After the semi-disaster of June’s third birthday party, Shep’s first go-round was a sweet relief! Simple, fun, and spent with our favorite people, it was everything we were hoping it would be. Thankfully, the birthday boy seemed to feel the same way :) I have a few pictures to share, if you’d like to see!
Right off the bat, Shep, as opposed to June, has one major thing going for him: his birthday is in the summer. Yes, it’s hot in North Carolina in July, but we’re used to hot. In January, you could get a 65-degree day, but if you don’t, you can’t very well ask people to gather outside on a chilly 40-degree day. So, an outdoor party is pretty much out for her, and indoor parties can get reeeeeeally overwhelming really quickly in our house. The open concept of our downstairs is great for our family, but when you add 5+ guests (especially kids!) into the mix, it’s a lot.
All that to say – the best part about this party from the start was that it was NOT at our house: we rented the Carousel Pavilion at Pullen Park. Pullen is a Raleigh city park with an adorable carousel (built in 1900!), little boats June loves, a train, a wonderful playground, and more. We love visiting as a family and knew it would be the perfect fit for this party!
We invited 25 guests and about 20 could come, which was wonderful! As you might expect for a first birthday, the guests were mostly family members and our friends, since Shep doesn’t really have friends :) Both sets of our parents, my sister and her fam, and several of our dear family friends joined us.
On the agenda? Drawing with chalk, blowing bubbles, playing in the trees next to the pavilion, and eating. We also took a mass ride on the carousel before cutting into the cake (the tickets were in lieu of a party favor!), and that was a big hit.
The party was from 11-1, and this was our menu: pizza from our favorite Oakwood Pizza Box, homemade fruit salad, applesauce pouches, cut veggies and dip, cake, and little Bluebell cups of ice cream. We also had water, juice boxes, and LaCroix in a cooler.
The cake was a lucky find: we had been to a bridal shower earlier in the month that served a multilayer chocolate and vanilla cake covered in chocolate ganache (like this!), and it was delicious!! The hostess shared with me the unlikely source: an IGA grocery store! For $20, it was ours – and every single bite was devoured on-site.
We went with a very light carousel theme to match our location, and balloons, a few tablecloths, fun star plates (inspired by the ceiling of the carousel), and party hats rounded out the decor. The crowning glory, though, (and really the only detail of note) was my party hat animals. These guys turned out SO CUTE! Playing off the invitation (which played off the carousel animals themselves), I crafted the tiniest party hats for our Schleich collection. It was surprisingly easy – I just made a little template to pump them out assembly-line style, and attached them to the animals with hot glue (they came right off without a hitch after the weekend).
I’ll finish with that invitation. I went with a sweet postcard from Minted – they always have the perfect design for everything, no matter what I’m looking for! Love them so much.
Thanks for taking a peek, friends! Currently debating whether we’ll do a fourth birthday party for June in January… I was pretty set on not doing one this year, but after experiencing Shep’s, she’s hot on the idea. Fingers crossed I can convince her to do something fun instead with just one friend or her cousins!
As an introvert, I’m a big fan of parties with a purpose, and my recent book swap party perfectly fit the bill: gather with likeminded friends, eat dessert, and head home with an armful of new reads? Sign me up!! Here’s a recap, if you’d like to plan something similar!
The venue: My friend Katie graciously agreed to host this soiree, which couldn’t have worked out better: her husband is an author, so their home is filled with books and was therefore the perfect backdrop! Her first floor is also a more traditional layout, with several distinct rooms, which helped with the flow of the evening.
In addition to playing hostess, most of the adorable details you see here are the work of Katie’s hand – she is incredibly crafty and a genius hand letterer!! She made the book table runner, the adorable treat bags, the “library cards,” and more. (She also makes AMAZING wedding invitations and other fun things, so please email her to talk about a project!!)
The invite: I sent out an invitation on Paperless Post (this one). We had an almost 100% RSVP rate, including a few EFM readers I had never met before! :)
The swap mechanics: My research turned up all different ways to host a book swap – some people do a Yankee Swap, or a Yankee Swap with wrapped books for extra mystery. My goal, however, was to clear out my shelves, pass on well-loved books, and get several new books in return, so I allowed gals to bring up to 5 books to swap that they already owned. (One book was totally fine, too! I’d say most people brought about 3.)
Any kind of book was welcome – fiction, nonfiction, memoir, cookbook, coffee table book – the only requirement was that they had to be GOOD! Something you’d recommend to a friend, not something you’d put in the recycling :) At the end of the evening, you got to bring home as many books as you contributed.
The food and drink: Guests arrived at 7:30, so we did light appetizers and a few sweets. We served feta dip and chips, pigs in a blanket (my favorite!), sausage tarts, fruit salad, cheesecake brownies, and warm chocolate chip cookies. For drinks, we had wine, lemonade, and sangria. I made some of the food myself and asked a few friends to bring items, which worked out great!
Okay, I know those cookies don’t look the most beautiful, but they were DELICIOUS! You can’t beat warm chocolate chip cookies :)
The activities: When gals arrived, we asked them to fill out a “library card” for each book they brought, pitching it to a new owner, then “shelve” their selections (we had tables for fiction, non-fiction, and miscellaneous scattered throughout the first floor). This was a great way to break the ice and give people something to do right away! Download your own library cards right here!
We also had a jar for each gal to drop in her all-time favorite book she thinks everyone should read (the answers are coming in my next post!!). Download your own suggestion cards here!
After everyone had had their fill of food and browsed our makeshift book shop, each gal introduced herself (we were 17 strong!), explained one of the books she’d brought and why she loves it, and drew and answered a bookish question on a little slip of paper. Here are the questions Katie and I brainstormed – wouldn’t these all make great conversation starters?!
The favors: We tied up gummy worms from Target in little glassine bags – book worms for the book worms :)
All in all, this was SUCH a fun evening and something I think might be a new annual tradition!
Since I’m all about the theme party, I’d love to hear if you’ve been to or hosted another fun “party with a purpose!” My favorites include pumpkins and soup, a favorite things party, and showers, of course!
Anyone else working on Easter baskets? It feels odd to look ahead to Easter when we’re still at the beginning of Lent, but the alternative is… buying things the night before? Can’t do it :)
We chatted last year about Easter baskets – whether celebrating with them takes away from the religious significance of the day – and I loved reading your thoughts. For now, we’ve landed here: Jesus is the best gift we could ever be given. He is love. The day of his resurrection should be the best day of the year. These are hard concepts to illustrate to a three-year-old, but tangible excitement can help – so a basket, given with love from her parents to celebrate the happiest day, is where we’ve landed, along with lots of discussion leading up to the day! (We just added this book to our collection.)
A few budget tips:
1) Save crinkle paper from boxes that arrive throughout the year to line your baskets instead of buying it new.
2) Include items you’d be refreshing for the spring/summer season anyway – pajamas, a bathing suit, sandals, sidewalk chalk. Maximize the impact of money you’re already spending!
3) Though the ideas I’m linking here are all new, use them as inspiration to buy secondhand, if you can. I often pick up toys or clothing at a favorite church consignment sale, including the little wooden bus I included in June’s basket from last year, above.
4) Don’t be afraid to include toys they already own! I love to tuck in June’s two stuffed bunnies, and she thinks it’s so fun to see them hanging out in her basket! :)
5) Presentation is key. Take a minute to arrange things nicely, tie a big bow on top, choose things in their favorite color. It doesn’t take much money to delight a toddler.
Here are a few items that caught my eye in recent searches…
Most of the items are linked in the carousels below, but here are the ones that are not:
Bathing suits and beach fun (can you tell we almost always opt for rash guards?!):
Outdoor exploration:
Books:
Clothes and shoes:
Toys and games:
So what will we be including in our baskets? Here’s what I’m thinking so far:
June: A new bath towel (she’s still using the one we got her as an infant and it is a liiiiitle small), a rash guard, strawberry jams, 4 bath bombs (I got this pack of 12 last year and put 4 in her stocking, then saved the rest!), Saltwaters, her two stuffed bunnies, sidewalk chalk, and a devotional for preschoolers.
Shep:Saltwaters… aaaaand that’s it. I might roll up a hand-me-down bathing suit we have waiting in the wings and put in a stuffed animal just for fun, but obviously he will not know or care :)
I’d love to hear about any Easter traditions your family has! Pillsbury cinnamon rolls are in our plans for that morning, too :)
Ever since I completed up my 60 Before 30 project, I’ve been considering options for a new iteration. My experience with longer-term goal sets has been overwhelmingly positive; I love allowing them to shape and mark a chunk of my life!
But how to theme it? 65 Before 35 just didn’t sound as jazzy. As I pruned and shaped my collection of ideas for a potential next list, and considered what our life is likely to look like for the next few years, an idea began to take shape.
The driving force in our family right now is paying off our mortgage*. We expect this to happen in the next three to six years, depending on the market’s performance, and until then, we will be making some aggressive trade-offs and sacrifices – forgoing vacations, reducing our grocery budget, delaying clothing purchases, cooking at home, (almost) never going to the movies, not purchasing alcohol, and more.
We believe the freedom of owning our home will be more than worth it, but we’re also not willing to put our young family’s life on hold for the next five years, eating PB&J every night and spending only the absolute minimum.
And here’s the thing: we’re convinced we don’t need to. The fact is, there are amazing amounts of fun and memories to be had for very few dollars. In fact, I’d argue that this list gets at the very best parts of life, the ones we’ll continue to chase long after we’ve put our mortgage to rest: the patience to move slowly, the softness to be delighted, rich and agile minds, deep relationships, confidence in our own ingenuity, a deepening bench of skills, and – above all – golden-hued memories. If these things aren’t luxury, I don’t know what is.
Each item below was carefully chosen, for reasons that may not be immediately clear. Some are unusual, some are pedestrian, and many you might never think to raise to the level of being put “on a list.” You might find it amusing that I included them at all, or worse, Not Fun.
Perhaps not. I am a creature of habit, and despite my best intentions, it’s easy for life to become routine. So, just like we put extra mortgage payments into our budget instead of hoping to stumble upon “extra” sums of money, I am intentionally setting out to create the conditions for delight instead of hoping delight will somehow shoehorn its way into my full life, with the financial constraints we are voluntarily putting on it. What we prioritize, happens. It’s always taken someone’s effort to plan the picnic, organize the lake day, or flip bunny-shaped pancakes. Just because something has been considered and planned doesn’t make it any less magical.
Alright. After that very lengthy preamble, I present to you…
Start: February 28, 2019 End: ??? (Somewhere between 2022 and 2025!) Items completed: 16 Last updated: July 2022
1. Host a croquet tournament
2. Make potstickers with Mama Jean(December 2021)
3. Teach June the Lord’s Prayer(March 2019)
4. Make a month-by-month landscape tending list
5. Go trail riding at the farm with my family
6. Visit Hammocks Beach State Park(June 2022)
7. Camp at Grayson Highlands
8. Take June to a local high school’s musical(April 2022)
9. Complete a month of thank you notes
10. Host Chinese New Year fun for friends
11. Dance at a ceili
12. Go to BINGO as a family(July 2019) 13. Undertake a nature scavenger hunt for each season (spring 2020)
14. Spend two weeks in a row at the Island 15. Update our Advent calendar with our home’s colors
16. Eat at Waffle House(epic late-night visit with some of my dear coworkers in August 2019!)
17. Go swimming in a mountain lake
18. Host a book swap party(July 2019)
19. Work on a Habitat build 20. Take June to tea at the Carolina Inn or Fearrington (May 2021) 21. Order historical photo albums to get us up to date (2005-2009, 2010-2014, 2015-2019)
22. Enter something in the State Fair
23. Square dance at our town’s arts center
24. Lake day with the Rays
25. Buy bunting to hang on our home for patriotic holidays
26. Listen to all of the Harry Potter books
27. Finish my EFM guide to the Triangle
28. Host a pie party
29. Become an expert at French braiding June’s hair (officially given up on my own)
30. Lead another service at the Island (July 2022)
31. Watch a review at the CGA and go to lunch at the Officers’ Club
32. Take another family on an outdoor souffle adventure
33. Do a home swap with a friend or acquaintance in a place we want to visit
34. Make a new neighborhood BFF couple
35. Put together an ice cream sundae bar, just for us(August 2019)
36. Commission a special art print and give one copy to each family member
37. Take June to her first outdoor movie and pack excellent snacks
38. Organize another Great Island Race
39. Do something with the upstairs bathroom(shared February 2021!)
40. Host a chocolate chip cookie taste-off 41. Touch up the paint throughout our home 42. Teach June to sing patriotic songs
43. Go to rooftop yoga at The Durham with friends(April 2019, with Lisa)
44. Make “For God so loved ____” art for June and Shep
45. Golf as a family at Knight’s Play
46. Take the train somewhere(May 2019 – to Charlotte with June!)
47. Hike another bald
48. Have a full family sleepover with the Rays 49. Teach June to jump rope, trace her body with chalk, and play hopscotch and Spud
50. Finish the path in our alley
51. Plant lots of daffodil bulbs in our backyard
52. Memorize a favorite poem
53. Learn to cut June’s hair(and John’s and Shep’s – May 2020!)
54. Borrow a canoe and go on an adventure
55. Get back in a regular rhythm of playing tennis with the Terhunes
56. Party it up in a glow stick bath
57. Make a better display for my jewelry
58. Real estalk and visit the playground in Trinity Park
59. Explore Morehead Planetarium
60. Introduce June to the art of painted toe nails(May 2019!)
Many of these cost no money. Some cost more than that. More importantly, they all require our attention, capacity for delight, and thoughtfulness. I hope to get to tell many of these stories over the next few years, but if you’re particularly curious about one, by all means – ask away!
*As you may have gathered, we have changed our approach to paying off our mortgage. A Marvelous Money post addressing the topic is coming soon! :)
