A Pirate Party for Max! + A Few Other Things You May or May Not Care About

Over the weekend we had Max's pirate themed 4th birthday party.  Parties usually completely stress me out but surprisingly this party was stress free and so much fun!  So much went into it and the semi-sad part is I forgot to take pictures of all the food and other shenanigans that occurred that day.  So you may be wondering if all the kids at the party starved and I promise you they did not.  They had shipwreck sandwiches, dead man's fingers (mini hotdogs), parrot legs (chicken drumsticks) and more.

The main backdrop for the food and appetizer table was a pirate sail, which I made out of a drop cloth from Lowes.  I had a pirate flag (purchased from Amazon) sewn onto the middle.  My awesome neighbor is a bathing suit designer who actually did the sewing...thank you Ashley!

My sister Nat is the best.  She ran all around town helping me find little goodies for the party weeks and days before.

Max's Papa and Grandma got him a legit pirate steering wheel along with a pirate bell and flag to attach to his outside fort.  He was in heaven.

Party throwing is no joke, but I must say when it is all said and done I don't regret a thing.  Okay maybe I regret buying so many gold beaded pirate necklaces but other than that... nothin.

And now for the things you may or may not care about.  A heads up because sometimes I read things and I think...."No and I don't careeeeeeee."  And if you know what movie that line is from, virtual high five :)

1. About 3 months ago I wrote this really long post about how I was quitting Instagram.  It was deep (not that deep).  I did in fact quit that part was accurate but I recently decided that I miss sharing quick little snips here and there since blogging is becoming less frequent at the moment.  So....I am that super annoying person who says they quit a social media thing and then they are back.  Total hypocrite I know but hey I am a human and humans can change their minds.  My new account can be found here.

2. I'm in a blog funk.  I do not feel creative and I think the best medicine is a little break.  Forceful blogging just does not work for me.  So if you still want to follow along with life updates see #1.  I will be back soon!

Max is 4!

Yesterday was Max's 4th birthday!  At four years old Max is one awesome little dude who continues to blow me away on a daily basis.  I am so proud to call him mine and the person he is turning into makes me one proud momma.

This weekend we are throwing Max a giant pirate themed birthday party so yesterday we celebrated with a perfectly low key (well kinda low-key) family day doing whatever the birthday boy felt like...which included donuts for breakfast (I mean it's only your birthday once a year), scooter rides to the park, lunch at his favorite spot, a movie date, backyard swimming and then cake and story telling around the fire pit.  Couldn't have been a better day.

Here are a few pictures...

Every single morning Max and Ronin take out alllllll the blankets from the closet and make forts so the birthday boy was beyond excited when he woke up to an actual real teepee.

Since Max and Ian's birthdays are only a day apart I made a birthday cake for both of them.  This year Ian requested a homemade German chocolate cake with strawberries in the middle and a homemade buttercream frosting.  I thought guys were simple but he got all fancy on me this year.  Ian requested that I make a real deal cake with real sugar, real flour and good old fashioned butter.  Max thought this seemed like a good idea too haha.  My best friend, who is the baking queen gave me her secret recipe and this turned out freaking incredible if I do say so myself.

This is usually the reaction I get from Max when I ask him to take a picture with me.  I am just tryin to document the memories buddy :)

...not much better but funny to look at as I flipped through my iPhone pictures in search of a good one and they only progressively got worse ha!

Max in true form making dragon noises after we watched the movie "How to Train Your Dragon 2," which was a seriously great kid movie!

Have a wonderful weekend!

The Highs & Lows of Type 1 Diabetes: Tips For Parents With Newly Diagnosed Children

A sweet friend of mine just recently found out that her son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.  He is 3, which just doesn't seem fair.  Type 1 diabetes is something that you may hear about or may even know someone who has it but when it actually happens to you or you very young child it completely turns your otherwise normal world upside down for a period.  And just a reminder, type 1 (known as juvenile diabetes) is very different from type 2, which is the one you are always hearing about in the news.

I have shared my diagnoses story before here but basically when it happens you are thrown into everything so fast.  You go to the doctor, they test your child's blood, it's off the chart high and then you are whirled to a children's hospital where you have to spend the next week or so learning how to give insulin shots, doing multiple daily blood tests, learning how to carb count all while trying to figure out how your child acts when they are having a high or low blood sugar when they may not be able to actually notice themselves.  When you get home it's just you and your newly diagnosed son or daughter and the idea of doing something 24/7 (because that is what it is) can be overwhelming to say the least.

I have decided to write a post for moms, dads and caregivers that might help make things easier and seem less scary...since I am type 1 diabetic veteran (I have been living with it for 23 years now) I believe I may be able to offer some helpful tips.

Tips for adjusting to your new life with your type 1 diabetic child:

• Let them prick you or give yourself a shot every now and then.  When I was first diagnosed and still in the hospital my dad would let me give him a shot filled with saline every time I had to do one. It made me feel like I wasn't alone and looking back that made such a huge difference.
• Holidays like Valentine's Day and Halloween are almost always revolved around mass amounts of candy.  Let your child pick a piece or two (cover with insulin of course) and then have them "trade in" the remainder of their candy for an awesome new toy or whatever else might motivate them and make the candy seem insignificant.  I was always motivated by money (ha!) so my parents would give me 10 cents for every piece I turned in.  This worked like magic for me and sooner or later the candy did not even matter and I only cared about how rich I was becoming ;) 
• Make carb counting easy and download an app! They did not have that when I was little but I can only imagine how convenient that would have been.  We had this giant book and in the beginning my mom and dad would flip through the pages to look up a certain food item.  Try to remember that learning anything new (even carb counting) can be daunting but if you devote enough time to it you will soon become a carb counting pro.  It's funny because I now look at foods and see carbs.  For example a banana...I do not think banana I think 27 grams of carbs.  One cup of strawberries (give or take a few) boom...11 grams grams of carb.  You will get the hang of it! 
• There is no need to think that you can no longer enjoy sweets or your child's favorite foods.  You just have to make a few changes with ingredients and my blog is filled with diabetic friendly recipes that even non diabetics will love.  You can make chocolate chip cookies with no flour (virtually carb free), flour less chocolate cake, cauliflower mashed potatoes and more.  Life is not over in terms of yummy foods, I promise. 
• Put their diabetic supplies in something that they love because you will have to bring it with you everywhere.  My mom let me pick out whatever I wanted and I decided on this hot pink makeup caboodle (remember those?!).  It made me a little bit happier whenever it was time to do my daily shots and blood tests. 
• Things like too much sun, exercise and excitement can lower your child's blood sugar so on days where any of the following is happening just make sure to test a little bit more and be prepared with backup sources of sugar. 
• Get your child a medic alert bracelet.  Have them pick out one they like.
• Talk to your doctor about the Dexcom and ask him or her if it is something that they think would be beneficial to your child.  It is approved for children as young as two.  The Dexcom is a little device that your child wears usually on their belly or upper behind and it continuously monitors their blood sugars.  It is not a pump but rather just purely a continuos glucose monitoring system.  It sends an alarm to you (the parent) if your child goes too low or gets too high.  It takes the guessing game out of what your blood sugar pattern may be doing and it is a genius invention in my opinion.  When you are able to get a better idea of your child's blood sugar patterns at certain times of the day it makes managing the disease so much easier.     

Having type 1 diabetes does not mean your life is over or that your child is not going to grow up and live a perfectly normal and healthy life.  Your child will still thrive and will still be able to do all the things that you imagined they would do before they were diagnosed.  Nothing is impossible.  You are going to have days where you and your child are pissed off and just over diabetes.  On those days remember to give yourself a break and remember that not every day is going to be perfect and that's okay, there is always tomorrow. 

A Birthday + $100 Giveaway to Lulu & Georgia! (CLOSED)

Thank you to everyone who entered! The winner was Heather #191.  So if your name is Heather be on the lookout for an e-mail from me. 

Today is a great day because A) It's my man's birthday and we are off for a day and night of fun-ness and B) You have a chance to win a $100 towards whatever the heck you want from Lulu & Georgia!

Have you heard of Lulu & Georgia before?  If so, you probably already know about all of the awesomeness but if it's new to you then you are about to be in home shopping heaven.  Lulu & Georgia is an online shop filled with beautiful pillows, art, unique gifts, insane rugs, furniture and more.  Everything has character and is bound to give your home or space that extra little something.

Some of my personal favorites are:
1. Maude Chair 
2. Indigo Diamond Pillow
3. Moroccan Gold Pouf
4. Hello There Doormat
5. Rosa Print
6. Mexican Blanket

To enter the giveaway just click on the Rafflecopter widget below and follow the steps. Good luck!  The winner will be selected at random and announced on this post next Tuesday the 15th.  Some come back and check!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5 Things Little Boys Do That Might Drive You Insane...

Boys are crazyyyyyy.  Well, my boys are crazy at least and sometimes I wonder if they wake up and plot in their rooms before they come out on how they are going to try and make me go mentally insane that day.  I am not kidding.  And whoever thinks girls are crazier than boys well...you have not met my boys.  I am aware that for the most part on my blog I do not talk about all the chaos and "un-sweet" things that my boys do but I am here today to let ya know... ;)

1) They pee everywhere.  The other day I actually said (yelled) "Stop peeing in the trashcan!"  I mean... lets just please pee in (not around or on the sides) of the toilet.  I have to clean it daily and it's gross!

2) Do not buy anything nice in your house unless you don't mind the whole, "weathered rustic" look.  Boys destroy everything.  And if I would have known this earlier I would not have decided on certain items in my house, like my pretty mid-century modern couches with a tight tweed fabric that they are slowly destroying thanks to their trucks running all over them and I don't even know what else.  Same goes for my awesome coffee table that is now completely banged up due to them thinking that their play construction tools are real tools so they continually hammer the crap out of it like their daddy does when he is building...but I tell myself it gives it character haha.  And just a forewarning "play tools" can do quite a bit of damage so don't think they are playing all sweet with their little plastic hammers in their room.

3) Get ready to do things with your voice that you may have never done before.  I so wish I was not a yeller but to be completely honest boys (maybe it's only my boys?) do not respond AT ALL if I ask them to do something repeatedly in a sweet nice tone.   I have tried it and they will completely flat out ignore me like I am speaking Chinese.  So I have developed this deep deep low voice that comes out when they need to do things and they are not listening.  They know that voice means serious business or else the yelling will start.

4) Do not fall into the trap of buying super expensive boy clothes (I've been there).  Listen ladies, there is no point unless you plan on bringing your boys to a bubble wrapped room where their hands are tied behind their back and there is nothing that they can touch and rub on their shirts.  Because on any other regular day they will wipe their food, dirt, boogers, bugs and all sorts of unmentionable things on that $30 shirt that you will regret buying after they had only worn it for a day.

5) Get ready to spend A LOT of money on food.  The amount of food boys consume is just ridiculous.  Sometimes I wonder how their tiny little bodies are able to consume so much in one day!  I actually asked my husband a while back (he has 3 brothers) if how much our boys ate was "normal" and he assured me that it was beyond normal.  If I got a dollar (or how about a sip of wine...ohh that sounds better) every time I heard the phrase, "But I am still hungry" or "Can I have a snack?" (even though they just had a meal) I would be one rich or buzzed mom however you want to look at it.  And to the cute checker gal at Trader Joe's who looks too un-frazzled  to have kids...yes I am here agaainnnnnn but thanks for always pointing it out :)

Okay so those are just a few and that is all that I have time for because I have to make dinner since my boys are jumping all over me and off the couch asking when dinner is going to be.