Paper in the Mail + first communion

This was mail from a while ago....love it when there are papergoods catalogs to browse through.

I'm sure I intended to post this pic along with the inspiration it lead to, but I find that I never did that. We have been preparing the two older kids for their first holy communion so I had the idea to make our own invites, favors, thankyous, etc. I have had a lot of creative time {luckily} for that sort of thing. Just sharing a few pics of how the invitations turned out. Completely inspired by the invitations in the Paper Source catalog {the one pictured above}. The rubber stamps came from a Fancy Pants clear set {the butterfly} and Kodomo {the cherry blossom branch}. The strip of blue Asian paper is wrapped around the invitation and is from Hyatt's Art store here in Rochester.


































That was yesterday! It feels good to finally see it through -- months of prep, special books, special activities, shopping for the special gown, "dressy clothes" for boys, classes and one shaky rehearsal later -- but it all came together - beautifully.
The ceremony went just as beautifully as ever, even the weather cooperated for us as we made our way into the church. I was very proud my two.

The morning of I scrawled a few notes for myself as I reflected on the day ahead {with the intent to read it to our guests as Grace -- but I spaced and completely forgot to bring the paper with me.....duh...then at the restaurant it seemed every detail had to be run by me....so again -- spaced -- and I feel real bad about that}

"dear lord, we want to take this moment to say thank you for all your blessings today. thank you for blessing us with this delicious food; with beautiful sunshine, blessing us with beautiful children and allowing us to be blessed with the company of our family and dear friends. please care for those who were not able to be here today. amen."


On to the goodies... the favors being prepped...a couple of days ago.




















and finished...you can find these cute small cardboard boxes in the wedding supply section at the dollar store {yes! the dollar store, one pkg of 12 for $1.00} They were the perfect size.














And finally, there is always at least one blurry picture that captures my heart.....in this one she is sweetly smiling for the picture taking aunts and cousins, but she is dying to take the dress off. "PLEEESE mommy can I change NOW?" she says in front of some of the guests {who of course think its so cute} But she looked so pretty...I stalled as long as I could...and I managed to hold of the change of clothing until after dinner and the cake....she did wonderful and eventually didn't want to take off the dress at all.
sigh. they are so cute. I wanted the moment and the day to last forever.