St. Patty's 2016.

With the various baby showers that I helped to host, I ended up keeping a Spring theme for decorations in March instead of decking out in all things green and leprechaun.  So it was fun the night before to pull out our little box and give things a touch o' Irish for you kids to wake up to.  This was the first year that we did leprechaun traps.  Brie, you heard about it in first grade, so you got to work setting traps.  I wasn't super keen on the idea of tricking someone so you ended up leaving a note in the trap that said you didn't want to trap the leprechaun, just see it.  Even with delicious bait and coins at the bottom of the trap, the leprechaun outsmarted us and left our little frog leprechaun in its place.  Maybe better luck next time!   For breakfast we had some old school Lucky Charms.  We dressed up in our shirts from last year to keep off the pinchers.  For dinner we had beef stew with cabbage and Irish soda bread and had rainbow pudding (that Alex had helped me to make) for dessert.  We listened to some Irish music as we ate and had a great time!

It's a Boy! {Brunch}

In February my visiting teaching companion, Kelly, and I put together a little brunch to celebrate our friend's 2nd baby boy who was on the way.  Crêpes and great company, you can't go wrong!

Southern Celebration for Sar.

My 33rd birthday was a great one.  I love all things "southern" (biscuits, steak, country dancing, etc.) and decided this year that I wanted to do a southern celebration for my birthday.  Dad & I bought a giant paper star and fun mini jams and some Fitz's Cream Soda (from a Route 66 stop  on our day trip to St. Louis). 

The day of I got our traditional streusel cake breakfast.  Brie, you stayed up late with dad hand sewing me a little doll made out of felt.  It was SO cute and sweet of you!  I had all of my groundhog gear (from Punxsutawney) put up around the house and Facetimed and texted with Aunt Rach throughout the day.  For lunch one of my visiting teachers, Sarah Jensen, watched you boys while Dad, Aimee & I went to Kelly's Café for the perfect lunch (soup and sandwich) for the cold and rainy day that it was.  Dad made the steak and potatotes, but you guys were hunger and cranky and wanting attention so our original plans went by the way side and I finished up dinner prep while he played with you kids.  We ended up having a late dinner, but it was delicious.  Afterwards we did some country dancing and laid on our picnic blanket (Alex's idea) under the glow-in-the-dark stars :0)  It was a wonderful day and I'm grateful to be one year older and to have each of you.

Lij is 3.

Lij, this year leading up to your birthday, when I asked you what theme you wanted, you mentioned an ice cream cone birthday.  It was really fun to run with that theme.  My favorite projects were designing the mini paper ice cream cones, making the pom pom ice cream cone garland, the ice cream cone party hats AND the ice cream cart with Dad. I think your birthday was a success!  You loved opening presents (Brie stayed up late the night before to make you a birthday flower out of fabric.  It was so thoughtful of her!), fruit loops & chocolate milk for breakfast and streusel cake as a mid morning snack, wearing your new ORANGE & white shirt, riding your brand new blue tricycle, and having the pizza & ice cream cone party.  It was so fun to see you enjoying yourself, the center of attention and excited :0)

Me & My birthday boy.

 Look at that determination and excitement :0)

My cute little fam all ready to party!

.

.

.

.

.

 

I love how the cart turned out!  And it only cost me a few dollars for a few supplies.

It was so cute seeing you working hard to scoop out ice cream.   Though, I think next time I'd have frozen prescooped scoops to easily place in to cups or cones.

Lij, if we were to sum up your cute little three year old self in several sentences, we'd include:You...

...are really funny!  Facial expressions, things you say and all.

...are such a cutie pie with your big brown eyes, chubby dimpled smiles, fuzzy head and chirpy voice

...are BUSY!  We have to keep a close eye on you because you're Mr. Houdini and Sneaky Pants.  One minute you're in the room and the next you're magically gone and getting in to someone's treats or Mom's toothpaste or Brie's toys.

...keep right up with your big brother and sister, always have and probably always will!

...you could probably earn some good money for your scream.  It's the perfect high pitch scream.  We wish that really words left your mouth when you're frustrated, but we're working on that.

...are frequently seen running with your left hand gripping on to your pants because they're inevitably falling down ;0)

...are potty trained!  You were the one who initiated it and although you still have occasional accidents and wear a diaper for naps/bedtime, you were wearing big boy undies now and do an awesome job with using the potty.

...stay up reading books at night.  In fact you try to do about anything you can to stay up and keep your door open.  It's common for you to still be awake at 9:00!  We are definitely trying to nip this one in the bud.  Let's be honest, it might be because you're still taking an afternoon nap, but I would love to keep my mother-son time with Alex each afternoon while you and Aimee nap and Brie's at school.

...would much rather eat snacks all day then real food.  It's tricky to find foods that you like.  When I serve you up I always make sure that it's just little tiny portions because most likely you won't eat it.  We have started requiring you to finish those little portions at meal time.  If you don't then it gets saved for the next meal.  That's been working pretty well, but I still wish that you'd eat more fruits and veggies and good-for-you food.  Someday??

...love all things that move: trains, planes, cars, trucks, scooters, bikes, etc.  You got a tricycle for your birthday and are getting good at peddling yourself around the block.

...you frequently complain about being hot and hate to be in the sun.  It can make road trips tricky if your're side of the van happens to be in the sun.

...never want to go to nursery, but usually end up having a fun time.

...will be going to preschool in the Fall.  Big boy!

We love you, Lijaroo!

Paris Poodle Party.

Brie, I'm not sure how the scheming of this birthday theme came about, but it was fun that we were both so excited about it.  We spent many of our waiting-for-the-opthmoalagist times looking at pinterest, pinning different favorites and dreaming up your special birthday dinner.  I loved what you dreamed up for your cake! (white cake with touches of pink peppermint throughout and a light pink (candy cane) frosting.  We served it with a seasonal peppermint moose tracks, YUM!)  I thoroughly enjoyed putting all the final touches on dinner and decorations.  For dinner we had rotisserie chicken, golden potatoes, green beans, baguettes and pink lemonade.  

Afterwards we played pin the poof on the poodle :0) then opened gifts.  Dad & I got you a stuffed pink poodle and special "paris" fabrics for future sewing and crafting projects for the two of us to work on together.  Quelle belle soirée!

Spooky Kitty Party.

Before Aunt Emmie came in to town, on Instagram one day I saw the idea of doing a Spooky Kitty Party.  With Em having recently gotten her kitty {Gracie Lou Lou}, Halloween around the corner and Em's birthday being just over a month away, I decided a Spooky Kitty Party was in order during her visit.  Thanks to the Dollar Tree, some banners I designed, printed & strung together and some items I had on hand, things came together easily and turned out to be purrty darn cute.  It made me happy since Aunt Em always puts so much time, thought and effort into making things special.

Em bought the black cat from Aldi.

 Our Kitty Crew.

 I felt like a giddy little kid decorating this stuffed animal table :0)  I couldn't help but make it look fun, with the set being newly renovated (the chairs and table legs had all been different colors so we made them uniform with a few cans of white spray paint).  I picked a favorite stuffed animal friend for each of you: Dino for Roo, the panda for Alex, Minnie for Aimee and the ballernia bear for Brie.  Some masks and felt kitty ears were the purrfect touch :0)

Dinner was simple, Pizza and lemonade.  I was going to do some sort of veggies but didn't get that far.  For dessert you guys decorated (gluten-free) "oreo" cookies to look like cats.  You read a monster story and put together a glow-in-the dark puzzle with Emmie, we listened to some fun Halloween music, she gave us our Halloween box with goodies and that was our evening.  So fun!

I had to include a few of these darling pictures of Aimee and Emmie.

Eden & Grace.

In September Brie was invited to her friend Eden's (American Girl Doll Grace) birthday party.  You and I worked on making sets of bows for Eden and her doll.  I think they turned out pretty cute and hopefully made for a fun gift without spending a lot of money.  We slipped a box of European cookies in the gift bag as well :0)  I really enjoyed working on the project with you, Brie, and hope that it helped to teach that you can turn something ordinary into something special with a little thought and time.

Birthday 3rd Wheel.

Bry, you're 32...finally caught up with me again ;0)  We sure love celebrating you each year.  You are SO deserving of celebration!!  This year you helped me make our traditional birthday streusel (you were up early anyway and said that you'd rather spend time with me making it together), we went out to lunch at Avanti's with the cutest 3rd wheel you've ever seen!, had spaghetti for dinner then the McCann's over for mud pie.  It was simple day of celebrations, but I hope you felt a bit spoiled and super loved!

I decided to do a Monster's University themed card this year.  I thought it turned out to be pretty fun and wanted to document it here :0)

CARS for ALEX.

I decided to do a CARS themed birthday for Alex this year.  About a month before I started sneakily collecting his CARS paraphernalia to use that day for decorations.  I made some race flag banners and place mats with Brie's help.  The night before, Dad helped me to deck out the dining room.  It's always exciting to see when the birthday kid wakes up, comes down for their special birthday breakfast and sees the room decorated for their big day!  You were most excited about the Mack Truck we had gotten for you (thanks to a friend selling it for $5!).  You drove it around all morning long.  You've been dying to ride in Dad's car so Dad took you for a ride to get the oil changed.  When you got back you watched "Cars" with your siblings.  After naps we did a scavenger hunt for you to find your presents (a CARS hat, some shorts, CARS PJ pants and CARS socks.  You've been most excited about the socks and shorts.  You LOVE shorts!).  Dad put your car seat in the back of the van (BIG BOY!) and put in Aimee's car seat.  Good thing, we found out that the styrofoam had cracked and that we needed to buy a new car seat!  Dad grilled hot dogs and Brad & Deanna, Donovan and Shemay dropped in and joined us for s'mores.  We finished off the evening with an ice cream pie.  Little did I know that just an hour after midnight I'd be going in to labor with Aimee.  I'm so glad that she let you be in the spotlight for your entire birthday, but came as a very special and unanticipated birthday present :0)  You two are 4 years and 12 hours apart.

 It was a great day, Alex!  One that I think you thoroughly enjoyed and that made me happy to see :0)  We sure love you mucho mucho.  Thanks for coming to our family!

Birthday for 2yr old Roo.

Over a month later, I am finally getting around to blogging about your second birthday, Elijah.  It's been so busy!  And with your baby sister's birthday around the corner I would love to get caught up before she's here.

A few days before, Brie & Alex helped me to get vines and banners hung up.  It was nice to have them all made...30 minutes later and we had a cute dino jungle ready for your birthday.

For your birthday breakfast Dad made streusel cake and scrambled eggs.  Afterwards, you, Alex & I headed over to Brie's class to volunteer for literacy centers.  Her class was excited to see the birthday boy and even sang to you.

Later that morning Bompa & Mémé called & skyped to sing to you.  It's cute to see you carry on a conversation in your two year old way.  I did a mini photo shoot of you before nap time.  You are such a handsome little guy :0)

For dinner we did a hot dog dinner (you LOVE hot dogs!).  We opened up birthday presents, including a BIG stuffed dino that I got for you at the outlet, some snacks (mini packs of raisins, fruit snacks and goldflish), a mickey mouse cup, a mini mickey mouse figurine and lightup ball (from Brie) and construction trucks (from Alex).  To finish off the day we had chocolate cake (that Brie & Alex had help me make and decorate) & ice cream.

And there you have it, nothing fancy, but a fun day.  We love you Roo!

Twin Sheets Pasta Party.

28 January - 5 February 2015.

As part of the Punxsutawney Pilgrimage, Aunt Rachie came out to visit for a few days.  As always, it was so fun having her here.  Some of the highlights of her days in Normal include: dinner at Meatheads * clothes shopping at Target (with Roo our little tagalong) * seeing the AMTRAK train pass the Towanda Post Office * Sending valentines packages to friends * stocking up on car snack and ISU gear (Alex commenting on his big head ;0)) * gondola sandwich from Avanti's * cooking & baking together * prepping for Brie's 100th day of school (note for Mrs. Kauten and fun lunch) * spa afternoon for the kids * nap time with Alex on the couch * Pasta Party & Trifle * Dad surprising us with a streusel cake breakfast before Aunt Rachie flew home *

A week before Aunt Rachie came out, she & I decided that we'd do our own version of Brick Oven's pasta & salad bar for our birthday dinner.  The morning of, I had the idea to tweak some of the designs I had (for your cousin Isaac's 5th pizza birthday party) to make our dinner feel even more authentic.  We had 4 different pastas (fettucine, fusili, angel hair and farfalle), marinara and alfredo sauce, meatballs, garlic bread and quite the spread for our salad bar.  We also had frosted glasses for our rootbeer :0)  To top it off we had a twin {groundhog} trifle with two flavors: cherry banana vanilla chip and chocolate cherry brownie chunk.  We had Puccini playing in the background and had such a fun time serving dad & you kids your dinner.  It was a great evening and kickoff for our 32nd birthday.

Strawberry & Friends.

    

  After having helped me design and plan several parties this Spring, Brie, you wanted to plan your own party.  You decided on a Strawberry Shortcake Glimmer Berry Ball (patterned after one of your favorite DVDs).  It morphed into a Strawberry Shortcake & Friends 6th birthday party for you.  You, Dad & I each helped to color a few of the characters in one of your coloring books.  We scanned them, picked a color palette and started designing an invitation and banners.  As always, it was great to work alongside of you.  At the end of November we finally got our laser jet printer (thanks to early Christmas money from Bompa & Mémé) and were able to get everything printed, cut out and ready to go.  The last few days leading up to your party, as we worked on the banners, you asked why parties had to be so much work.  I let you know that they didn't have to be and we decided that we wouldn't throw a big party every year, maybe just even years or something.  As much fun as the whole process was for us to work on together, I think we will both appreciate simplifying things.  Well except you've already started talking about a Frozen party for your 7th birthday.  Hmmm, that might need to wait til you're 8 ;0)

 

Refreshments: Fruit Platter with a Yogurt Dip, Berry Lemonade and Strawberry (filled) Cupcakes

Activities: Coloring Page, a Fruit Walk (like a cake walk but with pictures of fruit and Strawberry's friends taped to the ground in a circle.), Pin the Stem on the Strawberry, and Fruit Pie Relay.

Friends who could attend: Fay, Ayla, Eva, Eden, Anoushkah and Violet
Favors: Raspberry Creme Cookies

Graden Carnival.

For the grand finale of our month of fun & laughter we had planned to do a carnival.  I was so excited about bringing to life some games and activities that I had enjoyed while attending the Rock Canyon Elementary annual carnival as a kid.  Beforehand I worked on making signs and gathering items for the different "booths".  Most of the supplies we had on hand, were upcycled or I found at a garage sale.  I did purchase a roll of raffle tickets from Target, figuring that we'd get good use out of them.  The last week of August we could all earn tickets by facing hard situations and choosing to be happy.  It was neat to walk Alex through some of his normal frustrations and help him see that he could choose a more positive outcome than just melting down.  Ironically I learned the same thing for myself ;0)

Unfortunately the day of the carnival was the day that my morning sickness hit (aka all day sickness.  why does it have to be called morning sickness?!).  We had been planning on this all month so I pushed through and with some help from Dad, we pulled it off.  I'm so glad we did.  You kids loved it all and I loved watching you enjoy yourselves with the simple games and prizes.

Usually at a carnival you win tickets and cash those in for prizes, but we spent the tickets to play games and won points.  We each had a little wrist band where we tallied our points.  At the end we could "cash them in" for prizes.

The games included:

Kick the Can (throwing bean bags to knock down cans)

Candy Walk (like a cake walk except that you could win candy instead of a cake)

Leap Pad (throwing different size frogs onto different size lilli pads)

Silver Rings (tossing bean bags through rings)

Go Fish (fishing for a prize)

Rubber Ducky (randomly selecting a rubber ducky and getting the prize associated with the color on the bottom of the duck)

1-2-3 (tossing bean bags into different sizes of bowls)

We also did a little photo booth, Dad juggled, we had popcorn, did a nacho bar, and made homemade root beer & funnel cakes for dessert.  Good thing we don't normally eat like that ;0)

The thought of the chili and cheese nachos still makes me want to hurl, but it was a great afternoon.  Let's hope next time I pull out the carnival bin first trimester nausea and food aversions won't come with it!!

Back 2 School.

You know that I must be through first trimester when I'm getting caught up on blogging ;0)  Don't mind the 2 month lag.

Brie with some of our next door neighbor boys.  

She has a crush on Peyton ;0), the one in the middle.

The weekend before school started was a busy one so I decided to do our Back 2 School dinner on Monday night, after Brie's first day of Kindergarten and before Bry's first day of teaching at ISU.  I wanted it to be fun, but not time-consuming.  This is what I went with...

*Don't mind that I misspelled Kindergartner on Brie's lunch sack ;0)*

 This little cutie started preschool in the middle of September.

Afterwards we used Book Bucks from the kids' summer reading and got ice cream cones at Carl's.