Fairy Party

Happy 5th birthday to my sweet little niece, Jaina.  I had so much fun throwing her a little fairy party!

I spent the week before the party decorating fairy wings, and making peter pan like costumes for the boys.  I  made paper mache toadstools, sewed fabric banners, and made 9 little toadstool stools for the kids to sit on at the tea party.  You can just see a little bit of all of this peeking through the pictures with the kids.  As usual my grand plans of taking pictures of everything once it was set up was thwarted by the inevitable mad dog rush that happens right before party time.  Thank goodness that in addition to the fairies showing up our good friends Jeff and his daughter Emily who couldn't stay for the party came early to help Dale and I set up.   We had an absoulutely beautiful day in  Irvine Park that made the perfect fairy setting!

My nephew Gavin wore his little fairy wings and costume the whole time.  He was so adorable toddling around in it!

Jaina and her little friends having "tea".

The tea party table with toadstool stools!

The fairy table with toadstool seats, before it was set for tea.

Giant bubbles for the fairies to ride on!

Give a boy a sword and there is no end to the fun running around that they will have!  Plus it balanced things out nicely with the wands for the girls.

The kids hunted for little trinkets and treasures and added them to their fairy jars!  The boys recieved small knights for their jars.

There were lots of laughs and giggles when Dale suited up for the Gnome on the roam game! (the kids had a good time too!) It was basically tag but if the kids touched him with their wand or sword he had to freeze and throw out candy!  The kids  loved this!  The adults cracked up!  

 I made a miniature version of the party for the fairies and set it up behind a tree for the kids to find.  With all the running around I thought for sure they would find it and left it as a surprise.  I realized once the party was over...it was never discovered!  We led Jaina and Gavin to the area and they "found" it. I really  love this sweet little picture.  It's one of my all time favorites.

4th of July In America

The 4th of July in Modjeska Canyon California.  My Dad, Rusty Richards, leads the parade every year on his horse, Traveler.  I don't live in the canyon anymore but we go every year serving the important role of parade viewers cheering them on since it seems most of the canyon residents are in the parade.  Modjeska canyon is a dead end so you get to see most of the parade twice;  once as they come officially down the canyon and then again as they make their way back up to the park for a hot dog roast.

If you've got a dog or a horse or you can deck yourself out or anything that rolls in red, white and blue, your'e in!

Happy 4th of July!

Up Up and Away!

How lame am I?  I have spent the last hour checking the live flight status map for Lufthuansa airlines, watching Becky's plane fly over Germany and Italy.   She's off to start her one month adventure in Italy, studying abroad with her school.  I know she is a 22 year old woman, but I am still me, her mom, and I felt weird walking away from my baby girl at the airport as she headed off on her own to a foreign country for the first time.  She is traveling alone and will arrive the day before the rest of her group.  Travel to Italy by yourself?  No problem for my girl.  I on the other hand have that other personality; infused with the worrying nature bestowed upon me by my mother and enhanced with a decade of work in the safety field.  It is hard to undue such carefully crafted training, but it has been a work in progress since the day she was born. 

This girl likes to fly!  And I am not just talking about airplanes.  She loves to try new things, to feel that fear and to overcome it.  I have seen her do it hundreds of times now, often while I am comfortably settled in my cushy chair in the audience.  And I have developed certain coping skills.  Well one coping skill; I drink!  I pound a glass of Chardonnay just before show time and I am good to go.  

So once again she is off on some new and exciting adventure.  And I hope I encouraged her to do it and enjoy it and to make the most of the opportunities that she has.  I think I did.  And the traveling by yourself to a foreign country thing?   I think I was mostly cool about that.  I peppered her with little bits of safety advice all day yesterday while she was packing, and the whole way to the airport, but I was definitely cool.  The last communication I  had with her yesterday was the text message that she sent to her dad telling him to go buy me a drink, so I am fairly confident that I pulled off that cool thing.  

Arrivederci Rebecca!  Avere un grande tempo!  Which I hope means farewell and have a great time!  I am super proud of you.  I love your sense of adventure, your confidence and your independence!  Also I see on the flight status report that you have landed and isn't it about time that you email me????

Car Party! Vroom!

Hooray for Gavin!  My beautiful baby nephew turned ONE!  Isn't he just the cutest?




He is a really happy little guy who is so much fun to be around.  He likes everybody and gives big sloppy hugs and kisses.  He has a special fondness for anything that he can roll, so in honor of this very special occasion I was delighted to host a car themed birthday party for him!


There are lots of fun things to do when it's a car party!

I made some fabric flag banners:  Blue, green, red, yellow, teal, and black and white checkered.

(I always forget to get pictures when I am rushing around but here is the treats and toys buffet after it had been hit up.)  I thought the pool floatie tire on the wall was a nice touch!  The big race car checks look so cute with all of the other bright colors.

I knocked myself out on these oreo wheels (haha).  

But I also made some on sticks dipped in chocolate that were a hit.

 

I Painted a few simple car pictures for decorations.

These little wooden shaped cars were unpainted at the dollar tree, a little paint and vroom!  I Loved these gas pumps I found so much...I couldn't resist!

We had a few fun games for the toddler crowd.  The babies liked playing with the magnetic board and peeling the tic tac tow vehicles on and off the velcro.  A sticky dart game and a tire bean bag toss turned out to be cute decorations.

I missed getting any pictures of the towering stack of cupcakes I had baked, but Gavins mommy (my niece) Melody made him the most adorable nascar teddy bear cake!

Didn't it turn out cute?

Happy 1st Birthday Sweet Baby Boy!

Becky's CD Release Concert

Hooray for Becky!  My daughter Becky had her CD release concert on the 5th of June and she did an amazing  job.  Peter Dobson, Sue Cross, and Michael Fickling all played with her in the concert and all of them play on the CD: Put Up Your Dukes by Becky Sanders. They were fantastic.   It was another lovely proud parent moment for me to get to go watch her.   I love to see her perform, and this performance with the band was especially fun.   Her cute stage presence and little bits of comedic chatter made for an all around entertaining performance.  I am super proud of that girl.  And now she finally has the CD up for sale and it is on  I-tunes and CD Baby, so Yeah!  You go baby girl!  And hooray for me.....I spawned that!

Ooops the post that didn't post...Easter 2011

(The devine Miss Jaina Rocks the Party at Easter)

Is there anything more precious

Than little girls in dresses

When they celebrate spring

By deciding to sing?

With the nozzle for a hose

She strikes a rockstar pose

And the whole world's a stage

When it's spring and four's your age!

(I have such cute videos of Jaina that day but I couldn't get them to upload :-(.....maybe one day)

Plus more fun!

 Easter Egg Hunt!

 Rubber Ducky Races!

Becky Loads up in the morning!

What's In A Name?

    What’s in a name?  My dog is about to turn 16 years old. Her name is Mischief, and she has lived up to it fully.  With every transgression, chewing something up, accidents where they shouldn’t have happened, my sister would give me a hard time about it, ”well what do you expect you named her Mischief.”  Then several years later she got a puppy, she named her Lacy.  The first time she left her home alone in her puppy crate, the puppy got out and my sister came home to find that she had shredded her antique lace tablecloth, Lacy indeed!  

    It’s always a little funny when someones name matches their occupation or hobby.  I had a professor in college by the name of Dr Sailor with a great big sailboat that he was kind enough to take a big group of us out on one day.  You see people with funny names every once in a while; Dr Smiley who’s a dentist, the unfortunately named medical doctor, Dr Kwak.

A couple of nights ago the promo announcement for the CBS evening news made me laugh so hard I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote it down verbatim.  The newscaster announced:  “He said he did it!  New developments in the Weiner scandal, tonight at 11:00!”   Cracked me up!  Yeah he even managed to get elected to congress with a name like Weiner, but the poor guy never really had a chance!  Also these are trying times to be a newscaster.