Graduation Weekend!

The words still sound a little funny in my head, and maybe they taste a bit sour too: I am the mother of a high school graduate.

I AM THE MOTHER OF A HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE.

Not sure how I feel about all this, and in some ways, it's harder than I thought it would be. But our weekend was a great one! I'm very thankful.

The weather was just perfect, gorgeous and sunny, not overly humid or thick. I know there's absolutely nothing you can do about weather except to make the most if it when it isn't agreeable, and to be exceedingly grateful when it is. The plan for the ceremony was for me to arrive early, save a row of seats, and then all the guys would join us. Well, Isabelle and I were there nearly an hour early and it was already PACKED. We had to park far away, so it took a bit to walk down to the school, and by the time we made it inside, I got a little panicky because so many seats were already filled or reserved. Ethan's girlfriend actually had saved us an entire row since she'd been there with the NHS helping to set up, and I was really glad for it!

The ceremony was great but it was SO long. Too long. Over two hours, and this is a small school. Barely a hundred seniors graduating. There were two speeches that were 25 minutes long! 25 minutes!!! Several others were almost as long winded- and they were good, they really were, but they should have been condensed. I'd been worried about how Levi would handle it, and he was a champ. I was super proud of him. There were kids melting down all around us, which should have been a sign to the speakers, haha, but he held it together so, so well. I did end up taking him into the hallway to cradle him in my arms as they finished up with the diplomas, and it was utter chaos as soon as everyone started filing out into the hall where we were. I hate crowds, like really hate crowds, and all I wanted was a family picture...but I couldn't find my family, so my heart was already pounding and anxious at this point.

I'm going to call this a successful shot, though I wish my husband had gotten the memo that the graduate is supposed to be front and center.

I'm including this one because I think one day I will look back on it and smile and not notice all my flaws as much as I do right now. Plus I'm all puffy from crying. I mean, I'm not crying, you're crying.

By the time we returned home, it was still nice and sunny, but the wind had picked up and had blown away nearly every sign I'd put up (when it was perfectly still earlier in the morning). I tried to handle it all with grace, but I've got to be honest and say that my nerves were shot and I was getting close to losing my mind a couple of times. I did the best I could, and everyone was really kind to say afterwards that they had a great time and that it all looked so festive.

You can see the poor dog-eared corner because it kept blowing over, and some of the other things wouldn't stay in place, but I thought this simple table looked nice. He received a lot of recognition and awards this year, and I didn't even include any from years' past. I'm really proud of him- he's such a wonderful guy, he really is! The grey book on the left was a real labor of love, partly because I can be indecisive but mostly because I just wanted it to be perfect. It's a photo book from Shutterfly filled with special moments and memories, and I hope it encourages him and reminds him of how much we love him when he leaves in the fall.

This party will definitely go down as the one least photographed, ha! I was too busy hosting and chatting and just having fun, so that's the best reason, right?

It got so hot, and since the weather looked good, we decided we wouldn't set up the big tent we'd purchased, so the table was for sure a hot spot. We told everyone to feel free to move their chairs to the shade, and they did. :)

Celebrating Our December Birthdays

This was the first year that we celebrated everyone's December birthday on their actual birthdays, plus a small family party, complete with hot cocoa bar, one of our favorite things about cold-weather birthdays. And it was fun, but it was also kind of rough. On me anyway. I think I'm going back to spacing things out a bit. Plus, I really dislike how certain family members are getting too comfortable in omitting their birthday celebrations and gifts and instead "lumping them altogether" on Christmas. I know gifts are not the most important things, of course, but it's the idea that they aren't worth the trouble of celebrating just because their birthdays fall close to Christmas. Birthdays are for celebrating!

Things never get wild or loud at our house. No, never. ;)

With a big snow storm, the first of several since then!, in the forecast, and basketball practices and work, we opted to do Caleb's cocoa pajama lights drive a little early. This was a great year in terms of pretty decorations. It seemed like everyone was in the spirit to make Christmas even more magical. That said, it was probably one of my least favorite rides through town. Now that they're all older, I'm thinking this is one tradition that has run its course. The hard part of parenting, for sure, giving up those things we've held dear for so many years.

Tradition is that Dad carries you out to the warm car so your feet don't get cold touching the ground. Levi is the last one, and possibly the only one we can actually carry anymore. 

And another Snow Day for his birthday! We had lots of fun sledding and playing in the snow all morning long.

My parents surprised us with donuts!

That night we celebrated fifteen years with ice cream cake...well... someone thought that our three season room would double as a freezer while someone else thought that that someone had simply put the darn thing outside. You know, in the actual freezing cold. So there really was nothing to salvage for cake. It will probably be a funny memory one day, but I don't think it's funny yet.

Then, on Friday, we had fancy birthday pancakes for Isabelle!

It was a balmy 6 degrees, way warmer than the -20 it's been all week now. We brought in homemade lollipops like usual for her class.

That night, we had a few of her friends over for pizza and a movie. Boys are loud, but girls are LOUDER. :)

Levi didn't quite know what to do when he wasn't Isabelle's usual center of the universe, so I let him help me with snacks. His pant legs and tippy toes kill me.

He kept grabbing the veggies and taking bites out of them, then putting them back. HA He held onto half a cucumber like a microphone and kept gnawing on it. It was pretty funny.

And now I'm getting everything ready for NYE. It's been a crummy day, my attitude is poor, and I'm really not in the mood for any festivities. Praying for a renewed spirit to salvage this day and the hope of a brand new year. Happy New Year to you!

Fourth of July 2016 - Our First Pool Party!

It's the Fourth of July!

Poor Levi still isn't feeling very well from the pneumonia, but we had such a wonderful time visiting with family and hanging out in the pool...it was HOT! I still pinch myself that we have a pool to share with our friends and family. It was all in all a really fun, relaxing day. Maybe Levi will be more excited about next year's 4th, ha!

 When we got that striped dress for Isabelle in Florida, I was already thinking ahead to how cute it would look for the 4th of July, ha ha! Happiest Big Sis on the planet. :) And I ask you, is there anything more adorable than a baby boy in plaid overalls? I think not.

Levi was fussy so I brought him inside to rock him and feed him, but first I put him in his car seat so I could use the bathroom and he was o-u-t in thirty seconds flat. Poor baby.

Not even my wild party animal antics woke him. ha ha ha 

So nice to see relatives that we don't get to visit with very often! This is my Mom's brother and his daughter in law and granddaughter. His son, Mark, is my cousin, who happens to be a US Air Marshall and was flying to either Amsterdam or Germany- he isn't supposed to tell anyone, not even his wife!, because of safety reasons. Caleb really, really wants to visit with him to hear all his stories! We'll just have to have another party!

Daddy and his baby boy - yeah, little guy's still not feelin' it

Levi loooves the pool! This made him happier for a little while.

I think this picture of Isabelle and her little cousin, Abby, is the sweetest.

You've got to have yummy food! I've made lots more things for previous 4th parties, like this favorite treat, but this year, for obvious reasons, we kept it really simple. Everyone brought a bag of chips and a drink to share, and we grilled hot dogs and chicken, plus had a few sides like pasta salad and veggie trays. And watermelon, lots and lots of watermelon...so good on a hot day!

Hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July, too!

Bless This Nest Bird-Themed Baby Shower

I can't believe that my baby shower was a whole week ago! It was a beautiful, sunny and warm day, just the perfect Spring day, and I was so thankful. We're facing a snowstorm for tomorrow.  :(

I had the most wonderful time at the shower, so grateful for everyone's joy and generosity as we welcome this new little love into our family. My Mom and one of my best friends from church put everything together for me, except the decorations, which I volunteered to do myself. It kept me busy and suits my perfectionistic personality to a tee, so win-win.

Blurry pic- actually, most of my photos on Blogger are "fuzzy" now, totally annoying, and I'm not sure why- of me with my best girl. She isn't in any other pictures because she was off and running around with her friends the whole time. She's my social butterfly for sure. (If I look tired- and super swollen- it's because I am!!! ha)

Our entryway. I made the wreath on the door by snipping off the flowers of some bunches and hot gluing them on. There is also a little feathered birdie on there. Toss some tall blooms in a galvanized bucket to dress up en empty corner and you're done.

There is also a sweet ceramic bird with a couple of faux eggs in the plant pot. Just a little something to carry on the bird/nest theme; plus, they are all decorations that I can use from year to year for spring.

Our shoe storage became the table top for the party favors and a few other spring touches.

There were rice krispie pops and dipped Oreos. Originally I had planned on making cookie pops from the Oreos but I could not get them to cooperate. Like, at all. The cookie kept cracking or breaking every time I tried to push the stick in the creme filling. After a dozen fails, I opted for Plan B. The krispie treats were still kind of a pain but at least they worked. If I were to make them again, I would insert the stick to make the "hole," then take it out and dip it in the melted candy before inserting it back in so it would form a sort of glue when it hardened. I couldn't find the right size plastic bags, either, so I got a bigger size and simply cut them down and tied the ribbon around. Just call me MacGyver.  :)

I'm not a fan of this brass chandelier (at least it's the real deal and not the faux really cheap looking brass that's on the market today), so let's pretend it's a lovely black one. I never did get a photo of the table when all the food arrived- it covered the entire table runner! Thank you, family and friends!

This little bunting is hanging by the crib now- it fit perfectly between these windows. They are the fabrics I used in baby's quilt. You can kind of see the gift table in the other room- didn't get a photo of that either. The white table houses or TV until we can get it mounted above the fireplace, so my husband brought the TV to our room for the party and it became the perfect gift table. I draped a swaddle blanket over the top, and it looked very sweet.

The sweet ceramic birds were on sale at Michael's. I had been searching everywhere for birds and they were all too bright or just plain ugly. Hooray for Michael's!

Word document on basic card stock- simple but effective.

Adorable bow tie napkins- after making a few of these, I decided that it was kind of a pain to have to unwrap your fork from a napkin, and then the napkin was all wrinkled and looked used, so I settled on these for decorations. I think that worked perfectly.

White tulips, carnations, roses, baby's breath, and a handful of bright daffodils were the perfect assortment.

More birdies and a bird cage, so simple and they can be used again and again. (I'm thinking of adding a small plate collection to highlight this wall...)

Easter time is THE perfect time for a bird-themed baby shower. No shortage of egg candies, decorative grass & faux eggs! That poor table runner looks sooo wrinkled- I ironed and ironed it but to no avail. Hmpf.

Things got busy before I was able to snap a picture of the drink stations. There was a punch bowl and some pretty pitchers, that's easy enough to imagine, right? One thing I did that I will definitely do in the future- I bought some colorful sticker labels for each guest to label their (clear plastic) cups and it worked wonderfully. No wondering whose cup belongs to whom. I've seen people use tags with mason jars, which I love, but I didn't want the expense of purchasing all of those.

Our sun room was the perfect spot for setting up a little diaper station for guests to write notes of encouragement for those middle of the night diaper changes. I also added a basket of envelopes (for thank you cards) and asked everyone to please fill one out with their address- nobody minded and it sure saved me a ton of time and effort from having to look up addresses and write them all out.

I love how this turned out. We jokingly refer to this ginormous mantel as "the beast," but I think it looked sweet like this.

I still pinch myself at the thought of a little baby boy wearing these precious little things! Just two more weeks!!!

You gotta have a baby shower selfie. =) I made this dress thinking that it would be very forgiving after baby's birth, without the belt anyway...we shall see, ha

I realized too late that I should've had my Mom take pictures on my camera and not hers, so I'm waiting for those pictures. They're mostly of my friends & family and me, but I think there may be a few other miscellaneous ones as well. I'll add them to this post once I get them.

I may have already shared this picture but I don't care- it makes me smile so. Now we just need the baby!

Okay, now I'm off for some last-minute things and then the big plan for later today is to pack my hospital bag. What do you even put in a hospital bag anymore? I think I'll only need my camera and our going-home outfits...