Clearing Up Space

Do you ever feel stuck because your life is too full? Like there's nowhere to go with anything and nowhere to start because something else has to come first? Or stuck because there is stuff in the laundry room that needs to go in the guest room, but the stuff in the guest room first needs to go in the closet, but the stuff in the closet first needs to go to the laundry, but... Well, I wouldn't know anything about that. Really.

Anyway... That's been the story of my digital life for the past few months. My computer was full, but I have an external drive, but I didn't have enough space on my computer to move things to that drive. My phone was full but I couldn't download anything because the computer was full, and so on and so forth. That's made blogging a bit difficult.

My sweet hubby finally was able to sort out my computer issues, so I'm back! I'm going to work on catching up on what my sweet girl has been up to for the past several months. Since part of the idea of this blog is to chronicle my little girl's growing-up adventures, I'm going to date the posts somewhere around the time that I'd intended to do them. Then, over time, I'll totally forget what a slacker I've been, right? Ok, I've got to get to work. She's done a lot of growing!!

Costello Celebrations, Part 3

The End.

Costello Celebrations, Part 2

Ok, I have to say that I am appalled to discover that neither I, nor any of my amazing SILs have ever posted about what awesome party planners we are. It's almost nearly as appalling that I would take any credit whatsoever for the awesomeness. My SILs are amazingly creative, crafty women. I have monkey paws. But I can write about things, so I'm extra sad that none of our endeavors, from our first baby shower BBQ nearly FOUR YEARS ago to our most recent Tea for Two shower last year, have been properly documented. Oops.

So let me tell you about the awesome birthday party my domestically fabulous SIL, Jill, planned for her precious little guys.

She decided to use a monkey/jungle theme for her two little monkeys.

She is an amazing cook and loves to bake. She made the most precious little monkey cake for the boys! For reals, how cute is he?!

In addition to making the cake the night before the party, she decided to make a monkey bean-bag-toss type game. Easy enough. She just needed to paint a monkey hanging in a tree on a giant piece of cardboard with no guide whatsoever. And this did not concern her at all. It seriously would have taken me a week to make some sort of mammal-like creature that could probably be confused for anything from an anteater to a buffalo instead of a monkey. After our big day of travel, DKG & I were pretty exhausted, so I totally bailed on her and went to bed. When I got up the following morning, this guy was hanging (ha! see what I did there?) out in the living room.

While Jill was working away making this guy free-handed (did I mention that already??), Cortney was working hard on favors. Barrels of monkeys for a monkey party! Sweet, eh?

The next morning was a full-family effort as everyone pitched in to make the food...

(I made these!!)

The DELISH jambalaya!

get & hang the balloons...

set up the table...

set up the cupcakes...

make the backyard into a jungle fiesta...

and blow bubbles to keep the kids out of the way entertain the little ones

It was a whirlwind of preparations, but totally worth it! The fun stuff is coming in the next post. :)