A Circle-Themed First Birthday

If you've been watching for a while, then you'll not be surprised that our kiddo was ready to celebrate his 1st birthday.  We knew we wanted to throw a party, and of course knew we wanted it to be super cute - but weren't sure what to go with. I googled and pinterested first birthday ideas - which was  completely overwhelming. People go absolutely crazy with 1st birthday parties, (or maybe just kids' parties in general) with the smash cakes, professional photos, and themed food and games - holy crap. So after a bit of party-theme soul searching, we decided to pick a pretty easy theme of circles, and a general color scheme of blues and greens. We invited just our family and closest friends for what was meant to be a very small afternoon party.

streamers down the staircase

more of the streamers

family pretending not to be too hot

Balloons:
While the boy took his morning nap and we waited for guests to arrive, we started by filling the house with balloons and streamers. When he finally came downstairs, he got to chase the balloons around and hug them - while some of the older boys had fun bouncing and kicking them around the house.

happy birthday boy and balloons

Balls:
Outside, where the party was mostly contained - we bought a cheapie inflatable pool and filled it with balls. It wasn't super full - but full enough to get the idea. With an umbrella for shade- all the kids gravitated towards it, and despite a wide age range of 10 months - 7 years, they all seemed to have fun.  As a party favor, I grabbed a bunch of spikey balls that light up when bounced, and some suction-cup balls that stick to glass. Everyone, including the parents, seemed happy to throw them around.

ball pit mid-jump

enjoying the ball pit with a cousin

watching the ball pit with Nana

thinking about getting in the ball pit

chilling in the shade in the ball pit

Bubbles:
As another party favor/game, I just bought some cheapie tubes of bubbles. I don't think anyone but me actually played with them, but hey (therefore, no pictures).

Rings:
For the cake, I went with a stunning stacking toy design - making 4 layers out of different sized circles, frosting them each a different color, and then stacking them on top of each other. The bottom cake was a 9" standard cake pan, and the top cake was a cupcake - so for the two middle layers I used an 8" cake pan and cut them down to size, using plates as a template. I saw a trick to bake the cake at 325 instead of 350 degrees, to reduce domeing, but it didn't work perfectly, so, the cake sort of tilted to the side a bit.

stacking rings cake

shoveling down the top ring of the cake

Food:
The rest of the food was spouso's responsibility - and he did really a great job.  We both like to cook and want to serve our guests our best food, but have learned that you really don't want to be cooking during the party or you miss out. So he struck a good balance of making some things in advance (like a cold veggie pasta salad and fruit salad), while ordering/buying other things (like pizza and chips). I guess pizza is circle-shaped, but I didn't worry about the theme here - bigger concern was trying to find some healthy options that would be baby friendly that adults would also eat.

Entertainment:
The ball pit, balloons, and bubbles helped keep the kids mostly entertained, but then it got hot and everyone came inside. After a bit of time indoors, we were all getting a little ancy and needed to burn off some energy - so we walked over to a nearby playground to run around. It was a nice break from the house for all of us.

oh sweet playground

spinning or just relaxing, depending on your pov.

Presents:
Even though we told them not to, guests still brought a bunch of toys. So, after the party was over, we ended the weekend by rearranging the furniture again (we seem to rearrange the living room every other month or so), to create a new toy storage system in the living room (which is bolted to the wall). At this rate, we will really need to come up with a toy rotation system or something - but all the new stuff is so much fun now that I wouldn't dream of hiding anything away. We did finally pack up the bouncer, which was his Christmas gift, took up too much space, and has already been outgrown.

new toy storage in the living room

Concluding thoughts on kids' birthdays:

• I tried to keep it low key - but it was still fairly chaotic. He did ok, but was clearly overwhelmed at times and not really having fun. We were mostly able to enjoy the party and not too busy hosting, but would've been much happier to not have spent the two hours before the party started frantically running around to prepare. Clearly getting all the shopping and much of the cooking done the day before would have been better for us, and giving him some quiet breaks away from the noise would have been smart.  
• It would probably be a good idea to keep the guest list a little smaller in the future.  1 kid per age of the birthday boy seems like a good rule that we totally broke (we ended up with 8 kids and 14 adults, yipes!). Too many people in a small space just really amps up everything. 
• Themes seem completely unnecessary - just good food and some decorations are all you need. Maybe older kids would care more - but babies have no idea, so themes are only good for adding extra stress for the hosts. 
• Games would probably be really difficult to arrange, but it was helpful to have toys/activities that the kids could do on their own to stay entertained. 
• It was handy to be in our house/yard, but having a playground to escape to was key, both because it gave us all a chance to run around and burn off some energy and because it provided a change of scenery to shake things up. If we had been stuck indoors the whole time I would've snapped. 
• While being outdoors is great - the weather makes it complicated. Even though we had a beautiful day, it was super hot, so being outside the whole time as planned didn't work. Thankfully, we could come inside to kind-of cool off, but I wish I had thought to get some water toys or something.  
• Favors were a total waste - no one realized that that's what they were, so we just ended up with everything leftover. Now we have like 10 tiny bottles of bubbles and a million little balls. 

Anyway - our little guy is 1 now - which is huge. He's got a bunch of words and is really close to walking on his own - and getting much more fun every day. Meanwhile, we are all sleeping through the night and slowly getting more and more under control and out of new-parent panic mode. It's hard to imagine what we were doing this time a year ago - coming home from the hospital and barely able to eat without help from our family and friends. Thanks again to everyone who helped us make it through the year - I promise I'll be less surly next year. More on our birthday gift to him next. 

New Rugs!

Apparently I've mentioned several times how much I hate the rug in the living room. This beige behemoth was left behind by the previous owner of our last house. We never liked it, but couldn't pass up a free, massive rug. The problem is that the color is almost the same as the couches (which we also hate), and only slightly different than the wall color, so it all blends together in a massive beigey boring blah. On top of that, it's solid colored, so it shows every stain and hairball clearly. Plus, it's real wool, which is nice in concept, but really scratchy and uncomfortable to sit on. Basically, I hate this rug.

the dreadful rug

so much beige

ugly couch practically disappears

At the same time, I bought a new rug for the fireplace room just after we moved into this house. I found it on one of those flash-sale sites, and thought it was perfect because it was my color scheme and vaguely trendy. Well, as soon as it arrived, it was clearly a bad fit for the house. The color scheme was boring while the pattern was frenetic, and it turns out we're just not trendy. I tried to decorate the room around it, but it just didn't work. Every time we walked through the room (which is all the time), I cringed at this out-of-place rug.

the blue and white rug

a fireplace room that just isn't working

Then Christmas arrived, and we got a fabulous gift. My mother in law gave us money to buy a new living room rug, but because of a deal, we were able to stretch the money to buy a new rug for the fireplace room too. We got some extra fluffy rug pads from Amazon as well, and now everything has arrived. We happily threw the old rugs out of the way, and unrolled the new ones.

the new living room rug

living room is looking more interesting

the couch no longer disappears against the rug

the new fireplace room rug

fireplace room looking a bit nicer

Then the old rugs were repurposed elsewhere in the house. Eventually I would love to get rid of them altogether, but until then, they are still useful to have around. The beige behemoth got moved to the dining room, which also needed a rug, where it is less ugly because there's more contrast with the furniture and walls. This gives us another padded place for the boy to play while we're in the kitchen - so that's really helpful. The blue and white rug moved upstairs to our spare room which is currently sort of my closet and had an awkward echo happening.

blue and white rug upstairs in the spare room

beige behemoth in the dining room-- not so bad, right? 

Yay Christmas!!! Thank you! Now let me tell you how much I hate the kitchen...

Babyproofing

So - maternity leave was mostly pretty slow and uneventful, house-wise. There was not a lot of time to get anything done on the many, many house projects that I want to work on. However- in the past month we did rather frantically end up making a lot of changes to the house.

You see, finding day care in DC is really hard to do. As soon as I knew I was pregnant, I signed up for the waitlists for 5 different day cares in the area. We paid our waitlisting fees and waited patiently, hoping that by the time maternity leave was over, we would have a spot somewhere. As the end of my leave approached, I reached out to all the daycares to find out where we stood and discovered that we didn't have a chance of getting into any of them. At best, we may be able to get into one in a couple years, and at worst, we managed to move backwards on a list from 150th to 175th.

So, we frantically started researching other childcare options and found a nannyshare that was available with a family in our neighborhood. The great news was that a good nanny would watch our son, starting exactly when we needed her, at a much more convenient location. The bad news was that a 1.5 year old would now also be staying in our house every other week, which was chockfull of baby death traps everywhere we looked. Since our son is only starting to roll over and months away from being really mobile, we hadn't even thought about baby proofing. The other kid though, is running around and great at getting into trouble- so we needed to babyproof asap.

Step 1. Remove the Breakables
There were two bookcases full of breakables - one of our fancy crystal and stuff in the living room and one of our liquor and glasses in the fireplace room. The alcohol got moved into the dining room buffet so its bookcase could go back upstairs to hold books in the new office. The other got moved up to the green room, replacing the console table that was a bad fit up there anyway.

The old liquor cabinet in the fireplace room

new empty wall in the fireplace room- perfect for a basket of toys

old bookcase from the living room moves up to the green room

Step 2. Remove the Deathtrap Shelving Units
After the Great Renovation last year, we got two metal shelving units to replace the walk-in pantry that we lost. One was full of small appliances in the dining room, the other full of food in the kitchen. Both were hideous and totally dangerous for a small child who could pull them over and crush himself. I took all the small appliances off the one unit and moved it down to the basement, where I joined it with a third shelving unit into a mega-double-shelf, to help better organize the stuff being stored down there. The other got moved into the mudroom, where it can be locked away from the kid by the old exterior door.

Old Death Trap #1 - pantry in the kitchen

new well-organized pantry in the mudroom 

(still a deathtrap, but safely behind a lockable door)

Old Death Trap #2 - small appliances in the dining room

new mega double shelving unit in the basement

new safe and empty corner of the dining room

Step 3. Get new Cabinets

To hold all the small appliances that now had no home, we picked up some cheap white cabinets and a countertop from Home Depot. All the appliances fit easily into the new storage space, plus we get two new big drawers for utensils and stuff. We were desperately short on counter space before, so even a crappy counter is a huge step up. Even though the kitchen is getting steadily less attractive at every turn, this is a big improvement for storage and functionality. Plus it lets us test-drive this layout before buying real cabinets in the future kitchen renovation. The old table that was in this spot got moved out to the garage to help organize the workbench area.

ugly new cabinets with lots of counter space and storage

Step 4. Add gates, outlet protectors and cabinet locks

After some minimal research on Amazon, we ordered the classic baby proofing gear - baby gates for the stairs, little plastic plugs for all the electrical outlets, and magnetic locks for the kitchen cabinets.

Wally demonstrates the cat door in the baby gate

Step 5. Build Shelves in the Laundry Closet

I finally put up some basic wooden shelves to get all the laundry supplies up off the floor. This has been on the to-do list since the new laundry closet was built, but we couldn't seem to get it done.

new shelves keep detergents off the floor and out of reach for short people

Step 6. Rearrange the Living Room

Once the old bookcase full of breakables was removed from the living room, we needed to rearrange the remaining furniture. We angled the short couch so that it blocks the radiator (a future hazard once the weather gets colder), which also creates a good place to stash toys out of sight. We also moved the old coffee table to the side of the long couch in the newly created space where the old bookcase was. It has hard metal corners that we don't want the kid running into. On the one hand, the new layout is more open and great for playing, and makes it easier to get to the windows. On the other hand, we no longer have a coffee table, so it's much harder to eat dinner in front of the tv. We seem to have accidentally forced ourselves to start eating at the dining room table like real adults.

the old living room layout with breakables in the corner and a dangerous coffee table

new living room layout is more spacious and less dangerous

the old coffee table becomes a side table

Step 7. Mount the TV

Then we ordered a support to mount the tv to the wall so that it can't be pulled over. Once it was on the wall, we no longer needed the massive tv stand under it, and switched it out for a new much smaller console table that is similar to the side table. We then used a furniture strap thing to attach the console table to the wall, so it can't be pulled over either. The trick here was figuring out how to hide all the misc cables and wires, which were totally visible through the new sleek, glass table. I spent some time bundling and tying each of the wires into a smallish mass that I hide behind the cable box. 

old tv stand is massive and dangerous

new mounted tv over much smaller table

Step 8. New Wall Art

After a lot of time staring at our horrible couches and rug that I never liked, I was feeling pretty annoyed with the living room. We can't afford to buy all new furniture, so I bought a new watercolor for the wall instead (consolation prize!) 

the new watercolor classes up the joint

So, not exactly a renovation project, but a bunch of stuff got moved around and improved. We would've had to do all this eventually once our son is mobile anyway, so it was all time well-spent. We also managed to get rid of several pieces of furniture, like the old tv stand in the living room and the red console table in the green room. They are moving on to a new home, while we are slowly making progress on my goal to get rid of all the temporary and flimsy furniture we bought in our gradschool days.

The Grand To-Do List

Happy New Year! I am currently trying to make plans for house projects this year, and realized that we've now lived in our new house for almost exactly 2 years. Seems like a good time to update ye olde to-do list, figure out what progress we've made and what's left to do.

Backyard
The yard has come a long way, and really stands out as the best room of the house. It's almost completely landscaped with flowering shrubs that are all doing well and flower at staggered times so that something is nearly always blooming. The table and chairs have worked out really well, and the kitchen garden has been really productive so far. I'm considering it mostly finished, with only a few small additions needed. Namely, focusing on the small porch outside of the dining room.

the almost completely landscaped backyard

the small inaccessible porch

• Re-sod lawn
• Add some new perennials in the back
• Hang the hammock
• Create another seating area
• Add curtains for the porch
• Upgrade seating for the porch
• Add an outdoor rug & repaint cement on the porch

Whole House
Moving inside, there are a few items to do for the whole house, so I'll list them here.

• Refinish floors
• Add recessed lights
• Paint trim
• Replace outlets
• Get air conditioning

Downstairs

Mudroom
The newly-created mudroom is a totally blank slate that needs to be finished. This space did not exist at all until the big renovation closed in what was part of the back patio.

the future mudroom

• Tile the floor
• Sheetrock walls and ceiling
• Add lights & heat
• Add cabinets for extra kitchen storage
• Add a bench and coat hooks
• Replace stairs to backyard

Halfbath
Similarly, the halfbath is a brand-new addition that needs to be finished. This is a high priority for the near-term, and something we should be able to do mostly ourselves. This space used to be a pantry, which was nice, but less important than having a bathroom on the first floor.

future halfbath

• Tile the floor
• Add sheetrock and wainscoting to the walls
• Lights and electrical
• Finish plumbing
• Add pedestal sink & toilet
• Heat?

Kitchen
The kitchen has made a little progress, with the removal of the wall between it and the dining room. We have temporary counter space where the new peninsula will go, and we've upgraded several of the appliances. It never had great storage to start with, but we really took a hit when we lost the old pantry. Once we get to it, the full kitchen renovation will change the layout of the cabinets and add more counter space by adding a peninsula. This project needs some major electrical and plumbing work, so we're holding off on this one to save up, even though it looks pretty awful right now.

the very orange kitchen with no storage

• Replace cabinets and counters
• Add new recessed lights
• Add new vent hood
• Refinish wood floors or add tile?
• Backsplash

Dining Room
The dining room has come a long way, with the new table and chairs and buffet, new chandelier, and open concept with the kitchen. Very little remains to be done in here.

the nearly complete dining room

• Add door to access back porch
• Get a rug
• Add curtains

Fireplace Room & Stairs
The fireplace room got some attention last winter, when we rebuilt the chimney, replaced the ceiling light, and added a bookcase/liquor cabinet and a table for mail sorting, etc. The wall above the stairs was also recently repainted. It will always be our slightly awkward room, but we could do a little more to make it more attractive and functional.

view towards ugly fireplace

view towards stairs

• Tile the fireplace
• Replace/paint the mantel?
• Refinish the bannister
• Paint the stair risers
• Add a dangling light over the stairs

Living Room
Despite being the place we spend the most awake time in the house, the living room has gotten very little attention. We added a bit of wall art, moved in the small bookcase, and got a bigger tv, but otherwise nothing has changed. [Check out my new jellies!]

the very blah living room 

• Get new couches
• Get a new rug
• Add a coffee table
• Nice leather chair

Entryway & Foyer
The entryway used to have awful wallpaper that was peeling. I removed it and repainted, and then the contractors moved the electrical to a new panel box. We bought a new lamp, which is currently resting on a box. (tres chic). We also replaced the overhead light. Otherwise, nothing has happened in here.

entryway gets temporary storage

foyer looking pretty nice

• Retile the floor
• Add a bench and coat hooks
• Add a console table thing
• Rugs and shoe mats

Upstairs

The Old Office/New Nursery
In case you haven't heard - I'm preggers, and we're having a boy in a couple months. So, the current office needs to become the new kid's room. It's already been painted and the outlets have been replaced. It got curtains, but they won't really work now. This is obviously a very high priority with a short timeline for completion.

the current office & future kid's room

• Empty out office stuff
• Get crib, dresser, rocking chair
• Replace curtains
• Get a rug
• Wall art

The Green Room
The guest room is one of the most finished rooms in the house, with a bed, dresser and curtains. It also now has a tv and plant table, but the wall art keeps getting pilfered and moved to other parts of the house.

green room looking purty in the morning light

• Get/make a headboard
• Wall Art
• Bedside tables
• Rug

Bathroom
This bathroom hasn't gotten any attention, other than to replace the caulk and clean the skylight window (which needs to be cleaned again). Now that we're cut off from the basement bathroom, it's the only bathroom we can use. A full renovation is coming at some point, but it's pretty low on the list.

mostly untouched bathroom

• Remove tile and wallpaper
• Replace shower and floor tile
• Replace pedestal sink with double vanity?
• Turn door into pocket door?
• Replace toilet with something more efficient
• Replace lights

Master Bedroom
The master bedroom got some attention last winter, when I repainted the walls and trim and replaced all the outlets. We also got some new bedding, refinished my lady table and hung the snazzy tin wall art - but we still lack nightstands and could use a rug.

master bedroom still has a ways to go

• Get nightstands
• Make a headboard
• Get a quilt
• Rug
• Remove old closet
• Add a ceiling fan
• Add a skylight

New Office
What used to be part of the sleeping porch, will now be our new office. It has already been closed in with new windows. This brand-new space needs a lot of work to be completed. Since this will be the place that all the office stuff goes to make room for the kid - it's a really high priority.

new office is a blank slate

• Frame new wall between office and bathroom
• Add sheetrock to walls and ceiling
• Build built-in bookcases?
• New desk
• Hardwood or tile floor?
• Add storage
• Comfy chair

Old R Room/New closet and master bath
This room is changing the most. What used to be a small extra bedroom where R kept his clothes, is becoming our master bathroom and closet. Over the summer, his old closet space was turned into the new washer/dryer for upstairs, and the old sleeping porch was closed in with new windows.

the current 4th bedroom & future walk-in closet

part of the old sleeping porch and future master bathroom

• Frame walk-in closet and new bathroom door
• Open window into door to old sleeping porch
• Add closet storage
• Tile bathroom floor
• Build shower
• Add double vanity, toilet and tub
• Add lots of lights and skylight

Priority list
So, in two years, we've made a mark on every room in the house, but there is still a lot to do. First up will be the new office and kid's room upstairs. If those go smoothly, we'll tackle the new half bath and mudroom downstairs, and then maybe the new master closet. By the end of the year, I hope to have also finished the entryway and fireplace. Stay tuned.