FRIENDS AND FROSTING

A few years ago, Byron brought home a gingerbread house kit.  I think it was a gingerbread train, actually.  And as we attempted to assemble and decorate it, and it fell over countless times and nearly led us to divorce (okay, I'm strongly exaggerating...but still), I vowed never again.  There had to be an easier way.

And, I am here to tell you, there is.

What if, my friends, you simply take an ice cream cone turned upside down, and smear it with frosting and candy?  Voila.  A Christmas tree.  It tastes yummy.  It is festive.  And nobody gets divorced!

We invited over some friends who had toddler and pre-school aged kids to give it a go with us.  It was definitely a hit!

Though notice we did keep baby wipes on hand.  I wouldn't describe this as a clean project.

The best part was watching the kids chow down afterwards.  They were pretty stoked.  And the little dude definitely enjoyed that part!  Watching him was classic.

So go buy some cones, grab everything sugary in your house, and you've got what you need for a new holiday tradition.  This was even a tradition that Daddy supports.  Any activity where he gets a free pass to indulge in endless amounts of sugar is good in his book.

And as I usually do, I've got to end my post with one more picture, just for mama.  This face!  Although I am finally breaking down and getting my handsome boy the haircut he so desperately needs.

SUMMER VACATION

When Byron and I were first dating, we discovered an unusual thing.  That is, that my family and his best friend hail from the same corner of the world.  More recently, we discovered that our nephew's fiance just so happens to be from the same place as well.  So when Logan and Brigitte got engaged, we decided to use their wedding as a chance to plan a family vacation, one I like to call the Stover Family Tour de Michigan.  We would be able to introduce Mason to family and friends, as well as do some fun stuff with the boy.  So that's what we did!  We just returned from about 9 days away.
The first part of the trip was spent in Western Michigan.  We attended Logan and Brigitte's wedding, which was right on the beach.  Of course, being new parents who are obsessed with our own, we took more pictures of Mason than of anything else. This is him in his handsome chambray wedding shirt.

We crammed in as much as we could during the few days we were in western Michigan. We took a trip to the Frederik Meijer Gardens.  A few days before our trip, I noticed Mason was starting to reach for the faucet any time I had the water on.  This little excursion confirmed my suspicion that this kid truly loves water.  It was the highlight of his trip!

Later that weekend, some of my relatives from Detroit (who we would be seeing later in the week) met us in Grand Haven and we enjoyed more water!

Another thing we got to do was introduce Mason to my grandfather for the first time.  Here is a nice little family photo.  This is my mom's dad (oh, did I mention my parents were there, too?)

The last thing we did in western Michigan was to go to the zoo with our friends.  And...I didn't bring my camera.  To summarize our zoo experience, a bird pooped on my head, I rode a camel, Byron petted a sting ray, and Mason didn't really notice the animals much, though he loved the waterfall (go figure).

The second half of the vacation was spent visiting our other relatives, who as I mentioned, live outside of Detroit.  During this part of the trip, we crammed in as very little as possible...my kind of vacation.  We tried to sleep in, though that is nearly impossible with an 11 month old who doesn't quite understand the concept of "summer vacation".  The major perk we got to enjoy was that my aunt and uncle have a pool.  It was so great! Guess who else thought so.  Yep, Mason.

The rest of the time was full of swimming, jumping on the trampoline, scootering, eating ice cream, shopping, and frothing coffee (I may have been addicted to that last one - I'm so getting a frother!).  We even got to see a neighborhood house fire, which I admit is very tragic and unfortunate but I have never seen anything like that in person before.  Mason did, however, want to end vacation with a bang, so the Friday before we returned home he sprouted a 102.8 degree fever, which later led to the diagnosis of two ear infections.  Of course they were his first, and we were miles from home, but we managed to find a great walk in clinic and pharmacy close by.  Phew!

Now that we are back at home (and ironically rested up) we can't wait to plan a vacation for next year.

And next time, I'll hopefully get more pictures!  Although if I had to take too many photos of any one subject, I guess I'm glad it was Mason!

At Last, the Shower

After long last, and a few weeks of stressing on other topics, I can now present to you the baby shower that I threw my dear friend Andrea a couple of weeks ago.  The theme I chose was Cute as a Button, and I found the idea here.  I loved the idea and how she carried it throughout so many different aspects.  I wasn't able to do quite as much, but still, it made for a fun time.  I also liked that the idea could be gender neutral, since Andrea is not finding out her baby's gender ahead of time.
THE INVITES

To start with, I handmade the invites.  I designed them in plain old Word and printed them on my own home printer.  I took them to the next step by sewing a sleeve and a button on each of them.  I must give a special shout out to my mom for her help in the assembly line!

THE MENU
I told Andrea to be sure to bring her sweet tooth to the shower.  We had fresh fruit and chocolate covered marshmallows (one of my easy go-to items, this time embellished to look like buttons...which they did, if you squinted and used your imagination), but the pride and joy of the shower were the cupcakes.  Oh, the cupcakes.  They. Were. Amazing.  Triple Chocolate and Lemon Velvet, ordered from my new favorite place in Valley Junction, Carefree Patisserie.  I can't say enough wonderful things about these cupcakes.

THE SHOWER
All in all, I think everyone had a great time.  We didn't play any shower games, but rather just had an enjoyable time to chat and tell stories.  I didn't have much to contribute in terms of advice, but many of the other gals did, and they had funny stories, too!

THE GIFTS

As a hostess trying to make sure all of the details of the morning were flowing smoothly, I failed at taking pictures of the gifts.  I can, however, share my gift to Andrea and baby.  The first thing I got her was this print.

I have had my eye on this for a long time for myself, but since I didn't have a reason to buy it for me, I knew Andrea would like it (plus I cleared it with her husband behind her back!).  The second thing I gave her was a handmade creation - I made fabric alphabet blocks.  I totally winged the process sans pattern, but I really like how they turned out.  (Stay tuned for a future post where I explain how I made them.)  Here is the first batch.

Overall, I had a really great time throwing the shower for Andrea.  I will say, thanks to Byron, my house had never been so clean.  I also owe a huge thank you to our friend Wynn who helped tremendously with the shower.  I couldn't have done it without her!  Now I can just sit back and wait until I get the chance to meet Baby Davey in person!

A Weekend Wedding Reception

Saturday we spent the afternoon & evening in Clear Lake, Iowa, at the wedding reception of our friends Julia & Stefan.  We had such a great time.  Attending weddings makes me reminisce about my own wedding, and my mind always wanders to what I would do differently if I ever had to do it again (to Byron, of course).  This of course drives Byron crazy because he insists our wedding day was absolutely perfect just the way it was, but I can't help it.  I love weddings and my mind just goes there.  The mood of their entire day was so relaxed and laid back and fun.  If I were to do this again I would definitely make it more like theirs.
But anyway, back to Julia & Stefan.  The reception started at the Clear Lake Art Center.  It was a cute, small town art center and was the perfect space for them.  The first part of the reception was basically like any wedding reception, that is, until they started showing Stefan's German music videos.  They were hysterical!  I had no idea that these existed, but man, they had me laughing.
The second part of the reception, and this was the greatest part, was a two hour river boat cruise on the Lady of the Lake.  There was plenty of food, drinks, music, and friendship to go around.  The boat ride was so scenic, too.  If it weren't two hours a way from home and cost a boatload of cash (get it?  I kill me...), I would do this for every party I had.
An ironic moment that happened to us was when our other friends from Clear Lake actually skied past us on their boat.  That doesn't happen every day!  
Here are a few moments we captured.

Byron and I enjoying the cruise.

Our friends skiing past.

Me and Julia.