Big Birthday Bash Planning

I am in the middle of planning Grace's 5th Birthday Party. Invites have been flowing out the door and ideas are bombarding me for everything from the cake, to decorations and activities. Our theme this year is polka dots and that should make things simple, but you know how that goes...

Does anyone have any great suggestions? Please feel free to put in your two cents, they may just be what saves my sanity...LOL

Here are some cakes I've been looking at:

What do you think? Is it doable? Or am I deluding myself? We did cupcakes last time and that was not easy... However, I have never worked with fondant in my life. But how hard can it be? Maybe I need to consult me friend Stacy, she is the Martha of all things cake....

Please feel free to comment and help a gal out.

I am LUCKY!

I totally stole this from Stacy Julian's blog, but why mess with genius. And that woman is, a genius.

My lucky number is 7, so here are 7 things that I am lucky to have in my life:

1) I am lucky to have a husband that works hard so we can run our own business, which enables me to stay home and play most days. I am incredibly lucky to not have to get up each morning and go work a job I don't particularly like.

2) I am lucky to have a wonderful family. And even though we live far apart and spread out, there is great support and love every day to help me get through this journey of life.

3) I am lucky to have so many scrapbooking friends far & wide that share this crazy hobby with me. I love reconnecting with them every so often and following their every day antics via Facebook, Blogs and e-mail. I love you guys and miss you every day...

4) I am lucky to have a precociousus 4 year old who woke up this morning saying "Mommy, I have to show you something" and came to my bed with a handful of sparkly shamrocks that had been scattered all over the house and her bedroom last night. She didn't even notice the green milk. LOL

5) I am lucky to have hobbies that I love, including scrapbooking, cooking, watching movies & playing volleyball. It is wonderful to have outlets for my energy every day and to learn new things all the time. Recently we've been experimenting with vegetarian cooking and I am amazed at how much info is out there that I did not know about.

6) I am lucky to have awesome friends who throw amazing parties that we are invited to, so I don't have to...

7) I am lucky to have the cutest little almost 5 year-old for a daughter. She brings me joy every day and I am so grateful to have her in my life.

March Round Up

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

"Merciless" by Richard Montanari , "Boneman's Daughter" by Ted Dekker, "The Scarecrow" by Michael Connelly all very good suspense novels.

What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?

Martin & I actually made it to a movie at the theater. We have not been to the movie theater in a long time, so long in fact, I don't even remember what the last movie was we saw at the theater. LOL So as part of our new weekly date night program I turned our night out into a night at the movies. We ended up watching AVATAR in 3D, and both got a nice headache from it. The movie was pretty good, we both thought, one you had to see on the huge screen, (versus the big screen at our home).

We watched a weird Stephen King short story movie that Michael & Kim brought over called "Dolan's Cadillac". From Blockbuster online we had a couple of rentals sitting there and we ended up watching them in one night. "The Echelon Conspiracy", which was pretty good and "Atonement", which both Martin & I liked, surprisingly. It was a great novel adaptation and the story was told very well. It makes you think and is also a wonderful love story with a twist.

Also watched "2012", and I must say I was glad we waited for the Blue-Ray. I would have been disappointed to have paid good money to see this in the theater. A little too much packed into one movie. I mean, really, Airforce One just happened to crash at the right time, and how many times can John Cusack avoid falling into a crevasse???

I watched "Saw VI", the 6th installment of the horror series by myself, since hubby is not into these type movies. Together with Adam and his buddy Tyler we also watched "Armoured", which was a pretty good movie but a little short towards the end. I was hoping for a bit more....

I've been catching up on the last season of "Lost" and watching "Grey's Anatomy" to try to catch up with the current season.

One of our new favorites is "Undercover Boss", which we happened to catch right after the Superbowl and are now following. We are looking forward to the next episode featuring the CEO of RotoRooter.

We also ended up at the Mt. Baker Theater for one of our dates this month. I purchased ticket to see "Scrap Arts Music" and went there with an open mind, not knowing what to expect. martin had no clue either since it was a surprise. We were totally blown away. the show was incredible and we enjoyed every second of it. It was a shame that it did not sell out and people missed out on this incredible experience. I can see why these artists were featured in the Olympic Games Closing Ceremonies in Vancouver.

What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?

We had two great St. Patrick's Day parties at friends houses. One was on St. Patrick's Day and the other the Saturday after. Both were a lot of fun and it was great to connect with old friends and make new ones along the way. I even backed rainbow cupcakes and green bread (a la Becca, thanks Girl!) for one, and Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Frosting for the other. YUMMY!

We also attended Ashton Lozano's Birthday Party at Chuck E. Cheese's. What a riot. I can see why the kids all want to go there. Gracie had a lot of fun and even had another birthday party to head to after this one.

Did you take any trips or vacations or did someone come and stay with you at your house?

Since we just returned from New Zealand we didn't do much in March. Starting to get the house ready for summer, mowing the lawn for the first time and such.

Our friends Stan & Ginger, who live in Alaska for the summer and Arizona for the winter came up on a side trip to spend a few days at our house.

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Martin & I went on a shopping spree at MACY'S for him and found some smoking deals. Let's just say we scored, BIG TIME.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

I hurt my right arm & shoulder playing Saturday night volleyball at the YMCA. I blocked a hit by one of the guys and he hit it really hard jolting my whole arm, elbow and shoulder. When I had Beth massage it this past week she as amazed at how rock hard the muscles in the arm were, really locked up. I stopped playing for a week and a half and seem to be getting much better.

What were my disappointments this month?

We took our friends Stan & Ginger to a fancy restaurant. One that we had attempted to sample during our Tuesday date night the week before. Well, apparently they are only open Thurs/Fri/Sat for dinner. We found this out the hard way, by driving all the way out Semiamooh, which took about 45 minutes. So during our second attempt I was very disappointed by the meal I ordered. For one it was served pretty cold and the steak was not of good quality. For any of you that know us we've been trying to cut back our meat intake and when we do go out for dinner I tend to savour a good cut of red meat. Not at this restaurant, even more disappointing since the price tag was quite high.

Anything else noteworthy to include?

I finally got into using my new popcorn air popper that I had bought back before Christmas. I love popcorn and using the microwave kind was kind of expensive and probably not very healthy either. So now I use my handy dandy Redenbacher air popper and love it.

I guess the snow we had on the 8th of March would be considered noteworthy since we do live in the Northwest and that is not normal in these parts.

Grace had her first Easter Egg Hunt the Saturday before Easter at her new school bus depot. The weather was great and there was only about two dozen kids there. She found quite a few eggs and even a hardboiled egg.