Winnie the Pooh Party ... Sean Turns 4!

The big Winnie the Pooh party! Ever since Halloween Sean talked about several different party themes. The front runners were Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Star Wars and Winnie the Pooh. I thought for sure he would settle on Star Wars, but nope... the classic won! Needless to say I was thrilled. What momma doesn't want her 4 year old boy not to grow up?

 

We went cheap on the invites, and sent them via email. I found some cool graphics on Google Images that were posters for the Winnie the Pooh movie (2011), and dropped in the wording in the middle. Love it.

 

And what was so cool about this party is we have SO MUCH Winnie the Pooh stuff in our house. Sean's nursery was Pooh themed, and he has honestly loved Pooh & his friends his whole short life. He now owns all of the Pooh characters in plush (thank you Grandma Shelly for Kanga! She was the last one we were missing). And he's collected all of the Pooh pez. And I didn't even capture all of the little plastic Pooh characters we had thrown about the house.

Our bathroom was transformed into Pooh's "Thotful Spot". The framed photos are in our bathroom, and normally feature black & white photos from Ireland. Instead, I downloaded scenes from the Winnie the Pooh movie from Google Images, printed them out and placed them in the frames. I love them so much I think they are going to stay for a while.

The front door featured a faux wooden sign pointing in the direction of the "100 Aker Wood", and I transformed our family room into the Hundred Acre Wood. The trees were quickly created from a big roll of painter's craft paper, and a couple sheets of green poster board. We did have to put one staple into each tree to keep it from falling. Painters tape just wouldn't do the trick. The banner was homemade, and I love how it fit perfectly between the trees just like the banners do on Winnie the Pooh (honestly did not measure! God was kind to me). The pictures on the wall above the banner are normally snapshots I've taken, but again I downloaded movie posters and added some of my favorite Winnie the Pooh quotes. I also printed photos of Sean with Winnie the Pooh & friends down at Walt Disney World. He has met them in person on several occasions, so it was only fitting.

 

The week before his party I worked a little bit every day getting everything prepared and cleaned. It really went so smoothly, and everything literally fell into place. That is until the night before the party and I settled in to make these cake pops. I was originally going to make these Pooh ones, and glad I didn't because I would have certainly hurt someone in the process. I decided on these bee cake pops I found through Pinterest. Yes, they are super cute. And yes, they were super yummy (I ate at least half of them myself). But honestly, just like his dinosaur cake last year -- they were a pain in the neck! At least half of them were ruined because they fell off the stick as I was coating them in the candy. I made Jeff promise to stop me from trying to make these again. Never. Again.

 

The treat bags were a cinch. Brown craft gift bags, and I printed out another movie poster and added each kid's name. My Godson Luke is modeling the Pooh ears I picked up from Party City. And the kids loved playing pin the tail on Eyeore. This was a download from the Family Fun website.

The plush birthday Winnie the Pooh is actually Luke & Mackenzie's. Grammy/Grampy & Jeff and I bought this for them for their first birthday down in Walt Disney World. The perfect centerpiece to the food table.

I got a number of appetizer ideas off Pinterest, including Piglets in a blanket, Veggies from Rabbit's Garden, and Tigger's Tail Mix. They were a huge hit! Sean's cake is hard to see in this photo, but it is uber adorable. No, I didn't make it (remember, I promised I never would again!). It's from the Jewel, and I can't get over how perfect it was!

The best part of the day? All our family & friends. This is me and my mom & sibs... from left to right: John, me, Mom, Mike & Kari.



Hannah didn't disappoint on the cute factor!



Sean wasn't too thrilled about taking photos with everyone. He is a horrible model right now.
Starting at the top, going left to right: Uncle Mikey...Aunt Sue & Uncle Frank...Aunt Kari & Hannah (Kevin is missing!), Second Row: Grammy & Grammy...Grandma Shelly...Uncle Todd & Aunt Kim
Third Row: Christopher... Drake (Sean's friend), Reed & Christine... Uncle Johnny, Marisa & Corey.



Big Greninger Family... Kevin is in this picture! And yes, I am wearing a Tigger shirt. Sean wore a Piglet shirt, and Jeff was Pooh!





Big Hipelius Family



The day was magical. Truly. Honestly. Everything came together without an ounce of stress, and Sean loved it all. My little boy is four years old. Hard to believe.

“If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.” -- Winnie the Pooh

Photo of the Day... Party!

It was loads of fun. More pics and details and stories to come...

Happy Birthday, Sean!!

I am so darn blessed! My little guy turned 4 today... hard to believe, time sure does fly by. Everyone tells you that but when they are itty bitty you can't quite grasp it.

Today I can.

Feels like yesterday we were racing to the hospital when my water broke, freaking out when the doctor said "emergency C-section", and hearing his sweet cry for the first time. God is awesome because he sent us this amazing little man. He's growing up so so fast.

Happy Birthday, buddy. I love you.

Thanksgiving Countdown

It's happened, people. Thanksgiving is less than a week away! Um, summer? Where did you go? Weren't you just here a few weeks ago? Now we're wearing jackets and cozy cable knit sweaters.

Don't get me wrong. I love fall. Absolutely adore it. The best is when you can wear a sweater with a pair of capris and flip flops. I'm a "like the best of both worlds" kind of gal. I like to have my cake and eat it too... with a cherry on top.

Anyway, I digress. This post is not supposed to be about me. It's about this little boy you see here, and that funny looking turkey he's holding. Last weekend his Grammy gave him a very cute Mickey Mouse advent calendar. And he wanted to put it up immediately. It was a struggle. Lots of whining. Crying. And a trip to the naughty step. {Sean, BTW, not me}. Once he settled down I explained that we had to celebrate Thanksgiving first before we could start counting down the days to Christmas. So he innocently asked, "well, when is Thanksgiving? Do we have a Thanksgiving calendar?"

We didn't.

But I made one lickety split! Enter some construction paper, popsicle sticks and a little red pipe cleaner for the gaggle thingamajig. Sean worked on coloring the popsicle sticks while I cut and assembled the turkey (sometimes called a chicken... Sean doesn't understand the fine differences in his poultry). Now, every day before we eat breakfast we grab the next popsicle stick, slap a little double-stick tape on it, and shove it into the turkey. Then while we're eating breakfast we count up the remaining sticks.

Guess what folks? There's not many sticks left.

If you look closely the gaggle is literally hanging on for dear life. Glue wasn't doing the trick. Yesterday I finally whipped out the stapler. It's not going anywhere now. But he looks like he's been in a mean hockey game. And further yet, we thumb-tacked him to our art center in the kitchen. The poor fellow clearly looks like he's been shot in the head. He's seen better days. Perhaps next year a pilgrim's hat will be in order and some laminating.

PS. Check out Sean's camera smile. He's such a three-going-on-four year old.

Halloween 2011

Twas the night before Halloween and all through the house, not a creature was stirring... except for JACK!

The poor creature started out as a lovely pumpkin. Large and plump with a perfect stem. He lived in the trunk of our SUV for about a week before coming into the house. At which time we promptly sliced into his pumpkin head. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was that.

Sean couldn't really decide if he liked gutting and cleaning the pumpkin. Honestly, these pictures were about the extent of his involvement. Except of course he decided he wanted a "kinda scary" jack-o-lantern. I obliged...

The end result was worth the effort. I had so much fun carving this big guy. And even more fun snapping pictures of him in the dark. 

Then the big day arrived. The day Sean had been talking about for a month. By noon he was ready to get into his costume, but I occupied him until two o'clock. Darth Vadar could not wait any longer.

Come on, admit it. You're imagining the VW commercial, aren't you? We did teach him how to harness the force to turn things on. Unfortunately our Ford Excursion doesn't have remote start.

Around 3:30 the animals arrived. A little lion named Mackenzie. And a little monkey named Luke. Sean's baby cousins. They were ready to go!

We attempted a group shot, but with three little ones under the age of 4... it was hard. Nevertheless, moment captured.

Then the big boys came, and Sean's friend Drake (a couple years older) was dressed as a Storm Trooper. Perfect compliment to the dark lord. And then all of a sudden Sean was running alongside the big boys trick or treating... leaving his baby cousins in the dust.

They didn't seem to mind. 

Down the block Drake wanted to run off and catch up with his big brother. His mom and I stopped him briefly, but then said, "yea, you can go ahead." He hesitated, clearly thinking through his decision, then smiled and said, "no, I'd like to stay with Sean." OMG. One of the cutest things I've witnessed in a long, long time.

Then it wasn't too many houses later that Sean saw his baby cousins, and wanted to trick or treat with them. So we parted ways with Drake, and Sean played the big cousin role showing his little cousins the ropes. 

Our neighborhood is VERY active. We had over 200 kids come to our house. Yowza! The streets were swarming with costumed characters. I love Halloween. The kids have a blast. There's no presents involved. And the chocolate. Oh, the chocolate. 

First Day of Preschool

Twas the night before preschool, and all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even Sean Thomas.

He snuggled up with Mickey like it was any other night. The kid really is laid back. I'd like to think he gets it from me. If I remember correctly when I went to Kindergarten I didn't even want my mom to take me. "I'm going to walk to school with Sandy & Tommy!" I always thought that was funny, but now that I'm a mom I can totally relate.

Come morning, he was ready to go. No hesitating. Let's go mom!



My two guys walking hand in hand into the school. You would think this would make me tear up, and while my heart did swell a little the tears weren't there. Honestly? I was secretly happy that I'd get two and a half hours to myself twice a week!!

His coat hook is the #3 yellow triangle. Just in case you were wondering. I think from now on all of my things will be organized by color and shape. It makes life so much easier.

His teacher is Mrs. DeCecco, and we love her!! I recently found out her husband grew up in Cherry Hill, NJ and went to Camden Catholic where we went to high school. If any of my jersey friends are reading this, do you know the DeCecco family? She said he has younger sisters who might be my age. The name rings a bell.

Sean goes to Little Saints Preschool which is part of St. Thomas school here in Crystal Lake (our parish). The preschool is physically located at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton on the south end of town because the main school doesn't have any room for a preschool.

After I picked Sean up from his first day of school, he & I went out for a special lunch to Corner Bakery. Yummy! And he got to pick out a special treat. The monster cookie. Life really can't get any better than this.

So... if you haven't noticed I'm getting caught up on my blog stories. Mostly I want to write about these happenings in our life so that I can document them in my Project Life book. More on that in a few weeks. I'm almost caught up here on the blog. I have Halloween left, and then a few miscellaneous photos here and there that I've snapped this Fall. Stay tuned.

Sean's Big Boy Room

Sean's first night in his big boy room - August 26, 2011

One of my big projects this summer was decorating Sean's big boy room. All summer long we were working on potty training, and this was his reward. He helped me as much as he could, but most of the time I worked by myself.

This is one of our spare bedrooms, and since we were moving Sean to this room we didn't need to finish by any set time. He stayed in his "baby room" until it was complete. One of the nice things about doing this room is we have Jeff's old bedroom set from when he was a kid, and it's in near perfect condition. A little orange oil and elbow grease it was like new.

We did re-cover the platforms on the bunk beds. This black and gold plaid was the original fabric. I picked up a nice heavy cotton in navy blue with white pinstripes from Joann Fabrics in the clearance section. As good as new, I tell ya!

Before this was Sean's big boy room, it was a spare bedroom that was decorated in red, white and blue. My mom & dad's lake house up in St. Germain, WI had a Americana room and when they sold the house all of those boxes came to my house. We have an amazing Americana quilt that is cross-stitched by my Grandma Greninger. Such a treasure! But not for little boys. I really liked the idea of keeping it red, white & blue... but with a nautical slant. Jeff loves lighthouses so we had a little lighthouse table lamp. And wouldn't you know it, he had a ship's wheel mirror too?

One of my favorite little projects was this big letter S. I was inspired by all of the DIY map projects on pinterest. And since we were doing a nautical room, I searched for a depth chart map that was cool and interesting. I kept trying to make it relevant to Sean... but living in the midwest doesn't lend itself to cool bodies of water. This one is off the coast of Massachusetts. I love the different shades of blue. I simply printed this off on my inkjet, and then modge podged it to the letter.

It's kind of hard to tell in these pictures, but the walls are painted with blue stripes -- a very light blue, almost white and a shade darker. LOVE the stripes.

The quilts on his bed are from Pottery Barn Kids. I browsed the internet until all hours of the night trying to find a reasonable substitute for these expensive puppies. To no avail. Jeff finally said, "Are these quilts he'll have for the next 5-10 years?" And I replied, "Until college!". Done.

The cute nautical red pillow covers are from Lands End. I picked these up at their warehouse clearance event up in Wisconsin this summer. I was so excited when I saw them! They fit perfectly in his room.

The curtains were custom-made. I had the red canvas fabric from when Jeff & I made custom roman shades for our bedroom, and I picked up the white canvas from Hobby Lobby. I didn't trust myself to sew these, and found a seamstress online who lives about three blocks from my house. Done.

The bench underneath the window is from the house up north. Very cute, fits perfectly and very utilitarian.

Oh, and that wall lamp under the top bunk? My favorite addition to the room. It was inspired by this porthole wall sconce from Pottery Barn Kids. It's no longer available, but this summer it was $80. Yowza! So again I was on the hunt for a less expensive substitute, and happy-chance on this round bulkhead lamp on amazon. Jeff installed it, and added a dimable switch so Sean can read in bed if he likes, but mostly we use it as a night light. I love, love, love this in his room.

See that awesome ship's wheel mirror? Perfect. And that lamp in the corner fits nicely too. Most of the decorations in the room were here before, with a few new additions from Hobby Lobby. Including this cute little boat frame with no picture in it. Please tell me I'm not the only person on the planet who has empty frames like this in their house?

The lighthouse above is from Hobby Lobby too. You gotta love their 50% sales. The buoys and the fishing tackle are from there too. We were at Hobby Lobby so often between Jeff's birthday party and this big boy room project that Sean would ask every morning, "so, are we going to hobby bobby today momma?"

 

I originally struggled with how to fit everything into the space. It's not a small room, but it's certainly not huge either. One wall is entirely closet space and the other wall is pretty much all windows. Between the bunk beds, and the dresser/hutch and desk I was troubled with where toys could be stored. I picked up this nine cube storage unit from Target, and once I got it assembled I realized I could place it inside one side of the closet. And the nice part? I can close the door, and the mess disappears!!

Finally, the piece de resistance was the silhouetted lighthouse painted on the wall right inside the doorway. Uncle Mikey designed and painted this for Sean. It was really hard to photograph, and I couldn't get the whole thing into the frame. But trust me, it's awesome.

Oh, and Sean loves his new room. He settled into it very easily. And while he likes the whole nautical theme, he can't help but add his own touch. Like these Star Wars clocks he received from Grandma Shelly. Love it. I have a feeling the room will change and grow as Sean does.

But no matter what, the quilts are staying.