Haute Mom Dilemma #43 -Where's the Party

Boxes have been arriving for weeks, full of gifts, favors, and decorations. I haven't seen my UPS man this much since my husband and I got married. As of Thursday, various guests have been coming into town. The invites were sent out weeks ago.
We have all the ingredients for a large event but nobody is getting married. It's Stella's 1st birthday party.

Her big day was actually yesteday (yes I know, Friday the 13th, I thought about that minutes after she was born). We took her to Disneyland and then had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants with grandparents and even her great grandfather. She got a sandbox from us, a "big girl" car seat from my parents, and fun sand toys from her Uncle Jordan. The best gift was my grandfather driving out from.Arizona to meet Stella for the first time.

The rest of the family and friends will be celebrate today at her birthday party. This is definitely a bittersweet feeling for me. A combination of pride for all her accomplishments and sadness that my little baby is growing up with such speed it makes my head spin. I am so happy and melancholy I don't know whether to laugh or cry. So I've been doing both.



I have some great giveaways in honor of Stella's 1st birthday and will be posting them soon, along with all the details of the fiesta in the next couple of days. Since I have family in town (you all know how that is) my time seems to be more limited than usual.

Have a great weekend and happy birthday to my Stella!

Crown 1 year old for the weekend!

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Thrifty Thursday - Toys!

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I have been searching around for a gift for Stella’s first birthday and came across a fantastic website with great prices. Fat Brain Toys has some of the most unique toys I have ever seen. Among these unique toys you can find a Gift Wizard that allows you to type in age, interest, etc. and matches you input up with various toys. Not to mention they have some of the best prices from what I can tell so far!

We are looking for an outdoor toy of some sort, perhaps a toddler play yard or sandbox. When I came across this website, I really liked the fact that I could search by category as well as ago group. Like Amazon, I was able to read other buyers’ comments for each product I was looking at. Many of the prices were discounted 10-20% and they offer free shipping on orders over $99. Let me just say, it would not be difficult to spend this amount with all of the great stuff that they have.

The best feature that I experienced was the Live Chat. I had a couple of questions about some of the items. One item I was looking at (Chicco 4-in-1 ride) stated that the beginning stage of this toy was a rocker but the site didn’t show any pictures of what the rocker looked at. I went on Live Chat and in seconds I had someone on the other end helping me. I mentioned what I was looking for and in two or three minutes, she had her tech guy upload more pictures for me! There was also another item, a rocking horse type deal, That said, it was great for one- and two-year olds but had a warning about small parts for children under three. With this inquiry she got on the phone with the manufacturer as she was online with me to check! Now that is some service!

Toy sites are always overwhelming but this one stands above the rest! Now buy those babes a little something!

Haute Mom Dilemma #38 - It's Time to Party

I have been throwing around ideas for Stella's first birthday party since she was like 6 weeks old. One glance at my calendar last week sent me flying into reality that not only was it time to start planning Stella's birthday, I was behind! We have attended quite a few kid's birthday parties in the last few months and they have ranged from relaxing, back yard BBQs to over the top petting zoos (no, I am not kidding).

Stella is ready to par-tay!

Our style is more of the backyard gathering but our backyard is well, non-existent. We have some space but after making our invite list, we realized we needed more of a large park. Definitely doable where we live but nobody wants to stake out picnic tables at 8 am and have to guard them all day long. When I looked into reserving a picnic site at one of our city's parks, they were over $300. With that money, I might as well go with the petting zoo!



After much discussion and input, I think we have decided to have a small gathering at our house. My husband just brought home some darling children's yard chairs and from the looks of it, Stella is more comfortable in her own backyard (er, front yard) anyhow. I have decided on a zebra theme and will enjoying all the party supply shopping! This may mean that we have to keep the guest list small but I know that most people will understand. I will just start cutting from the in-law side. :)