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Like a record, baby…
We went to a rock-star birthday party yesterday for a little boy turning one. I thought it was kind of a weird theme for a little guy but it turned out to be totally cool. Plus, his parents are into metal and wearing black so it was perfect for them. After all isn’t the first birthday party more for the parents anyway? They had silver balloons and black plates, a star-covered birthday cake and pizza. The kids got little guitar-shaped bubble dispensers and temporary tattoos. Hard-rock music played in the background turned low. It was all good.
I love the theme now and can think of a ton of things to embellish it. Record-shaped cookies! Karaoke? A guitar-shaped cake! Decorate with old vinyl records and blank cd’s! The possibilities are endless. I tried to influence the party-throwing mother but she wisely kept me out of it. We’re old friends so she knows I tend to get a little over-excited about theme parties. She wanted to keep it mellow for her little guy and that’s always smart. I could learn a lesson or two from her.
So anyway, I had fun wrapping my present. I got the little guy a rock-star t-shirt and a book. I was going to just wrap them in a box with white paper and draw flames on the side but markers and crayons just didn’t seem rock-star-ish enough for me. I don’t own an airbrush yet, so that was out. I decided to make my present look like a record.
Drawing concentric circles can slowly drive you mad. I didn’t mind it though because a long time ago I took an art class in college and the professor made us draw a circle. You’d think that would be the easiest lesson on earth but it was actually very hard. I think it took us a week. Then we had to draw tiny lines back and forth across the circle. I wish I had that old circle art. In the end it turned out to be pretty amazing. I just remember how humbling it was to take your time and draw a line back and forth across the page. We weren’t allowed to erase or start over. It was a lesson in patience. I’ll never forget it. It’s the imperfections that make art interesting.
Bug made a pizza with the other disc that I used for the bottom of the package. Which just goes to show you that this kind of wrapping is very versatile. All you need are two round cardboard circles and some sharpies and you can decorate them however you want. A pizza, a swimming pool (with a rubber ducky as an accent maybe?) a record, a giant chocolate chip cookie…endless options! I think I’ll be wrapping presents like this again. I didn’t do the best job on the center art but it’s still a cool idea, I think. Who knows, sharing it here it might help somebody else get outside the (present-wrapping) box.
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Flower Fields Forever!
We cruised on down to the Carlsbad flower fields yesterday. It was exactly as fun as it was the last time we went. In fact, I don’t even need to write a new post about the trip because my old post already says what I want to share. Except this time Bug is so much bigger and we brought a whole passel of different friends with us.
I say passel because the trip started out as a simple get-together with just Bethany and me. Then we thought Bethany’s mom might like to come since she was going to be in town so we pushed the trip back a couple of days to include her. Then I invited my friend Jen and two of her three kids (her oldest was in school). Next thing I knew I was talking to my mom on the phone and she said she wanted to come too! My mom brought my Grandma and CC and the rest was history.
What can I say? It was a merry bunch. I’m glad everyone came. We should have brought cake and called it a party!
Last time Whoorl and I raced our bugaboos down these dusty roads. This time the kids didn’t need strollers and the one kid that did have a stroller climbed out of it like a monkey half the time. Who could blame her? Great big expanses of space like this are made for running! As a mother whose kid fell asleep at bedtime that night about two seconds after she put her pajamas on, I say we could have just gone for the running. Exercise in the great outdoors works wonders for the disposition.
Of course the flowers were lovely too. I really wish this was a pick-your-own-flowers type of field. How fun would that be? I would come home with armfuls of these beauties.
If you live around here, I strongly recommend a visit. It’s great for kids and you really can’t take a bad photo. Well, unless you are aiming at the caution tape they use to cordon off the flowers from the public but that’s what practice is for.
I love the sweet pea maze. Unfortunately, we chose to do it last and by the time we got there everyone was starving. Mazes and hungry kids are not really a good combo. Correction: I should say mazes and hungry kids and hungry moms are not really that great together. After hitting dead ends and having to backtrack several times we started worrying that we would have to send up a flare for food. I did actually have the forethought to pack snacks but then I left them in the car parked three parking lots over. I hate it when I do that.
We did make it out of the maze alive. But by then all diets were thrown out the window and we bee-lined for the biggest, most unhealthy lunch we could possibly find at the Ruby’s right nearby. I wonder if Ruby’s gives the flower fields some sort of kick-back because I seem to remember having a big fat cheeseburger last time I was there too. Maybe every year they make the maze bigger and more complicated so that people come out famished. Just kidding. I’m sure it’s all in my mind and has everything to do with the time of day we were there.
So anyway! That was fun. I know there is a ton more I wanted to say about it but I’m blogging brain-dead again.
I’ll just end with my favorite photo and say I’m sure we’ll be going again next year and probably inviting even more people. Make your reservation now! Just kidding…sort of.
