Friday, September 27, 2013

Hunter's First Birthday Party

Last Saturday we hosted a Wonderful Cheerios Themed First Birthday Party for our Little Man! Here are a few photos from our celebration.


I purchased the cute personalized hat from Etsy shop Dainty Couture.  


the Favors were chocolate candies and gumballs in "milk" containers (Really Starbucks Frappuccino drinks that we used and cleaned out) for the adults and kiddos received little cheerios containers... Even babies in bellies received a little treat!

This was the main "kids" table... The painting above the table was covered with craft paper and I added photos from Hunter's one year photo shoot.

I purchased MDF letters from Michaels Craft Store and Matt attached them to a board so that they would stand straight...Added some fun crinkle paper to hide the board underneath. :-)

I also made some little sandwiches with Mini Bagels (look like big cheerios), Mini Pancakes, Bananas dipped in chocolate, Mini chocolate dipped smores, Mini Donuts and Cake are on this table...

Took a 1 pinata and removed the tissue paper, Spray painted yellow and covered with cheerios...

Here is the little birthday boy!!!!!
 

Ordered the Cheerios bowl cake through Sweet Ladies Bakery

Decorations were easy... Just cheerios boxes with the top cut off, red polka dot tissue paper and balloons...

There was also A LOT of food for adults.In fact I didn't even make four of the items on my list. I think I take the food thing a little too far when I host parties.

Here was our dinning room... Cute Red and Yellow tissue paper balls hanging from the fan, Bright yellow table cloth, Flowers in the middle of the table with Cheerios around them (This was before I put out most of my food) 

Around the door way I added ribbon and additional photos of my Hunter Man and a simple homemade bunting above. 

Hunter getting ready for cake time...We took off his cute outfit and he just had cake in his cloth diaper.. didn't want to get dirty!

Matt had a hard time getting the hat on and Hunter was not a fan...

One I put the cake in front of him though he forgot all about the hat!At first he only took one icing cheerio off at a time to eat...

But he soon got the hang of it.

All and all GREAT Birthday party for our little man!


Thursday, September 26, 2013

DIY Growth Chart

The second favorite thing that I made for Hunter is his Growth Chart!


Started with a piece of wood...

Broke out my water Based MINWAX in Coffee.

I applied the stain with an old white t-shirt.. below is after one coat... I did three total 


After the stain was dry I carefully painted the sides of the board a lime green that I had used in Hunter's bathroom. I love the extra pop of color and personality that it adds to the piece.

Next I used a tape measure to mark every foot 

Pleased Number stencils at the appropriate places and painted.

After that I got out my handy Sharpie Paint marker in Black and outlined the letters and marked each inch...



I love the outcome!!!

Only thing that I purchased specific to the project was the piece of wood for $6.00... everything else I had on hand.

Week 13

  We are going to welcome Baby #3 this Spring!

How far along? 13 Weeks and a few days

Total weight gain: I'm going to be SUPER honest in this area.. I'm not going to tell you my total number but each week I will say how much I'm up... I want to show the realistic progression of weight gain for an average chica... I mean I love this girls blog but really being upset about gaining a total of 27 Lbs at 40 weeks... NO! That remark makes me want to cut a b*tch!... To this point I have gained 2 lbs... I would guess more with how big that bump is! Last pregnancy I gained 45 lbs.

Maternity clothes? Yes, I'm actually wearing both maternity leggings and a maternity t-shirt in these pictures!  The bump has become visible now when I'm wearing clothes and I think I look a lot more pregnant than last time at 13 weeks! SIDE NOTE: Strangers even comment on the bump...But of course with a baby on my hip the bump actually pops out a lot more because my clothes are not all baggy around the belly... Please stop me and point at Hunter and my belly and tell me that I'm brave... I think they mean stupid.

Stretch marks? None! I've been lucky to not get any stretch marks with the two prior pregancies... Well let me be honest... Literally the DAY BEFORE I gave birth to Hunter one little mark showed up on my belly. It was small and I didn't even care but I'm wondering if they will pop up now with baby number three... I kind of feel like one leads to many in this situation.

Sleep: My dreams are getting pretty insane...Matt even says that I could make a movie about them... they are THAT vivid and I remember EVERY detail. On one occasion even woke up crying and couldn't get back to sleep for hours after...

Best moment this week: There were four GREAT things: Celebrating Hunter's first birthday with friends and family. Matt's mom was also able to make the trip down for the party and it was great seeing her! Coming home from my week long international work trip and seeing the kiddos! Going to the docs for the first trimester screening and seeing the little one and hearing the heartbeat for the first time... Very blessed to have such a wonderful week! 

Miss anything? Not really - my symptoms were not so bad this week!

Movement: Nope... probably have a few more weeks before I feel a kick or punch... Baby was SUPER active though during our ultrasound last Friday so maybe we will feel something early...

Food cravings: I love watermelon and other fruits. The cool temp in my mouth!

Anything making you queasy or sick: the second I look at or think about food I feel sick but once I start to eat it gets a little better. Let's just say that it is NO fun going to a grocery store!

Gender: Still no idea! We are all betting on another little man... Emma is already brainstorming names...

Labor signs: Nope.

Symptoms: Lack of energy and a constant need to drink water... which leads to a lot of bathroom breaks.

Belly button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On.

Happy or moody most of the time: Depends on the time of day and whether there's food in my belly! 

Looking forward to: The weekend...Matt will be on a mancation and Emma is at her Dad's so I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend with Hunter Man. 

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Handmade "Metallic" Letters

Even though I already posted once today with a BIG Park Family announcement I still want to stick with my goal of doing one post about Hunter's room this week.

So I'm starting with a favorite... the DIY letters that spell out Hunter's Name!

I was inspired by these 13" medal letters from Land of Nod but at $34 each NO THANK YOU! That would be $206 just for his name...


So I decided to DIY! I started out with some 12" paper Mache Letters from Jo Ann Fabrics you couldn't beat the price at only $4.49 each. ($26.94 total... cannot beat that difference)

I removed all stickers and gave the letters a good spray with Rustoleum oil Rubbed Bronze Spray Paint ($12.00)



After the letters dried overnight I stuck them to the wall using 3M Command Strips!
The results were AMAZING!


I love that the letters look like they are metallic and I saved a TON of money by doing this myself! Total cost came to $38.94.

And... this is happening


Yup... Matt and I will be welcoming Baby #3 in late March! How is it possible that I am soon going to be a mother of three???


Baby park has already had a pretty big adventure while in the belly... already traveling to Israel, India, Ethiopia, Uganda, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Washington State, Michigan, Georgia... We have had a VERY busy three months!

The ultrasound photos above are from our 1st Trimester screening that we did last Friday and baby looked extremely healthy! It was exciting to hear the heartbeat for the first time and for Matt to see the baby (Made it all more real).

We were not exactly planning on our little ones only being 18 months apart... This is probably TMI but we figured that between exclusively breastfeeding Hunter, tracking ovulation and the fact that it took over 9 months to get preggers with Hunter that we would not get pregnant any time soon... but God had other plans.

We are ready for the adventure of having Two little ones under two... Wish us luck and any advice is welcome!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Hunter's Bedroom Reveal

Since he is already one I figured that I should share Hunter's room with you... so this week will be all about a few special projects that I whipped up for our little guy!

but before I break it down let me show you his humble abode... here is a reminder of the mood board that I was working with...


and welcome to his space...


 



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