Memorable Moments with Callie 4/30/2011

Tonight I decided that I am going to start posting "Memorable Moments" on my blog. Some things strike me as so adorable when they happen and I just want to remember them forever. I won't post pictures unless need be, because honestly...that is why I put off blogging sometimes because it takes so long to upload the pictures. Anyway...here's volume 1 of Memorable Moments....

We had a long day today with hockey, baseball, and finally having a dry day to mow the jungle that has become our back yard... This evening we were just relaxing on the couch and listening to music while the kids played. Callie found a little pad of paper and she was carrying it around pretending to take our orders. She kept pointing at the paper asking each of us "pets bee?" and we just kept saying "yeah..." because none of us could figure out what she was trying to say. Finally Brandon figured out that she was asking us if we wanted a Pepsi. When I said "Are you saying Pepsi?" her little face lit up and she said "Yeah...Pets bee!"

She and Cam are still taking orders and delivering bills...Cam named their restaurant "Cameron and Callie's Cafe" :)

Forney Museum of Transportation

Cameron loves old cars. He always gets excited when he sees them on the street. We decided to look up some new places to go while we were in Colorado and I came across the Forney Museum of Transportation. He was instantly thrilled about going! If you are ever in the Denver area, it is well worth the time to visit! They have a lot of interesting vehicles and I took a ton of pictures which you can see here if you are my friend on Facebook. Some of the main attractions there are "Big Boy" which is the world's largest steam locomotive, Amelia Earhart's car, and a HUGE Case Steam Tractor. Cameron was speechless! He kept saying "Whoa...that's awesome!" Here are a few of my favorite pictures...

Easter Bunny

We were in Colorado the week before Easter, so we decided to visit the Easter Bunny there this year. We decided to visit the bunny before Callie got her ears pierced so we didn't have a red-faced, teary-eyed girl in our picture. I also just took my own picture because I didn't want to pay $20 for a picture that would get wrinkled up in our luggage on the flight home. Callie wasn't a huge fan of the bunny, but she was OK to sit on Cam's lap for the picture. Cam is also sporting his mohawk that Uncle Jeff styled for him :)

Callie's New Earrings

I have always known that we would one day get Callie's ears pierced. We considered doing it when she was a baby, but decided to wait. We almost got them done when she was about 18 months, but then we found out that she needed tubes, so we decided against it. After that, we decided that we would wait until she asked.

We recently made a trip to Colorado to visit Brandon's family. Callie's cousin, Ava, who is a year younger than her had her ears pierced. Callie was instantly fascinated with her earrings and kept touching them and talking about them. Then she would touch her ears and say "I want earyings". For the next couple of days she kept saying "I want earyings" and "Tallie's pitty ears". I kept telling her that it would hurt and that she would have "owies" on her ears. No matter what I said, she kept saying "uh huh" when I asked her if she still wanted earrings.

So...we decided to go to the mall and get them done. She was very excited about it right up until she was sitting in the chair on her daddy's lap...then she got a worried look on her face. Of course she cried and it hurt...and I got video and some pictures of my poor girl, but as soon as the lady gave her a lollipop, she was fine.

She isn't a fan of having them cleaned with the solution they gave us, but she reluctantly lets us clean them every day. She is pretty good about letting me turn them a few times every day as well. She even came up to me today and showed me that she can turn them. She said "I turn 'em" then she said "I turn oder one" then she threw her arms up and shouted "I deew it!"

"I'm not so sure about this anymore!"

"I don't think I trust you..."

"That HURT!"

"Lollipops make everything better!" :)

Callie's 2 Year Stats

This evening we had Callie's 2 year check up with Dr. Joe...who just happens to be THE best doctor on the planet! Ever since last week when we saw Dr. Choo for a check up on her ear tubes and he gave her some stickers she has been telling everyone "Dotter nice!" "Dotter a me stitters!".

I told her this morning that we had to go see Dr. Joe today for a check up. Luckily she has been healthy all winter and hasn't had to see him since her 18 month check up. This is a huge change from our previous weekly visits for weight checks. She has been dancing around the house all day singing "Dotter Joe, Dotter Joe....I dit stitters!" She wanted "two powy tails" this morning and kept saying "I bye-bye? See Dotter Joe?" ALL day!

When we got to the doctor, we didn't even have to go in the waiting room which is very odd because there is ALWAYS a wait for Dr. Joe. The nurse had to do a toe prick to test her iron and lead levels. She just sat there so still and didn't cry or move a muscle the whole time.

When Dr. Joe came in, she immediately started asking for stickers. She was so good for him and he made sure that she got TONS of stickers. He also gave her some tongue depressors with smiley faces on them, so she was a happy girl. Then she had to get a shot (she was one behind because they delayed some of them when she was having her weight issues) and she sat there so brave and didn't even cry. What a big girl!

Everything checked out and Callie is healthy and happy! He wants me to try starting her on Claritin because she's had a snotty nose and redness under her eyes since Sunday when the weather got really warm. I wasn't surprised by this because we all have seasonal allergies here and it was only a matter of time :)

Callie weighs 23 lbs. 15 ounces. That puts her all the way up to the 15th percentile!!! WOW! That's so good for her since she has spent most of her life in the single digits or off the charts all together. She is 32 1/4 inches tall which puts her in the 20th percentile for height. Her head is in the 50th percentile.

Here's a picture of Callie with her loot from Dr. Joe!

Too Cute For Words

(at her ear check up)

Opening Day!

This year is Cameron's second year playing baseball. We all enjoyed the season last year, so we're excited that it's time for baseball again. Saturday was the opening day parade and festivities. Cameron was going to have to miss the home run derby and exhibition game because of his sister's birthday party, but luckily it got rained out, so we didn't miss anything! We did make it through the parade without getting rained on (except a few sprinkles) and it was fun watching all of the kids and seeing how excited they are! Cameron is playing for the Braves this year...it's his first year of kid pitch, so it will be a little different. They walked by so quickly, but here are a few pictures I managed to get :)

Callie got excited when she saw the fire truck coming!

Cam with his team

He had been carrying his glove, but didn't want to hold onto it any more, so he tossed it to us and it hit me in the shoulder as I was snapping a picture...I thought the look on his face was hilarious!

A Yo Gabba Gabba Birthday!

One of Callie's favorite things to do is watch Yo Gabba Gabba on TV. She loves the songs, the characters, and gets so excited every time its on. I decided that YGG would be the theme for her 2nd birthday party.

Honestly, this was probably the easiest party to plan. There are so many resources out there to make it so easy! I would love to be able to say that all of these ideas were mine, but the truth is, I think all of them were someone else's. Between Etsy, NickJr, and a few blogs of other moms who have thrown YGG parties for their children, I was able to plan a pretty cute party. Callie had a blast and I think it turned out better than I expected!

You can see all of the pictures here if you are my Facebook friend, but these are some (ok...a LOT) of my favorites :)

"The Invitation"

I ordered these fully personalized from Celebrate Express

The Birthday Girl posing while waiting for guests to arrive...

She LOVES balloons :)

She had fun greeting her guests...

...a kiss for baby Ryan...

...a hug for Tristan...

...more hugs for her favorite friend Maddie....

...saying hello to mommy's good friend "Auntie Mariella" and Callie's buddy Santi...

...hugs for Michael :)

"Craft time"

Coloring pages printed from the internet...

Yo Gabba Gabba Character Masks printed from Nick Jr.

Callie wearing her Toodee mask

Maddie in her Toodee Mask

Cory in his Muno mask

YGG puppets printed from Nick Jr.

Cory and Maddie with Plex and Foofa

Cody with Plex

Callie with Foofa

For the older kids, I printed "fortune tellers" for them to make from Nick Jr.

Dolly and Cody making their fortune tellers

Cody with his finished product...

Big brother Cam with his fortune teller

"The Spread"

"The Decorations"

I saw a similar banner on Etsy. It was around $30 plus shipping (which I believe was around $7). I couldn't pay that much for something I knew I could make...so I borrowed a Cricut machine, picked up some card stock and ribbon, and this is what came out...

The YGG backgrounds were printed from Nick Jr. I cut them and taped them together. The figures are actually cupcake toppers that I purchased from Celebrate Express.

All of the balloons were ordered from Kroger except for the red "2" balloons which came from Celebrate Express

This is my favorite one :)

YGG plates and napkins were purchased from Celebrate Express. I just picked up plain supplies in different YGG colors for the plates, cups, and spoons.

"The Treats"

Goody bag printables from Nick Jr. I found a package of plain bags with all of the colors I needed at Party City, cut and glued the characters, and voila! I only made these goody bags for the younger kids. They had a few extra things (toys, stickers, rings, etc.) that I ordered from Celebrate express or purchased at Party City.

All of the guests got a candy bar. I purchased a printable .pdf file from a vendor on Etsy who personalized and emailed the file to me within 24 hours. I believe it was $5 and well worth the time I saved making it myself.

Candy bags were in the goody bags, but I gave one to all of the older kids as well. I just made these in Microsoft Word and printed them on card stock. I put candy in zippered bags and used glue dots to attach the card stock.

"The Food"

Purchased from the same Etsy vendor as the candy wrappers. These were in a .pdf file and printed 5 per sheet. I just cut them apart with a paper cutter and glued them on the bottles. My kids really enjoyed removing the original labels :)

I thought it would be cute to have a treat for each character. After a lot of surfing around I found a few really good ideas. Only a couple of them were my own...the least creative ones :)

"Plex's Electric Yellow Lemonade"

I actually came up with this idea because I happened to have a container of lemonade mix and we needed drinks :)

The labels for the food were made with Microsoft Word and printed on card stock then layered on colored card stock.

"Muno's Pretzel Pals"

This idea came from another blogger who had a YGG party for her child. I'm not sure how she made hers, but I bought red candy melts, dipped the pretzel rods, and attached candy eyes that I found at Michaels on clearance. This was SO easy and they were a HIT! They were gone in no time!!!

"Foofa's Strawberry Garden"

I saw a picture on line of someone who had made these, but I actually had the idea to turn them upside down...after all, the strawberry is the same shape as Foofa's head...I dipped the strawberries in pink candy melts and the flowers were cut out of card stock on a Cricut machine and I used glue dots to attach them to toothpicks.

"Brobee's 'Party in Your Tummy' Veggies"

This idea came to me because I couldn't find anything online for Brobee. I decided that we needed something without sugar. It just so happens that Callie's two favorite veggies are tomatoes and cucumbers, so I peeled the cucumbers to look like Brobee's stripes and there you have it...

"Toodee's Marshmallow Pops"

This idea also came from a blogger, but I did them a bit differently and not as neat. I dipped the marshmallows in blue candy melts, sprinkled on some blue sugar, bought lollipop sticks at the craft store, and stuck them in a block of Styrofoam wrapped in foil. I would serve these differently if I had it to do over, but the kids enjoyed eating them, so that's all that matters :)

"THE CAKE"

The first thing I searched for when I chose the theme was the cake...I mean, what's a party without a cake? I had an idea in mind but couldn't find any pictures that were similar. I saw this cake on a few blogs but decided that it would be WAY out of my budget and put it in the back of my mind. I found some ideas and had ultimately decided to just do cupcakes with the character's faces. I had a hard time finding anyone who was available the weekend of her party, so I was getting nervous and trying to decide if I could pull off making the cupcakes. Then my dad said that he had a friend who could do it, so just for fun I emailed her a picture of this cake to see if she was willing to do it and if it would fit in my budget...and I was THRILLED to find out that it was going to work! I was so happy with how it turned out and Callie loved it! She couldn't wait to dig in :)

blowing out her candles...

having a taste :)

She loved it!

"The Presents"

Callie got a lot of very nice gifts from her guests. One of her favorites was a set of metal pots and pans from Mamma (my grandma). She LOVES to pretend cooking and these have been loved a lot since the party!

She also really liked the balloon from Mariella...

Birthday party Princess Aurora...

Smiles with Mamma :)

What a happy Birthday Girl!!!