Birthday Party!

Wow.  First, let me start off by saying my family and I are so supremely blessed with family members who are friends and friends who are extended family members to us.  The gift of their time and love is better than anything and that was more evident tonight then ever before.  Second, we survived the party!  And we all had a fantastic time!  Until the end of the party, at least... right before we left, Presley really got upset because she was SO exhausted.  She skipped her nap today (must have been excited for the party!) and thus, her nighttime crash came a little sooner and was a bit stronger!  I felt so bad for her because we still had to pack up the car and go home before I could feed her and put her to bed.  She was such a trooper, though, and really went along well with everything today, whether it was running pre-party errands or the different aspects of her party, she did great!

I felt too busy occupied (if that makes sense?) at the party to really think about the implications of Presley turning one - and I don't think the reality of it all will hit me until her real birthday or maybe even after that.  I haven't even stopped to think about the fact that Wednesday will be my last "monthly" birthday update for Presley.  Just thinking about that makes me want to cry a little bit!  I have really enjoyed watching her grow so rapidly and can't believe on all the "lasts" that have just slipped right past us without realizing it would be our last.  (For example:  Last time she napped on me regularly... at the time I worried too much if she would ever be able to nap in her crib - so much so that I didn't soak up those little moments enough.  Last time I could set her down without her moving.  Last time she fell asleep while I was rocking her in church while at mass... etc.)  I will definitely have to find a way to keep documenting the new things she learns as time goes on.

Now, onto the party! 

We had her birthday party at a local pizza parlor and invited some of our friends and family members.

Presley's Invites from Shutterfly

Most of the guests lived in town but we also had a few from out of town - my cousin Breanne, her husband Dustin, and their son Emory (who we are going to spend Father's Day with this year) came from Milwaukee to party with Presley and my aunt Jill and uncle Chuck (who we love to visit every Easter/Thanksgiving) came from Huntley!  We felt so lucky to have them there with us.

I also got crafty and made a few decorations from ideas inspired from Pinterest!  What did parents do for fun and creative ideas before this website?!  I bought 3 packs of party hats on clearance at Jewel Osco a few weeks ago.  They had an okay design to start out with but I bought them so I could make Minnie/Mickey party hats.  This required spray painting them black, cutting circles & bows out of cardstock, adding ears and bows to the hats, and they went from this...

To this...

Awesome tutorial found here!

I also crafted together a "chalkboard" poster board full of Presley's stats.  It didn't turn out anything like what I initially envisioned, but I do like how it turned out (for the most part).  But I definitely had fun making it, that's for sure!  It was nice to just sit for a moment and think about the things Presley most enjoys.

Original inspiration for this found here

At the party, Presley had her first taste of pizza!  I think she liked it but it was hard to tell since she will pretty much eat anything we give her these days.  She also had her first real dessert and had it all to herself!  I say "dessert" since her cake turned out to be more like pudding than anything else!  I tried to make it as "healthy" as possible (bananas instead of eggs and apple juice concentrate instead of sugar) but it just didn't turn out so much like a cake after all.  Nonetheless, she seemed to really like it - which is no surprise because she has always loved bananas.  (Maybe we will have to make her a better cake for her actual birthday this Wednesday.)

Presley with my mom & her #1 balloon!

Presley and Jaime - a friend of mine from high school

Presley and Megan - another friend from high school!  Presley and I miss our weekly play dates with Megan and her nieces.

Beautiful smiles!

 

Presley and her daddy!  This is the only picture I got with Presley's party hat on - she didn't care for it.  You can also KIND of see the dirt cake cups I made for dessert for the party guests, idea from here.

Hat is gone!

Me and Presley!  She's also wearing the tutu I made for her. :)

Presley getting out of her cake-covered clothes

Dressing her in her back-up clothes... she looks pretty tired already!

We can never seem to get all six of us looking at the camera at once!  Almost!
L to R:  Megan with Alli, Me with Presley, and Erin with Molly.

We take turns looking away/looking at the camera!

Presley and Becca - a former work friend of mine from the YMCA who was also in our wedding party!

Presley and my best friend, Betsy, from high school.

Presley with Ashley & Jake - a great friend from high school and her fantastic husband.  They're expecting a baby boy this summer!  Couldn't be a more deserving couple.  :)

This is when we were saying goodbye to everyone and the long day started to hit Presley!

Presley with her Grammy - this picture is hilarious.

Presley with Jess - one of my very sweet friends!

And man, did Presley get some spectacular gifts - her friends really do know her well!  From adorable outfits to interactive toys (and several awesome Disney gifts!) she is going to be a busy and happy bee.  My cousin took video of Presley digging into her "cake" so I will need to cut it down a bit and then upload a portion to my blog.

Ending this hectic but very awesome days feeling so lucky.  Thank you to everybody who came out for our little baby girl's first birthday party - you guys make our lives so much happier and bless us with all you are!  And to everybody reading this, we certainly love you as well -  thanks for being such a special part of Presley's first year as a baby and our first year as parents!!!  Well... almost a complete year... still a few more days under that year mark. *sigh*  But like my friend Sean said... it's really just a drop in the bucket in the big scheme of things!

****update****

Here are a couple still shots from the cake video!

Her reaction just after the first bite!

Homemade Baby Wipes Tutorial (Easy & Inexpensive!)

As a thrifty stay-at-home mom, I am always looking for creative ways to stretch our dollars.  If you are a mom who has ever purchased baby wipes, you know that without coupons or store deals, they can get pretty pricey!  Not to mention, your child may have a bad reaction to certain brand, so you can't always just grab whatever is least expensive on any given week.  In addition to that, I have heard all kinds of rumors about the additives in commercial baby wipes which makes me very leery to use them on my little one.

I am not an extreme couponer (or really an extreme anything for that matter) and I don't buy newspapers for coupons mostly because I am too cheap and lazy.  But what I do love is online coupons and I use them often!  I currently stumbled upon the Healthy Essentials website which is simple to use and while they offer just a few coupons, they're for great products.  Healthy Essentials is currently offering $1/Johnson's Baby Oil and $1/Johnson's Baby Wash which will cut down the cost of these homemade baby wipes considerably!

With that being said, I stepped out on a branch and decided to make some baby wipes for Miss Presley right here in our house!

Here are the 5 things you will need:

• 1 Paper Towel Roll (You will need an unused roll.  For the purpose of this "recipe" of baby wipes, however, you will only be using half of the roll.)
• 1 Tablespoon of Baby Oil (1 Tablespoon = .5 Ounce)
• 2 Tablespoons of Baby Wash (2 Tablespoons = 1 Ounce)
• 2 cups of Boiled Water (maybe a little bit less water?)
  
• 1 Container (One that is big enough to contain half a roll of your favorite paper towel brand; I used a tupperware-type container from the Dollar Tree which will cost you a whopping $1!  Though, I imagine a large Ziploc bag would work as well.)

I started by boiling the two cups of water in order to sterilize the water.  (You could also use distilled water from the store.)  While the water was heating up, gather your supplies! 

*Side note:  If you use boiled water, you want to wait for it to COOL DOWN all the way before pouring it on the paper towel roll!*

I got one of the largest knives in my knife block and started cutting the paper towel roll in half.  At first I used a bread knife but that made a complete mess - so I started using our santoku/chef knife and that worked much better.

This is the result of cutting the paper towel roll in half - not anything too difficult!

Next, you are going to carefully pull the cardboard roll away and out of the roll of paper towels.  Again, this is easy-peasy.  Afterwards, set the roll down into your container (I faced the side I just cut downward) and begin mixing your ingredients together in a small mixing bowl.

And let me just tell you, this smells MAGICAL!
It is honestly that sweet baby smell that is incredibly infectious.

Finally, pour the solution all over the roll of paper towels - don't be shy! - make sure you pour the solution over the entire roll. 

Once the solution was added, I put the lid on my container and let it sit for about 10-20 minutes.  Then I flipped the container upside down and let it sit for another 10-20 minutes so the solution could settle in all over the roll.  And voila, you've got some fantastic smelling, homemade baby wipes!


Here is the price breakdown:

• 2 cups of water: FREE!  (If you use your at home tap water & boil it beforehand.)
• Bounty Paper Towel 3 Pack of 103 - 2 ply sheets: paid $4.99
  =$.83/half roll, which is what I used for this "recipe"
• 20 oz. Equate Baby Oil: paid $2.47
  =$.06/tablespoon, which is the amount I used for this "recipe"
• 28 oz. Johnson's Baby Wash: paid $3.97 (orig. $4.97 before $1 coupon found here)
  =$.14/ounce, which is the amount I used for this "recipe"

Total Spent: $1.05 for 103 baby wipes!
*compare to $2.37 for a 64 ct. of commercial wipes online
 

My purpose for sharing this is to simply encourage all parents out there that if you have been considering making your own wipes, that it is very doable!  It's very cost-effective (especially considering that most parents have these few items on hand) and doesn't take any time at all to put together.  So don't be intimidated because if I can do it, so can you!  As we start putting these wipes to good use, I will make sure to update on how the review of how we like the wipes as well as our favorite paper towel brands to use!

If you enjoy Chasing Moonlight & Roses, LIKE us on Facebook or vote for us at Top Baby Blogs!

Is this real life?!

All around me lately is talk like, "Only a few more weeks!" or "You're almost there" and "Make sure to get sleep while you can because she'll be here before you know it!" -- while this leaves me with mixed feelings of anxiety and excitement, it still doesn't feel like this is my reality.  When I try to quiet and focus my mind on our little girl or actually giving birth, I just can't seem to turn any real results in my mind.  I can't begin to imagine what (or who) she will look like or what her cry will sound like... I absolutely can't imagine bringing a baby into our home... and I don't know that I can even picture my daily life with a little one with me at all times.  It just makes me wonder how many mothers-to-be before me felt the same exact way and also how many could imagine this reality before it hits.  Another thing that I can't picture is when Presley will decide to make her debut.  I've gotten comments about how it looks like I could go any day, that I will probably go early because I am getting big but I've also heard that most first time mothers go into labor after their due date.  It's not that I'm getting any kind of heavy anxiety about all these different possibilities, it is just super weird not having any intuition or inkling about what will happen here at such a huge point in our life.

On a lighter note, last night I bought a sweet little gown to wear in the hospital during my stay there.  It's from Baby be Mine Maternity and of course I got one on sale ($14.99 pre-tax; but I also used coupon code "PNMAG" to get 10% off, so it was a little cheaper).  This is the exact one I got and the cool thing about it is Pam (from the show The Office) wore the same gown when she gave birth on the show!

Hopefully it will look that flattering on me!

I just figure it will be nice to be wearing a more beautiful and less revealing gown than the one they issue you at the hospital.  I feel a little stupid for buying something that you get "free", but hopefully I won't regret it at the time.  It snaps open all the way down the back if/when that is necessary but otherwise it stays closed.  I also got a bigger size than I think I will need so I am hoping it doesn't looks stupid on me! :)  Even though, at the time, I'm sure I will care much less about my appearance than I do beforehand!!

Within the last week I also ordered paper mache letters to decorate for Presley's room.  I went to HobbyLobby.com for them because they were running a 25% off special on their paper mache as well as free shipping if you spent a certain amount online, so that was sweet! 

I haven't decided exactly how I'm going to decorate the letters yet, but I've thought about doing this tutorial because I really, really like that look.  I think the bronze would look much better in her room rather than the metallic look, so that's what I'm leaning towards for now.  Otherwise, I've considered covering the letters in yarn (so cute!) or using glue to cover them in some print or fabric Tony and I decide on.  So we shall see! :)

Anyways, that's all the randomness I think I will fit into this entry!  Thanks for reading :)