Mama and Daddy love you so much!
January 27, 2009
January 24, 2009
A Specialty: Party Favors
Ladies (I assume the men won't care) - I will admit that I love me some party favors! I love packing up a little bag of goodness to send home with all Maggie's friends as a fun way to end the party and say thank-you for coming to the party. But as we all know, I am also cheap. So, I thought I would post about how I made her party favors this year to give you some ideas on saving money for your next party:
Live in the clearance aisle! I check Wal-Mart, Target and Walgreens' clearance sections. Constantly. It gets me out of the house when I am feeling a little cabin fever, and I find great deals.
-The tubs of 15 sticks of sidewalk chalk were $0.25 each at Walgreens around September.
-I found the bubbles for $1/6-pack at the same time.
-I found some Christmas-y LipSmackers in Wal-Mart's clearance after Christmas and they even had snowflakes on them. They were probably the most expensive item at $4/6-pack, I can live with that, they don't stay in the clearance section for very long and they were too cute to pass up.
-The candies were $1.25 for a 15 pieces (they were white chocolate mint snowflakes and peanut butter-chocolate mittens). 3 - 4 pieces per bag.
-$.20 snowflake pencils from Party City.
For the big kids the goodies and cellophane and ribbon and snowflake decoration ran me about $1.75-$2.00 each. The little kids got bubbles and candy, $0.75. Granted, I had to store all the goodies, but I count that a small price to pay for such fun party favors.
I hope for her next birthday I can repeat the great success I had this year!
Snowflakes and Mittens Birthday Party
Maggie's party theme this year was snowflakes and mittens. I stumbled upon the theme - I was gifted a huge pack of foam mittens and snowflakes in July, so I'd been working on and collecting stuff for her birthday party since then. This is a long post, but it's got most of the details. I hope you enjoy it!
The streamers (tradition #2), snowflake centerpieces, and mitten garland.
I made snowflake hair clips for all the girls. I LOVED making them, and I think most of the girls liked them, too. 
We started out the morning with a craft - decorating some mittens. 
The older girls - they decided to get dressed up in Maggie's princess dress-up clothes. Maggie was wearing her Ariel outfit, but took it off right before the picture. 
Jake, the only boy to brave the party with 9, count 'em - NINE - little girls from almost 2 to 4. He did great. 
After the craft we ushered most of the munchkins into the living room to read The Mitten by Jan Brett. Such a cute story. 
Lunch: grilled cheese and tomato soup. The perfect Spaid family winter lunch. 
I got a picture right as she blew out the candle, but it messed up the video portion of it. 
Here's video of her blowing out he candle. I didn't realize at the time that taking pictures on top of videoing it would mess up the video. I am a little bummed about that. I love how she is singing along with the song.
Taking a bite into her cupcake. She was more interested in her cocoa and marshmallows, so that was the only bite she took.
Everybody enjoying their cupcakes and cocoa. 
After lunch, after cupcakes, Maggie was done. Can you see her in the background on her bed? She needed to chill for a couple of minutes, so while all the other kiddos played in her room she took a time-out on her bed with lambie!!!
And finally, Maggie with her Daddy. So sweet! Here I think she looks SO MUCH like her Daddy. I love it. 
The streamers (tradition #2), snowflake centerpieces, and mitten garland.
I made snowflake hair clips for all the girls. I LOVED making them, and I think most of the girls liked them, too. 
We started out the morning with a craft - decorating some mittens. 
The older girls - they decided to get dressed up in Maggie's princess dress-up clothes. Maggie was wearing her Ariel outfit, but took it off right before the picture. 
Jake, the only boy to brave the party with 9, count 'em - NINE - little girls from almost 2 to 4. He did great. 
After the craft we ushered most of the munchkins into the living room to read The Mitten by Jan Brett. Such a cute story. 
Lunch: grilled cheese and tomato soup. The perfect Spaid family winter lunch. 
I got a picture right as she blew out the candle, but it messed up the video portion of it. 
Here's video of her blowing out he candle. I didn't realize at the time that taking pictures on top of videoing it would mess up the video. I am a little bummed about that. I love how she is singing along with the song.
Taking a bite into her cupcake. She was more interested in her cocoa and marshmallows, so that was the only bite she took.
Everybody enjoying their cupcakes and cocoa. 
After lunch, after cupcakes, Maggie was done. Can you see her in the background on her bed? She needed to chill for a couple of minutes, so while all the other kiddos played in her room she took a time-out on her bed with lambie!!!
And finally, Maggie with her Daddy. So sweet! Here I think she looks SO MUCH like her Daddy. I love it. 
It's that time again - birthday cupcakes
We are developing some traditions for Maggie's birthday:
-Cupcake/cake-making the night before
-Streamers for decorations
-lots of Balloons
So here is Maggie helping me make the cupcakes for her birthday. She REALLY enjoyed helping this year, even helped add in the cake mix - er - I mean the from scratch ingredients.
The secret ingredient to perfect cupcakes: instant pudding mix. Seriously - I am not bothering with scratch cakes when a box of mix and another of pudding are nearly free (when I've got coupons and they are on sale) and they turn out perfectly moist every time. I love scratch cakes, I'm just not that awesome. 
Licking the spatula AFTER I was done using it. 
Maggie's grin went from ear to ear when Mama said "yes" after she asked if she could have the beater. 
The final product: snowflake cupcakes. I made the snowflakes with royal icing. 
-Cupcake/cake-making the night before
-Streamers for decorations
-lots of Balloons
So here is Maggie helping me make the cupcakes for her birthday. She REALLY enjoyed helping this year, even helped add in the cake mix - er - I mean the from scratch ingredients.
The secret ingredient to perfect cupcakes: instant pudding mix. Seriously - I am not bothering with scratch cakes when a box of mix and another of pudding are nearly free (when I've got coupons and they are on sale) and they turn out perfectly moist every time. I love scratch cakes, I'm just not that awesome. 
Licking the spatula AFTER I was done using it. 
Maggie's grin went from ear to ear when Mama said "yes" after she asked if she could have the beater. 
The final product: snowflake cupcakes. I made the snowflakes with royal icing. 
January 16, 2009
Maggie's First Trip to the Dentist
Maggie was so excited all week to go to the dentist. She knew she'd get a special treat if she did well. But, when we came down to it, she was a little hesitant to walk down the hall to the chair. 
Getting ready for her cleaning. 
Being a VERY good girl letting the hygienist use the pointy-scrapy-thingy, and sitting so still. She picked grape-flavored tooth polish, and watermelon flouride paint. (BTW- the flouride paint is AWESOME. No yucky tray to wear or anything, they just paint on this goopy stuff that dries on quickly and away you go!)
Dr. Hunter doing a quick check. 
The treat she picked from the toy chest: a pencil with a dinosaur attached to it. Of all the cool stuff in that chest, she picked a LAME, BOYS dinosaur. And she loves it!
Getting ready for her cleaning. 
Being a VERY good girl letting the hygienist use the pointy-scrapy-thingy, and sitting so still. She picked grape-flavored tooth polish, and watermelon flouride paint. (BTW- the flouride paint is AWESOME. No yucky tray to wear or anything, they just paint on this goopy stuff that dries on quickly and away you go!)
Dr. Hunter doing a quick check. 
The treat she picked from the toy chest: a pencil with a dinosaur attached to it. Of all the cool stuff in that chest, she picked a LAME, BOYS dinosaur. And she loves it!
In Which the Child Says "Mommy, I Don't Need a Nap"
Yeah, right. Asleep on the couch in 20 minutes after we got home from Mother's Day Out on Wednesday. She slept for 2 hours! I had to wake her up even.
"Mommy, the letter of the day is O"
That's what she said to me when she saw the Cracklin' Oat Bran in my cereal bowl the other day. I about spit my cereal across the room!
January 15, 2009
Christmas Program - Singing
Sorry for the delay on this one, it's on the Mac and I never use that computer. Here's a short clip of Maggie's Christmas program and all the little ones singing "Jesus Loves Me." It's one of the few seconds where Maggie isn't holding her lamb up to her face.
January 14, 2009
Conversations with Maggie
Here's Maggie talking about her birthday, about how her lamb had to stay on her bed after she turns three (that's right- we are taking away the lovie!)... and more stuff about her birthday. She is really excited, and I think this year she gets it.
January 12, 2009
Rose-Colored Glasses
Peer pressure starts early - she had to pull out her play glasses to watch a movie with Zayli.
January 2, 2009
Fun with Christmas Gifts
Here's some fun stuff of Maggie playing with Christmas gifts.
Dressing up as Snow White.
She has gotten pretty good at "Gone Fishin'" already. We play it multiple times a day.
And painting with her Tinker Bell art kit. Did you know that sprawling out on the floor is the proper posture for this type of activity? 
And a short video of Maggie jumping on the guest bed in her Snow White outfit singing and carrying her recorder. Note to self: when the urge hits to buy her a cute but noisy instrument, just say "No!" I must be a sadist to have willingly bought such a young child such a noisy toy. I tell her that she can only play it with Daddy (who, when prompted, breaks out his recorder from elementary school, and plays all kinds of songs for her on it).
Dressing up as Snow White.
She has gotten pretty good at "Gone Fishin'" already. We play it multiple times a day.
And painting with her Tinker Bell art kit. Did you know that sprawling out on the floor is the proper posture for this type of activity? 
And a short video of Maggie jumping on the guest bed in her Snow White outfit singing and carrying her recorder. Note to self: when the urge hits to buy her a cute but noisy instrument, just say "No!" I must be a sadist to have willingly bought such a young child such a noisy toy. I tell her that she can only play it with Daddy (who, when prompted, breaks out his recorder from elementary school, and plays all kinds of songs for her on it).
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