My husband turned 40! {or} Life is HARD sometimes. But always GOOD.

{In as few complain-y words as possible, an update as to where I have been, for those that wonder: The mysterious sickness is still affecting my 12 year old son {he was attending school in a wheelchair up until 2 weeks ago- now he is on homebound. Ugh.}; Threw husband a surprise 40th Birthday party, complete with secret out-of-town guest - my mother in law!; Took trip number 9 {in less than 2 years} to Chicago for 8 yr old's JDM check-up; My oldest son broke his arm at football practice; .... And then? Life in general. Plus, I have been cheating on this blog with my other lover: sheknows.com. Although I don't know that many more people read my drivel over there than over here? The pay is MUCH better :) Check out the most recent articles here,here,here and here.}

Now. Onto the fun!

Because I am COMPLETELY INSANE, in the midst of all of my chaos, I decided to throw my dear husband a surprise 40th birthday party. Thank GOD I had TONS of help from my great friend, the SHARYNATOR {and her entire family} and MY MOM!!!! and too many other people to name. I DO get by with the help of my friends{and family}, there is NO DOUBT.. I am lucky because Michael does not pay attention to ANYTHING that is happening around him. Plus? He pretty much doesn't much pay attention to ANYTHING I say. Pulling off a surprise party for someone as easy going as him? ALMOST easy as pie. {I did end up spilling the beans the morning of the party that I had something planned because Piper was super sick with asthma and needed to go to the doctor and Michael was nearly HORRIFIED I was planning on stepping out for a bit to take care of some more pressing matters and when I requested he take care of things? Yeah. Our marriage may not have survived that. Oh well.

  

There was a FREAKING DUST STORM at the beginning of the party. I nearly DIED. So much work could have just blown away. Luckily it blew just a little and was dusty for only a bit. And then there was a rainbow.

Crisis averted. 

{this is me asking if I should move the stereo inside.}

{or? making a fool of myself on the mic. Probably the latter.}
{if we are ever at a party, even if I am not drinking? PLEASE don't ever let me have the microphone.}

{a lot of times my husband looks like a Chester. It's a shame, but he knows.}
{admitting is the first step fo real fo real.}

I am going to TRY to keep the pictures light, but PLEASE feel free to pop on over to flickr to check out all the tomfoolery :)

One of my favorite projects was the mustache straws. They were super hilarious!
I just love that the 'stache is so popular right now. 

{inspiration here}

Equally enjoyable was the drink tags. I stamped random 4 letter words {some 5 when I ran out of kid-friendly words}on metal rimmed key tags and just hole-punch and tied them to the plastic glasses {for kids}and around the rim of the mason jars {for the adults}Like glass charms or name tags, only MORE HILARITY ENSUED.

The photo booth was AWESOME. Seriously. I am going to set one up at EVERY PARTY FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. It was super simple. SUPER SIMPLE. I will dedicate a post to how I set mine up soon. For now? My fav pics:

{is this perfectly timed confetti throwing or WHAT?! love it :)}

{my niece, katelynne.}

{c, dressed for Homecoming - it was a masquerade theme}

{the birthday boy and his momma, who flew all the way in from Michigan to surprise him!}

I kept the food simple and crowd-friendly. My mom made most of the food and prepared just about everything for dinner.
{I know I am lucky. My mom rocks.}

{the cupcake table- chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. gluten free for our family.}

inspiration for the lollipop jar

Can we all just agree that the cupcake toppers are some of my MOST HILARIOUS work? I still LOL when I see them!!!!

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the drink table once it was completely set up. Sad. So, so sad. You'll just have to trust me, it was CUTE. And the pomegranate margaritas from Costco? SUPER DELICIOUS and why my face is red in most of the later night pictures. I don't know what it is, but I may be allergic to tequila. Bummer.

Wow. I totally lied when I said I was going to keep the pictures light. Don't hold it against me, ok? I hope we can still be friends, but I totally understand if you never want to speak to me again, especially if you are on dial-up. Until next time, friend.

Looking back - Kennedy's 4th birthday {tea} party .or. why having little girls ROCKs

A lingering by-product of attending the Creative Estates blogging/crafting conference this past weekend, is that I am STILL so filled with inspiration- which has caused some self reflection as a by-product... Said inspiration and self reflection led me down the path of 'let me search through the mish-mosh insanity which is old photo files on my computer and FREAK THE FRAK OUT when I think pictures have disappeared and then wet myself with happiness when I find them' and then I wept with pure joy when I was fully immersed in the trip down memory lane. And I decided to stop off here, at one of my most favorite birthday parties EV.ER!
Please indulge me in a trip down memory lane, to February 5th, 2007 :)  

{thanks, in advance.} 

Kennedy is one of those little girls that has always been ALL GIRL! And so, it was a no brainer to have the pinkest party I could create. 

I really wanted everyone to be able to sit down together, so I put a couple of regular {Costco} plastic banquet tables together, end to end {after convincing the mister to remove almost all of the furniture from our living room so it would all fit.} I used quilts as table clothes <--- best part of that? No ironing involved!
I made pillow-shaped chair back covers out of fabric already in the stash, and simple cloth napkins to match.

The boys and Michael were our 'waiters'. All of the courses were plated in the kitchen and then served to our guests at the table. {I did have to pay the boys - not to actually serve, but to wear the little half aprons LOL}I remember them commenting that the ladies there 'sure did drink a lot of diet coke!' Truer words have never been spoken.

Miss Piper was ....extremely grumpy.... that day. She refused to smile for any pictures. She was taking Singulair {for SEVERE asthma} during this time. It made her all sorts of CRAY.CRAY.CRAZZZZY! I didn't know what was going on at the time. I thought I was just a really bad mom. Ah, well. Oh. And I made the girls frocks to match vintage hats I bought off ebay. See them ruffles? I have really been obsessed for far too long.

First course was heart shaped chicken salad sandwiches on delicious, fluffy, EVIL white bread. {did you hear? We are on a gluten free diet now. This pic of those sammies is for real making my mouth water!}Fruit cabobs and heart shaped cucumber and tomato salad. I can't remember the recipe I used but what I DO remember is cutting out all of those cukes with a wee heart shaped cookie cutter at 3 in the morning the night before the party. Oh, what a crafter will do for cute!

 I didn't have a pic of the second course, but remember we had warm chocolate chip scones and heart shaped buttermilk puffs with strawberry preserves - both dusted with powdered sugar. YUMMO!

The mister came out of the kitchen occasionally, to refill tea cups with peppermint tea {and to take pictures. And to giggle with the guests. He really is all sorts of awesome.}

I made everyone their own mini cakes. {can you say SUGAR OVERLOAD?!} But, Kenny's was the only one with a Cinderella candle on it.

This really was a great party. Even if I looked like I had a flower pot growing out of my head.

Such a pretty {albeit grumpy} day. Poor baby.

 

Ugh. Why do they have to grow up so fast?

so. Easter was Fabulous. And boy, am I glad it's over.

So. What does a girl living in Arizona do when she's taken on the task of hosting Easter dinner for 25 and she lives in a house without a patio (also known as one of those shade thingies off the back of your house that provides enough shade to survive in the heat of Az in March) Why, she convinces her FABULOUS husband to make her a tent, out of fabfab, some 2x4's, some buckets, some sand and a LOT of STAKES to hold the whole thing down. A. LOT. OF STAKES.

I hope no one wanted any lime green cotton anytime soon. Here is the 44 yards I had left of it:

And what party would be complete at the Coe house without some fun place cards and napkin rings.

The napkin "rings" are actually FOE in a new dotty color way I will put for sale on my site as soon as is humanly possible. The bee was found for sale by the 4 pack at a local hobby store in the floral department. The nest? Find them here. And the bird pick was by Wilton for cupcakes. I added the names. I intended to turn the M&M's around to conceal the M's, but there are, alas, only so many hours in one day.

I also made some fun vases out of ostrich eggs. Oh. But I need to warn you if you try this - the smell is DISGUSTING when you are cutting the end of the egg off. My darling and dear husband used his dremmel (the shell is THICK my peeps) and it smelled like burning hair with a little rotten egg thrown in. Grode. But it was worth it. And daffodils were on sale. Yip.

My mom let me borrow her bank china - (back in the 70's, the bank gave away place settings when you deposited or opened an account or something like that. I think someone in everyone's family has this pattern) Mr. Coe and I got married unconventionally, and so I never got to register for fine china or a trousseau. So. Borrowed bank china, it is.

The Coe kids were ready to eat some ham!

You can't see and I didn't get a pic :( but my friend Kristy (in the middle, mid-chew) made matching dress and skirt for her darling daughter and herself from fabfab.

And filed under what the hell was I thinking - I had a party for 20 girl scouts at my house on Monday after Easter. Best part?

The tent was still up.