The Party

We are in our new home and mostly settled! It's a wonderful feeling to be on our own again, not that we aren't so eternally grateful for Rob's parents' generosity these last two years but there's nothing like being independent.

It was definitely an extremely crazy week! Packing all of our stuff (I'm still can't believe how much we crammed into just two rooms) and having a birthday party in the same week is tough enough but then add being 6 months pregnant to the mix. I was definitely running off of stress. It helped immensely that I seriously hardly put an ounce of time into Nolan's party (and also my amazing mother that came over when I was too brain dead to do anymore packing). It was really a challenge for me to let go of all the fun details, decorations and food I was originally going to do but I knew it would put me over the edge and let's be honest, he's 3 years old, like he cares.

When we first found out that we could move in to our new place Saturday (which was the same day as his party) I was going to just cancel it but Nolan would not stop talking about his "Party with all the kids". It almost broke my heart at the thought of telling him there wouldn't be a party, so we moved it to Friday morning. I'm not kidding when I say I kept things simple. We ordered pizza and played at the park. I did make cupcakes, however, and also gave out little goody-bags to all of his friends, but that was it.

They all had a great time. Sadly, I took very few pictures (as usual). This time I had an excuse. A party with 10 three year olds running around can be a bit hectic.

I forgot the candles. That's his favorite part, too. 

The only bite he ate. I guess he's more of a cake fan.

I love the huddle of kids surrounding the presents. It gets me everytime.

This is a good as it gets when we ask for a smile. Usually he won't even try to move his mouth.

We are making progress.

Some things we hope to accomplish now that he's three is getting rid of that blasted binky. Even though it is strictly for bedtime...it's time. I'm also hoping he'll come around to the potty. He's starting to want to go before baths, which is a huge step since he used to scream no at us. I would love for both of these to be done before the baby comes so I have a little over 13 weeks. 

We do so love our boy. He really is such a sweet little guy. He's matured so much and is such a good little helper. He understands so much and I love the fun conversations we have throughout the day. 

Nolan's never really had a nickname but I do often call him "My Sunshine". It's been our little song ever since he was born (as I'm sure it is for most parents). That song is so fitting. He truly is the light of our lives.

Train Invites

Here are the invites for Nolan's birthday party. I didn't have any envelopes so I thought I would just make a postcard.

The train image is from a vintage Happy Birthday banner that I found garage saleing, we just scanned it. I brightened and changed a few of the colors and added the words and the cloud of smoke. I was going for a vintage train theme.

I found the postcard template rummaging through a bunch of my old magazine rip outs. You can download it here from Martha Stewart. I will be using this a lot in the near future.

I printed it off on off white paper to give it more of an aged feel. I used my home printer so I had to print each side individually and cut them out and then glue them together because they just weren't matching up when I'd print them back to back.

I wish I had made an extra to keep and show how cute they turned out. I loved them. I was wanting to keep with the vintage train theme for the party but a huge majority of the decorations I had planned just didn't get done. Feel free to download the images and use them for yourself. There isn'a a huge selection for train invites out there unless you like Thomas the Train, which Nolan adores but me, not so much.