Mary Clare's 7th Birthday Party

or..."How to Host a Fun Fashion Show Birthday Party for less!"
(for Jill and anyone else who doesn't want to spend the big bucks of the "sweetie sassy" places!)

Mary Clare invited some of her homeschooled girlfriends from her Pickwick and Little Flowers class, and a few family friends and cousins! My mom did a cute turquoise, white and black leopard print invitation (like one of these) which I just pasted into an email, because I'm too lazy to send real invites by mail, especially after Christmas cards! Here's the poem I wrote for it...

For Mary Clare's 7th Birthday wish,
It's a Fashion Show Party you won't want to miss!

On January 9th from 10 to 1
Your girls are invited to have some fun!

To wear their fashion-y finest, with accessories too,
And be ready for lunch, cake, punch, and fondue!

We'll primp and pamper and glitter and glam,
And then at 12:30 we'll welcome back the "fam",

Our big fashion show will end the date,
So come one and all and don't be late!

The big birthday girl!


The party started with making paper dolls!


I found the cute doll and clothes templates here, and bought a book of scrapbook paper, cutting out lots of the clothes beforehand. Some of the girls used my cut-out templates or made their own clothes designs! They used colored pencils to color the faces and hair, and I also set out some little bowls with sequins to glue on for sparkly accessories! Thanks also to my mother-in-law and sis-in-law for cutting out so many dolls!


Happy girls!


Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday!


I made about 20 of each chocolate and white cupcakes,
We sang and she blew out her 7 candle

I love Ellie's face in the 2nd photo :-)

and then offered lots of different colored sprinkles for the girls to decorate their own cupcakes!


We had a delicious punch (made by hubby) in the punch fountain, which was one of the things from Kelly that we kept to share with our homeschool group. It was a big hit! I bought plastic turquoise "wine glasses" from Party City (where I bought most of the decorations) for the girls to use, and wrote their names with a permanent marker on them. You can see one on the bottom left.

Hubby also made the chocolate fondue; it wasn't that big a hit because everyone was ready for cupcakes instead. Oh well! I didn't get a photo of all the food, but we had mini-PBJs, chicken nuggets, fresh fruit and fresh veggies (with ranch). The fruit, Nila wafers, and little shortbread cookies could be used for the fondue. My mom fixed some tortillas, chicken, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, chips and queso for the adults. My mother-in-law was also a big help by coming the day before to watch the girls while we were at the cardiologist, making dinner for us, and helping with all the prep work. Thanks so much Grampatti and NeNe!

Mary Clare opened presents while a few girls at a time went to the "spa" station in the girls' bedroom (since I was short on time at that point). A few of my friends helped to put on nail polish and offered lip gloss and cheek glitter. It was all pretty mild, not too much for little girls; didn't want to upset the daddies!


Then a half-hour before the end of the party, all the families came back. We didn't get a photo of the huge amount of people in our house! I think there were about 60 people! The couches were moved to the back wall and lots of chairs set out. One of my friends brought her keyboard with microphone and I announced each girl who came out the black curtain (3 yards of black fabric from Wal-Mart nailed in the doorway) and walked along the "runway" (some clearanced turquoise beads placed on the floor; a wooden runway would've been neat too!). All the parents were taking pictures, it was really cute!



I asked each girl their name, favorite food, and favorite hobby beforehand and wrote in an ordered list (after figuring out a good order for them to go in), so I announced that while describing their outfit on the microphone, with some techno beats from the keyboard in the background. Some of the girls were shy and went in pairs. We even had our not-quite-2-year-old goddaughter walk the runway!

Mary Clare was the last model and was quite the ham!


We ended by having the girls all come out and sing and dance to the song "Celebration" (by Kool & the Gang, ours was on a kid mix CD), letting some of the girls sing on the microphone :-)


The birthday girl had quite a fun time and thanks everyone for making her birthday so special!

My mom made the party bags with a personalized sticker for the party, and they also took their paper dolls home, but we forgot to give most of them the cute little wine glasses which would've been cute to put the favor bags in...oh well!

Everyone in the family has now taken a nap except the birthday girl, who I'm sure will sleep well tonight. She's having too much fun playing with her new paper dolls, scrapbook and craft kits, doll clothes, etc! We have had such a fun day and have so much to be thankful for and a great year ahead (especially knowing there should be no heart surgeries this year!)

Do you think we'll make 7am mass in the morning in the 22 degree weather???

Steven Joseph Heart Update

Thanks so much for all your prayers and well wishes for our appt today.

He slept through the entire cardiologist appt. Dr. listened to his heart but didn't do scans. Said to come back in a year for scans here at local office, then sedated MRI at the children's hospital, followed by appt with surgeon in early 2011. Hole in his upper left chamber has 0% chance of closing, is about 1cm, and in a unique location, so a catheter procedure would never be an option. It likely wouldn't affect him until adulthood, but surgery is usually done before school age. So he will need open heart surgery at some point (up to us), around 4yrs old is recommended. So it may be about 2 yrs or more before surgery. We will get more info on that from the surgeon before making a decision on when to operate.

Thankful it went smoothly, glad that we have a better understanding of the condition, glad it is nothing urgent, but of course still discouraged that he will need to face this surgery at some point. Thanks for all your support. Continued prayers for all those with heart conditions, especially those with more serious and urgent problems. Thanks so much for all who joined in my prayer campaign!

Around our house

some photos taken by kiddos...

happy boy (this mama is still asking for prayers for his appt on friday, for healing as well as a smooth appt, so we don't have to reschedule for sedated scans. praying he will sleep in his stroller for his echocardiogram! also asking for prayers specifically from Pope John Paul II!)

cute close-up of SJ working on his car that somehow made it into the house during the garage sale

i believe this is "addison", the doll that swims in the water. she accompanies them for all their baths recently and makes bathing very exciting!

i'll have to ask MC the name of this doll, she's the one that came with a rocking horse.

now onto my pictures of the crazy day today!

what our living room looks like on a good day. i made the playmat out of plywood last week and they love it! i think someone messed with my photo settings because all the pictures are dark!

books always everywhere. tree and decorations were ready to be put away for next year. i did it tonight amidst ellie's cries...she was so sad to see it go! i was too, i loved the twinkling lights of the tree and garland in the evenings. but it's nice to have a cleared-out living room for the big party!

a friend gave me this book "backtalk" to borrow, i skimmed it this morning while in a heated battle with a child who did not want to cooperate. just what i needed to read today!

last week i moved a bed into SJ's "nursery" where he's never slept and got the room all cleaned up. guess who has taken over? THE DOLLS!

and lucky kirsten has made her home under the altar in our living room. i can't complain; at least this is a location where no one can see the mess!

signed, mother of doll-lovers living in a house full of dolls~

The coughs...

Look at my Ellie girl! My kids are always prone to coughing spells. A simple cold virus gives them a cough that seems to linger and linger. They've had coughs lingering on and off since early December, and are hopefully at the tail end! Steven Joseph had the fever for a few days last week and antibiotics seemed to clear him right up. Ellie has now had a dry cough and fever.

We've tried everything! Nebulizer (as seen here; love the goggles; she says it stings her eyes), inhaler, cough meds, tylenol, shower steam, cold night air, humidifier, etc etc. Last night I was finally able to get a new humidifier and the Benedryl that the pediatrician suggested...and it was the best night in quite awhile! Not sure if that's because the cough is an allergy and reacts well to the med, or because the Benadryl just knocks her out/relaxes her enough to stop coughing!

With our First Friday classes approaching, along with Steven Joseph's heart appointment, and Mary Clare's party...we need to get rid of this thing quickly! Hopefully today will be a better day.

The kids have cabin-fever and behavior issues are exaggerated. Toddler throwing tantrums, Big girl throwing fits about doing schoolwork. Hopefully we'll get into the swing of things soon and enjoy this new semester. I'm looking forward to getting through this appointment (although dreading the news at the same time), and enjoying the weekend with HEALTHY kids!

Any good cough/cold remedies that work for your family?

Happy New Year 2010!

I think this was the first time to celebrate New Year's Eve with the girls! We spent the evening with the K family...

making Gingerbread houses

watching deer hunting videos and taking a little siesta


getting into the gingerbread house goodies


caught in the act!


playing dress-up for a "wedding"


coloring special 2009 glasses


and jumping on bubble wrap outside, their "fireworks"
after watching the ball drop at 11 in NYC

a fun night with fun friends!
Thanks K family!

Happy 7th Birthday, Mary Clare!

Today was the big 7 for our big girl! How can my firstborn be 7 already? I can hardly believe it. We had a nice day at home. First she got a new (to her) American Girl doll. Kirsten was just retired, but somehow I found an amazing deal on a nearly new one online. She thinks Kirsten is like Mary from the Little House series, and has all sorts of pioneer plans for her dolls! So fun!

My parents and aunt came over and Steven grilled some fabulous steak and chicken. We ate her requested strawberry cheesecake and sang Happy Birthday. She got some more special gifts (including these adorable peg ballerinas made by my mom) and had fun playing with them this afternoon.

We ended the day with an all-girl outing to Party City, Michael's, and Walmart to do some party planning for her Fashion Show party next weekend. All in all, a great birthday! More photos from today...

Me and Mini-Me (MC) and Mom with Mini-Her (Ellie)

how all the men in the family seem to spend time at the parties...


I won't say whether or not I got a little snooze on the couch though...

Happy New Year and Happy Epiphany! I'll try to get some more photos up tomorrow.