Party Guests in a Tube: Part 2

Corey says: "My family is so creative... they cut some paper and traced themselves, and came to my apartment and celebrated my birthday with me. Hence, the "party guests." :) "

Aw, glad he liked it! (Do you notice anything fishy about the biceps on the silhouette (Ryan) on the far left? Ha!)

You Decide

Gabby is a very visual child. She often draws pictures to ask me questions.

Don't get me wrong, she is a talker, too. (She isn't named GABBY for nothin'!)

A few days ago she brought me this doodle to explain her need for a nightstand. (FOR MY EYEGLASSES MOMMMM!) ((Yeah right, that's why there's a tiara on your doodled night stand, Gabby.))

But as soon as I saw it, I was confused...was she asking for a nightstand or asking us to tie a ballerina into the bed and set her on fire?

Doesn't it look like that to you???

No???

Oh, well she didn't think so either and was quite upset that the entire family agreed with me.

MOMMMMMM, it's an afghan so of course there are little lines instead of a blanket! And that's NOT fire, that's her really pretty headboard!!!!!!!!!!!!! Humph!

(Arms folded, nose in the air, aaaaand stomp stomp stomp away.)

Well! She won't be getting a nightstand OR a tiara anytime soon.  ;)

Party Guests in a Tube

Today is the anniversary of the day I became a mother.

Look at all of his HAIR!

At 8:50pm on a Friday night in 1991, our gorgeous firstborn son came into this world. I remember the peacefulness of that moment, when the tears and agony of childbirth were immediately replaced by tears of thankfulness and joy. The pain was gone. The room hushed. The only sound was a newborn baby boy with healthy lungs. I could feel the press of eternity in that moment. It testified to me that this earth life is short, and precious, and oh, so meaningful.

Here we are, 21 years later, anxiously awaiting his return from a two year LDS mission. (48 days, but who's counting.) We especially miss him on specials days like holidays and birthdays. So this year we decided to "join him" at his birthday party.

We got 7 rolls of wrapping paper (from the Dollar Store) and laid down on the floor and traced ourselves onto the white side of the paper. (We did the dog too, sorry no photo, but we just taped the paper up on a wall, held him still and traced him silhouette style.) I cut everyone out using an exacto knife and my rotary cutting mat.

Once everyone was cut out, we put tape on the back, so there'd be no excuse for Corey not taping them up on the wall, and then put pieces of wax paper over the tape...which, by the way, wasn't sticking too well so you may want to try another avenue if you ever attempt this. We stacked them all on top of each other, being careful not to lose any wax paper tape guards, and gently rolled them up around an empty wrapping paper tube. Then we wrapped a heavy weight wrapping paper around it all and labeled it with some instructions. We're hoping they didn't shift too much in shipping, leaving Corey a wrapping paper mess, all stuck together.

 

We had fun trying out different poses that fit our personality. I didn't get photographs of all of them, and in hind sight (get it, hind sight, ha-ha), some of us (ahem, me) should have taken the opportunity to make themselves a little less life-size. ;) We didn't get too crazy worrying about it being perfect. Sometimes we chopped off feet or didn't get too detailed about fingers, etc. We realized this was a one-time use that we didn't expect Corey to save!

 

Since our birthday boy didn't want anything for his birthday, we got a large mailing tube, painted a candle on one side and HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY on the other side, and stuffed it with 21 Ding-Dong cakes, one of which had 21 candles stuck in the top. We wrapped and padded the candle filled Ding-Dong with tissue paper so it wouldn't get smashed.

 

We also filled the tube with confetti, since that's his favorite (not) and then stuffed some cash in there to make up for the confetti. :) The cake filled mailing tube and the "party guests" tube each fit perfectly in a long priority mailing box. Then we labeled the ends of the box so he knew which one to open first.

And there you have it. A missionary's 21st birthday party in a box with his "family." HAPPY BIRTHDAY COREY!!!!!

(He just posted a photo on Facebook of his birthday "cake". Love it. Can't wait until I see pics of the party guests all up on his wall. He said he was confused a little at first but then thought it was really cool and creative. Yay!)

Wisdom