Thank God for Time!

Because I'm over my hours for this week, I got to sleep in a little later and come to work at 1pm today (always a blessing to rest a bit more, since I don't do so well during the night hours.) And even though I was super stressed about the article that I have to write for the organization's newsletter (in case you're wondering, it was supposed to be on my boss' desk by today) I no longer have to worry because I now have this weekend to work on it! So grateful for the extra time. Now I can hand something in that looks like an adult actually put it together! Yay!

Now I'm heading out to party in true holiday style! Tonight is my church Christmas party. Woot woot! Hopefully somebody else will take some good pics that I can snag from Facebook to show you guys! Chat with you mañana!!


P.S.-- I haven't told you guys about last weekend's drama with the baby's mother (gosh, I've really gotta work on everyone's blog names!) but just an update that he didn't go pick her up today (she supposedly has a virus, but I don't fully believe that) and we probably won't see her for her 1st birthday this Sunday (I had a feeling this would happen and it's why I suddenly stopped talking about the party, I didn't want to continue planning and then be disappointed in the end.) I'm not happy about it, but right now, even this couldn't knock the God-High that I have. CityLighters, I'll see you in a bit! And if you have a camera, make sure I'm smiling before you snap! Lol.

Paper Products (e.g., invitations)

If I had more time, I'd use my crafting supplies to hand design the invitations. As it is, I'll be sending two sets of invitations: Traditional paper invite as well as an evite. I'll be putting together the evite later today and I'll be searching for ideas online for the paper invite tonight. I'll let you know what I find.

For the thank you cards, I've already looked at Ebay for some rubber stamps and some cuttlebug dies. But with all that we're spending already, I'm not sure if it's worth it (although in the long run I'll be saving since I'll use the supplies for other projects.)



Let's see as we get closer.

Guestlist - Part 3

T and I have agreed to take not-so-nice people off of the list. I didn't want to, but T insisted that he'd rather have a nice party where nobody feels uncomfortable than to please a few people who aren't nice enough to warrant us going out of our way for them.

Guestlist - Part 2 (AKA: It's Not Easy Being Green...)

I 've had a couple of hard days.

Planning this party had been very enjoyable... until I wrote the guestlist post, then it became another thing on the To-Do list. After happily sending off the post (most of my posting is done by email from my phone - Windows Mobile Baby!) I began to envision all of the guests enjoying themselves at an amazingly coordinated party (listen, don't judge my optimistic thoughts, ok?!) but as I thought about it more and more, my mind was overtaken by a different set of thoughts. The party was still ridiculously amazing, but the guests weren't all that nice to me.

For you to better understand why ANYONE would not be nice to ME (of all people) and why we'd invite not so nice people to the party, I have to explain a little about my relationship with T.

When I was 17 years old, I was heavily involved in a youth ministry group at my church. On one particular day, I went to the house of a friend from the group. T was there. We spoke a little and that seemed to be the end of it. A few months went by and one day said friend Instant Messaged me asking if she could give her cousin my contact info. T and I emailed back and forth a couple of times and eventually hung out and started dating. We were together from June '01 to April '06 and there were normal ups and downs. Our breakup wasn't the nicest and left hurt feelings on both sides. T and I spoke very little for a little over a year. During this time some of T's family took free reign with trashing my name. One particular family member specifically took joy in spreading some really nasty (and false) rumors about me in our neighborhood (I live right around the corner from most of T's family.)

In May '07 T called me and told me that he was going to be a father. I was surprised, but happy for him. We began to talk again and our friendship was 100% platonic. He and the baby's mother were having problems and around this time, they agreed to split up. We began to hang out pretty regularly. In December the baby was born. Around the same time, I realized that my feelings for him had begun to grow. In February '08 we decided to try our chances at a relationship again. Fast forward to party planning time. Although T and I have put the past behind us, some people still believe the falsities that were said about me and others feel that I interfered in T's relationship and am the reason why it ended, so I'm understandably not jumping for joy at the idea of being trapped in a room with them for even a short time.

I'm going to discuss my feelings with T, but I don't see any options other than helping to plan the party and just not going. (Le Sigh)

Food - Part 1

Not much to be said. I 'm all for burgers and hot dogs. Nobody seems to agree with me. I guess we'll be serving real food. We've gotta decide what to serve and who's cooking... I think it's too much work...

Location - Part 1

Choosing a location isn't as simple as you'd think. We don't want to do it at home since his house isn't large enough even for just family (he has a large family and I'll be inviting my family also - notice, it's growing already... Somebody stop me!)

Since the beginning we've considered two locations: Community Center near T's house and Community Center near my house (I live around the corner from a large part of his family so this would be easiest for them, especially for his grandmother who is in a wheelchair.) Last night though, we pretty much came to a decision that either of these locations was too big since we wouldn't be doing all the extras that we'd originally discussed (check out the post on extras for details.)

We've agreed on another possibility, but don't want to tell anyone unless we confirm it.

Any suggestions for a 1st birthday party location in NYC that doesn't cost $1,000,000,000,000 and isn't ridiculous to travel to by public transportation?

Guests - Part 1

The guestlist is going to be interesting. Of course, we'll invite all (ok, most) of T's family. I'll invite some of my family (mostly those with children close to the baby's age, but also those who have grown to love T over the years.) We have a few friends at church who also have babies in the same age range, so of course we'll invite them. Then, of course, we HAVE TO INVITE (I feel it growing again) all of my friends who've had parties for their kids and have invited us! Ummm, I think we might have to cut some people before we even start, but I'll see what can be done.

Decorations

Decorations are pretty simple. Since the cake is already decided, we'll either go with Elmo 100% or a Sesame Street theme.

EDIT: So I looked up Elmo and Sesame Street decorations online and was shocked at how much I would have to pay for 8 measely plates, 8 cups, and 8 napkins! This is ridiculous! This is as good a time as any to let you find out something else about me. I'm all about the DIY (although I will admit that I have a lot of half finished projects at home.)

I'll be trying my hardest not to spend an extravagant amount on this party, especially since Christmas is right after. I'll see what I can come up with and get back to you.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Cake - Check!

UPDATE: HERE'S THE CAKE:

SOURCE



Although not usually the first thing to think about when planning a party, I'll start with the cake.

Last night as mom and I were headed home from the evening service at church, we stopped to look at the cakes in the window of a local bakery. Mom noticed an Elmo cake which immediately made me think of the baby (she has a large stuffed elmo that she just can't get enough of.) I went in and asked how much such a cake would cost, and pleased with the answer, I took the baker's business card and told her that I'd probably be getting back to her pretty soon.

I told mom the price and she agreed that it was worth it, so I called T for his thoughts on it. He was immediately excited about the party again! Mom even agreed to pay for the cake if we actually end up throwing the party! Yay!

I'll try to stop by the bakery tonight to get a picture of the masterpiece to share with everyone.

Planning a B'day Party for Baby

source


After going back and forth for months, we've decided to throw a birthday party for T's daughter. The idea previously seemed unlikely at best because of conflict between T and the baby's mother about visitation. His visitation was so sporadic that we weren't sure if he'd have her for her birthday (or even the week after) so we couldn't really invite anyone. Since we're expecting a formal order from the court by the end of the month, we decided to go ahead and plan something slightly larger than cake and ice cream at home. With my love of lists, I got right to work!

Party Planning Basics:
Location
Guests
Food
Cake
Decorations
Extras and Goodies (e.g., goodie bags)
Paper Products (e.g., invitations)

Not a ridiculous list of stuff to pull together, but I'll admit that I do sometimes have a habit of making seemingly simple projects grow into humongous undertakings... For my own sanity, I'll break the party planning into multiple posts (I've found that working on one thing at a time really helps me to keep things a reasonable size.

If there's anything I'm missing from my list, feel free to let me know!