Table for Tui

If you haven't met Oscar's friend Tui yet, you can catch a glimpse of him here and here, and here are the boys in their lederhosen. Yes, you read that right. There will come a day when we will no longer be allowed to dress them up. So, until that day...Oompah!

Tui turned one three weeks before Oscar and in true Mrs. Lovely form, I wanted to make him something special. Which means I recruited Mr. Lovely to get involved.

I found some plans for a child's play table on ana-white.com. Caption for the above photo: I should have read the plans first!

While Henry was problem solving the table construction. I sanded, stained and painted Tui's new chairs.

 

After Henry successfully put the table together...

 I got busy filling the holes...

 and painting...

 and taping and staining and creating a chalk board roadway...

 so we could deliver Tui his new Play Table!

 With a plexiglass top! Keeping it tidy for Tui's Mama.

It won't be long before these boys are sitting around with their matching nooks- finger painting and playing checkers!

I am going to take you on a speedy walk down memory lane, promise it will be fast, I am just feeling so nostalgic...

Tui welcoming Oscar into the world...

Snuggling on the beach last summer...

Playing at the beach this summer...

Ahhh, make it stop! We feel so fortunate to watch these boys grow up together!

Oscar's Birthday Hoedown!

Oscar turned one on Wednesday, 7-11. Unbelievable. We threw him a good old fashioned hoedown, cause there is nothing Oscar likes more than Sandra Boynton barnyard books. "A cow says Moo, A sheep says Baa, 3 singing pigs say La La La"-  if you know what I mean!

This one year old's hoedown was complete with a barnyard cake, stick horses, farm animal tatoos and straw hats!

Patiently waiting for the guests to arrive. (or watching for trucks:)

 Oscar's buddies- these boys are all smiles:)

This was one hot hoedown, so we all hovered in the sliver of fence shade, where Oscar's 52 weeks of photos were displayed. Phew, it looks like I planned it that way!

 Oop, I guess there was a little shade on the steps too.

 

Time for cake! Betty Crocker was the brains behind the design, but Caraline and I take full credit for Oscar's edible barnyard!

 

There is nothing that makes Oscar smile more than a little piggy.

He wasn't thrilled with all eyes on him- can this really be my baby? Maybe we sang out of tune?

He got over it!

 A little cupcake liner never hurt anyone!

Caraline, waited patiently to eat one of "Osser's" farm animals.

 Grammy Kay and Baby Victoria chilling in the fence shade.

 ...and then came the gifts.

Oscar has recently become very fond of trucks. I think it's a boy thing. (notice the belly- he is also fond of breakfast, lunch and dinner- and cupcakes:)

A round of applause to all of his guests for their generosity and celebrating his special day with us!

 Nothing screams hoedown like denim and tatoos!

 

I guess Oscar does like a little attention, if it's from Kaitlin and Chad.

The party came to a close with a short wagon ride. Apparently, Tui was so pooped out he needed to put his feet up, on the Birthday Boy!

Lastly, we could not be happier with the budding romance between two of our favorite 3 year olds, Caraline and Abram.

The aftermath. Square dancing, cupcake eating contests and stick horse races are not for babies!

Week 52

It's Oscar's Birthday Week! We are shocked and amazed how quickly this year flew by, because let me just say this "the days are long and sometimes grueling!" We took his weekly picture this morning, number 52, a whole year of growing strong and healthy and we were feeling a little sad. We have enjoyed setting up the photo as a family, picking out the appropriate color diaper, deciding if we need a prop, and taking on the challenge of keeping the little dude on his black backdrop.

Here is a little peek into the chaos of our photo shoot.

Henry is the prop guy and I am the photographer. H: Put him on the black cloth. N: Snap snap snap snap H: Put him on the black cloth. N: Snap snap snap snap H: Spray water in his mouth, put his hat back on. Put him back on the black cloth. N: Snap snap snap snap. In a high squeaky voice "don't let him crush the hat."

You get the point. It's become increasingly more of a challenge, but we think it's the cutest thing ever!

Sometimes we capture our favorite pic out of the gate and sometimes we are wiping sweat from our brows by the time we wrap.

The 100% unedited 'before' and the 8x10 edited 'after'.

I crop all the potential poses and then we choose our favorite pic for the collage. You can view all 52 big photos here.

After we wiped all of our nostalgic tears, we did what the Lovely's do best...

We put on our party faces because we have something great to celebrate!

P.S. Check out Oscar's Growth Chart for Oscar's final picture and collage:(

HomeTalk

I checked my email yesterday morning and to my delight got a message in my inbox from a fella at HomeTalk inviting me to share my Decal Backsplash Project on their website. Sign me up!

I mean seriously, I love the attention. So, I followed his instructions on how to submit my work on this highly popular website (that I have never heard of) and came to the realization that anyone can share, as much and as often as they want...no invitation needed. For just a moment, I thought this might be my big break- my road to stardom- I am so glad I waited to check it out before I quit my real job! Kidding and tears aside, I always truly appreciate the feedback and the high-fives! So, if you were unaware of HomeTalk, check it out. You can also check it out on Facebook. There are lots of cool projects popping up every few seconds, shoot, add your own project if you want!

Mature Kids Only

I have been making an effort to sort through the junk pile in our garage.

We traded the cabinets for some help with a house project this coming weekend. So excited! and I made a tiny dent in that stack of chairs. Typically, I would get out a can of spray paint, because that's the quickest and easiest and I am lazy. But I had a different vision for these chairs. So I sanded off the marker and the "F You" and scraped the gum off the seat bottoms...

"Spit out your gum!" "Put down the markers!" "Sit nice!" 

Poor Oscar!

Happy 4th of July Week

It's Oscar's 51st week of life. Can you stand it?

 

Oscar rolled into week 5-1 in his new wheels.

Thanks to Auntie Valerie and Grammy Kay, there is a seat for Stella too and her Birthday isn't until October. And because I am an impatient person and a new excitable mom, I let Oscar open our present too! Which really means, I opened it for him, and then I played with it more than he did and it's awesome. It's an instrument set from Target!

If week 51 was this great, imagine the hoopla in store for week 52! 

So you don't think I have totally given up on getting some things done around the house, here is a preview of posts to come...

Enjoy the fireworks!