Happy New Year!

Amysilverman — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 15:07:57 +0000

I might be setting expectations a bit high, but I couldn’t resist this calendar on etsy. Here’s wishing us all the best year ever.

Soundtrack for a 7-Year-Old

Amysilverman — Wed, 19 May 2010 22:47:43 +0000

In two days, Sophie will be 7.

This is a really big deal. We’ve been discussing it for months. After a lot of debate (and many family votes) the theme has been chosen: Olivia the Pig. (If you don’t know her, you should –you’d love her.)

One nice thing about Olivia is that despite the fact that she now has her own TV show, they haven’t over-commercialized her — not yet, anyway. That’s terrible from Sophie’s perspective. She wants to know why there are no Olivia panties. (And don’t try googling “Olivia” and “panties.” I did, and blushed hard. Let’s just say that there were no pigs involved.)

I did learn through some other googling that the character Olivia — who lives with her parents and two little brothers, and loves cats, ballet, dressing up and make-believe — is 6 and three-quarters years old.

Perfect. Although just writing that gives me a pang. Sophie can’t stay 6 and three-quarters forever. Not on the calendar, anyway.

So we’ll party on Saturday. Lucky for me, some clever etsy sellers have created some pretty amazing (and probably illegal, from a licensing standpoint) Olivia stuff — stickers, banners, dresses, cupcake decorations — most of which I’ve already purchased and will show you once I pull it out of the boxes and envelopes.

The best thing is the Olivia pinata I had custom-made, cheap – an upside to living in Phoenix. (There’s a preview shot above.)

Things are coming together. The bakery refused to draw Olivia’s face onto 50 cookies, damn them, so we’ll have daisies in an appropriate color scheme, and sometime between now and Saturday I’ll shovel enough crap out of the house to clear a path for the party guests. All of Sophie’s classmates have been invited. I have no clue who will show. Sarah the BFF is coming; that’s all that matters.

And we’re finally done with Sophie’s Birthday Mix, which was months in the making. Here’s our soundtrack for a 7-year-old, in case you were wondering.

“Sophie is Seven”

1. Olivia Theme Song

2. Happy Birthday by the Altered States

3. Single Ladies by The Chipettes Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

4. The Hustle by The Dancing Queen Group Dance Hits

5. Clapping Song by Sound-A-Like As Made Famous by Shirley Ellis

6. Down On the Corner by Robbie Schaefer

7. Miss Mary Jane by Dean Jones

8. The Purple People Eater by Sheb Wooley

9. Dig a Little Deeper by Jenifer Lewis, The Princess and the Frog

10. All Around the Kitchen by Dan Zanes & Loudon Wainwright III

11. I Love You Too by Ziggy Marley

12. You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile by Dan Zanes

13. If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out by Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem

14. Down In New Orleans by Dr. John, The Princess and the Frog

15. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious by Mary Poppins Original London Cast

16. You’re My Best Friend by Queen

17. Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Livingston Taylor

18. Hey Jude (Live at CitiField, NYC) by Paul McCartney

19. Goodbye Song by Yo Gabba Gabba!

Boy in a Party Hat

Amysilverman — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:58:00 +0000

The other day, I was perusing the Etsy shop of one of my all-time favorite artists, she of Girl in a Party Hat “fame,” Amanda Blake, and realized I didn’t have any of her boys.

Now I do. Oliver arrived just the other day, wrapped thusly (how freakin’ cute is that?!) and as it’s a Gocco print rather than the pricier paintings I truly crave, he was an insanely affordable $10.

Run, don’t walk. I see more Olivers in Amanda’s shop, along with the breathtaking painting “caroline carefully arranges all she holds dear”.

Girl in a Party Hat » etsy

Happy New Year!

Soundtrack for a 7-Year-Old

Boy in a Party Hat