Thomas the Train 3rd Birthday

It doesn't seem like my little guy should be 3 or that it should be his birthday already.  I posted here about his birthday invites and now I have the party details.  I decided to do the party in our apartment rather than my mom's house this year which meant less space to decorate but I'm really satisfied with how everything turned out. 

(after this pic I realized my table was not centered and fixed it lol)

I used scrap paper I already had in my stash for the cardstock circle garlands and the #3/Happy Birthday hanging cutouts. 

I had planned on having these accordion circles hanging from the ceiling but when I went to put everything up it just didn't work.  Instead I hung them as a backdrop. 

The All Aboard banner was made with scrap paper I had in my stash.  I didn't do the typical Happy Birthday banner because I had one already made from last year and I had enough hanging from the ceiling with Happy Birthday on it I thought it might be a little overkill to have a banner too. 

This is the first birthday of Grant's I didn't do cupcakes.  I couldn't figure out a way to decorate them that satisfied me and when searching online I found some really cute round cakes that were decorated simply enough I thought I could do something similar.  I haven't decorated a cake since my sister's graduation party and I swore I would never use fondant again, which meant every detail on the cake was gonna have to be piped by hand by me.  That's a lot of pressure on this mama, and looking back I should have just made the cupcakes and stuck to what I know I'm good at.

I chose a pumpkin flavored cake with cream cheese frosting.  It took me forever and a day to decide on a cake flavor. I knew Grant wouldn't really care and we would be left with any that didn't get ate so I didn't want a plain old chocolate or vanilla, that's just not my style.  I decided on pumpkin because it's October and I love the smell of anything pumpkin flavored baking in my house.  I also made Butter Cookies, a signature cookie of my mom's.  She used to make these for every Halloween, Christmas, and Easter.  Every time I smell them baking I think of so many Holiday memories, and I've made them for every one of Grant's birthdays so far.

There weren't many things to actually buy for decorations this time around.  Other than the balloons, table cloth, streamers, and some cardstock.  Which was great because I got to use up some of the craft supplies I already have and it kept costs down.

I didn't do a whole spread of food this year since I'm pregnant, working part time, and I figured it was ok to cut myself some slack and take the easier way out by ordering pizzas and buying a couple 2 liters of pop.  I usually go a little overboard at showers and birthdays with all the food and then I'm left with a ton of leftovers, and spend the whole 2 hours before the party cooking and cleaning up the kitchen before people arrive.  I knew with me doing the cake during Grant's naptime I wouldn't have much time to cook a meal then clean everything before people started showing up.  And lets face it sometimes it's nice to not stress yourself out.  It seems the last hour before every party I've done is me being short with everyone, aggravated that certain things aren't done or people are in my way, and me runnin around like a chicken with no head.  It wasn't worth it this year, and given Grant's pickiness with food, I'm sure he more than appreciated the pizzas since it's one of the few things he loves eating.

After everyone left my husband and I sat there surrounded by toys, boxes, and wrapping paper and it was the feeling you get when Christmas is over.  All the build up and waiting all year then it's over and all I could think was, another year gone.  Another year celebrated.  Another year before the next one.  It's exciting to think next year Grant will have a brother or sister to celebrate his birthday with.

 

Until next year!

Bit of Whimsy Doll for Skylynn

I love Bit of Whimsy dolls! I really can't say that enough.  The 2 patterns I've bought have been used numerous times and I love having them on hand for last minute little girl birthdays and Christmas gifts.  We were invited to a family friend's 2nd birthday over the weekend.  Well you don't know this but October is a very busy and very expensive month for us.  Not only is it Grant's birthday, but our county fair, my husband and I's anniversary, our trip to the pumpkin patch, the pumpkin hike at our park, Boo at the Zoo & trick or treat (which means me making 2 costumes, one for Grant and one for my niece).  So to fit much else in with time and a small budget is next to impossible.  So naturally I decided to whip up a Bit of Whimsy doll for little Skylynn.

Usually I have all the fabric and notions I need in my stash to make a doll on the fly, however moving has put a wrench in finding any of my craft stuff, especially fabric.  I currently have my fabric and craft stash located in 4 copy paper boxes, 2 diaper boxes, 1 laundry basket and an armoire.  And I searched for flesh colored fabric for about an hour before I decided it wasn't worth it anymore and made a trip to Hobby Lobby.  I spent a total of $2.35 on flesh colored cotton fabric and the cute pink paisley print I found on clearance and decided I had to have it for the dolls dress.

This doll was made using the Jean doll pattern.  I've made more of the Jean dolls than the Beth (the other pattern I purchased a couple years ago) only because I never can find my yarn and I always have felt.

I will say this, if my little one turns out to be a girl I will be investing in quite a few more doll patterns.

Thomas the Train Birthday Invitation

I decided awhile ago to do a train theme for Grant's birthday and since you really can't get generic train party supplies, or at least I've never seen any, it became a Thomas the Train party.  Let me say this.......I really don't like Thomas the Train.

I was secretly hoping he would pass over the cartoon so I'd never have to see it, but of course that's not the case.  He really doesn't care what I think about it and I decided to put my own dislikes aside and give him the party theme he would love.

Am I a good mom or what? lol

As I did last year for his Mickey themed party I set a $50 budget for the whole party, and quickly realized with this budget I was going to have to do some more improvising with decorations because there was no way I could afford to buy all the Thomas party supplies in the store.  I have lucked out with Grant's Toy Story and Mickey birthdays because I had the Cricut cartridges to do the main decorations.  But what do you know, Cricut doesn't make a Thomas cartridge so I'm on my own.

If I was the kind of person to look on the bright side of things I would see this as a great opportunity to stretch my creativity by coming up with new decorations on my own.......I'm not that person and I much prefer having the Cricut do that grunt work for me.

I did purchase a table cloth from the store with Thomas on it but this is the only Thomas specific item I have bought.  We have a small apartment which makes it nice for parties because the smaller area you have to decorate the less decorations you actually need to make a big impact which in turn means less money spent, and I'm all about that.

I decided to pick 3 colors, blue, aqua, and red and bought streamers and plan on buying balloons in these colors as well.  I had intended to buy some train clipart off Etsy.com I found that actually looks just like Thomas (without the smiling face) for $5, however as with any small budget, cuts had to be made somewhere to allow for other spending and I decided to find Thomas images online and use those instead.  $5 doesn't seem like much in the grand scheme of things but when it comes to a $50 budget that includes food, party supplies, and decorations, every penny counts.

I have only finished the invites for now as most of the decorations will have to be finished the week before the party (October is a super busy month around our house).  I had grand ideas of a really cute train ticket invite with the perfect font and images on it.  Then reality, pregnancy exhaustion, a part time job, and the month of October hit and that idea went down the crapper pretty quick.  Instead I opted for a simple invite printed on white cardstock with the Thomas image I downloaded from the internet and backed it with plain old red cardstock.  I cut the squares of the cardstocks out with my Cricut ( why use an old school paper cutter when you can push a button and watch the Cricut do it for you?).  This invite is similar to the others I've done, which is exactly why I wanted to do something different this time around but maybe next year.

I'm pretty lucky in that everyone I invite lives pretty much on the same road so I didn't bother with envelopes, stamps, or mailing them at all.  Instead I drove down the road and dropped them into their mailboxes.  One thing I hate about invites is the cost of stamps (if I wasn't one of those sentimental people who save cards and invites I would so do e-vites).

Even though these weren't the invitation I had dreamed of, they serve their purpose and I'm really glad they are done.  I guess there comes a point in life when you have to give in and realize you can't do it all.....

I'm just not ready for that yet. haha.                     

Cherry Cupcakes

My Mom's birthday was this week and she requested cherry cupcakes.  I've never made them before so I was a little hesitant.  I have has some bad experiences with attempting recipes I've never made before and them turning out really badly.  I got the recipe from the girls of Georgetown Cupcake.  Their book has a few recipes and this one is Cherry Blossom.

 

The only alterations to their recipes I make is to decrease the sugar content, so the tops of the cupcakes are not sticky.  I also added about 1/2 a vial of cherry Lorann's flavoring.  When I tasted the batter before adding the flavoring I couldn't get any cherry flavor unless I bit into a cherry.  I decided that wasn't good enough and I didn't want to search for flavors in a cake.  Adding the Lorann put it over the top yummy!

Minnie Mouse Birthday

As I mentioned before my Neice turned 2 on the 4th and we through her a small birthday dinner, but even with a small dinner a little girl needs some decorations.  Which is where I come in.  I used pink and purple poms for the baby shower I did and just reused them for Sophie's birthday. 

I made a banner with my Cricut and used the Minnie and Daisy Cricut images I made for Grant's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday.  I absolutely love how this banner turned out.  I had debated about making one, not knowing if I wanted to add one more project to my to-do list, but I'm so glad I did.

 

I got to use the cupcake stand I made for the baby shower as well.  I love getting multiple uses out of things.

 

 

Are these not the cutest girly cupcakes (recipe coming later):

 

We didn't do many other decorations but even still it looked too cute all put together, and Sophie loved it all which is the most important thing.

 

 

 

Minnie Mouse Birthday Invitation

My niece turned 2 over the weekend and my mom and I decided to have a birthday dinner for her.  The invites were the easiest ones I've ever made.  I used my Cricut and the Mickey and Friends cartridge.  I cut out a plain Mickey head then a bow, used glue dots to adhere them and printed the party info on white cardstock cutting it out in a circle. 

 

It's simple yet so adorable.

Superhero Cape for Sophie: A Christmas Gift

I have to take a moment and say how proud I am of myself for already having quite a few Christmas gifts bought and made than I think I ever have in the past.  Usually the handmade gifts are always being finished into the wee hours of Christmas morning.  I vowed to myself I would not be doing that this year since we will be out of town for part of the holiday & packing up extra sewing and crafting supplies is not an option.

Sophie and Grant love playing together and see each other every weekend.  I knew I wanted to make them both superhero capes this year and finished Grant's about a month ago.  I'm thrilled with how both of them turned out, especially since I didn't have a pattern to go by.

I made this cape using the same pattern I created with Grant's.  I made it using one of his large bibs and newspaper.  I traced the neck part of the bib and created an A shape.

 

For the "S" I printed the letter from a Word document in the size I needed, traced it onto the fabric, cut it out, backed it with head and bond and stitched it to the triangle shape.

 

I think I mentioned this when I posted about my son's cape but here's a note, make sure you clip the corners and all the curves to make the fabric not bunch up around the neck when you turn it right side out.  I learned this the hard way the first go round.

 

I'm so excited to see them running through the house Christmas morning with these capes.

Mickey Birthday Shirt

The one picture I didn't get throughout the party was a good one of Grant's shirt.   My mom found this white shirt for $1 (SCORE!).  I printed Grant's name in Mickey font I downloaded from dafont.com, slipped it under the front of his shirt and traced the letters with a water soluble quilting pen.  Then I just embroidered the letters.

I didn't have any black fabric and rather than go buy some I decided to be really thrifty and use one of the old t-shirts we had in our give away pile.  I used the Mickey head image from my Cricut to make the head.  I backed it with heat and bond and stitched it with my sewing machine.  I printed the 2 in Mickey font then traced it with the water soluble pen and cut it out of red fabric I already had in my stash.  I backed it with heat and bond, ironed it on, and hand stitched it to the shirt.

 

I had intended for the shirt to be a lot more detailed and a lot  more colorful but time constraints (since I actually forgot about finishing the shirt until the day before the party) forced me to make it a little more simple.  However I'm really happy with the simplicity of it.  Grant kept trying to look at the back of his shirt to see Mickey while it was on him, too cute!

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Birthday Invite

I have been in birthday crafting mode all week.  I have quite a to-do list but I am determined not to have a repeat of last year, which consisted of me being up until 3am decorating.  I have no desire to do that this year.  So I have quite a few posts coming up full of birthday goodies.  The first being his invitations.  I've had it in my mind how I wanted to do his invites for a while and for whatever reason the procrastinator came out in me and I just got them finished.  I was very thankful I didn't have dozens to do because they took a bit of time.

I used my cricut to cut the Mickey head and attached it to the wrap with glue dots.  To make the wrap I had to measure each of the invites (because I wasn't smart enough to cut them all the same size) and added 1/2 inch seam allowance. 

 

On the invite itself I downloaded the Mickey image from the internet and just created the rest in a word document and printed it on white cardstock.  I stitched the white part of the invite to the colored cardstock, 1. because I didn't want to use any more of my glue dots, and 2. because I thought it would add something different to the invitation.

 

Because these weren't standard sized invitations I ended up having to make custom envelopes.  They weren't difficult, just a little time consuming.  I used a letter scorer (is that what they are called?), you can see it in the right of the photo below.  It came with my cricut supplies, maybe it's a bone folder, either way, doesn't matter.  I put the invite in the middle of my 12x12 cardstock, used a ruler and scored it so it would fold nicely.

 

 

As you can see above I cut the corners out so it would all fit together like an envelope.  Fold in the right and left sides, and fold the bottom up attaching it to the sides with glue dots.

 

 

Then put your invite in and use another glue dot to close the top flap.

 

I'm so thrilled with how they turned out and even more thrilled they are finished.  It feels good to be able to check some projects off my list.

 

 

 

 

Mickey Mouse Treat Bags & Food Signs

I made these treat bags for Grant's birthday party.  There will only be 2 other kids there, both girls, and both of their names start with an "S".

I used my cricut and the Mickey and Friends cartridge for the Mickey heads, and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge for the letters.  I cut the Mickey heads at 4 inches and the letters at 2 1/2 inches.

 

I used micro glue dots to attach the pieces, folded the top over once, punched 2 holes and threaded the Mickey ribbon through for the finishing touch.

 

I love how they turned out and I'm so happy I finished them.

 

 

None of the food I'm having really needs a label but I think it's a cute way to further the theme.  I downloaded a Disney font from dafont.com and found the character images on google and just saved them to my computer.  I used Microsoft Works Word processor and then just printed them on cardstock, cut them out, and glued them to colored cardstock.

 

Superhero Cape- A Christmas Gift

I am so excited to have this post up. Mainly because it makes me feel like I'm actually accomplishing something and I'm not such a procrastinator.  Either way I'm still excited to have at least one of Grant's gifts finished.

I've known for a while that I wanted to make Grant a superhero cape.  My plan is to make one for my neice Sophia too but I have yet to buy the fabric for hers.  I looked at random blogs and tutorials online trying to get a feel for how to make one and how to create a pattern.  I ended up taking one of Grant's toddler bibs and tracing the neck and then then making an "A" shape on newspaper to make my pattern. 

I bought 1 yard of poly satin and 1 yard of green cotton.  I was really nervous working with satin because I remembered from years ago my aunt (who is an amazing seamstress) said it could be difficult to work with, which is why I decided to use cotton on the back instead of another satin fabric.

 

I used my cricut to cut out a "G" template and decided to keep things simple and applique it onto a triangle shape.  Originally I wanted to put the monogram onto a lightning bolt but that got nixed pretty fast when I tried to free hand one and it turned out awful.

 

Here are my few bits of advice if you are going to make a superhero cape and if you're going to use satin to make it.  Make sure you clip the curves and corners or the neck will be on wonky...yes, I said wonky.  Stitch slow so you will have a slimmer chance of having to rip out seams and risk snagging the fabric.  If you're like me you will finish the entire thing, have it all turned right side out and then have to pull it wrong side out 5 times to fix all the things you forgot to do the first time.

 

Finishing this project makes me want to get started on the rest of my homemade Christmas to-do list.

Mickey Birthday Bowling

I finished the bowling game I have planned for Grant's birthday.  I went back and forth on how I wanted to do it, what I wanted to use, etc.  Originally I saw toilet paper bowling over at Oopsey Daisy and thought for sure that's what I wanted to do.  However when I set my party budget at $50 (that includes food, drinks, favors, and decorations) I started trying to find ways to use things I already had around the house because any time you have a small budget, every dollar counts.  That's when I thought of using veggie cans.

So after a few dinners I collected 6 veggie cans, took the lids off with a can opener and put masking tape over the rim in case of sharp edges.

 

I bought a package of primary colored cardstock at Hobby Lobby to use for multiple decorations throughout the party.  I picked yellow, red, and blue and wrapped the cans with them sealing them with glue dots. 

 

 

Of course I had to tie in Mickey so I decided to use my Cricut and my Mickey and Friends cartridge to cut out a black Mickey head.

 

(After taking the above pic I decided to put the can opening down so I switched the Mickey around)

 

Just a plain Mickey head wasn't enough so I added the number 2 to each of the cans.

 

 

I personally think they are too cute! Grant kept wanting to knock them over while I was trying to get pics of them to post, so even if they don't actually "bowl" with them I know they will at least knock 'em over and stack 'em up.

 

 

 

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Subway Art

I saw birthday subway art here at Oopsey Daisy and thought it would be too cute to make one for my little guy's party.

At the very bottom is his birthday.  I downloaded the Mickey, Minnie, and Waltograph fonts from dafont.com.  I made my art in a Microsoft Works Word document by creating txt boxes of varied sizes.  It's pretty simple but I think it will look cute as part of the decorations on the gift table. 

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Water Bottle Labels

Last year for Grant's birthday I created these water bottle labels.  While I thought they turned out really cute, they were alot of cutting and glueing and I decided this year I didn't want to put up with all that.  So I'm keeping it a little more simple and classic.

I made each label with a different character because it's easy to get lost and only feature Mickey Mouse.  The more characters you showcase the more colors you will tie in.  I found all the character images using google searches and copying and pasting them into a word document.

Our party this year will consist of a family dinner, nothing too big, under 20 people but even still I have all the elements I want.  I love water bottle labels and they have become a staple at every party I've had since my wedding.  They are a cute, simple and inexpensive way to add a personal touch to any party.  Not to mention I don't like providing a bunch of 2 liters of sodas because the cost can add up quickly and we don't let Grant have soda yet.  I figure if it's his birthday why should we have a drink he can't even have.  So instead I plan on having homemade lemonade, sweet tea, and anyone who doesn't like either of those can have the water (but I don't know how anyone could not like my homemade lemonade).

Mickey Mouse Birthday Beginnings

I have been working on Grant's birthday decorations.  This year we are having a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme, both Grant and my neice love the Hot Dog dance.  My mom happened to find the Mickey and Friends Cricut cartridge last year for $13 on clearance so I'm using it for the decorations.
Here are the characters I've finished so far:

I also have Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy but I am lacking 1 color of cardstock to finish them.  As of now these character cut outs will be used to decorate for the bean bag toss.  Can we take a moment and say how much I love my Cricut.  It makes creating birthday decor so much easier and cuter than I could create by myself.

I used the Calligraphy cartidge to make the penants for his banner.  I made mine 7 inches.  The letters are from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge and they are each 2 inches.  I have striped fabric that has all the primary colors I'm going to back each of the penants with but I haven't gotten them sewed yet.

His invitations are simple yet I think they are so darn cute! I looked all over the internet for invite ideas and saw some really cute ones I was going to copy, then decided to do something of my own. 

I'm going to use the invitation above and make an invite wrap to jazz it up a bit.  I bought a yard of striped fabric that incorporates all the colors I'm using for the party.  It will be used in the banner but I'm also going to create a wrap about 2 inches wide to go around the center of the invite (big enough to cover mickey, small enough you will be able to read the first 2 lines).  On top of this I want to layer a red smaller cardstock wrap with a black mickey head in the center with a 2 on top of that.  Does any of that make sense?  I'm super excited to get these decorations started and hope my steam doesn't run out before everything is finished.

What else is on my birthday to-do list?  Water bottle labels, bowling and bean bag toss games, lollipop tree, favor bags, cupcake stands, birthday shirt, and centerpieces.  My list isn't very long this year.  After the late nights I had preparing for Grant's Toy Story birthday last year I learned alot about time management, along with how to make things easier on myself.

Stay tuned over the next 2 months for more Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday tid bits.

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Wednesday was my mom's birthday and I made her caramel apple cupcakes and a Kitchenaid mixer cover (more on that another day since I have yet to take a photo of it).
The cupcakes were apple cinnamon, filled and frosted with caramel cream cheese frosting, and a caramel drizzle on top.

 I used the cake recipe and caramel recipe from here by the girls from DC Cupcakes with one change,  I added a couple dashes of nutmeg.  The cakes were a breeze to make but the caramel took FOREVER, or maybe it just seemed that way because I had a 19 month old sitting on my feet ramming my toes with the oven drawer.  The sauce turned out amazingly good but I highly recommend making it when the kiddos are sleeping or not home.  It also takes longer than 20 minutes to fully thicken.  I ended up using mine while it was still a little runny because I was tired of being in the kitchen and just wanted the cupcakes finished.  It still tastes just as good whether runny or thick.

The recipe for the frosting is the vanilla cream cheese frosting by the DC cupcake girls as well, but with 4T of the caramel sauce mixed in at the end.  I could have licked the bowl the frosting was so tasty.

Sophia's 1st Birthday Gift

My niece's birthday was Saturday and of course as usual I was up til midnight finishing her gifts.  I added matching diaper covers for each of her little dresses.

I ended up trying this on  Sophie before I wrapped it because I was really afraid it wouldn't fit.  I'm glad I did because it was too long for her to crawl in so I shortened it and added a diaper cover.

My intention was to cut out an "S" for Sophia and applique it to the pink shirt so it and the shorts would be "matchy matchy", needless to say at 12:15am I decided it wasn't worth it.  I made the shorts using this tutorial

My favorite is this reversable dress made using this pattern and tutorial.  The length of this dress actually made me think I may have made it too short but after trying it on her, it's perfect for her to crawl around in but definately too short not to have a matching diaper cover.  I used the diaper cover pattern here, however I didn't follow the tutorial I just started sewing and hoped for the best.  Following the tutorial would have made for a more finished diaper cover so I would suggest anyone else out there to give themselves enough time to follow the correct way of making one.

I have been wanting to make a tutu for a couple years and my mom and I decided Sophie's birthday could not be a proper celebration without a pink and green tutu.  There are a million tutorials out there and it was probably one of the easiest projects I've done in a long time. 

I'm so excited with how everything turned out and I hope I get to see her in all her cute outfits.

Girly Birthday

My neice's first birthday is this weekend and normally I give a homemade Bit of Whimsy doll but since I gave her one of those for Christmas and she really needs clothes for summer, I decided to make her a couple dresses, a skirt and a pair of shorts.

I made this reversable dress with a Cinderella Princess print on the opposit side.  I found the tutorial and pattern here.  It is super simple to make with only about 5 steps after cutting your fabric.  I did make a few changes, as usual.  The top of mine does not have button holes, the buttons are just sewn on.  I figured because it ties in the back this was one step I could easily skip (and therefore I wouldn't have to hunt down my button hole presser foot).

Here is the back.  My favorite part is that it's reversable so it's like a two for one deal.

The second dress I made was a pillowcase dress.  I'm not all too crazy about it so I'm waiting for Sophie to be at the house tonight to try it on and see if I get any crazier about it.  The ones I've seen online are so cute but I think mine looks a little plain.  I didn't use a pattern just measurements.

I'm anxious to try it on her and see how it looks.

The skirt I made I somehow measured incorrectly and instead of a 12-18mo skirt I ended up with more like a 6mo size.  Needless to say I had to do alot of seem ripping and am in the process of fixing it.  The shorts are finished but are currently MIA.  How does that even happen? My one guess is my little one Grant probably decided to play hide and seek with it.

It felt so good to start sewing again that I can't stop now.  Mother's Day is coming up and my mom has requested I make her a case for her new Kindle.  I'm so excited to go look for fabric, so stay tuned!

Felt Food and a Birthday

My friend's daughter turned 2 last week, Santa brought her a play kitchen and she absolutely loves it so I decided to make her some felt food.

I looked for tutorials but ended up just winging it.  If you google felt food you will find a ton of pictures and how-to's.  I had planned on having a few other food items in the collection but Grant not going to sleep until after 10 and not napping during the day, I had very little time to sew.  I ended up with 2 Pop Tarts, 2 chocolate chip cookies, 2 fried eggs 2 heart shaped sugar cookies, 1 round sugar cookie, and 3 doughnuts.  For the round cookies and doughnuts I did use a small bowl for a template to cut the circles, other than that it was all free handed. I think they turned out cute and I really hope she loves them.

Toy Story Birthday

Yes I know I posted not too long ago that I wanted to have a Curious George themed 1st birthday for Grant.  I still love Curious George and think it would be an adorable 1st birthday however, Grant loves Toy Story.  You may be saying to yourself, how can a 6 month old love a certain movie?  I would have been asking myself that if someone had told me the same thing about their child, but I'm telling you it's true.

We were at my mom's last week in Ohio and were leaving Grant with her husband while we went grocery shopping.  It was getting close to his bedtime so he was getting cranky, really cranky.  Wouldn't stop screaming, wouldn't take a juice bottle, wouldn't calm down, so what did we do you ask?  We put in Toy Story 2, and guess what?  He stopped crying.  Didn't utter another peep and fell asleep watching it. 

He has been watching Toy Story since he was about 3 months.  I happened to put it in one day while I was doing dishes and Grant was laying on his play mat, when I came around the corner he was watching the movie and making his happy noises.  I thought it was probably just a fluke but I started putting either Toy Story 1 or 3 in while I ate breakfast so he wouldn't cry and want me to hold him and what do you know he watched it for at least 20 minutes every day. 

So I got to thinking maybe it was a little selfish of me to do a birthday of Curious George when he so obviously loves Buzz and Woody.  Needless to say I will be doing Grant's 1st birthday with a Toy Story theme, and that's ok with me.  I've already started doing my party planning research and have a million ideas but those are for another day, this post is long enough.