A Colorful Affair {Picture Perfect Birthday}

So here are the long over due pictures of Ruby's Second Birthday that I promised a hundred years ago. Long story short, I had to wait for my sister/photographer extraordinaire to mail the disc to me and by the time it came my computer was out of commission and in for repairs. When it finally came back it took me awhile to find our software to reinstall. So there you have it...now on to the good stuff. Be warned, I am posting a LOT of photos. But when your sister takes over a hundred pictures, it's very hard to narrow it down to just a few. So this is what you get!

So the first picture is of a cast iron sign i bought at the flea market. It came with this hideous sign that someone had painted. My plan was to give it a little makeover by means of chalkboard paint. As soon as i laid eyes on it, i envisioned using it for parties and Ruby's was the perfect first event to break it in. I intended to paint it in time for Ru's party (the night before), but it turns out chalkboard paint has to cure for 24 hours before you can write on it...so not pleased with myself for waiting till the last minute. Alas, no time to sulk, had to figure out a creative alternative. The metal sheet that my dad cut to replace the old sign was magnetic so i put the old refrigerator alphabet to use...actually turned out kinda cute i think!


The birthday girls grand entrance...

Tissue paper pom poms and kids seating...


The party favors (on top) ...crayon rolls hand crafted

by Ommie Sandy and myself...

Personalized Composition Notebooks for the kids to color on....

The theme we decided to go with was "COLOR", plain and simple....it started off with the idea to do bright colored tissue paper pom-poms that i stole from who else, my old friend Martha. You can steal them too by going here. I was trying to figure out what to do for party favors when i remembered this great tutorial for crayon rolls i found on this super creative blog. I always prefer handmade to store bought, and i have a mother in law who is always up for my overzealous endeavors, so i decided to go for it. They came out super cute, unfortunately i didn't take any photos of them open for display...another post i suppose. I used Alexander Henry fabric which i adore and could spend a lifetime looking for projects/excuses to buy more of it. I had originally planned to put loose paper out for the kids to color on when i came across these colorful composition notebooks at Target (much cuter than the traditional black & white) and then thought of the idea to personalize them for each kiddo. I had my sister in law write up the names and then i decoupaged them onto the notebooks. I was pretty happy with how they turned out.

PB Kids umbrellas and cute little tablecloths....

AND table runners...of course...

I wanted to have pint sized seating for the littles, and i wanted it to go with the rest of the decor. So, we sewed mini tablecloths and table runners for all three kids tables. For centerpieces i put tiny flower arrangements and little bowls of goldfish crackers along with mason jars of chubby crayons for the kids to color with.

We didn't really have any planned activities as most of our guests were two and under...just coloring, sidewalk chalk and of course a bounce house. Let me tell you how much my kid LOVES to bounce...i would swear to you that she dreams about it at night. And in the day time she substitutes our bed and or sofa in lieu of a bouncer. Eighty bucks well spent i tell you. She bounced with EVERYone at one time or another, until they took that sucker away, at eight pm, and then she was sad. : )

Coca de Mexico....

I spy with my little eye...pigs n' a blanket, pb n' j & mac n' cheese

Love all the color in this photo.

Bouncing with Ommie

Jeremy & Josh

Can you tell my sister was a hit with the kids?

Too cute...

Naila and her Momma

Mrs. Parks & Rec...AKA PB&J Maker Extraordinaire

Coloring is serious business!

Of course when it came to the cake we had to keep our theme going...I made a six inch cake for Ruby and rainbow cupcakes for everyone to eat. The kids loved picking which color cupcake to eat and i loved not having to cut cake!

Mini-cake with her Josef doll...

Rainbow "cakes"... to go with our COLOR theme


She of course chose a pink cake...

Clara decided to go with purple...

The lineup... : )

I really enjoy planning parties and i'm SO lucky to have such great family and friends to help turn my visions into realities. Talk about a group effort! My mother in law Sandy helped me with all the sewing projects & my mom came over the night before to help bake all those cupcakes and iron the many tablecloths. My sister in law Amanda helped with the Pom-Poms and anything that had to do with writing. My friend Jen came early to help me with food prep while my dad helped out on the grill and my sister Michelle was kind enough to take all the beautiful pictures you just looked at. Unfortunately Daniel had to go out of town at the last minute and wasn't able to be there for the actual party, so i don't know what i would have done without all the help. A HUGE thankyou to everyone for donating their time and talents to make Ruby's Second Birthday such a special day!

My sissies Lynne & Michelle...in opposite order. Michelle & Lynne just doesn't sound right!

Two Too Soon...

I realize I am a few weeks behind with this post, but that's actually a good thing. You see, I tend to be an all or nothing sort of person...Ruby turned two three weeks ago and I am just now getting around to blogging about it. How is any of this related you ask? Well, I tend to live life in absolutes, time lines, etc...meaning, in my mind this post should have been done on Ru's actual birthday or not at all. Sounds silly I know, but that's how my twisted brain works. Normally I would have stayed up late to complete this on time, no matter the circumstances or how stressed out it made me or what else fell to the wayside as a result. I am trying to be better about really enjoying my time at home with my girl and not being so concerned with crossing things off my self imposed to-do list in a timely manner (ie. posting on my blog). I also entend to do a seperate post on the birthday party, but I'm waiting on the amazing photos taken by my sister. That being said, here is a glimpse of my favorite girl at age two!

Ruby Lou,
I can't believe how fast the last two years have flown by! You are such a funny little person now. I still call you "the baby" though I swore I would never be one of those parents, but now I understand. You will always be my baby no matter how big you get and let me tell you, you aren't exactly small considering you're only two years old! You are 36 inches tall and weigh 29 1/2 pounds. You're off the charts in height and your daddy is a little worried you are going to be uber tall, but I know you will be perfect. You still love momma to rock you before bed, but you have a very hard time getting comfortable due to all those long limbs.

Enjoying your pink doughnut and getting a birthday high five...

You are definitely a girly girl. You love pink, it is your favorite color and every morning when i ask "what should you wear today?" I get the same answer, "PINK!" You love accessories of any kind, hats, watches, necklaces and your favorite, "Sunnies". Whenever I put you in a dress or a skirt you yell "dance!" and proceed to do so. You love to have your nails painted and list everyone you know and the color of their toes. I have a feeling you are going to have a shoe collection that will rival Imelda Marcos when you are older...I have never met a two year old who is so excited to wear new shoes as you are, it literally puts a pep in your step! Just this morning I got a new pair of chucks from your closet and the first thing you said was "fit?" (I always tell you when we're trying something on to see if it fits). You also LOVE to wear other peoples shoes...momma's, daddy's, onnie's, you don't discriminate, but heels are your favorites, hands down!

Pink Jams Daddy brought you from Thailand, Tierra momma got you at the Target $1 bin... : )

You love to have books read to you, but you also love to "read" to yourself. I love walking in on you surrounded by a pile of books just jabbering away. You have also started pretending and it's so funny to here you play with your doll house. It usually sounds something like this..." jibber jabber, jibber jabber, mommy, daddy, no no no!" You know all your colors and you love to count to ten in English and Spanish. You learn new words every day and I just can't get over it. Pretty soon your vocabulary will be better than mine!

Cute things you say:
"Hold you"- Pick me up.
"Self"- I want to do it myself.
"Pooter"-This is what you say when daddy's not home and you want to Skype.
"No not"- This is what you say mischievously every time I tell you I love you!
"Peasant"-This is what you call your doll stroller, even though you know the word for stroller, because it was your birthday present.

You pushin' your "peasant" with your new baby tucked inside...

i heart etsy...

I recently purchased this on Etsy... isn't she lovely? Meet Jolie, she will be Ru's new bff come july 8; her birthday of course. I adore the colors and Ru will love her sleepy time look since her favorite thing in the world is to put all her babies nie-nie with her gee (blankey). I had already planned to get her this since she LOVES babies and she LOVES pushing things around, and now she will have a sweet little beebs of her own to put in her buggy! I love handmade and I love ordering things online, so Etsy is the perfect place to shop. I seem to find myself there more and more these days, especially when I'm hunting for an extra special, unique gift. Besides finding something that's one of a kind, it's just so fun having packages awaiting you on your doorstep. I only hope that once they arrive I can wait two months to give Ru her goodies. I have a bad habit of letting her see/play with her presents before she's sposed to have them! Do you have a favorite place to order gifts online...of course, that can include gifts for yourself as well!

I'm A Big Girl Now...

Sing it with me now. Tonight I made lasagna. I know what you're thinking, "no big deal". But at my house it kinda is. If I had to put a number on it, I would guess I have cooked maybe six meals in the last year (assuming you don't count pigs in a blanket as a meal, cuz in my world I totally do {and that would double my stats}). Now that's not to say I can't cook, I just generally choose not to. And, to be fair, I really don't have that much cooking knowledge outside of my three or four "regular" dishes. Needless to say, it's time to expand my horizons. Part of the deal when I quit my job to stay home with the Ru was that I would be cooking on a regular basis, and tonight was my very first home cooked meal; veggie lasagna.

So sad...looks like someone was stood up!

Aren't these placemats cute? Never had the chance to use them! ; )

I think I did pretty well, but I found the recipe to be a bit bland and think next time I will try the "carniverous" version. Despite my reservations, Ruby Lou had two helpings and even answered "YES" when I asked her if it was good, and again when I asked if she liked it. A small feat considering she usually responds with a firm "NO!" even when she actually likes something. My only regret is that when the mister got home he had a pounding headache and we did not get to enjoy my first creation together as a family. Instead Ruby and I ate our din-din and then went for a little wagon ride around the new neighborhood while daddy got some rest. I'm going to go ahead and assume Daniel also liked it though, since he had both a pre and post softball game helping. All in all, my first endeavor was a success. I got my feet wet and now I just need to start finding some good recipes. So, do you have any favorite recipes you would like to share? More specifically a good meat lasagna recipe?

This is what she thought of the lasagna...

Post dinner wagon ride...

My dog needs Jesus...

or at least Ruby seems to think so. I'm judging this by how much she loves to carefully place her rosary on poor Broccoli along with her mini flashlight (which i'm quite sure is a metaphor...you know, he needs to step out of the darkness and into the light) She puts them on, takes them off and then repeats...and repeats...and repeats. As you can see our poor little dog is quite the good sport, hanging around to humor his girl despite his instinct to run and hide on our bed. Depite her "Buggy"(that's what she calls him) stocking tendencies, he really does love her. And just in case you were wondering, no I'm not Catholic, but i really love Catholic stuff, thus the rosary...which we also have in electric blue by the way, should you ever need to borrow a classy, plastic rosary! ; )

half a dozen...

It's been six years since we said "I d0"... and happily ever after began.

I was lucky to have found him and he was kind enough to have kept me!

happy anniversary roos!

Fluff n' Fold

So this is how I found my daughter yesterday morning after church, after I followed her whining voice saying "Daa-Dee? Daa-Dee?" into our "laundry room" (and i use that term loosely).

now I know what you're thinking...

number one: terrible parent!...
number two: you stopped to get the camera?!?

After I told Ruby that this was in fact NOT funny and "NO,NO!", I instantly turned to face Daniel, trying to hide my smile as we both in unison said, "Get the camera"! Him with an ever so slight tone of mockery, but what can I say, he knows me!

I get it though.
Lesson learned.
Never, EVER, leave the dryer open...
But I could not miss this adorable photo-op!

Besides that, she's a girl after my own heart.

I vividly recall a particularly bored afternoon

when I myself decided to see if I could fit in our dryer...

I was in high school at the time.

And yes, I fit.

Like I said, I was bored...and YES, I was a dork! I admit it.

Happy?