Dead Man's Party

Over the past 5 months I've been planning Roman's 5th birthday. He told me he wanted a zombie birthday party, which I was so excited about. I hit the Internet running and was quickly disappointed. Turns out not a lot of kids are requesting parties with the undead, so I had to get creative. You want it to be true to its horror roots, but tame enough for a preschool class. I will say I think I crossed the line a little. haha. Roman had no problem with that though. I started with my pinterest board, and then pretty much let Roman pick the decorations (with some guidance), because a severed body wiggling and moaning on the ground might have leaped the fine line I mentioned. Well I thought I would share some pics of how it turned out, I didn't get to grab my camera till the party was in full swing, so I didn't get a lot of pics of the fresh set-up but you'll get the idea. Hopefully if you plan on doing a kids zombie party this could help you out a little. Enjoy!!

Walking up to the door you have the yard sign and our door warning sign and boarded up windows

Inside I didn't have much, a little banner and the favors, zombie cookies (faces,feet, hands, brains) with a thank you tag!

Outside I taped up the garage door, and I had a kids craft table which is always a hit.

"Decorate your own goulish goody bag"

I had a lovely dead flower arrangement

Off to the side is brain juice (green lemonade), apple bites and zombie skin (seaweed)

body part centerpieces

There were about 25 of these guys but I didn't snap a shot till they were almost gone, marshmallow zombie faces

Brain cupcakes with cherry filling

I did fruit kabobs and the kids turkey sandwiches are cut in the shape of a hand

An eyeball piñata 

Of course face painting, it was unnaturally hot for April so my poor zombie was melting.

I dressed up too, because why wouldn't you!?

My little , little guy was a zombie hunter

So wether you want to have a halloween party or a scary birthday, its so fun and easy to do!

Roman says, "BRAAIINS"

A thank you on your birthday

Dearest Roman,
 When you were born I wrote you a letter in your baby book about how much I love you and how much you changed my life, but how was I to know?! How was I to know that that was just the tip of the iceberg? So on your 5th birthday I'd like to give you this 2nd edition, sequel, part 2, whatever you want to call it because baby it's been a long 5 years.
 Really, mostly I want to thank you. You sir, helped me find me. You've taken me to the end of my patience. Which turns out is way further than I ever imagined it could be. This has allowed me to take up more hobbies, finish more projects, be more organized. I mean all those things require tons of patience....that you forced me find.
 I'm thankful for your love. Your sweet, innocent love. When you tell me, "Mommy I love your wobbly tummy." I cringe and laugh but then I think, "who cares! Thats right I have a wobbly tummy, cause I make adorable kids! What can you do?!" pshhh. Even though these are still insecurities I have I am way more confident than I have ever been in my life. Because you tell me I'm beautiful. When you look at me with those BIG brown eyes, I feel it. I feel beautiful, and it stays with me.
  Because of the love I have for you, I feel it, I get it. The world isn't full of people to me anymore.
It's full of children and parents. I feel connected, I feel other's peoples pain and joy. I want to be more aware. I want to do good. I want to shout from the rooftops, "ISNT LIFE AMAZING!" All that emotion, induced by just one of your squishy hugs.
 I feel like I'm glowing all the time. I think its a mixture of my high blood pressure from raising two boys and the warm love.
 So here I am.. this loved, loving, patient, beautiful mom all because you made me this way. I can only imagine on what a high pedestal you will put your future wife. And that overwhelms me with this blissful sadness. Oh boy.. don't cry...Thank you Roman. Thank you for being a fun son, a doting brother and an all around cool kid that makes me so proud to be your parent. Happy 5th birthday, I can't wait to see what the future holds for you!
 
 

I completed my Resloution.. kinda

On Dec. 31 of 2010 I made the resolution that I will be mistaken for Jessica Alba. In other words.. I will lose the chub. I'm not a little girl, at 5'9" I tower over every female in my family and my structure is not petite in the least. So people say I hold my weight well, but it's bull. When I got pregnant with Raphael I put on 65 lbs. The day I delivered him I was 235 lbs. It seriously makes my stomach turn to type that. Let me also add here that this is really hard for me to talk about because my weight has bothered me my whole life. After I had my beautiful boy I dropped 20 lbs, you know baby+water+breastfeeding. And in the months following I slowly dropped 10-15 more, but by Dec 2010 I was hovering around 200 still.

Dec 24th 2010

                   I hate this picture so much, but for documenting purposes I suppose I can suck it up.

Well, I decided that instead of going on any diets or exercise plan that I was going to take tiny baby steps.

I would make better choices. Thats it. Thats the foundation of which all the weight loss will melt away from. And I did. Less fried food, less food period(my portions were way out of control), and you know little tweaks like that. The progress was slow but by April 2011 I had lost 15lbs. 

That month I had a horrible gall stone attack on which I was advised to remove my gall bladder immediately, but since I like all my organs in my body where they should be I decided an even more drastic diet change was in order. I googled up some guidelines on how to eat with gall stones and basically its low/no fat and low cholesterol. SO... NO fried food, NO fat diaries, no eating after 8:30, no processed food, no fatty meats, no cream sauces.. basically everything that made me happy. But, as I was cooking more and making my family eat how I was eating we were discovering that food can still be SO GOOD and healthy. I bought this cook book The Best of clean Eating which has the most awesome recipes.  Between May and Oct I lost 20 lbs more.

Oct 2011

Then in Oct My brother Matt and I watched this documentary Forks over knives. It goes into detail about how some Doctors are curing things like diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, even cancer using only a whole foods plant based diet. It's really amazing to see how we have made ourselves sick with animal proteins found in meat and diary. I suggest everyone at least watch it to see what incredible things a plant based diet can do for you. So after we had a family discussion we decided to transition into a plant based diet. Basically vegetarian to put it easily. And thats where we are now. We still eat meat when we want but 80% of our meals are meatless and we hope to totally transition over. The Forks over Knives website has a ton of cookbooks that are easy, I mean EASY to follow. I even made a vegetarian breakfast for my dad on Christmas morning and he said, "This is Awesome." So coming from my dad... Thats a major win.

Dec 26th 2011

So this is me last night getting ready to go out. I now hover around 155lbs.  And all that with ONLY diet changes. I haven't climbed one stair, walked one mile, or done one crunch. This is me changing ONE THING AT A TIME. Thats how you make lasting changes baby steps. My resolution for 2012 is not to hit the gym X amount of times, or work out X days a week, but just to be more active. I want to do something outside with my kids everyday and if not than something active inside. It's gonna be a challenge but little by little I will get there. I hope to lose 15 to 20 more lbs. and be the healthiest I've ever been. Heres to a healthy 2012!!

The Apple was better than the orange

I just got home from seeing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I will spare you my take on the film but what I can't stand , what makes my eyes roll far back into my head is when people say, "the book was better." OF COURSE YOU LIKED THE BOOK BETTER! Reading unlocks the door to the best movie theater you could ever visit. The one in your melon. The visuals are the strikingly real, like a memory. A picture that is painted so deep in your mind, you feel as if you're a character in a story that unfolds around you. Now... someone then decided that the images that came to life in their head were so AWESOME that everyone should see it that way. And they get a bunch of people together and they may take some creative liberties or painstakingly try to give life to every word but they make a film for all to see. Maybe you like it.. maybe you don't but it's a story retold... in another medium...sooo its not a book...it's not trying to be better than a book. Its a movie...it's not a book. Do we get that? Its like if I painted a picture about lyrics to a song, and someone whines, "I like the music better." SO from here on out the next time I see a movie adapted from a book, and you say the book was better, I give myself permission to kick you in the shin. That'll be better than the police report.

Hi Chair!

If you have a kid or two you've gone through the high chair phase. And if you haven't.. well don't you get all giddy over it. Its really a stage that I won't miss. Sorry! I won't. If you enjoy every crumb and wet sloppy bite to be thrown on your floor, painted onto the tray, massaged into the baby's hair, and stained on the clothes, then by all means savor every second. I for one hate the clean up of baby and floor and everything within 3 feet of the highchair 5 times a day. The best part is we have Jr. dining with us in the dining room... which is carpeted. Insert image of me on my hands and knees picking smushed raisins out of the carpet. Its easier to feed them while you eat and if I just put him in the kitchen, then I can't eat with the rest of my family. So I need something to put under the high chair right???

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It's the baby industry puking up their attempt at decor.

Why do they insist on making everything for baby care an eyesore. I found this round clear one but it didn't seem to be large enough. In my search I came across something I didn't even think of... hello.... OFFICE CHAIR MAT!!!

Andre cut of the weird rectangle tongue and we have ... the square.

I'm still going to have to wipe down that mat 5 times a day but the carpet won't get all crappy so thats good. Until I can get those amazing hard wood floors of my dreams ( which won't be till long after Jr. is out of the high chair) This will do ;)

A place for everything and everything untangled..

Mirror from Target $12.00

Blingeez wall sticker Jewelry Organizer $9.99

An accessory fitting room...... priceless....

no more knots.. thank god.

Stairway to Heaven

In my quest to find a desk for my room I found a few that I really fell in love with. So much even that I randomly storm into different rooms in the house and stare intensely to see if that room could use a desk. I came across this beauty at Crate and Barrel.

I love how light and airy this feels. You get storage space and a workplace without a big bulky piece. The downside is the price tag. $399.99 Not ridiculous, but not in my budget. So I hoped over to overstock.com and found this piece for $79.99

If you don't want the whole desk you can just use this piece, BUT the lovely part is they sell the desk and the other side so you can have the set and each piece is $79. They didn't have white but you could always keep checking. So don't be surprised if in the future I have a desk in my kitchen, I'm staring hard in there right now.