Children's Book, "Too High!"

One of the first books my son became attached to, wasn't one of the classic children's books that you have seen over the years or are given as shower gifts, but a random children's book we picked up at a friend's house. It is titled, "Too High!" by Judy Nayer and illustrated by Madelaine Gill.

I think my son became attached to it as he loves balloons, there are animals featured inside, and the animals featured are ones that he started to recognize. The words throughout are very simple and repeat over and over. Each page only has about three or four words, making it easy for a child to follow and easy for parents to give voices to each animal. The only thing I find strange is the summary of the most used words at the end of the book. I would remove most of the words and add in some that I feel like are the true words that are repeated over and over.

I couldn't find this book on Amazon or by a Google image or web search, so thought I would paste it here to share.

Wedding at the Oregon Gardens

My friend Marisa got married over the weekend at the gorgeous Oregon Gardens. She didn't need much as far as decor went, since the place itself is the decor, but she had a few things that added to the event. I was lucky enough to be able to help set-up the ceremony, cocktail, and reception sites. Thankfully, I had my husband and sister with me to tackle all the projects.

Here are just a couple of cute ideas and decorations from her big day.

Escort cards inside a vintage suitcase. Marisa had classy vintage travel theme as part of her wedding. She hand wrote all the names of her guests on the escort cards and we had the fun challenge of displaying them.

The cards on the bottom were laid inside paper folded up accordion style. The middle cards were tucked into a seam of the suitcase and the top ones were stuck into the lining of the suitcase with a straight pin. One of the challenges discussed before the wedding was what she was going to do with her friends who didn't share the same last name? She wanted the cards laid out in alphabetical order, but it was easy to do with couples who shared the same last name. So those guests, either because they are dating, married, but didn't take one another's names, or in a same sex relationship, what would make the most sense? We went with alpha order between the two people. So looking at the last names of the couple, whose last name came first? Using their last name, the card was inserted into the pile in alpha order.

Behind the vintage suitcases, was a framed world vintage looking map. Marisa cleanly stuck map pins and string into cities and places they've been, were born, been to separately and together. She created a little legend in the corner and color coded everything, so guests could learn more about them.

Her reception tables were glass vases of varying heights, shapes, and colors. We predetermined how many of what size were needed for each table. Then we went around a filled some with candles and others with one or two dahlias.

The table number was a picture of a famous city they have traveled to. Each picture looked a little vintage and on the back of the number had a little story about that city. 

Balloons, Balls, and First Birthday Party Decor

My son turned one over the weekend and his party had a lot of color, circles, and balloons! We had wonderful summer weather to have his celebration outside in our backyard.

 

The Happy Birthday sign is made out of felt and purchased from Target. It was so cheap, I couldn't have made it cheaper!

 

Puff balls from craft store hot glued to a Styrofoam ring, hung on the front door.

Our pergola held puff balls and streamers, with a circle garland in the background.

Puff balls were a combination of homemade and store bought ones.

The circle garland was made using precut circles from Michael's. A hole was punched on either end and brown ribbon tied each circle together. The garland now hangs in my son's room.

The balloon and circle themed was carried into table runners made out of butcher paper cut into balloon shapes. Extra balloon cut-outs were taped to our fence.

I found reusable ice cubes in balls on Amazon. Thought the small detail would be fun and I can reuse these and Conrad might even have fun with them with various activities in the future.

One treat that I thought would look like balloons was donut holes attached to skewers with ribbon around them. They were simple and easy and most of the adults gobbled them up!

The perfect scene to sing Happy Birthday! Foam letters were cut and taped to our house. Originally, I planned to hang these like garland, but they weren't cooperating and the foam holders weren't staying attached. Plan B worked even better!

Our homemade (healthy, but sweet cake) on top of our You Are Special Today plate. Water balloons were blown up and attached to chopsticks/skewers.

Here is the recipe we did for his cake (it is actually a cookie recipe we morphed into a cake):

3 mashed bananas (ripe)
1 cup shredded carrots

1/3 C applesauce

2 C oats

1/2 C raisins (we didn't put these in)

1/4 C almond milk (we used regular milk)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

nuts (omitted the nuts too)

Most everything we used was organic and the goal was to use homemade whipping cream or a carrot glaze for the top, but neither set, so store bought canned whip cream it was!

Hospital Nurse Thank You Gift

Luckily, we only had a day visit to the children's hospital in Portland this month. To thank the nurses, I put together a quick little present. I originally went to the store to purchase peanut M&M's, but at a little over a $1 a piece, I knew the cost would quickly add up, as I wanted to have a lot made.

I didn't know how many nurses would be helping us from the children day patient nurses, the surgery nurses, the recovery room nurses, etc. So the individual bags of peanuts were what I ended up purchasing as they were a  lot cheaper at two for $1.

Just wrote a note and attached them to the peanuts!

How to do A Big Top Wedding, Big Time

Just warning you now, I am pretty disappointed with the quality of pictures for this post. When lighting is super dim in a place, my camera and I don't work well together. Needless to say, this was a fun party!

The experience all started with an invication to a couples dinner party, celebrating and showing the couple with fun and friends before their larger wedding. I don't know either the bride or groom well, so the unique party theme made the night exciting to see what was next.

Their fun Ouija cake at the couples shower:

What was next was a Ouija themed wedding invitation.

And then the main event in downtown Portland. When we arrived, none of the typical wedding decorations were to be found. A nautical log used as their guest book:

 Creepy stuffed animals and ceramic boat captain:

Jelly Bellys sat on the bar top holding an old circus poster with Derrick and Alison's faces photoshoped into the image.

 

 All the tables were pushed to the side during the ceremony then spread throughout the ballroom afterwards.

 

On each table was a popcorn holder with white carnations to look like white popcorn. Pipe cleaners came out of the top that each held several pieces of real popcorn.

Rather than each table being numbered, each table had an old animal cartoon mounted onto wood.

Images of each cartoon were shown on a board along with your name, so you knew where you were seated and what image to look for.

Also on each table was a bowl, a ping pong ball, and a goldfish; just like the classic circus game.

Also at each place setting was a card with the name of each guest. Again, vintage circus posters were used.

The cake was incredible. It was the same person who did the Ouija cake for their couples shower. She was also a guest at the wedding and had me send all my pictures to her after the wedding.

The same posters that were on the table seating cards, were around each layer of the cake.

Again the use of some creepy figurines found their way into the decor.

Siamese twins, er, the bride and groom on the top of the cake.

It was then time to start the ceremony, Derrick's mom put on her mask and walked down the aisle followed by all the groomsmen and bridesmaids(man). When the wedding party started walking down I quickly realized my fake eyelashes paled in comparison to theirs. To keep with the circus theme, one of the bridesmaids dressed as the infamous bearded lady.

The flower girl and ring bearer weren't your typical toddler all dressed up, but the bride's niece and nephew dressed up as cotton candy and the strongest man. They are also the kids of the Matron of Honor.

The flower girl also sang the song that Alison walked down to and all of the processional music was definitely not what you hear at other weddings.

Then it was Alison's turn to walk down the aisle with her dad and boy, did she make an entrance. Short wedding dress, veil over her face, a train of balloons, red and white striped stole, mile high shoes, and bouquet like you've never seen before.

Great Matron of Honor outfit!

Did I mention a ringmaster was their officiant?!

Her bouquet/carousel horse was meant to be mounted to the heart backdrop, but it was too high and too heavy for anyone to attach it. So, the Matron of Honor and the Man of Honor took turns holding it.

And the rings were really attached to the barbell!

Instead of a Unity Candle, a custom heart was turned on that flashed their last name in lights!

Once they were pronounced husband and wife, the sound of drums startled us! Alison and Derrick hired Portland's famous drumline the Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers (which I later learn she helped to make famous). They were very good, very loud, and part of their performance was their serious faces.

Ah finally found something that is at weddings! Bouquets for the the bridesmaids, though these do look a little different than what I am used to seeing.

We had a great time, just too bad it was on  Sunday night, so we couldn't stay longer.