Alex's birthday is right around the corner...and he, too, is having a Star Wars party!
The invite looks pretty cool, if I do say so myself! Most importantly, the soon-to-be-five-year-old is happy!!!
I went from this picture (thanks to Anne, Sean, & super model, Alex):
What a year 2011 has been! Fun and eventful...memorable...frustrating and precious...some times all in the very same day!
Here's the year in review - Amos family style:
January - Elizabeth's 5th birthday was celebrated in Dr. Seuss 
style. It was a typical too-much-over-the-top party for our small gathering of Grandma & Papi, Nana & Papa, and the Koeglers. We had a lot of fun, though, so that's all that really matters. The West Liberty Hilltoppers men's basketball team was a highlight in the month - especially Elizabeth's favorite John Wolosinczuk! We tried like the dickens to get her to pose with him for a picture...he was such a good sport about it, too. We got a picture of John with Nana, John with Reid, and still no picture of Elizabeth and her all-time favorite baller... On the women's side of things, Elizabeth's favorite players continue to be Tori Hansen and Laura Malernee. Cate was growing and changing every day...and eating like a champ! She continued to nurse nearly every 2-3 hours -- if she was awake, she was hungry.
February - The Toppers' winning streak continued. The team is doing so well, Elizabeth has even started to cheer for some of the other guys on the floor (as opposed to turning her back on the action when John is on the bench!) She can tell you most of the players names by numbers - Corey Pelle #12; Barry Shetzer #24; Jordan Fortney #11; Alex Falk #22; Timmy (Hausfeld) #10; and of course, John Wolosinczuk #32 (but #1 in E's heart!) Still no luck in getting E to pose with John for a picture - Photoshop it is! John gave Elizabeth a Valentine's gift to which she was THRILLED (an autographed picture of him in action!) She gave him a valentine that she made. Elizabeth is just a funny kid...so glad she got my sense of humor! ;-) It may totally be worth revisiting my Blog post on the Ransom of Red Chief from February to better recount how this child cracks me up! Cate earned the nickname "Cranky Cate" as there were plenty of moments when she couldn't be consoled -- with no explanation. When she wasn't cranky, she was sweet and cuddly.
March - This month was all about Topper basketball! The 
team sealed up an undefeated regular season, and with that the WVIAC regular season title...and then the winning continued... They won the WVIAC Tournament - Corey Pelle won the Commissioner's Heart & Hustle Award and was All-Tournament; Barry Shetzer was named to the All-Tourney Team; as was Tim Hausfeld; and John - who was the MVP. Elizabeth, along with Cate, Grandma, and I went to Build-a-Bear Workshop where she made her "John 
Wolosinczuk Bear" (yes, that's what she named him - and I had to spell it a few times for the employee that was helping us) complete with the WVU shirt, denim skirt, and Hello Kitty undies. The Toppers hosted the regional tourney - and the winning continued. Corey Pelle and John Wolosinczuk were all-tourney again. Then I may have done the un-thinkable...I put Elizabeth and a nearly 3-month-old baby in the car (along with Grandma) and we drove to Springfield, MA, for the Elite 8. Cate was, for once, NOT cranky -- as she slept the entire 10+ hour drive. We only stopped once for gas, food, and a change. I really thought I would be in for it when we got to the hotel - that Cate would be awake for days, but she went right back to sleep. Elizabeth took much pride in going around the floor with her Daddy giving out the cookies that we made for the players - each got their own jersey and some chocolate chip cookies. (E insisted on making the cookies for the guys because "Timmy Eats Cookies" was on a sign at the WVIAC Tournament. She took it literally...sign was actually referring to Tim's guarding of "Cookie" Miller from WV State.) The Toppers made it to the Final Four before the perfect season came to an end. Corey Pelle was again named to the All-Tournament team.
April - Easter was fun when Cate was crying, which she did for most of the time at Nana's & Papa's. We were surprised with the news from Rikki and Doug that the Amos family would be getting a new edition due in late November! Elizabeth grew so quickly between the time I shopped for some of her clothes that were in her Easter basket to when she received these clothes that she literally only got one wear out of them - because Mommy & Daddy don't approve of the 'belly-shirt' look. Cate got an upper respiratory infection that required the "Willie Nelson" treatment - lots of smoke ;-) She's getting more active, too - rolling over, recognizing her hands and feet...and is now able to eat cereal, which is fed to her for the first time by Elizabeth.
May - Elizabeth declared that Mother's Day was "St. Mother's Day!" When 
she's not being such a sweetie, she is being quite the mental challenge for us (reference another Red Chief Blog post.) Elizabeth graduated from Pre-K. We were so lucky how her life was positively influenced by the good folks at Holy Family Child Care since we moved to Wheeling (next best thing to instruction by Nana or Grandma!) We especially adored her teachers for Pre-K, Miss Jenn and Miss Kelly! Alex turned 4 and we celebrated in Thomas the Train style -- quite easy and cute (if I do say so myself!) Cate continued to be cranky and sweet. Poor Reid had to walk the floors, nearly wearing a track on the finish on the hard wood as he paced the floors with a crying Cate on the evenings that I worked in Morgantown...until I got home and the crying would stop.
June - Getting that perfect 6 month baby on a quilt picture proved to be more of a challenge than it should have been...perhaps a sign of things to come from Miss Cate. Despite being a mama's girl, she said "Dada" first ;-) She also took to crawling this month. I survived an AACE Annual Meeting at Disneyland - barely. Not that there were issues with the conference...just that it was at the Mouse House. Blech.
July - Elizabeth loves to swim and took advantage of a dip in the 
water every time we could get her to the pool. She's becoming such a good swimmer...working on diving, but since she hasn't yet learned that patience is a virtue, she just wants to jump in and SWIM! Cate continues to reach milestones on or ahead of time -- sometimes at the most inconvenient of times... Elizabeth got to attend her first Red Sox game with Papi no less (HER Papi, not Baseball Papi - he was on the field...) Sox vs. Pirates, who were having a great season, making the Amoses quite happy (that would be Reid, Nana, & Papa...E was just all about backing a winner. For her first Sox game, she cheered for the team at the plate...and for Papi's & my sake, it was a great day as the Sox ended up on top!)
August - Summer at Holy Family for Elizabeth has come to an end. Where has the time gone...my baby is getting ready for Kindergarten! Elizabeth & I had a great Mommy-Daughter day shopping for school clothes...size 6-7 or 7-8 -- for a 5-1/2 year old in the 95th percentile in height...good luck finding a waist to fit! Cate went to her first baseball game -- the Pirates didn't fair so well as they lost to the Padres 5-15(!). Cate is taking a queue from her big sister as she loves the pool, too! She weaned herself from baby food this month and would only feed herself soft 'real-people' food. We still have quite a bit of baby food in storage...good thing it will keep for Baby Eckstein! We enjoyed our annual trip to D.C. -- a highlight continues to be the Giant Pandas at the National Zoo! We were at the National Cathedral - walking all over the place - exactly one week before the earth quake in D.C. that did some damage to the beautiful building.
September - Elizabeth started Kindgergarten in Mrs. Allen's class at Woodsdale Elementary! Cate finally had a reason for which to be cranky - she cut two teeth! She also stood unassisted. She's taken to cruising on the furniture. She is less cranky when she is being held by Mama -- or is able to hang out with her awesome big sister, Elizabeth, whom she adores!
October - The girls were the CUTEST kitty cats for Halloween -- thanks to Nana's handiwork! Elizabeth started playing a bit of basketball at the Y -- and loved it! After her first session, she declared that she was as good as John Wolosinczuk. (At least she doesn't lack for self confidence!) She also joined the Daisies and is really proud of the uniform vest. (I consider it a 
near miracle that I was able to get the iron-on stuff to actually stay on the vest and didn't have to engage Nana and her needle & thread!) We had great luck getting some good shots of the girls on a beautiful fall day at Oglebay... Cate started walking with 6 independent steps (10 months, 3 weeks, 3 days old.)
November - We started the month with a baby shower for Aunt Rikki in "the big city." We were so excited for the impending arrival of Baby Eckstein! I hit a freaking deer with my car. We found out that the big lump on Kennedy's back hip (only on one side) wasn't cancer or arthritis...but a fat deposit. (Reid loves telling everyone that, too!) Cate isn't helping Kennedy trim down either by throwing her food off her tray the very second she determines she is done eating. At the Wheeling Christmas parade, Elizabeth boxed out Sarah Koegler and a few kids -- when the reporter from Channel 9, 
Ali Myers, come over to our section of the bleachers and asked if anyone would like to be on TV. (Any question that she is Reid's kid??? Is it not enough that she look like him, but now she has taken to boxing out (well, that she got from me!) women and children to get on live TV!) The hand-held mic needed a new battery as they were filming...Elizabeth told Ms. Myers that she would wait. On take two, she was spot-on. Ali Myers asked her what she would like to 
say to Santa to which Elizabeth replied, "You can't talk to him, he's just flying on by..." Still needing a copy of that tape! Elizabeth got to participate in her first Little Hilltoppers Day at West Liberty - where she told me I was allowed to take 5 pictures and then I had to leave because this was all about her. (Isn't most everything???) Anne, Reid, & I had 
a magical evening the night of the WVU v. Pitt game -- great weather, good food, good libations, free Snuggies, good friends, and a big win! It was tough leaving the stadium that night - for us and many other Mountaineers who didn't want to see the end to the annual rivalry of the Backyard Brawl. We were so delighted to welcome Margaret Alisse Eckstein to the family on November 29, 2011, at 2:24 AM - she weighed 7 lbs., 1 ounce and was 20" long.
December - Cate turned 1 - the year seriously flew right past us!!! She loves to eat...loves the taste of my butter cream icing, but most definitely doesn't like the feel of it on her hands! She is walking all over the place and loves to climb stairs when we allow her to do so. The sale of the house in Fairmont became final (thank you, little infant baby Jesus!) I drove Nana (aka: "Driving Miss Daisy") to D.C. to meet Maggie. What a cutie! Reid was able to go the following weekend to meet his niece. (And, yes, he was jealous that I got to hold his niece before he was...) Elizabeth got her ears pierced. Mimi, our Elf on the Shelf, continued to do her magic by helping remind Elizabeth to be good. Elizabeth loved every one of her sleepovers this year with her cousin, Alex -- several this summer and fall...and right after Christmas. She is a great big sister -- making a big adjustment to everything being all about her to sharing time and parents with a cranky baby sister. We are so blessed to have two wonderful, happy (for the most part) children!!!
If I do say so myself...over the past few years, I've done some pretty cute birthday party invitations for Elizabeth and Alex as evidenced below:
Elizabeth's 1st Birthday:
Alex's 1st Birthday (where I learned so much more on Photoshop):
E's 2nd Birthday (was a book of pictures of her throughout the year...) E's 3rd Birthday (definition of over-the-top, the entire Candyland party was actually), which I blogged about here: http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2009/01/birthday-party-preparations.html. E's 4th birthday was my first attempt at a pop-up card. I blogged about that as well as her Sesame Street themed event here: http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2010/01/happy-sesame-birthday.html. Her 5th birthday were pretty awesome, too...I love Dr. Seuss and blogged about the invites and party here: http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/01/elizabeths-dr-seuss-5th-birthday-party.html.
For some time now, I've known that I was going with the "A Very Hungry CATErpillar" theme for her her first birthday. (The kid loves to eat!) To be honest, I bought some of the party supplies back in May...so this has been a long time coming. The invites alone, I think are worth doing this party theme! Here's what I've 
done and what it took to get there (work in Photoshop excluded):
First, I started with a spool of brown satin ribbon 1/4" thick. Cut the ribbon into 3" long pieces and heat sealed the edges (that's what the matches are for.) I then hot glued matching brown 'fuzz balls' on the edge of one end of the ribbon. You need 2 ribbons with balls for the antennae for each invitation.
Next, you glue (craft glue works just 
fine) the ribbon onto the back of the caterpillar's face. When you glue them down on the back side, make sure the fuzz ball is on top of the ribbon so when the antennae flop down on the face of the caterpillar, they will be on the correct side. (You don't have to be exact with this as this entire invitation is very forgiving for those of you, like me, who don't really like to measure anything...)
Then, I started assembling. I did a red brad on the part with the face 
(you'll overlap one circle with the next). When you are lining up the circles to make the holes for the brads, make sure you overlap enough that the hole and subsequent brad aren't too close to the edge. Based on how I did the circles in Photoshop, after the red brad for the face, I alternated a dark and a lighter green (coming as close as I could to matching the edge -- and yes, that involved special ordering brads from my favorite local scrapbook store!)
The brad work well as the finished 
product then can be wiggly and inch along, just like a caterpillar. It also allows the flexibility in the invitation for all of the panels to fold around (think like a fan when folding) so that the invite fits well into an envelope to be popped into the mail...
Here's the final product all unfolded (click on any of the images to make them larger):
With a little help from her Mama, Elizabeth made the coolest craft ever! Seriously. Even Daddy thought they were cool -- and that's saying something because he's put up with me making a whole bunch of randomness over the last 10+ years...
What Mama did:
It's always difficult to three-peat. In hockey, when you score three goals in a game the fans throw their hats onto the rink, hence the "hat trick." The next time you see me, you may need to throw your hat in my direction - actually it might not be in bad form all together to just always throw petals in my foot path or your coat over any puddle in which I may step, but I digress...
My hat trick has involved 2 very special quilts, the first and last by Nana (AKA: Carol J. Amos) and the second quilt by Grandma Wine (AKA: Helen Wine) and 3 6-month old subjects...the latter, especially the third subject, is the reason why I am so deserving of your adoration. ;-)
I snapped Elizabeth's "quilt picture" on my crappy old camera that took every bit of three seconds to take the picture from the moment that you pushed the shutter button. I captured the magic while only snapping 8 pictures...no help, just the crappy camera, a beautiful cathedral window quilt and a happy 6 month old Elizabeth.
The following year, I got another wonderful picture of Alex on the quilt that his grandmother made. I had a far better camera (same one I use today -- the Canon Rebel XT)...Anne was there to help get his attention and fuss with the quilt. That day I snapped a total of 50 pictures.
Then along comes Cate -- and the pressure of filling the space on Mom & Daddy's living room wall with the 6 month old Cate on the quilt picture. Two photo shoots -- one at Rick & Carol's house with Carol doing all of the fussing. One earlier today here at our house with Reid doing the fussing and entertaining. A ton of fussing over the quilt...and "look here Cates"...188 pictures later -- and by Jones, I think we've got it! (Hopefully, this isn't an indication of second baby being a pain in the butt raising things to come!)
(Oh, and to Grandma & Nana, don't worry, you won't be getting this album on Snapfish any time soon...let me know what color frame and size you need -- as we're doing this for part of our Father's Day gifts to Papi/Papa. If you need multiple frames so that grandbabies are coordinating, just let me know!)
Alex was thrilled with his birthday party, much to my delight. Even better was how easy it was do make his yummy cake (not counting that I "cheated" and used a box mix...the cake part could have been better, and would have been had I not be cheating, but my icing is scrumptious...makes me want to whip up some more right now just to have a sweet snack!
So, it was a white cake with buttercream frosting, you can never go wrong with buttercream!
When packing to go to Mom & Daddy's you would have thought this was my first time making a cake at their house...totally forgot my off set spatula, which I can't do a cake without. (You might have also thought I was raised by wolves as there was no such thing to be found in their kitchen...so off to the "outlets" in Flatwoods Reid & I went to buy a completely over-priced and not great quality for the price off-set spatula at the Corning Ware Outlet. What a racket!)
I was also quite fortunate that Mom had a Fiestaware pizza plate, as I neglected to pack mine. The track was part of our gift to Alex...the decor on the cake was all just piped on with round tips -- except the leaves of the trees that were done with a star tip. The Thomas toys are bath toys (also part of our gift to Alex, but not nearly as cool as the Star Wars gun that E picked out for her "red headed boy, Alex".) I don't know what I was thinking after doing the tunnel and then starting with the trees on the left, I got about half way around and then I came back to the tunnel and went to the right...when I got to the back, my spacing was off...so I solved this with a little Alpha Gam tribute -- Skiourrous!
The rest of the train cars were frosted brownies on top of chocolate graham crackers. The wheels are M&Ms...then the cars were "carrying" a variety of treats - Runts, Mike & Ike's, etc. I thought it would be cute to have one of the train cars carrying some Star Wars action figures, so I bought the Star Wars gummy snacks at Kroger. My plan was foiled when Anne opened the Star Wars package to find that rather than the Star Wars gummies, it contained Curious George! Good thing this wasn't a Star Wars themed event!
The boy got all sorts of clothes and other goodies -- and then over-the-top fun from the Wine family (his John Deere gator)!
With all of the partying Cate was just worn out...This picture is what I refer to as the "Always a Padawan, never a Jedi". Too darned cute!!!
And, as a bonus, when you Google "Padawan" to make sure you are spelling it correctly, you could, just like me, stumble upon "Wookiepedia," the Star Wars Wiki. Good grief!
I don't know which is sweeter...this birthday party invite (thankyouverymuch!) or my adorable nephew who has turned 4 today. I think I'll go with the latter.
If you think these invites are cute - just wait until I get to the party stuff. (Note to self: Get crap together for your nephew's birthday party -- you only have 3 working days...)
I love you, Alley Cat! Happy 4th Birthday!!!
Being the control-freak that I tend to be, at least with parties, I love that I can still convince Elizabeth what she "really wants" for a birthday party theme! So this year, Elizabeth really wanted a Dr. Seuss birthday party!
was even too small for a mouse - (from the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas)
class at 4-H camp one or two summers when I was in middle school!) The topper was made from fondant -- which I made. It tasted good, but was a complete pain to work with. I must be doing something wrong with the fondant, too, as there wasn't any way that I could have used it over the entire cake if I wanted to, which I didn't (as I love, love, love butter cream icing!) I used one of the Dr. Seuss decorations (see the picture with the Happy Birthday banner) as a reference and after cussing, rolling out the effing fondant, and more cussing...I free-hand cut out the shape of the Cat in the Hat with a pairing knife. It was then my intention to use edible markers to draw onto the fondant, but that went over like a fart in a library. I was then forced to free hand using colored butter cream icing the details on the cat. It ended up looking much better than I think it would have if I could have gotten the edible markers to work the way I thought they would... It was Elizabeth that wanted her name on the cake, which I think made it just perfect! The Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes were pretty darned cute, too!
Doug." (We definitely hated that we didn't get the quality time with my Dad/Papi and Rikki & Doug, but are happy that they stayed put...as the weather reports are calling for more of the white crap! I'm sure the painful scars can be eased, Doug, with a check to cover her college tuition!) Of course, we have missed Anne, Sean, and Alex at E's party as well...not that even if the weather would be cooperative, which it certainly isn't right now in the Big Apple, it would be most impractical for them to make the long trek from NYC to Wheeling for the birthday party.
