Tate is officially 2! If you ask him, though, he’s more likely to say that he’s 9 or 13, his favorite numbers of late.

Upon realizing that his birthday would fall during the Winter Olympics, I had a flashback to a jellybean-Olympic-rings cake my mom made when I was little. (I’m guessing ’84 in LA?) With my theme established, I started scouring the internet for other Olympic-related party ideas. Here’s what we ended up with:

• My brother downloaded the Olympic theme song to be playing as the guests arrived.
• The colors were red (for Team USA, with a nod to the Canadian host country) and silver, since it was a second birthday.
• Awesome 3-D paper snowflakes – awesome because of how great they looked, and also because I didn’t have to make them (a leftover Christmas decoration from the MagnetStreet office – thanks Rene’!). If you have older kids, though, it would be a fun craft.
• Chocolate gold medals for the kids – you can buy them here. Or for our cheapo version, use super glue to attach chocolate gold coins to plastic gold medals.

• Olympic Flag posters – Using Lindsey’s watercolor valentines as inspiration, Tate and I painted six half-sheets of posterboard, one in each of the ring colors*. The next day I traced around 2 different-sized plates, then cut out the ring shapes. A little glue stick under each ring, and we had a flag. Since there was plenty of painted paper, I made 3 flags to hang around the house.

• Tate helped to put a flag toothpick in each of the corn muffins. We had chicken chili and tater tot hotdish for lunch.

Some other fun ideas that I didn’t end up using:

• Assigning a different country to each family, asking them to come to the party dressed accordingly.
• Preparing an international menu that represents a variety of countries – ideas at Kids Birthday Idea Guide.
• Decorating with a banner of international flags. (I had great intentions of sewing these, but then remembered that I never finish sewing projects. Also decided not to pay for a plastic one online.)
• Sledding or skating activity – maybe we’ll do this in 4 or 8 years, when Tate is having parties with friends.

Unfortunately, my “inspiration piece” cake was less than spectacular. I started off feeling all chef-ly, slicing off the rounded top and frosting a base layer. Then I ran out of frosting and ended up putting the whole thing back into the pan so the unfrosted edges wouldn’t show. I added extra toothpick flags around the edges, as a distraction from the mess. The peanut M&M rings worked, at least!

The real highlight of dessert was the Olympic torch ice cream cones that my sister made. Earlier that morning, she filled the cones with vanilla ice cream and doused them in yellow and red sprinkles. We lined them up in a plastic container and put them back in the freezer.

In addition to being adorable, this strategy made the dessert-serving go quickly, since we weren’t scooping out ice cream on each plate. Everyone got to enjoy a cone while I was cutting the cake.

I’m a big fan of having a theme for parties – it makes the planning easier by providing a focus for the food, decorations, invitations, etc. What party themes have you used for your child’s birthday?

*For our Olympics, I went with “brown is the new black” because there was no black paint in the 10-pack of Crayola paints. And also because a standard bag of M&Ms has brown, not black candies (for the rings on our cake).

I’ve mentioned before that decorating Tate’s nursery is an ongoing process…adding bits and pieces here and there.

One of my favorite pieces is a custom print that I ordered from Penny People Designs. I saw them on the Spilt Milk Moms blog last summer and just had to have one.

They happen to be running a buy-one-get-one sale right now on the 13×19 prints, so hop on over to their etsy shop!

As you can see below, I chose the greens-and-blues style, and decided to use both his first and middle names, since just “Tate” is short.

The wooden “T” block is from another cool company – Craft-E-Family. As the name implies, they’re a family business, and have excellent craftsmanship and great prices. An entire alphabet set is less than $20 – what a great baby gift that would be! They also make custom blocks featuring the baby’s name, birth stats, parents, etc.

We purchased the wooden duck on our “babymoon” trip to Maine. Sorry I can’t link to the store, but if you’re ever in Bar Harbor, be on the lookout! My friend Tonya made the adorable frame - she actually does the crafty things that I aspire to do.

Speaking of aspirations, my next nursery project is to frame the “T” pages from the Dr. Seuss ABC book: “Ten tired turtles in a tuttle-tuttle tree”. I love that there’s a sleeping theme, and the colors on that page just happen to match Tate’s room.

Growing up with a fairly uncommon name, it was always SO exciting to find something with “Kara” on it. Maybe that’s why I love the current availability of custom-imprinted items, to make my son’s nursery really unique.

What custom touches have you used to decorate your nursery? Anything from your own room growing up, or other family heirlooms? Have you incorporated your child’s name or initials anywhere?

My favorite pregnancy euphemism is the Biblical description of Mary, ”great with child”. (Stick with me, this will come full circle so that my title makes sense!) I’m reminded of this because while Christmas is great with [a] child, decorating for Christmas is not-so-great with [a] child. Last year, with a baby crawling around, our Christmas decor was pretty minimal. Think barricaded mini-tree. Tate is now more trustworthy, with another year under his belt and a lucky discovery from a few weeks ago…

While at Target, I let him out of the cart to walk around and of course he was picking up every picture frame within reach. Without really thinking he’d understand, I said “Tate, look with your eyes, don’t touch with your fingers”. He sort of combined the two concepts, walking up to the shelves until he was close enough for his eyes to touch things.

It clicked enough thought that he sees the Christmas decorations at our house, says “eyes!”, and doesn’t pick them up. Fabulous!

When I first saw this upside-down tree at Ohdeedoh, I assumed that it was attached to the ceiling, the brainchild of someone with a curious baby.

Actually it’s sitting on the ground and is probably even more top-heavy and dangerous than a regular tree, but I like the concept!

For the era of young grandchildren, my mom found a small tree that hangs up flat against the wall. 

Do you childproof your Christmas tree or other holiday decorations?

If you’re like me, decorating the nursery has been a work in progress. Probably when it’s just the way I want it, Tate will be starting junior high!

Nevertheless, it’s been fun to gradually add pieces here and there. Today I want to share a couple of ideas, and they both just happen to have Minnesota connections.

The first is a series of websites, each focused on items in a particular color or color scheme. I learned about them when our local newspaper featured blogger Erin Olson. She started with a site devoted to her favorite color, turquoise, and went from there.

The sites feature a full range of items for decorating your home, but you can click on the “baby” or “kids & toys” sections if you want to see things specifically for your child’s room. Whether you’re still deciding what color scheme you want or looking for fun pieces to add to your existing palette, check these out.

• Black & White Delight (This was my original idea for Tate’s room, but couldn’t find cute black & white stuff – now here it is!)
• Pink & Brown Love
• DecorGreen
• The Chocolate Blues
• Everything Turquoise
• Just Blue & Green 
• Purple Punch
• All Animal Prints (Hey Lindsay, for your Jungle nursery!)
• Pink & Green Scene (Mindi, check this one out!)
• Pop of Red

Next is some artwork that I first fell in love with at a gift shop featuring local artists. (I couldn’t decide if the spatulas or the spoons would be more adorable in my kitchen!)

Imagine my surprise when I saw the same artist featured on one of my favorite blogs, Ohdeedoh. It turns out that Dazeychic also has sweet, modern, whimsical prints for children. I think I want one of each! Visit her shop on Etsy or her blog to see more.

How did you decorate your nursery – did you start with a theme or just a color scheme? Was the decorating all done before baby arrived, or is it an ongoing process? What are your favorite places to shop?

This weekend, after finishing the final cleanup from the Thanksgiving meal, it was time to pack up the fall decorations. Out with the orange and brown, in with the red and green!

As my sister and I hauled the boxes up from the basement, I began thinking about what would work for this year. Tate is crawling and pulling up on things, so my first decision was to nix the full-size tree. I knew it would be a constant battle to keep him from pulling ornaments off the low-hanging branches, not to mention pulling the whole tree over. Instead we’ve got a small artificial tree sitting on top of an end table, blockaded by two chairs.

I’m not fully convinced that he won’t find his way to that tree, however, so all the breakable ornaments are staying in their boxes. It’s really not very fair: pretty lights, bright red balls, but no, no, don’t touch it! What he does get to play with are the Santa Claus and snowman Beanie Babies, and a bucket full of plastic Christmas cookie cutters.

Overall, quite a few items were unwrapped, then re-wrapped and returned to the boxes and bins in the basement for another year. I’m sure before we know it, Tate will be helping me decorate the big tree, with ornaments he made himself. Time goes too fast- we’ll enjoy this “childproofed” Christmas while it’s here!

How are your holiday decorations different this year, if you’ve got a baby on the loose? Share your ideas, or things you remember that your parents did when you were young…