Birthday Idea's

These are felt, but so pretty
I love these cupcakes!

Ok, I'm not doing Dora or any "theme" really but I have so much scrap booking stuff (fancy paper, glue, glitter, ribbon, etc) I want to make a banner like one of these with the stuff I have. My mom also gave me all of her cake decorating supplies, pastry bags, etc so I want to make a really pretty cake. Rosette bought us a 3 tiered cupcake holder to use for Olivia's party. Liv wants cupcakes! I browsed etsy for idea's last night and I found these pictures that I liked.

Charles Lanssens

This is a picture of Rob's dad when he was a boy in Belgium. Can you see the resemblance between Rob, he and Olivia?

Sedona

Dinner at Javelina's
we celebrated Hilde's birthday a bit early

making a wish in the pond outside of Javelina's

Liv and Grandma

shopping for Native American jewelry
Rosette, Hilde and Frank



On Sunday we all went to Sedona to show Frank, Hilde and Edwin around. We stopped at the lookout on top of the canyon, at the natural spring water spot, and then took them for lunch up at the airport. We shopped downtown and went to the Church of the Red Rocks and finally to dinner at Javalina Cantina. They loved it! Edwin also saw his first cactus ever!

Olivia's First Time On The Ice!!!!!!

On Saturday, Rosette went with Frank, Hilde and Edwin to the South Rim. We stayed behind since there was a big open house at the ice rink. I wanted to get Olivia signed up for her first skating lessons and get advice on getting her started. She's been waiting and waiting to turn 3 so she could start lessons. There was a guy up from Phoenix who owns a pro shop to sharpen blades, fit and give advice. I took my skates to him to ask why they are so tight and hurt so bad since I had Olivia. He said they are a whole size too small and xtra narrow, too. Apparently, in addition to my butt, my feet also got wider after delivery! Nice. I still squeezed into them to take Olivia out for the first time. Wow, what a feeling to take your little girl on the ice for the first time. The last time she skated, she was in my tummy! After a few times around, Rob wanted a turn with her and I got a bunch of pictures. She LOVED the ice and didn't want to leave. The lessons start on her birthday.

Grandma's Visit

Hilde giving Olivia a gift from Belgium
Edwin
Best friends enjoying each other

Grandma Lanssens was here last week (that's why I haven't blogged) We stayed pretty busy with our relatives from Belgium. Frank, Hilde and Edwin came over the same night as Rosette arrived. I made an Italian dinner and we all had a great time visiting. Frank's dad and Rosette were cousins (I'm pretty sure...) That makes us cousins, right? Edwin is their friend who has never been to the USA. Frank and Hilde brought Olivia a beautiful 18 karat gold pendant with an "O" on it. Rosette and Hilde talk on the phone for hours, so they were very happy to see each other in person, Frank, too. It was great to see America through their eyes and to hear about Belgium. Edwin was so nice, and tried to speak English a bit. I thought it was so nice that he called me Miss and not Ma'am. Here are some pics of the first night.

Olivia on the Babylegs Website

http://www.babylegs.com/newWeb/home.php?main=cgallery&sub=cgallery

Months ago, I sent some pictures of Olivia to the customer gallery on the Babylegs website. Rob happened to check recently and she made it on! You can't see her face, but she's going down her slide headfirst. She's on page 7 around the middle of the block of pictures.

No Dora!

I decided to have a basic, pizza, cupcake party. Sorry Dora. Olivia and her friends just want to play on the swingset anyway! Maybe a bouncy house...we'll see.

I Have An Idea.....

Lookout, my creative juices are flowing after the previous post! The only thing Olivia is really into this year is Dora the Explorer. I don't like it as a theme party, but after thinking about it, there are a lot of possibilities. Here's the party as I see it in my head (I'm not really doing this, but I could!) Make invitations in the shape of a map out of construction paper. Have take-out from Burritos Fiesta (Olivia loves their rice and black bean burritos) chips, salsa, guacamole, punch, soda. A tres leche cake in the shape of (something, I can't think right now) For favors, small backpacks from the dollar store filled with little fun stuff (maybe a Dora toothbrush, Dora fruit snacks, anything Dora or Diego) You need more? Ok, how about a pinata?
I could do this on a budget, right? I'll have to think about it.

Olivia's 2nd Birthday Flashback

cupcake face
Isaac
Grandma holding Sydney
coloring pages
eating her birthday cake
The grandma's (Isaac and Olivia's)

Olivia feeding Grandma cake

favors

I was looking at pictures of Olivia's birthday party last year, hoping it would inspire me for this year. I need to get the invites out asap. I'm not sure if I can top last year so I'm not even going to try! Last year Olivia loved reading the "Olivia the Pig" books so that was the theme. There was nothing available to buy really, like Olivia plates, etc so I really had to get creative. Some people see party planning as a chore, but I live for this stuff. Details are fun for me! I took the Olivia book to Kinko's, made color copies of some pics, took them to Sam's and they made them into edible cake images. I just got plates, napkins, streamers, table cloths, etc at the dollar store in red, black and white (the colors of the book). Same with balloons. For favors, I got red buckets at Michael's on clearance. I switched the handles from green to white in the store. I filled them with lots of fun little stuff like sunglasses, balls, necklaces, fruit snacks, raisins, (tried to keep stuff red) I found a pack of Olivia the Pig note cards at Barnes and Noble that I used as thank you notes attached to the pail for each child to take home. Since Olivia the Pig loves accessories, I sewed tiny red purses for the girls and red pouches for the boys. In the book, Olivia eats spaghetti for dinner so we had baked penne pasta with meat sauce, garlic bread and salad. For a coloring station, I used the left over color copies of the book and some printable Olivia coloring pages from the website to make fun pages to color. It was a great party! What the heck am I going to do this year?

Grandma Lanssens Is Coming!!

Rosette is coming for a visit in a few days. She hasn't been here since Olivia's birthday last October. Some relatives from Belgium are coming to the area this week, too. They will be very busy touring around, but I hope we can all get together here and have dinner and enjoy the backyard before it gets too cold. Here is a picture of Olivia and Grandma L baking last year. I'm sure they'll be doing more of that this year.

Hello Deli

I meant to post this picture weeks ago but I forgot. Dad and Sue went to New York this summer and tried to see Letterman but he wasn't taping that night. (Our family loves Dave Letterman) They did the next best thing and visited Rupert Jee at the Hello Deli. They ate sandwiches and took this picture. If you don't know who this is, you must watch Leno. (I watch them both when I'm up.)

www.hello-deli.com

The Pumpkins Are Here!!!

I love the fall sooooo much. Seeing the first Pumpkins of the season makes me very happy! We went to Safeway after her haircut and she couldn't wait to pose by them.