Ivy's Birthday, Round Two: Fort Worth Zoo

I had the idea of taking Ivy to the zoo on her actual birthday several days before the actual day. A nice way to celebrate the day. One problem. The forecast was calling for cold, cloudy, and rainy. So we waited and decided to see what the weather would be like closer to the day. On Wednesday, it was cloudy, cool and certainly not raining. We made a go of it. It sure was windy though. And the sun decided to peek out of the clouds several times. It was the perfect day! This was also her first trip to the zoo. Enjoy some photos!

ONE

We have a one year old.
And she's starting to take steps. She's been standing on her own - sometimes needing assistance up, sometimes not. Given enough temptation, she'll take a step or two and then plop right on down.

Ivy's funny in that she shows you she wants you to pick her up, not stand her up. She'll reach her hands up, out, and back like "Don't touch my hands! Grab my armpits!!" Because you know, I can't always reach her in the crib because I'm short and I coax her into standing by taking her hands.

And she freely give hugs and kisses. And sometimes demands them. All up in yo' face and stuff! She's just starting this funny head bob/shake that's just adorable.

And we've gotten to the point at which you cannot leave the room without her following. We have a small bathroom just off the living room and I'll be darned if she's not one to follow me in there. Funny!

Her first party was nice. Low key-ish. Expected more people to join us, but whatever. She had a smash cake that she didn't really dig. She is apparently one to not get messy. Oh my god, I have a girl. I mean, yeah, duh, she's a girl. But she seems to be a girly girl. Likes shoes and money; Doesn't like to get dirty. Oh help me. I'm so not skilled at being all ... girly. I'll figure it out though.

Anyway. Photos.

 

 

Sharing

I'm in a sharing mood. Lack of time and mental capacity has kept me away from writing here.

I'm tired and stressed from work. Did I mention that I now only teach culinary arts? Well, we have had an overwhelming amount of catering "gigs" for a first year pilot program in it's FIRST semester. It's ridiculous. And my supervisor is making me very angry with his barrage of requests and follow ups. HELLO-W... I'm trying to do my job.

ANYWAY... We are gearing up for Ivy's first birthday party. I'm going to make her cake and try my hand at rolling fondant. Can't be too difficult can it? I'm a fan of Cake Boss. I think it's something I can handle. And my crafty side is coming out (yet again) with her invitations. I hope I'll get those done to mail out on Saturday.

I'm angry with my computer. Apparently it's almost full to capacity with images and music. Well, honestly I don't have that many songs on my computer. It's just a ton of photos. And at this moment, I cannot really access any of them for anything!

I made Ivy's Halloween costume - a bumblebee. I really love sewing. If my back could handle it, I'd sew every day. Let's see if I can get a photo:

Everything only took me about 2 hours to make. No pattern. Top and bottom are elasticized. I mean, it was easy. Easier than the patterns at the store. And CUTER. The stinger is stuffed. The wings were rolled hem. And the whole thing did what we wanted it to, without being stuffed and hot. It's a shame though that Ivy wouldn't leave the headband alone.

I'm very thankful that I grew up learning how to sew from my Mom (Thank you Momma!). She made clothes for me for a while and I watched her all the time. I started off hand sewing. And someone (Mommy??) gave me a sewing machine for Christmas one year (2003 I think??). I prefer to sew quilts because straight lines are (obviously) easier. But I can make clothes. I've made a skirt and so many pajama pants... on top of the quilts I've made. I guess it's in my genes because both of my grandma's were sewers ( if I'm not mistaken). I hope Ivy takes to it and enjoys it too when her time comes. Psht... when I took my class at TWU, I was the only home economics major among fashion majors taking the first fashion designing class and my professor deemed me the best in the class.

What was my point? Oh yeah. Hello! Nice to see ya again!

Anyway, what was my point? Probably nothing.

Checking In

I know no one really checks this out...
We've been back to work and I really don't have much to say. So a somewhat current picture of Ivy will do.

My sitter did her hair. This was Ivy's second pep rally. Another mom/teacher is loaning us this uniform. She's gotten so big!

Crafting

What I had originally planned on doing was way more complicated. It involved making something like a picture frame with decorative moulding trim and cutting it all in a mitering box and going absolutely crazy. Then I saw these plaque/mounting boards and said SO SIMPLE! DUH!!

I found a piece of scrapbook paper in the color theme I wanted. I have this crazy obsession with woodland creatures (especially cute owls) right now and the paper I found was really cute!  I painted the edge of the plaque and the front and sides of the letters in coordinating brown and pink. I cut the the paper in shape of the plaque and glued it down with Mod Podge. I nailed the letters on, screwed in some eye-screws and threaded the matching ribbon. Voila!

7 Days

It's another Monday. It's time to plan another menu. I'd really like to just do a month's worth instead of doing this every week. Merk! I don't have anything interesting to say except it is...

Monday - Taco pasta salad (since we didn't eat that last week)
Tuesday - Pizza
Wednesday - Nachos
Thursday - Sesame noodles
Friday - Fried rice
Saturday - Fettuccine alfredo
Sunday - Hot links (since we didn't eat that last week either)

We're going to try to go vegetarian. But first, to get the meat out of the freezer - NO WASTING! And then to ease it on out of the diet.

We got Wii Fit Plus. I really like it. I haven't been feeling too great lately so I haven't been on in a few days.

It seems that Ivy is cutting a third tooth.

Memory time! One of my (many) uncles used to cut wood for a living. I mean like little scroll work. I wouldn't know what to call it exactly. Anyway, my generation of grandkids all got wall hangers or door hangers with our names on them. I have my name in a pretty cursive on a star. The colors are blue pink and yellow. It's really cute. I don't know where it is. I think it's at my parent's house? I don't know.

Anyway, I wanted Ivy to have one so I decided to make one for her. It's brown and pink. The front of the main piece of wood has a cure little woodland creature themed piece of scrapbook paper attached to it. I really need to find a way to attach her name to the plate. I'll probably invest in some wood putty, nail it all together, fill the holes and paint over it. Simple. Pics soon.

Menu Plan Monday July 19

Got a late start this week. We had been having one of those weeks asking each other what we wanted for dinner and the answer ended up being fast food. BLECH! And we were going to the store pretty much every day. So after debating, it was agreed to go back to MPMs. Plus, we are both wanting to get back into better shape so I think this will definitely help.

Monday 
Dinner: Pizza & salad

Tuesday
Breakfast: Egg in a hole, fruit salad
Dinner: Skillet grilled chicken, rice-a-roni, steamed broccoli

Wednesday
Breakfast: Pancakes
Dinner: Fried shrimp & french fries

Thursday
Breakfast: Granola and yogurt
Dinner: Chicken taco pasta salad and garden salad

Friday
Breakfast: Muffins
Dinner: Tuna sandwiches

Saturday
Breakfast: Eat at Chiloso
Dinner: Hot links

Right Now

At this very moment... I am just not happy.

Food

I'm hungry so I'm posting about one of my favorite topics: Food. Specifically, snacks.

I recently found out that I do like celery after all. I made my foods and parenting classes make snacks for kids. Ants on a log was one of them and my way to encourage kids to eat stuff they claim to not like is to try what I don't like. I found out it was pretty good. So I have been thinking, what else can I do with celery?

Here's a list of things you can put on celery sticks:

• Peanut butter and apples or pretzels
• Cheese: Chunks of cheddar, cream cheese, herb cream cheese
• Beans: Re-fried beans with shredded cheese and maybe salsa
• Salad: tuna, chicken, egg, ham salads

Speaking of the world cup: Japan just lost to Paraguay at the penalty kicks :(

Another snack that sound good: Trail mix

• Chex Mix
• Puppy Chow / Dog Food / White Trash
• Put together anything you want: pretzels, candy pieces, nuts, dried fruit, peanut butter, chocolate or butterscotch pieces, really whatever you want.

I'm going to go there...
I'm thinking I'll totally make a youtube channel for making baby food then progress to toddler foods and maybe on down the line to kids foods and snacks. Watch for a new blogger! Buahahaha!!!

Summer Fun

Ryan and I took Ivy swimming for the first time a week ago. Her floaty was/is HUGE. She was okay with everything at first and then figured out that this was meant to be fun and ended up splashing Daddy really good!

---

My parents and I took Ivy to a local fountain park for some more water fun!