the chronicles of us

Sunday, November 4, 2012

A Little Man's Mustache Bash Baby Shower {part 1}

I had the honor of helping host my sweet friend, Jackie's, baby shower today! I've been dying to share this party on here, but didn't want to spoil anything for her.

We've known since like... 12-13 weeks that Jackie and Patrick were having a boy. And she's 30 weeks now! So, I pretty much immediately wanted to do the 'Stache Bash' baby shower. It's ultra trendy right now.. if you Google "Baby Boy Showers" it'll probably be in the top 5. And so it was, we started planning for a Mustache Bash. I picked yellow and gray as our colors. (also trendy right now...sorry!)

I think I'll just start with pictures and explain as I go. Enjoy and please ask questions if I leave anything out!

I saw printables like this all over the internet, but none for free... so, I made my own! And flowers by Sallie!

"I'd love to stay and chat but I really mustache (must dash)."

Please excuse the lighting.. hoping this is my last party with our awful digital camera. :) Ashley made this adorable banner with scrapbooking paper and onesies with ties. (There will be a better picture later on, where you can see it clearly.)

I bought plain cups and embellished them with mustache stickers. They look hilarious when you put them up to your mouth to drink. I ordered these fantastic paper straws from The Enchanted Frog.

Tissue paper pom poms in our signature colors. Do you know how hard it is to find gray tissue paper??

Another fun sign I made for the welcome table.

I made a lot of these little cards.. HIMYM fans out there? At the end of most (if not all..) episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" they show one of Barney's "Bro Code" rules. So I picked 12 of the most appropriate ones and placed them about the party for people to have fun with. They were a hit! Very funny addition. (Ex. A Bro does not comparison shop., Bros do not share dessert., etc.)

Diaper Thoughts!

I made a cute little printable with a baby on it for this one. I have a picture later of all the sayings our guests came up with!

Of course we had to have a photo booth! I made a bunch of mustache and manly props. This was a huge part of why this party was so fun! I will share all the photo booth pictures in a separate post, this one's heavy as is! I just made sign from a little chalkboard. "Pick a prop-strike a pose"

These are the favor bags. Simple Party City bags with two mustache mugs and a hand sanitizer in them.

Simple Target mugs, made awesome by painting on a mustache. It was a couple's shower, so there were two in each bag.

I made little printables for the hand sanitizers (from Bath &Body Works) that said "We mustache (must ask) you to clean your hands before holding the Little Man!"

Get the idea?

Here, I made a little bunting of ties and mustaches. :) Easy, with coordinating fabrics from Hobby Lobby, backed with a little iron-on interfacing. Then I just cut out the ties. The mustaches are cut from that stiff felt you can buy at HobLob, as well. I strung them together with twine. I added hot glue for the mustaches.

More of the "Bro Code" cards. And beautiful flowers arranged by Sallie!

Start of the gift pile!

There's Sallie! Getting her spinach and artichoke dip ready!

Sallie did amazing with the food! Ordered Zoe's Kitchen's chicken salad (it was DE-Lish!)

A perfect fruit salad.

THE Cake! From Nothing Bundt Cakes. Thank you Ashley, for making this happen! It was red velvet, the Mom-to-be's favorite flavor. It was amazing. There were chocolate chips mixed in there. Oh wow.

Sallie also made this refreshing punch!

The spread! And check the next post for all the wonderful pics from the party (including photo booth pics!). There are some memorable ones! Click here to see {part 2}!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Pumpkin Patch

I kept seeing all these really cute pictures of kiddos at pumpkin patches... and I got jealous. :) I wanted those experiences for my baby, too! So, I researched it and decided on one of the patches in Flower Mound. There are two right next to each other. Apparently one is the "original" and the other is the "copycat competition". We went to the copycat. It had a pony ride. So, it won.

First off, we need a wagon to get around in.

Perfect.

Then, we should probably visit the "petting zoo". (Not the best, but they delivered, I suppose.)

*not pictured: pot bellied pig, goat.

Next, I think we'll get in line for the hayride!

He kept pointing out the "horsey"s in the pasture.

Speaking of horseys, next up: Pony Ride! Cohen has never been near horses, much less ridden one. So this was fun first for him. He was incredibly sweet to the pony, kept bending down and petting the mane. :)

After tearing him away from the ponies (he cried...) we stumbled upon the hay maze! He was scared at first (understandable) but then went in with gusto!

He found a little hole leading out, and tried to escape! :)

Yuck.. don't like the colors here, but here he is coming out of the maze!

Pause for pictures with Mommy and Daddy on a wagon!

Then, Coco spotted this! Choo choo!! He just had to ride. He loved it! Mama was a nervous wreck as it went out of my sight for a minute, but then when I saw him rounding the corner, he was ecstatic!

Silly boy!

Nice photo op at an antique tractor. He looked adorable. This kid loves him some tractors!

Before we picked out our pumpkin and came home, Cohen climbed a hay pile with Daddy. He was on top of the world! I think he's just perfect!

So, that was our day at the Pumpkin Patch! Can't wait to do it again next year!

My little review of the patch?

Name: Pumpkin Village Pumpkin Patch

Address: 4908 Cross Timbers, Flower Mound, TX 75028

Admission: Free

Parking: $5 (gotta keep it open somehow, right?)

Cost of Activities? Hayride-free, hay maze-free, petting zoo-free, hay pyramid-free, pony ride-$3 (tickets), choo choo barrel train-$3 (tickets), and free photo opportunities. Other activities we didn't do: bounce houses-free, mini Ferris wheel-$3, swing-$3, punkin chunkin-$2 per shot.

Food: Hamburgers, hot dogs, nachos, water, soda-$2-$3.

Pumpkins: $1-$20. Careful, we clearly picked out a $15 pumpkin and they tried to charge us $20 for it. After pointing out that it matched their $15 model exactly, they lowered the price.

So, the petting zoo was lacking a bit.. expected a few more animals. The ponies were great. The kids get a nice 4 or 5 minute ride. They only had 3 ponies going though, so it took a while to get through the lines. We only bought a soda and a hot dog at the end because we had a couple coupons leftover. We enjoyed the hayride and I know Cohen loved the barrel ride. All of the workers were pretty nice, except the lady selling the pumpkins. She was on her cell phone during the entire transaction, didn't answer questions and again, tried to up charge us.

Overall? We'd go back. We may possibly try the other one, right next to it next year. But if not, this one was fun. And inexpensive. Fun day.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Toddler Learning Activity

I really, really strive to teach Cohen at home. On a good week, I'm here with him 4 out of 7 days.

I talk to him (His Daddy is awesome at all of this too, but I'm writing this from MY POV today!) constantly, telling him what we're doing, asking him what he'd like, how he is feeling, what he thinks. Now, granted, he's got the limited vocabulary of a 21 month old boy right now. But, he's catching on quick! I swear, everyday he repeats something different that I say, and I'm like, "Did he just say...?" Got to, got to, got to be more careful what I say around him. And his memory is amazing, too! This kid rushes over when I'm emptying the dishwasher and he helps me! He takes out the cutting board and puts it in the correct cabinet, he grabs a bunch of Tupperware and puts it on the bottom shelf in the pantry (right where it goes!) and he loves to hand me forks and spoons from the basket. When I'm transferring laundry from the washer to the dryer, I can't leave out the step where I hand it to him first and then he tosses it in the dryer. He's so, so helpful (even if it makes chores last a little longer)!

I buy little school books like a mad person. He can't even hold a pencil to paper (different story, if there's a wall involved...) yet I buy alphabet books, President books, animal books, etc. I mean workbooks. That require him to follow some sort of instruction. Well, anyways. He's going to be one smart little boy, if I can get through all these books with him, eventually. I mean, he's already very smart.. but you know what I mean.

I am committing to doing more toddler appropriate activities with him, since we're at home a lot, and the poor kid gets bored sometimes.

I wish I could take credit for this activity, but I saw my friend Amber B. doing this with her son, Eli. And it seemed perfect! Our boys are 2 months apart. (E is younger than Coco)

I tore out two sheets of large construction paper, blue and green. Then I rounded up toys from his room... that were green or blue. Just small ones, that he can handle easily.

Then I put him in his highchair without the tray and scooted him up to the table.

I also wrote the names of the colors on the paper. Sight association, right?

The I put all the fun blue and green toys in front of him.

I showed him the first few and then he started! He clapped every time we cheered. :)

Placing his little green "bandage" on the green sheet!

A green block!

All done!

I definitely helped him a lot this first time. But, I bagged up the toys in Ziploc baggies and we'll have another go at it tomorrow! He had fun and seemed proud of himself for getting them right. He kept saying "Booo!" "Geeen!" Then, throughout the rest of the day, I continued to point out blue and green items.

What are some fun, easy toddler learning activities you do with your kiddos? Feel free to do this one with yours! (and again, I did not think this up!)

Quite embarrassed..

I don't even have a good excuse for why I've let the blog go, untouched, for nearly 2 months.

So, I would most like to update you with some pictures I found on my camera. :)

Cohen got a wooden train set! ($10..Ikea) :)