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  • Meredith’s First Birthday Party

    I started planning Meredith’s first birthday party when she was about six months old. I stressed about it for a few weeks then, thought of a theme, made an invitation list, figured out the date and time, and then I didn’t do anything else on it for months.

    I wanted a mermaid theme because it’s her nickname. The first task I took care of was the invitations. I saw this on Pinterest and had my brother design something similar, then my mom and my friend Lauren helped me put them together.

    As the planning evolved, the mermaid theme kind of went away. It ended up being more of an aqua/coral pink color scheme, and that was fine. I just wanted it to be cute, fun, and laid-back.

    For decorations I hung crepe paper and made bunting out of scrapbook paper. I also displayed Meredith’s monthly photos by clipping them with binder clips onto a piece of string and hanging them up. I have them hung in her room now.

    I decided not to do favors because the kids were all four years old and younger, but they stayed busy with the bounce house in the backyard (that my brother-in-law & sister-in-law own), teeball, and I covered the coffee table with white craft paper and put out crayons and stickers.

    As for the adults? Well, there was food. Lots of it. We grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, and had lots of snacks and sides. I asked for help with the food and my family definitely came through. At the last minute I decided to make the cupcakes instead of buying them. They might not have been as pretty, but they were full of love and still delicious. The toppers are made out of scrapbook paper and toothpicks.

    The thing that was most important to me was some kind of guest book. I entertained lots of different ideas, but what I finally decided on was to have everyone help make her a scrapbook. It turned out amazing, and I will do another post about it tomorrow.

    As for the party itself – it was perfect. All of our family was there, and the only thing that could have made it better was if a few of our best friends could have been there (they either live far away or were out of town). The weather was clear, Meredith was in a good mood the whole day, and everything came together without much stress.

    I love my little one-year-old. :)

  • Currently

    Meredith has to wear shoes now at daycare because she’s going to walk any day now! I am secretly happy they are making her wear them because they are adorable.

    Time // 7:01 p.m.
    Place // My parents’ house
    Eating // Fried chicken and ice cream
    Drinking // Water
    Watching // US Women’s Olympic soccer
    Reading // The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
    Wanting // To decorate our bedroom
    Thinking // About how I can get exercise I enjoy back into my life
    Creating // Daily videos for VEDA
    Hoping // To make some connections at our new church soon
    Needing // Help revamping my blog
    Anticipating // A weekend with no plans at all

  • project life 2012 : weeks 25 – 26

    I combined the last two weeks into one spread again because I really wanted to get caught up.

    Most of this was centered around Meredith turning one. This isn’t the primary spot that I’m documenting her birthday (there will be a blog post about her party next week, a scrapbook we made, her baby book, and her birthday book) which is why I didn’t do an insert.

    Here we have one of her 12-month-old pictures and updates, a movie ticket stub from the date David and I went on, a photo of M. on her actual birthday at dinner with David’s family, a clipped-in Instax photo of us with my uncle who was in town, and a cute picture from the party – with the few seconds that Meredith actually wore her tiara. The pink banner above the quote was one of the cupcake toppers. :)

    Photos of M. with my aunt & uncle and a rare family portrait up top. The “thank you” card came with a CD that I got Meredith for her birthday and inside I wrote down the other gifts I got her. Then there’s a shot of M. at the doctor’s office, the weekly rundown, and a card from Einstein Bros. where I had brunch with a friend. On the bottom is a picture I love because everything is in focus except Meredith, who is blurry and on the move, but you can tell she’s smiling. Then I thought it would be fun to put in one of our grocery lists.

    I still love this project, but I am thinking that I might start combining weeks like this regularly so that I can keep up without being overwhelmed. I only have limited free time to myself, and there are other projects that I want to focus on as well like decorating our house, revamping my blog, and finishing some cross stitch. But the great thing is that this scrapbook style is so flexible, and anything I choose to document is better than nothing!

  • Good Things: July 2012

    At the end of each day I write down at least one GOOD thing that happened, then I share them all here monthly.

    ***

    1 – Getting Meredith’s birthday party invitations done with Lauren; visiting my friend Sara

    2 – Mom coming to take care of me when I felt sick; resting at my mother-in-law’s houst while she watched M.

    3 – Going through lots of borrowed clothes for M. from Sara

    4 – Low key day off with lots of relaxed family time

    5 – Surprisingly easy work day with time to read at lunch

    6 – Relaxing at Mom & Dad’s for dinner

    7 – David helping with so many chores; swimming with M in the neighborhood pool

    8 – Journaling again, David bringing home dinner & eating together, David making Meredith laugh by tickling her

    9 – Good yearly evaluation at work

    10 – Getting Meredith to bed early

    11 – Finishing The Book Thief and loving it

    12 – Meredith being especially calm and cute; my  nephew Cameron giving me a huge smile and singing with me

    13 – A night at home with David

    14 – Reconnecting with David spending the evening together; getting a lot of planning & shopping done for Meredith’s party with Mom

    15 – Crafting for the party; date night with David to see The Avengers

    16 – Pleasant chat with a patient about his time as a pilot in WW2

    17 – Getting our home refinance refund check,  finishing Bringing Up Bebe, and making time to work on Project Life

    18 – Buying an Instax Mini camera

    19 – An efficient day at work, visiting with my aunt & uncle in town from South Carolina

    20 – Meredith’s first birthday, dinner with David’s family and seeing her eat a cupcake

    21 – Birthday party!

    22 – My Dad and uncle’s birthday lunch

    23 – Meredith laughing a whole bunch and loving the alligator walker

    24 – M. laughing while I pushed her in the Little People car

    25 – Actually publishing a decent blog post

    26 – Meredith being especially sweet in the morning (hugging, head on my chest, no fussing), the daycare lady being nice & chatty, an evening at my parents’ getting computer work done, a new bedside table

    27 – Having deep talks with two patients about their emotional journey through cancer

    28 – Brunch with my friend Karlene, cleaning & organizing the house

    29 – Book club, getting caught up on Project Life, David being so helpful with M. so I could have alone time

    30 – A super easy day at work

    31 – Perfect moment when Meredith smiled & cooed after nursing in such a satisfied way and then laughed a ton when I tickled her

    ***

    Just slipping this little note in here to say that I crazily decided to join VEDA (Vlog Every Day in August) this year. Yeah, I don’t know how I’ll manage it either. Anyway, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel here if you care to follow along.

  • Monday Vlogging

    David went fishing this evening so Meredith and I were just hanging out together at home and for some reason I got it into my head to record a video with her. Unfortunately she decided to have one meltdown after another, but I managed to capture a couple (admittedly lame) minutes.