The Birthday Train

First I need a second to complain: I was walking across my bedroom this morning when a muscle in my upper back spontaneously did something that hurt. Certain positions make it hurt more and if my head moves more than 10 degrees forward or backward of being perfectly straight on top of my neck, I get a sharp reminder that something's not right. I took some Ibuprofen and I'm hopeful it will relax soon. Because lifting a baby and changing a poopy diaper are not easy while holding your head in a fixed position!

Ok. On to the fun stuff.

We didn't have anything planned for last Saturday afternoon. A true rarity in our family. So I took advantage of the kids nap time and went looking for birthday invitations. As hard as it is for me to believe, Daniel will turn 1 on June the 1st. And we must party.

A while back I decided on a train theme because his favorite toy is a train my grandma bought him. I bought the Wilton 3D train cake pan and it arrived in the mail last week.

So on Saturday I went out to find birthday party invitations that had a train on them. Much easier said than done. I went to Party City, Hallmark, Ukrops, and Ben Franklin with no luck. To make matters worse, it was pouring down rain. I started to go to Target, but changed my mind when I remembered the remodeling project they are doing. (Half the parking lot is blocked off and they've moved things all around on the inside. It's a pain to go in there.)

Then I remembered By Invitation Only, a small shop with every kind of invitation imaginable. We bought the invitations for my sister's bridal luncheon there and we were really impressed. I drove around the back of the Target/Kohls complex to get to a traffic light and just as I slowed for the red light, my windshield wiper popped off. It's been doing this. You'll be driving along in the rain and the wiper will just pop off the arm and start flopping all over the place. I couldn't fix it there because there were cars on all sides and I didn't think I could get it done before the light changed. So I drove down Broad Street, in heavy traffic, looking through my water mosaic of a windshield. (It's a good thing I waited, though, because this time it took me a long time to get the wiper reattached. )

Anyway, I went in the store and this is what I picked out:


It's from a place called The Inviting Company. I'd forgotten about the printing costs, though, so I opted to print the invitations at home. I used red ink on white paper and I'll center it on the bottom part of the invitation. I think they're going to be really cute. I'm also including a wallet size picture of Daniel in each invitation.

So beginning next Sunday with Michael's birthday and ending after Daniel's with my 30th, we really are on board the birthday train!