Please update any links or bookmarks. My new address is:

http://www.paintchipsandcupcakes.com/

Come and tell me what you think of the new digs!

I am still working out the kinks, links, and my new header so bear with me.  Thanks.

My friends and I love this park. It’s perfect.

Some parks I get totally overwhelmed with two kids under 3 going in two different directions. I pretty much gasp every other second, worrying about them getting hurt or going too far where I can’t see them. Yes, I am a gasper. I have these mommy videos that go off in my head and I fear the worst every time.  It’s borderline neurotic. This park allows me to sit back (sort of) and relax, enjoy watching the girls have fun, and actually enjoy some adult conversation.

Parks are much more enjoyable when you go with friends.

On this day my friend and I had 5 kids between the 2 of us.

Almost 5, 3, 2 1/2, almost 2,  & 18 months.

They (on their own will) wanted to get up on this chalkboard playhouse to draw.

Adorable.

They were very focused on their work.

The girls thought it would be more fun to have me draw on the house for them. Somewhere in this drawing are mickey, minnie, daisy, pluto, goofy, donald, and daisy. Oh and I think a grandma & baba too.

There is a rope structure to walk across that can also be used as a swing.

The babies were able to keep up with the big kids!

Well sort of.

Whoops!

I couldn’t keep my camera off of her, she is just so stinkin’ cute.

A game of follow the leader.

Some time in the sandpit.

And airplane spotting.

And lunch.

I can’t get enough of this spring weather.  It’s amazing how much I appreciate good weather after a bout of crappy days.

We plan on spending the entire spring summer out of the house, probably at this park so I made up a list of some things I thought were useful.

Auntie Jo Jo’s Park Playdate- Picnic Tips

(more of a reminder to myself)

As mentioned, go with a friend or 2 or 3.

Go in the AM, it’s much cooler and the kids are refreshed.

Pick a park that is not crowded, safe, and easy to watch and care for kids.

If you happen to go to a park that may be a little too much for you, pack-up and leave,work with your friends as a team. Setup the “zone defense”. Come on sporty girls, you know what I am talking about. Tag team your kids and help each other out. I can’t tell you how many times my friends and I have come through big when a little one starts to get brave and stray. (Or take off in a full sprint as you are carrying your infant newborn in the baby sling ).

Don’t forget the sunscreen.

Put the sunscreen on BEFORE you leave the house.  I can never wrestle the girls once I am there.

Take a large blanket for a picnic style. I love this brand and so do my friends.

Bring trashbags. Poop diapers and yogurt containers need somewhere to go.

A change of clothes is always a must, for the poop mishaps.

Keep a backup supply in your car. This goes for pretty much anywhere you go. Wipes/diapers/clothes/water.

When packing a picnic/lunch, share in the duties.  For example, there were 5 kids between the 2 of us. Coordinate who brings what. The rule is that kids always want what their friends are eating. I will bring 5 string cheeses, 5 yogurts, 5 fruit bars. My friend brings 5 pbj’s, the pretzels, and grapes. This way everyone can have a well balanced lunch and it will save you a ton of tears!

Sometimes when we are a large group, we even have pizzas delivered directly to our park.  Aww….. the life.

Don’t be afraid to overpack. If you bring a cooler then whatever you don’t use can be used again later on.  Toddlers in action get very hungry, very fast. And the longer you stay…the more you need. We spent 3 hours at this park!

The same rule goes for toys. My friend brought enough chalk and I tried to supply buckets and shovels. Trust me…other kids show up and want to play with them too. Share in the love and bring plenty.

Write your names or some sort of “family brand” on all of your toys. I know I can never remember what I packed that day. And the little boy’s (who was picking his nose) shovel sort of looks like mine….sort of.

Best rule ever: pay attention to your kid. There is nothing worse than an absent minded parent as their kid is throwing sand in my kids eyes.

Have fun! If you do, so will your kids.

Any other tips?

I am sure there are plenty that I am missing, I would love to hear how everyone else does things!

Happy Spring everyone!

We had so many choices for this week’s theme for I Heart Faces: Bundled Up.  With all of the snowfall, we enjoyed many fun outings and I had a clear favorite for my entry.  This is one of Lil S plopped down in our backyard. I think we had 12 inches at the time this was taken. She actually did not enjoy the snow as much as her sister did, we were lucky to catch her smiling.

Check out more Bundled Up entries.

We have been battered by rain this weekend.

We somehow found a way to still take a few minutes and jump in some puddles.

I love that through drabby rainy days we still get lots of happy smiles.

We took advantage of our Spring like weather this weekend with a trip to the park and our first picnic of the year.

The day was perfect.

It’s funny how relative the weather can be. It’s 55 and I am feeling like it’s a warm summer’s day. Ask me how I feel about 55 degrees in October, I will tell you that I am not going outside and to hand me my favorite sweatshirt.

Lil S has an obsession with airplanes.

She hears them no matter how far.

It’s very cute.

The girls are at the perfect age where they like to sit and eat.

I need to get a more colorful-spring like picnic table cloth.

This yukky brown is so last winter.

They are really at a cute sister phase right now.

Bye-bye winter, see you next year.

The Princess and Knight invite from Polka Dot Design set the tone and everything just snowballed from there.  Honey-Do and I worked very hard to track down large cardboard boxes that he painted. My amazing friend JJ helped me build and decorate the Castle, I found these plans from Mr. McGroovys. I used some pink sheets we had in the house to make the roof of the castle!

Most of the decorations were repurposed from things from my house, past parties, and a few trips to Michaels. My friend JJ made the cupcake stand….which is one of my favorite details of the party!  I made all the cupcake toppers using a simple clipart on a word document that we then cutout and attached to toothpicks. I ordered the cupcakes from my supermarket bakery and added shiny sprinkles.

My babysitter is an absolute doll and agreed to dress up as a Princess and help with the party. She greeted the kids as they came, helped them find their costumes, decorated crowns with them, and read them a story. The kids loved her.

We had a pretty Princess throne made at the end of the Castle. I pimped out a simple canopy from IKEA.

I sewed each of the kids their own personalized costume. Knight costumes for the boys and Princess Dresses for the girls. They were all given their costumes, crowns, and wands/swords as their party favor to take home.

……and a belly ache from all the sugar.

I loved planning each and every minute of this party. We love our girl and we are blessed to have her in our life.

Happy  3rd Birthday Princess!

Thank you to JJ for being the most amazingly creative and supportive friend! Thank you to Princess L, you were awesome.  Thanks to Grandma and Baba for all the food and all that you do.  Thank you to our wonderful playgroup family who came to celebrate our special day with us. Thank you to Honey-Do for humoring my obsessiveness when it comes to these parties. And thanks to my two little girls who fuel the creativity I have, it’s all for you. I know it’s cheesy but it’s true. (We could turn this into a country song).

Cali Family and Friends. Miss you and love you. Wish you were here or wish we were there.

Blah, blah, blah. Off to dreamland to obsess over my next project.

Filed under: Modern Parties, My Girls, Photography, Table Settings, Toddler Party Favors ]]> http://paintchipsandcupcakes.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/princess-knight-3rd-birthday-party/feed/ 12 Auntie Jo Jo BLOG Party #1 PrincessM1 Princess and Knights TableF Princess Decor Princessknightstable Greenlanterns PrincessKnight Cupcake Tower Princess Party onceuponatime moreprincess Knight cupcake princessart PrincessKnightParty PrincessL group Royal Knights2-1 candles http://paintchipsandcupcakes.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/before-and-after-princess-ms-pad/ http://paintchipsandcupcakes.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/before-and-after-princess-ms-pad/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:09:42 +0000 Auntie Jo Jo http://paintchipsandcupcakes.wordpress.com/?p=728 ]]>

I am joining the party over at Transforming Home. I am a bit late but better late than never!

When we initially did this room over, it was slotted as a guest room with intentions of becoming our first child’s bedroom. We really wanted to only have to paint the room once so my “honey-do” made me use a gender neutral color. We chose the color blue. It wasn’t exactly the most gender neutral color but I was banking that we would have a boy and if not, I would make it work. Well, we had a girl! “Honey-do” would not let me out of my promise of not making him repaint the room so I had to work with what I had. It was a challenge at first but I pulled it off! It is one of my favorite rooms in the house and more importantly Princess M loves it!

Lots of formica and carpet.

First coat of blue…didn’t love this one so we changed it.

A much calmer blue. Better.

Filed under: Honey-Do, My Girls, Room Renovations ]]> http://paintchipsandcupcakes.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/before-and-after-princess-ms-pad/feed/ 4 Auntie Jo Jo diy_web 164_6485_2 173_7398 176_7633 176_7654 177_7778 177_7792 178_7881 187_8782 4_19_07 004 Jamie and Larry's Trip 4_07 060 Jamie and Larry's Trip 4_07 058 Jamie and Larry's Trip 4_07 057 http://paintchipsandcupcakes.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/snow-days-2010/ http://paintchipsandcupcakes.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/snow-days-2010/#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:51:52 +0000 Auntie Jo Jo http://paintchipsandcupcakes.wordpress.com/?p=2511 ]]> Fun in the snow!

(click on any picture to enlarge)

This is week’s theme for I Heart Faces is “We Heart Kisses”. I love this photo of my friend and her new baby, it’s one of my favorite photos I have taken! Here are some more kissable entries, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Miss M is turning 3 next month! I can’t even believe it!  And of course turning 3 means another party!  I vowed that this year I was not doing a party. I was doing a repurposed, no gift, play group only, no frills, no fuss kind of day.  I was determined to keep it that way. Well it looks like my level of determination needs some work.  Although I am keeping the party to just M’s playdate (she hasn’t been doing well in large groups)…..I can’t help the rest. I need to plan and do more! Why?  Because I have issues. I have obsessive, compulsive issues. So let the planning begin.  Although I have not ironed out the details, I will tell you that it will involve pretty princesses and handsome knights! Exciting right?  In the meantime, here is a look back at M’s 1st Birthday Bash!

She had 2 celebrations. The first one was with family on vacation in California. I was a bit crazy. Very pregnant and I handmade almost everything for the party. My suitcases were full of things that I brought with me to pull it all together!

My first attempt at a fondant cake, pretty lame, but still cute!

And then we had another celebration at home!

My 2nd attempt at a fondant cake, a little better….

In case you missed the 2nd Birthday, you can check it out here.