cant we just watch a show?

nope. my family has to turn eeeeeverything into a party. at the last second, we decided to turn our weekly bachelor viewing nite into a party to celebrete the final rose. naturally, we had to get roses and a silver platter to put them on. we dont need no stinkin chris harrison.

the treats. becky's chocolate dipped strawberries should be illegal. and megan's crab salad bites with avocado and balsamic reduction werent too shabby either. but the real delight were the lunchables! ha. no, but really the reason we had those is because we heard that the ONLY two things in the kitchen at the bachelor house are lunchables and wine. no wonder chantel gained a couple lbs....

BRAD MADE AN APPEARANCE! ok. seriously, if you know craig than you know that he is not the dress-up type guy. there was some major bribing to get him to show up in a suit and hand out roses.

here i am, all dressed up and ready for my rose ceremony. but first, i had to say goodbye to my kids. had to leave them to try and find them a baby daddy.

megan is so disturbing. and the most disturbing part? the camera wasnt working so they had to hold this pose for about two minutes. i thought craig was going to kill me. although he doesnt look too grossed out here.....

ha! but i got the final rose. awwwwww.

all the ladies with our roses and "champagne". what a fun nite! and watching the actual show was quite entertaining as well. go team emily. (although after watching the bachelor: after the final rose, i am not sure there will be a team emily+brad much longer...)

academy awards 2011

last nite, my fam-damily had our annual oscars party. and since it was ALSO my mom's birthday... we went all out.

sully, as mark whalberg from The Figher. tucker, as james franco from 127 Hours. grace, as jesse from Toy Story 3.

craig and me from TRUE GRIT. craig always takes the staging a little too seriously. he looks like he really wants to shoot me. hmm.

and yup, my mom and megan as the two girls from Black Swan. dont hate me because of all the nightmares you will now have after looking at this picture.

the delicious spread.

megan's famous sugar cookies. the oscar statue is copyrighted so there inst a cookie cutter available in its shape, so megan hand cut all them herself!

the ballot winner and my prize. (ok, to be honest my mom won the ballot contest but since she was the one that purchased the prize, she graciously deferred it to me!)

the group shot. (my dad is the king from King's Speech and tagg is Buzz from Toy Story 3) what a fun party. i hope this year's movies are just as entertaining.

christmas parties

last weekend, craig and i hosted a little christmas party for our friends.

i was slaving away on these cupcakes right up until the party. i made one batch of frosting and didnt really like it so i started all over again. kind of annoying but i take my cupcakes seriously.

matt and hanna. they just found out they are going to have twins!! i am so dang excited for them.

we had a white elephant gift exchange too. emily and elliot waited patiently to see who would open their amazing gift (and by amazing i mean crappy and semi-inappropriate). ali got the best gift of all! a dungeons and dragons sword. complete with chains and a sheath. tagg was obsessed. he wanted it soooo badly.

he drowned his sorrows about not getting the sword in my french hot cocoa with homemade marshmallows.

the girls. tagg randomly jumped in the shot to grab onto emily's white elephant gift. which, lets just say, was a failed attempt by one of her second graders to sculpt a lighthouse.....

after my party, i ran over to my brother's annual christmas party. that's tucker, in the red and black plaid shirt, playing a little christmas music for some of his friends. so fun!

pat the bunny baby shower

yesterday i had the pleasure of throwing my adorable friend, megan, a baby shower. i got the idea for a pat the bunny theme shower and was really excited about all the little details. then craig informed me that no one would know what pat the bunny was (its a CLASSIC childrens book, duh!) but it was too late, i was too excited and there was no turning back.

i was also super excited about doing a PINK shower. pink, pink, and more pink.

the table scape. turns out, most everyone (including megan, who was the one that really mattered) knew and loved pat the bunny book. so there, craig. and jocelyn.

each page of the touch-and-feel book was incorporated into the shower.

so naturally, i had to get a life size picture of alex (the daddy-to-be) and give him a sand paper beard. the beard was cut into a puzzle with different questions on the back.

i had asked alex a few questions in advance and everyone had a riot listening to his responses. lets just say one of the questions was "do you remember the nite of conception?" yup. i went there. and yup. he did.

after the daddy game, lunch was served. marcia, megan's MIL, prepared the fantastic spread.

a lady asked me where my recycling bin was so she could throw away her empty water bottle. maybe i lied to her and said "oh yes, we have one, let me just do it for you."

after lunch, we played a game. ok, i am not a game person but peek-a-boo had to come in somewhere.

so we played the adult version of peek-a-boo. which, actually is a very fun game: the sheet game. two groups stand on either side of a sheet being held up. each team sends one person to stand right behind the sheet. at the count of three the sheet is dropped and whoever calls out the other person's name first wins. then the losing person is sent to the winning team's side. a lot like red-rover. but without the broken arms.

craig's mom let me borrow some of her vintage children's books. craig thumbed thru the books and remembered when cheri read them to him. very sweet.

the mirror corner with baby pictures of megan and alex.

then it was time for presents.

megan opened tons of gorgeous things. her little girl is one lucky lady.

after presents it was DESSERT time. everyone gathered around for....

"mommy's rings" also known as MY mommy's famous donuts. these babies usually only make an appearance at the halloween donut party but i twisted my mom's arm to get up at 6am that morning to start the process of making a batch.

my aunt megan made her dewicious sugar cookies too. some serisouly good treats.

each lady took home a petite vase with a crepe paper flower (spritzed with perfume, of course). emily and i stayed up late one nite making these little numbers. fun, but our fingers were raw afterwards.

me, megan (the darling mommy-to-be), emily and elliot. i could not have done the shower without emily's help. she was such a good little worker elf.



my mom warned me not to over do it with decorating the disposable water bottles. does she not know me? i am gaudy by nature. but honestly, i had a blast planning every second of this shower and watching megan have a great time.

back to school

i (along with the AMAZING help of britney!) had the honor of throwing a baby shower for my friend, emily. i am so excited for emily and andrew (i went to high school with andrew) and their little boy-on-the-way.

emily is an elementary school teacher so i thought it would be cool to play off that theme for the shower. this chalkboard easel is the product of my first craigslist transaction. i am "very lucky to own it because the seller is an arteeest". (her words, not mine.)

the ladies sat and gossiped (not really gossiped, but thats what men think women do when they get together) while the lunch was being prepared.

the set up.

yup. these again. its now officially against the law to have a party and NOT have pom poms present.

the chalkboard menu. it was very hard for my perfectionist-self to handwrite the menu out (thanks to computers i never have to) but i guess it helped give it a more authentic school-y feel.

we served chicken salad sandwiches wrapped in true lunch-sack fashion. ps. i am SO proud of myself for making the table-runner.

water and the other kind of water.

when everything was ready we let the masses come and eat.

the beautiful mommy-to-be with her cafeteria lunch tray.

while the ladies ate i handled story time. we secretly got emily's students to write advice to mrs. moulton. wow. the things kids say.

please excuse this hideous face. but this is me reading the "advice".

emily's mom and andrew's mom brought baby pictures from the two of them. they are going to make one handsome, TALL boy.

covered books were stacked on the piano for decoration.

i personalized a comp book for all the shower memorabilia to go in. i.e. who gave what present and little wishes the guests wrote to baby moulton.

then the after-school snack was served. peanut butter and jelly bars (of course!) and......

warm (literally. i was sweating it out in the kitchen during show & tell (present time) to make sure these were FRESH out of the oven) cookies and milk.

and more diet coke. women take their diet coke seriously. and i am obsessed with these skinny little cans from target.

favors: lunch sacks filled with hot tamales with a note from "mom"! (hot tamales have nothing to do with school, they are just plain yummy)

britney, emily and me. what a fun party. i couldnt have done it without britney's help. now we just have to wait for adorable mr. moulton to arrive!