Birthday Party Fun

This weekend we celebrated a 2nd birthday! Alligator's birthday isn't until Monday. At this point 2 years ago I was still in the labor process on day 2 of a 3 day induction. We had tons of friends and family over on Saturday and a good time was had by all!

Here is the door "wreath" I made. I made it in the shape of a 2 because that was, of course, more fun!

Cupcake toppers made by a great friend! Purple funfetti cupcakes with funfetti frosting. (There was a birthday banner to match but it got lost from one birthday party last weekend to this birthday party this weekend.)

Yummy sugar cookies I made in the shape of flowers and number 2s. (Harder to ice these shapes really quick than I thought, good thing they tasted great!)

The cake done by Publix. All I did was give them the plates and tell them to "make it pretty and like these."

The light over the dining room table decorated with some pretty ornaments.

The yummy buffet. Cupcake stands I made out of a dollar store pizza pan, some candle holders, and gorilla glue. Normally I use these for our Halloween party decorations, painted black and covered in candle wax.

Alligator was VERY excited about her pom poms she got as a gift from my cousin. My friend over at Polka Dot Lolli Pop lives nearby and made this shirt for her Friday night. I actually dropped it off to her at 11pm and she brought it to me the next morning. She's awesome. =) I made the skirt to match (slightly big for room to grow).

Very exciting pom poms.

The hallway showing the magnet board I made. I used a piece of metal (FREE!) and put in a heavy duty frame with backing. Used a monster type of hanging hook to make sure it was sturdy. The kids love it!

A bounce house borrowed from a friend and neighbor provided great entertainment in the back yard!

The only goo picture I have of the two of us. She was very happy to be singing Happy Birthday. She says "Happy Bap" for Happy Birthday. She really enjoyed it.

She also really enjoyed the cake. She took her first bite by the handful. Yummy.

She did end up using a fork for a couple bites.

Little Mallinator had a great time too. She will be 8 months on the 1st and she did so great during the party. She took 2 naps and was hugged and loved by many. She is crawling all around now and really enjoyed playing with some of Alligator's new toys.

Thank you to all our friends and family for coming to celebrate with us! Hope to post more frequently now that the Halloween and Birthday stuff is over with. My Etsy shop and Facebook page were super busy for Halloween with orders.Thanks for reading!

Wordless Wednesday - 2nd day of preschool!

(Bothered that I made her stop so I could take her picture.)

5 1/2 months already?!

It is crazy to think that the Malligator is 5 1/2 months and Alligator is almost 2. TWO. 2 years old. Amazing! (Oh also notice how original I am in hiding M's name? I know some of my readers know my kids' names, but some don't, and I'd like to keep some things a bit private.)

So we are doing pretty well around here! Everyone is sleeping better at night. Our days and nights are way more predictable. I kind of feel like I have the hang of things around here. It was right around this time with Alligator I felt this way too.

A lot of people have asked us about solids for the Malligator because she's 5 1/2 months and a lot of people start at 4 months. We are not those people. ;) We are waiting. It is much easier to give her a bottle or a boob right now, why mess with that!? With Alligator we waited until nearly 8 months and it did not harm her one bit. She eats almost anything. She loves some vegetables. She loves fruit. And she will tear up some BBQ meats. Her favorite veggie: lima beans. For real. She will pick them all out of the mixed veggies first when we have them with dinner. She is such a silly girl sometimes too.

Here are some pictures I have to share, finally.

 Here she is! So excited to be 5 months old!

Not quite sitting up on her own yet, but very very close.

I have a picture of myself in a grocery bag when I was about Alligator's age. My dad was holding m e and I had a similar smile going on. Well this is MY grocery bag and here is Alligator in it. I made this bag and I suppose I made it pretty well. I was swinging her around in this thing for a good 15 minutes. She weighs about 29 pounds! 

 We were testing out my new camera lens with my niece and Alligator outside. Yes she is playing with a thing of deodorant.... I am still figuring out the lens and how to get a good bokeh going on. Next I need to figure out how to do some good Photoshop tweaking. Not bad though? I have a good subject. ;)

Malligator sticking out her tongue. She loves doing this right before I hit the camera button instead of smiling.

Here are some very cute bibs a friend of mine sent me. You can get your own custom bibs here: http://stores.ebay.com/Deals-by-Kathy

I won a giveaway of these custom name crayons. I blurred out the names but you get the point. ;) You can find your own custom set here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/MadebyMAXX 

I also was looking through my pictures on my computer and found THIS blog entry from last year around this date. Amazing what a year does. Here are the pictures from that post. This kid cracks me up!

I have a new Facebook page for my Alligator Lane store too. If you haven't checked it out go here:
http://www.facebook.com/alligatorlane

I'm doing a Giveaway through another page on Facebook, so if you are interested in that check out Mommies Who Love Freebies and see the September Albums. To enter you have to like the sponsor (or person doing the giveaway) and then like the picture of the prize you want to win. I'm giving away a tie onesie in Album 1.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear from or see who is reading, so leave a comment and say HI. I am going to try to update more often and tie the blog more into the shop on Facebook and Etsy. Also might start doing some giveaways of my own and for some friends. So thanks for checking us out and come back again!! =)

Funny Monday # 9

More puddles. We've been a little cooped up because nap schedules are way different around here for the kiddos. So last week while it rained I let Al play on the back porch with chalk. Then when it stopped she was all about the puddles and mud. She actually layed down in a puddle and did puddle angels.

Wordless Wednesday - Sisters

Funny Monday #7

Alligator HAS to wear these glasses now when we go for walks. What a silly girl. Hoping that she becomes a big sister any day now!

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Funny Monday #6 - What a view!

This is what I see most of the day when Alligator is awake. If she is teething or sick I see it about a bazillion times a day because all she wants is UP. Notice the belly...it is hard to pick ANYthing up, let alone a 25 pound toddler.

For those of you not on my Facebook list...here is what the rest of the belly looks like. Here is my 37 week belly as of Wednesday March 2nd.

(Sorry for the crappy cell phone picture!)

So Happy Monday everyone! Let's hope I don't have too many more Mondays with this belly...everything is getting harder to do lately! =)

Wordless Wednesday - Puddles

Puddles...they always start out innocent enough....

And then you sit in them. 

Totally worth it for the almost 3 hour nap after though!!

Funny Monday #5

((I meant to post something WITH this picture and I forgot. Woops.))

This picture was from Sunday (2/27/11) at the splash park thing near our house. It was her first time and she LOVED it. I imagine she's saying "HI" to whatever is underneath this grate thing. She likes to say hi to people and things.

Funny Monday #4 - What IS that?

"What is that on your head?"

Just one of Mommy's breakable headbands...that she put on all by herself! It broke just a few minutes later. =(

Happy Monday!

Wordless Wednesday - Phone Booth

This is a Wii controller she's using but in 1 year old world I suppose it could be a phone too. She loves this cabinet. This used to be my recycling bin cabinet...now it is HER cabinet.

Funny Monday #3

Sleeping pictures make me smile. Especially when she does such funny things in her sleep.We just got a new camera for her and Baby Girl #2's room....it lets you take PICTURES from it. Awesome. Now I can show off her silly sleeping ways.

Here are a few older ones first...

10/2/2010 - About 11 months old. Taking this picture ruined a perfectly good nap too. Ooops!

8/10/2010 - About 8 1/2 months old. Looked like she was running in her sleep.

8/4/2010 - About 8 1/2 months old. Sleeping in the car...even food couldn't keep her awake.

These next few are more recent and the quality is horrible because the camera only takes pictures that look good on the handheld monitor. So you might need to squint a bit.  ;-)

Almost 15 months old....

You put your right hand in, you put your right hand out...

 

You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out...

 
This was just last night (2/13/2010). Like she was trying to hide from us....do you see she put a lovey thing over her face? Cracked us up, I took the picture, then we took it off for just in case safety. Funny girl.

Happy Monday! Hope your Monday is going better than mine.

Wordless Wednesday - Yummy

Not totally wordless...I feel like I should explain. ;-) My spaghetti casserole with peas added is a HIT with Alligator (let me know if you want the recipe). She does not like to eat with the toddler forks or bowls lately :-/ so regular forks and bowls it is! So far nothing has been dropped besides the silverware. This is definitely a diaper only meal too.