Octpus Hot Dogs!

 As you can see I tried to make cute little octo hot dogs. They didn't quite turn out how I expected but it was close enough. Jaylen really liked them although his face in the first picture would suggest otherwise. He loved dipping them in the ketchup and the octo legs made the hot dog really easy to eat. So if you want to try this for your little ones it's really easy and pretty self explanatory. For more fun kid friendly food ideas I've found check out my "Foods kids will love" board!

 

What Jay Wore

  Shirt

  Pants 

  Shoes 

                           

What Jay Wore

Shirt & Pants
Shoes

His first Crayons!

The 20st century has the most amazing little inventions these days. I had nothing even in comparison to these crayons and colored pencils. But when I saw them I just had to have them for Jay.

But I of course want the most for my money so I searched many other sites to compare prices and how many you get for the price. And I just ended up waiting a while and when I checked back on my fave online shopping site there they were on sale! Get your own here: crayons & twig pencils.

The crayons aren't on sale any more unfortunately, because when I got then they were $6 and now they are $12 for 30.

The colored pencils are still the same price on amazon originally $8 for 8 on anthropologie! Crazy right I got the 3.5in size for $1.99 for 12...a much better deal I think. If you want the next size up they are just a dollar more on amazon.

Lets Keep it Clean.

 So because I don't have much of a dining room and Jay is a messy kid like any other. I got a splash mat to protect the carpet. It's really easy to use and clean, it looks like it's just a plastic flimsy mat but it's really durable, I pulled it just  to make sure. It's a really good cheap investment if your like me and don't have tile or hardwood that's easy to clean and can be used for those messy projects you can't do on just carpet or even in the kitchen which makes for an easy clean up so I highly recommend!

What Jay Wore

 Shirt

Pants

Shoes

Books Books Books!

Jaylen loves books! He collection is ever so growing into a mini toddler library. And I just love it he has a bigger selection in his play room and a few by the bed for night time stories. But it's funny with his books, he'll bring them to you to read but won't stick around long for you to finish reading it. Although that's the case he definitely has his favorites like below, and to the left. When he's a little older and actually wants to listen to me read I want to get into the habbit of reading 5 books a day which I saw on my fave mom blog. 

But for now I enjoy getting to read to 

him for the little time he'll have me.

New Car Seat

 As soon as I moved to Florida I was on the hunt for a new more comfy, stylish and longer lasting car seat. And I found it, the Pira 70. I wanted a better one for Jay because his old one just wasn't cutting it for me anymore he had it since he was 6 months old and at first like everything we buy the first time I loved it and thought it couldn't get any better but little did I know. So I wanted the best for a reasonable price and I believe this one is the best for Jay and me. For Jay it's more comfortable, soft and fits him better. For me it's easier to install, use when it comes to the recline, easier to clean and just overall cute!. So I'm very satisfied with this car seat until he grows out of it. I'm hopeing it will be still up to date and standards of car seats come time for my next child because of the tiny fit insert in the first picture. Which is for newborn to 18 lbs. but if not it's ok I wasn't paying anything more or less for that part it just comes with the seat, and in the end it will have served it's purpose for Jay and that's all that matters.

Diaper Days

I "Honest"ly love these cute little diapers! I heard about them through the grape vine and just had to get in on the cuteness action. So these are Honest diapers and they work really great and they are just way cute I haven't photographed him wear all the designs yet but I will. I got them in a trial offer and I managed to get two sets because I got one when I lived in Washington then ordered them again when I moved to Florida! Sneaky little me, but I don't want to spend what they are asking for, for some cute diapers that will be covered up unless your baby is naked all the time. But I thought getting them for 4 dollars was worth it for a sample pack. So if your interested just for picture taking like me follow the link and just pay shipping and handling and they are yours but of course there is a catch. They will automatically charge your card for an order if you don't call and cancel within 7 days and it's really simple to cancel.

What Jay Wore

                                                                          

Pants

Shoes

Shirt

Jaylen's Side

This is Jaylen's side of the room since we share one right now, I still wanted him to have the "my room" kind of feel. I loves the way it turned out with the little touches of simple decor from Ikea. Also the plain dark blue sheet just added the pop or boldness I was looking for. We have the master in the apartment so the room fits all this plus my queen sized bed that I will post about after this. If you are in a living situation that's similar, try to make it accommodate both you and your little one neither of you feel like you don't have your own. 

Jaylen's 1st Birthday!

The Cake! I will say I'm the proud designer of the cake, I took the decorations that I came up with and the colors and shapes and just designed the cake off the dome. Then I sent the picture of what I wanted it to look like to my sister and she just drew it so it was a lot more understandable than my first sketch. She took it to a local baker and they made this cute little..well 5 tier cake. The candle was very last minute and not what I had in mind but it worked.

 The rest of the food ended up just being fruits and veggies even though I had planned for more we were running out of time to get to our next destination of the day. And that funny looking juice bottle was a last minute thing too, I had originally planned for a homemade drink but this was close enough. So because I didn't make my own drink I decided to decorate the bottle with the left over fabric and ribbon. As far as the fruits and veggies I did see this idea elsewhere but again just made it my own, so I first saw it on pinterest then I followed the link and presto! In the back ground you can see the cups and plates, for those I ended up just using white plates because I already had so much color I didn't want to add even more and then to make them pop a little I got square ones and not just plain ole circle plates.

 What Jaylen wore on his birthday! I wanted something special and memorable for him to have always. So I set out to find the perfect outfit, and I knew I wanted two different things for him to wear. One for the party shindig and the other for the outing. I found everything on etsy, the hat and bib were a perfect match to my color scheme and so was the #1 shirt and amazingly it happened to match the fabric on the "N" in his name banner! I got everything for a pretty reasonable price considering how they had to make everything and the personalization and I figured it was all worth it because it's for memory purposes and for my amazing son.


Now with all that said I really do believe Jaylen had an amazing 1st birthday and I couldn't of planned it any better, he got just enough gifts and the "after" party was just right for his age. I will highlight the gifts through links if anyone is interested because no lie I got one gift idea from another mom. So he got a teepee, shape sorter, zany zoo, smartrike and mega bloks! In the end the easiest thing about this party was the theme, although there wasn't much of a theme here but more of a color scheme I believe it worked out best and especially for a 1st birthday when they really don't know what they like yet the best is to just go with neutral colors that are for a boy or girl, or gender neutral colors for twins! Or what ever just keep it simple for the 1st one.