A mix of things

Sorry, I realized I have been MIA blogger for the last two weeks. I have constructed the occasional post in my head, but have been busy with summer so it just hasn't happened. So, here I present to you, a completely random mix of things.

Very excited to see that iconic designer, Jonathan Adler, is being featured on Gilt Groupe on Wednesday of this week! Feel free to leave me a note or email me if by some odd chance you don't belong to Gilt and would like to. I'd be happy to send you the referral!

I read lots of other blogs and must share - I made this fabulous Watermelon Bombe as posted by Second City Soiree, only subbing raspberry sorbet for the watermelon, as I couldn't find watermelon. As for that subsitution: Appearance? A+. The darker red was so realistic! Taste? B-. I didn't care for the tangy mixed with creamy ice cream, but no one complained. I think I might try strawberry ice cream with added food coloring next time. Now I know I should have taken a picture as soon as we sliced into it. And yet I did not! Oops. Oh well. Here's picture of what remains :-) It looks a bit frosty, because we served it on Saturday night and then again on Sunday afternoon (yay for lots of visitors!). Really nice thing was that once I removed it from the bowl, all I had to do was wrap the whole hunk in press n' seal and toss it back in the freezer that way.

A bit of big (and completely unrelated) news, we have moved the HDog to a big boy bed! I did suck it up and purchase the PBK Riley bed I was eyeing and it really is the perfect fit for our space. His room did have to lose the gorgeous Land of Nod District 28 armoire ( Z was NOT PLEASED about taking it down to the basement since it weighs a ton!), but it was worth it. I will say, we had a laugh worthy episode where Henry broke out, but it's mostly been going well. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Oh and lastly, I should add that being the design freak that I am, I hemmed and hawed over his bedding. I refused to buy some crazy licensed Disney/PBS/whatever bedding. I wanted something that will grow with him and was so happy to find this Colorblock set at Target. I also went with the coordinating striped sheet set. The best thing about all of this? It includes Orange & Blue, so when Z inevitably convinces Henry that he needs an Illini room, I just might be able to add some accents and keep this bedding!

Weekend recap

Well, it's official, I'm the mom of a two year old. How on earth did two years fly by SO FAST?

The "weekend" kicked off Thursday night with me writing Valentine's from Henry, individually wrapping small playdough pots into heart covered cellophane bags, and attaching the aforementioned Valentine's to the bags with curling ribbon (because I didn't want to use the red wire twist ties on gifts for toddlers). He received a whole bag full of Valentine's Day cards and candy. TONS of candy. Mind you his room at school has kids possibly as young as 15 months and it goes up to age three. Some of the crap that parents chose to send made me stabby. *Sigh* let the school years begin. On a nice note, my parents arrived Friday afternoon and were able to see Henry's school during our early afternoon pick-up. Of course it was Valentine's chaos, but it was still cool for them to see where Henry spends his weekdays.

Saturday was the big birthday. In the morning the guys took Henry to McDonald's playland (I was bummed that Prescott Playtime was closed for the holiday) to burn off some steam. While they were out, Mom and I took care of last minute odds & ends and balloons! Henry woke from his nap, thrilled find six regular balloons and one "NUMBER TWO!". We quickly realized that other gifts were probably unnecessary ;-) But we pressed on and Henry opened a staggering amount of loot from both sets of grandparents and his aunts, uncles and cousins.

Award for the noisiest gift: Parents My First Remote Control Car. Despite my attempts to hide it, he kept asking for it. For the record, I will remember this Aunt A & Uncle W!!!

As expected, Henry hopped directly on his Wheely Cow and took off. He immediately began pushing it, riding it and referring to it as his Wheely Cow. As long as your kiddo is sturdy on his/her feet, I'd highly recommend the Wheely ride-ons.

After the gift madness, we all sat down for delicious cake from Sweet Mandy B's - white frosting, white cake with blueberry filling since blueberries are H's favorite! And, to pay homage to Henry's favorite monkey, Curious George, the party did have a monkey theme. I did manage to avoid most of the tacky character "stuff", but gave in a little here and there. My best buy of the party though, where these awesome Monkey hats from Michaels! I'll spare their dignity here, but I have lovely photos of everyone wearing these puppies.
Now that my sis and her fam are in China, we had the cool opportunity to wish my nephew N a happy birthday since it was Feb. 14 here and already Feb. 15 there, he and Henry shared a birthday for a bit. So we all donned our monkey hats, Skyped away and sang Happy Birthday!

One last note for Henry's birthday weekend, between Christmas and now his birthday, the number of noisy, plastic, flashy things has increased. Rapidly. My orderly and anal nature forced me to buy furniture to hide some of this. Mom & I hit IKEA on Sunday and now our living room has this lovely number behind the couch, perfect for hiding the "stuff" I'd rather not look at when H is not around (bonus glimpse of the Wheely Cow in the corner)!!!

I know, I know...

Hi. I am MIA blogger. Work is kicking my ass. My f'ing 85 year old lady back pain is kicking my ass. Water in our basement is kicking my ass. H is kicking my ass. Life is kicking my ass. I'm actually really happy and in a good mood most days, just having trouble getting it all done.

So, I'll share a lovely picture from a recent party we threw. Nothing large, I think there were 14 adults, but the addition of 5 toddlers since the last time we had a get together made the vibe just a bit different ;-)In all my Martha Stewartesque craziness, I failed to take more photos once the party got going. I put together this fab tower of sweets with waffle bowls of assorted berries, brownies, brownie-moonpie fluff sandwiches, etc and I so wish I had taken a photo. But, alas, I did well and the moment I set it down our guests swooped in and gobbled it all up!