Birthday on a budget!

Welcome to the birthday party planning center! Chase's birthday party is about 7 weeks away!

If you know me, you know I'm not one to be on a budget. My father calls me the Nordstrom Princess. I started out this party asking everyone on etsy to design a custom invite and shirt for my precious angel's first birthday. Then, I called my dad and asked him if he thought Hubs would go for $30-40 for custom invites. He said, "uh have you met your husband? The kid is turning one."

We decided on the theme for Chase's birthday a few months ago. I know, I'm crazy. I can't remember why I went to the dollar tree the first time but you bet your butt I was excited to see sports themed birthday invitations!!! P.S. Chase will from now on only have dollar tree themed parties or a sports bday every year.

When I was getting ready today and thinking of blog posts I realized that so far everything I have bought for the party has been from the dollar tree or on sale or clearance! Then I started thinking I could keep track of everything I buy for the party and see how cheap I can do it for! Of course I can blog about it and help out other moms plan parties for cheap!

So, if you couldn't tell from the picture Chase's theme is sports (balls, the kid loves balls and bats) with an emphasis towards baseball and (look away Uncle Chris and other nor cal readers) the Dodgers.

So, so far I have purchased his invites (I bought three 10 packs and need to get another. Yes, I know it's not a wedding. We have big families!), happy bday banner, and popcorn thing at the dollar tree. I got the other sport banner on clearance at target. The adorable shirt was on sale at gymboree.

(3) 10 packs of invites $3
1 happy bday banner $1
1 popcorn thing $1
1 allstar fabric banner $2.78
1 batter up t shirt $10.99
total $18.77

I need to buy another pack of invites, the favors, a bib, a hat, food, etc. Do you think I can do it for under $100?

Teaching is scary!

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/middle-school-girls-hoops-player-benched-game-saying-155532292.html

I read this article today about a student getting in trouble in class and not being allowed to play basketball for saying "I love you" in her native language to two other classmates.

Of course the parents want the teacher to be fired because the teacher "threw her hands down on the table and said she wasn't allowed to speak her native language in the class".

Hear are my thoughts as a credentialed teacher that has substitute taught for several years in many locations and grade levels: It is tough to be a teacher right now.

It seems like you hear about teachers making mistakes on the internet all the time. It scares me. I'm sure I've done things that the media could blow out of proportion.

I sympathize with this teacher. She probably didn't know the student was saying "I love you". Maybe she did, but I'm sure it wasn't the first time the students were talking to each other in their native language. She threw her hands on the desk because she's frustrated! Teachers are overworked and underpaid. Middle school? Good luck! Those kids spend the whole time in class trying to push your buttons. Could she and should she have handled it differently? Yes. Should she be fired? Probably not.

I've been in classrooms where the students spoke spanish and the teacher had a rule that the students weren't allowed to speak spanish. When the kids tried it I told them I spoke spanish. I kind of do. They would try to shock me and ask me if I knew what this word or that word was. I just told them to get back to work. Can't let the kids get to you. This teacher obviously had.

But should this be a front page yahoo article?! No! People are overreacting.

10 months!

Chase is 10 months old! It has gone by so fast!

This month we wanted to take Chase to the Sacramento zoo on free museum day. The zoo was half priced. When we got there it was a 30 minute wait to get in. I didn't think it would be a good idea since he still needed to take his afternoon nap. Maybe next year. Instead we went to Funderland and looked at all the rides. We made it up to him and took him to another zoo. He loved looking at the tigers! Chase also had a play date with his aunt and uncle's other nephews. I love that our families are so close. I call my sister-in-law's sister for parenting advice all the time!

Chase has been doing pretty good this month. Just been teething the last week or so. Been trying lots of new foods like eggs (just the yolk), zucchini (likes it!), oatmeal (we have been giving him barley cereal). Still eating mostly from a spoon. He eats his puffs and lil crunchies and has eaten some banana and pear with his fingers.

He is doing so good standing and cruising and has even taken a couple steps!

Kid activities under age 1

I've been trying to come up with stuff to keep Chase entertained lately. He's so busy and his toys aren't entertaning him much. Last week we went to the park he can crawl around at twice and to the mall on a windy day and I let him crawl around in the kids play area. I was nervous he would get some disease that would put him in the hospital but he seems to be ok so far! I sanitized him afterwards.

We also did our first craft project!

Finger painting! I was looking for something like edible playdough but the ingredients like peanut butter are things he can't eat yet and I found edible finger painting. You just put a drop of food coloring in yogurt! Genius!

I put him in his high chair and gave him one color at a time to finger paint with. I didn't let it get too messy or crazy. This entertained him for about 10 mins. The grandmas both want one too so we will have to do it again soon!

If...

• If you ask me if I need help I will tell you no.




• If you are getting Starbucks or food and ask me if I want any I will tell you no even if I do.




• If you mess up my food order I won't tell you.




• If I have a question in a store I won't ask an employee.




• If my son is sick and you give me a breathing machine to take home I won't ask if it's for keep or rent. It's for keep in case you were wondering.

Maybe I'm shy or not assertive enough, I don't know. Now that I'm a mom I think I'm learning how to speak up a little bit more.

Love Story!

I'm answering some questions today and linking up!


1. How long have you and your significant other been together? Jan 30th was hang on let me think um 9 years? is that right? No, 8 I think. Scary!

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?} The short version we tell people (there is a long secret one) is through our mutual friend :)

3. If married, how long have you been married? oct '09 2.5 years
4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small? We got married at a mansion inn. We have huge families but the reception hall would only allow 130 guests.
5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share! Babe or Baby

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.
1. He puts up with me.

2. He is an amazing father.

3. He is a very hard worker.

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal? On the beach on Valentine's Day

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals? He's a flowers and maybe a card or candy kind of guy.
9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch? I'm very much a pop in a movie and relax on the couch kind of girl.
10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere? I stole this from Bekah and she said Europe which we would love to go to too and/or New York.
11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day. It's a Tuesday. Sunday we are having a play date with Chase's friends and I might do some Valentine's treats or decorations. On Tuesday maybe we'll have a special dinner and dessert!
12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day? A card, flowers, and candy would be good

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love. COMPROMISE!
14. Show us a picture of what love means to you. If I ever doubt how much he loves me all I have to do is look at this picture.

For my birthday I get a 9 month old!!!

Yep, my baby and I were both born on the 1st of the month! I love that!

It has been a tough month!

After Chase got better from his first cold, he celebrated new years eve with his grandma. Then his top teeth started coming in. They are big and they hurt him BAD! We were giving him tylenol at night to help but it didn't help much. After 5 nights of him being in pain I called the advice nurse. She had me bring him in to make sure there was nothing else wrong, which there wasn't. Then Chase got sick again! I had a tickle in my throat for several days and when I would try to sleep it would bug me and I would end up coughing. We think Chase caught this but it was a bad cough for him. After a couple days he was making this weird grunting whining noise all day and night and only sleeping for an hour at a time. I again called the advice nurse and they had me bring him in again. This time he had to do a breathing treatment and get a chest x ray. He had bronchitis. So scary. He's all better now. At the end of the virus he got a rash too. This month we have felt like it has been one thing after another!

I should have put the swing picture in this collage and the breathing treatment picture in the other one, oh well. Even though Chase has had a rough month he is still our happy smiley boy. It amazes me that he can still achieve milestones like cruising and going up the stairs when he is not feeling good. Our little man is so anxious to be a big boy. He just wants to walk and feed himself. The feeding himself thing has been a whole other battle!




Chase has been so lucky to have his uncle living with him this month. We need to get more pictures of them together. This has also meant more time with his favorite auntie. Chase has also got to spend lots of time with his Nana and Grandpa!

Like I mentioned before, he's cruising while holding onto the coffee table and in his pack and play. He has 4 teeth! He is making all kinds of crazy noises and his voice sounds like the kid from the shining. Mostly he says DADA! He makes a clicking noise with his tongue on the rough of his mouth a lot. He loves playing peekaboo. He was all about waving to everyone for about a week.