Valentine's Day has come and gone--and with it, so too has the Reese Peanut Butter cup chocolate hearts Hubby bought us. Yum! B was thrilled to pieces with her Valentines and treats and we were all surprised by Hubby's Valentines dinner on Saturday night. The menu wasn't fancy--but the presentation was adorable. He really is a sweetheart! Love you, Hubby.Love Day has barely been swept under the rug and already we've moved on. The weather is freakishly warm this week (with an estimated + 12 on Friday--unheard of in February in Ottawa), so it feels like that groundhog might just be right for once. Spring may be appearing sooner rather than later. And, of course, with the spring melt, comes....party planning! Yeah!
I was thrilled to be able to put the invites to my grandmother's 80th birthday tea party into the mail this morning! Finally. For months now, I've been planning a special day for Granny's birthday. As a huge fan of tea and of dressing up, I mentioned the idea of taking afternoon tea to her and she loved it. She's sooooo looking forward to it, so I can't wait! She totally deserves a great day.
I've made reservations at the swanky Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montréal for a tea party in early April. Hopefully, all of Granny's immediate adult female relatives will be there--her one remaining sister, her two daughters, her five granddaughters and one granddaughter-in-law. We've decided to make it really 'Victorian' and are requesting that all the guests wear 'garden tea attire,' complete with hats and white pearls.
Luckily, since the party will be held at the hotel, there isn't much planning for me to do. I just had to make the invitations (very simple cards bought at Michaels--I then printed off the party info, inked up the edges and glued the papers to the cards) and send them out. I have a few small project ideas to help dress up the place settings in mind--tea bag favours and tiny frames of black and white photos of Granny for the guests, maybe tea roses in a tea cup for a centrepiece? Easy peasy stuff. Just requires another trip to Michaels!
The more time-consuming part of the tea party is figuring out what to wear! It has to be English garden party appropriate--and if I can use it for Avie's party and maybe Easter Day, too--all the better. So, I ordered a cute little shirt dress for this morning online (first time I've ever bought a clothing item for myself online without having already tried it on--eek!). All I need now is a huge hat, some shoes and some white gloves. Well, at least, party plans for that event seem to be on track. As for Avie's first birthday bash--well, plans are starting to percolate! I know the theme (a cupcakery theme as sweet as she is!), have bought part of her birthday outfit and a few little things (like napkins and streamers and candles), but I still have to make the invitations and start work on some cute decoration ideas I have.
A quick glance at the calendar and I realize that I only have two more months left to get this all done. I haven't even contemplated goody bags or the cake though--and time is a ticking!--I can't put it off any longer!
Lastly, we had an outdoor skating party planned for this Friday evening. In my endless research of fun things to do in the city, I stumbled across a website where I discovered that absolutely anyone can enter their name into a lottery for a private skating party reservation at the historic outdoor rink at Rideau Hall. It was the last day of the lottery, so I decided to throw my name in without ever thinking I would actually win my reservation date. Well, I did!
Thrilled, I invited a bunch of friends and family with young kids to join us for the outdoor skating party--and we've been looking forward to the evening since before Christmas. The idea was to have a very simple cookies-and-hot-chocolate shindig on the ice on Friday. But, now that the weather is so damnably warm, it looks like the skating party might be cancelled.
Even if the rain holds off on Friday, the + temps have already done quite a number on the rink. And, it's only supposed to get warmer as the week progresses. If we don't cancel, we might as well tell our guests to bring their suits because the rink may just become a pool!
Anyways, I've been in touch with my Rideau Hall contact and she said she would confirm with me on Friday as to the condition of the ice. Everything hinges on that last-minute phone call. We'll keep our fingers crossed, but I think the party is off.
Speaking of party planning, did I mention I won a contest on Great-Happy-Birthday-Ideas.com? The contest was for best 'winter birthday party idea' and I won with my 'Winter ONEderland' theme for a first birthday party. Sweet! I received an Amazon.com gift certificate as a prize and the site author, Sophie, wrote up a little feature on me. Check it out here. If you're looking for some neat birthday ideas, definitely check out this website--plus, there is always a contest underway to enter!
Last week was definitely a good week for this contest junkie. I also won a Meaghan Smith giveaway on FaceBook! In honour of her recent Juno nomination, she was giving away a package of three CDs (her Juno-nominated 'Cricket's Orchestra,' the 'Cricket's Quartet' sampler and her earlier album 'Lost with Directions' ), as well as a t-shirt she designed herself to one lucky fan. I was that fan!!
If you don't know who Meaghan Smith is, crawl out from under your rock already! She's an amazing Canadian musician and artist, who's star is shining brighter every day! (And, yes, you have heard her music before because her now-famous 'It Snowed' played EVERYWHERE at Christmastime. Love that tune!) And she sent me a personal FB message! Egads!! It's about as close as I have ever gotten to a celebrity--or near-celebrity, so yeah--very friggin' exciting! Hope she wins. Just love her music. )
Anyways, here's to wishing you all a great long Family Day weekend! Let's hope the weather keeps up...I can almost taste spring in the air....
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