made everything already in my possession (I love my craft room!). I printed out the invite, glittered up the bodice and attached tulle and ribbon and voila! DOOOONE!!!! I love, love, love the way these came out. And once she received them, Marjorie fell in love with them, as well.

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The Beach in Spring and Our 2-Year Wedding Anniversary

Hey there! Welcome back!

Look!

Look below!

Do you see him?!?!?!

It's Baby Henry being funny! Or... well... I guess it's Mommy and Daddy being funny, lol. We love playing with his long hair. I thought this would be a fun pic to share with you all.

Here are a few more. Recently we spent an afternoon at the beach. It was sunny out but still a bit windy. 

This pic below is one of my favorites. It's Daddy skimming rocks along the water and Baby Henry in back in his little cruiser. My two boys. Words can't express how much they mean to me :)

Here's another candid of Daddy and Baby.

So recently Daddy and Mommy celebrated their wedding anniversary. We've been married for two years. I know we JUST did the church thang in September but we did the legal thang in May of 2013 so legally, we have been married for two years. I made a few things for Daddy this year. First, a cake because I love making cakes. I just realized though that I had made him a blue cake last year for his birthday! Blue is my favorite color and it's Henry's favorite color as well, so... who cares! More blue the better! 

In addition to his blue cake, I made him a little frame. I printed our wedding song lyrics ("Sabes" by Reik) onto heavy cardstock, then I cut it out in the form of a tree. I then pasted it onto another white background, cut out red hearts, and hung them on the tree branch. Then I framed the tree. after that I cut out two of the same hearts again and wrote our names on them. Then, using 3D dots I put them on the outside of the frame so they would stand out.

I also put lipstick on and kissed some cardstock and wrote him a little note. Then I laminated it and told him to keep my kiss in his wallet. Then, I cut and laminated another piece of cardstock and put our wedding stats on there, i.e. how many years, months, weeks, days, hours, etc. we've been together. This was another card for his wallet.

A close-up of the tree of love frame.

Anniversaries aren't really big in Ecuador and my parents never really celebrated their anniversaries either. But I've always had a love for celebrating special moments and this is definitely one of them. I love remembering the first time we met, and the first time we went out, and our wedding, our son's birth... everything. It is all special to me and I am happy things happened the way they did. It wasn't easy when I moved to Ecuador, but Henry was a silver lining. I never expected any of this to happen. We met and became friends. I was positive that was it. Then one day... love happened :)

All Aboard! Baby Henry's First Birthday!

Welcome!! Welcome!! Come join us for Baby Henry's First Birthday Bash! He's 1!! He's!! I can't believe it! My little munchkin is one! But he was just born yesterday! How is this possible! I am so overwhelmed! He was so little. This tiny little angel and now he's so big and thankfully still an angel. I know everyone thinks their baby is the best, but I truly believe that my baby is the best... for me. He is exactly the way I pictured him. I knew he wouldn't give me any new gray hairs. He's so calm and laid-back. Fist bump to my Baby Henry for being my sidekick in everything we do. Can't wait for you to start walking. Everyone says things will be crazier when they start walking but I truly don't believe that. I feel that once he starts walking things will be smooth sailing. No more being carried by Mommy! I anxiously await that day!

Anywho, back to his party. So on April 19th we celebrated his 1st birthday, 5 days after the actual day. It was a Sunday and a gorgeous day at that. The weather cooperated for the pinata and everything went according to plan.

I didn't have time to make invites and truthfully I really didn't want to. This was a Thomas the Train themed party through and through. Everything had Thomas on it. Invites were no exception. We went to Party City and bought EVERYTHING we needed there.

These were their invites. 20 in the package.

 I needed one more invite so I had to make it. I was in a rush but I think it came out alright!

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The birthday boy with Daddy

The cake! Unreal right? Yeah!! We didn't go with Luigi's this time, we went with a Brazilian bakery and it proved successful. The cake was delish and everyone asked where it got our cake from. I gave them the Pinterest idea and they recreated it exactly. The track was ours. I looked and I looked for his little Thomas but I couldn't find it. It was the one piece missing, even though we had the Thomas candle. OVerall, this cake was so yummy!

Baby Henry through the year. Pinterest again. My dad made the numeral for me and I decorated it with pictures of Baby Henry from the moment he was born 'til the day before his party. I still have this. It's def. a keepsake and it was a hit at the party.

 

For party favors I made Train Smoke. I printed out the label, bought tiny marshmallows and little sandwich bags and assembled everything. I was so excited to hand them out that I handed them all out and forgot to one for me. 

 

 These were the station cards I made. I forgot to take pix of them but basically they were baggae claim, departures, and so on...

 A few days later we went to Toys 'R' Us for a special birthday greeting for Baby Henry. They announced his birthday through the loud speaker...

They also gave him a little Birthday Crown...

And a Balloon!!!!

Ruth's Baby Shower Decorations

My sister-in-law Gladys asked me to do some decorations for her bestie's baby shower so of course I had to oblige. I've really been into the decorations mood lately and I love a challenge. My challenge if I choose to accept it was: Wilderness theme. I ACCEPT!

Glady sent me all the ideas she had and what she wanted. I was to make a small animals banner, a larger "IT'S A BOY!" banner, and the favor tags.

Here goes:

Exhibit A: The small woodlands banner. I basically printed out little aminals and created a tiny banner. I embellied with some glitter.

I can't remember the dimensions of the banner but I made it a bit longer just in case. I aim to please.

Close-up of the aminals. The monkey is just too cute!

Exhibit B: The bigger "It's A Boy!" banner. I added a few aminals here and there and Glady gave me a bag full of little sprigs and brances and pinecones which I used throughout. She really enjoyed the look. Again, glitter is your friend so I used lots of it. I really wish I had used a better camera but this was the best I could do.
 

 Exhibit C: The thank you tags. I think this was the most time-consuming. Do you know how hard it is to cut little itty bitty aminals???? Wow! I was so done after aminal #5!!! But, duty called and I had to serve! I really spruced this one up until I was happy 'cuz at first I was not happy with my work. After printing the words I added the wittle aminals but something was missing. So, I added glitter swirls!!!! Yeah!!!!!! Then I woved it! Again, I really wish I had gotten a better res image but I had no camera and my bro took the pic for me. I have a feeling he sent me a low res version cuz he has an iPhone.... hmmm....