Celebrating your birthday in style

Adam getting ready to add a batch to the pot.

Every year we, along with our friends, host a big crawfish boil. I think this is either the 5 or 6th year we have done it. We usually order around 100 lbs of crawfish and spend the day at a local park cooking it and hanging out with our friends.

waiting for another batch. It was unseasonably cold this year. I had to steal Adam's fleece.

This year the party happened to fall on our birthday. (Did you know Adam and I share the same birthday? Although he is a year older.)

Good friends. Love these ladies.

We invite around 100 or so people and we always get a great turn out. The party this year was a little smaller, but it was awesome because all of our closest friends made it. I honestly think everyone should experience a crawfish boil. I will say not everyone enjoys the crawfish, but those that don't want to eat it usually bring inferior meals like Chick-fil-A to sustain them.

The table with freshly dumped potatoes, garlic, mushrooms, sausage, crawfish and corn. Delicious!

There is nothing like standing around a table eating with your friends. I'm sure it might be a little more entertaining and the crawfish a bit hotter if alcohol was involved, but.. we usually make due. It is a lot of work. We love it, but it really is a lot of work.

The hosts.

Every year we ask one another if we are ready to talk about the boil and most years we can't even discuss it until sometime around February/March of the following year. We always need a good 8 months to forget about the annoying things. But, this year both Carrie and I looked at each other and said- "wow. we have to do this again next year." Maybe we have finally worked out all the kinks and the idea of planning it isn't painful.

This year we had a huge bag of Mardi Gras beads. Carrie's family went to Mardi Gras and they brought all the reject beads. If you have ever been to Mardi Gras you know what I'm talking about. Beads are a BIG DEAL! Fancy beads are an even BIGGER DEAL.

Girls decked out in Mardi Gras beads.

This little one loved the beads. I have a similar picture of Adam from our first year in New Orleans.

Sorting beads.

I highly recommend checking your calendar next year and coming for our annual crawfish boil. It really is a fantastic tradition.

For Bunny

Happy Birthday.

Ted's Party: The Activities

I had pretty grand ideas. Again, most of them came from here or here. One of them was to build a bull for the kids to rope. Adam thought I was nuts, but he still was willing to do what I asked. Thankfully a friend had a jig saw for us to use. (Although we had to buy a replacement in the end because theirs died.) I think we are going to try and stain him.

Activities:
1. Paint long horn magnet
2. Bull Ropin
3. Instruction on how to act like a cowboy.

• How to dress like a cowboy (kids given hat and handkerchief)

• How to talk like a cowboy (Adam scared them with his Yee Haw)

• How to walk like a cowboy (this was HILARIOUS)

4. Shooting
5. Pin the tail on the donkey (couldn't find a horse)

This one is Lulu's.

Adam told the kids that once they roped the bull they had to take their had off, hit their leg and yell Yee Haw.


I love how Lulu is kicking up her leg. She was an awesome assistant.

The kids had to practice shooting, so they shot at Diet Coke cans with the Nerf gun.

Here would be the photo of "pin the tail on the donkey". Oops.

Finally everyone participated in blowing out the candles.

Family portrait

Ted's Birthday Decor

It was Ted's birthday this past week and we threw him a cowboy themed party. Thankfully there are great websites out there for creatively challenged folks like myself, so we too can thrown a fantastic party for our littles. All ideas and genius for this party belong to this gal. Brilliant! I also stole a few ideas from this lovely lady.

My only regret- not having someone on hand to take photos. It was too nuts for either me or Adam to take thoughtful pictures of the event. BOO. Also, we both thought the other had taken a couple of shots so.. the pictures of the table are rushed and terrible and strangely there are very few pictures of our own children. Awesome!




In addition to the two creative genius mentioned above, I have another in my back pocket. Everyone should have an Emily. I called her with the most random and ridiculous questions and every time she would immediately respond with precisely whom I needed to call and what I needed to get. Not only was she my go to girl, but she designed every bit of the invitation and came up with the cute delivery for each of them. Love that girl.

I loved these little stumps of wood with horses on them. If you could have only seen the crazy looks when I made a rather impromptu visit to a friend that was in the process of cutting down her beautiful 100 year old tree (it was diseased) and asked her if I could have a one of the logs. Adam also gave me a crazy look when he saw the log too. Although he willingly used a hand saw to cut bits and pieces off in our back yard.

The photo of Ted makes me laugh every time. And daisies, aren't they just the friendliest of flowers?

The Menu:

Pulled pork sandwiches
Chips
Carrots and dip
IBC Root Beer
Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate ganache

The little gift bags contained western themed wristbands, the long horn magnet the kids each painted upon arrival to the party, a silver badge, salt water taffy, and a little horse.

The birthday cake

Happy Birthday Francis

It has been a blistery, crazy weather day in Texas. But, it seemed rather appropriate because it was also the little man's birthday. Ted made a rather crazy entrance into the world and he is a bit of a tornado on a regular basis. It seems only fitting that three years later, on the that he was born, we had a real tornado touch down in our city.

In honor of his birthday I wanted to tell you a few of my favorite things about him.


1. Star Wars

Ted saw Star Wars a couple of months ago with Adam. He wants to watch it on a regular basis, but we always try to watch it with him. This morning when he asked to watch it and I expressed concern that I didn't have time to watch it with him, because I needed to get ready, he said "don't worry mom, I'll just sing along".. and began singing the Star Wars theme.

On our recent drive to New Orleans, Ted, Lulu and I discussed Star Wars from Lafayette to Baton Rouge. His pronunciation of obi-wan-kenobi is priceless.




2. His sister

Ted adores his sister. He loves to follow her around and do everything she is doing. But, he also likes to torment her too. Ted would be glued to Lulu's side all the time if he could. She finds it annoying at times, but it warms my heart. He likes to watch out for her and will make sure that everything is fair. If we listen to his song in the car, he will immediately say "okay, Lulu's song is next."


3. Clothing

Ted loves to pick out his clothes for the day. He is very particular about his pants and prefers to wear short pants over long pants. His favorite pair of short pants are for a 12 month old. We finally had to take them away. He also loves to wear Julius t-shirts. Thank heavens Target stocks them.


4. Pictures

He HATES getting his picture taken. He will smile for you, but only for a quick second and then he is gone. When he isn't in the mood, he makes it known.


5. Talker

Ted is unbelievably verbal for his age. It isn't always nice words, but we are working on it. He is also very polite.

This morning we asked him where he wanted to eat for his birthday and he said "Chuy's". As we were driving to the restaurant, we asked him if he was excited to eat at Chuy's he said "of course."


6. Music

On any given day Ted will ask to listen to Beyonce's Single Ladies. However, his favorite song is My Doorbell by the White Stripes. He calls it the Boom Boom Song.

Happy Birthday my little man. I'm thankful you are mine, every. single. day.

Playing Catch Up #5

December 5 Night out. Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated a girlfriend's birthday at this really fabulous little souffle house. We were a couple of weeks behind, because right after her birthday she had a baby, so we postponed the celebration until she was ready. It was such a lovely evening. We order a couple of souffles for the table and I ordered this delicious tomato based soup with tiny little goat cheese souffles. It is aptly named Marshmallow Soup, because they look like tiny floating marshmallows. There were 6 of us. We've all been friends for a long time, so it was comfortable and easy and perfect.

**My only regret: we didn't get a picture.

FIVE

We celebrated Lulu's birthday last week. I saw a darling party idea on this great website and decided that we were going to forgo a princess party and instead do something a little different. Although I paired it down a little, I really didn't change much. I owe this girl a huge thank you. She deserves all the credit. I just followed her lead and figured out how to do it on my budget. Everyone loved it and Lulu thought it was the coolest party ever. We played games in our tiny backyard to keep the kids entertained. We flew planes, bobbed for apples, played "pin the apple on the tree" and balanced apples on our heads. We kind of flew through the games, so the kids played a rousing game of duck, duck, goose and freeze tag to end the party. It was pretty awesome.



The bags contained caramel popcorn. We made apple lemonade and had "5" cookies. (The "5" hanging from the chandelier were actually from her actual birthday, but she insisted I leave them up for the party.) We also had a ridiculous number of green apples for all the kids to munch on. I was surprised, but they enjoyed the apples a lot more than the caramel popcorn- go figure?

Isn't this cake amazing? Everyone should have a Central Market in their town. I took a photo of what I wanted the cake to look like, and this is what they did. I was going to make it, but it was a huge relief when I discovered how cheap it was to just buy it instead.

These were the little take home gifts.

Inside each box was a package of apple jelly bellies, a caramel apple sucker (all the way from Boise, ID. Kaycee rocks!!), apple laffy taffy's, an apple air head, and a little wooden apple. Inside the apple we added a little note saying "thank you for coming. love. lulu" We also gave the kids an airplane to take home.

Five for Friday

According to some friends (you know who you are), my posts are a little long winded. I really tried to keep it short, but I have failed. So, for those of you with a short attention span here are the cliff notes.

1. BLATANT plagiarism
2. Catcher in the Rye
3. Tate lecture
4. Lulu's birthday
5. We have lost our prized stuffed animal.

If you are interested in any of the topics, please continue below.





1. You HAVE to read this. Its almost too shocking to even mention, but I have been laughing about it quite a bit today. I would be soo embarrassed.

2. Catcher in the Rye.. CHECK. I'll admit, after posting about my utter disdain for the book, I actually quite enjoyed the last 50 pages. I still think it speaks more to teenagers or people working with teenagers, but in the end I can see it has some redeeming qualities. (I was shocked by how it ended.)




3. We attended our last Tate Lecture Series. After seeing Azar Nafisi and Tony Blair last year, and the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art this year, I didn't think it could get any better. Enter: Her Excellency Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the President of Liberia. Not only is she the President of Liberia, but she is the first female Head of State in Africa. Prior to the lecture we were able to view a documentary made during her first year in office (it was made by a Liberian journalist). It was nice to have a little background going into the lecture. Our seats were immediately next to the section coordined off for the "Members of Liberian Community". This made for an interesting viewing experience, because they were very vocal about certain areas in the movie and weren't afraid to express their opinion. It was rather refreshing. The lecture was AMAZING. I would highly recommend reading about her. She truly is an inspiration.

4. We are getting ready for Lulu's birthday celebration. I cannot believe my baby is going to be 5. I'm completely stealing THIS party idea. My amazing girlfriend made invitation for the party and I found little wooden apples for the kids to take home. (They are actually hollow so you can put trinkets inside the apple.) We are just going to play low key games and maybe do a little apple bobbing. We will see how it all pans out.



5. Lulu has misplaced her bear. It has been missing since Easter Sunday. She took it to our Easter dinner at Ms. Carrie's house, but we haven't seen it since. The other day she said

Lulu: "Mom I've got the best idea. Why don't we go back to Ms. Carrie's house and have another Easter dinner and then I will remember exactly where bear-bear."
Me: "Wait, so what you are saying is we should do the whole thing all over again and you think it will help you remember where you put him?"
Lulu: "Yes. That is exactly what I'm saying" (while she gives me the thumbs up sign).

She cracks me up.

Happy Birthday To Me 4 days late.

I celebrated my 32nd birthday a couple of days ago, so since I posted 100 things about me, I thought I would post the 32 things I have done since my last post which was almost a month ago.. gulp.

1. Went to Hershey PA to visit Tasha and Evie (we took like 1 picture the whole week- ridiculous).
2. Lulu and I went with Adam to a conference in Little Rock Arkansas
3. Read "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America"
4. My mom made: a quilt for Teddy, 4 pillowcass for Lulu, 2 receiving blankets, 1 dress, and 1 bag for Lulu
5. We celebrated Lulu's 3rd birthday.
6. Celebrated Mother's Day with a "surprise" birthday party at a friend's house
7. Watched the ducks walk the red carpet every morning and night at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock.
8. Adam gave me a new camera for my birthday, Mother's Day, and every other holiday that usually involves a gift. I'm excited to have something that has a faster shutter speed than my current camera that has a 3 second delay.
9. Ate dinner at the same restaurant for the 2 nights we were in Little Rock- Flying Fish.. delicious!
10. With the assistance of my mom cleaned out my closets and reorganized.
11. Enjoyed three glorious weeks with my mom.
12. Bought my ticket to Rome
13. Finally felt Teddy moving around a bit.
14. watched that crazy show "The Mormons"- yikes.
15. Ate at our favorite restaurant for our birthday. Chuy's.. delicious.
16. Bought a birthday card for Adam (did you know our birthday is the same day?)
17. Organized a crawfish boil for this weekend.
18. Organized my baby clothes- I only have 6 pieces that a boy can wear.. yikes.
19. Getting ready for a week in Louisiana with my girlfriends
20. Experienced the last day of Lulu's school.
21. Took my mom to see my girlfriend's amazing jewelry she designs
22. Bought maternity clothes.. already.
23. Several amazing sweet packages arrived for my birthday. Thank you everyone.
24. Lots of playdates and trips to the park
25. Organized a ward activity (dinner groups) and started planning our Pinewood Derby
26. worked lots of hours for my real estate agent
27. I went to see the Clinton Library.
28. Went to the Hershey Chocolate Factory for the last time (well at least any time soon).. sniff sniff.
29. planned a little party with family and a few close friends for Lulu's birthday.
30. Made Lulu a BLUE cake for her birthday.. what she requested.
31. got a pedicure for my birthday.
32. Realized I need to do something special every birthday from now on!

I cannot believe how much I have neglected the blogging community recently. Life has been a little crazy and I just haven't been good about sitting down at the computer on a regular basis. I'm crazy until the end of the month, but I hope things will settle down soon.