April is a celebration!

 Now THAT was a busy month!

We're all spring chicks in the Maxwell house.  My birthday is first, followed by Graham's, and rounded out by Kevin's. 
My birthday was actually the day before Easter, so there was a lot bunny celebrations in tow :).  I unfortunately woke up early on my birthday with a pretty bad allergic reaction to a medication, but in between resting I was able to be in our neighborhood egg hunt with Kevin and Graham. 

We enjoyed Easter dinner together on Sunday, and I finally found my butter bunny to complete the table!

Next year, I hope to plan ahead well enough to have a butter lamb (a wooden mold that looks like this).  Each year I always think to order just a little too late for it to show up in time for Easter. 

Right before his big first birthday, Graham had his first haircut! 

He did amazing, a lot due to how wonderful the place we picked was with him.  I highly suggest Cookie Cutters in Rivergate (link to them here) for your little's haircuts.  They're patient, fast, and there's a Spiderman racecar.  Batman too if that's more your style.

Graham's birthday was the first celebration we were able to have with family and friends since the COVID-19 quarantine.  Seeing everyone come through our front door and gather together was the best feeling in the world.  The theme for his birthday was "Mr. ONEderful" and it fit him to the t :).  He wore his gingham bow tie and suspenders, played in a ball pit full of bubbles, and ate an ENITIRE smash cake.  

You can see the album of his birthday celebration here.

Rounding out the month on the 29th was Kevin's birthday.  It fell on a Thursday, so our celebrating was in the afternoon.  We ate vanilla pound cake (his requested cake now 2 years in a row), played downtown Belmont and had dinner. 

I'm so proud of Kevin and everything he accomplished this previous year.  He moved mountains, overcame tremendous odds, and returned back to our normal life better than ever.  I know this year is going to be the best one ever.  

In between all of these festivities, we've been tending our sweet little garden.  This is the first year I'm using a raised bed and all the plants look amazing.  There's better boy tomatoes, chili peppers, okra, and casper pumpkins.  I can't wait to see the first tomato and pumpkin of the year! 

UI/UX, A Little Graphic Design, And A Big Birthday

I love to simplify, streamline, and make all things efficient.  

One of the most fun components of my work in front end development is the challenge of making the convoluted simple.  It's called UI/UX (user interface user experience) and I love it.  I started a personal project a couple of days ago and I thought it would be fun to share what I created as a template here.  Graham is turning one in April and I decided on custom making the invitations to start establishing a totally awesome theme: Mr. Onederful. 

I tried out Google Drawings for the first time-- an app extension to Google Drive.  It's basically a lite version of diagramming software and was surprisingly robust.  I was able to create all of the attributes that I needed in that cute little space.  

So, back to the theme.  It all started with a pair of suspenders and a casual, chic blue gingham bowtie that I bought-- just the right fit for Graham.  Initially I was really struck by the gingham pattern- it's the exact color and pattern theme I chose for the baby shower.  Unfortunately, my shower was planned at the very pinnacle of our current pandemic.  It had to be cancelled just 5 short days before the celebration date.  This was so so hard on me, but incorporating this little bit of the shower theme into his birthday would bring a lot of hope to me for the coming years.  

Obviously, this has to be his birthday outfit.  I started building the Mr. Onederful theme around this outfit because it really embodies the personality I see emerging from Graham.  I think that's one of the biggest celebration points for me in his upcoming birthday-- seeing him develop into this incredible and unique little human.  

The color scheme is shaping up to be different shades of blue, grays, and white.  I played around with the colors for a while and finished designing the invitation with these exact colors in mind.  The finished invitation looks like this:

I'm happy to share this template with you all via Google Draw.  If you're interested in checking it out, just click here and download your own copy.

I'm so excited about this little one's 1st birthday!  I'll be sure to share more details and projects coming up soon~