Amelia and the Oobleck

 With several inches of snow in the forecast, I knew Amelia and I were going to need a little extra something to get us through a day of being snowed in.  We headed to the library and filled our bags with books, CD's, and a DVD.  While Amelia was off picking out a book for Henry, I spotted the Dr. Suess book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck.  I had never actually read the book before, but I knew of the gooey green substance, Oobleck, that fell from the sky in the story.

 That night and the next day we read the story a few times and then I decided to tell Amelia that I knew how to make oobleck.  She was ecstatic!  (She's actually made it a couple times before, but obviously didn't remember).

She decided that the oobleck should be pink instead of green like the book.  After all, pink matched her bow and dress.  Who am I to argue with that logic?

Seriously, though, this stuff is so weird!  You just add 1 cup of water to 2 cups of corn starch.  And actually, we cut that in half because we were running low on corn starch and it was plenty.

While playing in our oobleck, Henry woke from his nap so I decided to stick his hands in too.  He wasn't too thrilled with that choice.  He eventually warmed up a bit, but was never as interested as his sister.  Unfortunately I couldn't get a great picture of his disgusted face because I was trying to keep him from falling off of the stool he was standing on.

A copy of this book and a little container of corn starch (with directions to add water) would be a cute little gift!

Look Who's Walking!

A few days after Henry's birthday (we'll say January 4th for the baby book's sake), Henry decided it was time to get moving.  Out of no where he took 9 steps in a row!  And then 10! And then, I stopped counting. I just started saying "Henry is walking!".

He still crawls quite a bit, but he is getting braver with each passing day.  Just today he walked all the way across the room, stopping only once to lean down and "kiss" a book with a picture of a kitten on the front.

One thing is for sure, he is AWFULLY proud of himself!  He really thinks he is hot stuff.  I've also noticed that he walks a lot better when he is holding on to something.  Of course, whatever he is holding is usually in his mouth!

Snow Cream

 I'm not sure why I've never tried Snow Cream before.  It is such a simple recipe and I love ice cream of any kind.  My friend, Susie, mentioned she made it with her girls and we decided to give it a go.  We've definitely had enough of the white stuff around!

In case you don't know, the "recipe" is snow, a bit of milk, a bit of sugar, and a bit of vanilla.  Mix together and enjoy!

And enjoy we did!

A Year of Henry

(I promise this is the LAST birthday post!)

Look Whoooo's ONE!

I apologize for yet ANOTHER post with a million pictures.  I guess that's what happens when Christmas and birthdays fall so close together. 

I am big on themes at birthday time.  There was Amelia's "Very Hungry Caterpillar" first birthday (pre blogger blog).  Her farm themed second birthday.  A rainbow third birthday.  And most recently her princess 4th birthday. I went with the same "theme" as Henry's room for his first birthday party--owls.  And for what it's worth I am already gathering ideas for his second birthday party.

Here's a sample of Henry's invitation.  I'm proud to say that I did them all by myself!  I only had to purchase the scallop punch (which I will be using often) and a pack of nature-y paper that I used throughout the party. 

I used some of the same paper from the pack for Henry's birthday hat that he had no interest in keeping on his head.  I thought it turned out cute nonetheless, although I should have probably paid more attention to the direction the owls were in before I cut out the hat.

I whipped up a little sign for the front door.  I started to feel a little bad for not having a single outside decoration.  Although, Amelia's June birthdays are a little more conducive to outdoor decorations.

As the guest list started to expand, I thought I might set up an extra table in the dining room.  After 3+ years of living in our house, we still cannot agree on a dining room set.  I didn't have much time to come up with something for the table, but the blue just looked too plain.  I found some pictures of Henry and hung them for our Halloween tree.  I filled the jar with some of Amelia's nature walk treasures and made Henry's name using some of the paper from the Nature paper pack.

 This isn't the best picture, but I sewed some streamers for Henry's big day much like I did for Amelia's princess party.  I love this project so much because its easy and the sloppier you get, the better it looks!

The birthday banner has become a bit of a tradition around here since Amelia's 2nd birthday.  Each has been unique to the party.  One of these times, I will hopefully be able to reuse one of the previously made banners.  I've kept them all, you know.

Henry's attire was quick and easy.  I couldn't find the right kind of owl fabric, so I decided to try and match the colors of the party instead--blue, green, and brown. 

Amelia's attire was a bit more involved.  I had visions of making her a beautiful owl pillowcase dress, but time got away from me.  Then, I remembered I had this rather plain brown corduroy dress that I found on clearance at Target.  I showed my mom an owl I loved and she replicated in on the dress (and the owls wings match Henry's shirt!).  I LOVE how it turned out!  She decided to try felt this time for the main part of the applique and it has already held up much better than traditional fabric usually does.

I really wanted to get a picture of the kids before the party started, but this is good as it got.  Amelia, apparently, wanted to eat something--a brownie pop would be my guess.

Early in the party planning, I started toying around with the idea of making cupcake picks.  I have never tried it before, but it was fun!  And easy!

 

After I made the cupcake toppers, I decided to give cupcake wrappers a try.  It was soooo easy and I like how they added a little something, something to the cupcakes.  Only some cupcakes got wrappers and only some cupcakes got toppers.  Considering there were 60 cupcakes, I didn't want to go overboard. And do you see the brownie pops?  Those were a fun find at Costco that I felt were a nice touch.

 Here's the whole display.  I made the tablecloth myself to match the colors of the party.  I needed a new tablecloth anyway and I tried to make it generic enough that it could be used everyday.  I probably need to go back and hem it again, though, it was pretty long on the sides.

As far as party favors go, I really liked the idea of giving something edible.  My friend, Erin, made chocolate chip cookies for her daughter's first birthday.  I was worried about doing something similar so close to the holiday given that most people already feel "blah" with all the sweets they've consumed.  I decided to make these chocolate "H" letters instead.  My friend, Erin, made these for her wedding favors (I guess she like edible gifts!) and let me borrow the molds.  I made milk chocolate, white chocolate, and dark chocolate varieties.

Hey look! The birthday boy!  Relaxing in his new rocker pre-party.

I had my "Year of Henry" pictures displayed on the blinds.  A terrible picture, but maybe you get the idea.

Again when it came time to sing "Happy Birthday", Henry seemed to enjoy the song more than anything else.  He clapped when everyone finished the song and then got busy exploring the cupcake.

 

Henry had quite the crowd watching him eat his cupcake! I think the total in attendance was 49 people!  I am not sure who grabbed my camera and took a picture each way of the people watching, but I'm glad he or she did!

Then it was time for presents!  Henry got some great gifts including tons of clothes, toys, and books.  He isn't much of a gift opener, so Amelia and I did all the work while Henry reaped all the benefits.

We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family to share these wonderful milestones with!

ONE!: The Stats

Oh, what a big boy I have on my hands!  I thought I should make note of some things that were going on with Henry on his first birthday!

Words to date:  ball, mama, dada, vroom vroom, more (which comes out as "MORE! MORE! MORE!" and is reserved strictly for mealtimes).
Signs to date: puppy (panting)
Teeth to date: 6 (4 on top, 2 on bottom)
Clothing size: 18-24 months
Diaper size: 4
Shoe size: 5
Preferred method of movement: crawling with an occasional step here or there

Stats from his doctor's appointment:
Height: 31.5" (91st percentile)
Weight: 22 lbs., 12 3/4 oz. (50th percentile)
HC: 48 cm

Current loves: Amelia, Truman the puppy, baths, yogurt, bananas, cars, balls, Brown Bear, Brown Bear book, My Big Trucks Book, stroller rides, getting tickled or when we "get" him.

Current hates: getting dressed, having diaper changed, any non-orange vegetable, baby food, getting out of the bath, any man that is not his father or grandfather.

ONE!

So, despite my best attempts to stop it, Henry turned ONE!  We were lucky enough to have a beautiful day in the 50's!  I would have loved to have taken him to the zoo, but with Amelia still recovering from her multitude of illnesses, we thought it best to hang low.  I tried to make it a special day for Henry with an extra long bath and a lengthy stroll around around the neighborhood with his sister--although this was more of a present for everyone!

Henry opened his presents post-AM naptime.  He got a wooden airplane rocker from Jason and I that I fell in love with at a consignment sale this past fall.  We also found a little Leapfrog Birthday Cake that sings the "Happy Birthday" song.  The candles also light up and then after the song, you can actually blow them out.  It was great fun for everyone!  Amelia picked out a puppy Pillow Pet for Henry.

Amelia had been anxiously awaiting a chance to bring out the Easy Bake Oven so we agreed that she could make Henry's birthday cake.  Cakes are serious business in the Ward household and she did a great job!

That evening, both sets of grandparents came over for a dinner of Jason's delicious chili, cake, and few more presents.

I think Henry's favorite part of the whole sing-Happy-Birthday, then-eat-cake experience was listening to everyone sing to him.  He clapped after every single rendition of Happy Birthday--such a polite young man already!

Don't get me wrong, though, he enjoyed the cake too!

Jason's parents got Henry a stool with his name on it that matches one Amelia has.  Boy were they excited to be sitting on their matching stools! Of course, it may have been the sugar high kicking in by then....

The day wouldn't be complete, of course, without a little drama thrown in.  Shortly before Henry went to bed for the night, he tumbled down just about the whole flight of stairs.  Yikes!  I had been trying to avoid since those early days of crawling.  Luckily he was completely fine and hardly even let out a whimper.  It certainly hasn't slowed him down or made him any more wary of the stairs...welcome to toddlerhood, I guess!