A whimsical Dr. Seuss First Birthday for Thing 1 & Thing 2!!!

I can't believe it has been almost over two weeks since Brett and Emma's birthday party. Brian and I spent months planning it and we were finally able to pull it off with lots of help from our family and friends. THANK YOU to everyone who helped with cooking, decorating, labeling, trimming photos, favor bags, the list goes on and on! Patty&Angie (Top Chefs!!) Lauren&Malia (Decorating professionals)...we couldn't have done it without you!!! Brian and I truly have some of the world's greatest friends and we are so lucky for that! And of course a big thank you to Grandma Lisa and Aunt Rosie for playing with Brett and Emma all weekend while I shopped all day for "last minute details!"


And now...PICTURES!!!

Welcome to Seussville...

Favor Tags - Etsy Shop

Hey - did that cat mess up our backyard??

Pirate Ship Bounce House

Obstacle Course

Birthday banner - Etsy Shop

Monts De Oca family! 

I love this man!

Party Hats

Balloons 

My nephew Hunter!

Centerpieces - That's Cake!

Photo banner - Etsy Shop

Photo banner - Etsy Shop

Great Grandma and Brett

Emma and her BFF Leila

Daddy with his babies

Look at nakey Mr. Brett!

Changing into T-shirts for the cake

My little Brian Jr.

Guests signed pages of Happy Birthday To You by Dr. Seuss

Hop on Pop (corn)

One Fish, Two Fish. Red Fish, Blue Fish.

Pink Ink Yink Drink and a special something for the adults :)

Three Cheese Trees and Peanut Butter and Star Belly Jelly Sandwiches

Thing 1 & Thing 2 BBQ (For Chick-Fil-A nuggets)

Green Eggs (Egg salad on lettuce leaves)

The Cat in the Hat getting some food!

(Also a close-up of one of my FAVORITE party details! These truffula trees that I ordered from Twin Dragonfly Desings.)

And now...

THE CAKE!!!!

I found this cake (and a few other party ideas) on the blog And Everything Sweet.

I e-mailed a few local bakers photos of the cake and crossed my fingers that someone would be able to re-create it. I was excited when I heard from Natalie with That's Cake! I trusted that she would be able to make this cake close to the original. But I was beyond surprised to see that she replicated the cake beyond belief!!! 

Disassembling the cake was a little tricky...but I figured it out! :)

No more pictures! 

Cake time!!!

Mmmmmm

This is delicious! 

What do I do with this?

So good!

This is sooooo good, Mommy!

Cleaning this up was quite the adventure!

I am one-year old now!

A birthday party in the making...

I just HAD to share my excitement!!! In the midst of planning, ordering, designing, etc. for the big event next weekend...I came across a blog post filled with fabulous Dr. Seuss birthday party ideas. The post was written by Heather at Twin Dragonfly Designs. I fell in love with the beautiful truffula trees in her post and found her shop on Etsy. I asked her very nicely if there was any way she could re-create those wonderful trees for me. She responded very quickly to let me know she still had her party supplies and would be happy to ship them my way all the way from Canada!

After days of online conversation she decided to use her Etsy shop to create custom party murals! This creative mom of twins surely has an eye for party decor...so be sure to contact her for all your party needs! I don't know Heather outside of our e-mails to each other, but I already love her! These trees are definitely going to make the party!!

She also shipped me a few more murals but I can't give away ALL the surprises!! :) 

We LOVE Chick-Fil-A!

Brian and I are pretty healthy eaters, but every once in a while we indulge in fast food. For two weekends in a row now we have taken Brett and Emma to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. It is so awesome! For one, they serve GRILLED chicken nuggets, gluten free grilled nuggets to be exact! Chick-Fil-A is the only fast food restaurant to serve a grilled entree item on their kids menu (I didn't research this, but I heard it in their advertisement). They also dedicate a fryer to their waffle fries, so those are also gluten free! WOO-HOO!

So of course we got Brett and Emma grilled nuggets and they had a fruit pouch as their side item. And they are pretty close to drinking whole milk, which would be a perfect drink choice for an almost-one-year-old!

Mommy - where is the food?

I guess I'll just drink my water.

I thought kids' meals came with a toy!

Can I at least chew on it?

No, Brett! You read it, like this..

And then you chew on it!

Brett and Emma's first Chrismukkah!

Even though it is already mid-January...I thought I would share Brett and Emma's first Chrismukkah :)

I was an awful momtographer on Christmas. I was having so much fun with my family that I only got a few pictures. 

                                    On Chrismtas Eve, Brian insisted on making cookies for Santa. 

 Making cookies hasn't exactly been a hobby of mine since I was diagnosed with celiac disease. Brian was pretty excited, though. It looks like Santa ate quite a few cookies!! 

The next morning Brett and Emma woke us up bright and early because they wanted to open presents! (Well, I am assuming that's why they were up so early!!)

Hanging out by the tree.

Hey mom, can I eat this?

Brian decided that Brett and Emma would open his gifts first. Two words: Big Mistake!

Gerber cheese puffy things...my favorite! 

Once these were opened, we had to hide them in another room and coddle B&E who were in tears because they couldn't eat their favorite snack at 7:00AM. I am not sure what is in those things but I swear it's baby crack! 

And then finally they were on to other things...

This is OK. Where are my cheese puffs?

Did somebody say cheese puffs?

Mommy, I like this one!

Presents for Emma!

We helped Brett and Emma unwrap presents for a little while and then I gave Brian his gift...

Who is excited?

He got a PS3! I know he loves it because he has a bromance date every night at 9:30 with his boyfriends :) Look for PAPAbox on Modern Warfare 3! 

When our family came over just a little while later, Brett and Emma got to open even more presents!!  

We had a great Chrismukkah and feel truly blessed for all the friends and family we were able to spend time with over the holidays!