Giddy: Storytime Party Invites

I might be a little too excited about Lucy's awesome 1st birthday party invitations. There's nothing like having the idea in your head translated into exactly what you wanted on paper. Especially when you're not an artist. Which I am not. A million thank-yous go out to Hannah (of Mini Me Paper Dolls fame) for whipping up this illustration of Lucy for me. She totally got what I was looking for. It's perfect.

Care for a closer look?

Hannah did all the heavy lifting. I just added the party info, printed @ Kinkos, trimmed & rounded corners...ta da!

I absolutely adore Hannah's take on Lucy. She got her exactly right, down to the curled toes and 4-toothed grin. Love love love!

In just a couple short weeks, my baby turns 1! I'm so excited to celebrate this girl.

And You Thought Your Little Brother Was Creepy...

Oh goodness. This is quite possibly my favorite picture of all time. Nothing like a pesky little brother creeping around. I think I'll get it enlarged to poster size, just for my sheer amusement.

Back soon with more Easter pics and more goodness. You know, after I hide the leftover Easter candy & whip this house back into shape from the whirlwind weekend. So in that case...possibly never. :)

Wooden Shoes

Back in the day, one of my Cabbage Patch Dolls, Dorcas Cleo, was a "world traveler" edition doll, hailing from the land o' the wooden shoes. And windmills. You know, Holland. She was the cutest. And she wore awesome (plastic) pointed clogs, which I loved. And while I'm being random, may I just say that in college I had a pair of JCrew wooden-bottom clogs (with tassels) that were possibly my favorite shoes ever, may they rest in peace.

Ramblings aside, I'd love a pair of these wooden-bottomed shoes for my collection...

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Simply Smashing

I've always wanted to do a cake-smash photo session with at least one of my babies. You know, present them with a big ol' cake and smash away. It's practically a 1st birthday rite of passage! And this happens to be the specialty of my friend Tamee. So though we're still a month shy of Lucy's birthday (I thought having a cake pic would be fun for the party...), we smashed cake last week! So much fun! So much cuteness!

How awesome is this cupcake?

And how HUGE is this cupcake?! Lucy was fascinated.

...but not totally sure what to do at first.

She figured it out before too long.

By the end, she was wearing it!

Oh, you little thumb sucker!

Nothing like a lap full of cake!

Tamee also took some regular pics. So fun!

Look at that almost 1 year old girl. Hard to believe!

Thanks, Tamee! I absolutely love them!

Mini Me Paper Dolls - Lily & Thistle

I was delighted to discover Maya kicked back on her bed today playing with her Mini Me Paper Dolls. These dolls have been all over the blog o'sphere lately...and with good reason. They are awesome! My friend Hannah is the artist behind these bad boys, and Maya is quite the fan! (Mason, too! I need to order him a set of the boy dolls...)

Maya had so much fun when she initially got to go online (always a big treat) and customize her features. I think she did a great job...her Mini-Me has the perfect hair-color and just the right number of freckles. The dolls are hand-drawn by Hannah and customized for each child.

In her spare time (Ha! Mother of 4 small children...), I wish Hannah would design a line of clothes for grown-ups. (Okay, for kids, too.) Look at these adorable outfits! She creates new ones for each season, and has a line of Fairy Tale and Girls in Literature (Fairy/Folk tales for boys) costumes as well. (Maya was working on Little Red Riding Hood and a Tinkerbell-ish fairy today.)

One of the coolest elements of the Ultimate Paper Doll Package is the keepsake packet. All of the sheets are signed by Miss Hannah herself and come with a Family Tree and All About Me pages for the proud doll-owner to fill out. We hadn't done this yet, so that's what Maya decided to work on today.

(Ahh, remember when you could bend in half like that? Creeeeeeak. This ol' bod ain't what it used to be...) (Oh, and look how LONG her hair is getting. Oh my my! But still, sometimes you can see that sweet baby face.)

Some of the questions were easy to answer. Favorite color: purple! Favorite thing to do: read books! Others required some consideration. Favorite movie...hmm...? Favorite food: where to begin...? I'm excited to tuck these pages into the keepsake packet and put it away in her box o' goodies to check out again further down the line. Bonus? The paper doll packages come with a CD of all the customized files you purchased, and you're free to reprint them any time you need to. There are also print-it-yourself and party packages available.

There's just something sweet about good old fashioned fun with paper dolls. Makes me want to keep my littles little forever...

Food Stuffs

Was everyone aware that I love food? Well, let me just say it. I LOVE food! Here are a few food items on my mind this week...

I made the Pioneer Woman's bacon & mushroom pasta for dinner swap this week. Yum and YUM! She is the queen of flavor. Must be the bacon. Or the cream. Or something. I will say that I made a double batch of sauce & a double batch of pasta and the mushrooms & bacon really got lost in all that pasta. Next time: double batch of sauce, single batch of pasta. I also made homemade bread garlic bread and it was YUM too! Add a little roasted asparagus with olive oil & parm and it was quite the tasty meal.

Your Homebased Mom is doing some really cute things with Peeps! I dipped mine in milk chocolate and they were tasty...but not as cute as hers. The chocolate-dipped bunny Peeps are adorable too. I added this tag to my bags for delivery to a few friends.

Maya & I whipped up a batch of these incredible Costco-style chocolate muffins last week. YUM! Those are dangerous to have around. So afterward we biked around and delivered them to some family & friends. I will definitely be making them again soon!

Last but not least, I'm always bookmarking the awesome recipe round-ups over at Design Crush. I don't know if I dare attempt macrons, but they're so pretty to look at! I will definitely be trying some of the recipes from the bruschetta, doughnuts, and dips lists.

(All photos copyright of their original blogs.)

{Food Stuffs might be an inadvertent shout-out to my cousin's husband Jesse, who publishes hilarious and very well-written "Stuffs" posts on his Facebook page. Inadvertent or otherwise, I'm always happy to shout-out to Jesse...he's quite the cool cat.}

Getting Down To Business

Time to journal the latest & greatest on the Cottam kiddos. Drumroll please...

Look at Lucy. Almost 11 months old. Crawling around in the dirt like every good 4th child should. Lucy, much like her brothers and sister before her, thinks that she's hilarious. Oh, who are we kidding, she IS hilarious! And chatty. And smiley! Oh, so smiley!

Just look at that face. She's still my little hip buddy, and I just love it. I love being "Lucy's person", if you will. She's great company. So she's starting to realize that she might be able to stand on her own...so we shall see how much longer before she's chasing after her brothers & sister on foot. She's also started to realize that I can put her into her crib...but I can't make her sleep. Much like I can give her a sippy cup...but I can't make her drink. So we're doing the nap time shuffle and still nursing this girl! She's the winner of the Cottam kids...none of the rest made it this long.

Oh, Simon and his "foo toys". You may look at the foo toys, but don't touch, unless you enjoy a bloodcurdling "MIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!". It's his specialty, and he's not going to tolerate you touching his food toys. Or his blankie. Or anything else he deems to be hiiiiiiiiiis. He loves to sit with his basket of food and pull all the food out and tell you what it is. (We love how chatty he's gotten!) He loves his food. I like to think I somehow had something to do with this. :)

At age almost 2 1/2, the afternoon nap is still very much on the agenda. His agenda, not just mine. He loves his nap. And he's not too thrilled, 3 hours later, when I come to rouse him. He is just like his mother...do NOT think you can wake a sleeping bear and not pay the consequences. He's downright mean when he wakes up. But give him a few minutes, a treeeeeeat and a basket of food toys to love on and his smile returns eventually. This kid cracks me UP! My favorite part of the post-nap cuddle is when he gives me a rundown of everything he heard while he was away from me. "I heard an airplane! Outside!" "I heard a doggie! Outside!" "I heard a birdie! Outside!" My favorite is when he hears an owl (actually, they're mourning doves, I think, but whatever), because he says it aye-ow. It's the cutest.

And Mason is a cutie pie in his own rite. He has the best face. Look at him there, pretending to lick a plastic lemon...taking his life into his own hands, really. I'm sure Simon was over to snatch that out of his hands mere seconds after I took the shot. Mason & I read the book Lentil by Robert McCloskey (also known as Robert by Lentil McCloskey and/or McCloskey by Robert Lentil when we're feeling particularly silly) and it's become an instant Cottam classic. Top 5, for sure! Anyway, it features Ol' Sneep sucking on a lemon...perhaps the most random event to ever occur in childrens literature. We both found it hysterical and Mason likes to reenact it for me whenever he can get his hands on a lemon, real or fake.

Aside from his obvious skill at the trapeze bar, Mason's other major developments include adding Castlevania to his old-school video game repertoire, (He's already conquered classic Super Mario Bros. & Legend of Zelda.) and making some huge strides with his reading. That's my BOY! He's awesome. He's also LOVING Pre-K (still) and soccer. He's just a life-lover in general. Which makes him fun to be around.

Who is this 15-year-old?! Just kidding. She's still 7. Well, 7 1/2, technically. I just can't believe how grown up she looks in these pictures. Seriously?! And that loooong hair! Maya is such a good girl. At the moment, she's majorly enthusiastic about Daisy Scouts, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, saving her money for a 3rd American Girl doll and most of all...PLAYING WITH HER FRIENDS!!! Luckily we've got great friends right in the neighborhood, not to mention 3 younger siblings that she is super, super great about including/entertaining/watching over, so she's almost never bored.

We read the book Mirette on the Highwire one day and since then, Maya has been practicing her tightrope skills. Maya's other "thing" at the moment is her big plan to be the President of the United States one day. She has turned her room into the President's Office and has started referring to herself as The President. Luckily, she has not yet requested that the rest of us address her as such...

No pictures, but Chris & I are busy as ever. I am trying to exercise 6 times per week (3 runs, 3 yoga). Considering that I've worked out less than 6 times in the last 3 years, that might be a lofty goal, but hey. Why not aim high, right? If my daughter is going to be the President, I can at least work out for 30 minutes a day, I think. :) Two weeks in and still making it!

So there you have it! All the news you didn't need to know...but aren't you glad you do?! :)

Chocolate Wish-List

I am trying to watch what I eat these days. You know, not be an utter pig at all times. (I'm also doing the Couch to 5k running program 3x per week and attempting to do Jillian Michaels yoga 3x per week. Baby weight x 2 and all...) Anyway, that doesn't stop me from keeping a chocolate wish-list. What, you don't keep one?! Oh, you know you do. Be sure to add these to it...

My friend Lauren's brownie roll-out cookies sandwiched with Nutella. I just died typing that. And you should try eating them. Hello! Lauren is a great friend to have because she does bake-offs and has generously allowed me to be one of her taste testers. I may or may not have sampled a divine cherry brownie cheesecake pie today. Just a tiiiiny bit. Ha. I'm still working on that whole self control thing.

Nutella cupcakes from the Your Cup of Cake blog. Nom nom nom. I may or may not have a sliiiight Nutella problem. Slight.

(I posted this pic to Facebook recently with the caption "Admitting you have a problem is the first step." Unsurprisingly, many of my friends could relate to my addiction.)

And one more insane concoction: Baboon Butter. No recipe listed, but the ingredients were disclosed as peanut butter, banana and chocolate chips served with graham cracker sticks. Yes and YES please!

Please do point me in the direction of your chocolate favorites. I need to keep the wish-list well stocked.

1st Birthday Party In The Making

I've been gathering inspiration for Lucy's 1st birthday party next month from all over the web, and I'm getting very excited about it! It's a "Storytime" party...you know, my take on a book theme. Parents, Grandparents, Siblings, etc. will take their moment in the rocking chair (yet to be procured from Craigslist and painted a bright color...you know, maybe) to read their favorite book out loud to the group.

I'll be reading my most absolute favoritest book ever, Zen Shorts, but the inspiration for the party comes from the cover of Zen Ties (which I also adore and highly recommend). I'm trying to get my friend Hannah to watercolor the invites for me...but she just had a baby and moved 2 weeks later with her 4 kids in tow...and it just might not happen! But we'll come up with something.

I'm going to have a brand-new copy of Zen Shorts on hand for everyone to sign for the birthday girl, and I'd love to request family-favorite books (autographed by the guests, of course) as gifts, but I don't know if that's appropriate. This wording seems non-tacky. What do you think?

We'll definitely use our collection of books to create a cute table top.

You know, like this.

The color scheme that I can't get enough of is the pale blue and red. Love love! (Obviously. I did Lucy's baby blessing luncheon in those colors. And her room. Which I never did take photos of. Hmm. Such a 4th child!)

I'm hoping to hunt down some scrapbook paper to make homemade hats like these, using Jordan's tutorial.

And use it to make paper chains to hang from the trees, too...
Because I'm all about cheap & cheerful decor, I may whip up a bunch of Jordan's paper streamers in light blue & red. Maybe hang them on the front porch, or from the trees...

I've vowed to keep the food super (super!) simple, but I'd love to incorporate book pages as food wraps, a'la this adorable superhero party.

Perhaps book-page cones for the make-your-own snack mix bar?
As for the rest of the food, I really do want to keep it very simple. I'm thinking a lemonade bar (with berries & syrups to mix in) and some beautiful cupcakes.

The top right would be my first choice, but I know I'll never pull that off.
But the top ones here might be doable. You know, with help from my clever friends! :)
And for Lucy's smash cake, I'm conflicted. I adore the look of the un-iced rainbow cake. (A big bunch o' balloons is also a yes please!)

But I'm also obsessed with the pink ribbon icing.
Favors will be very simple, too. Nose and glasses for sure. And since it's an outdoor, under the trees type party, maybe bubbles? Or big bouncy balls? Packs of sidewalk chalk? Thoughts?

I know I've shared some of these links/photos before...sorry to be redundant! :) I just wanted all my thoughts in one place.

So! Any input? It's just over a month away. I can't believe Lucy is going to be 1 so soon!