Independance Day & Energy Independance Day

I have to admit - I wasn't feeling like celebrating this year. The Wotruba's were all up at the lake - and I was wishing we were too. Steve had to work Friday night/Saturday afternoon and I suppose I could have driven 4 hours with the girls by myself - but I am not that ambitious and while I have been up there a million times - most of those were 20 years ago and I didn't drive back then so I am paranoid about getting lost.

It's also just hot and muggy out and I'm feeling a little bit tired of kids - and tired of being the 24/7 cruise director for the family.

We've spent lots of Independance days here in Milwaukee though - so our plan B was nothing to complain about. We went to the White Fish Bay parade with the Carriere's and then back to their place for a BBQ. The parade is really mediocre but the kids love it because they throw candy. The candy they throw is really mediocre too - but hey! It's candy ...

This dragon and puppet head were my favorite part. I think they were from some martial arts school.

Plus this wheel thing is pretty neat.

The girls were really just concerned about how much candy they got. Usually we end up throwing most of it away when it's still around weeks later. This year they snuck off with it and gorged themselves with it. Well - as much gorging as you can do with jolly ranchers and tootsie rolls. Maybe by next year they'll be clever enough to not leave the wrappers laying out to incriminate themselves.

Later we went to Tracy & Peder's for a pre-firework BBQ. Havalah is beyond tired of me taking photos all the time but Esther still likes having her picture taken - and Miriella is too young to complain.

I did firework tattoo's for the girls during the day. Havalah is apparently getting too spoiled with the tattoos because her first comment was that they looked too much like flowers and Esther's turned out "gooder". Esther's admittedly probably did look a tiny bit better because I did it second and hey - it had been a while year since I drew fireworks.



Steve had some leftover sparklers from last year and they were a hit. Havalah is cautious with them - just like her mom. When I was a kid I used to get a little nervous striking a match to light snakes. Steve on the other hand longs to buy the biggest most dangerous fireworks and light them off himself. This year we're broke so we skipped it. It helps that we didn't make it back to Green Bay. My parents live right by several fireworks warehouses so when we go back it's a big temptation for Steve - and he's not a fan of self denial.

On Monday our neighborhood had an "energy-independance" day celebration. We've never actually made it to our neighborhood celebration before because it's usually on the 4th .

We showed up early and decorated Havalah's scooter and Miriella's stroller and walked in the parade of kid's on bikes to Gordon Park where they had free root beer floats. They were made with lakefront brewery's maple root beer which is truly delicious. Then we headed out because Havalah had afternoon art camp - Miriella needed a nap- and I was worn out.

It may look like Miriella as fussy - but really she was just ranting about our need for energy independance.

Havalah's fairy party

June is birthday month at our house. First Miriella turning one and then Havalah turning 7. For Havalah's birthday she wanted a fairy tea party. In an attempt to keep costs reasonable we had it at our house in the backyard.

I made a "welcome fairies" sign for out front. I was so happy with it I wanted to leave it up for awhile but Steve took it down a few days after the party.



I hung the favors along the fence in the backyard. I meant to get a picture of all 14 of them - and forgot. I ordered inexpensive wings and tutu's online along with headbands and wands. I bought some fake flowers and hot glued them to the wings to fancy them up a little bit.

I created a photo spot in the corner using some sheers I bought years ago at IKea and some white fairy lights. I cut the leftover paper frommy banner into strips to make more paper chains! Inside I left up all the decorations from Miriella's party and made a new banner that said "Havalah"

Most of the girls that came were Havalah's friends from school. There were a few more that came later but this is most of them. I have to admit - a big part of the reason for buying everyone wings etc. is that I thought it made for cute pictures.

The birthday girl wanted to wear her Tinkerbell dress. She's a big fan of the tinkerbell fairy movie. You can see by her facial expression she's not such a big fan of her mom constantly taking photos.
Our neighbor Hudson made a cameo appearance dressed as a garden gnome. He was "probably" going to do it for free but I offered up $2 to increase the likelihood of it happening. Hudson and his sister Ayla live just up the block from us and we walk home from school with them everyday.

I tried to get photos of each kid at the party - but some liked having their picture taken more than others. I have tons and tons of pictures but just wanted to share a couple of my favorites.

We set up two tables with our fanciest tea party settings. We served finger sandwiches, fruit skewers, cups of popcorn, sugar cookies and thin mints. My new favorite treat is good bread, Nutella and sliced strawberries... It's particularly yummy and decadent on a toasted croissant.

it started to rain a little so we headed inside for cake and some pin the fairy on the flower.

I made a cupcake cake to keep costs down and made my own cupcake liners - but splurged on a tinkerbell candle and little tinkerbell figurines.

Havalah got a lot of great gifts from her friends. I took pictures of her with each gift and the person she got it from instead of writing them down (you know for the thank you cards I am horrible about getting out) but Havalah was just irritated by that and looked irritated - which made her look ungrateful - so i shouldn't have bothered

and a cute photo of my little fairy. I barely saw her during the party but I think she had a good time. She loves being around Havalah and all of her friends. They mostly all like having her around right now but i can foresee them thinking she's a pest in a couple years.

Baby turns one!

Our sweet little baby has turned one! Miriella has really made our family feel complete. She is incredibly good natured and at the same time strong willed and a little stubborn. She is super curious and always busy.

Unlike Havalah she sticks absolutely everything in her mouth - including any old nasty thing she can find on the ground - and if there is something nasty to find - she'll find it!

She loves to tear things apart. She crawls or scoots herself over to the toys and tear everything out. If something comes apart into pieces - she takes it apart and throws things in the opposite direction - and then moves on to the next thing. Unfortunately for me - messes stress me out - so I spend my days putting things back. She thinks it's a great game - if we scold her or tell her no she just laughs.

To celebrate her first birthday we invited some of our local friends over for brunch on Memorial day. We had scrambled eggs and sausages, corn muffins and blueberry, chicken salad and croissants, fresh fruit with marshmallow cream cheese dip, vegetables and dip, tortilla chips with salsa and hummus , sugar cookies - chocolate covered strawberries and cupcakes.

We had way way too much food and ate leftovers for the next two weeks.

For Miriella's birthday cake I made cupcakes. I wanted to make them look fancy with cupcake liners - but everything I found online was more than I wanted to pay - so i found a free template and made them myself. It was super easy and I think they turned out super cute! I bought a giant pad of fancy papers and used it to make the liners, the birthday banners and the scraps I cut into strips and made into paper chains.

I bought merangue powder and made royal icing for the first time instead of just using milk and powdered sugar. It did make the icing look better after it dried. I love making sugar cookies - but they're a lot of work. To make it worth my time I made enough for Havalah to bring them to school for her birthday treat and enough to stick in the freezer for Havalah's birthday party.
I hung up some balloons too but I should have just skipped it. I was so paranoid one would break and Miriella would find the scraps on the floor and promptly choke to death. The next day I took them all down and popped them over the sink.

The birthday girl, her big sister and several non official big sisters. Havalah started off in a cute dress for the party but as soon as her friends arrived changed into her Cinderella gown. Anytime Havalah's friends come over they insist on promptly changing into one of our many princess dress ups.

Miriella had her first cake and couldn't get enough of it. She tore into it and we had to move the rest out of sight.

I saw this cupcake fabric online and thought it would be perfect for a birthday dress. One of my favorite etsy seller's ordered it for me and made this adorable dress with it. I think it turned out perfect! The same seller made the outfit pictured above which I am complelty besotted with. If i could go back in time i wouldn't have bought anything else for summer and instead would have had her make 10 sets in different fabrics and had Miriella wear them every day.

Her etsy store is in vacation mode right now but she'll be back soon :

http://www.etsy.com/shop/cherlod23

and speaking of etsy ... that's where we bought most of Miriella's gifts. I did get her one ride on zebra thing that I got for a steal on Amazon last december - but otherwise we got her all cute etsy stuff. We have a lot of the basic toys leftover from Havalah - so I try to find more unusual stuff.

I ordered a blanket from another favorite etsy seller - sewfunbymonique. I foudn her on etsy last spring and ordered a couple patchwork baby blankets for Miriella and some burp clothes etc. Since then I have used her to buy baby gifts. I recently bought one for my friend Julie Parker's baby Jada in the same fabrics as the one above for Miriella. I saw the teacup/teapot fabric online and fell in love with it. Monique ordered the fabric for me and found the perfect coordinating fabrics in her stash. I really can't say enough about how great she is to work with.

Here's a link to her etsy shop :

http://www.etsy.com/shop/sewfunbymonique

Miriella loves the crochet toys we have from blabla so I found some other cute crochet things on etsy :

the world's cutest hello kitty amigurumi doll :

http://www.etsy.com/shop/sweetdolls

a bunch of fruit from this great seller that gave me a discount for buying several things :

http://www.etsy.com/shop/honeybee69

and the cutest little cupcakes - from this seller. We bought an adorable tea set from her last year for the Hannukah and Miriella loves it :

http://www.etsy.com/shop/homer424

I love shopping on etsy. Not only do I feel great about supporting crafty moms - but I love that I am often able to help design and get exactly what I want.