Parker's Monster Bash Mood Board & Invitation

While Parker is napping I got started on planning the "fun" details for his upcoming birthday party. (1) We've chosen a date - Saturday, February 2nd, which happens to be the last Saturday before I return to work. (2) Rob and I had already chosen a theme for my (hahah just kidding) his party - MONSTERS!! I found some cute monster clip art on Etsy and decided that we could save some money by making and printing our own invitations and decorations for the party. We did successfully DIY our wedding, so really, my baby's first birthday party shouldn't be THAT difficult - confession: I am a bit of a control freak, I wouldn't go as far as saying I'm a perfectionist however details are important to me <insert smiley face!!>

So this week I hope to mail out the invitations and buy some decorations. I created a mood board for Parker's Monster Party in hopes of inspiring me to get on with the DIY!!

(1) Balloons - they are coming back with a bang. When we were shopping around for our wedding I saw these cute balloons at a store in Kingston - Cody Party Store. I love the colours!

(2) Pinterest find - love these cups - simple and cute, easy to make and not a budget breaker!

(3) I.love.chevron images/prints - love this new trend and will definitely be incorporating this into the party decor.

(4) Our insipiration for the party - these monster printable clip arts from this Etsy seller - they are cute, fun and the we love the bright colours which are perfect for a little man's first birthday party.

Here is the actual birthday invitation that our guests will be receiving:

I'm also working on a special gift for Parker that requires me to learn how to use a specific program - fingers crossed, hoping that it doesn't take me too long to learn the ins and outs of this program!

A Little Bit About Us

Hi there! My name is Tiffany Dundon and I live in Napanee, Ontario with my husband Rob, our sons Parker and Alex and our four legged friends, Maxx (the pug) and Kiki (the cat). We moved to  Napanee in November, 2011 when I was 8 months pregnant. We decided to make the move from our 100+ year old farm house located in "the hicks" because we needed a larger house with the anticipated arrival of our son, Parker, and we liked the idea of being close to some amenities like grocery stores and  of course Walmart which I have learned to love.  I met Rob... wait for it... online(!) in 2010 and we have done anything but slowed our pace over the past two years. Rob is originally from Toronto, however, him and his son decided to start their own roots in Kingston. I must thank my mother for urging me to try online dating because had it not been for her suggestion, Rob and I would probably not have met. On January 31, 2012 after a very looonnnggg week of surprising complications, (which thankfully for the wonderful nurses and doctors of Kingston General Hospital) we welcomed our son, Parker Leo Maguire, into our crazy, fast paced lives and we have been smiling ever since!

We are now six days into "twenty-thirteen" and I have decided to blog about... what else, but us! We take photos daily and share these with our friends on Facebook, however we thought it would be cool to keep a log of our lives to share with our children when they are thirty-somethings like us!

So welcome 2013 - we are excited let's see what this year brings. I'm not sure if it will be anything like 2012 (there's pretty big shoes to fill - (1) we bought our first house together (2) Parker was born (3) Rob proposed to me on Mother's day (4) ... and then we married less than five months later with a total DIY wedding) however we welcome with HUGE open arms all of the adventures to come! And come to think of it, I'm not sure how Parker is going to top this year either. In his first year he partied at a stagette in Niagara Falls, traveled to Florida when he was five weeks old and then again when he was 10 months old, played the important role of Ring Bearer #2 in our wedding and has made us smile and laugh every day - although I'm pretty sure this last one will always continue.

Welcome to our stories!!

Winter Snow Globe

Today was a gorgeous day to be outside so that's exactly where we spent our day. My parents invited us over for breakfast and to enjoy some playtime outside. Not only do I love my mom's cooking (think sausages, bacon, salmon quiche, croissants...) but it's awesome when the kids can enjoy the snow without freezing. So after we filled out bellies, we took the twenty minutes it takes to get the kids dressed in their snow gear (seriously, you get Parker's snow pants, boots and mitts on; and just as I begin putting on his coat I notice that he has already wrestled his mitts off) and made our way outdoors. Mom and dad pulled their baby sled out of storage and we found a couple of saucers in their garage - talk about some serious old.school.fun!

It was Parker's first time being on a sled and towards the end of the afternoon he actually ventured onto a saucer with us!

Mom and dad added a cute faux (I've been correct by my mom ~ apparently this wasn't anything fake about it) fur piece to the bottom of the sled which was just too cute! Note to parents: we.absolutely.love. these boots that we bought from kijiji.ca - Stonz Wear Baby Booties. Not only do we love that they are a Canadian product, however they are perfect for "chubbier" feet and they are great for both winter and fall - in the fall you simply just take out the liners. I'm also a huge fan of garage sales and second hand items, especially when it comes to baby clothes and accessories. Almost everything you see Parker wearing has been bought second hand, except for his mitts which we bought from The Children's Place and if my memory serves me correctly, I had used a coupon from a previous purchase to buy these mitts and matching hat (not currently wearing in this photo though).

This is Parking sitting on top of a hill as his Poppa (grandfather) sings, "You're the King of the castle".

My mom enjoyed pulling Parker in the sled as her dog Corky trotted behind.


Alex also had a blast building snowmen and making snow angels. Right before we headed inside for some coffee & Bailey's, and of course hot cocoa for Alex, it started snowing ~ we felt like we were in our very own winter snow globe ~ absolutely beautiful and a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

A little note about my photos - I've had my camera for about two months and I've only managed to read about 45 pages of the manual. We were in Florida this year during Black Friday and I bought a Canon EOS Rebel T3i. I'll be honest and say that when I made this purchase, I knew (and continue to know) nothing about dslr cameras. However, I have been wanting to upgrade from our point and shoot camera and so far, I am loving this camera!

Getting Ready for Parker's Birthday!!

Today I have finally started the countdown ~ the countdown to when I have to return to work. I have thoroughly enjoyed my 11 months of maternity leave, however come February 4th, 2013 I will be returning to work (more on this to come). However, on a happier note, today we shopped for Parker's birthday gifts! Even though Parker was in tote, we were still able to pick up a couple of gifts (from The Rocking Horse and Play and Learn - my two new favourite stores) without him knowing, well somewhat ~ we did have to "test" them out!

Parker will be turning one on January 31st and right now he loves vehicles. If he has a train, plan or automobile (woohoo love it!!) in his hand he automatically starts with the vrrrooom vrrooom sounds. So we knew this little man needed some trucks. We have also recently gone through a stage of not liking to look at huge plastic, primary colour toys. Yes, I understand that they help with your child's development and such, however we can only have so many big honkin' plastic toys in our living room. And then... we were introduced to Plan Toys and Hape - we have fallen.in.love with wooden toys! Both of these companies produce toys that eco-friendly. Needless to say, Parker will be getting a couple of new toys from these companies! Today we purchased a dump truck from Plan Toys as well as an xylophone because he loves music and dancing. We also found a cute aeroplane from Hape which I'm sure he will love.

But what really got me excited was my first purchase from Amazon.ca! The kids are in bed and my husband, our cat and our dog are all sleeping on the couch, so I decided to look online for some gift ideas. I love 3 Sprouts and Skip Hop - the designs from these companies are very cute, yet modern and easily fit within any decor. So tonight I have purchased a toy bin from 3 Sprouts, which I plan on using on our bottom shelving unit in the living room, and two bookends from Skip Hop - these are for Parker's room. Rob and I usually discuss all of our purchases, however he will have to wait until the morning to hear about these two. And if purchasing items online wasn't fun enough, Amazon.ca was offering free shipping. Let's just say, this was all I needed to hit the "Add to Cart" button!

The rest of the night will be devoted to some much needed attention to my PVR'd reality TV shows!