Maya's Tribune

When I posted Alisa's first invitation, I felt I only give you a "teaser" view, so... here I am with "Maya's Tribune", Alisa's was called "Alisa's Times". The top image of this invite is the back and face of a "booklet". When I created Alisa's invitation 17 months prior, I said "never again!", but as all you moms know what you do for one of your children you would and do do for all :) I changed it up a little in the middle of the booklet. For Alisa's I did all her "firsts", for Maya's I did "a year", and did a little recap for each month. As for the table of contents and Maya's favorite things {my spin on Oprah's favorite things}, I did the same in Alisa's. So now you are asking about the lovely cartoon drawings to the left? That is my husband's page, complete with his hand drawings. He also did a page in the "Alisa's Times" booklet invite I made.

I have to say I am uber proud of how these booklets turned out, and I am hoping my children cherish them as they get older. They were both worth all the time and effort put into them!

Maya's First Birthday

For Maya's 1st birthday, we had an outdoor affair. Considering the weather

outside at the moment, I hope this post will be a refreshing reminder that

Spring is right around the corner... right?

Maya indulged in lots of friends & presents! Luckily, she had

her big sisters help to open all those gifts.

We went for an outdoor garden theme, but mainly it was

all about the "purple" once we found her cute dress. :)

Purple cupcakes were my highlight for the party. It was

my fun spin on "red velvet" cupcakes. They had silver bottoms, &

white icing so that it was a wonderful surprise to bite in and find Purple.

This is my husbands work! Isn't it so cute? We have the garden

theme best represented here. There is a fish, frog, bee, bunny, butterfly, &

even a mushroom. I love it! It was Maya's smash cake.

Overall it was a perfect day out, & a perfect 1st birthday for Maya :)

Crêpe à la Alisa

What fun would shopping in Paris be with no crêpe cart?
My husband loves Nutella... do you? I am not a big fan myself, but I knew this was a must for this party. It was a hit, everyone enjoyed the cart, which was actually a rolling cart we have in our kitchen normally. We added large cardboard rolls on the corners, and added a "top". Okay, you got me! I have to give props where they are due... My husband worked on constructing this masterpiece for at least an hour. Thank you honey. I did however buy the balloons and roses... and staggered those balloons all by myself too :) Yeah me!

Shopping in Paris

So for Alisa's 1st birthday, I chose the shopping in Paris theme... I had a feather boa on the mantel with white lights and shopping bags (gift bags) set around.
My husband made crepes and built me a crepe cart.
But, obviously the most important part was my gorgeous daughter...it was ironic, but someone from Europe sent a beautiful grey dress for her to wear.
Alisa, being the dainty non-messyness girl that she is, HAD to eat her cake with a spoon. The princess tiara was just the perfect finishing touch.

Alisa's Birthday_Invitation (Part2)

So here it is, the second part of the invite!

This page was dedicated to her Favorite things around a year old.

I mocked up the page to resemble the *Oprah's Favorite Things* logo.

Everyone loved this :)

Alisa's Birthday_Invitation (Part1)

When Alisa was born we realized quickly we would have to get creative to keep everyone in the *loop*. We have family in Cali, Ohio, and even Europe, so my husband came up with a great plan! He started to send spiratic e-mails with lots of images and a little story to go with it. It was called the Alisa Time's. He would always title it something funny like ALisa Time's X-mas Edition.... it was a hit with the family to say the least!

When it was time for Alisa's 1st birthday, my husband decided that it would be cute to do a *post-card* type of invite with a magazine cover. Of course, how I am I took it to a whole new level. My motto is the famous *Anything worth doing is worth doing right*. So I made a full magazine. This is the face of the magazine, and I will post a couple of more pages as well.

Let me know what you think?!