A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words, Lionel Turns 4!

 

In A Few Hours, It Will Be A New Day

In the last 24 hours I have had a visit to the ER with my son for a potentially broken nose (all is well), baked 48 cupcakes (12 of which burned on the bottom), went to the market to pick up an “end of the school -year” party platter for my sister because her kids are sick again (be well soon Nay, we missed you at the picnic), went back to the market again (this time WITH my purse). Took the party platter, cupcakes, and husband to my son’s end of the year picnic, opened the door to the school, and promptly spilled half the cupcakes all over the school’s main lobby, 19 cupcakes survived.

So… how was your day?

The Blarg of a Pirate

This past weekend my nephew turned 4. He requested I make cupcakes and a cake for his birthday. To celebrate, we set sail on the mighty Potomac and became Pirates for the day!

Pirates in training learned sea shanties and how to give their best AHOY MATEY! Once their ship was back at port, the wee pirates were lead on a treasure chest hunt.

After seizing another pirate's ship and boarding it, the young pirates feasted their eyes on the tastiest pirate booty they could have ever dreamed of.

We ate treasure chest box lunches, scavenged for gold coins on the main deck, sang the ye old birthday song, and dove deep in to the treasure chest full of moist golden cake and rich fudgy frosting!

Audience Participation Optional

We took Lionel to see Godspell tonight.  My best friend Ceci, and I loved Godspell when we were younger. Not so much  for its award winning qualities, mostly for its campy songs and their ability to annoy my future husband on  long road trips. I saw a flyer  for a local production earlier this week and we all made a date, me, Ceci, Carlton and Lionel.  It's never too soon to spread the good word in the form of song and dance! Lionel did great through the whole show until they started singing “By my side.” The girls were singing the lyrics “where are you going” as Jesus was walking off the stage and into the audience. Lionel stood up and exclaimed “Where is he going?” at least the people sitting around us found it humorous.

The merry go round of Life.

Eight years later, we're still hanging on and holding tight! Happy Anniversary Carlton. I'm still enjoying this ride we call life and all the ups and downs.

Laissez les bons temps rouler

So here we are on Fat Tuesday! While Carnival season has been going on globally for the last 3 months, it all comes to a head tonight once the clock strikes midnight. One second we are partying and tossing beads around a mere second later it is lent. Have you ever given up anything for lent? If so I'd like to know what and how long it lasted. I personally have never given anything up for lent. However this year I am going to give it a try, it's 40 days, you'd think I could do it, right? So here goes, I'm not sure if my sacrifice counts or not but this year for lent I am giving up being lazy! I know, I know, but seriously people I am one lazy person when it comes to exercise and doing good for myself. Is there anyone out there that would like to give up being lazy with me? Perhaps, you will park further from the store, or take the stairs. How about actually making yourself a healthful meal instead of your standard # 5 on the value menu? I'm talking baby steps here people, baby steps. Here's the way I see it, giving up being lazy is a wonderful sacrifice for my health, and I'm willing to go for it!

Knowing that being more healthy was on the back burner and was going to move up front this month, I decided to have a Mardi Gras party, just kidding, I needed an excuse to decorate and throw a party so I did! Here’s a look at how I decorated and a few of our menu options.

When you walked in to the front door I had a dozen, green, gold and purple balloons floating on the ceiling, on each balloon was tied several lengths of curling ribbon, I didn't get a picture of this however it was pretty neat looking because it really lent to the feel of Mardi Gras and all the festivities; it was fun to walk through the sea of ribbons too! One of my favorite decorations is the chalk board (there is more about it, in a post coming up) It's got a pretty cute crown and on it is the phrase "Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler", let the good times roll.

Ok, so maybe they are all my favorites because I love, love, love this bouquet of fresh flowers! I'm talking love!

I went to the store a couple days before the party to look for tulips in purple and yellow and I was just going to plunk them down in a simple country pitcher. Then I stumbled upon these beauties, can you believe that this whole arrangement is only 2 bundles of flowers! It is as if they were delivered to the store just for me! As soon as I saw them I knew exactly what to do with them. When I got home I got out my trifle bowl and started the magic. A few minutes later and -voila- I had a flower arrangement that I could NEVER afford if I walked in to florist, even if it was half priced! I'll be so sad to see it go; I love fresh flowers in the house, but hardly ever treat myself to them.

Another fun project I took on for this celebration was creating a mantel piece. I hit up the craft stores after Christmas and hit the jackpot in a Michaels store in Fredericksburg. They had all their floral picks on sale for about a nickel each, how could I resist? This is what I came up with, and it got rave reviews.

In another project I made a wreath using a 99 cent eBay doll, left over ribbon from the holidays, a grapevine wreath and more floral picks from Michaels.

I used up the extra ornaments and floral picks I had left over in a glass bowl I keep on the bottom the half moon table in our foyer.

So there you have it, that's how we got festive up in here!

Our Mardi Gras revelers got to partake in my tasty Forgotten Jambalaya, from Taste of Home and assorted sweets! King Cake from Haydel's bakery Who Dat? you may ask, why they are only "the official bakery of the New Orleans Saints" dats who. And my home made Humming Bird Cake. Some people say it gets its name because it's sweet like nectar, others say it's because it's so good it'll make ya hum! I'll let you bake one up and be the judge.

Everybody Loves Raymond

Whenever we tell anyone we live across the street from my parents there is no question that an "Everybody Loves Raymond" comment comes into play. It's not hard living across the street from them, it's like having really awesome neighbors that happen to share my DNA.
Last week Carlton was out of town on a business trip to San Fransisco; he was gone for 3 days and was missed a lot because, everybody loves Raymond Carlton. Being the good Papa he is, he took the red eye  from San Fransisco and arrived home at 8:30 am on Saturday morning. Because Carlton was just as excited to be home as Stink Butt was to have him home, he promptly plopped his suitcase down on the floor in the foyer and pulled out the souvenirs from San Fransisco's China Town (check out the link to see the cool out fit Stink Butt got!)
Here's how the week following his arrival went; Monday through Wednesday the Suitcase stayed next to the door.

At some point on Wednesday the suitcase became erect and moved next to the bottom of the stairs.

On Friday I vacuumed and moved the Suitcase to the landing of the stairs.

If you have any doubt that I will move the suitcase to the bedroom and unpack it, I leave you with this clip. And yes, Everybody does love Carlton, especially me!