Happy 2nd Birthday to Baby Bunny!

I can't believe we are on birthday #2 for baby bunny!  As he has reminded me quite often in the last couple of days, "I'm not baby, I big boy!"  He went from saying "love mama" 3 months ago to saying "i wuv you".  And if that isn't proof that my baby is growing up, he was first to race Joshie down the slide at Joshie's new school.

We started the day with some pancakes... his fave shapes.  Can you guess what these are?

After he went down for his nap, Joshie and I wrapped his presents.  Joshie chose the gifts and was so excited to give them to his little brother.

I made some pom poms for the front porch. It was a bit of a crazy week so I didn't do too much decorating.  I made a lot more last year but he seemed to like these because they were bigger.

Then a little message on the chalkboard

A train cake made by Popo.  He didn't want to blow out his candles so Joshie helped out.

Food catered from Francesca's and fruit from Nonna.

Overall, we had a great time with the family.   Hubby made the kids a rollerball game inspired by the Rollerball game at Ribfest and the kids played soccer with their cousins.

He had a lot of fun opening his presents

I love birthdays!   

Tutorial: Easy Pom Poms

Today we are going to make pom poms!  These little poms are so easy to make and are lots of fun to have around.  Most people make these for scarves or hats but we are using them as indoor snowballs and as Christmas tree ornaments.

We had our first snowfall last Thursday and boy were the kiddies excited to see snow.  Monkey kept asking me if he could go outside and make a snowball.  We didn't have enough snow for a snowball so I thought, why don't I make the kids some yarn pom poms so they can have a snowball fight inside the house? 

Skill Level: Easy
Items Needed:

Yarn

Cardboard

Pen

Scissors

Average Time: 10 minutes

Step 1:  Make a template for your pom pom.  
Use a glass jar or something round and trace a circle onto the cardstock.  Cut and make 2.










Step 2:  Place the two discs together and wrap the yarn around the discs. 

Step 3:  Carefully snip the yarn at the out edges around the entire disc.  Hold on tight!  Step 4:  Slip a piece of yarn in between the discs and tie a knot.

Step 5:  Pull the pom pom through the disc.  If there are some longer pieces of yarn, trim with scissors to get a nice round shape.

You're done!  How easy was that?



Now you can decide what to do with it.  I made my poms small enough for the kids to hold.

I made a really big one but it didn't turn out as nice as the tiny ones.  I used the big one at the base of the little Christmas tree and hung some little ones.







Of course little Monkey had some for our snowball fight. 

Let me know how it turned out for you!  Enjoy your pom poms!

Happy Birthday Baby Bunny! (Party #2)

A week after we held the first party, we had another party for family.
This one was held indoors and was much more low key.

We moved in the pom poms.
I left them outside and they got rained on but somehow they are still intact.

Baby Bunny learned how to say "pom"

Pretty much the same menu but this time we had more pizzas and didn't get subs.

Can you believe the size of this balloon?

And the kids fought over the pirate ship.  

(This is a Little Tikes product and every time we receive something from this company, we get a good laugh from the catalogue.  It looks like it's from the 80s).  Will post a pic once I find out where the kids hid the catalogue.  




Oh and I didn't learn my lesson as I forgot to put out the cookies again.  Doh!
The good news is that our family figured out the recycling stations!!!  Yahoo!

Happy Birthday Baby Bunny! (Party #1)

Happy 1st Birthday to Baby Bunny!

You can only have one first birthday party so we ended up having 2 for baby bunny.  Our bungalow is too small for all of our friends/family and little kids so we split up our parties.

The first party was for our friends with kiddies.  We had an outdoor party.  Probably wouldn't have been able to function inside with 19 adults and 12 babies/toddlers.

This is the sign hubby made to direct folks to the backyard.  M + 1 + left arrow.  Says it all.

I made some pom poms for the fence because balloons were making baby bunny crazy.

Also I love making these and needed one more excuse to make more poms.  

Gotta love Martha Stewart!
Click here for the instructions


 


We made little loot bags for the kids.  Although we used blue and pink bags, the contents were pretty much the same:  Treats:  Goldfish pack, Dora or Cars fruit jube jubes Toys:  Slinky, skateboard, bouncy ball, bubbles, sunglasses, and stickers


 





Babies got little food jars and some babies also got Sophie Toy Leashes



















Here is a picture of the cake.  Hubby and I gave ourselves a mini heart attack the night before.   We didn't bother pre-ordering a cake since the store across the street ALWAYS has a bunch of cakes available.  Well, the night before the party, we discover that ALL of the cakes are gone.  So that meant driving around at 9pm with the poor kiddies in the backseat.  

By the time it was all over, Baby Bunny just wanted to play with more balloons.  He had no clue it was his birthday




















What worked:
- Having it outdoors made it so much easier 
- Lots of balls and toys to keep the kids occupied
- Easy to eat foods (pizza, pasta salad, subs, veggies, fruit) and self serve drinks in the cooler


What didn't work:
- The recycling station.  We had 3 boxes:  1 for food waste, 1 for cans/plates, 1 for garbage.  All 3 boxes looked the same by end of night.  Oh well, can't say we didn't try!
- We didn't take many pictures!  Next time we will designate a photographer to help us out.  Correction - hubby says we are never going to have another party with that many parents and kids.
- Even though we had a lot of food, I forgot to put out dip and some extra treats.  Oh and I should have had some crackers for the kiddies while they waited for the pizza.  I threw a couple of bags of chips on the picnic table instead since I figured this would be payback for all the times Cheeky Monkey got junk food.


All in all, a fabulous day.  Kids napped so that made a huge difference.  Cheeky Monkey woke up after the guests arrived but he didn't kick up a fuss.  Baby Bunny woke up right before the 1st guest so he was in a good mood.  

The next morning, the kids fought over this toy and many others...