Day 64- Elmo Search & Rescue

I've been trying not to think about it, but I think the time has come for me to acknowledge that Boo's 2nd birthday is on Sunday. I haven't invited anyone, bought anything except the plates, or planned out my week so I don't leave everything to the final hour. In fact, I still have a few decorations from Little Man's birthday up. Yeah... I know.

Like most 2 year olds Boo has quite the obsession with Elmo, or "Melmo" as she calls him. We happened to be at Target to replace my holey sheet when Boo took off screaming Melmo! Melmo! I found her 3 aisles down quivering like the addict that she is in front of a huge display of Elmo cups, bowl, and plates. There's no way that I was getting out of that store without buying the Elmo items unless I wanted her kicking and screaming so loudly that people start to question whether or not she's being abducted. Luckily I decided to forego the tantrum and use them for the birthday party.

Little Man also went through an Elmo phase around his 2nd birthday and I had searched high and low all over my town for one of those Wilton cake pans that makes the disembodied Elmo head. I was hugely pregnant with Boo and the hormones were just adding to the fact that everything had to be PERFECT for his party. My mom could see that my head was about to explode if I didn't get that cake pan in my sweaty sausage fingers asap and sent my poor dad into Joann Fabrics 45 miles away to pick one up. Papa saved the day and Little Man's Elmo cake was the perfect addition to the birthday party that he'll never remember...

That Elmo cake pan sat in my pots & pans cupboard for 18 months. You know, in case I ever got a craving for Elmo cake which I would be too lazy to do the intricate frosting on and just make a totally flat top on... Finally, in a moment of sanity, I cleared the Elmo cake pan out of my cupboard and added it to a box of donation items.

I bet it wasn't a month after that sucker hit the donation box that Boo's love for Elmo came about, yet it didn't cross my mind until recently that maybe I should start looking for that darn thing. Two weeks ago I decided that Boo would love an Elmo party and that I should find that pan. Of course it wasn't until yesterday that I actually got off my butt to do it... I also had some bags of already sorted and marked donation items that never got donated so I figured those were an easy target to make some room in there. A mere 30 minutes later I was holding the forgotten cake pan in my hands.

Here's the before picture of the scary mess that resides under our stairs. The space never got finished so it doesn't have a door, sheetrock or a light which makes it almost qualify for my "never go anywhere that's dimly lit with spiders" mantra. It's a good thing I'll do anything for those little monsters... at least on their birthdays!



The "I'm done for today maybe I'll work on it more again some other day" picture



The bags of crap that are no longer a part of my life!



Is anyone sick of the before and afters yet!? I'm getting pretty tired... and hungry... for donuts.