Happy happy birthday.... to you!

So it may have casually been mentioned before, but Samma somewhat enjoys Sprout.

For those who are unaware, Sprout is a 24/7 toddler/preschool TV channel, "home to trusted favorites like Sesame Street and Barney & Friends, plus innovative Sprout Originals such as The Sunny Side Up Show and The Good Night Show. From morning to night, parents and kids can share everything from singing and dancing to birthday wishes and bedtime stories." -- yup, totally got lazy and swiped that from the website.

I know there are some people who don't get Sprout - we're very fortunate that Verizon FiOS happily carries it. The good news is that Sprout is going to start hosting NBC's Saturday morning line-up, and I know a bunch of their shows are going to be showcased, so finally there will be Sprout for everyone!

Sam has been watching Sprout since she has been able to sit up on her own and have something grasp her attention. The channel is wonderful as it's programming is in 10-15 minute snipits, just long enough to hold a toddler's attention and then move onto something new just as they could possibly be losing it. Shows such as Caillou, Pajanimals, Poppy Cat, and Super Why played alongside the likes of The Wiggles, Thomas, Barney, and Sesame Street, it brings the old and new together and creates a fantastic balance of children's programming.

Now, the previously mentioned Sunny Side Up Show is live with a different human host along side Samma's favorite chicken puppet, Chica! They have this thing where a couple of times every day, they celebrate birthdays, be it with handmade cards sent in by parents, or online well-wishes with uploaded photos. Names are also scrolled along the bottom of the screen, listing the "Sproutlets" who have birthdays on that particular day. And they all sing the same birthday song, which goes a little something like this:

Happy happy birthday to you!
Happy happy birthday to you!
You're good to grow
So count the candles and blow!
Happy happy birthday to you,
To you,
To you!

Anyway, I didn't have it in me to send a card in for her first birthday (honestly, I think they request that it be for kids older than 2 years old anyway) so I promised myself I would send one in when she turned 2.... and yeah, that came up a lot sooner than I was expecting. I think it was one day a week or so ago I was watching Sprout with Sam and they mentioned a reminder to send in your September birthday cards. Yup... I was at Michael's the very next day.

There are specifications for sending in a card - I made sure to follow them as well as I could to up the chances of Sam's card getting on TV... and even if it doesn't, it'll still be scanned and displayed on Sprout's website the day of, so at least that will be special, too.

Anyway, they said to avoid white, pink, or orange paper as it doesn't show up well on TV - check! They also said to make sure you use only Sprout TV show characters..... duh. Third, I needed to complete and sign an entrant release form to allow them to show the card - done and done! And then, it was go time!

Now, I will be the first to tell you that arts and crafts are no longer my forte, but with a margarita in hand, I had my fun. I had bought the yellow cardboard, as well as black and green because I wasn't sure which one the blue sparkley letters would work on the best... Chris helped me decide, so thank you for that, sir! Also, I had to buy 3 packages of those damn letters just to get the card to read what I wanted it to say... the upside to this was that I figured out they were adhesive once I started to lay them down, so it did make my job a helluva lot easier!

As for the pictures, I used Google and a fantastic color printer... we'll just leave it at that. I picked a picture from each of Sam's favorite shows - The Wiggles, Caillou, Sesame Street, Super Why, The Good Night Show, Poppy Cat, Chica, and The Pajanimals. I will say, the printer I used was so awesome, it even made pictures from Facebook look good.

The card itself took me two nights to finish - I wanted to make sure Sam was in bed before I pulled everything out. From printing to cutting and pasting, I now give you the finished product:

Amongst the pictures, there's a little blurb from Chris and I that reads:

Happy Birthday, Samma!
We love you to the moon and back! You make every day an exciting new adventure, and we wouldn't have it any other way! We hope you have a very happy happy 2nd birthday!!
Love, Mamma and Dadda

Yes.... I am probably way too excited about this card. But now that the card was done, the hard part was figuring out how to mail a half piece of cardboard-sized card all the way to Pennsylvania... but alas, I had thought of this as well.

I decided to take a standard 3M 12" x 12" x 6" mailing box and instead of folding it to make it all box-like, I kept it flat and taped up both ends so it was more of a cardboard envelope. It actually worked out just as well, if not better than I intended... now I just need to get it to the post office, beg them not to fold or bend it, and make sure I get a delivery confirmation number on that bad boy!

But by now you must be asking yourself - wait MB... Samma's birthday isn't for a couple of weeks, right? RIGHT, but another of the requests was that you send the cards in about 2 weeks before the actual birthday, and if my calculations are correct, the two week mark would be this coming Thursday, so go me! I'm actually ahead of the game!

So there you have it -- the card goes in the mail tomorrow, and now all of you must watch Sprout on September 20th and look for Samma's card. I myself will be setting the DVR up for each every Birthday portion of the Sunny Side Up Show between 9am and 12pm, hoping and praying that at least Samma's name scrolls across the screen -- fingers crossed!




EDIT - 9/5/2012: The card is in the mail! I went to the post office first thing this morning and sent it out Priority, so it should be there by Saturday at the latest. I also tacked on Delivery Confirmation like I said I would, so $6.40 later I'm hoping my ridiculous efforts haven't been in vain...