I Got My iPhone

I picked up my new iPhone today... Happy Birthday to Me! Any other iPhone or iTouch users out there please let me know which apps are must haves for moms, wives and females in general. I can compile a list of the fave apps and post it on my blog for everyone afterwards! Comment below or send an email to me at threemes@gmail.com!

It's my party and I'll rest if I want to...

Today is my birthday! So, since today is supposed to be about me... I choose to do as little as possible. I have a meeting this morning for an event, but that will only take a couple of hours, then the rest of the day can be spent being lazy and not feeling guilty about it. I will not be making dinner and I will not be doing any dishes. I will not clean anything. I think that it should be our gift to ourselves every year to be selfish for one day on our birthday! We deserve it!

iphone, itouch, ijustdon'tknow...

It's my birthday this month and hubby and I have been discussing my gift. I really want an iphone, but I am having trouble justifying and digesting the cost. Did you know that Canada is the most expensive country to own an iphone in? The plans that are offered to Canadians are expensive when you consider what you get {most countries charge a similar monthly fee, but it includes unlimited data and downloads and/or unlimited talk as opposed to the common 500MB or 1 GB data plans and set number of minutes Canadians can choose from}.

I have mulled over the option of getting a blackberry instead, but it's really not that much cheaper and I won't be able to download all the fun apps. I really want the fun recipe apps my friends rave about. And I have heard rumours of an education learning app that turns your phone into a "toy" to distract a fussy toddler, while locking all other phone functions so that junior can't dial out or delete all your contacts while playing with your phone.

I also considered getting an ipod touch and just keeping my current cell phone, but then I don't get the email notifications on the touch and I can only use the internet when I am in a wi-fi supported area.

And if I do choose to get an iphone I also have to pick a service company. The lesser of all the evils, I just don't know?! And considering the speed at which technology is moving {and knowing my luck}, as soon as I make a decision a new generation iphone will come out and/or the prices will drop. Oh woe is me! Anyone have any tips?

And Saturday is the new Friday!

Friday afternoon we left to go away for the weekend before I had a chance to write my blog post. We are back in my husband's home town because yesterday was his friend's surprise 30th birthday party. I am trying to recall, but I think it is one of the few surprise parties I have attended with the only other ones being for my grandparents in the US. And amazingly enough the surprisee claims he was actually suprised. We all thought for sure he would have found out especially living in the Facebook world!

It was quite a fun little gathering, but even though we had grandma come and pick up Toddler B to take him home for bedtime, we ended up leaving extremely early ourselves {like we are talking home by 10:00pm here}. A large portion of the guests left before us as well {lots of us seem to have kids now}, and only a few hardcore guests headed out to the bar after the dinner party was over.

I still have a couple of years to go before the big 3-0. For me it probably won't be much different since I have never really been one to party anyways, but boy does it make you feel old when you look around a room a 9:30 and all you see is yawning faces. Or maybe, it was just that it was a Friday evening? I am always too exhausted to stay up on Fridays after surviving the week!

No thank you cards? No problem.

It had already been a ridiculously long time since my son's 2nd birthday, and I found myself a few short on thank you cards this past week, so I sat down and got creative.

I went online to the Sesame Street website {to continue the Sesame Street theme from the party}, and printed off a couple of colouring pages of Elmo and Cookie Monster. Then I used my printer's re-size feature and shrunk the images down so that they would fit on some blank cards that I had left over from another project.

Then I grabbed my little man and some crayons and asked him to scribble all over the colouring sheets. I cut out the images, glued them onto the cards and wrote my messages to the Great Grandma's and Grandpa's and there you have it... a personalized thank you card to cherish! And a crafty, keep-him-busy-for-five-minutes project for Toddler B! One stone, two birds...

I know they aren't the most fabulous cards in the world, but when compared to the store-bought cards I sent to some of the guests, I kind of wished I had enough of these for everyone! They have character.

These would also make great Valentine's Day cards {with a fun Valentine's Day image and a red or pink card perhaps}. Just make sure you only ask the little ones to colour a few at a time or they'll get bored. Hint: An easy to cut out image will make things much less stressful and time consuming for you!

Capturing the Moment

Yesterday we had Baby B's 2nd Birthday Party... it went really well. Lots of good memories with good friends, and most importantly, Baby B {or should I call him "Toddler B" now?} enjoyed himself!

My one regret? There are not nearly enough pictures!!! We took some pics before the party of the cake, table set-up, and decorations, which I will be sure to share in a post in the coming weeks, but we do not have enough pictures of the party itself.

It's on days such as birthday parties that I wish I had a photographer that followed us around everywhere capturing memories for my family. Of course, it's hard to expect that my husband and I will be able to find time between being a good host and hostess to ensure that a picture is taken of every guest, though we did manage to get all the major moments covered {Baby B blowing out candles, wearing a party hat, opening presents, etc.}. But, the pictures {especially the ones I took} certainly aren't professional looking.

These thoughts, which I was already contemplating this morning when I woke up, tie in nicely with the blog post I read on Simple Mom today entitled "Five Simple Techniques for Enhancing Your Images With Children." It is a guide to taking better pictures of your family written by a guest blogger who is also a professional photographer. Some great tips that will hopefully help me improve my photo taking skills in the future!

Elmo & Cookie Monster Birthday Invitations

I wanted to wait until all of the guests had a chance to receive their invitations before I posted a picture of them on here... the party is a week away now! My sister helped me make these invitations using construction paper/cardstock, glue dots, and a bunch of various circle cutters and punches. They were lots of fun and pretty easy! The original idea is from a blog post by Couture Parties.

I plan to visit Canuck Amusements and a few dollar stores this week to pick up the decor and goodie bag stuff.

My mom helped me bake letter B and number 2 cookies today {this Sesame Street birthday party is brought to you by...}. My oh so helpful sister has offered to make the Elmo cake for me since I likely won't have the time {and don't have the skill either}. The rest of the menu will likely consist of platters from the grocery store since I want to enjoy the party rather than spend it in the kitchen!

Baby B's 2nd Birthday Party

I have been collecting images and ideas from all over the internet whilst planning my son's 2nd Birthday Party, which is less than a month away now {sigh and a sniffle}. I found a simple {read: easy enough for a beginner like me} tool called Mosaic Maker for displaying the images in a collage, or what I have come to discover is known as an "inspiration board."

The theme for the party is "Sesame Street" because my son is obsessed with the show and characters right now. Unbeknownst to me until recently, it also coincides with the 40th anniversary of the beloved children's show {the Google homepages have been so cute this week, right?}!

I thought I would share my inspiration board with you today... and in the coming weeks I will try and share images of the stuff that I gather/make for the party as well. My wonderful sister spent her Saturday afternoon helping me put together the Elmo and Cookie Monster invitations and they are almost finished!

I am new to all of this stuff, and I now realize that I should have recorded where each image that I collected was from so that I could properly credit the site or individual who created it. My apologies for not doing so. If you know where one of these images is from please email me! I know that I found some of them on Hostess with the Mostess, Everyday Celebrating, Etsy, and Couture Parties, but that may not necessarily be where they originated.