Love it or List it?

So - its been insane here. I wanted to update on the great things that happened around Mother's Day here at Casa Baritz (think Walking and saying Mama.) I have video to share and I am so very excited...

But that is for another day...because we might move..or add an addition. We've seen about 25 million houses, met with an architect and have a potential buyer coming over today. I have no idea where we will end up right now.

Will we stay or will we go?

It been very stressful and time consuming and I'm hoping that by the end of the week we will have some decisions if we can get a buyer with no agent on either side at a price we like - well then we would leave. If we can't - I think we are back in fuzzy territory - to build or buy. The eternal question.

Wish us luck. I'll be back to check in later this week.

Hopefully I can post the adorable videos of success too.

Logan's Party Decor

Logan's birthday party theme was animals with a nice gold, navy and orange polka dot color scheme. It started with the invitations and I built off the rest from there. 

I handmade all of them - starting with the text layout in photoshop. I then printed them out on glossy photo paper and layered them on navy card stock, placing both the invite and card stock on top of the orange polka dot paper. 

Next, I used my cricut to cut out animal silhouettes from gold glitter card stock. I adhered them to the invitations using glue dots. 

The final invitation stack was quite tall - 35 invitations tall to be exact.

I punched out circles from the extra paper and sent them off to my best friend in Austin, TX. She then sewed all the circles together to make the garland you see on the dessert table and other places around the room, like the smash cake and beverage cart.

I decided to spray paint a bunch of plastic animals gold to continue on the theme. I used them for the centerpiece, table accents and on top of the cupcakes.

I utilized gold animals for the party favors too. I super glued mini animals onto baby food jar lids and then sprayed both animal and lids gold. After filling the jars with m&ms or puffs (depending on the child's age) I punched out a label and wrote each child's name with white pen. The children got an age appropriate animal book as well.

Finally, I took extra invitation paper to make a "1" banner for Logan's high chair. I simply strung the pendants together on yarn. The finished product can be seen on the highchair in the final picture.

At the last minute, I used photoshop to print out to create an orange polka dot template and I put a picture of Logan from every month on the template. I printed them at Rite Aid and strung them up for over the main buffet table. 

I added in some balloons and it turned out quite nicely, if I do say so myself. 

What was your child's first birthday theme? Did you make any decorations?

Happy Belated Birthday, Logan

Logan turned 1 about 2 months ago and we celebrated with 2 parties. We wanted to host his birthday at home, so decided to split up our friends and family.

On Friday night, March 8th - Logan's actual birthday - we had our family over for cake and pizza (Logan and I ate chili).

After dinner, Logan got his big birthday present - a Hape Wonder Walker. He immediately took off running down the halls with his new wagon. (Sidebar - this is his favorite push toy by far. He can climb into the bed and it holds his weight. He also loves to put stuff in the flatbed and push it around.)

Next it was time for cake. We have a tradition in my family to let the birthday boy or girl attack their own cake, while stripped down because this part can get messy. I made him a smash cake for the occasion. I used Cherrybrook Kitchen cake mix which is dairy, soy and egg free. I used Duncan Hines Classic icing because it is also dairy, soy and egg free. Thank god for allergy alternatives!

After singing to him, we allowed him to dig in.

Except that he wanted no part in this cake. Maybe it was the large amount of people crowded around him, maybe it was being naked, who knows, but he didn't want any part of it. Cory finally helped him figure it out. 

The next time, it was time to reboot and do the party again. This time during lunchtime with Logan's friends. We set up a ball pit in the basement - a huge hit with the 1 year old set.

We also set up every pushing/walking/riding toy we could think of for the older kids. They had a blast!

We decided to give Logan a cupcake this time. We thought he might not be so intimidated by the cupcake....but he was horrified when it was time to sing. My nephews photo bombed our family picture making it the best shot of the party!

After we calmed him down, we fed him cake and took the obligatory family photos.

We also got a shot of all Logan's Hall Mercer friends. He has known these kiddos since he was 6 weeks old! Wouldn't it be great if they were all at each other's weddings one day? Am I the only one who thinks like that?

I'm baaaaaaaack....

Shame Spiral.

I've been MIA....for 3 months. MONTHS. oops.

A lot has happened and I did have good reason for going away. We went on a few vacations - Aruba and the Poconos. Logan turned 1. I stopped nursing. We started talking about redoing our kitchen. Then started talking about moving. The weather became incredible. Logan was sick for a month straight.

All great excuses that did lead to being busy, but here is the deal: I was burnt out and not sure what to write about. Who was I writing this blog for? What was I trying to accomplish? Did I even want to blog?

After much thought, here are the answers.

Me. Still not sure. Yes.

I like blogging. I like writing my thoughts down and keeping track of the amazing moments and projects that get accomplished day by day.

I don't like sticking to schedules, applying pressure or keeping up with daily posts.

So I'm gonna easy into this big, bad world of blogging again a little at a time. I'm going to update on big things that happened while I was gone and anything of note going down currently. I'm going to write about what I feel like writing about - not what I think I'm supposed to write about - because this is for me. And my husband....and maybe a few friends and family who want to check in every now and then.

So there you have it.

I'm back.

Allergies

Logan and I got another blow today - a positive skin test for egg allergies. I had just started to feel comfortable with the Dairy and Soy free diet for him and me, when this one hit.

It's partially my fault I guess. I was talking to my former pediatrician when Logan did his 9 month check up (at the same time he had croup and was getting a nebulizer treatment) about solid foods and how Logan was going to be trying the high risk allergy foods before his first birthday. She told me that it was not recommended by the AAP (a false statement actually) and that I better have an epipen and benadryl next to me and that if I wanted advise on how to introduce foods, I better talk to someone else because use was against it.

She was rude and misinformed, but it was enough to scare me out of trying new things when my baby was struggling for breath in my arms as it was.

So when we went for Logan's 11 month allergist appointment and told the story to our allergist, she agreed that we should do the skin test, not because he was at an elevated risk, but because the pediatrician had put a seed of doubt in my head that would have made me feel awful should he have a reaction after all.

The good news is that he tested negative of for elevated risk of peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shrimp. I'll feel more comfortable feeding him those foods, but have gone into overdrive thinking about the egg allergy.

The hardest part is knowing there is 40% chance that he doesn't actually have the allergy because thats how many people have a false positive. He is too little to do a food challenge, so we will test him again in 6 months. In the meantime, we will be extra cautious for him.

Now any suggestions on a dairy free, soy free, egg free birthday cake?

Dreaming of: Dairy

Logan has Fpies. I can't eat Dairy or Soy because of it and so this week this is what I've been thinking of, none of which actually need labels....all of which are mouthwateringly good.

Toy Review: B. Toys Squeeze Blocks

For Chanukkah, Logan got some squishy blocks. I just got around to giving them to him but here we go.

Battat B. Elememosqueeze

I discovered Logan's obsession with knocking things over when we were in Florida. Whenever we would build a tower of block, Logan would crawl from wherever he was to attack and knock them down. 

While we used wood blocks there, I liked the idea of him having squishy blocks to play with while he is learning the art of building. He's into throwing things and wooden blocks hurt when they make contact with your body. Plus these are soft and nice for teething!

I actually think Cory might like these blocks as much as Logan. He loves to build the towers high and see Logan come knock them down.

They are a simple classic with a soft, colorful update. There are fun shapes to play with and the blocks each have a different letter and animal on them. Eventually, we'll be able to use them to teach Logan his letters and animals too. I love them and so do Cory and Logan. - 4 stars from each of us!

DIY: Arranging a Wall Collage

Soooo...Baby with a temperature equals no post yesterday, but two posts today! And Logan is feeling better --- bonus!!

Alright, so first I spray painted my frames, then I made templates with them, now it was time to actually put them on the wall and get'er done.

I taped the templates to the wall, arranging and re-arranging multiple times until I got the layout I wanted.

Then I marked the location of the nail on each template. I did this by first measuring the location the nail head would go on the back of the framing and using the level to find the exact measurements on the template marking the spot with a dot.

Next, I layed out the frames on the floor to make sure that they looked good in my grouping. I was really glad I did this because I noticed that too many similar frames were clustered together. I looked for easy swaps until I settled on a layout I liked.

Not sure what happened to my camera during these shots.

Final step was hammering the nails in and leveling off the frames. I put masking tape under the location for each nail so that the plaster on the walls wouldn't flake as much.

So here is the final project (ignore the random place holder stuff)....

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Mute Monday: Mailed it!

Dreaming of: A Pop of Pink

With a windchill of 8 degrees, I've been dreaming of Spring. This year I'm really into pink, not bubble gum pink or ballet pink but NEON pink! Here are my key picks for the upcoming season!

1. 3.1 Phillip Lim Dress // 2. Gap Belt // 3. J.Crew Sperry Top-Siders // 4. Diane Von Furstenberg Clutch // 5. Blank Denim Jeans // 6. Splendid Bikini // 7. House of Harlow Sunnies // 8. Rebecca Minkoff Diaper Bag

Gettin' Sticky With It

This past weekend was really busy, like I mentioned earlier, but Cory and I did manage to do a family activity with Logan - a contact paper wall.

It was super easy to make, a little contact paper, some painters tape and some foam shapes from Michaels. I probably spent $6 on the whole thing. Here is is in the setting up stages:

Logan picked up on what to do immediately. He kept sticking and unsticking his fingers and he loved to pull the sports balls down too. About 3 minutes into playing he learned to stick the shapes up as well.

I decided to tuck it behind the door in his room so we could play with it for the week. It has held up surprisingly well actually! Since his room is sports themed, it doesn't bother me at all that it is always out and it gives him something to do while I put away his laundry.

I'll probably take it down soon and put it away for another rainy day (or maybe a snow day if we ever get one!) I think I might add some feathers and fabric into the mix next time too. Who knows...maybe I'll even add it to the activity list for his birthday, which we are hosting at home.

It was a really fun activity for the whole family and it was just awesome to see Logan explore something new. I get to do activities like this all the time for Logan but Cory really got into it too. I think we might do some artwork this weekend as a family since the weather forecast is bitter cold!