Happy CAMper Birthday Party!

MY baby. My BABY. My itty, bitty, teeny, tiny baby turned 1 yesterday. Yep. 1 Whole Year Old. I'll save the tears for my pillow, and instead share with you the celebration part. The part that helped this entertaining loving momma look past the fact that we were entertaining because my baby is now a toddler.

Months ago, I was trying to come up with a theme of sorts. I thought the whole "Winter ONEderland" thing was adorable, but probably better suited for a girl. Back to the drawing board, and it dawned on me. Let's have a CAMping party. And it began. I am certainly not the first one to have a camping themed party, because as soon as I started searching I was bombarded with tons of cute ideas. I do believe, as far as the Internet goes, that I was the first person to have a CAMping party though, and that is where my creative intellectual property ends :)

I will warn you. It's time for photo overload. I am going to keep the dialogue to a minimum or this will, seriously, be the longest post in Blogger history.  Please feel free to ask any detail questions in the comments or the FB page!  :)

The Menu

• CAMping Chili
• CAMping Corn Chowder
• Baked Potatoes
• Potato Bar
• Fresh Cut Vegetables & Dip
• Dirt Pudding Cups
• Dirt Cupcakes
• S'Mores Bars
• Ants on a Log
• Bug Juice (Punch)
• Canteen Water (Punch)
• Bottled Water
• Assorted Beer
• Coffee

Weekend Prior: All decor and favors were completed

Thursday Prior: Cupcakes were baked

Friday: Chili and Chowder were made and refrigerated.  Dirt cups made and refrigerated.  S'mores Bars made and refrigerated.  Set up was started.

Day of: Cupcakes frosted, punch made, ants on a log made, all food was set up.

 

Kids received a "hiking bandana" with candy, homemade hot chocolate packets & Play-Doh

Adults received a take out box with homemade hot chocolate packets and homemade trail mix

I couldn't have been happier with how it all turned out.  We had about 50 guests, and just to tell you how big our families are, that accounted for no friends...at least that aren't family. :)  We are so fortunate to have had so many people come and celebrate with Cam!

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!!

Making Changes for 2012

I've come to a decision. After over a year of infrequent posting, I've decided to make Cam's blog private. I realized it's really just something for him, and not the entire world. But I'll be making this blog a tad more family oriented. I promise not to lose the integrity of this blog to baby related things, it'll just be more focused on the entire Happy House which includes Cam :) If you are a follower on My Happy Line, please don't take it personally! I'm appreciative of each of the followers, but hope you are either a follower here or will make the switch!

This is also to help me out. Managing 3 blogs is just too much, and I don't imagine it getting any easier. This means more time devoted to this blog alone and more frequent posts! Hopefully you guys won't mind!

To get you guys started with some family fun, the thing that has been consuming most of my free time lately is planning Cam's party. The theme is a Birthday CAMping Party. Here is just a little sneak peek at what is to come. I can't wait to see it all come together, I'm hoping my vision becomes reality, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous!

{invitation}

{birthday collage}
I can't wait to share some pictures after it's all said and done! Hope you are all having a spectacular Saturday!

Simple Spring Birthday Party Recap

You know, I do enjoy being the hostess. I love entertaining. And you know other people realize it when they ask you to host a party. And you know just how much they realize it when they are willing to drive the distance to allow it. You see, all my in-laws live within about 5 minutes of each other. Even most of the extended parts of the family live within about 10 minutes. They are good people. They like to stay close. But the idea that Carl and I live about 30 minutes away from them...well I'll just say we don't get the "pop-ins."

Normally the gathering place for my in-laws is Carl's parents' house, but since we were celebrating his mom's birthday, we wanted to take the pressure off her, so alas, I got to host! Yay! It was a simple party, but anytime I get to plan, I'll take the offer.

Menu:
Pizza (Hawaiian, requested by the birthday girl)
Salad Bar (a la Molly)

• Romaine
• Dried Cherries
• Blue Cheese
• Chopped Walnuts
• Green Pepper
• Grape Tomatoes
• Raspberry Walnut or Garlic Vinaigrette Dressing

Cake & Ice Cream
Classic Party Punch (always gets rave reviews!)
Assorted Soda

So I did the grocery shopping and some light cleaning on Friday night. Then, on Saturday, we did major cleaning and no area was left untouched. Luckily, I have a stellar husband, because my boss surprised me with some urgent work, and Carl was more than happy to lend an extra hand!

A few tips when it comes to hosting (some are repeats, but just bare with me)

• Prepping is key- do any possible chopping, , mixing or setting up that can done ahead of time
• Make a time line- it'll only take a few minutes, and can help you plan your day(s)
• Keep your guests in mind- kids coming? Have games ready! (We rely on our Wii)
  
• Fresh Flowers! Keep decor simple to save money and stress, but trust me, fresh flowers go a LONG way! Everyone notices them, and it brings a huge pop to the table
• Remember, you might be the host(ess), but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy yourself! When you are having fun, your guests will too :)
  

A simple tablescape pops with fresh tulips. Tulips scream Spring! I'm also a big fan of candles for dinner parties.

The cheese board was replaced with the cake....forgot to take the picture after it was in place.
A simple pizza party can easily be jazzed up with a fresh salad. Skip the pricey pizza parlor salad and make your own gourmet side! It'll be cheaper, fresher and tailored just the way you like it! Presentation is key :) Oh and I got to use all my birthday stuff from Carl- the tropical, floral plates & napkins and my cups are in the next picture.

My standard drink station. Don't forget the limes in the ramekin for the Corona in the fridge though!

So that's it. A nice and simple birthday party. Clean up was done in a jif and we were able to crash on the couch. Now it's time to gear up for busy day of the weekend two! Enjoy your Sunday everyone :)

Nashville & Birthday Recap

I try to keep my "life" posts to a minimum if that makes sense, but these are some fun updates, so I'm throwing them in here. First up are the goodies I received for my birthday.

Two of these adorable beverage holders- I can't wait to put some juice or lemonade in them for outdoor parties!

Then, between Carl and my inlaws, I am now the proud owner of all the items below. Can we get some warm weather up here now so I can schedule a cookout puuuulease??? These were all the contents in the Crate & Barrel boxes in my messy photos :)




Lastly, this super cute skirt from Target. I had spotted it a couple weeks ago, and my sister-in-law kindly bought it for me.

There were a few other things in there too, but these are the most interesting for blogland.

Then, for the weekend, we headed down to Nashville. Neither of us had been there before, so it seemed like a great quick trip. We met up with friends Lindsay and Keith. We had some really spectacular BBQ did a little sightseeing and relaxed in some warmer-than-Michigan weather.


Really, the best BBQ is found at this little spot.

And then the best breakfast was here. We found all kinds of bests! You can kind of see the line that is behind us wrapping around the building and down the street.

This is at Tootsie's downtown. Great live music...although you aren't allowed to dance on chairs. I may or may not know this from experience.

Andrew Jackson's home, AKA "The Hermitage." Seeing a piece of history like this is really quite amazing!
Andrew Jackson and his wife Rachel's tomb in the garden.
That's all I have for you. Not that this is what you came here for anyway ;) I know I know, get back to cleaning. I'm working on it!

Little Snags Won't Stop Me!

As I was leaving work (a tad early to have extra time to prepare last night's dinner), I checked my phone. In terms of my dinner date, I got the worst possible message. Carl had missed his flight. Crap. The airport was packed, there were 27 people on the standby list for the next flight, it wasn't looking good. So I just continued tidying up the place in hopes that some miracle would happen, and he'd get on the next flight.

Well, that miracle came. So he at least made it home last night, 2 hours later than planned, but nevertheless home that night. Once that was settled, I modified my timeline and pressed on with the plans.

Everything turned out lovely. He was pleasantly surprised, and after a craptastic day of traveling, he said this was the perfect thing to come home to!

Sometimes keeping a happy home means keeping the romance alive. And, to me, nothing is more romantic than a homemade, candlelit dinner on your wedding china.





So, about 30 minutes before he arrived, I poured the wine into the decanter to give it time to breathe. And just a few minutes before he arrived, I got out my cheese board I had prepared and covered the night before and lit the candles. (Dinner was all underway)






Dessert was served with coffee. The perfect compliment to the very rich flourless chocolate cake.


So get to surprising your sweetheart! I miiiiiight just try to make this more of a monthly thing. We'll see how that goes ;)

Surprise #2

It's hard to successfully pull off a surprise when the person you are trying to surprise is constantly around. He left this afternoon, so luckily, I had just enough time to get what I needed and run to the Post Office tonight. So as I stated before, Carl's birthday is this week, and he's traveling, so I can't be with him. I already surprised him once with breakfast in bed, and I took the day off since he was working from home. But he was definitely disappointed that I didn't have his present ready for him on Sunday when we celebrated with his family, since he wouldn't be home for his actual birthday. Well, I couldn't let him go his whole birthday without opening a present could I? I tried my hardest to get down to Atlanta this week, but it just didn't line up. So instead I sent him some things to help the loneliness.


So what's in this pretty bunch of packages? 1. is a webcam- he travels almost every week, so I decided it's time we finally invested in these bad boys. I sent him one, and kept the other here. 2. A nice padfolio, since he always steals mine for work! 3. Animal crackers...because well, who doesn't love animal crackers?




He'll get the rest of his presents on Friday...but these were light enough to ship. So I rushed to the PO and sent them in the 2 day mail, care of the hotel where he is staying (I already called ahead to let them know it would be coming). Fingers crossed it doesn't get lost! Keeping a happy home to me includes a happy birthday!!