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Carter.
Ya know, the baby that I feel like I just brought home from the hospital?
{Erin Farrell Photography}
Yeah, him. He registers for kindergarten tomorrow.
Bob and I are taking him to school where he will meet the kindergarten teachers and visit a classroom while we complete the registration paperwork.
This boy.
{Stephanie Glover Photography}
He's not a baby anymore. And I just can't believe that he will be 5 in July and off to school for the very first time this fall.
I mean, I remember turning 5. {Crap, guess we need to watch what we say/do now, huh?}
Now my first baby is old enough to have this memory too.
I just can't believe it. I'm in shock.
Please hold me while I sob.
***
Currently, I'm in the midst of planning Reid's Baptism. Like Brynn's Baptism, we're going to have the ceremony at the church and then have the party at our house.
We're a little late in planning this, but I think everything has been a bit delayed since my dad died. Just the thought of holding these events without him hurts my heart immensely. But life goes on, and we're trying to get through these things together. And, in the grand scheme of things, it's really not a big deal that Reid will be 7 months old at his Baptism. I'm still glad we're doing it.
We had a bit of a hard time finding an outfit for the "little" guy though ;) {18 month clothing just isn't normal for a 6 month old. Well, I guess it's normal for my 6 month olds. Ahem.} But I think we picked a winner.
Okay, so because we're having about 50 people at our house for lunch on the last Sunday of April, the ol' to do list is too long to even write down. Besides my nephew Ben's birthday party this Saturday, we've basically cleared our calendars for the entire month so that we can get the house ready for the party.
***
Which leads me to the next point.
We're selling our house.
We hope to list it literally right after Reid' Baptism. We got new siding a few weeks ago which now leaves us with only 1 big project left to do: our laundry room remodel. I definetly have to take a "before" picture of this room and post it for you because it will give you a better idea of what the state of our entire house looked like when we moved in.
Disasterous.
I mean, there is drawer-lining contact paper on our walls. Like, for wallpaper.
Yep.
We start that this weekend.
***
Can we talk about the housing market real quick? Great.
Since we've renovated every. single. room. in the house {most of which were complete gut jobs} we hoped that we would eventually be rewarded for our hard work by selling our house at a higher price than what we paid for it {or, ya know, be able to include the renovation costs in our listing price like in a normal market.}
But ya know, this isn't a normal market.
Since everything crashed, we'll be lucky if we can list our house for what we originally paid for it. And, of course, also losing the 30-40k of money we put into the house on things like a new kitchen, bathrooms, windows, roof, etc over the last 7 years.
Awesome.
But, ya know. These things happen. My only saving grace is that we will be able to buy a nicer house at a cheaper price too.
Hopefully, right?
Oh, and our moving plans are pretty settled now. We're going to move in with my mom for a few months. This will allow us to do two things: (1) help her financially since things have been rough since my dad died and (2) save money while we build {or search for a >5 year old} new house. No more fixer-uppers for us, thankyouverymuch. We plan to move into the same town as my mom anyway, so this also works out with Carter starting school in the fall.
More on our moving/new house plans later.
***
Also on the planning agenda? Brynn's birthday party.
She'll be 3 in May. {HOW?}
I'm trying to book the party this week so that I can design the invitations and get them out by mid-April.
She picked Build-A-Bear for her party location, by the way. Which, on one hand I find adorable and I know she loves it there, but on the other, I find annoying because now I have to figure out how the hell to also feed people. I'm going to call the mall today about reserving tables in the food court and then I guess getting some pizzas and/or Chick-Fil-A trays and calling it a day.
Oy.
Anyone been to {or had} a Build-A-Bear party before? What did you do for food?
***
So yeah, as you can see, we're not busy at all.
6 comments:
I have gone to a party at the mall (Christiana) for a build a bear party. What my friend did was go early and grab tables and chairs and the kids tables. Set up cups/plates etc and had her dad sit there while we were at the party. When we were done we all walked over and had pizza. It was a lot of fun!
Congrats on the house. I'm sure it will go quickly since you have made it such a beautiful home
We went to a BAB party and it was perfect. They didn't worry about food - they did the party early 10am and she just individually wrapped cupcakes for all the kids to take home with their bear. No worries on goodie bags, food etc. Now I know this is the fun part of party planning, but it's also the stressful part. You could have a family only party afterwards at a house/park/whereever if you wanted to do food. Or, is there a CiCi's nearby...have everyone go there? The houseing market is still good for first time buyers (the market for your house) you may be shocked! The interest rate is so low right now, a lot of people are buying their first house.
Wow, busy busy!! Good luck with everything!
And I just can't get over those baby blues in the first picture. Gorgeous.
~lisa
Floating Along
There is no rule that says you have to serve food at a birthday party! I don't get why people think birthday parties have to be these big extravaganzas! We decorate the house with balloons/streamers, serve cake/ice cream and let the kids play. We schedule it at 2pm so that it isn't too close to lunch or dinner and we call it a day. Just do BAB when the mall opens. The animal is their "favor" and send everyone home with a cupcake. The end. :)
I waited until my son was 6 months to baptize him. It wasn't something I had done on purpose but time flies when you have a baby. I also had a hard time finding his baptism outfit. It seems like after 12 months the only sizes left are for big boy's and first communion suits! It just so happen that my son and I were baptized on the same day 26 years apart :)
Good luck with selling your house! You mentioned before that was your plan after Reid was born but I was kind of surprised when I read it! If we were still in Jersey I'd be your first interested person :) I'm so happy that you will be living with your mom. You guys are there everyday to pick up your children anyway, right?!
I've always been a bit jealous that my parents didn't buy a super huge home on a corner lot and tons of backyard space so that's a must for me... you know a place that my children can always come back to no matter what.
My god daughter had her 2nd birthday a BAB and her mom did food at Applebee's which happened to be in the mall. she called them ahead of time and reserved a huge table and order chicken fingers and fries for all the children who RSVP'd parents were on their own. It worked out well. They let her bring in her own cake, and she set up favors at the seats while the children were still "building". If there's no restaurant in the mall I'm sure the food court will work.
I love Reid's baptism outfit! We are baptising our little guy in May, and he'll be almost 5 months old. So we'll be needing a bigger gown, too! :)Good luck on selling your house!
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