Get Your Party On!!!

This post is going to be a combination of 365 pictures and birthday project pictures.  I have lots of stuff to share from Doodle's birthday party.  It pretty much consumed my life for a while.  I love being "that mom" when it comes to birthdays.  I love making her invitations, favors, cakes, etc.  I just wish that I realized how much time it takes and that I knew when to say when (to myself).  But I don't, so I get a little carried away sometimes.  Her 3rd birthday party was example of my over stretching myself.  It all began when I saw a birthday invitation with Sesame Street characters made out of punch pieces.  I copied the 4 characters used in the invite (Elmo, Cookie, Oscar, and Big Bird).  Then I wondered if I could make other characters.  And this is what happened

August 19 (29/365)
I actually remembered to go back and add this from this previous post

So I used 6 of the guys to make her invitation.  Six guys times 13 invitations, is a lot of guys!

I then had a problem, I had 4 guys that hadn't been used for anything.  I decided I would make a memory game for each of the kids and this would be their party favor.  Sounded simple enough.  I  had lots of pieces already cut out and ready to go.  I got started.  I put about half the faces together.  Then I started doing the math so I could get paper for the faces to go on.
10 guys X 2= 20 guys per game
20 guys X 12 games = 240 guys all together
But, by the time I figured this out, I was in too deep.  I charged ahead.  Meanwhile, Doodle decided to get Hand, Foot, Mouth the weekend before her party, and I got way behind on my preparations!  I worked nonstop while she was at school and anytime she was sleeping.   In the middle of this rediculous project Sisterwife reminded me I hand't made a decision about the cake.
Of course I ask Doodle who tells me she wants a cake with Abby, Elmo, and Grover on it.  GREAAAAT!  After much research, I find a cake and have a lightbulb moment.  I found coloring book images of 5 characters (Abby, Elmo, Grover, Zoe, and Count Von Count) and got them the right size for the cake.  Then I made 4 copies of each onto cardstock.  I then cut each into the pieces to build the face.  Then used those pieces like a template to trace on the fondant.  And voila.... fantastic Sesame Street characters.

September 22 (63/365)

Those were done two night before the party.  The night before the party, Sisterwife and I put the cake together, rolled fondant, covered cakes, and added our face creations to the cake.  Of couse, because I had so much going on, I totally forgot to buy a box to put the cake in, so I had to make a tin-foil house for it to live in over night.

September 23 (64/365)

Now, remember this entire time that I am trying to get my cake on, I am still trying to finish making (and laminating with bookbinding tape) 240 *#%*(#  GUYS!  In all of this craziness I will admit my first fault of the 365 challenge.  I missed a day.  I faked  it with these pictures of the party favor.

September 26 (67/365)
Box from party favor 

Directions for game

Sesame Street Memory game

I finally finished everything about 1:00am the morning of her party.  Here are several pictures from the party.  Hope you enjoyed my craziness as much as she did!

These are Doodle's birthday banners.  A tradition I started last year.  Each banner chronicles a year of her life.  One picture for every month.  I use colors from the birthday party theme so I can keep each year separate.  To me, it is a way for new friends see who she was as she grows up! 

September 24 (65/365)
My picture of the day!

Doodle was so excited about a pinata.  She wanted everyone to "pull the ribbon and say yeah!" She wasn't so excited about hurting Abby Cadabby.  Lucky for her, she stayed in one piece!

Therapy

The past two weeks have been really long.  My Favoritest has worked really long hours, and as a result I have worked really long hours.  Last night when I tucked Doodle into bed, I told her we could spend the day with daddy tomorrow.  Her reply was "and the mommy, you go to work."  I told her that mommy went to work every day taking care of her and the pup-pups.  It flew right over her head!  After a long couple of weeks, I really wanted a beer, but we were out.  So to relax, I did the next best thing for me.  I got crafty/creative.  I have been working on several projects and if you walked into my craft area our spare bedroom you could see the mad ADD mind busy at multi-tasking work! Oh wait, I took a picture so you can see!

August  5 (15/365)

If you look closely you can see the makings of Doodle's birthday invitation, a baby announcement for a friends son, and some cards for me to keep on hand.  I love scrapbooking and making cards.  It is  my own personal therapy.  I can forget about all the things that need to be done and just focus on the project at hand!  I also feel like there is a little bit of love put into every hand made creation and I hope that good vibe travels along with the card to the person on the receiving end.

I ended up working on the baby announcements for a while and stayed up much later than I intended.  That left me cranky and tired this morning.  I also was feeling horrible for my sleep deprived hubby, so I got Doodle up and brought her downstairs to let him sleep a little extra.  (unfortunately our weekend ritual of snack cup and tv in mommy and daddy's bed was out of the picture because Doodle didn't nap and lost tv privileges until her next nap).  So anyway, being tired and cranky we had a lazy morning.   Doodle played with her toys and I half payed attention to her and half to Today.  One of the moments I was listening to her never ending chants of "hey mommy, hey mommy, mommy hey" she asked me to take her picture.  She then held up her "camera" and said "I take your picture and you take my picture at the same time.  Okay?  Ready! 1, 2, 3".  I think I am using my camera often if this is the pretend play!

August 6 (15/365)