Confessions of a Blogaholic

For this weeks FF, I decided to use some old pictures from Disneyland. These pictures were taken in March of 2006. It was Kai's first trip to Disneyland with Tempe Dance Academy. She was so excited to go dance in Disneyland. Kai was nine years old. Today we leave to Disneyland for three days. Although we are going at the same time as the TDA kids, Kai will not be dancing. By the time we decided to go, Wendy had already finished all of her dances and it was to late for Kai to learn them. So, we are just going to go and have fun. We have never needed a reason to go to Disneyland anyways. Kai before her performance in 2006 Dancing on stage with her shirt, black jazz pants and black jazz shoes Nachito with his annual Disneyland hat. We can't wait!!!

Nachito's 8 th Birthday Saturday, October 27, 2007 Halloween Theme And so, even though Nachito's Birthday is in November, for his 8 th Birthday, he wanted a Halloween themed party. We planned it at home with all of his friends from school, and Kai even had some friends from dance there as well. For invitations, I bought the packs of paper wall hangings in pumpkin shapes. The packages that teachers use for their bulletin boards. I traced the shapes onto black card stock and printed the party info on orange card stock. I tied the two pieces together with black and orange tulle and just handed them out like that. Everyone that came over to the house was dressed up for the occasion. The kids had a blast!! It was a lot of fun to plan a Halloween party, maybe next year he'll want to do this theme again.

Nachito's 7 th Birthday Saturday, November 10, 2006 Power Rangers Peter Piper Pizza And so back to Peter Piper Pizza we went for his 7 th Birthday. No special candy bags, and no fun theme. Honestly typing Nachito's Flashback Friday birthday recaps are giving me a complex. I'm having to re-assure myself that this is what he wanted. I'm feeling guilty about Kai's over the top birthday parties and Nachito's toned down ones. I know that this is what he wanted, but I can't help but feel guilty. The one thing I can guarantee , is that he has always had such a blast at his parties. He lives it up. He runs around and just plays and enjoys his day. This party was no different. He had all of his class friends and he thoroughly enjoyed this party. Next weeks theme: Halloween

Nachito's 6th Birthday Party Pirate Theme Saturday, November 11, 2005 Finally....Nachito let me plan him a party at home with a fun theme. He like every other little boy was very into pirates. And the great thing about that theme was that every party store and party site had so much to pick from. For invitations, I ordered small paper treasure chests from Oriental Trading. Using Printshop, I designed a treasure map with the final location being our home. On the map, it had all of the party information on it. I burnt the edges of the map and rolled the map up. I filled the treasure chest with gold chocolate coins and jewels and layed the map on top. To keep the pirate chest closed, I tied it with a pirate patch. Nana Norma made Nachito and Kai Pirate outfits for the party. They looked adorable. Nachito with his parrot on his shoulder. He even let me paint a beard and mustache on his face. My mom and I made Pirate flag shaped candy bags. We had all sorts of pirate loot all over the h...

Nachito's 5 th Birthday Saturday, November 12, 2004 Peter Piper Pizza And just like that, Nachito moved on from Makutus Island to Peter Piper Pizza. For his 5 th birthday he invited his Kindergarten class to PPP . When I booked the party, they gave me a stack of invitations that I would normally just toss and make some new ones. But noooooo , Nachito insisted on using them because they were from PPP . He also wanted the candy bags from there to. Boys....they are no fun sometimes. He had a blast at his party. He played with his friends for hours. Next week: Pirate Theme

Nachito's 4th Birthday!! Saturday, November 8th, 2003 This time around, Nachito had been invited to a party at Makutu's Island. And like that, he replaced Jeepers. He loved this place. I would take them every Sunday. It was nice because I would sit and read while they played. For his 4th birthday, he loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. His invitations and candy bags were Ninja Turtles. His favorite was Donatello. He had a blast at this party. He also got a big birthday hug from Makuto too!

Nachito's 3rd Birthday November 2002 Jeepers Nachito's 3rd birthday was met with sadness. Initially his birthday party was scheduled on November 9, 2002. His birthday is actually November 8 th . At around one o'clock in the morning of the ninth, I received a call from my mom that my grandmother had been taken to the hospital by ambulance. They were scheduled to leave Douglas a few hours later and come to Tempe to celebrate Nachito's birthday. That night, Nachito had not slept a wink. He was restless and he was fussy. I was up watching t.v and trying to get him to bed. When the phone rang, I answered immediately. My heart dropped. It was a phone call that I did not want. My mom was crying and in my heart, I knew that the next phone call would not be any better. And just as I feared, when the phone rang again two hours later it was what I thought. My beloved grandmother had passed away. I was devastated . I hated the fact that I had not seen her for two weeks. I hat...

Nachito's 2nd Birthday Saturday, November 10, 2001 Jeepers Just thinking about this post makes me sad. Because I am remembering how much Nachito loved Winnie the Pooh. He was his favorite. He carried his little Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal and loved his Winnie the Pooh PJ's. Now, at almost ten years old, he wouldn't be caught wearing Pooh anymore. For his 2nd birthday, there was no doubt that if would be Pooh themed. He used to love to go to Jeepers, so we had his party there. It was a lot of fun, and he had a blast. Just looking at the pictures, I realize how big all of the kids are now. Some of them are in High School already....wow...time flys.

Nachito's 1st Birthday Saturday, November 5, 2000 Diamondbacks When coming up with a theme for Nachito's party, it was really a no brain er . Buddy loved and still loves the Diamondbacks. It was fun to incorporate the Diamondbacks into a baseball theme. I bought teal and purple party supplies. For centerpieces, I used mini Mylar balloon baseballs. I went to Circle K, and asked to buy the lids of the Slurpee's . I cut out a round cardboard base out of white cardboard. I filled the lid with Hershey kissed and put the balloon on top and sealed with the base. Simple and easy. His cake had an edible image of Luis Gonzales aka Gonzo. He was mine and Kai's favorite player. Below is the invitation and pictures. Invitation was made to look like an actual D-Backs ticket. I used three different players for the invites. Randy Johnson, "The Big Unit", Gonzo, and Steve Finley. Who would have known that one year later they would be World Series Champions. The Section 11 Ro...

Kassie's 12 th Birthday Mall Scavenger Hunt Saturday, September 13, 2008 I honestly can't believe that it's the first week of September already. The kids have been back in school for almost a month. I also can't believe that I have counted down Kai's birthdays every Friday for the past 12 weeks. Next Friday, will be her 13 th Birthday! Unbelievable....I will have a teenager at home. Last year her party was a lot of fun. I didn't plan it months in advance. I literally threw it together really fast. We did a Mall Scavenger Hunt Party. Looking back at the blog post I didn't really give to many details. First off, the kids all met outside of California Pizza Kitchen. I had a bag with black, orange, and pink jellie bracelets. Each kid pulled a bracelet from the bag, depending on the color they drew, that is the team they were on. I had three clip boards, one per team. Each clipboard had the same instructions, but scrambled up. That way each team would not ru...

Kassie's 11th Birthday Party "Hollywood" Saturday, September 15, 2007 For Kai's 11th birthday party, we went with a "Hollywood" theme and a CRAZY sleepover. Here are some of the pictures. To read more details about the party, click on here .

Here it is Friday again. I can't believe how fast the week went by. Two weeks of school have gone by already. This past week was a bit of a challenge. First, just as I was bragging about Nachito's Asthma being under control, he starts to have Asthma attacks all night Saturday and all day Sunday. I bring him into the office on Monday, and his oxygen levels are down and he's put on steroids, antibiotics, on top of all of his Asthma meds . He was a sick little boy. Then on Wednesday, both Kai and Buddy tested + for Strep throat. At this point, I just want to rent a room at a hotel to keep from getting sick. Fortunately both kids are back at school today just in time for the weekend. Not that I have any major plans this weekend, which I'm actually happy about. Just the normal laundry, cleaning and relaxing. Ok , so back to Flashback Friday. Today I realized that I have officially been blogging for over three years. As I was about to post about Kai's 10 th Birthday, I...

Kassie's 9 th Birthday Saturday, September 10, 2005 "Fabulous 50's" Yes, I know that this was a repeat birthday party. In my defense, it was only because I really, really like the 50's theme. And plus, we lived in a whole other city and we had a whole new set of friends. And, Kai was older, so she could enjoy it more. There, I'm done with my excuses for having copied her 3rd birthday party. In terms of invitations, why mess with the originality. : ) I again, made invitations out of old 45 records. Oh....I know a difference. Her 3rd birthday color scheme was red and black, and this one was pink and black. So there, it was a little different. We had a hula hoop contest in which she could actually participate in this time. And she came in second place. And that was only after I gave her the you better lose look, because how fair would it be for her to win a contest at her own birthday party? Her and another friend had been hula hooping for about 10 minutes and ...

Kassie's 8 th Birthday Saturday, September 24 th , 2004 "Diva Rock Star" Don't ask me how or why I came up with the theme for this party. Maybe because at the time, Kassie really thought she was going to be a rock star. This was before Hannah Montana, Camp Rock and all the "singing" Disney shows. She sang and danced in front of mirrors all day long. She was Sassy and all that too. Any time a camera came out, she would pose for pictures, not just lets stand still pose, it was a hands on hip, I'm on the red carpet pose. I guess I played into it, because that is what us mothers do. We hosted this party at our home. There is a picture of the invitations below. All the kids were instructed to wear their own "Diva" outfit. At the time, I still worked in cosmetics. I was very good friends with all of the vendors, and so they all gave me boxes and boxes of samples for the party. We used the make-up to make the girls into "Divas" and we combe...

Kassie's 7 th Birthday Saturday, September 13, 2003 Skateland U.S.A. As it goes with kids, Kai quickly gave up on the Ice Skating and moved on over to roller skating. So, she picked Skateland for the location of her 7 th birthday party. For a theme, she LOVED Lizzie McGuire. And I do mean LOVED. I can honestly say that I can recite the words to "The Lizzie McGuire Movie". She watched it 24/7. We saw it at theaters too many times to remember. We even kept seeing it when it hit the dollar theater. Above are the invitations that I made for the party. The information was printed on white vellum and tied together with a tulle bow. We made the felt candy bags of Lizzie's face. I had a Lizzie cake made at Fry's, and other than that, Skateland took care of all the rest. The kids had a great time skating and playing video games. Notice the hulk plates on the tables. Kassie made me buy those because she said that the boys in her class were not going to want Lizzie pl...

Oh my, I can't believe that it's Friday already. First, I need to apologize for being a horrible blog reader this week. My goal is catch up on all my blog reading this weekend. I have been so crazy busy this week. I guess it's to be expected since I was gone for so long. On Monday morning, I could barely even find my desk. It's better now, but I still have lots to do. I almost forgot to do my Flashback Friday. I did leave the past two Friday's scheduled before I left, so at least those were done. Kassie's 6 th Birthday Party Saturday, September 21, 2002 Polar Ice Kassie had just started taking Ice Skating lessons, and so of course she wanted her party at the ice rink. She LOVED the Disney Princess's and so of course, that was her theme. She invited all her friends from school, and they had a blast. Unfortunately since they were so little, not many of them last on the ice much. Except for Kassie of course. She loved ice skating. My mom had even bought her, h...

Kassie's 5 th Birthday Party Saturday, September 8 th 2001 Douglas, AZ We moved from Douglas in June of 2001. She had just finished her first year of pre -school. She had made a lot of friends, and was really missing them. I still had a lot of friends, and I was missing them too. Not to mention a lot of family. We decided to host a small party at McDonald's and drive down to Douglas for the weekend. She was really into NSYNC at the time, who wasn't? So she chose that theme for her party. For invitations, I made "Back Stage Passes ." I used a program on Print Shop and copied and pasted a picture of NYSNC . I printed them on card stock and had them laminated. I ordered lanyards from Oriental Trading Company and attached them. I ended up mailing them to my mom, and she distributed them. For the first time, my mom and I did not make the candy bags because Kassie wanted to use the plastic NSYNC ones from the party store. Go figure. It was simple, and it was nice ...