Call me crazy...

I have a knack for making extra work for myself. There's often a super easy way of doing things but instead I spend hours figuring out a way to make it more complex before I attempt to do it. Liara's birthday party is no exception.

I've decided that I want to have a birthday party for her in the US so that at least SOME family can come and some of her US friends too... they miss out on all the fun over here. I'm really looking forward to it now that I've committed myself into doing it, but my goodness who knew there could be so much planning involved. When are we going to have it? Where? Who is going to come? What should the theme be (picture Nic rolling his eyes here, he hates themed parties)? What should we do for her first party? Oh, there's so much to decide!

Well, I think I've figured most of it out (key word most, not all). I think we'll have it on the 2nd of January (that's a Sunday) mid morning sometime. I haven't picked a time yet, as I haven't made invitations. I think we'll have it at my Mother-in-law's house, just for simplicity (I've yet to actually ask her, but knowing her I'm sure it'll be fine lol). I'm planning on inviting about 5-8 of her little friends and quite a few family members (adults mostly). I'm thinking about having a star theme (I know... boring). However, I'd like to have a box of "wishes" for Liara that the family can make for her at the party and that works (wishing on a star... blah blah blah). That way, she has something to look back on later that means something. I'm sure we'll play some games (I'm a sucker for cheesy party games, so sue me). I was thinking baby bingo (I'll make cards with pictures of Liara over the year instead of numbers... we did the same thing at our engagement party except with pictures of Nic and I). We may even do baby bowling (baby bottle bowling pins...). Who knows what we'll actually do, but I want it to be fun for the kiddos too, some of her friends are already 2! Time flies.

What I've been focusing on however, is the cake. Go figure, me... thinking of food! And here's where I'm crazy- I am going to make it myself. I'm going to make it vegan, in case there are any allergies present (I know a couple of the kids are allergic to dairy for the time being), from the buttercream to the fondant to the cake itself. Yeah. Scary- I've never done that before! Want to know what else is scary? The idea for the cake I want to make:

Ok... it will be a little different color wise, but very similar. Hopefully... that is if I don't fail miserably. We'll see.

She'll have her own smash cake too, I'll sort something out for that. Fun! I can't wait for the party, I've just got to figure out a few more things first! I need to start planning faster though, I need to get those invitations out!

Snowsick

I'm so sick of snow I could scream. I love snow, don't get me wrong, but when it snows NON STOP for two weeks, it gets a little cold, er, I mean old. It makes it hard to go outside to the dryer to get the laundry done (yes, I have to physically leave my house, walk down the walkway and into the little storage room to get to the dryer... talk about inconvenience. But hey, at least we have one I guess). It makes it even harder to take the trash out. Not to mention the fact that Nic gets stuck in the snow every morning on his way to work and doesn't even bother trying to come home for lunch. Well, that is, until today.

The one day in the past two weeks that Nic has tried to come home for lunch time (yay!), it had snowed so much since this morning that his tracks were completely covered and he couldn't get into the driveway (we have a LONG driveway, as we live on a farm). He tried to turn into the freakin thing and kept going straight... I don't think you're supposed to do that. So he just turned around at a bigger road and headed back to work hungry. Poor thing. It makes for such a long day in this house. While we're normally fine staying home all day because of the visit from the mail man, and Daddy coming home for lunch... the snow has made both Liara and I a little cabin crazy. We're on our own all day (even the mailman won't attempt to come to our house in this weather, we haven't had mail in a week and a half) and that's an awful long time for no other human interaction besides the "what shall we do today" people on the Disney Channel.

We're supposed to leave in 10 days for our holiday vacation to the US and I cannot wait! I think Liara is just as excited... every day when we look at the pictures on the wall (Grandma, Grandpa, Mamo, Papa, Aunt Raime, Uncle Joey, Cousins Raisa, Taylor and Dax, Tia Karin and Tio Jonathan) she squeals a little and then kicks me like I'm a horse so I'll move on to the next one.

I'm a wee bit grumpy and I apologize for that. Perhaps it's because I can't manage to keep this little house clean since I have a champion mess maker following me around everywhere. I swear, as soon as I put my clothes in my drawers and turn around to put Nic's away, she's pulled all mine back out again. Or perhaps it's because after I finish sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor she decides that she'd prefer to pour her drink on the floor and smear the pieces of cheese and grapes around as well. What am I doing you ask? Oh, just trying to do the mountain of dishes with no hot water from the tap (I have to boil it in the kettle first instead since it takes an hour to warm up the water and even then it isn't hot enough).

I love love love having my daughter around all the time, and I am super thankful for every single second that I get with her. Hell, I end up laughing most of the time (on the inside...) when I see that she's destroyed my newly folded pile of clothes or decided that she needs to pull out every single wipe from her wipes container. She's just curious about her world and is trying to figure things out, and I'm all about letting her experiment and discover things. I just wish she'd learn to clean things back up as fast as she makes messes. I pick up the living room about 40 times on average per day... no joke (that's roughly every 15 minutes except for during nap times) just so it's not a complete disaster zone. My guess is that is probably the reason for the weight loss... constant activity.

My favorite part of her mess making is when she pauses whatever she's doing because she's heard a noise (either from one of her toys, or the tv, or the radio or even me singing) and then she just busts out dancing. She loves to dance, and I love to watch her (and dance along most of the time). She reminds me of myself at her age, and I adore that. She can't help but move around and dance if there's music playing.

Ok, I'm off to ignore the mess that has taken my living room captive to enjoy a nice little nap with my baby. Who knows, maybe there'll be a heat wave and all the snow will be gone by the time we wake up (who am I kidding... not even Texas heat could get rid of three feet in like an hour and a half). We'll have to try and shovel a bit when we wake up... wish me luck.