Is it terrible to say that my first reaction to you coming into our lives was not that of glee and joy. But you my little boy have filled our lives with so much glee and joy. I was stressed about the idea of having a new little one so quickly. After waiting and trying for your brother so long, I was not expecting a such a quick repeat. I was afraid you would be a whirl wind of a little boy just as your bother.

But you are so much different than your brother. You Zarek are my little sunshine. You wake up with sunshine smiles, hugs and kisses and you just fill my day with warmth and happiness. You love to snuggle and share your love. You love to give out random kisses and have a huge heart. When Zaney gets hurt you run over to give him so many loves.

This last year I have watched you become the most efficient walker, runner, climber I have ever seen. You love to climb on everything and have only fallen a few rare times. Your words are slow to come but I suspect that is because you want to be confident in your wide range of movement.

You are also very quiet when you speak, I think that you are just more quiet in general. Though this last month you have really started picking up your words and even saying sentences. One being “Go Away” so clearly the first time I heard it I was sure it wasn’t you. I wonder who would have taught you that phrase? Maybe a big brother, even though he loves you and loves playing with you somedays he’s done and says this to you.

I love to watch your compassion grow and strengthen, you obviously will have a heart for animals and for people. You try and make sure everyone is happy and if not you try and comfort them with your sweet two year old way.

You have definitely decided that you are two and that this means you know how this world works and if mommy says no she must be wrong. Part of me is happy to see this strength of character, but part of me is sad to see the two-year-old defiance start to come out. Tantrums have started, but I know you will quickly grow out of them!

We have had such an amazing year and I cannot wait to see the years to come. I’m sorry your letter is a little late, life has been so hectic in this last few months, but I wanted to make sure I finished it!

You are one amazing guy! When we found out you were on your way we were nothing but surprised and excited. We had waited for you for so long and had finally come to terms of not having our own little ones. But you decided to come into our lives not one month later. God was so good to us!

You decided you liked your little home inside mommy and no matter what I did you decided to not make your debut. I walked and walked and I ate a whole pineapple. I ate spicy food and followed any advice I could to have you come out to join us, but to no avail.

You finally decided you wanted to join us the day after Easter, the day before your official eviction notice. But there were some scary moments when your heartbeat dropped into scary ranges so we decided to have you come into the world via c-section.

You have been an amazing boy to watch grow physically, mentally and spiritually. You are so smart, so talented and so loving!

Your first year we loved to see and enjoy your firsts. Rolling over, learning to crawl, your first smiles, first steps, and first words. Even then we could see your personality blooming into something wonderful.

You are so athletic and love to kick around the rugby ball with your uncle pat. You love to toss the ball and we have no idea where this came from. As both your daddy and I are not athletic at all and never even have sports on the tv.

You also love music like no one I have ever seen. You had one cd in particular that if I played it in the car no matter how tired or hungry you were you would just be quiet and listen. You love having your music and have learned many songs on your own. And again your mommy and daddy did not give you this talent. Mommy barely listens to music and Daddy is tone def, pretty much everyone on his side of the family is.

You are so very loving and this year you truly showed us how much at the arrival of your baby brother. The first experience with this was our first attempt to try and figure out how to get both of you out to the car. We decided to take you out first and suddenly you started crying out “Zarek” and grabbed his carseat trying to drag it out behind you. And even after getting to know him better and realizing you were going to have to share everything now you still love him. As he started to crawl up the stairs you grabbed ahold of him and cried out to granny to come and save him so he wouldn’t fall down the stairs. You are an amazing brother!!

Your daddy and I love you and so does Zarek. You are the star of our lives and we adore you and can’t wait to see what year 3 has in hold for you!

And now I’m struggling with what to do with Zane’s birthday. I’m frustrated. I had figured out just the perfect day to work with my schedule, but now I just don’t think it will work. I was going to have his party the Sunday after his birthday which is on the 9th.

The Sunday before is Easter, so that wouldn’t work and I felt like the Saturday before Easter would not be a good option either as I work and I am teaching Children’s Church. And that cuts down on the time I would have to plan everything and get invitations out. The Saturday after his birthday I have to work and I have women’s gamenight in the evening. I planned on the Sunday after Zane’s birthday, but now there is a birthday party planned for his Granny on that day in the afternoon.

I was thinking maybe I could plan it before her party and the family guests could just move on to the next party together. But then I realized it is Sunday and so most people will be in church.

So would it be terrible to postpone his birthday another week? He is turning 3 so he really won’t know the difference. What would you do?

This month Zarek turned one year old. Which is a big milestone. Babies learn so much in their first year and grow and change so much. For parents this is something that has to be celebrated. Their baby is turning one year old.

Last week we talked about figuring out the theme for the party.  This week we will be talking about invitations and decorations. You have lots of options for your invitations and decorations. If you are super crafty or super frugal you have great options.

Prepackaged

You could purchase your invitations and decorations prepackaged from the store. This is dependent on your theme too. But try and think out of the box too. Having an under the sea party find fish themed cards and use blue and  green streamers too make your guests feel under water. You don’t have to just look at invitations trying to find just the right thing look at blank note cards too. Make sure and look in wedding sections and baby shower sections for decorations too.

You could check out party stores, card stores, paper stores, target, walmart, and/or online. Search google for your theme and invitations just search images to get great ideas. You may be surprised what you find.

Some other great online resources:

• Oriental Trading Company -  They have an okay selection. They have themes like cowgirl, trucks, princess, jungle, “planes, trains and automobiles”, Disney Princess, and more.
• Birthday Express – They even have a section of just 1st birthday party themes. They have a huge selection of items to choose from.
• Tickled Pink Designs – Here is a good site to find even more invitations. They specialize in invitations only, but they have a huge selection of designs.
• InvitationBox – You can find some amazing cards here. Great place to just browse and find theme ideas too!

Photo Card Invitations

Photo Card invitations have become a huge trend lately. At first you saw photo cards mainly around Christmas, but now we are seeing them for all kinds of occasions and for birthdays more and more.

You can find some great pre-designed cards at these sites:

• TinyPrints – They have a huged selection! Great place to find any kind of card you may ever need.
• Shutterfly – Shutterfly is known for their photo printing, but they also offer photocard templates too!

Custom Photo Card Designs

Another option is you can hire someone to make a custom invitation. They can create an invitation for any kind of theme imaginable. Just give them some ideas of what you are looking for and the text you need on the card.

You can go on etsy to request custom made photo cards and have the designer print them or just send you the digital file. Visit the alchemy section of etsy and ask someone to create something specifically for you.

I do it for very inexpensive, only $15 for a custom card design. I send you a file you can print at your favorite local or online printer.

I created the above invitation for Zarek and had it printed online, I had free credits for 5×7 photos, and only had to pay shipping. I used envelopes I had already in our house. So his invitations were very inexpensive, but everyone raved about them.

Hand Made

If you are crafty, or know someone who is who may help you, you could create handmade invitations. There are great products out there like stickers, stamps, and scrapbook paper that you could use to make a great cards, cupcake toppers, decorate bags for goodies and more. I am sure that you will have people who will rave about how crafty and talented you are.

You could also go onto etsy to hire someone to create these invitations or decorations for you. You can either find a shop that has premade , banners, cupcake toppers, lollypops and even more. Or you can ask on alchemy for some to create a custom invitation for you. You will find some great talented people who will love helping you out.

Evite

Running out of time don’t be afraid to use evite to send out your invitations. They have lots of invitations/themes to choose from. And you will probably get more RSVPs with evites and less “drop in guests”.

Later this week we will be talking about food for your party. And who doesn’t love talking about food!

The day started early as you had a scheduled debut. You were going to be evicted from your snugly abode. And we were excited. The day also started with snow, in March in Oregon, a very rare thing to happen. We called the hospital to see if we could come in early so to make sure we didn’t get stuck on our hill or on the hill up to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital and they were ready for us. We got comfortable in our room and we got to listen to your heartbeat and your kicks as you kicked the monitor.

In the operating room it was strange for mommy, because with your big brother it was such a shock to be in there that I remember very little of being in there. But then I also got sick this time. Don’t know if it was nerves, not eating, just being more aware, the constant morning sickness that never went away or the spinal.

But then you were in the room with us, complaining about leaving your nice warm home for this bright cold world. Daddy got to watch you as you got weighed and monitored and then I got to see you.

In our room we got to have you near in the hospital’s funny little plexi-glass bassinets. And for hours on end you laid all swaddled there and in my arms, humming. You almost sounded like you were singing to yourself, trying to sooth yourself. I loved listening to you, to the first sounds you made.

Your brother adored you right away, running into the room to see the baby. And everyday he loved coming back to see his brother. And on your first car ride together as we tried to figure out how to shuffle you both to the car we tried taking Zane out first. He ran to your car seat and started dragging you along with him.

Now you have learned so many wonderful and spectacular skills. I love to watch you “run” up and hall. I love when I catch you playing with your brother.  I love to listen to your little babbles as you try to learn to talk. But even without words you are learning to communicate. You hold out your hand and give a little motion to tell me “give me”, “I want”, or as I like to pretend you are saying, “Please”.

We cannot wait to see what the Lord has prepared for your life. To learn more about you and your unique personality. To watch you grow and change. To see how you and your brother grow closer and become bonded together as brothers. We love you so much!

This month Zarek is turning one year old. For Zane I planned such a great birthday party. I wanted to make sure that Zarek’s birthday is just as grand as Zane’s was. I will be sharing with you my plan step by step to make the Perfect First Birthday Party.

Choose Your Theme

The first thing you need is the perfect theme. This can be the most fun part of the planning or the most frustrating, but it’s all in how you look at it. There are some great websites to give you ideas. One of my favorite’s is:

Birthday Party Ideas

Think about some of your little one’s favorite things or your favorite things to do with your little one. Obviously a one year old doesn’t tell you in words what their favorite things are. But think about their favorite food? Do they have a favorite toy or stuffed animal? Do you always read the same book to them every night? Or you can do a theme around a color, the theme of their room, or just something fun.

Some Ideas For You

Some of my favorite themes:

• Balloons (Zane’s first birthday theme)
• Camouflage Green or Pink
• Bubbles
• Prince/Princesses
• Cupcakes
• Bugs
• ABCs
• Animal Crackers (do everything in animals)
• Fishy
• Butterfly
• Nursery Rhymes
• Circus
• Trucks/Construction
• Cowboy/girl
• Dinos
• Dr Suess
• On the Farm
• Winnie the Pooh
• Rainbow
• Rubber Ducky
• Stars and Moons
• Star Wars
• Sunshine
• Tea Party
• Train Party
• ABCs
• Robots
• Pirates

Be creative think outside the box.

Six Categories

Write down 3-5 of your ideas for themes on the top of a piece of paper.  Write these six categories under each theme:

1. Invitations
2. Decorations
3. Games/Entertainment/Craft*
4. Cake
5. Food
6. Goodie Bags

*With a one year old you may not play games but you may want your guests write notes to your little one or have trivia about your little one or about the theme.

Brainstorming

Now it’s time for you to brainstorm for each theme you are considering. Write down quick ideas for each of these categories. Just write basic ideas down later on you will expand your ideas once you have chosen your theme. What you want to do is see if you can fill up each category and see which theme you start to get excited about, that sounds the most fun.

Zarek’s Example

Zarek is going to have a Cheerios themed birthday party. Here is a rough draft I created to plan his party.

1. Invitations: Modify a picture of a cheerios box with the party details
2. Decorations: Yellow: yellow balloons, streamers,  plates, etc.
3. Games/Entertainment/Craft: String Cheerios on a necklace, slide show of the year
4. Cake: I’m thinking about making a round cake to look like a big cheerio
5. Food: Cheerio Rice Crispy Treats, Donuts, Cheerio Chex Mix
6. Goodie Bags: Single Servings of Cheerios, Cheerio Cereal bars, Spoon and bowl

This is all about having fun with your theme. Don’t feel like everything has to match. Your one year old will never know that they didn’t have all yellow balloons. Or that the cake wasn’t perfect. Take the stress out of the planning, just have fun!

Stay tuned for the next post in this series, all about party invitations and decorations.