I cannot believe that it has been an entire year since my last blog post! To be honest, after having Penelope I was considering whether I wanted to keep my blog or not. Not only that, but with two kids, I felt as if I had little to no time to write in my blog and when I did have time I chose to play video games instead. Oh boy! I decided however, that I will write in it occasionally even if it's just to write my thoughts and even if I get little to no views. After all, I did do this blog for myself, and if someone finds something interesting, well they are most welcome! Anyways, as you may have noticed, Penelope is a year old now! She is such a chatty little girl and says little things like ball, look, daddy, papa (grandpa) and tries to copy whatever you say which of course translates to cute baby gibberish. She learned to walk a week before her birthday and loves playing with her brother and watching Baby Einstein videos. Her favorite foods are mandarin oranges and various types of meats and she loves to eat all of the time. I'm currently still nursing her and plan to wean her when she gets all of her teeth because getting bitten is probably the worst thing ever! To be quiet honest, I was a little disappointed in her birthday party. I guess it was because I didn't go all out like the way I did for Ben's first birthday party. Things just didn't go as my OCD brain has planned. And by that, I mean little things such as what party favors to the way things were set up. Let me not sound ungrateful and say it was horrible because it wasn't! I appreciate everything, from the cake my aunt made my little one to the help I received from my mom to make this little party happen, but I guess I just wanted my little girls first birthday to be BIG and extra special. Unlike Benjamin, who loved watching Yo Gabba Gabba and Sesame Street which helped inspire his Monster Bash birthday party, Penelope doesn't really like watching television. Which of course is a good thing, but made it harder for me to pick a theme for her birthday. So of course I decided to make it a mermaid theme! I bought her Birthday onesie from the Etsy shop LilStychesBoutique and her leggings from the Etsy shop FrecklesandFancy . Since we were on a tight budget, the only things I bought online were the tablet cloth (which is not pictured but had the cutest mermaid border), her piñata, gift boxes, birthday banner, blow up fish, and dangling sea decor. The rest of the decorations and party favors (which are not pictured), were bought at Dollar Tree! Such as the beach buckets I used to put snacks in, the paper plates with the sea turtles and dolphins, silverware, and balloons. My aunt loves making and decorating cakes so she decided to make Penelope's cake! I decided to make the centerpieces myself which didn't come out the way I expected but weren't to bad looking (I hope!). I bought the glass jars, sand, pebbles and other supplies from Dollar Tree as well and printed out the mermaid, seahorse and crab from the internet. Watching Finding Nemo was of course a must for an under the sea themed birthday! All and all, her little birthday party was a success and still cute! And on top of that, she will have many pictures of the beautiful memories we had of that day which make it all worth it. Now here is a photo countdown of my little Penelope. From a spunky little one year old, to a fresh little squishy newborn! <3
I can't believe that it has been a year since I wrote about Benji's Monster Bash first birthday party! For Benjamin's first birthday party, I remember going all out and tried to be unique by going with the cute "monster bash" theme instead of a Yo Gabba Gabba one how I had originally wanted. I remember thinking, "No Thalia, lets be unique!", but of course that resulted in lots of party stresses. Stresses such as not finding cute decorations, gift bags, or party favors and TONS of online shopping. It was such a pain, but in the end his birthday party was beautiful! This year however, I remembered all of those stresses and thought, screw being unique, lets make it small and simple yet something that screams "Benjamin". I know lots of parents prohibit tv watching for their kids, but as a stay at home mom with a crazy 2 year old that doesn't seem to want to take naps anymore, sometimes a movie is the key to getting dinner done or things done in general around the house. Although he loves to help me with dinner or "Washing" dishes while I cook dinner, sometimes I don't really want the help. Hello soap and water all over the floor. With that being said, Benjamin enjoys watching movies, and Wreck-It Ralph is his all time favorite, so I thought, why not make that the theme for his birthday party? Shopping for his birthday this time around was soooo easy. I did however had to buy all the Wreck-It Ralph things online such as the "Happy Birthday" sign, goodie bags, table cloth, and invitations since Party City decided to stop selling them. But it totally beat buying things online every other week that's for sure! Since Ralph was in an 8-bit game in the movie, we bought the 8-bit game signs at one of our local party warehouses and it was the perfect touches to the rest of the décor! We also kept the color scheme for the rest of the décor the same as the Wreck-It ralph decorations we bought online which were red, yellow and a teal blue. I also bought some golden chocolate coins at Party City to add the arcade feel to the party. Although not many kids were coming since we decided to keep it rather small, I still made some goodie bags just in case. My mom gave me the idea to NOT fill the goodie bags with candy, but instead, we filled them with juice, a small bag of crackers, gummies and of course a cute little party favor. I also wanted to thank my aunt for the custom made cake she got for Benji's birthday! How cute?!
Benji's party was really small but I'm glad I decided to still make it cute so that he could look back when he gets older to see how much he is loved by his family and friends. Happy birthday my big boy! <3 If you were wondering about the details of Ben's birthday, you have come to the right place! As I mentioned on my last blog post, I felt as if my first post on Benji's birthday was so rushed because I knew people wanted to see pictures that I didn't think about writing anything. I know a lot of people were curious about what I cooked and how everything was set, so after doing some editing to adjust the lighting, I finally have some pictures all about his birthday! I hope I spark some ideas into anyone wanting to throw a super simple but unique monster bash themed party. I had lots of help and ideas from pinterest which I'll link down bellow. First, let's talk about food! Let me just say I LOVE pigs in a blanket. Sure, not the healthiest thing to eat, but it's something simple yet yummy that you or a toddler can eat and enjoy! I used a good 4 cans of 8 count Pillsbury biscuits to make my piggies. I am also a huge fan of deviled eggs. I hope I didn't bore my guests with thembecause I served something similar at my baby shower! Along the snacks and appetizers, I served fruit cups and fresh fruit which aren't pictured here, and I also served two not so healthy cheese ball dips that I will link below. One of them was a funfetti cake cheese ball served with vanilla wafers and the other was a cheesy bacon cheese ball served with Ritz crackers. And finally the all time favorite, the delicious ooey gooey monster cookies! When I throw parties, I try my best to keep food in a category in which everyone from kids to adults can enjoy. In all honesty I like to stick to appetizers but in large amounts, that way it's a quick thing to pick up and serve instead of dealing with something messy like ribs or sloppy joes. If your wondering, wow is this all she served? The answer is yes. Totally kidding, my dad was kind enough to make some delicious home made wings and I made an awesome ranch style pasta salad that was completely gone by the end of the party. Let's just say the food was good! When it came to the tables, I kept it pretty simple. I did my own center pieces from an idea I cam across Pinterest. The awesome part was that I bought the cube vases from the Dollar Tree that were, duh, just a dollar instead of the exact same ones from Michaels that were six dollars! Talk about a bargain. I also used some monster printables from Bens party pack and glued them on some popsicle sticks and kept the whole chevron pattern on the tables. I tried to keep his party on a budget and I think I did a pretty good job despite the fact that I did spend a good chunk of money on party favors! My plan for his party was to focus on the babies, especially to keep them separated from the toddlers to avoid tantrums, jelousy, and most of all, to keep them from getting hurt. We have an antique shelf by our door so I decided to use this area to separate the kidos. On one side I set up a mini pool with plastic balls to simulate a ball pit for the babies to play with, on the other side I set up our coffee table, which isn't pictures, with some mini lawn chairs I had bought at Target so the kids could sit and color. Which by the way they didn't do. And last but not least, I had set up a photo booth area for everyone to take pictures! I want my son to look back when he's older and think, wow, my mama did all this for me? Most of the pictures were blurry, but of course, that doesn't matter, what matters is that we made so many memories for his first birthday that I will never forget, but sadly, Benji will, and because of that, I took as many pictures as I could. I hope that everyone enjoyed themselves for his birthday, and I hope someone out there got an idea or ideas for planning their little monsters birthday! •Funfetti Cake Cheeseball:
http://whatscookinglove.com/2013/05/funfetti-cake-cheese-ball/#_a5y_p=1949798 •Bacon Cheeseball: http://www.chocolatemoosey.com/2013/12/26/bacon-cheddar-cheese-ball/ •Center Piece Idea: http://onecharmingparty.com/page/10/ •Gooey Monster Cookies: http://lilluna.com/gooey-monster-cookies/ •Prints for Benjamin's birthday: http:// P.OwliePowlie.Com •Lollipops, Purple Monster Pinata, party favors(not pictured): http:// www.orientaltrading.com Almost a month after my son's birthday and I find myself wanting to share even more details about his monster bash themed birthday party! I was going through pictures on my phone and as I came up to the picture of his birthday cake, I realized that I didn't really talk much about it or anything for that matter! This post will be about the cake if anyone is truly interested and I'll do a big post about all the other details of his party as I feel like my last post was rather rushed and bland. Please excuse the lighting and quality of the photos! My house seriously has no windows except in the kitchen and living room and bedrooms. As for the dining room, there is ZERO natural lighting so the pictures are kinda terrible except for the fact that I edited them. I originally wanted to do the cakes myself and actually practiced and failed trying to make the perfect red velvet cake. The week of his party I just knew that it would be impossible to try and do a marvelous cake on my own, that's when my mom suggested to order one from one of our local bakeries La Tierra Caliente. I was a bit skeptical at first. We've ordered cakes from similar bakeries and I wasn't satisfied, and I feared that they wouldn't be able to make them as I wanted them. I had zero time to run around looking for bakeries so I thought, let's give it a shot, so I printed some photos for references of how I wanted the cakes. The day of his birthday came and I was excited to see the cakes. My parents offered to pick them up so I could stay at home and finish off the decor and food. When they got home I could see disappointment in my mom's face. I feared for my life! "The drive was bumpy so I accidentally messed up the eye" she said. I opened the box and smiled. It was perfect despite the little eye, which I fixed by blending in the frosting and cutting out an extra monster eye I had laying around. Everything was perfect! The cakes were super moist and filled with fruit. I think from now on I will consider going back in case I want a cute cake that I know I won't be able to do myself, and the awesome part was that we only payed $92 for both cakes! That's honestly cheap compared to other costume made cakes.
In the end I was satisfied with my purchase, and I'm glad everyone else was too! •Benjamin's smash cake was chocolate and the other cake was chocolate and vanilla• *Benjamin didn't smash the cake, we gave him a slice because the cake itself was too big!* Before I begin, I want to Thank everyone that came to Benji's birthday, you guys made it a day to remember! Here are some pics of the decor for his birthday before the guests arrived! Going through these pictures was so emotional. I never realized how much of a baby my baby doesn't look like anymore! I will always see him as that little newborn I first held almost a year ago. Seeing him grow is the biggest blessing God has given me.
That's right ladies and gentlemen, baby Benji will no longer be a baby! It's crazy how cliché this sounds but time truly does fly by when you have kids. Watching my son go from being a little newborn to a curious little toddler has been an adventure.
With that said, I've been going just about insane planning his first birthday party! It's my baby shower all over again. From picking napkin colors to deciding what flavor cake I should make, it's been too much for a baby's first birthday. But hey, it is his first birthday so I have to make it big! Ben's father and I -mostly I- had trouble deciding what theme we'd make his birthday. Benjamin's favorite TV shows are Sesame Street and Yo Gabba Gabba so picking between the too seemed impossible, but with the help of Pinterest and my little brain I thought, hey both cartoons are pretty monstery so why not a Monster Birthday Bash? Looking at my decision, it's perfect! Not only because I sometimes call Benjamin a little monster due to the fact that he seriously acts like one, but because it wasn't your typical first birthday theme like Sesame Street or Winnie the Pooh which let me just say are both perfectly cute and fine! At first I wanted to do all the decorations from scratch, but I honestly don't have all the time in the world for that but at the same time didn't want to buy no $50 printable monster birthday pack from Etsy. I was straight up confused! Finally, I remembered a cute picture of a birthday set I saw on Google and went back to check out the link. That's when my prayers were answered. p.owlie.powlie.com Owlie Powlie was not also affordable for like, every single party decoration you can think of and invitations, but it was just what I wanted! And best of all, it was instant download so I could edit the cards myself without having to wait for someone to do it for me! I'm finally stress free and can't wait for my son's first birthday. Make sure to check out owlie powlie for other birthday themes and baby shower themes and if you'd like ideas for a monster themed birthday party, check out my Board on Pinterest! |
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