Category Archives: kiddos

06.02.11

Maps.

I have been working on a few little boys rooms as of late, which makes me giddy, because I get to use all of the inspiration that I had been saving up if we ever had a boy.  Here’s one trend that has stuck with me through the years- maps.  I love the idea of a world map on a child’s wall.  Not only is it beautiful and educational, it symbolizes the art of exploring– which will always let creativity thrive!
All of the rooms above were done with this wall mural.

05.16.11

Lou’s Tinker Bell Party

A few weeks ago, I clued you all in on the theme of Lou’s third birthday party.
Courtesy of my friend and neighbor, Amber of Little Moon Photography, we have some amazing pictures to share…
 My friend Kristy Patterson of Sweet Nothings worked meticulously on the candy table.  Those of you who know me, know how obsessive  I am over the details.  Kristy is just as detail-oriented and was open to all of my crazy ideas.  She was an absolute pleasure to work with.
 I just love how everything turned out!
I created the tags in MS Word, and all of the glitter ribbon is from Michaels.  The backboard fabric is from Heather Bailey.

 

 Once again, Kristy Stone of Tastefully Treated hit a home run with the cake… Kristy is someone who understands and tolerates my OCD.  After I decided I wanted a log slice for a cake stand, she went to several different mill yards in the area to find just the right one.  She’s a genius!
 Many of you had questions on the flowers… I actually special ordered them from Wegmans.  I looked a little weathered (you’ll see below) as I was up until 3 am doing the arrangements.  So worth it!
The fairies in jars were made from Christmas ornaments, Ikea Rajtan jars, fishing wire and wooden toadstools.  The rainbow circles were cut from glitter paper.
The tablecloths were made in this green linen, and sewn by Windows by Melissa .  One thing to note.. the linen wasn’t easy to iron.  Please excuse my mismatched valance (next on the list to be replaced…)
The large toadstools are from Pier 1.
The Ninja-like fairies on the mantle are from Target.  On Friday night as I was arranging them, I called Mike over to take a look (mature, I know) because of the not-so-lady-like positions that they were in.  I tried my best to give them some decorum.
We had a mean game of Pixie Tag. I bought the “Pixie Dust” here.
As you can see, someone finally got her Imperial Trellis shades hung in the kitchen… I love them!  The wreaths, wood chips and moss rocks are from Save On Crafts.
 The goody bags are from Michael’s.  I created the iron-ons in Word.
 The Peter Pan hats are from Good’s Place, the fairy wings, wands, swords and tutus are from Designed2BSweet.
The moon bounce was a surprise from her Daddy.  He was so proud that he found a TINKER BELL moon bounce.  It was priceless, when she saw it in the backyard, she gasped and grabbed his hand.  I think I may have seen a little tear well up in his eye.
 Everyone had a ball, including Bailey.
The kids loved playing Fairy Freeze Dance.
Lou kept thanking us saying “this is the best birthday party ever.”
A week later, our house still sparkles with Pixie dust, I think a little will always remain, but it will always remind of us the magical party that we had for our sweet little Anna Lou.

05.01.11

Happy Birthday to My Baby Girl.

Today my little Anna Lou turns three.  I cannot believe it.  Where did the time go?  On Friday I told her that I was going to cry at her birthday party because she’s not a baby anymore.  She stopped what she was doing, came over and took my face in her hands and said “Don’t cry, Mommy, I have to be a big girl now, it’s ok.”  Seriously, now I really AM going to cry.
Anna Louise was born on May 1, 2008.  She was named after my mom, Anita Louise.. who was named after her grandmother, Anna Louise.  An old Italian tradition is to name your children after their paternal grandparents, therefore all of my mother’s cousins were already named Anna by the time she came along. My Nanny tried to switch it up and name her Anita…  Well, that went over like a lead balloon.  In stubborn-old-Italian-grandmother tradition, she never spoke to my mother.  Before Neets died, I told her that if we ever had another girl, we would name in her honor.  (She died two weeks before Elizabeth was born, but we had already picked E’s name.) However, (as I also told her) I could not do Anita, so we would revert to Anna.  And the rest is history.
She was a big girl, so I had a scheduled C-Section.  That being said, on April 30 at 11:00 pm, my water broke.  As you may have read about my belief in the significance of dates, I was thrilled that she was picking her own birthday.  I believe that this has a lot to do with a person’s make-up.  Well, luckily I was able to hold on through the night, but because three other women’s water broke that night who were also scheduled, I had to wait. (Must have been a full moon.)  Luckily we were still in time for a C-Section because at one week early, this turkey weighed in at  9 lbs. 14 oz.  We brought her home and Elizabeth said that she “wanted to put her baby sister in the trash can.”
Go figure- she won her over.
We are so lucky to have her.  She has brought our family so much joy.
She is the sweetest, kindest, most sensitive little girl in the world.
Sometimes a little mischievous…
And certainly taking advantage of the terrible twos….
 
But she’ll always be our Lou Lou Bug.
We love you Lou.
Happy Birthday!

04.13.11

A Mother’s Guilt.

to the moon and back | kiwi's list.
If you have been reading this blog for some time you know that I lost my mother to cancer 5 1/2 years ago.  What you may not know is that I inherited the very same cancer that took her life.  We found out in 1989 that Neets had Medullary Thyroid Cancer.  The disease was so aggressive that they told her that she had six months to live.  Refusing to accept this death sentence, she turned 6 months into 16 years.  Through her advocacy and persistance, our doctors at Johns Hopkins continued to test for a genetic marker that caused the disease.  In 2000, they found it.  My brother, sister and I were all tested and both my brother Darren and I tested positive for the gene. In January of 2000 we had our thyroids removed.  Darren had traces of cancer in his thyroid, but on none of the surrounding lymph nodes.  I not only had cancer on my thyroid, but on two of the four lymph nodes that they removed.
I will never forget the look of pain on my mother’s face.  How guilty she felt that she somehow was the cause of this pain for her children.  At the time I was 22, childless and completely disregarded these emotions.
I can honestly say that my mother saved our lives.  We now work closely with our doctors to ensure that the cancer is under control.  While I have minor traces of MTC, nothing to be alarmed of at this point.  Is it a curse?  In a way, but it is also a blessing.  We are so fortunate to have this information far enough in advance to prevent this disease from taking another life.
So, here comes the most difficult part for me.  A few weeks ago, we had our girls tested for this gene.  The results came back last week.  E does not have it, Anna does.  In a flash, it all came rushing to me- the guilt my mother felt.
At the very least, we hope that (because we know the facts early enough) in the grand scheme of things it would mean surgery for Anna Lou and an understanding of the disease so that she can have her children tested.  We will have to take her back for more blood work to make sure that there are no viable traces of cancer in her body (which would be quite rare at this age.)  If there are not, than she will most likely have a thyroidectomy at age six.
Does it suck?  Yes.  Is it going to kill me to put my baby through this?  Yes.  But if this testing was available when my mother was a child, she would be with us today.  I just wish the curse would have ended with me.

04.11.11

Big Girl Room.

The time has come.  Our little Anna Lou will be turning three next month, and refuses to sleep in her toddler bed.  It’s time to convert her nursery into a big girl room.  This weekend she inherited my trundle bed from childhood.  I have a lot of ideas for her new bed and bedding.  To give you a sneak peak, here are some inspirations that came to mind….
Stay tuned!

03.03.11

Firetruck Party

A few months ago, my friend Kristin Mika asked me to help her coordinate her son Jackson’s 4th birthday party.  The theme: Firetrucks.  I was thrilled to help as I don’t get to plan many boy’s parties.
Kristin had a good idea in her head as to what she wanted, just needed some help editing.  We did things like design tags, pick fonts, fabrics and talked through the flow of the party and where everything should go.  I also helped with her with some ideas to keep the kiddos entertained like “Pin the Tail on the Dalmation” , “Hot Dalmation” (like Hot Potato.)



Here are some of the concepts that we discussed:

1.) “Pin the tail on the Dalmation” game. (Image by HPD.)
3.) Firefighter hats-  I would rip off the stickers, or try to get them plain and put your custom stickers on them.
4.) Large dalmatian to have at the party.
5.) Custom Popcorn Cups (Cups from Michael’s, Stickers HPD)
9.) Custom cookies and tags wrapped with  dalmatian or red grossgrain ribbon. 
10.) Custom candy tags and cupcake toppers with images from HPD.
Another friend, Kristy Patterson  (I know, it gets confusing Krista, Kristin and Kristy..) designed the candy table.  We designed the layout and the tags for the candy.  While I was not there the day of the party, it was a great success!  Here are the final results, pictures taken by James Woo:

I hope this was inspiration for those of you who may be in the market for a Firetruck Party.  I had so much fun with Kristin and Kristy planning the event.  If you need customized invites, labels or gifts, call Kristin… if you are looking for an amazing candy table, Kristy is your girl.