A little girl's third Birthday

Harper turned three years old last Friday. I will spare you my laments of time passing quickly and how fast she's growing up. What I will say is that sometimes I look at her and realize that she has a mind of her own. She knows what she wants and tries her hardest to think (and do) for herself. It's actually quite scary. And yes, time has passed extremely fast, and I am absolutely relishing these moments that she is still a toddler, but I am looking forward to kidergarden, to sleepovers, and to ballet and piano lessons. With all of that said, it was such a great feeling to have all of our family and friends over to celebrate her third birthday. I think it was a success!

 These beautiful paper flowers were extremely easy to make! I really think they added a lot to the look of the party. Simple, sweet, and colorful. 

 Along with Bruschetta, Boiled peanuts, and some tasty cream cheese and olive dip, we made these adorable s'more cups! They were DELICIOUS!

I love these little take-home favors for the adults. I wrapped cookies in tissue paper and sealed them with a sticker. Some of the stickers had a cute picture of Harper and others were stamped with an "h" or a heart.

The kids didn't go home empty-handed. We made little goodie boxes filled with all sorts of fun stuff. We tied little paint chip hearts to them and stamped them with every kiddo's initials!

Harper's cake was my absolute favorite thing. I've been dying to try this "ruffle" technique and I think it turned out awesome! My fabulous husband assembled the cake for me and I happily decorated. Normally, you would continue the ruffles on top in a circular pattern, but I just love the idea of personalizing a cake with writing. That's just me. 

 This, by far was the bane of my existence for a few days but I was very happy with it after all was said and done. I love to personalize and there's no way you can buy a banner this cute!

Last but not least, I had to include my favorite picture of the Birthday girl. She was totally in her element. All the attention she wanted, and friends to play with left and right. 

What a great day.

DIY Saturday

Harper and I decided that today we were going to ignore all housework, room-cleaning, and dishes and be creative instead. We'll see what daddy thinks when he gets home from work. Even though the house looks like a tornado blew through, I think our projects were a success! Take a look and let us know.

She had a blast decorating a little jewelry box with paint, glitter, and jewels. I wrote "mommy and harper, Sep 2011" on the side. I hope it ends up being one of those sweet things you pull out of a hat box to show your children. 

My project took a little more time (and patience) (and calluses). I got this idea from re-nest.com and have been dying to try it. After all, why have a blank wall when you can put a tree on it. 

 I started with a basic idea of what type of tree I wanted and just began pushing the pins into the wall and stringing yarn through each one, wrapping it around as I went.

 I look EVERYWHERE for black push-pins, but apparently no one has thought of that yet. 

 When I started to see it come together I knew I wouldn't be able to stop until it was finished. 

When it was finished, Harper wanted a Daddy, Mommy, and Harper bird. I just drew a pattern onto different styles of card stock and voila, a sweet little bird family for our tree.

650 push-pins later it was finished. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I'm even contemplating making more little birds to add some color. All in all, a very inexpensive way to add some art to a blank wall. I would recommend however getting a thimble to save your fingers. Ouch! Other than that, not too shabby. 

Harp and I enjoyed our DIY Saturday so much that I think we'll make it a tradition. Be on the look out for our next project!

5 Faves

I've wanted to do this for a while. When I come across things I love I always want to share them, and what do you know? Here, I can. So I will try to do this weekly. I'll also try to keep it to five...no promises.

 1. The first is the ridiculously delicious but full of calories (I'll spare you the exact number) Peanut butter and Nutella sandwich. Yes, that's right...Nutella. For those of you who have never tried this unbelievable combo, let me just say that peanut butter, hazelnuts, and cocoa are a match made in after-school snack heaven. Of course I cut it in half and shared it with Harper...I mean, I meant to.

 2. This beauty is my very first, brand new (to me) Anthropologie Purse! I love the leather accents and of course the precious applique flowers. I've waited a very long time for an Anthro bag and I think this one suits me.

 

 2 Continued... I had to show you a pic of the pin-stripe interior. Beautiful!

 3. Now that we're back in school and Harper is taking regular baths (joke) I've rediscovered a love for detangling spray! No more fussing and fighting about brushing. It smells great too! P.S. Sometimes I even spray it in my own hair, let's face it...Anything to make life easier.

 4. Everyone knows that summer is the time for pedicures. I'm always so focused on making my toes look half-way descent in sandals that my fingernails are out of the picture. So as we come into fall I decided to try out a fall must-have color. Normally, I would try to save some money by buying the polish and doing it myself. Today, I spent the $15 (that included tip) and had someone else paint them. Not only do they look fabulous, whatever they put on top really does make them last longer. Also, who doesn't like someone else doing their nails? Exactly.

 5. Last, but certainly not least is Rosi Golan. I've been obsessed with the Mumford and Sons Pandora station as of late and as much as I love it, female artists are few and far between. The other day, Rosi Golan came on and for about three minutes I focused more on the music than on the road (which isn't always a good thing). Nevertheless, her song Hazy had me in goose-bumps and teary-eyed by the end. I will be downloading the album very soon. 

That's all! Look for more "5 faves" very soon!

Play time

One of my favorite things as a mom is watching two-year-old play time. It's so random, yet very deliberate. Flitting and fluttering back and forth from one activity to another. Acting out the pages of a book or knocking down a very tall castle. Immersed in play. We can learn a few things from these guys.




                                                    

She was convinced that I was surprised every time 

 Dumping out the blocks is always more entertaining than actually playing with them 

 Messes are always a sign of a good play time 

A girl after my own heart. This Barbie fashion "look-book" was handed down from her sweet cousin that shares our love for everything fashion.

I thought I knew what love was

Something happened today that made me more aware of what my life is and who I want to be. I've experienced this moment one other time previous to today but never took the time to lay it all out in words. 

My two-and-a-half year old wanted eggs for dinner. Nothing out of the ordinary, and it would probably be a pretty quick and easy meal to make if she didn't insist on pulling up a chair, cracking the eggs herself, and "stir, stir, stir!". All of that being said, it still takes all of eight minutes. So she does exactly what I expected and demands to help cook her little supper. We crack, we stir, we salt, we pepper, and we're done. I make her a routine chocolate milk to help wash it down and we set out for the living room. (Yes, sometimes we eat in the living room....remember, I'm working on my mom skills everyday..don't judge). I come back to the kitchen to start assembling my dinner when I hear her ask for a fork instead of a spoon. As I start to reply that yes, I would bring her a purple fork instead of the yellow spoon, I hear small running feet, a little gasp and a big clank. 

It was that moment that my brain was telling my mouth to huff. To sigh a sigh of disapproval. Telling my hands to rub my frustrated head. After all, I spent 8 minutes helping her cook these eggs. But before I could say anything, I saw my daughter kneeling on the floor. It was an instant breakdown. Heartbroken. Sobbing for her bits of the perfectly cooked-by-her egg that was now all over the floor. It hit me that in her little almost three-year-old brain, this was possible the worst day of her life. How could I even entertain the thought of making it worse. Don't I mess up? Don't I get second chances? All of the above. 

 I walked over and calmly explained that mommy wasn't mad and that we had lots more eggs in the fridge and that we could take another whole 8 minutes to make new ones. In her eyes, on her face, in that small second was real love.