1st Birthday Party Time!!! - Baltimore, MD. - February 2013

Well after a month of planning and a week of shopping, MJ's 1st birthday party was on Saturday and it couldn't have gone any better!

The Hub had Friday off and I have to say he did an AMAZING job making my ideas happen.

Almost all the decorations were purchased from Dollar Tree

The cake, which was AMAZING, was the "Flower Power" design from Food Lion.

And I think it's safe to say that MJ enjoyed it...

A LOT!!!

We also had a sugar cookie decorating table...

...complete with home made icing...

...and sprinkles...

A TOTAL HIT!!!

And surprise of all surprises, MJ actually took her first steps at the party!

An account of this days events wouldn't be complete with out telling you about the AFTER PARTY!!

Lots of fun was had with a left over balloon from the door decorations.

A game of balloon keep-away

 

And fun with the bumbo that BOTH of our girls STILL fit into 

One last story... 

And then off to bed.

Thank you to everyone that came to the party and made this 1st birthday party special for our baby girl! MJ's actual birthday is this Wednesday so there's lots of partying still left to be done.

Till next time,

Bon Voyage!

Curls - Baltimore, MD. - February 2013

In the last week or so, it has come to our attention that this little lady... 

...will have...

CURLS!!!

Doesn't she look THRILLED?!?!?! 

As I am the passer of the curls,

(me at 5 years old)

I promise to also be the passer of the flat iron and all knowledge I have of it's wonderful powers!

Till next time,

Bon Voyage!

A Bedroom For Two - Baltimore, MD. - February 2013

I often complain to anyone that will listen that we are very quickly growing out of our current space, but lately I've been seeing lots of CUTE baby/toddler rooms out there in the bloggesphere that make my little ladies shared bedroom look GIGANTIC.

Oh Happy Day's little guys sleep in a closet with the most amazing toddler on the bottom, crib on top bunk bed.

Mrs. Sabbe is converting half of their master closet into a 4'-8" x 2'-2" nursery in a closet.

So I thought it was about time I shared our girls room for two.

Room Specs:

13'3"x12'

1 large double window with southwestern exposure

The paint color is BEHR Sahara Shade (310D-5). The Hub picked it when this room was his office because it looked like "Dwight Schruit shirt".

Their closet is a good size. With the right designer it could probably house a small child. But the trick is, as with most spaces in our home, the space is shared with The Hub's outdoor gear and guitars.

The girls have the top racks and the entire right side.

Do you remember the "Book Drama" back in April of last year? Well, a small three shelf book case was the solution, turning the closet into what our babysitter calls "The Library".  I LOVE her!!!

Another area of shared space in their room are the book shelves that flank the large windows. before kids, these shelves housed all of the Hub's medical books and there really wasn't another place in the house that would fit both of these Ikea Billy Bookshelves.

The solution was to relocate the med books from the lower three shelves (the shelves the girls can reach).

This gave us 6 shelves of prime toy storage real estate.  Score!

The changing table houses all of MJ's non hanging clothes. 

And E's clothes are here,

The Ikea Expedit 8 section storage unit. The lower 2 sections have pink cloth boxes. One for loose toy storage and the other for Mega Blocks. For the center four sections, we purchased the drawer inserts for E's clothing. We left the top two sections for open storage for things like music CD's, shoes and a sound machine.

On top is what we like to call "Toy Time Out"(more to come on this later), a CD player and her hair clip board.

E's bed has a storage end table on either side.

Left drawer: magnetic letters and flash cards

Left Cabinet: Play blankets

Right Drawer: Puzzles

Right Cabinet: stuffed animals and a little people airplane.

Both girls have their favorite lovvies and special blankets.

Kitchen, Babies,

and WINGS!!!

Some of our must haves are a little harder to spot so I'll point them out. 

Black out curtains. (This is why both of my children sleep till 8 o'clock, even in the summer!)

Cloth diaper/training pants storage to the right of the changing table

Because they are different sizes...

 labels for the Hub and our babysitter are a MUST!

And 3 video monitor cameras, one here...

...here...

...and here.

It's not designer or fancy, but it works for us, and the girls like it.

Till next time,

Bon Voyage!