Leaving Babies Behind

In getting ready to leave my two littlest ones, I made up 7 presents and hand made note cards for them to open, one every day that we are gone from them.  I know they are going to have a great time (slumber party every night!), but I wanted to make sure that they had something to look forward to from us every day.  They are things like new pencils and notepads, a horse shoes game, mugs to decorate, just little things that were cheap.  Every gift is something that includes enough for them to share with the friends they are staying with too!  I hope this helps when they get a little home sick.  They are really excited to see what is in each present! 

The Lego Maniac's Birthday Party

Ethan is now 10, every time one of my kiddos has a birthday, I think, how did this happen, another year, already?  He's growing up, he has such a great personality, so smart and I love his sweet tender heart.  He is so crazy about Legos, he is constantly building these amazing and creative creations that he just comes up with, I'm so impressed by his creativity! 

With his love of all things Lego, I knew I had to do a Lego party for him this year. I did a lot of Pinterest searching for Lego party ideas.  Everything turned out pretty much like I wanted and I think that everyone had a great time.   I kept the activities pretty simple because I figured on them wanting to just run and play.

They colored pictures of Legos, I spray-painted baby food jars yellow to look like Lego heads and everyone then drew their own faces on them.

They also played "Guess How Many Legos" that were in a jar and then I had also cut out yellow Lego men (kind of like a ginger bread man) and they searched the house for them.

For the gift bags I made small coloring books and threw in a couple of pieces of candy.  The thank you notes matched the invitations that I made in Picasso.  I really liked how they came out.  I just ordered them from Walgreens, super simple!

I kept the decorations pretty simple also, but I think they packed the punch I was looking for.

The plates and juice boxes were two of my favorite things, the plates were Ethan's favorite too, I think.  One of my favorite finds was the green bubble wrap!  It looked like Lego base plates!

So, here is the part that didn't quite turn out right.  The cake, I didn't want the taste to be weird because of food coloring, so I opted to make a white Lego, I had some trial and error with frosting Oreos, so I just left them alone, and I think it looked more dice than Lego.  It tasted AMAZING though!  And I just love this picture of Ethan, it reminds me of what he looked like when he was little, so sweet.

It was a nice group of boys that came to his party, all had very good manners and were very polite.

 But they were boys, and they had to run and they did!

This is the link I used for a lot of the party ideas and printables.

Daddy Date Night

Tonight there was someone over to spend the night with Grace, someone here for Ethan and then both of Zach's best friends to stay with him, Faith was going to feel a little left out I knew, so I suggested that Rob take Faith out for a Daddy Date Night.  They went to see The Lorax and went to dinner.  She came home beaming!  I'm so glad they could go and do that!

Hopefully they can make this a regular thing!

Menu Planning

I have never been a fan of menu planning or sticking to a menu, but I have come up with a different idea of menu planning.  I did 5 weeks worth that I will rotate through, and they are all different meals, so no more, "We ALWAYS have this"!  I also did a lunch menu and a master inventory and grocery list.  I hoping to avoid arguments of what's for lunch and dinner, and also add some variety to what has become a tedious task.  The kids are still going to help cook once a week and so is Rob, and pizza night still remains.  

I am also trying to come up with an awesome game plan for chores around the house so that everyone has jobs and know what days they are supposed to do them on.  This is all apart of my master plan of organizing our household (I feel like there should be an evil laugh in here!).  

Then there will be a color coded schedule for video games and computer time!  No, really, I'm serious!  I'm just pretty much tired of flying by the seat of my pants!  Time to be intentional!  Wish me luck!