Productive Weekend

Originally, this weekend was supposed to be one that the kids and I spent in Lincoln at my niece's baptism. However, as I figured would happen, the weather forced us to cancel those plans. I woke up on Sunday a little annoyed that we decided to stay put, because it was perfectly sunny. However, a text to and from my mom and I learned that the same could not be said for Lincoln. And apparently, their experience driving to church, to lunch, and back home was a pretty "interesting" one. And then later, after seeing the 40+ car pile-up in Wyandotte County and another multi-car accident in Johnson County, KS (which was totally surprising to me, because where I live I never saw anything close to those conditions), I was very thankful that the kids and I spent the weekend home instead of on the road.

So while I was home, I tried to use the time wisely and start really working on the decorations for the work baby shower I'm throwing in nine days and my son's 1st birthday party in March. For the most part, I've created the cupcake/party circles I'll be using for both events (inspired by the creative The TomKat Studio), I just need to finalize the colors and what is printed on them, print them, punch them out and assemble. I also sent out the "Save the Date" emails for Brendan's 1st birthday party in March, and created the invitation. It's pretty basic, but I'm very happy with them.

(The little yellow sticky notes are not part of the invite).

Now to actually get them labeled and mailed out!

And now that I've got the invitations done, I plan to concentrate more on getting the stuff done for the baby shower, since I obviously have less time for that. I need to finish the cupcake toppers, cover my cupcake display with paper, make my banner, make one of my baby shower gifts, AND next weekend and early next week I'll be making about three dozen cupcakes -- make, bake and decorate. Busy times!

This weekend was also Valentine's Day. Thinking we were going to be out of town this weekend, we did our Valentines dinner with the family on Wednesday. So Sunday shortly after we got up we gave Emily and Brendan their Valentines gifts, and eventually I settled in to watch the Daytona 500. I wanted to enjoy the race so I put my crafts aside for awhile, but little did I know the race was going to take six hours! During red flags I worked more on my party stuff, but in the closing laps of one of the most exciting Daytona 500's that I can remember, all I could do was sit on the edge of my seat. (Yay for Jamie McMurray's win - a group of friends and I were in Charlotte for his very first Cup race/Cup victory, and he's from Missouri, so I have a soft spot for him.)

After dinner and Em's bath, we baked Valentine's cookies and made cards for the kids at daycare. Em did the stamping, I did the rub on transferring, and she signed the cards.

This was actually the first time I'd seen her write her own name, and I was VERY impressed at how quick she picked it up. Then I found out that they've been practicing at daycare : ) But I still think it's very good for a four year old!

So party progress is being made and fun is being had. I will continue to post updates and pictures as I go along.