Creamsicle & Fancy Tea Party part deux

Every time I grab something from the freezer I grin to myself as the box of frozen treats reminds me of the couple behind me in line who started squabbling over it... "Oh, I didn't see that one, that's what I wanted!" "It was right to the left of what we got..." "WHAT?! You saw it and didn't say anything??!?!?!?!" "I said something! You just weren’t listening to me!" "You did not!" “I did so!” hehehe. They were not exactly subtle or quiet, either, which is what makes me grin. I’m pretty sure I’ve had almost the exact same conversation… generally once or twice a week ;) 

Here are the second half of the Fancy Tea Party pictures… I didn’t take half of them, and they are all pretty blah… Nicole is a bit of a hot mess because she was asleep in the car and wound up getting her braids pulled out over the course of the morning… but they kindof give a bit of an impression of how excited she was. (She looks a little deadpan, but normally she is a feral beast when freshly woken, so this is amazing.)   I’m not sure what Chris thought he was taking a picture of here, the focal point is the chair, but I thought I’d let it through since it’s the only evidence I was present… lol. Yup, that large pregnant lady in the back, piddling around at the stove… Uncles and aunties and family friends and grandma and grandpa… I have a pretty young family, her aunts and uncles that were present are 18 and under. BALLOON. K seriously, her favourite present? BALLOONS. Next year I’m skipping Toys R Us and sticking to Party Stuff, man. As for her gifts, she got a Fancy Nancy dolls (actually, she got two, kindof, and got to pick one… very drama drama. She picked the one I liked better. Peace in the jungle. Mommy wins.) … two puzzles … a toothbrush with her name on it… a PEZ dispenser… a Little Peoples playset… and prior to her birthday, grandma got her ears pierced and bought her Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy, the current favourite book. The Nancy doll she got is wearing the outfit from the cover of that book, actually.

Fancy Tea Party – part one

If it was nice outside, it would have been lovely to have had Nicole’s Fancy Tea Party outdoors and I could have taken some lovely photos. It’s ridiculously hot out, though, and let me tell you, we have AC, we use AC. Sorry, environment. At least I use my recycling bins.

Here’s some pictures I took before everyone arrived of the house all ‘fancied’ up for the little party.I found this apothecary jar at Home Outfitters in the clearance section for, wait for it, $8!  Ha. Very pleased. It was full of fake limes and lemons. For today I filled it with ‘treasures’ (silk scarf, glitter, beads, and some jewelry) and a picture print of a grid of photos of Nicole at 6 months. Look how big that apothecary jar is! And I tied back the curtains with tulle and some ribbon, and finally hung the newest addition to my display wall, that funky clock on the top. I’ll take a better picture of that later this week, it’s basically an oval and looks a lot like an old stopwatch. Makes me happy~~~~!~ As you can see, I still haven’t settled on anything in the ‘new curtains’ category. Suddenly I’m thinking of being very dramatic (or perhaps predictable, if you look at everything else I do) and getting something black, with the white sheers staying on. What say you? Prettied up Chris’ record player with flowers in tiny vases and a big fake flower… the balloon was his own little touch. I put a rug down to have somewhere to sit and open presents and put down the ones from us, along with her Fancy Nancy books. (In the end there was nowhere for her to sit on the rug, it was too full of presents, haha.)The view from the front door… I wish I’d gotten a picture of Nicole’s face when this is what she saw. She was sleeping when she came back from her lunch at Grandma’s house with her, we kind of had to prod her awake but once she saw this she was instantly alert! That smile made it all worth it. The table set up all fancy with her chair dolled up… I decided I’m going to start doing a Birthday Chair every birthday, themed for whoever it’s meant for. Hopefully by October 2011 my hubby will catch on what I’m up to and I’ll get a special throne made up for me, too. ;D This is as close as you can get to the cake without bursting into hysterical laughter. I’ll do a post on what was truly a cake fail later. For now you can see that it looks like a child made it out of playdoh. Its still cute and acceptable from here, though. It gets better. A post for another time. A little vignette of pictures of Nicole and some more fancy things. In the back is a ‘year in photos’ collage from her first year, something I intended to do yearly for birthday parties but forgot to do last year. Perhaps I’ll whip one up in photoshop in time for this year’s party…  Of course, last but not least, a little teapot! I picked it up at a thriftstore. Try not to overanalyze this, but that’s the only thing (aside from the balloons and cake ingredients, and the number candle of course) that I picked up specifically for the party. Everything else I already had on hand. I just don’t normally put it all together like that! I’m stocking up for when my husband dies and this is a girl house I like to have pretty little touches here and there.

monster/treasure

Ay-yi-yi. You could not possibly fathom how excited I am to have Nicole’s bedroom finished soon. It seems that without a space of her own she is having a hard time coping with life in general, and is driving me absolutely up the wall. Normally when she gets upset she runs to her room to decompress, right now she has her bed in our room and since she knows that is not ‘her space’ she’s been hiding under the coffee or kitchen tables when she’s steamed. Hopefully when she moves back into her room her little ‘wicked streak’ will end. We’re dog sitting little Lily here for a week and Nicole is over the moon about it. She feeds Lily and takes her for walks – inside and in the backyard and occasionally around the block. Poor Lily is a bit overwhelmed from time to time, she is not used to such completely constant attention. Nicole has it in her head that she will prove herself and end this story with a puppy of her own. Chris is of the impression that he would like to get hisself a Basset Hound to be his hunting buddy. I did a bit of research and apparently they are good companions for children. It does not take any research, however, to realize who is going to wind up cleaning up poops and pees off the floor during the training period. There will be no puppies in this house while I am pregnant. We shall negotiate the possibility next spring. Maybe. Meanwhile, I have a pair of third birthday parties to plan. Apparently we shall be having a Fancy Nancy-type tea party on the Sunday, with Grandma and Grandpa and Auntie Tiffany and Uncles AJ & Jamie in attendance. (Jamie will be 15 and hasn’t quite realized he could skip tea parties yet, and we shall see what Uncle AJ, a little further into his teens, has to say about this. Perhaps he shall not know of the tea party part until he’s here wearing a feather boa with a 3 year old niece instructing him not to remove it. Perhaps, indeed.) For that the plan is to make a small tiered cake with fondant, and I’m looking forwards to it, it will be a fun experience.

For the ‘friends’ birthday party, I’m moving it back from when I was originally going to do it, because I was originally thinking a very low-key gathering on Sunday, but did not take into consideration one nearly-3-year-old. FANCY AND A CAKE AND A TEA PARTY. So the ‘puppies and kitties’ party will be later next week, perhaps Wednesday, and I’m keeping that a little more simple. Headbands and face painting will have the guests providing their own puppy and kitty type entertainment, and fish and bone shaped snacks will fill the rest. Simple and fun! And cupcakes because hi, cupcakes. You can’t not have cupcakes. Seriously.

5 Things You Can Do With A Small Girl

1. Have a princess tea party (strawberries and water)

2. Play with makeup (in an attempt to keep her on the potty)

3. Clean up the pee from the hall just outside the bathroom right after playing makeup while sitting on the potty for more than half an hour. (I decided to go with another makeup picture for that one.)

4. Have her 'over for coffee' (and by coffee I mean frothed milk and then pour in a smidge of coffee while making a big deal out of it) and a chat.

5. Make her a dress to dress her up for church in.

Just a Simplicity pattern, not my own invention. Instructions were a buttload of "whaaat????!" in two or three places, but I battled through them until they turned into engrish. Chris helped me with this, how cute is that? He pulled out the gathering stitches for me, and helped pin some godets in place while I started sewing the first few.

All in all the last few days have been fun. :) PS, I play golf like Happy Gilmore, rumour has it. Except it's like I am generally either the top of the scores or the bottom. It's more the haphazard WHACK. I do play with two hands. Listen, girlfriend plays hockey, not golf.