Happy 4th birthday Sierra!

Well hello there. It's been (almost) 2 months since we've blogged. Lot's to talk about  (make excuses for why we haven't blogged) but I'll save that for another post.

The reason I came here to post today is because it's my daughter's FOURTH BIRTHDAY. She's four, it feels weird to even type that. Four sounds so much older than three. This time last year we were gearing up for her to go back to daycare and this year we're trying on school uniforms. YES school, Sierra starts K1 in September! I can't believe how fast she is growing and learning these days.

She astounds me every single day with the things she knows and does and I feel so lucky to be able to help her along the way. Before I start crying, I'll just say: Happy Birthday Sierra!

Love,
Dad

Our weekend via Instagram ♥ v.2

This weekend was wonderful! We hung out with lots of friends and did lots of fun things. Saturdays weather was gorgeous and we took full advantage! Description of each photo below the big collage! Hope you all had a great weekend too!

xo Craig

1. Uncle Will and Sierra watching some Yo Gabba Gabba! on YouTube before heading out for the day. xo

2. Sierra checking herself out in the mirror at Forever 21 on Newbury St.

3. Liz, Andre and their adorable baby Eila (of Dear Husband, Dear Wife, Dear Baby Blog), Uncle Will, Aunty Jill and Jill's little brother Bruce along w/ myself, Lauren and Sierra enjoying our last meal at our beloved Otherside Cafe! They are closing in just under a week!! :-(

4. Sierra stealing a kiss form baby EIla!

5. Sierra needed a nap and passed out in the car so we parked along the Charles and enjoyed the beautiful weather, the breeze and some tunes on the radio.

6. When Sierra woke up we went to a graduation party for our pal Kate (of 4 if the Magic Number Blog)'s brothers' Grad party --- which had an open bar. Thanks for the whiskey Dan!

7. Kate's little boy Kieran (who you can see more of here) was trying to get a sip of cider but Mama says no way jose!

8. We ended our Saturday with a family stroll back to the Charles and watching the geese swim around.

9. On Sunday we celebrated Mamas b-day a little early w/ some cupcake making (and vegan batter eating of course!)

10. Sierra posing while listening to some of our Record Store Day scores.

11. Sierra taking the Rav for a test spin in the Whole Foods parking lot (we were parked I assure you all driving was imaginary… the beeping was real though).

12. Singing Happy Birthday and blowing out candles w/ Mama!

"Happy Birthday Sierra" (a letter to my daughter)

Dear Sierra,

Two years ago today your Mother and I were in a hospital room awaiting your arrival. You came a couple of weeks sooner than we expected but that was just fine with us. After 21 hours you came into the world and instantly were laid upon your mothers chest and I laid down next to both of you. Seeing you for the first time was unlike anything I have ever experienced. The closest thing to putting in words the emotions that rushed through me the first time I held you is to say for the first time in my life I knew I had purpose.

The next two years went so fast I can hardly wrap my head around it. I have seen you go from a 6 pound 7.8 ounce infant who could barely open her eyes to a gorgeous six month who rolled all over the house and would chew on anything in sight. I remember when you turned one and all your friends and family gathered in a near by park in Somerville where we lived at the time. By that time you were already walking and playing. This is where your personality really started shining through.

The next year brought all sorts of changes. Our family moved and you got your own room and only wanted to sleep in your own room ever since. Even though it broke Mama and I's heart to give up co-sleeping we did because we think it's important for you to have choices. This would be one of the first big choices in a series of choices you have already made that have shaped who you are. From the clothes you wear and the food you eat to the toys you play with. You are opinionated, original and creative and I love that about you.

Today you are two. I find myself being struck with many different kinds of emotions, much like on the day you were born. The emotion that I am most overcome with though, is love. I love you. I love hearing you tell me you love me (which you do more and more these days). I love watching you paint and draw and make things out of Play-Doh. I love when you learn new words and I even love you when you then repeat that word 5,000 times in 10 minutes. I love when I say "Just one more book." and you hold your little fingers up and say "Two?" - I always give in. I love when you jump on me in the morning and I love when you learned to say "Soccer Ball". I love everything you do and are and I love you more and more each day. 

Love,

Daddy

A quick snapshot taken of Sierra on her 2nd birthday. (photo by mom)

D.I.Y. Birthday Invitations!

Once upon a time I paid $80,000 for about 7 years worth of college, 5 of which ended me up with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Now you may ask what does one do with an 'art degree' and I wouldn't know how to answer really. What I do with mine is make my daughter really cute birthday invitations. Last year (her first birthday) we went with a MONSTER theme. Yes, you heard right a 1 year old MONSTER themed birthday party. It ruled. For this we kicked it old school with brown lunch bags, pipe cleaners, glue, markers & construction paper. It looked AWESOME and it costs a fortune to mail (whoops). These were fun to make and took little to no artistic ability:

This year we decided upon a more classical "girl" birthday theme: A Tea Party. This is not because we were pressured, or trying to 'girly girl' her up or anything - the girl loves tea parties! We are constantly sipping air from mini tea cups and we thought she'd really enjoy having a really big tea party with all her pals. As you could see our invites from last year were pretty bad ass and it is pretty impossible to one up them, but I gave it a shot. For the sake of saving about 40 hours I decided to draw one invite and then have it printed as opposed to hand-making 50 unique ones like last year. I must be getting lazy in my old age? Rather recently I remembered seeing a tea cup tattoo on the FUCK YEAH, TATTOOS! blog and felt inspired to go that route with these. So when Sierra went down for her nap I got out the micron's and sketchpads and got to it:

This was the first initial drawing. (Unfinished)

After I had the drawing finished I got out the lamp and tracing paper and cleaned it up a bit. 

After I was done drawing (and writing) the front and back I scanned them in I tossed them on a fake paper background for Facebook, Emailing, etc.

The next day I took the file over to a local print shop in Downtown Boston and got about 50 of them printed front and back, 25 on gray and 25 on yellow. These are for the physical ones we're mailing out! 

I really love how they came out! They are 5x7"

Here is how they look on a bright yellow!

So the invite is taken care of now just to figure out how to turn our apartment into a tea party palace. Open to ideas so please throw em at me also I'd love to see photos and hear about your kids birthday themes, invitation and decorations! xo -Craig

Sierra's 2nd Birthday!

When I was a kid birthday's seemed so easy, eat a bunch of cake, get a bunch of toys and then take a nap but now that I'm the one throwing it, it seems a lot more stressful. Sierra's birthday is in mid-august and I've already started thinking about what theme we will do, where it will be, who will come, etc. Although sort of stressful it's also so much fun, I had a blast planning last year's and am excited that Sierra will be older and enjoy herself more this time. Does anyone have any good suggestions for themes? I'm at a loss!

Sierra's first birthday was a MONSTER PICNIC and it went so well that I feel we have a lot to live up to! At the time we were living in a small apartment in Somerville that had no backyard so we held the party in a local park and it was a beautiful day. I handmade all her invites, each one was different and they were a ton of fun to make! Mama made the cake and cupcakes from scratch which were so delicious my mouth is watering even a year later. A lot of people bought us "monster themed" gifts that Sierra and we loved. It was a really fun day and I hope this year is just as much fun and then some. Here are some super cute photos from it:

This was the handmade cake by Mama, I made the letters though!

There were tons of babies in attendance, including the other ½ of The Hipster Dad's baby, Hendrix, who was just learning to walk as you can see --- FACEPLANT!

Sierra loved her cake but was a little confused why 40 people were staring at her when she was eating it.

Here are some of the invites I made! This is Freddy and Samara (of The Ring)

Frankenstein and Vomit Breath

Dracula and Frenchie

The information for the party was on the back of the puppets.

Our buddy Kaitlin even brought a cute bunny!