We’re keeping it classy for the Oscars this year.

Last night was our annual Pajama Glama Oscar Party where we watch gorgeous toned stars walk the red carpet while we eat cheese and chocolate and smear butter on things.

Heidi and I have been keeping this tradition since before we had kids, and now we incorporate the little ones in the evening for as long as their attention spans can last–which is usually through the red carpet and the opening musical act, and then first acceptance speech, they’re out. Our husbands laugh and roll their eyes, but we’re pretty sure they’re just jealous because they too are dying to walk the red tablecloth in cute pajamas.

The Academy Award for the evening goes to Clip-on Earrings, raising the “this is special” bar very very high.

Dash made a red carpet appearance, giving Benedict Cumberbatch a run for his money…

…tweeted some of his best picture picks from the show…

…and then pulled a Neil Patrick Harris and ditched his clothes to go wash cars with dad in the driveway.

The girls, on the other hand, enjoyed all the fancy.

Nella’s “OH MY GOD, HE WON!” face:

Favorite dresses of the night? Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon and  Margot Robbie.

I absolutely loved the unexpected Sound of Music performance from a natural and even more beautiful Lady Gaga as well as the soulful deliverance of “Glory”–and the standing ovation that followed.

Loved Patricia Arquette’s moment in her speech when she addressed equality for women: “To every woman who gave birth to every tax payer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America”–and Meryl Streep’s “hell yeah” encouragement from the front row.

And JK Simmons’ adoration for family and what really matters in his acceptance speech: “Call your mom, call your dad. If you’re lucky to have a person alive on this planet, call them. Listen to them, talk to them, for as long as they want to talk to you.”

My favorite speech of the evening though was from Graham Moore for “The Imitation Game”: “So in this brief time here, what I want to use it to do is to say this: When I was 16 years old, I tried to kill myself because I felt weird and I felt different, and I felt like I did not belong. And now I’m standing here. So, I would like this moment to be for that kid out there who feels like she’s weird, or she’s different, or she feels like she doesn’t fit in anywhere. Yes, you do. I promise you do. Stay weird. Stay different.”

I enjoy the Oscars a little more each year–maybe because we have fun with it all, maybe because they’re actually getting better or maybe because, with more life, I appreciate more the role that art and movies and music plays in it. If you can see past the dresses and jewels, the hobnobbing and Hollywood bureaucracy, the Oscars deliver a collection of talented artists who are passionate about their work and believe in the power to make people feel deeply. I’ll stand behind anything that does that.

I’m glad we have movies.
And I’m glad we have the Oscars because with it comes our Pajama Glama and these sweet memories. I saw Boyhood–I get how fast this all flies by.

There once was a boy who was born on Valentine’s Day. He took his first breaths in a quiet room and was handed to his mama who stared at him deep into the hours of the night. He purred like a kitten when she kissed his cheeks, and when she traced his hand, his tiny fingers curled around hers. “Forever my Valentine,” the mama thought, and she went to bed with a magic smile.

Soon the boy grew into his first smile, a crooked little grin that made the hearts of his mama and daddy flutter. Frog-leg kicks turned into knees on tile, and away the boy went, crawling toward adventure. He wanted to see beyond the view he was given, so he climbed above the chairs and shelves to see the world afar. He liked what he saw, so higher he climbed. “Forever my curious Valentine,” the mama thought.

Silky baby hair thickened into a fuzzy tuft of curls. And up, up, up went the boy, stretching taller while away, away, away his curiosity grew. He ran toward adventure–things that move, things that make noise, things that boom and roar and soar. “Airplane!” he shouted at tiny specks in the sky, their distant rumble catching his attention before anyone else heard them. “Forever my curious, adventurous Valentine,” the mama thought.

And that’s how an airplane birthday party came to be.
Two years of adventures and enough love to fuel a flight to eternity.

Happy Birthday to our curious little pilot.

This was such a fun party to plan and celebrate.

Some photos from our day (party details and source info at the end of the post):

Lainey dug through her closet and found a white shirt and blue jumper that made a great flight attendant outfit. The exits are here, here and here.

The outfit he wore home from the hospital. His head would take up that entire sweater now.

I put chocolate pudding between the two cake layers, and while it made for a delicious cake, it was a nightmare to decorate. Pudding kept sliding out, frosting wouldn’t stick and the sides caved in all over. I almost threw out the entire thing and started over, but thankfully my mother was here. Her specialty in life is finding humor in struggle and patching things up with a laugh. “It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine,” she says. “Don’t add more work for yourself. Make do where you can.”

Easy peasy party decorations: homemade paper airplanes strung on fishing line with big fluffs of cotton filling (thread a big needle and string it through everything–wrap it around the cotton fluffs several times to keep them from slipping down).

Airplane tatts.

We decorated cardboard suitcases with vintage travel stickers, an activity even the littlest kids enjoyed.

Detroit sticker–Michigan kids representin’.

The kids flew glider planes down a paper runway in the driveway, and we chalked off where they landed to see whose plane flew the greatest distance. Dash had more fun chasing them all.

I’m happy to report no one was hurt when Dash took the pinata stick.

We lit up the whole runway of candles on his cake because adventurous boys like blowing out lots of candles.

I love this moment my father-in-law captured. Lainey’s celebratory expression. And also my finger is not on fire–it’s a sun spot.

We recounted all the details from the day he was born this weekend–looked at pictures, retold the story, held him close and thanked our lucky stars that he came to be, that he is ours. And then off he ran to find more adventure. “Forever my Valentine,” the mama thought, and she went to bed with a magic smile.

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Party Details and Sources:

*kid’s pilot hat
*pilot plastic wings pin set
*airplane cookie cutter and cloud cookie cutter
*runway for plane launch: black bulletin board paper and yellow duct tape; foam glider planes from Target
*cardboard suitcases (I hot glued some brown grosgrain ribbon on for “straps”)
*vintage luggage labels: this book of stickers, this pack of large stickers and my favorite, this tin of several different sizes of airline and travel stickers
*cake decorations: Southwest toy plane set
*mylar airplane balloon and latex cloud balloons
*kids aviator sunglasses: Children’s Place

I’ve decided that my kids’ birthday parties is the middle circle of the Venn Diagram of my loves, the place where everything intersects–color, celebration, pretty things, motherhood, music, friends, family, introspection and a deep love for my children. That middle circle is like a family reunion in my head–a day when all the grown-up kids and their grown-up differences return home to sit around the table and realize they’re connected and bound by love.

Yesterday, I was thrilled again to feel the circles intersect as we celebrated with friends and color and music and rainbows, all lassoed up into that middle place by our love for Nella.

A peek at our rainbow party for our colorful girl:

Hosted at our community’s incredible House of Gaia


Nella’s rainbow dress from Berit’s Lilla

Rainbow toe love.

My friend Kathy made Nella’s rainbow cake, simple yet stunning on the outside…

Edible sugar rainbow butterflies from Amazon.

…and a complete party on the inside.

This is Miss Lulu. She’s mesmerizing to watch. She’s like Mary Poppins except instead of magic, she uses kindness, and she weaves these valuable lessons of self worth, loving each other and using our creative gifts to make the world a more beautiful place into every activity she initiates.

The rainbow toes. I can’t even.

We were hoping there was a gay pride parade somewhere near us yesterday afternoon because we were decked out and ready to go and could have killed two celebration birds with one stone.

The kids took turns bouncing in the middle of a stretched piece of fabric. Nella was hesitant to do it, but I put her in anyway and promised her it would be fun. We bounced her up and down and through the entire experience, she never quit doing two things: holding my hand and smiling. (Thank you to my friend Andrea for the picture)

The kids huddled together for a “rainstorm,”…

…hid under “the sun” while happy dragons danced around them…

…and lined up together to sleep under a rainbow.

My dad made these beautiful rainbow ribbon wands for each of the girls.

It was magic.

Party bags enhanced with a stack of free paint swatches…

…and rainbow goodies tucked inside.

Rainbow favor bag goodies:  rainbow putty (1 doz), rainbow crayon (25 pack), rainbow star lollipops (1 doz), rainbow folding fan (1 doz), rainbow punch balloon (1 doz), rainbow glitter temporary tattoos (72-pack), rainbow candy dots and lipgloss (Michael’s)

And a big thank you to my friend Kim (Nella’s favorite barrettes) who made all the little girls rainbow barrettes to take home.

I didn’t know this photo was taken until I found it on my camera late last night. Nella didn’t want to lay under the rainbow with her friends unless I went with her. So I did, and there we were–her a little apprehensive, me a lot assuring. Surrounded by our friends but glued together–calm, quiet and feeling the moment…all under a thin veil of rainbow. Which pretty much sums up everything.

Thankful for parties and babies and color and cake–and opportunities to stand in the inner circle where everything collides to make perfect sense.