Simon's Second Birthday Party: Dinosaurs

WCan you believe that Simon is two?  It seems like just yesterday he was a little baby and then again it feels like he's been in our lives forever... funny how that works!


We had a dinosaur themed party for Simon last Saturday.  We decided this year to keep the party small.  It was really fun having this big first birthday party, but it was so many people and we got so many gifts... which was really nice, but Simon doesn't need that many gifts every year :).  We invited Simon's aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and great-grandparents.  I stuck with VistaPrint for invites and ordered these:

Those that came were: Mom, Joe, Lindsey, Dad, Janet, Grandma Barb, Grandma Rose, Grandpa Charlie, Ken, Amy, Matt, Tanner, baby Oliver, Amanda, Lou and Vail.


On the menu we served pulled pork (Dan made), hot dogs (veggie for Lindsey), mac and cheese, salad, corn on the cob, corn cake (last minute addition by Dan), fruit salad, slaw, and Rotel dip.  We had beer, soda, and punch as well.


For dessert I made chocolate and yellow cupcakes with cream cheese and chocolate buttercream (did both combinations), colored sugar cookies in dinosaur shapes and my mom made Simon the cutest dinosaur cake.


Simon had a wonderful time at the party and got so many great gifts which he's been playing with ever since.  I love our little families.


Here's some pictures of the fun day.

My mom created this beauty!

She also made this adorable dinosaur cake.  Such talent!

Simon enjoyed eating the chocolate rocks (I did too, they were super good!)

Simon taking a ride with Great Grandma

Simon with Great Grandma Rose

I ordered this giant dinosaur balloon... Dan had to take it apart to get it to fit in the car

Simon and Vail playing ball

Picture with Lindsey... I got that maxi dress for $8 on Amazon - I was pretty proud of that!

Dessert table

I thought this banner was pretty cute

Cupcakes with little dinosaurs on top

Simon's HBD banner my mom made last year

The sugar cookies I made

Look at that giant balloon!!

Simon checking out his new baby cousin Oliver.  I'm not sure he knew what to think of a little person that small!

My Birthday Recap

Yes... I have now officially been 30 for a whole week... and I survived!

I wanted to share all the amazing things that happened for my birthday.

It all started last Tuesday with a special dinner with my mom, sister and boyfriend.  We went to Quincy Street Bistro.  It was delicious.  Part of the reason we went to this place is when I was born my parents lived on a house on Quincy Street (in South City).  So of course my mom drove by the house and forced me out of the car to take a picture...

We drove around a bit more - looked at the Jenny tree - and then headed home for cake

My mom used her new stand mixer to make me this delicious lemon cake with homemade lemon butter cream icing and lemon curd filling - so yummy!!

On Wednesday I went to my final day of work for last week (took off on my birthday and normally off every Friday).  After work I went over to Michelle's house for our normal Survivor watch party.  She was so sweet and got me a birthday present - lip gloss/chapstick and Uganda Be Kidding Me by Chelsea Handler. 

She also got cupcakes from Jillys

Ugh - I just had this all typed out and deleted all my text from here down... grr stupid blogger...

Jilly's monthly cupcakes were Wonka themed for March.  I forgot the get the descriptions before they switched to may cupcakes - but the one on the left is the Veruca Salt and the one on the right I believe is the Willy Wonka.  The left one had peanut cake with caramel filling and the right one was funfetti cake with marshmallow filling.  They were both so good!  Although waaaay too much icing.  I'm not a huge butter cream icing fan, while it's good - there's too much.  I mean check out that picture below... the green and purple one had like two inches of icing - no thanks!

The Wonka one had an everlasting gobstopper on top which was just a gobstopper with nerds.

 

This brings us up to Thursday, my actual birthday.  I was treated to some lovely cards in the mail.  (not pictured the one Keith sent me since it came a couple days later)

I thought I'd throw this picture in too - it's one of the day I was born with my grandparents.  I was their first grandbaby.  And yes - I took a picture of a framed picture.
 

 

I was supposed to get my hair done, but that ended up not working out.  So instead I went to a couple of stores and bought a few things.  Then headed up to my dad's house.  My dad actually made birthday plans with me almost three months ago (so cute).  He got AMAZING tickets to the Blue's game.  First we went to Joe Bucks for food and then headed over to the game.  It was a fantastic game to go to as the Blues scored 5 and Oshie got a hat trick.  Since we were on the end with the net when people started throwing their hats  some didn't make it onto the ice and I ended up with a free hat!

Yes this was the actual view from our seats and sadly I didn't get my camera out fast enough to capture ALL the hats that were out there.

On Friday I started out by getting my hair done.  I was really ready for a change but I didn't want to cut everything off - so I decided color would be a better way to go.  I haven't had color in my hair in quite awhile.

Here's the before

And here's the after - much healthier and I've finally gotten used to looking in the mirror and seeing a different color :)
 

This picture was taken after Happy Hour and more drinking... so yeah... just throwing that out there

After hair I met up with Susan and we got our nails did.  It was quite the pampering day for me.  I got a manicure and pedicure.  I got pink glitter on each and I LOVE it!!
 

Taking good picture of your hands is tough

After our nails we went to Happy Hour at Patricks (formerly Pujols).  It's my happy hour place of choice.  Susan came along with Dan, Andy, Dave, his girlfriend, my dad and Janet.  It was a really fun time and I'm so happy so many people were able to join us.

Overall I had a wonderful birthday weekend - I'm so happy that so many people made it special for me.  Maybe being 30 won't be so bad... haha

15 thoughts about turing 30

Yes.. I'm turning the dreaded 3-0 in just one short day... and honestly I think I'm still in denial about it... it's like I know it's happening but I don't actually believe it to be happening...

So I thought I'd put together a list of thoughts I've been having before I turn 30  **Originally this was going to be 30 thoughts before turning 30... but I don't have 30 thoughts... when I was struggling to get just 15 I knew there was no way I was getting to 30... but hey 15 is half of 30 so that's good right?

1. While I know I'm only getting a year older it feels like so much more... the jump to 29 to 30 is like a big one.  And it's a stupid reflective age - like where did I see myself by the time I was 30... and let me tell you it's not quite lining up there my friends.
2. I'll just get this one out of the way real fast... a lot of my 'issues' I have is related to kids.  Yes, I want to have them, but now that I'm almost 30 it's like WHEN??  And that only gives me like 10 more baby making years... and what if I can't get pregnant and all those scary kinds of questions that are related to the kid issue.  I really don't want to talk too much about it because I already have with some people... but it's scary... yes there's plenty of time, but yeah, that thought is there...
3. My boss told me that turning 30 was way tougher than any other milestone birthday... so if that's the case it's all downhill from here, right??
4. Looking back my 20s have felt like a LOONG time... I mean I've come a long way in 10 years from a college student to owning a house and being all adult-like.  So hopefully my 30s feel loong too, because I can tell you I'm not ready for 40s yet.
5. I'm a homeowner by the time I'm 30 and I did it pretty much on my own - that's pretty awesome.
6. Is when you hit 30 when you actually really become an adult??  Because I don't think I'm ready to be a full, real adult yet.
7. I know a lot of stores say they card people who look under 30... that means I still hope I get carded for awhile at those type of places... I can't possibly look over 30 at this point... right??
8. I still have my whole life (again) plus some before I'm retirement eligible... how's that for depressing?
9. I'm happy I'm getting closer to 'older and wiser' than 'young and stupid'
10. Wrestlemania turns 30 this year too...
11. When you were younger it was like all the actors and actresses and sports dudes were older than me... and now we're getting to the point where they are younger than me (or around my age) how weird... although the Blues just signed a new guy who's 19... 19! He's just a kid!
12. I didn't used to understand why people would freak out about turning an age... I get it now... I totally get it.
13. I think I should have stopped getting zits by now... that's a teenage problem
14. When I was born a tree started to grow at my parent's house.  Somehow along the way it was deemed the 'Jenny Tree'.  When my parents moved from that house they dug up the tree and replanted it at my Grandparents' house.  My grandparents have since moved from there, but we drove past it last night.  And my goodness that tree is so much bigger.  As a kid it was a good climbing tree, but now those branches we used to climb up to are so high you couldn't climb that tree anymore... it was pretty amazing to see and think about.
15. Can I just turn 29 again?

Here's to the last day of my twenties!

Birthday Tattoos

Today is my sister 21st birthday!  I have a hard time believing it myself just because it makes me feel so dang old... I mean I remember when she was born and now she's an adult... sheesh... where does the time go?!?

I could make this a mushy, gushy post about how awesome she is and such... but I'm pretty sure I've done that before... I will say that moving back home was one of the greatest thing I could have done for our relationship.  Over the last two years we've grown pretty close in my opinion and she's one of my best friends. 

Several months ago I knew I wanted to do something special for her birthday this year - after all she's turning 21... We couldn't do the traditional shot book on her birthday because she's sober... so I tried to think of other fun things you can do when you turn 21... which I could really only think of going to a casino... which I've never really done - sure I've been in them, but I've gambled probably about $2 in my life... so... not really the expert there.

Lindsey has been getting tattoos around her birthday each year since she turned 18 and I usually accompany her and sit there for support, which she really doesn't need but I do it anyway... that gave me the idea that we could get a tattoo together... and not only that we could get matching sister tattoos.  I asked her if she liked this idea months ago and she quickly agreed.

A few weeks ago we finally decided on what to get... mostly we google searched... we ended up deciding on this one:

We also decided on getting it on our feet - I've always loved foot tattoos, but I've heard they were painful... but this seemed like a good reason and motivation.

Lindsey and I took a lunch and went down to TRX to make our appointment a couple of Fridays ago.

And then I tried to put it out of my mind as much as possible because I can get super anxious.

On Friday we went to the appointment and I told Lindsey I had to go first... the reason being if I was sitting there watching her get hers done I would sit there and just get more nervous and anxious...  She's so nice and happily let me do that.

As far at the tattoo part went... well it hurt... it hurt pretty bad in my opinion, but it wasn't like she needed to stop... I guess it was bearable... some spots hurt way more than others  I made lots of funny faces and really tried to zone out (not really happening) but lucky for me the artist was done in less than 15 minutes... so score on that one.

Lindsey didn't even flinch during hers... she's such a bad ass haha.

Overall I'm really happy with how it turned out and I'm going to love having a tattoo that I share with her right there on my foot.  I have had to wear sandals all week while it's healing, but luckily I'm mostly inside (I'm waiting for someone to ask me why I'm in sandals in November)  I love the tattoo...

I'm sure you're wanting to see some pictures!

Last time my feet will look like this...

Mine after it was done (you can see that I was bleeding on the upper part of the S)

Our feet together

It was hard getting a good angle for both of us but there you have it - I got my left foot done and she got her right.  I think the light it making mine look a bit thicker, but really it's not.  We also got different colors.

Happy Birthday Lindsey - we now have a permanent thing to look at to remember each other... and your 21st birthday!!

My birthday!!

About two weeks ago was my 29th birthday.  Let's not talk about the fact this is the last birthday before I turn 30 ::shutter::

How did I spend my 29th birthday?  In a car of course!  We drove back from DC to St. Louis on my birthday.  This equaled 15 hours in the car in 7 different states.  When I put it that way it sounds awesome huh?

We did stop at Hillbilly Hot dogs along the way.

in Huntington, WV

That makes the THIRD time we would eat hot dogs on the trip...

Here are the hot dogs we got:

Ala Cheesy Beefie Weenie:  American Cheese, deep fried weenie, nacho cheese, bacon, mac wedge (deep friend mac and cheese), chili sauce and shredded cheese

Pineapplelachian Dog:  Beef weenie, bbq sauce, country ham, shredded cheese, topped with crushed pineapple

Out Wayne Dog:  Nacho cheese, bacon, sauce, jalapenos, onions, and shredded cheese

and a corn dog (which hard to believe was my mom's first one...)

There I go with the silly face again!

This place had all the Hillybilly details...

Like a table in a bath tub

and a redneck fire alarm

They even gave me a piece of pink birthday cake.

But that was just my actual birthday day...

On the Friday after I got back I had a happy hour with close friends and family at Patricks - my go-to happy hour place.  I had so so much fun with everyone.  Those that came out - Dan, Susan, Andy, Dad, Janet, Michelle, Ben, Kyle, Liz and Ken - I had so much fun I forgot to take any pictures - whoops.

But Michelle did give me an awesome Jilly's Cupcake - Strawberry Cheesecake

Just this past weekend I went shopping with my mom, grandma, sister and aunt and I got four dresses... 3 from grandma and the other one from Lindsey. (for some reason I can't find one of them online... but it's multicolored, and light and has a skinny belt)

All from JCP

Other gift... my mom is planning on getting me some new tennis shoes - which will come in handy at the gym!

My brother got me a t-shirt at Ben's Chili Bowl which I like a lot.

Finally, Dan gave me a new charm for my necklace... a dragonfly

It's from Tiffany... it came in the blue box and everything... so sweet.

Overall - I had a wonderful birthday this year... now all I have to look forward to is 30 (weep)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, I've totally been out of blogging... I might get back into it... just using a site with limitations doesn't make it very fun!  Plus, idk, I just haven't been in the mood to blog as much recently.  I guess we got in spurts of doing it a lot and not doing it a lot... this is a non-writing spurt!

But I just had to stop on in for a very special day... MY BIRTHDAY!  In all honesty I wasn't super excited about my birthday this year.  I think it was a combination of what happened last year and just an overall reflection on life.  But I will say that whatever that anti-birthday funk I was in has been totally and completely lifted.

It all started last Thursday when my amazing step-sister took me to see Hunger Games.  As you might recall, I read the books and loved them.  I was soo super excited to see the movie and we did at a midnight showing at West Olive theater.  Of course most of the people there were in high school, but the movie was amazing and you should all go out and see it!  She also got me an adorable salt and pepper shaker kit of a ladybug and leaf... I can't wait to put it in my (someday) kitchen!

Then on Saturday I went shopping with my grandma, mom and sister.  We go every year.  As you may recall from past years I've gotten dresses and this year was no acception.  Let's see if blogger will let me post pics...

Okay the pictures won't load - but I'll include links, does that count for something?

This dress is polka dotted with ruffles and a cool bright belt - I'm so excited to wear it!

I can't wait to go out in this one.  That bright color and cute style will be so much fun!

I am wearing this dress as we speak.  I'm loving the pockets and pattern and high waisted belt - swoon.

Finally, potentially my favorite from this day is this one.  I just love how it's dressed up but casual and super flattering... I'm in love.  I actually wore this dress on Saturday night.

Speaking of Saturday night... my friends are the absolute sweetest and threw me a surprise party with all my friends and family.  It was so touching to have them do that.  I really can't express it.  It meant so much and it was perfect.  I had a wonderful time and it was good seeing some people I haven't seen in awhile.  It really meant the world to me - so thank you friends for organizing it - I am so lucky to have everyone in my life.  I felt so loved and cherished.

On Sunday evening my mom took me, Keith, Lindsey, and Sarah to dinner of my choosing.  I wanted to go to City Diner and get the best French Toast in the whole wide world. (seriously, if you like french toast and haven't tried theirs you're missing out!)  After dinner (or breakfast in my case) we went to Ted Drewes for some ice cream.  It was the perfect little evening.

Today... my actual birthday... has been pretty great as well.  I woke up to find a gift on the table that included the sweetest card from my mom.  I'm serious it totally made me tear up.  My gift was this little guy...

I finally have a working digital camera again... I'm so excited to start using him I can't stand it!  (That's the Canon Powershot ELPH 300 HS if anyone cares)

My birthday celebrations will wrap up with a celebration with my dad's side of the family sometime this weekend AND the St. Louis Blue's game tonight which I'm totally stoked about.  I am seeing it with a boy, but that's really all I'm going to say about that for now.

All-in-all it has been a wonderful birthday this year... thanks for anyone who participated in any of it.  It means the world to me.

Final Birthday Post.... for this year

It's over a week past my birthday so I think it's about time to wrap up my birthday celebrations. And don't worry, this is a happy post.

First up here's the cute stuffed animal Chad got me... he reminds me of a bath toy or something... but isn't he cute?
He also got me beautiful roses
My mom also got me some beautiful flowers...
Look at this beautiful flower!!
She also got me cupcakes and the were delicious... she got me a lemon, red velvet, cookies and cream and chocolate peanut butter. Of course I didn't remember to take a picture (I ate some of them too quickly!) However I will show the cute cupcakes I made for opening day. These are the ones that I left at home (aka the not as good looking ones) but I still think you're able to tell they are baseballs.
My mom also got me a some other gifts. Here is part of the gifts, two pairs of shoes. She also got me (surprise, surprise) a dress, but I didn't want to take awful pictures with my iphone so I'm hoping to get Chad to take pictures of it as well as my Old Navy dresses.
And last but not least here's the gift Chris, my mother-in-law got me. How cute is it? I've made the switch to it, and I'm digging it.
So despite the downer post, but my birthday ended up being pretty good.