Time continues to fly by…here we are celebrating our baby girl’s 7th birthday today as we continue to do our best and soak up every minute we can with our children. The ever present reminder in the back of our minds…”it goes by so fast”. If I had a dollar for every time I heard a parent say that…but thank you! Thank you for constantly reminding us younger-ish parents of that fact.
I came across an idea on Pinterest to “fill your child’s room with balloons to wake up to on their birthday”. I thought HOW SWEET! However, there are a lot of sweet ideas on Pinterest in theory, how realistic are all of them? I decided to go for it and test it out.
Did you know Party City sells “air extend” for an extra $1.85 per dozen of balloons? It makes the balloons last for an entire 24 hours. Therefore you can plan ahead and hide them in your husband’s closet while they are at school!
Balloons can make quite a bit of noise, when you’re trying to shove two dozen of them into your sleeping beauty’s room. My suggestion, add them two and three at a time and softly place them on the ceiling, all the while, praying to the balloon Gods that one of them doesn’t POP in the process.
The result, a very happy birthday girl morning…”Mommy look! The birthday fairy came to my room last night!!” Complete with squeals and exaggerated hand gestures.
Last weekend, we threw a small birthday party for Soph and her little neighborhood friends that live nearby. I had about two days to whip it up. Here’s what I came up with…
Guests were greeted by the spooky No. 7 (five minute job with the black cardboard I was suppose to use to make the bats. Once again, that idea gets pushed back another Halloween).
I threw together a party table with black tulle from Walmart and tied together all the paper ornaments I had from last year, ran upstairs and dropped them out my bathroom window.
Put together “witch broom” treat bags with brown paper bags, sticks from the yard and twine.
Tried to order a cake, to make life easier, but missed the deadline. So I purchased three tiers of ascending cake pans and made a pretty tasty spice cake, I might add. I tried to use the Pinterest idea of wiping the frosting with a paper towel to make it look like fondant. Hah, yeah right. I guess I don’t have the knack for that skill. I finished it off by shoving plastic spider rings randomly all over the cake and seven black candles in the shape of a seven.
All kinds of grand plans to paint pumpkins, bob for apples, ghost hunt in the park, but in the end it was paint the pumpkins, cover the garage walls with chalk art, hide and seek in the alley and a dance party under the disco ball. I’m a believer in leaving it up to the imagination of the children. Like we had to day in and day out as children. And in the end it works, I peeked out the mud room door to find each one of them taking turns performing dance moves for a very supportive audience. ;-))))
The birthday week culminated with a huge pull of candy last night begging.
Like Mother, like Daughter. I loved being a Gypsy so much I was one twice! What’s not to love about lots of jewelry and make up? Mom had covered a small softball with aluminum foil that I carried as my crystal ball. I was looking closely at this picture last night when I noticed the gold bracelet on my wrist that belong to Mom. I still have it and wear it! As a matter of fact, I think I’ll put it on today. Sweet memories and tokens that keep us connected to our loved ones makes the heart feel great. xoxoxo
Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!
xx
Jennifer
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That ballooning the bedroom at birthdays thing can backfire. We started doing various pinterest versions of balloons in their room and now I think we’ve done them all but our kids expect it now. They want Something NEW every time! But I’m fresh out of ideas!!
OH NO! I’m sorry to hear that ;-))) I’m probably going to do it once more for her brother this year then call it a day.
Jen, very sweet birthday you created for your daughter! I swear she has the Vreeland eyes. Sally
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Thanks Sally! She is a Vreeland in many ways – makes us laugh every day…xo