I have to say, obviously not much planning went into WHEN we would have our kids. With Cam, we just did cycle after cycle until it worked, and that ended up with a due date in December. And Maggie, well - she is the definition of surprise. I thought that having a birthday near Thanksgiving and Christmas would suck, and MAN does it. For me, as the planner, at least. But everything is settled now - I can't believe how quickly their birthday's have crept up on me!
Maggie is getting a huge open house party. Huge. I'm inviting everyone under the sun and we are going to celebrate the SHIT out of her birthday. And I got the best invites from Paper Culture -
Maggie never got a birth announcement, I just couldn't figure out what to do - announce just Maggie? But then what did that say about Nora? It was too much. So - I'm using this as an announcement of sorts and sending to everyone. She also didn't get the usual stream of visitors congratulating us on her birth, (thanks to the flu scare, no one was really allowed at the hospital, and we were only home for one night before Nora died) so we are going to do it UP for her first birthday. It falls on the Monday after Thanksgiving - so I actually sent out 'save the date' emails and decided to have the party on Sunday afternoon so that more people could come.
Maggie never got a birth announcement, I just couldn't figure out what to do - announce just Maggie? But then what did that say about Nora? It was too much. So - I'm using this as an announcement of sorts and sending to everyone. She also didn't get the usual stream of visitors congratulating us on her birth, (thanks to the flu scare, no one was really allowed at the hospital, and we were only home for one night before Nora died) so we are going to do it UP for her first birthday. It falls on the Monday after Thanksgiving - so I actually sent out 'save the date' emails and decided to have the party on Sunday afternoon so that more people could come. The other thing for Maggie is everyone is asking what sort of presents she would like - and I have NO CLUE. She just loves to follow Cam around. I have no idea what sort of toy she would like! I feel awful. With Cam, I could just say trucks or balls or blocks.... but I feel like with a girl - you can't say dolls for sure - because not all girls like dolls. And we already have loads of trucks and balls and blocks already.... so all those with baby girls - any advice on good presents to suggest for Maggie? Everyone is asking. We already have a play kitchen, a train table, an activity cube and a Happy House. The toy that makes her laugh and laugh and laugh is the Busy Ball Popper - if that helps with suggestions.
Cam's party has a lot of planning too. It's going to be much smaller than Maggie's - but it's also the day after the anniversary of Nora's death. I have no idea what sort of shape I'm going to be in that weekend, so we are doing it at the local Children's Museum. They can take up to 27 people in their space, and you can let up to 18 people go into the museum. I'm just inviting 3 or 4 of his friends, and the rest are his grown up fan club. The party starts at 10:30 and goes until 12:45 - perfect timing to go crazy and have fun, eat pizza and a train cake(!) and then go home for naps. Cam's big present is an Early Rider bike - I think it'll blow his mind.
11 comments:
gift suggestions for Maggie: music CD's (Dan Zanes, other hip kids' music); toy stroller (even if she doesn't end up liking dolls, she'll like pushing things around in it); play food or sturdy grocery cart for the play kitchen; fun hooded bath towels; pop-up playhouse/tunnel; color wonder markers & paper; toy musical instruments (shakers, little tikes piano); fun shoes!
I love that Cam's bike has flames on it! Just like mom's old one :)
Have you started a college savings plan for the kiddos? My family was excited to deposit money into their 529 for their birthday. Just a thought?
I've told family members (who wanted to help save for college) that they paid for my college, I'll pay for my kids college. My mom did that for my twin neices, and never gave them any other presents. It was wierd. My mom is LOVING giving toys to my kids and watching them play.
For Elizabeth's first birthday, we asked for books mostly. She got a great collection of board books and she still LOVES them. I also think that play food always makes a great gift too. We have a couple of cutting play food sets and they are loved by every child that has come into our house. (Like this one: http://www.melissaanddoug.com/dyn_prod.php?p=487)
I was gonna also suggest the college. If you feel it was too weird, you can suggest a bit for college, and a small present.... We ask for the college if someone doesn't know what we want for Moesha, because I think she has enough toys and clothes but not enough education lol ... the other suggestion I'd have is the books. There is never enough of those ! Or, if you look on Etsy, there is tons of handmade toys, clothes, hats, hair accessories... and that supports small, usually SAHM's businesses :)
I did the same thing with Toby's first birthday - so much about his birth got ignored amidst the trauma that his first birthday was a huge big deal.
I'm going with the musical instruments idea :)
Love the invites! You are one busy lady. You probably already have a lot of toys from Cam. What about clothes? It is always nice because people rarely buy you bigger clothes for baby showers.
We got Emery a stroller and the soft my first doll. Can't for the life of me think who made it but it's the same people as all the laugh and learn stuff. She adores it!
I have two girls and a boy and they all liked 'baby' supplies. even my son liked to feed and diaper and put his lovies to bed in the baby center we had for the girls. I also second or third play food and shopping carts also always get playtime even from the bigger kids when they think no one is looking.
she is so cute! We gave bath toys for the first birthday of my first, have no idea what we'll do for the second's coming up in less than 2 months.
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