Saturday night at the movies!

Well, Saturday night at eight o'clock

I know where I'm gonna go

I'm a-gonna pick my baby up

And take her to the picture show

Everybody in the neighborhood

Is dressing up to be there, too

And we're gonna have a ball

Just like we always do

Saturday night at the movies

Who cares what picture you see

When you're hugging with your baby

Last row in the balcony

Ok, are you hearing the Drifters crooning about going to the movies, yet?  Ahhh, love some old Drifters.

Anyway, this past Saturday, we had our very own night at the movies in our very own backyard. No balconies, and I was hugging my actual baby, but it was still quite magical. See, my little baby turned 7.

I can't believe Molly is now officially 7. I'm pretty sure I say that with each birthday, but, well, it's still true. Molly is a social butterfly. She wants to be doing something, seeing someone or going somewhere every minute of the day. Truth be told, it exhausts me. (Ok, if you know me at all, you are not surprised by this.)

So, when it came time to planning her birthday party, she wanted a huge party with everyone she knew invited. We started counting it up, and we were upwards of 30 kids. So, because I started having a nervous panic attack at the thought of that many children in my house, I told her we had to cut it down. I tried to convince her to have an art party at an art studio, but told her she could only have about 6 guests. And, she's been wanting to have a slumber party for a couple years now, so I said that we could do that, but, could only invite 3 girls. (No way am I having a ton of kids overnight!). Well, Molly, ever the people-pleaser and sweet soul, didn't want to leave anyone out. It was a no for the art and the slumber party.

After much discussion, we finally came up with a compromise. We were turning it into a girls-only party. And, because she really wanted a sleepover, but wanted more people, we started brainstorming. That's when someone happened to mention that they'd had an outdoor movie birthday for one of their kids. Perfect. It would be in the evening/night, so it was almost like a slumber party, but all the kids went home, so she could invite all her girlfriends.

Of course, next step: Pinterest. There are some great ideas out there, and I just took 'em all.

With the end of school happening, the party kind of got pushed back into the recesses of my mind, so I didn't start planning as early as I normally do. I did manage to make the invitation in advance. Honestly, of all the invitations that I've made, this is my favorite. I thought it turned out super cute.

I really should've planned better and done my shopping for the party before school was out. But, well, I didn't. So, I did all my shopping with both girls in tow. They really aren't bad, but when you have a million places to go, getting in and out of the car with two kids just makes everything take longer. I was ready to pull my hair out on Friday afternoon after a whole day of errand running, let me tell you.

What was a pleasant surprise is that Party City has a whole movie night section. I totally scored with a lot of stuff such as the plates, napkins, tablecloths, etc. I ended up having HyVee make the cake. I of course found one online that I liked and brought the picture in to them. They said "no problem." It was great, because that was only about a week and a half before the party! Cutting it close, people. Though, I'd originally told them a number of people, then we got more RSVPs, so I started freaking out if we would have enough cake. Cory to the rescue. He made cupcakes just like I'd found online.

We also kind of freaked out all day because it kept spitting rain. We had a whole plan for the backyard and rain was not in this plan. Luckily, it finally turned around and cleared up. It ended up being a beautiful night.

So, enough prep stuff. It's party time!

Chocolate, chocolate everywhere!

My baby girl, Charlotte, turned 4 this February. We were having a tough time deciding on a theme. We kept throwing around idea after idea, but nothing was sticking. Then, pushing our cart through Target, we walked through the Christmas clearance section. There, I stumbled on a roll of wrapping paper covered in hot chocolate mugs.

Eureka!

We would have a hot chocolate party. Charlotte loves hot chocolate, so she was totally on board. As we started planning it, it became clear that having the theme as hot chocolate was a little limiting, so we expanded to just have all chocolate. Charlotte was still very ok with this idea. This girl loves her chocolate.

We started with the invitations. I looked on Pinterest for some ideas, then made this one:

The meteorologists forecasted a huge snow storm the week before the party, so I went to the grocery store to stock up in advance. Man, that cashier must have thought I was the worst mom ever when she checked out my cart. Nothing but chocolate junk. (Actually, I think I had bananas and milk in there, too, so that totally makes up for the massive quantities of chocolate, right?)

Charlotte with all the chocolate before the party.

I didn't really have too many games or plans. I mainly concentrated on food. My friend Sarah had a chocolate fountain that I borrowed, and I actually baked a few things. (This is a huge feat for those who know me!)

6-year-old rerun day

Molly turned 6 on May 28th. I know, I already wrote about her party here, but I decided to include a few pictures from what we did on her actual birthday. Because I was tired, but also because it went over so very well with Charlotte, I kind of stole a few ideas from Charlotte's actual birthday day.

We started the day with breakfast at Papa Pancakes. This was the first one Molly's been able to attend in a long time, what with school and all. As a bonus surprise, my sister-in-law, Aime, came with my adorable nephew Thomas in tow. The girls were super excited about to see their baby cousin.

Molly with Aime, Thomas and Gigi.

While we were eating, one of the waiters came over to deliver a birthday card to Molly. It had been left by two of our favorite servers, Corey and his wife Alyssa. Molly loved both of them and was sad when she couldn't come see them anymore. I thought it was incredibly sweet that they took the time to leave a card for her, especially considering neither of them work there anymore!

Molly with Papa. (In the corner of the picture you can see the card from Corey and Alyssa.)

Next up on our special day was a trip to the mall to pick out something from the Disney Store. In a small world coincidence, we happened to run into her friend Riley at the Disney Store. That made for some fun play time.

She tested out a couple things ... (I was rooting for Miss Piggy)

But, finally decided on Merida from Brave.

The next stop was the nail salon. Can't have a birthday without getting your nails painted.

Molly said her favorite part was having the guy hit her legs. Me, too, Molly. Me, too.

Charlotte sat with me and got her toenails painted, too.

And, because we were at the mall, we had to stop by the carousel. I got dizzy, again, but managed to keep down my breakfast.

Molly picked a dolphin.

Charlotte, a bear.

We ended up going over to my friend Alyisa's mom's house because Alysia was in town from Wichita. Molly and Charlotte had a blast playing with her daughter Rylee. Then, we headed to dinner with Cory once he got home from work. I'll give you one guess where we went?

Noodles & Co.

I may have stolen the ideas from Charlotte's celebration day, but Molly had a blast, and really, that's all that matters, right? (That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.)

Sprint to Six

For the last couple years, I've been sure that it has been the last year for us to have a big backyard bash for Molly's birthday. Each year, I'm sure that the next year will involve gender-specific theme and invite list or going to a place for the party.

Not that there is anything wrong with that, and I'm sure it will happen eventually. But I LOVE planning a big party at our house. And, each year that we can have a backyard party at our house, I'm one happy mama.

So, this year, with Molly being in kindergarten, I was sure we would be done with my kind of parties. When we started talking about her party, Molly was sure she wanted a sleepover party. Well, I nixed that idea. As much I love big outdoor parties, I also love sleep. And, I was not ready to give that up, yet.

Her next idea was a tea party with her friends and all their dolls. I was ok with this. I had been preparing myself for it. So, I told her that a tea party would be fine and fun, but that boys probably wouldn't want to come to her tea party. That made her pause. "Well, maybe they could play outside while we have the tea party?" she said. Um, yeah, no. I explained to her that that was not going to work.

Then, we started brainstorming on party ideas that were gender-neutral, because she still wanted to have her big backyard birthday party. Yay for me! 

Then, the theme came to me. A race party. Molly loves running in the kids races at all my races, plus she just completed her first 5K. Oh yeah, we could do a lot with this. So long as the weather held up ...

We started with the invited and the name of the race, which was "Sprint to Six" because, well, obviously, Molly's turning 6. Awfully convenient with that alliteration.

Next up, we had to have Packet Pick-Up. You can't have a race without race packets. In the packets, we had race t-shirts (oh yes, we did) and special race bibs that had "Sprint to Six" on the top and "Happy Birthday to Molly!" on the bottom. I could only order in quantities of 100, so if anyone else is having a Sprint to Six party for a girl named Molly, I've got about 75 bibs for you. The only way I could convince Cory that we should do shirts was by showing him my design for the sponsors on the back of the shirt:

Yes, those are all of Cory's companies, clubs and web sites. I threw my blog in there just for me. Now, a bunch of kids can run around advertising for Cory's companies. And, that is how there came to be t-shirts in the packets.

Anne kindly volunteered to be helper extraordinaire for the party. She worked packet pick-up like a pro.

Kiran picking up his packet.

The Taylor kids getting theirs. 

After packet pick-up, we had a sign making station (what's a race without awesome signs to cheer you on?) and a face-painting station and hair spraying area. The kids were big fans of all of these.

Aunt Sarah painting on Molly's hair as Charlotte watched.

Charlotte had her hair sprayed blue, and Jake made a rocket ship sign.

Spraying Alana's hair.

Riley and Molly super proud of their "I rock" signs.

Cinderella, nail polish and nausea

As you all saw, we had Charlotte's polar bear birthday party last weekend. After her party was over, she was sitting with me on the couch, playing with a new Dora baby doll. She looks at me and says, "Mommy, remember when I put that Cinderella baby doll on my birthday list? I didn't get it." Cue mommy-guilt.

Now, a little backstory. Before Christmas, every time we went anywhere (I'm talking anywhere, Home Depot, the grocery store, Starbucks,) Charlotte would see something she wanted. So, I started telling her that she needed to put it on her Christmas list, knowing full and well she wouldn't remember anything on this so-called list. It was a great way to recognize what she was saying but not buy out the Target toy department every time we went.

A couple weeks before Christmas, we were walking through Target when Charlotte saw something she wanted. I went through the regular rigmarole and told her to put it on her Christmas list. She turns to me and says, "Mommy, my Christmas list is full. I'm going to put it on my birthday list." First off, I had to stop myself from cracking up in the middle of Target. But, considering her birthday is only about a month after Christmas, it wasn't that crazy of an idea.

So, from that point on, everything she saw got added to her birthday list. And, if you think I actually wrote down everything that she "added" to this list, well, you're a crazy person. I did not remember the hundreds of things she put on her list, nor did I really expect her to.

And, now, you can see why I was feeling bad when she actually remembered something and brought it back up to me. Well, now I was on a mission.

Except, I am with Charlotte all day, so going shopping for her birthday present became a challenge. On Tuesday night, while Molly was at dance, I dragged Terah with me to both Wal-Mart and Target to find stuff for Charlotte's family Dora party (remember I promised her that, too) and a baby Cinderella doll.

But, I couldn't find any Dora party hats (another request of Charlotte's) and I couldn't find a baby Cinderella doll I wanted to buy. So, along came the idea of a special birthday day for just her and me.

On Wednesday, Charlotte's actual birthday, I took her to music class in the morning. Then, I surprised her with a trip to the mall and the Disney store. (Going to the mall is a surprise in and of itself because I truly hate going to the mall and avoid it at all costs.) At the Disney store, I told her she could pick out her very own baby doll. She picked the Cinderella one.

Charlotte with her new Cinderella baby doll!

Then, I happened to mention to the worker that it was Charlotte's birthday, and the worker came out with all this stuff for Charlotte. She gave her a birthday crown, a birthday button, coloring sheets and crayons. I mean, if you ever want something to do on your kid's birthday, I highly recommend the Disney Store. They were awesome.

Polar Bear Pajama Party

My little baby girl is turning 3 next Wednesday. So, as it happens when birthdays come around, it was time for a birthday party. And, you know how I get when it comes to birthday parties. Go big or go home.

For quite a while now, Charlotte's been obsessed with Dora. And, she had wanted a Dora birthday party. But, because I'm a glutton for punishment, I thought, "Dora? Everyone does Dora. We need something more creative."

So, along I come with my big ideas and Pinterest:. A Polar Bear Pajama party. To be fair, Charlotte does love polar bears. It's kind of a freakish attachment, and I'm not entirely sure where it came from. But, she loves those bears.

I was majorly questioning my own sanity when Target started carrying all things Dora all over the place a couple weeks before the party. I mean, it was like the universe telling me I was stupid for choosing to do something that required so much of my own work instead of just buying the pre-made Dora paraphernalia. But, I persevered. (Mainly because the invitations were already sent out, and they were Polar Bear.)

Then, today, the day finally arrived. A Polar Bear Pajama party for my baby girl's 3rd birthday!

The cake table.

Cupcakes made by Gigi.

Polar Water with labels.

Birthday cards through coercion

My birthday was this week. I turned the big 32. Ok, so that number doesn't exactly deserve a special "big" before it. In fact, there's really nothing special about 32 at all. When you're a kid, every birthday is exciting. And it seemed like FOREVER until the next one came along.

The cruel irony of adulthood is that your birthdays seem to get closer and closer, when really you'd prefer them to be spread further and further apart.  After 21, then 30, the years just blur together. Sometimes, it even takes a while to remember just how old you are when someone asks.

But, don't get me wrong. I love to celebrate my birthdays. I enjoy getting to do things I want and eat where I like. I've always been a bit sensitive about my birthday. As any person with a birthday near a holiday will attest, birthdays can get overlooked in favor of whatever national holiday is going on around the same time. For me, it is Thanksgiving. Because Thanksgiving moves, my birthday is sometimes on the actual day, and sometimes as much as six days later, as it was this year. The years it falls on Thanksgiving or the day after are the worst.

This year, however, I had a great birthday. Cory took the day off work. I went on a long morning run, then he brought me Starbucks. We went to Einstein's for breakfast, then he took Charlotte to her music class so I could go home and take a nap. In the afternoon, I got a pedicure, then we drove to Lawrence for dinner at McAlister's. We even topped off the night with a cupcake from Smallcakes. Yup, I did indeed eat my way through my birthday. (Thus the need for the long morning run.)

With Charlotte on my actual birthday.

The Mollys take Chicago

On the day Molly was born, Cory and I were thrilled beyond belief, but also completely in the dark about what life with this little bundle of joy would entail. We did, however, know a couple things as certain as we knew the sky was blue.
1. We knew Molly was loved completely.
2. We knew she was the cutest baby ever born (natch).
And, 3. We knew that when she was old enough, Molly would be going on a trip to get an American Girl Doll with Cory's mom and sister.

This trip has been planned since her birth. I mean, we didn't have the plane tickets or anything, but we knew it would be happening. Aunt Amber and Mommom have been telling Molly for years that when she turned 5, she would get to go to get an American Girl Doll. Molly knew this would be happening. She was counting on it. And, the day finally arrived.

See, I'm a little old for American Girl Dolls. I read a couple of the books when I was younger, but I never had a doll, or any of the accouterments that go along with. But, Amber (though only a couple years younger than me) had a Samantha doll. And, she was very into the whole genre. So, Amber and Joan wanted to pass this along to the next generation of Lafferty girls.


I do realize at this time that almost all males reading this will have absolutely no clue what I'm talking about. Feel free to travel over to wikipedia to learn all about the phenomenon that is American Girl.


We hadn't really planned for the trip to take place exactly on Molly's birthday, but it just happened to work out with work schedules and vacations. On May 28th, Molly's actual 5th birthday, we all headed to the airport for a girls' trip to Chicago. Molly had been telling Cory ever since we planned it that she was going on a Girls' Trip, and that Girls' Trips were better than Boys' Trips. I guess she was trying to make him jealous, though I do happen to believe it is a true fact. It kind of broke my heart, though, when Charlotte brought out her own suitcase and thought she was going with us.

Molly's Gigi got her a new suitcase for the trip. The polka dots were actually quite helpful in always being able to find it. Plus, Molly thought she was hot stuff with her own suitcase that she could pull.

Molly and Mommy waiting to get on the airplane.

We tried all sorts of transportation on this trip. Waiting for the subway with Amber and Mommom.

The plane flight was uneventful, and with only a few minor hiccups, we made it from Midway, through the subway system, and walked to our hotel. Molly was a pretty good trouper about the travel part. I only had to carry her suitcase up and down the stairs, other than that, she pulled it.

We checked into the hotel, and what did we find? A bed for Molly's American Girl Doll. That sealed the schedule. We would have to go get the doll that day. We had considered waiting a day, since our scheduled tea party wasn't until Tuesday, but once Molly saw that bed, she was convinced that she needed her doll immediately.

Molly was amazed by the bed for her doll in the hotel room.

Cherries and chicken nuggets

So, I have this really amazing friend who is raising this really amazing daughter. For her 6th birthday, she decided instead of presents, she would ask everyone to donate money to for a local horse rescue organization. She raised over $200 for this organization. For her 6th birthday! In lieu of presents!

Here she is giving her raised money to the Healing Horses organization.

I know. Amazing, right?

Well, I was relaying this story to Cory a couple weeks ago. I told him that I thought it was incredible that she would give up presents to raise money for charity. I also told him that it made me feel like a schmuck. We need to get better at teaching the girls about charity, we're bad parents, we're raising selfish children, yadda, yadda, yadda.

At which point, Molly, who always seems to be able to hear private conversations Cory and I are having, yet cannot hear when I tell her for the 15th time to put her shoes on, asked what charity was.

Ok, I thought, great teachable moment. I'm going to be this awesome mom who explains charity in such a way that my 4-and-a-half-year-old child will be so inspired that she will dedicate her life to making the world a better place for those less fortunate. My explanation is going embolden and motive her so much that she will become the Mother Teresa of the preschool set.

Elmo-palooza

Wow. Throwing birthday parties for kids can take it out of ya. I am sitting on the couch, with leftover birthday cake and a beer, barely able to keep my eyes open (even though the KU-MU game is on!). But, you know what? It was all worth it, because toward the end of the party, Charlotte came up to me (entirely unprovoked) gave me a hug and said, "I love you, Mommy." What?!? Too cute. And, my heart melted.

Ok, so, now, for what you're really waiting for. Details from the main event. About a month ago, when I first started thinking about Charlotte's 2nd birthday party, I had a tough time deciding on a theme. She loves Elmo, but I just wasn't sure there was that much cute, girly Elmo stuff out there. Enter Pinterest. Dun, dun, dun ...

Holy Moly, that site is addicting. I love it because it gave me such amazing ideas for C's party. But, I hated it because it gave me way TOO many great ideas for Charlotte's party. And, I felt like I had to do them all. So, maybe the party was a bit too Elmo-ish. Maybe I took on a little bit too much. Even if Charlotte barely left mine or Cory's arms the whole day, I know she had a good time. Well, I'm pretty sure she did. Let's just go with Yes, she had a good time.

Ok, so the whole theme started with working with Elmo, but doing it in girly colors. Pink, yellow, orange and red. I saw the tissue poms on Pinterest, as well as the ribbon ball and the oreo pops. What did I tell you about that site?

Celebrating 30 in style

My birthday is coming up in a little over a month. And, no, I'm not sending out a giant hint to all my friends and family. See, I'm turning 31. Blech. At least 30 was a big deal. 31, you're just in your 30s. Nothing special and not even deserving of a big party. I've always had a love-hate relationship with my birthday. Not that I've generally had a problem with getting older (that is a recent life development), but it is when my birthday takes place that causes me such consternation.

It is November 28th, and most years, that places it smack dab in the middle of the Thanksgiving holiday (American Thanksgiving that is). Sometimes, it even lands on Thanksgiving day. As a child, this meant my family mercilessly teasing me by putting four candles in a turkey and insisting that it was my birthday cake. When I got a little older, I could never have a party around my birthday because all of my friends were celebrating with their own families. Even my 16th birthday, which, of course, was on Thanksgiving day, was a total disaster. Think massive snow storm, people not being able to come, and others getting into crashes trying to drive to my house. Just a mess. Do you have a mental image of a sad girl sitting alone with a table full of uneaten food, trying not to cry? If you do, then you are remarkably intuitive, 'cause that's pretty much what that night looked like.

Anyway, all of that back story to say that I've become adept at having very low expectations for my birthday. Last year, when I turned 30, Cory told me that he was going to plan it all. That was fine with me, because then I didn't have to worry about things not turning out right. He far exceeded my low expectations. He surprised me with not one, but two amazing parties. AND, he arranged for childhood friends and family to come from around the country (North Carolina, Oregon, Minnesota and Texas) to surprise me. It was literally my best birthday ever, and totally made up for my disaster of a sweet sixteen party.

Superheros love rain!

Yesterday, Molly turned 4. My baby girl turned 4 years old.

Somehow, somewhere, someone started telling Molly that though she wasn't big enough for what she wanted to do, she could do it when she was older. Namely, once she turned 4. (I'm not naming names, but I'm pretty sure the guy who sleeps in my bed is on the top of the suspect list.) This reasoning was given for any number of things: climbing a tree, having a sleepover, doing the monkey bars. I have no idea why such a close age was chosen, especially because the girl has the memory of an elephant. Seriously, she remembers trips that we took two years ago, she remembers who lives in what neighborhoods we drive into, she remembers tiny parts of toys that were left here six months ago by friends. Of course she's going to remember she is allowed to do certain things when she turns 4.

Because the 4th birthday was such a big deal, it was a huge decision on what kind of birthday party to have. I've talked before about the guilt I feel from the anti-princess faction. I know Molly would love a princess birthday party. She would love a make-over party. She would love any kind of girly party we could come up with. But, I just felt so guilty. So, when we went to a Sesame Street show in January, and Elmo and his friends were Superheros, an idea dawned on me. Molly started running around the house pretending to be a superhero; wanting problems to fix and capes to wear. That's it! We could have a superhero/supergirl party. She could still dress up (with a cape), but I could feel less guilty about the princess factor. Of course, I did do everything in pink, so that might have undercut the whole point, but, well, I never claimed to be perfect.