Done

The Monster's first birthday party happened.  Here's an update on how I handled my to-do list:

1. Work 8 hours at my job (the one that's non-party, non-blog related).  Done.

2. Finish stuffing and sewing 14 felt monster dolls.  Remember these?

This is how it looks when the Internet makes things.

This is how it looks when I make things.

I posted this one on Facebook with the caption "I'm 90% certain this is not what sewing is supposed to look like."  Some of you helpfully pointed out that I don't read French.  Some of you are not very nice.

They were a joint effort.  Because remember that sewing machine that I've never managed to thread correctly or make a single stitch on, ever?  That is still true.  For me.  Not so for my husband:

After he finished the monsters, he hemmed a pair of pants and two skirts.  This is not a joke.

I think mine have more personality than the ones from the tutorial.  Right?  And by personality I mean "errors, holes, terrible needlework, and loose threads."

Most of them had to be patched up because they were literally bursting at the seams with personality.

3. Cut out around 70 more pages of printable party materials including paper bunting, banners, favor tags, signs, and cupcake wrappers (also purchased here).  One at a time.  With an X-acto knife.  Well, between the two of us we managed maybe 50 of those pages.  Skipped the party hats and a couple other things.  But we managed to get some stuff done.  It looked like a party.

4. Assemble all of the above and hang in aesthetically pleasing arrangements around the house.  Done.  By me.  At 2 a.m.

5. Blow up 75 balloons.  tHe O.G. gets full credit for this one.  Of course he overfilled most of them as he is wont to do and they started popping, loudly and without provocation.  So that was fun.

6. Grocery shop.  Done, at 9 p.m.  I bought cupcake liners, then tried to put them in my cupcake pan and discovered they were JUMBO cupcake liners.  Really?

The box said they would fit in standard cupcake pans, though.  Whew.  Turns out the box is a liar.  So I improvised:

Perfect.

7. Bake and decorate 4 dozen cupcakes in a monster theme.  Questionable.  There were cupcakes.  They were frosted.  Some of them even looked kind of...furry?  In a good way.  Maybe.  I mean, it was intentional frosting fur, not like, something gross that doesn't belong on a cupcake.  But they were NOT adorable little cupcake monsters with teeth and eyes.  Because I finally got around to making the frosting somewhere around an hour before the party started, and my little fur frosting tip kept clogging, and whatever, he's ONE!

8. Bake and decorate 1 smash cake in a monster theme.  Nope.  Didn't even try.  Monster got a cupcake like everybody else and liked it.

No, really.  He liked it.  A lot.

9. Wrap birthday presents.  With help from the Princess.  No photo of that, sadly, but trust me when I say it was well-wrapped.

10. Dice a boatload of fruit for baby-friendly fruit salad.  Done, with help from my friend Pam, who complained the entire time that she doesn't know how to cut fruit and what are you supposed to do with the nectarine pit, just cut around it?  It's slimy.  And tHe O.G. provided a watermelon monster head for the fruit salad, because he is the official Carver of Gourds and Melons in our household.  I don't have a photo of the watermelon monster right at this moment but I promise to post one when I get it.

11. Locate, gather, and decorate various receptacles and containers for serving snacks, cupcakes, drinks, ice, favors, etc.  Well, stuff got stuck in bowls, so I guess that's good enough.  Also I put stripes and fur on the cupcake stand.

12. Finish unpacking.  (Alternatively, hide all boxes in the garage.  Probably the more likely option.)  Put tHe O.G. on this and he did a fabulous job of concealing boxes.

13. Feed my family meals, as apparently they cannot go 28 1/2 hours without eating even when I am BUSY.  I can't remember.  I'm pretty sure we ate.  Oh I think we got pizza Friday night.  Totally counts.

14. Parent a kindergartner and a one-year-old.  They're still alive, so I get full credit for this one.

15. Clean my entire house.  Props to my husband on this.  Took Friday off work and cleaned the whole house.  Ha.  Sorry, he's taken.

16. Photograph this entire process for your eventual enjoyment.  See above.

17. Blog and tweet (obviously).  I think I at least tweeted.  And updated FB from time to time.  So if you're not a Facebook fan or a Twitter follower, you missed out on my 2 a.m. ramblings:

18. Possibly sleep (unlikely).  5 whole hours, baby.