digadig home

Wow! May 10th. Yeah. That was my last post here. How does that happen?

Well you haven't missed much. I have done a few things around the house that I should probably post at some point. Nothing major but a couple fun things.

One thing I did do was throw Juniper a 1st birthday party. We usually don't do big parties over here but I figure everyone has to have a great 1 year party. Also, we all really know that the 1st birthday party is for the mom since the baby will never remember any of it.

I was leaning towards a "you are my sunshine" theme but my friend Carrie suggested I do a rainbow party. I thought why not do both. Finley loves rainbows so I figured it would be a great way to get her excited about her sisters party without feeling jealous that she wasn't getting a party this year. Their birthdays are 2 weeks apart so it may get touchy in the future.

As with anything nowadays I scoured Pinterest for ideas. I came across this invitation and loved the modern simplicity of it so I decided to recreate it. Yes, I totally copied it but I am cheap and it's not like I am selling them or not owning up to copying it. Here's how mine came out. I added little strips of color to the back to incorporate the rainbow part.

Next on my list was decorations. You can't go wrong with rainbows with hints of yellow. I gussied up our mantle with paper lanterns, a rainbow bunting, and Juniper's monthly pictures. Since I hadn't taken her 12 month picture yet Matt had to quickly sketch out a fill in.

I also made a little display of pictures from the last year. I used yellow bakers twine and itty bitty little tiny rainbow clothes pins to hang the pictures. I actually left this up and replaced the pictures with Christmas cards as we got them.

Finley made a bunch of rainbow and sunshine art to display.

Can't forget the party hats and gift bags.

Outside I hung rainbow paper lanterns, made a rainbow picture backdrop, and had a few fun activities for the kids and adults.

The art table before and after. I had glitter glue, rainbow crayons, punches, lots of scrapbook paper, scissors, markers, plain ol' glitter, and these fun things. There was also a little table with a rainbow assortment of beads for making necklaces and bracelets.

Bubbles are fun for everyone. Juniper thought they tasted good.

I got this next idea from a fellow November 2012 mom. I set up a table with blank wooden blocks and had everyone use a sharpie to write a sweet sentiment for Juniper. I'm a sucker for stuff like this.

We also can't have a party here without an official photo cut out thingy.

Food wise I decided to save my sanity and buy a cake from Costco and get Mexican food from a local restaurant. Everyone like tacos, beans, and rice right? I did put together a few snacks though and an awesome candy table. I love candy.

Yummy ice cream with rainbow and yellow sprinkles.

I did make Juniper a smash cake but she wasn't super interested in it. Which made me sad because the inside was rainbow and I would have loved to see her tear into it and get rainbow colors everywhere.

No party is complete without a playlist of songs about sunshine and rainbows. Matt and I combed the internet and our brains to come up with the following list of songs. I am sure the neighbors are tired of hearing all of these songs because we play them every time we are out in the yard.

Here comes the sun - The Beatles

Sunshine of your love - Cream

Swblar - Cream

Sunshine superman - Donovan

Jennifer Juniper - Donovan

You are my sunshine - Gene Autrey

Gimme a rainbow that's for real - The Radiators

I live for the sun - The Sunrays

The rainbow connection - Willie Nelson

Sunshine, lollipops, & rainbows - Lesley Gore

She's a rainbow - The Rolling Stones

Rainbow stew - Meryle Haggard

California sun - The Riverias

Walking on sunshine - Katrina and the Waves

Somewhere over the rainbow - Judy Garland

Sugar magnolia - The Grateful Dead

Good day sunshine - The beatles

In the end a ton of fun was had by all.

I did finally get that 12 month photo of Juniper. I little late but I got it done.

Finally a huge thank you to my official birthday photographer Carrie. Without her I would not have all of these great photos.

After 5 years you kinda forget how much work it is to take care of a baby. You get spoiled when your 5 year old can get up in the morning by herself and get a snack. Babies take a lot of time and energy. Add to that the daily chores you must do to not end up living in filth and starving to death.

Overwhelmed is an understatement. I started getting sad about it all today when I looked at the list of things I have to get done today. Grocery shopping, putting away said groceries, 5 loads of laundry, dishes, make the bed, light cleaning so I don't die tripping over toys, etc. Add to that taking care of 2 kids and a dog. Getting ready for school, getting breakfast, packing a lunch, feeding baby, changing baby, cloth baby, feeding dog, walking to school, walk dog around block, picking up dog poop, feeding baby again, changing baby again...all while trying to keep the baby from crying because you aren't holding her.

It's depressing. All I want is to be able to add something fun to my list and actually get to do it. I have had so many things that I have wanted to make but I just don't have the time to get the stuff out and actually do it.

So in an effort to cheer myself up I decided to walk around my house and find those little things that I see and walk by everyday that make me happy. I just need to remember to seek those things when I am feeling overwhelmed.

Yes I just complained about this one but her little smile will melt your heart

I just complained about this one too but a dogs unconditional love and happiness is like nothing else. You can leave the house for 30 seconds and come back and they act like you have been gone for days.