Wordless Wednesday- Driving Miss Maggie

A party for the princess

Well, in case you were wondering, we survived Irene. We lost power on Sunday for about 5 hours, but other than that, no harm, no foul.

In other news, we officially have a 13 month old in our midst, but before I get to that, how's about I finish up the 1st birthday recap??

The final party was held, July 31st (yes, I realize this recap has taken over a month.....LOL) at my mom's house in MD. For this party we went with a princess theme and Mags wore the same dress that I wore on my 1st birthday.

Pretty in pink

Daddy (looking oh so enthused) and the birthday girl

We ate great food and hung out with the fam. By this point Mags was starting to get the hang of the whole party thing and really had some fun with her cake this time.

A cake almost too perfect to eat...

The smash cake

Yea, I'm the princess...kiss my napkin!

Do I have something on my face?

SUGAR!!!!!

We also had fun opening presents and looking at her new toys.

Who are we kidding the child would still just be as happy with tissue paper....

Not choking her with the bear here, I promise.....

All in all, a great party to end the 1st birthday festivities.

1st birthday parties recaps.... done. Boom..... Roasted.

Hope you're having a great Monday!

Wordles Wednesday- Mad Hatter

Pool Party 1st Birthday

Hola Amigos! Hope everyone up here in the North is doing ok after the earthquake. Seriously if it hadn't been for Facebook and my MIL texting us about it, we would have never known. We were out and about today, and we didn't feel a thing. Oh well, that's fine by me!!!

So I'm picking up where I left off on the 1st birthday front. Need to give a fair share to all of the amazing parties that little Magster had.

Saturday, July 30th, we had Mag's birthday party at the country club my dad and step-mom belong to. We continued with the cupcake theme, used the same decorations and she wore the same outfit. The major addition to this party??? A Pool!!!! Mags has been in the pool a few times and LOVES it, and this day was no exception.

Little girl, in a big pool

Well there was one exception...this club had a rather large kiddie pool, and when we put Mags in her float in the kiddie pool, it allowed her to touch the bottom and walk around. She was in heaven!!!! She was zooming all over the place and at one point she tried to get out of the float, I think because she wanted to walk on her own.....LOL. She had so much fun! We all did!

Look at me!!!!

It was a great time!

The "Oh-so-yummy I may have had two" cupcakes

Keeping an eye on people trying to steal my cupcake!

Leaning in for P-Paw kisses

How old is Maggie??? ONE!!!!

Right after the party we packed up the car and it was off to the other side of MD for the party at Grammy and Poppy's house. Full report on that party later this week!

Hope you're having a great Tuesday!

Wordless Wednesday-A Year Ago Today

Oh and I know that this is supposed to be "wordless", but just had to share that Facebook informed me that a year ago today, my status was informing everyone that Mag's umbilical cord stump finally fell off...What a difference year makes. Expect a lot more comparing last year to this year posts and pics, cause honestly I am still in shock at how quickly the year went by!!!!!

Vacation in a Nutshell

***Every time I think "in a nutshell", my 13 year old self thinks back to good 'ol Austin Powers... "No, this is me in a nutshell. Help! I'm in a nutshell! How did I get into this bloody great big nutshell? What kind of shell has a nut like this?" - Austin Powers, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

So we're back. First off, I found a really great tutorial on headers here and I am so happy that I did. I have always wanted the power to manipulate my header on a whim and now I have it! I am not sure if I am going to change it monthly or seasonally, we shall see....

Second, I am going to interrupt the 1st birthday recaps with some vacay love. Don't worry I will regale you with the rest of the amazing parties, just want to talk about the best vacation ever, first.

Now, normally I would rehash every day in excruciating detail, but honestly I don't want to. I have decided to keep it simple and sweet, with a nice little list. Just the major parts, no unnecessary filler.

So with no further ado, Our Brigantine Beach Vacation 2011....

1. Quality Family Time

For the most part we spent the vacation, alone, just the three of us. We have never had an entire week of just us. At Christmas time, Brian had off from work, but we traveled a lot. Easter was spent visiting family as well. This week, was just us, 24/7, and I think we really took advantage of the situation. We sat and soaked each other in. We played, we at on the deck and watched cars go by (seriously one of the Magster's favorite pastimes), we followed Mags around as she cruised around the huge house and established a very special relationship with the refrigerator (at our house, she has never gone near the fridge....here, she couldn't get enough of the big, grey, shiny behemoth....LOL). Overall, it was a great and wonderful bonding time for our little family.

2. Food

Vacation is meant for eating. Mostly it's meant for eating out and when you're at the beach your main choice should be seafood. I had crab cakes, lots of shrimp and sushi. I also finally got the chance to try OCNJ's famous Mack n' Manco's pizza, and it was really good!!! We also had two great dinner in, of steak and potatoes and then pasta and kielbasa. We tried all the ice cream joints on the island (all two of them) and I would say that is a toss up and further research must be done. It was glorious!!!! Sorry for the lack of food pics, but I was too busy eating to stop and get out a camera....Please enjoy some random photos....

3. Sleep

Finally, I would have to say that for the majority of the nights at the beach, I slept like a baby, and I mean that in a good way. I fell asleep the minute my head hit the pillow and I slept HARD. I indulged in a mid morning nap everyday and still managed to fall asleep with no problem. It was awesome! Sleep is something that does not come very easy to me lately and it was nice to take a vacation from that frustration. When I went to bed, I slept instead of my normal tossing and turning, with my thoughts racing. Case in point, last night was HORRIBLE. It was like, someone was getting back at me for sleeping so well the entire vacation, and to get back at me, I was awake the majority of the night with my mind thinking about a million things (the majority of this post was written last night, when I should have been sleeping...). I don't know what helped me to sleep so peacefully while we were away...maybe it was the bed, could have been the central air, I was more active every day or maybe it was just the food coma I put myself in. I don't know what it was, but I miss it.

So that isn't everything from the vacay, but it's the major things that made it a blast. Here are a few more things, in no particular order....

A.C., being sad when the in-laws left, the monsoon as we left OC and when we went home, trudging back and forth to the beach, Daddy being the lotion King, soaking up some cable tv (Toddlers and Tiaras and Dance Moms...those people CRAZY!!!!), drinks on the deck with the hubs, fully realizing what a ham Magsalicious is, stupid NJ circles, trashy magazines, our amazing house, awesome Chinese food, s'mores, the amazing sand mitt, spray suntan lotion, Mags trying to get EVERYONE'S attention, EVERYWHERE we went and sooooooo much more!!!

Yea we HATE the water..but we had to try....LOL

Overall, an amazing time. Hope you're having a great Monday!!!!

You Three Words

Birthday Party #1*

*not in ranking order, purely chronological (just in case anyone was wondering....)

So I know I'm a little behind in posting about the 1st birthday parties, but here's the lowdown on the first one...

The party was scheduled to be thrown on Saturday, July 23rd, but due to some unseen circumstances, we had to move it to the next day, the 24th. Luckily only one person wasn't able to attend because of the date change, so we still had people show up.

It was hot as blazes, but we stayed inside the in-laws' nice air conditioned house, so it wasn't a big deal. Now for the deets...

First, and foremost, the outfit. I wasn't a hundred percent sure what I wanted Mags to wear, but I knew I wanted cupcakes and a tutu. After scouring Etsy, for an embarrassing amount of time, I decided against the tutu and decided on a petti-skirt. I found a website that offered petti-skirt kits, and my MIL offered to make it since she is a whiz at sewing, but for some reason it just didn't work out. Thankfully, my MIL was able to find purchase one that was perfect. I also wanted Mags to have a cute pair of bloomers to wear under her skirt and I found the perfect pair. So with no further ado, I present the 1st 1st birthday outfit....

Shirt: This Pretty

Pettiskirt:Not sure

Shoes: Target-Trumpet Too

Hair bow: Ebay last year

And here's a shot of the bloomers....

Bloomers: Monogramming by Tammy

I loved her outfit and we got so many compliments. It really came together nicely. Mags had a little trouble getting around at first, but she figured it out.

Next to procure were the decorations. I purchased a few things from Etsy again, a party hat, cupcake toppers and a door sign.

Decorations: 10 Candles

I was having trouble justifying the exorbitant cost for a banner, but I really wanted one and I decided to bite the bullet and try to make it myself. Now I don't know if I have made it abundantly clear on here or not, but I am by no means crafty or creative. I can appreciate others' craftiness and creativity (Hello, Pinterest), but I can never seem to duplicate it. So I didn't have the highest hopes for this little project, but I reasoned something was better than nothing.

I decided on scalloped circles because it hopefully detracted from my horrible circle cutting skills. People seemed to like it and it served it's purpose.
Finally on the decor front, I wanted to do something with the month pictures that I had so diligently taken every 27th of the month and I wasn't too sure I could pull off another banner, so my brilliant BFF suggested that I get some cheapo frames and place them around the party site. I tweaked the idea and decided to make a little display around her beautiful 1 year photos. I got the frames at the Dollar store and I printed little circles on matching scrapbook paper with her month printed on them.




All in all, it was a stupendous day. We had so much fun, eating good food, watching Mags not really like her first cupcake and opening presents.


On that note, we are out of here!!!! After all this wonderful birthday fun, we are heading out for a much needed week long vacay. I'm not taking the laptop and I plan on unplugging a bit, so the blog will be quiet for a couple of days. Never fear though, I will be back with more of the info on the rest of the birthday parties and I'm sure some crazy vacation stories and pics.

Hope you are having a fabulous Friday and that you don't miss me too much while I'm gone. See you on the flip side!!!

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