Oh and what a party it was!

Sooooooo.....For Ashley's first birthday I went a little Pearl Hamilton. For those of you who thought I was going to say Martha...think again. Growing up, I was friends with a girl who had the most extravagant and creative parties E.V.E.R. I'm talking fondue, candy bars with her name on them, DJ's, etc... The parties were always fun and over the top. I didn't go to her wedding but the pictures were amazing and again over the top cool. As I started putting Ashley's hungry caterpillar party together I imagined this was how Pearl must have felt planing Lindsey's parties. Thanks to Facebook I see the tradition continues; Lindsey's daughter had a 2nd birthday that was just sticky sweet pink and princessy. I was in love. I would say I "came out of the closet" in a way as I heard from several people "I had no idea you were this creative!" Yes folks I have always obsessed about doing these types of things. Now please understand, in my eyes, Pearl is a legend when it comes to party planning. So Pearl, if you read this...I am clearly after your title of best party planner ever!!! Thanks to my BFF Colleen; Ash even had a HC dress!!! Ahhh the glory of it all!
So just a few quick items we did in case you are interested:

1. HC Lanterns: I purchased red and green lanterns from party city and decorated the face and used pipe cleaners for the antennas. They came with fishing line of sorts for hanging...super easy!
2. HC colored prints: Found images on line and printed them in color. I taped some up around the house and some I taped to skewers and stuck in the food on the table.I used a hole punch to give the appearance the caterpillar had eaten a bite out of the pictures.
3. Snacks: Sausage and swiss cheese and crackers. We took a pastry piping tip and cut little holes out of the sausage and swiss. Caprese kabobs with a piece of basil, cherry tomato and mozzarella...drizzled with balsamic and olive oil.
4. Party Favors: I used teal Christmas bulbs (shatterproof), dipped the bottoms in tacky glue and sand, painted palm trees and the kids names and the date BEFORE THE PARTY (a huge shout out to my girl April for painting all the palm trees and writing the names!!!) At the party, the kids who attended dipped their little fingers in red and green paint to make a caterpillar then right before they left we used a marker to put eyes, feet and the antenna's on...ADORABLE! "Caterpillar goes to Florida"
5. Gift bags: Bags from JoAnn's, made the tags my self from construction paper and hand stamped the "thank you" and the butterfly. Stamps were .99 at Walmart. I did put shreads in the bottom to give the ornaments something to sit on.
6. HC Watermelon bowls: bought three, used one as the head and carved out the other two for fruit bowls at the party.
7. The branches and twigs: found them outside and dragged them home...much to my husbands dismay! then glued little sparkly pom pom's to them so there were little caterpillar's "crawling" all over them.
8. 12 Months of Ashley: I color printed 12 pic's from birth to 1 year and glued them to construction paper to make each individual "hump" to the caterpillar. It was crazy to see how she evolved over the 1st year!!!! 

Oh it was so much fun!!!! The party was fun, the guests were a blast, Ash was friendly and made her way through the guests with out getting too overwhelmed, the food was great, all in all, job well done. I did mention something along the lines of..."I think I have a party plan for next year" and I was quickly ix-nayed by the husband. Eh' in a few hundread days he'll forget and maybe just maybe I will be Pearl again next year ;)
Thank you to all who attended. To our friends and family thank you for making this the best year of our lives. We are forever grateful.
Till next year...I hear 2nd birthdays are more fun...ha ha ha!

The Inevidable Good-Bye

I could see the airport in the distance. The rain was pounding my windshield. Ashley was screaming in the backseat. My poor Mom sitting beside her trying to eek out just a few more seconds of time in front of her. My eye's welled with tears. It was the inevitable time for my Mom and and I to part ways; she would head back to Michigan this morning and I would head back home to resume my Motherly duties with out my faithful backup.  There is such an emptiness when she leaves. The time truly does fly by with out a care in the world that it will be months before we will see each other again. This was a fun trip. Ashley's birthday party was Saturday and the weekend was a whirlwind of planning, shopping, and last minute preparations. We'd been talking about it for months. Trading pictures and ideas. The party flew by and sweet relief rushed over me when it was over. Mostly because Ashley had been great. Then life resumed and I returned to work. Grandma took care of Ashley all week..walks, swimming, reading and playing. What a great week for Ash! As always our time together draws to a close too soon. There is definitely an itch for both to get back to "normal" life but we both know the ache of being so far apart. That morning we wrapped up loose ends, got her all packed up and headed out the door. Uncharacteristically, Ashley just screamed the whole way to the airport. I told my mom this was Ashley's way of making it easier to go home. We both snickered a bit knowing there was no easy way to say good bye. I quickly pulled in to departures and we unpacked her bags and I pulled a teary Ash out of her car seat. Mom and I hugged and cried. Thanked each other for "everything" said our "I love you's" and that was that. She headed in and I packed Ashley back up. We both cried the whole way home. The rain poured down. It was fitting for our mood. 

When I lived in Michigan seeing my Mom was such a "to do" list item. It was only when I moved that I realized how hard it was to not have her around. We can rationalize that the time we spend together now is "quality" time; but that doesn't make it any easier. It's hard to grow up and be an adult. It's hard to be a wife and a mom. When my Mom is here the burden is lifted. Laundry is done, dinner gets made, stains find there way out of clothes, buttons and holes in shirts get sewn up, silverware drawers get cleaned out, and I get to watch my little girl enjoy my Mom the way I do. She is such a lucky little girl to have my Mom as her  Grandma. I am such a lucky girl to have my Mom. 

For all you lucky gal's who's Mommy's live near by...count your blessings. Even if she gets on your nerves...and let's be honest it happens. Enjoy that you get to spend that mundane day to day together.

Till next time.....Thanks Mom, for EVERYTHING!