Evan’s 2nd birthday party is 12 days from today and I am at least three weeks away from being ready. It is unfortunate that 12 days is not actually 21 days. Maybe I can move the party to an alternate universe where numbers are read backwards. Or maybe I need to stop saying stupid shit like that and spend my time doing something productive towards this party instead. My problem is I did a bunch of super-early planning and got ahead of myself and felt really confident in my ability to finish up last-minute details at the last minute…except I forgot stuff like “plan a menu” and “hand out invitations” weren’t really last minute details as much as 90% of the actual party. Whoops.

For some reason, I seem to have a lot less free time this year than I did for his 1st birthday. I am totally baffled as to why that might be.

But the invitations I didn’t put in the mail are in my diaper bag to hand out tomorrow and I spent Sunday finishing up the banner I’d been planning to make for the last two months. I also realized I need to put away about four boxes of junk from my front two rooms, since anything glass or breakable or heavy enough to hurt a 2-year-old if it falls on them needs to be out of reach when I invite two dozen 2-year-olds to come run around. I am also considering two semi-sewing projects but I hate threading my sewing machine SO MUCH I might scrap those. I’ll make up for it with some extra balloons or something. Balloons make everything more festive.

Speaking of balloons, the theme of the party is “round things”. I’m a genius, I know. It will make a lot more sense – and be a LOT more fun – when it’s executed rather than just explained. This year is much more about the actual party/activities part than last year, but I can’t resist doing a little decorating too. Here’s some of the stuff I’m working on:

I scheduled the party for mid-afternoon so I don’t have to provide an actual meal, (although if some of our friends are still here for dinner I will order a pizza or two)(pizzas are round so I can pretend it was on purpose) but it wouldn’t be a party without food. And it’s always fun to plan food around a theme. So far, the menu consists of:

– Fruit salad made with round fruit/melon balls
– Caprese salad sticks
– mini meatballs
– pepperoni, round cheese & Ritz crackers
– roll up mini sandwiches
– truffles (made by my friend Erin who made the cake for my baby shower)
– round candy of various types
– cake (that I am going to attempt to make and decorate on my own)

Anything really obvious and/or delicious that I’m missing?

I have zero ideas for beverages, since most soda and/or alcohol doesn’t come in a round form. So I might just get regular soda and water and make cute labels. Or maybe round ice cubes. Or if I get REALLY ambitious, maybe I’ll try to make some bubble tea. Too bad they don’t sell that Orbit soda anymore. (Remember that stuff? I was OBSESSED with the orange kind.)

Clearly I still have a lot of work to do. But no worries. It’s not like I have anything else taking up my time.

Sunday:

I found these while grocery shopping. E & I used to eat at the actual Sticky Fingers ALL the time in Charleston, including our first real date.

Now that Caroline's a litle bigger I pulled out the cloth diapers. They're working well.

Monday:

Stroller Strides! Also, bebeh with ears on her hood!

Seriously, if we do switch back to cloth it will be entirely for the cuteness factor.

Apparently Monday was Caroline day. Adorable hat from Uff Da - I have a mommy sized one!

Tuesday:

Waiting for me to tell him it's time to go to Stroller Strides.

The bubble machine is my secret weapon against tantrums. Even if it means bubbles in the kitchen.

I went to Staples for envelopes and Post-its. It wasn't nearly as exciting as this picture makes it look.

Wednesday:

Mommy multi-tasking: bouncing two kids at once. Great leg workout too!

Invitations: addressed & mailed!

Little Evan and I played a LOT of games with Chuck the Truck and his friends

WHY IS THIS GIRAFFE TOUCHING ME?????

Thursday:

Mural on the wall of our post office. That's some awesome art right there.

That cool brick building used to be a fancy hotel. Now it's rent-controled apartments and a restaurant that keeps changing names.

Oven mitts are his favorite toy. This week.

Friday:

Taken 20 seconds after I finished seaming up the vest. I like to wear what I make as soon as possible.

Yarn & pattern to make a husband-sized sweater. I'm a little scared.

We ran some errands, including a quick trip to Best Buy to see if they had iPads. They did not.

Saturday:

SOMEBODY got up at 5 am. At least she was adorable in her onesie from @lifeversiontwo

I dyed my hair for the first time in ages. It's only a little blonder. I'm not sure I love it.

IKEA! Toddler room makeover before & after pics coming soon.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s. It’s really fun!

My plan worked! Or at least, I’m going to pretend is was my genius idea on Wednesday that lead to our current thaw and the chance to play out on the porch yesterday. Thank God for that porch y’all, because the yard is still 80% snow but the other 20% is mud and even though I’m trying to keep up my good attitude regarding my housekeeping responsibilities it would be madness to encourage a toddler and a dog to play in the dirt and then run through the house. MADNESS I TELL YOU.

We took advantage of the 50+ degree weather to try out Little Evan’s new bubble machine. I asked Twitter for suggestions and although everyone agreed the cheap kind tend to break down after a lot of use I only need it to work until the beginning of April, so for $11 I’m willing to buy another if need be.

Because really, this much fun is totally worth ten times that much.

We hid this car on the porch for the winter and now it's like having a BRAND NEW TOY. Brilliant.

This picture has not been edited or retouched in any way. Holy ginger child, Batman!!

Portrait of a child who knows a cage when he sees it...even if it is full of bubbles.

I think the Navy should install bubble machines on all their submarines. It would certainly make them more fun. Doesn't E look like he's having fun?

Ok, now for a vote. Which picture do you think I should use on Little Evan’s birthday invitations?

#1 - Smiling child

OR

#2 - Amazed at the bubbles child

Either way it has to be cropped so the proportions are opposite – portrait instead of landscape – so his face and the bubbles around his face are the most important part. I can’t decide which one I like. I AM, however, getting super duper excited about the party. It’s not going to be *quite* as epic as last year’s circus party but still pretty fun.

Happy Birthday E! You’re the best looking toddler playground slash pillow I’ve ever seen.

We love you!

p.s. Come home soon so you can open your present!

p.p.s. It is not a iPad.

p.p.p.s. Sorry.

I did this last time with Baby Evan’s due date and it was fun (plus if I don’t do it again I’m afraid my friend Lareign might send me a flaming bag of poo – she really likes guessing). This time I was going to set things up fancier with some sort of website to keep track of everyone’s guesses but it seems sort of unnecessary – I mean, on a good day I get 15 comments, do I REALLY need some sort of software to tell me the 23rd is the closest day to the 24th? I might be too big for my literal britches but getting too big for my metaphorical britches is just annoying.

So here’s the deal: Leave a comment on this post guessing the date and time you think Baby Sandy will make her official appearance into the world. I’m including hour/minute this pregnancy so people can guess the same day if they want, but this isn’t Price is Right so you can be closest even if you go over. I’m also making it much! more! exciting! by offering the winner an actual prize – I recently bought some gorgeous yarn with sequins woven into it and will be knitting something pretty, like a scarf or a cowl that I will mail to the person who is closest. (That is, if you want it. You can’t really give it as a Christmas gift, because there’s very little chance I’ll even KNOW who won by Christmas, and you might think handmade knit stuff is sort of dorky so if you don’t want it you can just say so nicely and I’ll keep it for myself donate it to a charity or something.)

Here’s all the info I have that might help you make your guess:

– Her official due date is December 26th, based entirely on an early ultrasound (which is supposed to be the most accurate measure) since I didn’t have a last menstrual period to go by
– I was 4 days late with Evan (Due April 1st, born April 5th)
– He was born at 7:21 pm after about  20 hours of labor, less than 11 of which I was in the hospital
– All 3 of my mother’s babies were late
– I’ve been having contractions (practice ones, not real ones, called Braxton-Hicks) since I was about 28 weeks
– When I went into the hospital for the HORRIBLE PAIN, my contractions were mild but consistently 3 minutes apart until they made the pain stop
– But when the doctor checked I was dilated <1cm
– There’s no reason to think I will be induced for any reason since besides the (harmless to the baby) kidney stones I am in excellent health
– Anywhere between 38-42 weeks is considered normal
– I am going to do everything possible to NOT spend Christmas Day in the hospital, so if that means holding my knees together while we open gifts so be it

Any questions? I have an OB appointment today but it’s pants-on so I doubt I’ll have any new info. My follow up with the urologist (where he’s going to do something incredibly unpleasant and OMG I can’t even think about it right now) is Wednesday and if THAT changes anything I’ll update this post then too. I’m not going to close the comments but dudes, they’re timestamped, so if you guess AFTER I send out “I had the baby!” tweets/texts/Facebook updates you’re disqualified.

In the words of Little Evan: ‘Eady? GO!!