12 months: A Day in the Life

Mason's First Birthday Party!

Happy First Birthday to our little Peanut! Mason doesn't technically turn one until tomorrow, but we celebrated yesterday. Here are some highlights...

The theme of Mason's first birthday was "On the Green" for two reasons. One, everything had an environmentally friendly focus (we even asked guests to keep their gifts "green") and two, we incorporated a golf mini-tournament. Here is Uncle Justin (and Great Grandpa Saner in the background) at the course. Unfortunately it was rainy but the guys were total troopers.

Uncle Jeff came prepared with his umbrella (obviously he is one of the experienced golfers.)

The golfers included Tage, his friend Danny, Uncle Jeff, Great Grandpa Saner, Uncle Jared, Uncle Justin and Uncle Keith. The guys planned to golf 9 holes but then they decided it would be fun to ALL golf together (instead of breaking up into groups) so an hour and a half into the golf game they were only on the 3rd hole. Since there were some significant others and children waiting back at the party for them, not everyone got to finish the 9 holes.

I love Mason's golf hat. And those are Mason's first pair of shoes! One fell off in the car and he was so upset, he wanted us to put it back on immediately. I made the argyle design on Mase's shirt using this tutorial.

We are so proud of our families and friends for keeping their gifts recycled, reused and organic! There was NO wrapping paper waste and Mason got some great gifts (new organic cloth diapers, a Klean Kanteen, LOTS of new-to-us books and a few new and new-to-us toys and clothes.)

Now the cake.

The best part. :)

I ordered Mason's smash cake from Tessa at The Frosted Cake Shop. It was her first request for a low-sugar, organic cake. As you'll see, Mason approved. All I told her was that our colors were apple green, orange and brown and that it was a "golf" theme. Mase's cake looked almost exactly like the bib (which I also made!)

At first Mason gingerly picked the frosting pieces off the top of the cake and ate them one at a time.

Once he realized the cake was all his to eat, he got right down to business.

THEN when he discovered there were two delicious layers-- it was all over for that cake.

"Here Mama!"

I think Mason literally sat there for 40 minutes working meticulously on eating as much of his cake as possible. It was everywhere.

It was a wonderful day, Mason had a great time at his party and I think our family and friends did too. These are just about all of the pictures I took but Auntie Jaime took some too, so hopefully I'll have more to post later on. All week I'll be sharing the rest of the party (food, decor, activities) on the Pear Tree Events blog, so check there too.

Mason's first birthday party was intended to be a huge THANK YOU party to all of our family and friends for helping us survive our first year of parenting. We could not have done it without their support (physically, emotionally and mentally.)

We are excited for year #2. :)

Another great place to find deals!

"Welcome to the Mini Social!"

The Mini Social is a daily deal site where retailers offer a selection of their products at discounted prices for a limited time.

Speesees is featured there from time to time, along with tons of other great mommy/baby/child shops. Click here to sign up and if you use the promotion code NEWYEAR10 through January 31st you get $10 off your order. So if you purchase an item that is $10, you only pay shipping!

Happy shopping. :)

Rainy Day Fun

It has been raining this week. A lot. To avoid going stir crazy in the house yesterday this is what Mason and I did...

Have you ever experimented with corn starch and water? It is hard to describe the consistency it has. If you combine the two into a paste it forms this gooey blob of stuff that looks like a liquid and will form little puddles when you drop it on the floor, but you can pick it back up without leaving a trace. Weird huh?

At some point you'll have to let your kids play with it on the kitchen floor. I cranked up the heat in our tiny kitchen, stripped Mase and set him on a towel and let him go crazy with a bowl of water and cornstarch.

He loved every minute of it.

Cleaning up is ridiculously easy. Rinse off your kid, pick up the blobs of goo from the floor and wipe the surface down with a wet rag and you're done.

Everyone is happy. :)

Weekend Fun

Mason and I were out of town on Sunday for my friend Laura's baby shower. Her due date is February 26, which was Mason's due date! And he came a month early... a week after my baby shower... I'm just saying... be ready Laura!

Kim was there with Ella! Look at those big, beautiful blue eyes. I think Mason and Ella were awake at the same time for about an hour the entire day.

Just long enough for us to snap a few pictures of the two cuties together.

I love this picture of Ella hanging out with the girls. Good wine, great friends and the Golden Globes.

Monday we didn't get out of our pj's until at least noon. Rainy days off are the BEST! Tage and I even played a game of gin rummy while Mase was napping. If there is one thing better than a long weekend it is a short work-week. Happy Tuesday!

A walk in the park

SUCH a gorgeous day here yesterday!

We took advantage of the blue skies and went to the park to play.

Mase loved making noise with those metal bars...

...almost as much as he loved trying to eat the wood chips.

(I think I caught most of them before they were swallowed.)

I ♥ Wednesdays

Weekend Fun

* Going to church * Taking walks * Goofing off at home *

(AKA: the perfect weekend)

Another New Years resolution? Take better pictures!!! I learned from the Mom Tog blog last week that I need better light. WAY better light. Hopefully soon my grainy photos will be a thing of the past.

Oh, and the picture above? I've mentioned before that the Ergo is one of the best things ever. Mason hung out on my back while I vaccuumed AND made dinner on Saturday evening. Tage thought it was pretty entertaining, but at least it kept Mase from emptying the kitchen drawers! (And no, I don't always wear all black when I clean... I had just gotten home from work. :)

Saturday Smile

Speesees

A new favorite place to find organic baby clothes: Speesees. They are based out of San Francisco and offer basic, well made kids clothes.

Here is Mase's new Skull Cap in Tomato ($12).

And way cute Bear Jacket (on sale for $32).

We also bought two of the short sleeved Lap Tee's. The packaging they came in was all recycled and ridiculously cute. All of the items are soft and snuggly (especially that Bear Jacket) and are really high quality. Mason doesn't even try to constantly tear the beanie off his head, like he does with all the other ones.

I found Speesees through Rookie Moms and if you enter the discount code "ROOKIE" you'll get 30% off your order (on TOP of the sale prices they have right now!) Go check them out. :)

Weekend Fun

Happy New Year! Thank you so much to Mason's cousin Kelsey for hanging out at our house so Tage and I could go out for dinner and dancing. (We were home by 11:30PM... I feel so old.)

Our New Years Day tradition of playing Frisbee.

So much different than last two years when we played in the snow!

Mason in the Ergo.

We play with an Aerobie-- it's a flat Frisbee which is easier to throw than a regular Frisbee (good for those of us who are disc-challenged.)

Traditional New Years Day black eyes peas (I used this recipe and it was delicious) and cornbread at our house with Uncle Justin, Grandpa Flint and Great Grandma Pete.

Our first 5K of 2010! Me and Mase with our friend Elaine.

Mase and Vinny getting ready for the run.

My little Peanut offering me some water after the race.

What a great year 2009 was. Lots of changes-- probably the most change Tage and I have ever experienced. But so many good things. Here's to looking forward to 2010!