In an effort to give our friends from Montana the full east coast experience we whipped up a little tropical storm for their visit... We are nothing if not considerate! 

Seriously though, the first part of their visit was a bit... well, damp... But our spirits were not...

We did have to cross a couple things off our to do list and shuffle things around a bit but I think a good time was had overall... 

I ordered lobsters for the 4th and even though it was a soggy 4th fresh lobster waits for no man so Jed, Allison, family friend Jen (red hair) and some of the Montana crew braved the rain to dig into a pile of lobsters under the umbrella on the deck.

Jen, Jed & Allison coached the newbies through the process...

They dug in bravely... 

(Please ignore my non-clarified butter... I ran out of time and nobody minded.)

The Montana crew all dug in for one whole lobster each then headed in for for the more familiar ribs and fixins' inside... The locals killed the rest! 

We ended the soggy night with our favorite cupcakes who didn't hang around long enough to get their photo op! 

Due to the weather and our planned trip to the island we ended up moving our "party" to the 8th! 

So our friends and family gathered last night for food, fun & belated fireworks! 

Here is a peek...

All the traditional foods...

A make your own berry shortcake bar & s'mores for around the fire pit later on...

Unlike other parties we did one long table down the middle of the yard and all gathered around it...

Allison thought up most of the table decor and we found these fun little "brain teasers" at Cracker Barrel that we placed down the length for people to fiddle with... They were a big hit...

Later we lit up the fire pit, told funny family stories then Paul let off an insane amount of fireworks that left us with a few more crazy stories to tell around future fire pits! 

I am off to the Mary & Martha national conference in Kansas City tomorrow so I will finish catching you all up when I get back!

Thanks for listening,

1st Birthday Party...

I promised I'd share more detail about the 1st Birthday we threw for Goobie here on Saturday, so here it is... A post with more details then you want...

Let's start with the decor...

The first thing people noticed was the giraffe bounce house in the front yard... It took up 3/4 of the front yard and was the hit of the party for kids and adults alike! 

The next thing people noticed were the ENORMOUS balloons...

You don't really get an idea of how big they are in the photo above so check them out when I sent two home with a dear friends adorable (and exhausted from bouncing) girlies...

Yes, they were HUGE! 

I got them from Groop Dealz a couple months ago but you can find them here if you want them...

I also had fun giraffe balloons but they didn't get any close ups in the pictures...

So here is a close up of the giraffe balloons:

We got them here...

The thing people seemed to notice next were the backdrops behind the gift & cake tables...

I thought they turned out cute...

They were made with PVC pipe and twin size bed sheets...

I believe I ordered the banners from Zulilly... I got them about a month ago... I have seen similar ones on there since so keep looking back if you want them, but I may have got them from Etsy or Groop Dealz too... I honestly don't remember. 

While we are over there would you look at that cake! 

 It is from "LAUGH loud SMILE big" which is the amazing cupcake bakery I have featured the cupcakes from in the past on here...

Not only is it as cute as can be but it was so yummy! 

They also did these giraffe cake pops and...

The smash cake!

I took these pictures of the beginning of the "smash"...

Then I put the camera down and enjoyed the moment...

Suffice it to say she was covered in cake and frosting! 

I am not sure this is decor but we provided a bucket of various bug sprays because Maine in the summertime is really buggy! 

(Please ignore the grass... Our yard is very shaded and grass is a constant struggle... Moss and weeds constantly want to take over... In some areas they seem to be winning... Don't tell Paul!) 

The table decor was fun to come up with... 

For months every time we saw  a different giraffe stuffed animal in a store we bought them to use on the tables... We found the vintage looking giraffe toys in a little shop in downtown Camden... Add a mason jar of bright flowers and voila... Centerpieces... 

I didn't want to use plastic table cloths as they blow up non stop (as pictured below) but since I did in fact have a budget I was trying to stick with so I went with them... They were colorful and fun! 

The paper products were a combo of Mary & Martha and Oriental Trading...

In the background of this picture you can kind of see the other games I had set up for the kiddos to play... There was hopscotch and two kinds of toss games.

I invited the adults to take home one of the little wooden giraffe toys on the tables and had these goody boxes for the kiddos... The boxes are Mary & Martha and contained a beach ball, bubbles, a birthday rubber ducky & a pinwheel. 

And now for the star of our shindig...

It's too bad she wasn't having fun!

Hahahaha... She had a total blast... She had no idea why everyone was here and why we were having this big party but she sure was having fun! 

Her totally crazy outfit is from Christi Creations on Etsy and was even cuter then the pictures show! 

Here she is by the bounce house with her mom... You should have seen that tutu bouncing!! 

I think that just about covers everything... 

P.S. Sorry for the quality of the pictures... Allison has been borrowing my camera for her youtube videos and I discovered 10 minutes before the party the batteries were dead... Yghhh... So all the above photos were taken with my i-phone camera or snagged from friends facebook posts! 

Thanks for listening,

1st Birthday Peek...

I'll go into detail in my next post but here is a peek at our "Giraffe Garden Party"! 

I am too tired for commentary so I will let the pictures speak for themselves...

And this is what she did for the three hours following her party!

Thanks for listening,

Another New Baby to Shower...

About a week and a half ago some good friends of ours became foster parents to a newborn baby. Allison and I were chatting over coffee on Thursday and got to thinking what a shame it is that foster babies rarely get showers... I have a very good friend in Tennessee who has fostered several babies and adopted two of them... No shower for any of them... Shame on me for it not occurring to me to celebrate these precious lives and the women who drop everything and turn their lives upside down on a moment's notice to love them!

So Allison and I wanted to change this right away, and right away it would have to be... We looked at our calendars and realised this weekend would be the only one we would be free for the next five weeks... That means after we checked with the new foster dad we had three days to pull off a shower for Sunday afternoon... I literally heard the Mission Impossible theme music in my head. Could we throw together a party in that time that would be a blessing to the mom? Would anyone come?

We decided to do a "Diaper Shower" since the mom has a four year old daughter and two year old son... She has "baby stuff" but taking on the expense of diapers and stuff can be a real drain on your budget.

Katy had been looking for an excuse to entertain, so we conned her into asked her to host it at her new place... Yay, less housework for me... We just might pull this off...

Next decor... Allison had spotted these cute plastic popcorn containers in the dollar bins at Target and thought they would make cute vases and such... Since we only had a couple days and less money for this we decided to run back to Augusta (Which is 45 minutes from here and where the nearest Target is... Feel sorry for me yet?) to get what we needed... After talking to Paul we found out we had about a $40 budget to work with... Yowza... Cue that theme music again... We decided to just keep it simple... We created a little candy bar as a focal point and kept the food simple... Fruit, Cheese & Crackers, and Katy made some lemon bars. After we grabbed the popcorn containers we spotted the classic "Barnum's Animal Cracker" boxes... We decided to use those as our color cues and grabbed a few red and yellow pails (also from the dollar bins) to make the candy bar more colorful...

A bunch of candy, a couple bright colored bouquets of flowers and some plates, napkins and paper straws from our "party bins" and we were done... (Or over-budget... As the case may be...)

Sunday afternoon came, and we pulled off the surprise... She was so excited, and the candy bar was a huge hit... (Never under-estimate how happy candy makes adults!) We had a small but happy crowd of six adults, four kiddos and one adorable baby!

Here is the happy mommy with her big guy and her little guy...

You might remember River, she was the photographer at Kate and Jed's wedding and her husband Jerry was one of the grooms men... She also teaches art and photography at the school I will be teaching at this fall... (Yes, it's a very small community we live in!)

Here are my girlies with another sweet friend (who is pregnant and will probably be our next shower!) and the new big sister (making her "cheese" face!) on Katy's futon couch... I think all young people have a futon couch at one point or another... We actually discussed this at the shower and we determined we had all had one when we were starting out. (Random fact: Ours was in our den/guest room... Paul later fessed up he thought it would keep house guests from staying too long!)

Speaking of babies... Katy and Jed have one too...

Meet "Lucy"...

Or "Lucy Lu" as Kate calls her!

She is a "bengal" kitten and just eight weeks old...

She is so cute and has the most amazing markings but when she is awake she is a blur of energy so I found a picture of a bengal kitten on google that looks similar...

Lucy's spots are a bit bigger then this kitty's but you get the idea.

(NOT Lucy... from Google.com)

So we were all babies this weekend! (Yay!)

Thanks for listening,


PS. Don't forget about the 20 days of givaways going on over at As Jules Is Going... She is giving away some really cool stuff!!

Best Laid Plans...

Here is a post of what I won't be doing tomorrow for the 4th of July...

We used to have an annual 4th of July party every year. It was a classic Americana style fete'... Think lots of flags & buntings, croquet on the front lawn, hamburgers, hot dogs and usually lobster (we are in Maine after all!). When we moved to Tennessee it was just too hot outside to enjoy throwing one, so we kinda gave up the tradition. Every year since we have been back in Maine the Girlies have asked nicely begged to do one, but for one reason or another we didn't... This year was supposed to be the year we brought back this favorite family tradition.

Alas, we made all kinds of plans for this year, but were just not able to pull it together in time. Let me show you our Pinterest inspirations anyhow...

Here was my first inspiration...

I have the jars & bandannas sitting in a bin in the basement...

(link)

Love the way they serve the beans and such here... I got the beverage server, two tier rack, little jars for the beans, paper straws... (I was so ready to go... Where did we drop the ball?)

(link)

Let's face it, I have never successfully pulled off cake pops, but these were so cute, I was going to give it another try!  

(link)

I have been collecting red, white and blue plates and such for weeks to mix and match on the table... I priced the jute chargers but they were more then I wanted to spend, and the little boxes are cute but one step too far for me, but otherwise I was all over this table-scape!

(link)

I had Paul paint a plank with chalk board paint last week and had the scrapbook paper all picked out to do the menu board... I have this tray, but it is turquoise, so it was going to meet a can of red spray paint I picked up...

(link)

Finally, this cute banner was on my to do list... It would have looked so cute draped across my red barn window mirror in the living room... Ah well...

(link)

Why aren't we doing one if we are so prepared you ask? Well, we forgot to invite people... With the wedding, and subsequent activities the 4th just kinda snuck up on us... We could wing it, but it would be a shame to go to all that work and expense and have nobody show up!

The good news is that Allie has agreed to do a BBQ theme for her engagement party in about three weeks, so other then the banner (which I guess I could just re-theme) I may still use all these ideas. Stay tuned...

We have other good news to share... Allison & I got a big catering job! There is a huge two day antique show here in town every year and my cousin's bakery used to cater it... Last year she was in the process of shutting down her business so Allie and I ran it for her and although it was a ton of work we had a blast doing it. (Plus it is a huge money maker too!) This year, with my cousin's business kaput and her working in the Big Apple we thought they would go with someone else but went ahead and sent in a proposal anyhow... Yesterday we found out we got it! This will give us a big head start on wedding money for next June!

Thanks for listening,