Ilsa's 1st Birthday Party!

Ready to open presents.  Okay, so I'm ready to open presents because the Shib had no idea what she was supposed to do.

See?  Look at the confusion on this child's face.  I don't remember mine, but I feel like 1st birthday parties have to be somewhat traumatic.  Maybe that's why we don't remember them?  Or is it that whole one is way too young to remember anything?  Either way, trauma.

This is a picture of Biz smashing balloons because, again, Shib was traumatized by the first pop and had to go inside.

Here she is totally freaked out and not understand what was going on.  She was a trooper though, she just sat there looking stunned.  Not one tear.

As you can see the eating of the cake was a little bit of a scary endeavor as well. 

She got a little more comfortable with the sugary goodness though.

Happy to comfort another baby.  I think her maternal instincts kicked in and she had to be happy and strong for little pink baby.

Ilsa's party decorations

I decided to make the decorations for Ilsa's 1st birthday party.  I thought this might be the only opportunity I had to make all the pretty things I wanted her to have at a birthday party.  My two other monsters started having opinions about such things at a very early age.  It's nothing spectacular, pretty simple really, but everything was fun (and cheap) to make.

I made the allergy friendly cake recipe and then crumb coated this cake with a homemade lemon strawberry butter cream (made with Earth Balance).  For the swirly decor I used a couple of cans of Pillsbury because it took so much frosting and our beloved Earth Balance is getting more expensive by the minute!  

I made this banner from material scraps and bias tape.  It was the fastest sewing project I've ever finished.  I say finished because I have started and quit many projects very quickly!

I made these flower puffs for the back of all the chairs.  I just took four pieces of tissue paper and folded accordian style then pinched in the middle with a pipe cleaner and fluffed up each of the pieces.

Instead of a pinata we made a balloon smash.  The prizes were inside the balloons.  

This was made out of coffee filters!  I found this idea and tutorial at http://colorsareblushandbashful.blogspot.com/2010/10/diy-paper-lantern.html

This one is made from streamers.  I just twisted the streamers to look like flowers and hot glued to the paper lantern.

I found this tutorial http://www.theidearoom.net/2011/01/tissue-rosette-kissing-balls.html to make kissing balls out of streamers and styrofoam balls and used the same idea on a paper lantern to hang up.

It Finally Happened...

The kids are sick!!!  We made it through the whole winter with no sickies and now, when it is beautiful outside and flu season is over, the kids are all sick.  Shib has had a cold for about a week now.  She is all snotty nosed and gross.  Biz and Aev both had fevers today and were complaining of headaches.  So, we spent this beautifully hot and summer like day inside watching endless hours of Netflix.  It was awesome.  Oh wait, it was totally boring.  Okay, it was a little awesome.

I had that mother guilt/anxiety thing going on where I was worried about the kids being sick but still feeling guilty that they weren't outside "enjoying the day."  What's up with that?  Why can't I just take the day as it comes?  It's like I always feel like I should be doing the opposite of whatever I'm doing.  As if it would be healthy at all to take feverish kids out on a 95 degree day.  No, I have to obsess all day about how they are stuck inside like it's the last hot day we are ever going to have.  I also acted as if they are the only children to ever have a fever.  I couldn't stop obsessing about why they were sick.  Did they catch a virus and from where? Was it from the toy aisle at Target?  Was it a kid at soccer or blastball?  Was it from Kyle working at the hospital and now they have some crazy incurable hospital disease?  Are they over heated and dehydrated because I insist on them always "enjoying the day" even if it's a zillion degrees out?  Is it allergies?  Seriously, what is wrong with me?  

I Got Nothin...

Shib is still waking up at all hours of the night.  I don't know what to do about this and I'm sleepy.  I'm a terrible mother and I have no discipline when it comes to listening to my enormous baby (in all senses of the word) cry.  I'm back to being referred to as Stay-at-home Loser.  I will respond to it.

SAHL signing off.