One more day

Until my Birthday!!

Another year gone. I'll be 27. That was always my 'number' of the bridge from young and carefree to Adult. Holy frick I'm going to be an adult. The fact that in a month Dave will be 28, well, that's freaking me out and come next birthday I might be drunk rocking myself in the corner.

I'm not really sure what I will be doing tomorrow. I usually try to get my friends and family together for a nice dinner out. However being in Alberta I don't have any family and only a few friends here. Maybe I'll convince Dave to take me out for dinner.

I got spoiled today and shopped till we dropped.... or well, until my gift cards ran out. haha! Dave got me 3 stacks of paper and a whole lot of glue for my crafts! I'm so excited! I'm off to do some creating now!! Hope you all have an awesome evening.

Swagbucks update

I figured I would do a bit of an update on the whole Swagbucks thing. I posted about it the day I started here, which was Dec 10th. Now, Dec 23rd, I've earned almost 800 Swagbucks! (as of this second I have 795) With 450 Swagbucks I can get a $5 Amazon gift card. Now, I'm sure some people are thinking, that's a lot of bucks to get a $5 card. But think about it, I'm doing searches, things I would normally use google for, plus, instead of just typing in facebook, twitter or even blogger I search it instead. It's one small extra step, but at this point I've almost gotten $10 in free amazon cards!

Now, here's the other exciting point. For every person I refer, signs up through me, and earns Swagbucks, I earn them too! Yes, I am excited about that. haha. Of course, if you want in on some of this free gift card goodness, and who DOESN'T like free, you can sign up! Just click on the little picture below here and it will take you right to the site to sign up! When you sign up, you immediately get 30 Swagbucks to start.



Also, for those that sign up this week if you enter "SignUp2010" right after registering you get a bonus 20 Swagbucks. Just let me know if you need any help with signing up or anything else and I will try to help you out as much as I can!



p.s. did I forget to mention if you shop online, there are sites you can get to (like best buy) through Swagbucks and earn 2 Swagbucks for every $1 spent. I've found Dave's Birthday present request on there, cheaper then in HMV, and I plan on ordering it for him.... because we both benefit!

A little bit of a giggle

I was trying to get austin to lay still in bed with me. He didn't want to. I had a brilliant idea to bring up youtube. I did a search for funny dogs or funny cats, I can't remember which one, and eventually found a video. He thought it was the best damn thing ever. I don't think I've ever heard him laugh like this, and I replayed the video numerous times and he thought it was funny every time.

If you need a pick me up and a bit of a giggle here you are.

I'm stuck

Just a little cuteness for you.

Raise your hand if you're resourceful.

Ooh Ooh, I am I am! *raises hand*

I had the ultimate "holy crap am I ever resourceful" moment tonight.

We had a glorious date night, saw little fockers. After the movie I head to the bathroom. A few movies let out so the bathroom was busy, people are talking, toilets are flushing, water is running and hand dryers are blowing. I pee, and then realize.... There is no toilet paper.

I could politely ask someone to pass me some, but no one would hear me! I start to panic. What do I have in my purse. I start thinking..

Nope, I threw out the napkins I grabbed for the popcorn. Crap. I don't have tissues. Crap.

Then it hits me. Well, I know I have tampons. I could try those....

I start digging through my purse and I find the answer. A clean diaper. If Austin can pee in it, I'm sure it would do the trick for me.

Let me tell you. It does. haha. I had a smirk of "bahaha I am so smart" on my face while washing my hands and while walking out the door. My husband thought it was hilarious. I think it's resourceful.

What do I want for Christmas?

Why a Hippopotamus of course!!! Not really, but every time I hear the song (and I hear it often because *I.LOVE.IT.* I always think to myself the same thing at the same line.


Just after the chorus again, the song goes
" mom says a hippo would eat me up, but then
teacher says a hippo is a vegetarian."


My thoughts when I hear that line is - how much does that mom hate that damn teacher.

Now being a mom myself I can totally see me saying oh you can't have a hippo for Christmas it will become vicious and mangle you to death then you won't be able to see or jump rope or live. Because really, getting your kid a hippo for Christmas is probably the stupidest gift you could ever get them, you know, unless you own a zoo. (and I am talking a real live one here.)

But then!! That damn know it all teacher (who of course is good looking, young and skinny. You know the ones men's dreams are made of) just has to speak up and tell your child that a hippo is a vegetarian so now you can't lie to your kid and tell them they will get eaten alive by the stupid hippo.

The same hippo that will be stubborn and not want to move and will park it's ass on the most breakable item it can find in your house. And lets face it, come January 6th this:

"there's lots of room for him, in our two car garage
I'd feed him there and wash him there and give him his masage"

will not happen any more. You will be the one in there every day throwing that oh so adorable hippo it's 3 square meals, hosing the sucker down and cleaning up it's poop. As if you don't have enough shit in your life, you get a hippo's too. And masaging it. HA! Anyone with a husband can tell you how long the promises of a masage last! haha. You will end up with that job too. Next thing you know you are fantasizing all the ways you can off the hippo. If only it moved a little quicker you could just tell your kid it ran away from home and now you can't find it. Put a few signs up and forget about it. Nope! Not going to happen. You're stuck with that damn Hippo from Santa.



Sigh... I'll admit, I'm a little over analytical about pretty much everything. And for that, I'm sorry. But come on... that mom has to be hating her kid's teacher after that comment. And I think about that every time I hear the song.

Oh, and to Austin - No. You will never get a hippo for Christmas. Sorry buddy. How about a hot wheels car instead. Just as much, if not more fun. Just sayin buddy, it could be fun.

Almost done

this year. it is almost done. I can't believe it. What a crazy whirl-wind year we've had. Crazy. I have big plans for my blog in the next year. I want to boost the readers and really get myself out there more. Maybe a few more giveaways? Who knows! Anything is possible. lol.

I'm sitting here, both my husband and my child are in bed sleeping. I'm listening to christmas Carols, looking random things up online and learning cool new things.
--I've learned how to check the stats on my blog and see what has been searched to get to my blog. I've learned how many page views I've had. For example, I had 702 people come check out my blog last month. that kind of rocks! I had no idea that many people stopped by. I guess I should try and make it a bit more interesting over here. haha!
--I learned that the hottie dr Avery from Grey's is actually Jesse Williams and he was also in Sisterhood of the traveling pants 2. I also decided I love his eyes even more and his... Um.. I mean... uh... new topic!!
--I did some research about One for the money, the movie based on Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. I love the books, I really hope the movies don't disappoint.
-- I won aprox 20 swagbucks in all my learning tonight. That puts me up at 578 swagbucks. woo hoo!

Yup, that was my exciting night. My jaw is hurting. I would like it to stop hurting. I think it's been hurting since... June maybe? Not 100% sure. Either way.. it can take a flying leap.. stupid jaw.

The Saddest Thing ever

I heard Austin start to whimper then start to Cry last night so I jumped up and ran into his room. This wasn't a "hey look, I'm awake and want to cry come get me" cry, it was a "please come I'm scared" cry.

So, off I went. He was lying on his side crying out "Daddy! Daddy! Where you go?!?" then crying some more. It was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever heard. I tried to rub his back and soothe him but it was like he didn't even hear me. He just kept crying. I had to call Dave out of bed to come in, and once he heard Dave's voice he calmed down. What on earth am I going to do when Dave goes back to work? What if he gets a camp job and is gone for a few weeks.

Sigh...

Swagbucks

Hey! So I've decided to try something new. I'm trying out Swagbucks. It's free to join and you get points or 'bucks' for searching the web and doing surveys and stuff. Then you trade them in for stuff. You can get amazon.com gift cards. We'll see how this turns out, and if it doesn't work, then, well, it was free to sign up. lol. If you are interested in trying this out, you can join up by clicking the sign up on the widget at the very bottom of the page or you can click the banner below!. Good luck!

Adorable.

When we first moved here to Alberta we went on an ikea shopping trip. We bought Austin a set of lights for his room to use as a nightlight. We put them up yesterday. Night light it is not. We could start using them to light our entire house if needed. lol. Still, he loved them so we figured we would leave them on at bedtime. 8pm, we put him down. I went in to check on him and it was the most adorable thing ever.

He was sitting on his bed, and had undressed his monkey Bananas. He had the cream in his hand, still closed, and was rubbing Bananas tummy. Then when he noticed me he pointed to Bananas bum and said poop poop! He then proceeded to get out of bed, run to the bathroom and put Bananas on the potty. It was the most Adorable thing I have ever seen. I'm glad he's getting the concept of potty training.

Finally at 9pm I unplugged his lights since he was still playing with his monkeys and after some protest (ok a lot, he loved having his lights on) he finally crashed.

I think Potty training is going to make a return in our house. Hopefully the flu doesn't interrupt this time.

Mmmm Pizza!

*tune of Brady Bunch* Here's a story, about man named Murphy. He made a very different pizza store. You walk in, and place your order. Then you take it home to bake it on your own.... Ok that's all I got. haha.

So Last night we decided to try out Papa Murphy's Pizza. It came highly reccomended to us.

I got in the car and drove over there. BY-MY-SELF. Yes. all alone. This is the first time I've been out of the house without Dave or Austin since we got here, other then the 2 shoppers drug mart cold medicine runs. I think I need to go out alone more often. lol.

I must have had a look of panic or unkown on my face because they figured out I'd never been there before. lol. I quickly figured out what I wanted and ordered. Dave is a huge meat lover, and I'd been told about their double decker pizza with 5 meats on it. So I got him that one. I ordered just a regular pizza. They make the pizzas right in front of you, and it only takes about 5 minutes.

The pizzas come on a thin cardboard like plate that you can put right into the oven. (the girl said It won't burn I promise. lol)

I also made my pizzas a combo. BEST COMBO EVER! for $7.99 I got cheesy bread, 2L coke and... and... cookie dough. mm mmm mmm

Here are our pizza's all made and at home.

Mine. mmm peperoni Mushroom and bacon.

Dave's double decker monstrocity. lol

So, I throw the pizzas in the oven. I'm not supposed to bake more then one at a time, but if you know me, you know I'm a rebel... so by these pictures you can tell, I didn't listen. lol

The cheesy bread was devoured by us. It was yummy.

Now, my pizza had to be cooked at 425, and dave's had to be cooked at 375. So, My pizza was all ready and looking delicious, while his went into the oven. (and it puffed up so much!) While we waited for Dave's Pizza Austin dug in to mine. He loved it! Ate all of his piece.

Finally, Dave's pizza was ready. Holy smokes. This thing was big.

He only managed to eat half a piece it was that big. This is his omg I might explode look.

Then, I figured, heck the oven is already on...

In went the cookies too!! I over cooked them a bit, but despite that they taste yummy! (and I might have had some for Breakfast.)

Overall, it was delicious. With the double decker pizza plus the $7.99 combo it was not a cheap meal. I almost had a heart attack . lol. The one thing I have an issue with is the fact you can't cook more then one pizza at a time. There were 2 different times needed for our pizzas. Plus Dave's pizza took about 20 minutes, so mine was a little cold by the time I got to it. That's pretty much my only issue, other then maybe putting the pizzas on something a little sturdier so that it's easier to get everything out of the store.

We have so much left overs it's crazy. So, feel free to stop by for some yummy pizza today!!

One more thing out of the way

You know what is worse then leaving all of your friends and family and moving across the country, to an unknown place where nothing is familiar? Losing your job too. It sucks the big one. That is what happened to us. I haven't really posted much other then on twitter about this, and my tweets didn't come until weeks after the fact.


We moved here, and arrived on Monday. Dave worked a camp job and was flown in and out of the job site for 2 weeks at a time. I drove him to the airport Wednesday. Said goodbye and had a slight panic attack about how I was going to manage once his parents went home and I was there all alone with austin. Thursday afternoon I got the dreaded call from Dave. They have to lay off some people, we don't know yet who or when exactly.....


Let me interject here and say, Dave is part of a union. It isn't as simple as I'm moving here, lets go work. He has his membership in Ontario and was working in Alberta on a travel card. Being a travel card in the Alberta union puts him low man on the totem pole. He gets a job after all the Alberta union guys have their choice. If they don't want it, then the travel cards can take them. Totally makes sense. Since we were moving here Dave applied for his membership to be transfered to the Alberta union. Of course, it isn't as easy as saying, please transfer my membership. They have to make sure that he is dedicated to transferring and he's not going to jump ship within a few months. Again, makes sense. So there are so many hours he has to work here before they will transfer his membership. Then, there is a few weeks worth of paperwork then we're good to go. Now, back to my story......


So, Dave calls and says they are doing layoffs. He is a good worker, but they can't fire a union guy (person) and keep a travel card. Believe me, we had this issue with his last job. So he called back to let me know that afternoon, yes, he's on the chopping block. He has to go to work friday morning for a few hours then he's back on the plane home. There really isn't anything he can do as all the travel cards got laid off. It sucks. He has been going into the union hall every day they have calls in hopes that there are enough jobs and not enough union members to take them. So far, no dice.


I've been getting really frustrated and upset. What kind of Karma do we have to deserve this? I don't recall doing anything bad to anyone recently. I just don't get it. For those of you following me on twitter may remember this tweet

It sucks. It really does. Day after day of holding out hope when he leaves this house at 8am only to be home at 10:30 without a happy tone in his voice saying guess what honey, I got a job. I might cry when that actually happens.

Now, he knows he's getting close to the hours needed to transfer membership as he's been working here in Alberta for over a year now. However he just kept being told "nope, not there yet." It was getting frustrating. But, we had a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, they've approved him for membership. The paperwork was started and we just had to wait a few more weeks.

We got the call today. That awesome phone call saying all the paperwork has been signed by the appropriate parties (aka the union in Ontario) and now he has to go sign it tomorrow. Such a big weight lifted off our shoulders. Not only does he now get job options above the travel cards, but he can be name hired. Meaning if someone likes his work they don't have to get a random guy from the hall to work, they can hire him instead. YAY!! Still, he doesn't have a job and he's heading into the union hall again tomorrow to wait and see if he can get one, but things are looking up a little bit and one more obstacle is out of the way.

We just keep taking it one day at a time, and the days turn into weeks and this saturday? It will be one month of him being off work. I don't know how much longer this will take but I'm hoping and praying that the light at the end of that tunnel gets off it's dimmer switch and starts burning at it's bright and sunny setting.

Updated that list thing.

After my last post I went and updated my 101 in 1,001 list. Both the one in the original 101 in 1,001 list and the one on my side bar. Now I am tired and going to bed... nighty night!

That list thing??

Remember that list thing, you know, the 101 in 1,001 list. Sigh. I'm sucking at it right now. I just read through a few of them. I am going to have to go through a lot of them and edit them. One thing I did find funny was wanting to double my blog posts this year over last year. Yeah, not going to happen. I don't think I thought that one through. I had 85 posts last year, so doubled is 170. That makes aprox 14 blog posts a month. I don't really think I'm that interesting! lol. Also, considering with one month left of 2010 and my current blog post count at 65, I think we might have some trouble. haha! Maybe I'll annoy you over this next month and try to get over 85. hmmm

I also don't think I will reach my goal of 30 (or 35?) books in 2010. I don't remember the last time I picked up a book. I would really like to get back into it. I want to add more fitness goals, tweak the ones currently there, oh about a million things I haven't thought of yet. I have less than a year left to finish them, I really hope I will be able to get most of them accomplished.

well, off to check out the list.

And the Winner is...

Thank you to all of those who entered my draw!! I have been feeling so much better after battling the flu last week. I had decided tonight that I would do 2 drawings instead of just one. The two winners will receive a 5 pack of handmade Christmas cards, as well as some other bonus goodies!!

So without further ado, the first winner is....

Entry number 4!!!! Congrats to Sheena! (I have your address, don't worry about emailing it to me :p)

And, the second winner is:

Entry number 6, Lacey!! (I will need to get your address from you!)

Congrats to both our winners and I will get your prize in the mail in the next few days!

Thanks for reading everyone and I hope to have more prizes for you in the future!!!

I dub thee Christened!

Austin has dubbed thee, little people garage, Christened. Yup.. he just peed on it. We're sitting here watching Toy story and austin gets up to wander around. He stands in the kitchen, I check on him, he's just standing there. Then, he goes into his toy room and plays. Yay momma gets some internet time! I can hear him playing so I'm not worried. I know he's not doing anything he shouldn't and is being sneaky and quiet. Toy story ends and i'm sitting in the quiet typing away. (I was writing a post on my other blog *look I made a clicky! hope it works!*) then I hear a noise.

I stop and listen.

what is tha.. is that water?



wait...


WHAT IS HE PEEING ON!?!?!


and I jump up in a frantic rush to see what the hell he's peeing on. He had a bucket turned upside down and was peeing onto the bottom of it, spraying and running onto the little people garage. Thank goodness for laminate flooring. I clean it all up and say to him... Where is your diaper?

I don't see it anywhere.


Guess where I find it.


In the kitchen.


At least he took his pants off before he peed.

Number 150!!

Wow, this is blog number 150. How exciting is that!! Who would have thought I would have enough things to write them down 150 times. Oh who am I kidding, I could talk all day if I was allowed. (just ask my mother)

I went to write this post and thought, wow, I should do like a giveaway or something. That is what all the cool kids are doing. So why the Heck not!!! Leave a comment on this post by Sunday Nov 21st and at midnight (EST) I will use random number generator to pick a winner. Well, what does a winner get you ask? If you aren't familiar with my crafty side you can head over to http://creations-by-kristin.blogspot.com/ and take a look. Yes, there are lots of pretty things to look at. The winner will recieve a 5 pack of hand-made Christmas cards!! (and maybe some bonus goodies if I'm feeling up to it.) I will post right away so that the winner can contact me with their address so I can get their prize in the mail.


Alright, so back to the original reason for this post....

I have a small vent about TV. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that I can now watch tv shows online. Most of the time I can get lucky and catch all my shows on the network websites. I used to have a lot more luck though. I've noticed a huge shift in the sites. For example, CTV.ca now only has the last 3-4 episodes available on their site. Same with CITYTV.com The worst though? GLOBALTV.com only has 1, 2 if you're lucky. grrr. this doesn't help me! I was very busy at the start of this tv season. I've missed a lot of shows because I was just too busy packing and moving. There are lots of shows I would love to just sit down and watch, but I've missed a good 6-8 episodes by now. However I can no longer watch from the beginning on websites. It sucks. In the past I have used SURFTHECHANNEL.com but for some of the shows the sites they take me to are ones that no longer have the earlier shows, such as the network sites, or sites that you can only view in the US. (I'm looking at you HULU.com) Sigh, this is just a random vent I'm throwing out there. I was given a few other possibilities today so I might go check them out now.

Or maybe I'll just go to bed.. or well, sleep, since I'm on the couch and this is my bed for the night. We've been battling sickness/flu here all week. Austin, then me, and now Dave. I gave him some flu meds and some gravol and he's out cold in our bed. I think I'll just stay on the couch. Well, I'm off to bed I guess. Hope everyone has a great day!

It's a Birthday

It's my little man's birthday today!! He's 2 years old. Sigh. I does not feel like the past year has been that long. It's like, counting up to his first birthday I knew exactly when it was coming and was prepared for it. Something went missing this past year. Because before I knew it, here we are. Even having his birthday the beginning of October didn't really faze me. But the past few days I've been thinking. I have a 2 year old.

Will I look back every November 13th on that magical day and remember perfectly all the details? I don't want to forget. I remember the frustration I felt when my water broke. Thinking I had peed my pants, even though I was *right* there at the toilet. Then finishing and going back to our bedroom only to discover that omg feeling of, I didn't pee my pants, my water broke, the time is here! I remember running into our bedroom for clean clothes and my cell phone. Being uncomfortable with the leaking I just sat on the toilet. And I called my husband. Leading up to this date I hadn't been able to sleep and had been falling asleep around 6am. That night I went to bed at 10pm with my husband and couldn't really stay asleep. I wasn't waking up completely, but it was disturbing my sleep. I thought it was weird that I was so tired so early. I got up to pee at 2am and then was hit with the insomnia again, I was up until 6am. I had a bowl of cereal and kept having weird feelings, like contractions, but they were about 20 minutes or so apart and I really thought it was just false labour. Dave and I talked about him going to work. I told him to go ahead, thinking nothing was going to happen.

8:30 my water broke. Now, close family members know this, and the nurse at the hospital knows this and thought it was hilarious. As I had said, I felt uncomfortable with the leaking so I just sat on the toilet. I sat there for a few hours while I waited for Dave to get home from work. Knowing that I should be keeping track of my contractions I looked around the bathroom. I found a pencil and the core of the toilet paper roll. Yes, I wrote my contraction times on a TP roll. It was the only thing in the bathroom to write on, so I did it. Confession: I still have that TP roll. I packed it and moved it from Ontario to Alberta (I think.... haven't found it yet) and if I don't have it I think I will be upset. When we finally got to the hospital I handed my TP roll over and the nurse laughed. Oh well, it shows the steady consistency of 3min apart contractions.

When I first got pregnant and we talked about the birth, I was 100% sure on one thing... ok 2.. Give me the drugs, and that I didn't want a c-section. The thought of a c-section scared the bejesus out of me. Closer to the end of the pregnancy I remember thinking, ok, I can do it, I can go without drugs. I changed from give me the drugs to I will try to make it as long as possible without the drugs. Well, we get there and at one point (pretty sure before the epidural) I thought to myself, you know what, just do a c-section now and get it over with! So glad I didn't say that out loud though. lol..I did get the epidural and wasn't as scary going in as I thought. It was nice to kind of relax through the contractions. I was told to get some sleep but I couldn't keep my eyes closed for more then 5 mintues.

When I was given the epi I got itchy. But, because I was frozen even though I was scratching it wasn't really helping. Well, around 8-9cm dialated I went to scratch my leg and that's when I realized something was wrong. My epidural was wearing off. I scratched my leg and it was being relieved. I wasn't numb there anymore. Perfect timing. There I was, pushing and delivering without any epidural left. It's definately crazy but I'm amazed at the whole childbirth thing.

My son got stuck, and they had to lay me down flat to finish delivering him. I remember when he came out my first thought wasn't let me see. I put my head back on the bed, (apparently) rolled my eyes into my head, cried and thought omg it's finally over!! I didn't look over to Austing (who I couldn't see anyways) and my mom kept telling me to look at him. When I finally did look over at him all I could see were nurse and doctor bums because I wasn't propped high enough to see. I also remember as the nurse was carrying him over to be checked out she said "I'd say 12 pounds" I remember laughing to myself and thinking yeah right. We just had an ultrasound 3 weeks before and we were told the baby was aprox 6lbs. He was 11lbs 7.5 oz. he is a big baby. Big and swollen. But he was beautiful

And he is still beautiful and amazing today. It's crazy how this bundle of energy who runs around and doesn't want to sit with me used to depend on me so much, and how I used to get all these cuddles from him. He's super smart and suprises me ever day. He is also like his daddy and makes me laught at least once a day.

Take a deep deep breath

And drive.

I need to vent. And I will start with an apology to everyone I could possibly offend with this vent. I am going to generally sweep all people, and those who don't fall under my venting judging umbrella I apologize.

But... PEOPLE IN ALBERTA CAN NOT PARK! Omg. At first I was like, oh wow, somone doesn't know how to park. Then I was like, really, more people who don't park properly?

Tonight however.... Holy Hell. We went to Walmart. There was someone parked across the aisle from us. He was parked well over a foot over his parking spot. He was parked 2 spots away from the cart Corral. He unloaded his purchases into the passenger side of his truck, walked his cart to the BACK OF HIS TRUCK, then walked around to the driver side of the car, hit the car squished into the spot beside him with his door, then drove away. REALLY?!?!?! REALLY?!?! How much of a douchebag to do you have to be?!?!?!

I went to the Tri Centre today and no freaking word of a lie over half of the cars in the parking lot were not parked straight or in one spot. Walmart was the same. Parking in your parking spot is one driving thing that irritates me way more then it should. I try to let it go but I just can't do it. Once the snow starts I think I am going to go even more crazy about it. We will see what happens. I think I might need a bit more happy in my happy pills. Sigh.

2nd Birthday Party!!

Austin's Second Birthday party was held just a few week early this year. I wanted to have a party with all out family before we moved from Ontario to Alberta. We had the party at my mom's house since our house was already sold. It was a Toy Story theme and I think it turned out GREAT! Everyone had a blast and it was a fun day!!

Here is a picture of the invites I sent out, I made the pockets from my cricut using the Wild West Cartridge. I then printed the invite part off on the computer, the sky print also on the computer and cut the Date Time and Place out using the Wild West Cartridge as well.

I made the envelopes for the cards with my new fancy scrapbook tool (I can't remember the name now...) I made them out of 12x12 cardstock that was patterned on one side, so the inside of the envelopes had a fun pattern. I closed all the envelopes with a cowboy hat (Also cut from the Wild West Cartridge on my Cricut)

I am big on goodie bags. But at 1 and 2 years old, there is a lot of traditional goody bag items that are just not useful to young kids. I bought toy story bags, and inside them put some goodies I picked up. I got a stamp and paper set from the dollar store, (Toy story 3, and for the siblings some princess ones) some leather balls, (again, toy story and princess) some toy story 3 lip balm, toy story pencil cases, double ended toy Story crayons (and some princess) and for the older kids toy story markers. For the really young kids I substituted some of the things with sippy cups and other age appropriate items. I cut out much bigger cowboy hats and put all the kids names on them with glitter then attached them to the bags with rope. Also for the kids and adults to take home, I created these awesome goodie bags.... Yes, I had 3 different goodie bags!

I am a very detailed person. Inside these goodie bags were some gummy army men from the Bulk Barn and some sour dinosaur gummies. (In green t-rex only... yes, I picked through the bucket until I found enough! Thanks to Devon for the help!)


Inside these goodie bags (Which were smaller) were some chocolate loonies and twoonies, plus some plastic coins.




A few months before this whole Toy Story Birthday extravaganza was planned we got Austin some cute Toy Story outfits and a second Build a Bear. Of course, Mr Monkey and Bananas made an appearance at the party!
I also tend to go a bit over board on Balloons. Last year I spend a whopping $115 on balloons for the Elmo Birthday, so I decided this year to save some money I would rent a helium tank. Well, this is what our basement looked like before we started taking the balloons upstairs. I would say including the tank rental we probably spent $70-$80 on the balloons this year. (ok, ok, I admit, I have a balloon problem!!!)



I have been seeing a lot of birthday banners in pictures of parties and on my chat boards. I figured I could easily make one myself. I got out my Wild West Cartidge again and started. I think it turned out great, but really really long. It says Happy 2nd Birthday Austin. I cut out sheriff stars and the lettering for the banner is the rope letter option on the Wild West Cartridge. In between each word I cut out the wanted posters from the cartridge and glued pictures of the toy story characters on them. Then I hot glued everything onto some rope (which I bought from Michaels, but later found out I could have gotten the same thing from Dollarama for MUCH less. sigh)







As for the food table... well there was so much I could have done, but let's face it, with the party 2 days after we had to move out of our house I just ran out of time. By the time I got the main decorations done and the house packed I just gave up. Next year I will have to make the food table fantastic to make up for it. See - it's very plain and boring. I would like to note though, we did serve Toy Story Mac N Cheese as well as Toy Story Macaroni Salad. I found the Ital Pasta Toy Story 3 Mac N cheese earlier in the summer and bought 2 boxes. Once I decided on the theme to the party I knew we had to get more boxes!


For all the kids I bought bandanas for them to wear. Red for the boys and pink for the girls. Some kids wouldn't wear them, but they looked cute while they were on. I also cut out yellow sheriff stars (Of course with the Wild West Cricut Cartridge. lol) for everyone to have a name tag. I tried to be creative with the names, but I will admit, some of them were just plain sad and corny. The birthday boy however was Sheriff Austin.


Above, my Nephew with his bandana on, and below, my Niece with her pink one on. (and her nametag on her head)



The birthday boy had a lot of fun playing outside and running around.


Finally, What kind of a birthday party would it be without cake?!?! I completely forgot about the cake and had to order it 2 days before the party. Thankfully with Toy Story having just been in theatres the grocery stores have some themed cakes. I was able to order Austin a cake and it turned out awesome! (and tasted so delicious!)

Austin definitely had a blast with the cake. I had picked up an extra cake for my Step dad since his birthday was the next day, so the extra small cake that I had originally gotten was Austin's. Last year he got a cupcake. I think he enjoyed the cake so much more (it was a 1/8th slab cake and only $8.99) then the cupcake, as I'm sure the pictures tell you.




There was icing all over his arms, face, and my mother's walls by the time he was done. I have the video posted in an older post if you want to check it out. It was insanity.

Finally, I had seen this at the party story and assumed it would cost me a pretty penny so I wasn't going to get it, but it was only $7.99 so of course I had to get it! I tried to get a picture of everone who came out to the party. A big thanks to all of you who made the day awesome!

Mommy and the Birthday Boy


Papa, grandpa, papa dick, then grandma, Grandma and Gramma

Auntie Katherine and Kevin

Pierce (his mommy wouldn't get a picture taken :( )

It's Jessie/Katrina!! haha, this worked out so well. Also in these pictures, Aunt Helen, Uncle Adam (sigh) and Logan

Sue, Chris and Owen

Aunt Penny, Ashley and Amanda.