1st Birthday...

Saturday was Quinn's first birthday! I can't believe a year has passed already. In the last few months he has started to crawl, point, babble and now he's actually walking. Wherever we go he's always grabbing the limelight and laps up the attention given to him by people everywhere.

His party had an outer space theme and Maura used Paper and Cake for the decorations.  

You can visit there site and browse through the many choices of celebration paper ware. Once you choose the one you like It can be personalised to suit the needs of the party, then all that need's to be done is to print and cut.

I added a few other items like the cupcake stand which I made using Styrofoam, blue paint and some glitter ribbon for the edge. The rocket was made from a packing tube I bought at the post office, some more Styrofoam, foam sheets for the boosters and some other simple decorations. We also picked up some solar planet pictures from a teacher's supply store and hung them from the ceiling.

I made the cupcakes using a Trader Joes cake mix for the base which I thought was really good and the frosting recipe came from here, http://savorysweetlife.com/2010/03/buttercream-frosting/ 

The frosting is definitely a keeper and was sweet but not sore on the teeth and most importantly held up well and was really easy to use. To turn it into chocolate just add 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder to a batch of the classic recipe.

Now to start planning his 2nd birthday.....

Cupcake spikes from Paper and Cake

Lawn dots

Dude, this party is Raaaaad!!!!

Please raise your right hand....

And repeat after me......

Last Friday I went to my swearing in ceremony. This was my final step to becoming a citizen of the United States and I figured I had better go to this one as I had cancelled two previous ceremonies which resulted in me having to go back to "the office" to explain why I keep finding reasons not to attend, like.....helping at Miranda's school and looking after my kids while Maura was working in New York, you know the little things.

 Anyway there I sat in a giant hall with 900 other eager beavers, each with  there own dreams and Ideas to better or further themselves with the help of Uncle Sam. The location was a country club in Montebello and my 1pm ceremony was the third that day, each time swearing in 900 citizens giving a total of almost 3000 people in one day. There are other locations such as the L.A Convention center and The Fairplex. These are bigger places and each event can swear in 3500 people multiplied by 3 ceremonies that day. Do the math, the country is growing fast!

Because this location was not a federal courthouse, the hall we were in was officially turned into one where all courtroom rules applied. The judge started the proceedings and we went on to say our Oath Of Allegiance. After that we were officially U.S citizens. There was plenty of screaming and hollering, lots of little flags being waved and generally a lot of relieved people in my opinion.

Now I will apply for my blue passport and be able to vote in all elections, though the jury is still out on who will be getting my little black X on the ballot. I am still allowed to keep my own passport and I will still use it when travelling back to Scotland. Miranda and Quinn also have dual nationality which I think will benefit them when they are older and start to travel.

I did have more pictures from inside but they turned out terrible, I think our camera is on It's last legs. I put it on the chair a couple of days before and came back into the room to see it on the floor and Quinn with a look of, "What, was that something important that I just dropped?"  

Our nice jokey Judge, not Judge Judy at all!

Done!!

 My favorite pic but I can't seem to get it to be portrait? When I finally exited the hall and saw the family waiting, Miranda rushed up to me, gave me a hug and said with all sincerity, "Daddy...welcome to California"

 They can't kick me out now...

The golden ticket.