Eleanor's Birthday Party - "Stesame Street"

Pardon the blurred out invitation...what is missing is the address first and then my phone number...

I couldn't have done it without them!
I had so much fun with Pinterest and the many episodes of Sesame Street that we watch as my inspiration planning Eleanor's 2nd Birthday Party.  With the help of my amazingly crafty sisters, we pulled it off.  I am working on finding better pics so I apologize if some are blurry to start.  We were fortunate to have our apt. clubhouse to use at no charge because the party was during the day.

Backing up a bit - I tend to get carried away in buying smocked dresses, especially cupcake birthday dresses.  Right after Eleanor turned 1, I found the perfect dress for her second birthday party which I thought, instead of doing pastels like her 1st bday, we would do bright colors.  Little did I know, she would be old enough to decide she wanted a special theme for her bday.  SO my challenge was to create a Sesame Street Bday which would usually be primary colors and transform it into a bright color scheme.  Thanks to Michaels, JoAnns, Party City, and Market Street's perfect die match to Eleanor's dress, we pulled it off.

The inspiration - the dress

The party was at lunch time so we of course had to serve lunch.  For the kids, we had chic fil a nuggets, Eleanor's favorite, fruit kbobs (pineapple, strawberry, and grapes), apple sauce pouches, Juice Boxes, and Elmo's Goldfish (Dorothy) - or just goldfish.  For the adults, I bought a teryiaki sauce at Costco and added orange zest, garlic, orange bell peppers, and some orange juice to a marinade for chicken kbobs. The grill wasn't working well so they got a little charred.  I served them in mom's chaffing dish and with them we served asian slaw, and chips and guac with homemade salsa.  FYI I also add a bunch of cilantro chopped to the food processor, use agave nectar (drizzle) instead of sugar, and lime juice to this salsa.  We served Shiner Family Reunion and "Oscar's Trash Can Punch" - White Wine Sangria for the adults to drink.  Once again used agave nectar to sweeten instead of what it called for.  This baby was potent let me tell you :)

When you entered the party, you were greeted with a table of Sesame characters and an ABC Sesame Street Board Book for Eleanor that also served as a guest book.  We loved reading what people wrote and Eleanor will always be able to see who came to her 2nd bday party!

The dessert table showcased most of the themed food items along with the basis of the favors.  My sweet sisters, Mary and Katie, painted the buckets to look like Sesame Street characters and in each was some crinkle at the bottom, a Sesame Street book, a shovel (for digging into the candy jars), and a note from Eleanor.  The note thanked her friends for coming and reminded them which activities to see while at the party and what to add to their bucket to take home as a favor.    Some of the highlights of the dessert table were - Abby Cadabby's Magic Fairy Wands (pretzel rods dipped in white candy melts and covered in sprinkles), Bert and Ernie's gumballs, Oscar's Dirt - see if you can find "Slimey" his worm, Cookie Monster's Cookies (my gooey chocolate chip cookies halfway dipped in dark chocolate candy melts and covered in dot sprinkles), and Big Bird's "Radar" Gummies (Big Bird's bear is named Radar).  It also had her cupcakes which I broke down and bought this year from Market Street but did make the cupcake sticks on my own.

Some of the activities included Cookie Monster's Cookie Dough Station where the guests played with mini playdoughs and got to take them home and Ernie's Bubble Bath where the party guests got to hunt through packing peanuts (bubbles) to find one of Ernie's rubber duckies to take home.  We put this in Eleanor's splash table and it worked perfectly!  The kids loved it!

The girls especially enjoyed Abby and Zoe's jewelry box where they had so much fun finding bracelets, necklaces, and glitzy sunglasses to wear and take home.  As you can see Belle went to town!

 

Hallie, Annabelle, and Katie enjoying Elmo's goldfish

Eleanor and "Kate" as she calls her...

Eleanor loves Garrett!

Some more of the decor...

 Eleanor was so blessed to have both her grandparents, the sweet Klement family, ALL her aunts and Uncles (Uncle Matt came a little later), my room mom, Robin, her dear mom, Nana, and a sweet student of mine, Tanner, and almost all her best friends in attendance (Reese came the weekend before to celebrate and a few others had their birthday parties at the same time).  We had such a fun time and Eleanor was so tired afterwards she conked out on my chest with a gummy in her mouth.  This was following a pretty bad fall after which she proceeded to do her thing where she gets so worked up she stops breathing but she survived and was ready to go onto Katie's 2nd bday party later that afternoon.

Marmi and Pop Pop

Grammie and Grandpa

Aunts and Momma

Momma loves her girl - I coordinated with bright pink pants

Dada coordinated with his bright blue shirt - you know how I love the matching!

My dear bosom friend and her sweet husband, Jason, and girls, Hallie and Annabelle even got to come from Houston!

We were so excited to have the Dibbles come and it was so cute how much Luke loved Sesame Street too!

The Klements are so special to us!  They often help out with Eleanor as I used to babysit them years ago!

The Jones Family came to play!  Eleanor loves Garrett and Lyla!

I just love this girl! 

Ready to open presents!

She was showered with precious dresses, fun toys including a gardening set, a cozy coupe, vacuum and other cleaning supplies, puzzles, books, a grocery cart, stroller, lawn mower, Aggie chair, and CD player with microphones just to name a few.

After presents we sang Happy Birthday and once again helped her blow out her candles.  She had so much fun eating her cupcake - Mommy had fun using makeup remover to get the icing die off!

        

And yes once momma had seen she was given her cupcake - the dress did come off...

Eleanor Turns 2!

Birthday Pancakes in the morning 

on Friday - sprinkles and nummies - 

this is you blowing out your candles

My sweet baby girl turned two this past weekend - Friday, May 18th.  Her party - Sesame Street Themed - was on Saturday.  Eleanor, you continue to amaze us, I know I always say that but I think what I would harp on most about you these days are your manners.  You almost always ask with a please and ALWAYS say thank you and sometimes, "Thank you so much."  It is so cute how you will say, "Momma please may I have" and if you get carried away occasionally and do something "naughty" you go to timeout and all I have to do is come in and hug you and you are waiting with an apology and you tell me exactly what you won't do again.  I don't know how you learned that - love you Love and Logic!

You are such a big girl - you know to hold my hand and "look right, look left" when crossing the street, you know to remind me that your car seat needs to be buckled (as sometimes in a rush I forget to do the bottom part...I know terrible mom club), you also are the most loving individual I have ever met.  You love to give "big hugs" and kisses to momma and dada and you love to say, "I love you, God Bless you" to us.  You teach us how to love no matter what and to not see differences in others.  You  love Jesus and it is so precious.  You say goodbye to Him when He is taken to the sacristy at the end of mass and you always love to point out his mother, Mary, and earthly father, "do-phoph" in mass.  You sit with us in mass and are quite the chatty one but people around us don't seem to mind.  We want you to be exposed to as much as possible so we keep you there...unless you are super talkative during the consecration or your buns have just had enough of the hard pew in which case you sqiurm and we take you to the back to stretch your legs.  You are back in time to pass the peace which you love to do.

You are such a joy to us!  Lately you have become somewhat of an early riser and you have learned to open your door so you often come in and I wake up to your sweet smile by my bedside holding your "pellow" and bun bun/lion anxious for me to pull you up into bed with us.  What a great way to start my morning!  Though I would like for you to sleep a little longer ha...as the past two days have been 5:30 eek!

As far as your favorites go, you still love "Chic-il-a" and get the 6 piece nuggets with either fruit or an apple sauce and a water.  You usually devour it all.  You love "sketty squash", tacos (which is anything made with ground turkey/beef/chicken", most all veggies - esp broccoli and green beans, beans, guac, "cados," cheese, eggs, apple sauce (in the pouch), freeze dried and regular fruit (all kinds), "pata," "peanups," goldfish, and peanut butter and jelly (you only eat the natural kind though).  You also have a sweet tooth and sparingly enjoy cookies, ice cream, cake, and "gummies" which happen to embody your vitamins so that is good.  You are sometimes caught red handed digging in the "nummies" (chocolate chip bag) and SHOVING the in your mouth...oops momma passed on her chocolate addiction to you.

You are so responsible/good at avoiding bedtime.  You always remind us to brush your teeth and to get a drink of water :).  You are still wearing diapers but often wake up with a dry one so we think we might try the potty out with you after school is out.   You are becoming possessive but not in a bad way - you have started asking "where's my bun bun/shoes/swim stuit/_______."  You are super at sharing and if someone wants something that you have, you usually just need to be asked to share it with him/her and you hand it right over.  Not long after though, you feel like it is time for you to play and you will say, "Eleanor's turn please."

You love your school and will miss it over the summer but we pray that we find the right person to take care of you in the morning because your school now offers after school care so you could stay there until 6.  We are hoping so much that you get to stay there as we love it and know you do too.  You talk about your teachers, Miss Kristi, Claire, and Lauren and all the kids in your class often.

You are loved by so many people, Eleanor.  Your aunts are your biggest fans and you light up their lives when they see you.  You have a special relationship with each of them and ask about them often, pray for them daily.  Your uncles are precious with you and since you have been seeing them quite a bit recently, have really warmed up to them.  You snuggle with Tim and it is precious.  You love to lay your head on his shoulder just like Daddy.  You love Uncle Matt too and are really starting to get to know him better.  Uncle "Mike" (Mark...don't know how you picked that name but your Uncle Matt is trying to encourage the use of it to you...blah) is special to you as well.  You often ask about him.   You are Marmi's "darlin" and y'all have such a special relationship.  Sometimes when you get hurt and mommy is there, you prefer Marmi to comfort you.  It is so neat that you and your grandmother have such a special bond.  You will always have a special place in your heart for Pop Pop.  I think he was truly your favorite first though lately you have taken akin to Marmi. You pray for Grammie and "Gumpa" every night - though you don't see them very often - you remember them and pick up right where you left off when we see them.  You aren't afraid of them like you were when you were little.

Your birthday was very special this year!  Even though you were sick the whole week before, your fever finally broke the day before your birthday and you and Mommy enjoyed a super fun day off of school on your birthday.  You woke up at 6:30 and went straight to Mommy and Daddy's closet where we were hiding your presents - as if you knew where they were.  You found your bike before I could even wrap it and were so excited that there was a holder for bun bun and your drink.  You even could pull a flap up and revealed were holes for your baby's legs.  It was neat that Daddy got to be there and see you in the morning.

We started with birthday pancakes for breakfast - you helped put the "nummies" and sprinkles in the batter once it was on the griddle and you even waited patiently for Mommy to sing to you - you sang a little too and enjoyed every second of it!  You then tried so hard to blow out your candles but needed my help.

You insisted on holding baby Madeline while you ate - poor girl got chocolate all over :(

We then went to "Chic il ay" for lunch and you took a nap.  Shortly after, Daddy came home and we went to dinner at Mi Cocina.  We love that place and you love the guac and tacos!  You get a crunchy taco with double beans and don't eat the shell but you scarf everything else!  You love to dip your chips in the hot sauce and the guac.  

Here is you with Mommy and Daddy waiting to get our table

We wanted to take you to get ice cream and you were super excited about it but you fell asleep on the way home - oh well - we still owe you some birthday ice cream!  What a fun day you had only to be topped by your birthday party yet to come.  We love you sweet girl and are so grateful for your love, compassion, and care even at the mere age of 2!

Grow in Grace

Grace - Eleanor can say that word and loves to quickly retort it when I say, "Hail Mary, full of..." She is so precious and I love hearing her say it. I need to work on striving to be a woman of grace and strive to even be a portion of what our Mother in heaven is in that respect. I love the verse for today:

But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory now and to the day of eternity. [Amen.]
- 2 Peter 3:18 -

I so enjoy teaching Eleanor about our faith and well more right now, it is more just teaching her that Jesus loves her and she loves him, and pointing out Jesus/Mary/the saints wherever we see them. In order to encourage her to grow in knowledge of our Lord, I can only do so by setting an example of someone who strives to do so. What can I do to learn more about our Lord? Starting with diving into scripture and devoting time to Him before my trash TV or even maybe before my daily cleaning, I hope to do a better job at putting Him first. Why is it that when we wake up, the first thing we do is read a book or put on a show while Eleanor drinks her milk? Why do we not FIRST thank our Father for a new day? We are diligent about praying before meals and with Eleanor before bed as a family but I feel like there is always room for improvement. My hope is that Andy and I will continue to model for Eleanor giving thanks and praise to our Lord and asking for His guidance so that she might desire to give "praise and glory to the day of eternity." :)

Lent 2012

I can't believe Lent is upon us again. It seems like the years are flying oh so quickly! Andy and I got so caught up in new jobs and the business of life that we really felt like we kind of "fell off the beaten path" with God lately. I love how Lent falls right at the beginning of the year and can serve as God's "kick in the butt" to help us get back on track. One of the things I discerned to do these 40 days, was inspired by a post I found on pinterest about 31 Days of Praying for Your Child. I (as with ANYTHING I find on pinterest) decided to modify it some but love the gist of using scripture to pray for our children. I (like many Catholics) am terrible with my scripture and have always had it as a "back of my mind" goal to dive into God's word and really learn and know it like so many of my Protestant brothers and sisters do. SO, what a better way to learn it than to learn it through prayer for my baby girl. I also love how the person who wrote this article would pray the scripture throughout the day and then recite it to their child at the end of the night. Since it is only 31 days, I will find some virtues/fruits/etc. that haven't been covered and will add them near the end but the verse for today is:

1. Salvation:
Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, together with eternal glory. - 2 Timothy 2:10 -

It is amazing how our God entrusts us with the responsibility of teaching our children about Him so that they may learn to live to model their lives after Him and seek His kingdom as their ultimate goal. Lord, thank you so much for the gift of your daughter, Eleanor. How blessed we are to know her and pray that we can do exactly what you will us to in raising her to know and love you!

What is His Plan?

So I have been so back and forth not trusting God but trying to figure it out on my own - when we are supposed to have our next child. I seriously thought He would just give the next one to us like he did Eleanor - on His own timing, we had no planning or predicting involved at all - it just happened. He hasn't though and Eleanor is already almost 21 months! It is funny, I always thought we would be that couple that people thought, oh their are pregnant AGAIN... We aren't and I can't tell if it bothers me that we don't fit that mold or what. I am just not at peace at all with this whole topic. I thought I would have this extreme desire to have my next child and I would just KNOW when the timing was right. It is almost as anti-climactic as finding my wedding dress was - it was NOT a say yes to the dress moment where I put it on, bawled my eyes out, and KNEW it was the one. I found one I liked but had to go home, think about if I liked it enough for the cost, and look at pictures of it for a couple weeks before I decided it was in fact the one. I hate to say it, but I am almost doing that with this child. That is TERRIBLE! First of all, God is probably rolling over on his side laughing right now at this entire post but I will of course keep writing...

Back to the dress metaphor...I seriously have been thinking about the cost of another child, how this child will mean that at any time, God could give us our third at which point I would have to quit working ($3000/month for daycare...really!?) and that freaks me out because I have no idea how we could live off just Andy's paycheck...God willing I guess it will work of course...I also haven't had that revelation that I thought I would. Andy and I really feel like spring is the best time to have a baby so that he or she can spend as much time as possible with me before having to go back to work (since we get the entire summer off) and the time to conceive and deliver in the spring is quickly approaching...freaking me out!

Andy has on Eleanor's birth playlist and Tim McGraw - My Little Girl is playing. This song has brought tears to my eyes each time I hear it since I first hear it with Eleanor in my belly. "Beautiful Baby from the outside in, chase your dreams but always know the road that will lead you home again. Go on take on this old world but to me you know you'll always be my little girl." I listen to this with once again, tears in my eyes, and can't even express how blessed I feel. Eleanor is more than we could have ever asked for and that statement alone makes me so sad that I am not immediately accepting of the idea of another child. SO I had a major meltdown moment which prompted me to write this post and now that I got it all out - not sure I feel any better ha! We will continue to try to be more open to His will and guidance: Holy Spirit - speak to us! :) Or anyone else...feel free to comment :) Until the next one graces us in my womb, we will continue to enjoy the AMAZING joy that is Eleanor. Oh we are so blessed I can't even say anything else! God is good.