Late night ramblings

Yo Gabba Gabba Heaven at the Kennedy House

I'm not sure why I'm blogging instead of going to bed - it's almost midnight and everyone else in the house is asleep. I confess that this quiet time is golden to me. Even if it means staying up really late and sacrificing sleep, it's heaven to putter around and do whatever I want, without being whined at by anyone.

Brooke and I decided to host a Valentine Party for her pre-school classmates. I just finished the invitations and they are pretty adorable, if I do say so myself! Here is a photo of the front. The inside has a cute verse printed in red in a great font called Harrington. (I wanted Aged but I was too cheap to pony up the $29 and buy it.) We asked each child to bring a small (under $10) Valentine gift to exchange. Our friend Whitney, who works at the stamping store, helped us design it and also sold us this super fantastic elephant punch that makes a perfectly adorable elephant that even has an ear that sticks out. Too cute for words. Of course, my elephant-crazed girl has punched no less than 1000 elephants in all the colors of the rainbow and "sprinkled" (her word) them throughout the house.


I think the party is going to be a blast. We're making all kinds of pink and red foods, cupcakes, home made candies, and have even started collecting some fun things for goody bags. I even found a couple of fun projects at Oriental Trading Co. that are Valentine-themed (including one for girls and one for boys). Ah, I love planning a kids' party... and I figure since Brooke's birthday is during the summer and over a holiday weekend, it's unlikely that she will be able to do something with all of her class, so we'll have this party now and then do something special with one or two friends on her birthday.

In other news... I joined Weight Watchers last night and I'm happy to say that my first day is over and went OK! They have really improved their program since I tried it (briefly) in 2006. I have to admit I'm impressed. The online tools are fantastic - online tracking, food value lookups, recipes, etc. Tonight I made a Weight Watchers coconut shrimp recipe for dinner and it was quite good! Of course, it would have been fantastic with some corn-syrup laden dipping sauce, but I survived without it. I have a long list of "weight-watchers approved" foods that I'm anxious to pick up tomorrow to make things a little bit easier for me.

OK, it's officially after midnight and I must go to sleep. If I can drag myself out of bed early enough, I'm going to try and hit the gym before the munchkins wake up and the craziness starts.