CAMP EMERSON!

Camp Emerson was a success! On Friday, my sister came over after she was done working at 10:15pm. Emerson was snoozing and in bed already, so her and I worked on decorating and making all of the food. We made the executive decision to set everything up indoors. Thank God we did! It POURED halfway through the party! Luckily, the kids had about 2 hours to play outside on the slip n slide and in the pool before it rained. It turned out so amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day! The décor was absolutely gorgeous and so adorable! I really outdid myself. I better step up my game for his first birthday party. Everyone can’t wait to see what I come up with for that! I have some pretty good ideas circulating already.

My favorite piece of décor was the indoor tent that I created using gauzey white curtains. It looked so adorable! Additionally, I cut out green pine trees and taped them all over the tent. I called it “The forest”. It was so cute. I filled it with a ton of pillows. The kids loved it! I also set up a “fire” in front of the tent using my fire pit and red/yellow tissue paper. ADORABLE! I put tea lights in clear jars to resemble “fireflies” and also had twinkle Christmas lights set out to create stars. It created such a beautiful glow in the living room!

The food and drink came out amazing too. I made potato salad, pepperoni casserole, “dirt” dessert, hot dogs, buffalo chicken dip, baked beans, and set up a s’mores bar. It was adorable with my food tent labels and big camping signs. To go along with that, I made bug juice (fruit punch) and creek water (lemonade iced tea), which I put in two adorable glass drink dispensers. I set out a jar of goldfish crackers aka catch of the day. My mom brought a cake for Emerson to smash and cupcakes for all of the kids. Emerson didn’t eat any of the cake, but he had a blast tearing into it! He got a sink bath when he was done to clean off all of the cake!

The kids had such a good time on the slip n slide and in the little pool that I set up. I’m so glad we decided to still put out chairs and a couple of small tables in the yard. It felt very cramped inside of my house once we had half of the guests there. I started to get nervous, but it panned out well once the kids migrated outside and some of the adults too. In totality, we ended up with about 15 kids and 15 adults. Emerson received so many books! I can’t wait to build a little library for him. I am so grateful to have such amazing people in our lives. I made a note that gifts weren’t required because the party was more for the kids to just come and have a good time, but if anyone insisted, they could bring a book (new or used). Everyone was overly generous and brought more than one book and even gifts outside of books. My best friend bought him a sippy cup! I’m anxious to give that a try! My parents, in true amazing fashion, came with a huge gift bag filled with diapers, wipes, toys, and books. I love them to pieces for doing that and bringing something that helps me out.

Now, let’s talk about Emerson. He was such an angel during the whole party. He didn’t fuss at all! He had a great time. I felt like I barely saw him because everyone kept stealing him from me! He looked adorable in his Camp Emerson shirt too. He smashed right into his cake and went to town! We tried to give him a little taste of it, but he was more interested in digging his hands into it. I love him so much! He is just such a ham! After the party, we had to go to my parent’s house to pick the dog up. I was way too afraid someone would let her out, so I took her over to their house before the party started. We hung out for a bit, but I was beat! My entire house was a wreck too. We went home and went to bed though. I saved the cleaning until Sunday. 80 minutes later, my whole house was back to normal!

After the house was clean, we went to my parent’s for a bit. My sister and I took Emerson to the mall to walk around because it was a little rainy again. We didn’t feel like sitting around, so we went to the mall and window shopped. I spent $3 on an owl puffy vest for Emerson. I saw it a few months ago, but it was $17.95. $3 was way too good of a bargain to pass up, so I bought it for him. Afterwards, we went to babys r us just to look around. We went back to my parent’s house for a little bit, then headed home. Emerson played in his walker (Thank you Auntie JOJO!) for a long time before I put him down for a nap. Now, I thought he was only going to nap for a little bit, but he ended up sleeping until 1am! I stayed up until 10pm, then went up to bed. I fed Em at 1am and around 330am. I finally woke him around 6am for daycare.

We don’t have too much going on this week. Tomorrow, I’m working from home, but Britt is babysitting Emerson. On Friday, I’m taking a half day, but working from home. Emerson isn’t going to daycare. We need to do laundry on Friday, so I’ll see if Britt wants to come with us after I’m done working. I’m hoping the weather is nice, so we can log some pool time. We haven’t swam in a few weeks! The weather is awful. Now, the water is going to be freezing. I’m hoping it’s hot enough his week that by the time Friday rolls around, the water isn’t that cold. We’ll see. As far as the weekend, we have no real plans. It would be nice to go to the park too. I’m sure we’ll squeeze that in somewhere. This past weekend was so busy. It’ll be nice to just relax with my baby!

I totally forgot to mention that Emerson has his 6 month check-up and shots on Wednesday! I put him on the scale with me the other day and I think he weighs around 18lbs. We will definitely see on Wednesday though. I’m so excited to see how he’s grown! I’m going to ask the doctor about water and at what point should the milk be supplementing solids instead of the other way around. Also, Emerson hasn’t bit me AT ALL since I last blogged. I’m so glad! Maybe he realized it wasn’t okay when I said “NO” and unlatched him?? I don’t care what made him stop. I’m just glad that it hasn’t happen again! Ouch! That really hurt!

How is mummy doing? I barely ask, or answer this question. I seem to forget about myself most of the time. Today, I am wearing a shirt that has a huge hole in the elbow, messy hair, and dress capris that are entirely too big. I look like a real mess, but I’m glad I’m dressed and didn’t miss the bus this morning. Otherwise, I am doing well. Just busy and on the go as usual. I’m happy though. The happiest I have been in YEARS, which is really amazing considering I’m doing the hardest job ever (being a mum, duh!). I literally have 14 cents in my bank account and still smiling, so that must tell you all something! We have everything we need though, so we will be fine until I get paid on Friday. I have so many leftovers from his party too, which is awesome because I made all of the food and it tastes amazing! (tooting my own horn!)

Now that the party is over, my next project is putting together a play room for Emerson. I have an entire theme picked out already. It’s going to be all clouds and very cheap to put together. It’ll take me awhile. I think I have it projected out through October, but that’s okay. It’ll be worth it in the end. We need some more space. He is very mobile now, so having a designated area to play in will be nice. I’m a pretty thrifty person, so I’m hoping that works in my favor! Okay, I am wrapping this up now. I hope everyone has a good, but fast week!