Lily’s Birthday Day

Birthdays are a HUGE deal around here so of course Lily’s would be no different. Lily actually celebrated on 2 separate days. First was her actually birthday Thursday December 6th.  Matt, Kendall and Zach took her entire class cupcakes and water for snacks. Lily got to leave school early!  Next, Lily picked eating at Olive Garden!  She was so excited that the whole family went. Lily got a song and piece of chocolate cake for dessert.

Wait don’t eat till we sing

Blowing out the candle

YUMMY!

After dinner, we made a quick trip to Old Navy to spend some birthday money. Lily picked out a gray outfit and 2 pair of leggings. The next stop for celebrating was Paw Paw and Granny’s. Finally, after getting home Lily had requested a pink cake with pink icing. Not a bad way to end a Birthday!

 

7 candles to end the night

 

 

 

Tips for Travelling with a Larger Family

I actually really like to travel and most of my adult life I have travelled at Thanksgiving, which also means I have my fair share of experience travelling with children of all ages. So today I thought I would share some of the tips I have learned over the years.

  • Plan ahead this includes where you are staying as well as preparing for the trip. This year, I have even gone a step further. During the past week, each day we have tried to get one thing off our travel list. For example on Thursday, I organized and packed our food, today I am working on packing clothes. By spreading out the list it has gone much smoother and I am not stressed yet.
  • Set a realistic budget. Without a budget it is so easy to over spend and then you are faced with that awful feeling when you get home. As well as trying to figure out where the extra money is coming from. Our budget this year includes $500 for gas and $100 a day for eating out. The hotel we are staying at provides breakfast each morning  and we will be eating with family some but I know that eating out for our family of 6 will be expensive.
  • Bring your own snacks and drinks. My family likes to snack, just because we are travelling does not mean this changes. A drink at a hotel or a gas station  is around $1.50 add another 1.50 for a snack that equal $18 for just one snack for my family. Even at just one snack a day that would add up to $100 over the 5 days of our trip.
  • Pack for the younger children using slider gallon bags. I am able to fit an entire outfit in one bag. I try to include matching hair bows and socks for the girls. This has worked awesome over the years. First of all the kids then get a choice of what they are wearing that day but I am controlling which items go together. It also helps me not to forget underwear or socks for each day. At the hotel the kids can unpack in a drawer and then they feel like they are so independent picking out and dressing themselves. The added benefit is that I never have to go looking for a sock or pair of underwear.
  • Pack a small travel bag with new crayons and activity books for the kids to use. One of the biggest hits at our house has been dry erase boards and markers.
  • Rent or borrow from the library DVDs to enjoy on the trip, this way they have a new movie to entertain them.

Finally,  make list…….. I currently have 2 going right now; one of items that still need to be packed. The second is of all the last-minute things that need to be done before leaving. I really like this list so we mark off things as we go and don’t have to worry about forgetting something like taking out trash before we leave.

Do you have any helpful tips?

Snow Village 2012

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!    It is my absolute favorite time of the year.  One of the reasons for this is my Snow Village. I have been collecting these pieces since before Amanda!  We building our addition, one of the main things I wanted was a place to store the pieces and I have it!

This year, I moved the village from the living room to our bedroom, I am very excited to have all the pieces up and now have the room to add some additional pieces!

The top corner or Mountain scene~

The Farm- sits below our TV

The Ice Skating Pond

The Main Village- several different views…

 

Random Thoughts Tuesday November 13th

  1. This weekend 3 out of 4 kids developed strep throat, only Kendall remains healthy. Zach also had an ear infection and Lily has a major eczema flare up.
  2. I have started working on assembling my Snow Village, I am putting it in my bedroom this year so the layout will be total new. I plan to have it finished before leaving for Michigan.
  3. We leave in a week. I still need to make reservations for Tuesday night. I am trying to accomplish one thing a day so that we don’t get overwhelmed this weekend. So far so good. I have gotten all the presents wrapped and the food is packed for the trip.
  4. Work is really slow this week but I am actually excited to have the extra time to spend on organizing for the trip and on my Snow Village.
  5. Lily got her first report card for 2nd grade last week, she has only one 2 on the whole thing the rest were 3.
  6. This coming Sunday at church, I am in charge of a Spaghetti dinner.
  7. I don’t really  have a seventh comment but thought it was a cool number to end on.

 

 

The End of an Era

Today is a day of excitement and delight in our house, it is also an occasion that I wonder would ever come.  What is it?

The removal of all baby items from our daily use! We have been struggling for about 6 months now with how to get rid of Zach’s pacifiers.  I finally decided about 2 weeks ago that I was not chase those stupid things all the way to Michigan. So I knew we had to take action now. On Tuesday, I cut the tip-off one paci and Matt cut the  end of the second one. Zach immediately said “This one is broken and threw it away.”  So we wait for a couple of days and this morning I cut the remaining paci tip again. At nap time, he took it in his mouth, pulled it out and said “It has a crack it in so I throw it away.”  That is the end. I am hoping that tonight is fairly easy or at worst by Sunday, he is used to going without them. Next on the baby item removal list was the small potty. Zach is completely potty trained, except for a pull up at night, but he continued to use the small potty over half the time.  This potty has been in the house for 5 years and no matter how much we clean it, still not shiny and new. So we decided to toss it! It currently is in the garbage bin at the street. This did not even draw attention. Finally, is the booster seat that we purchased for Zach, he has been complaining about it for several weeks not that he is a big boy and doesn’t want to sit in it. I have been telling him that when he really was a big boy with no paci, I would put it away.  I was good to my word and after cleaning his seat with a vacuum and wipes, Zach is truly a “big Boy.”

We have left babies and toddlers behind. I really like the idea of seasons of life, so now I am going to enjoy the season of Haley’s senior year along with having young children who are learning everyday without the hassle of pacifiers and little potties!

Fall Festival- Kids having fun

Everyone is trying to find the “treasure” hidden in the corn

Kendall LOVED this slide, I think she went down it 10 times but because of the sun I could not get a picture of her. Lily only like the slide, which means 5 or 8 times down!

Pumpkin Bowling… Kendall threw a strike!

Lily’s turn at pumpkin bowling

Face Painting was our first stop.

Lily chose a butterfly and Kendall got a crown! Zach watched, next we headed to the color hairspray. Lily ended up with purple streaks and Kendall with green hair.

 

Kendall in the Bounce House. Zach and Lily joined her on our second turn.

 

Zach’s favorite thing of the whole time was the “tractor” I even managed to get in this picture!

End of our Fall Festival Fun!

Fall Festival- I won!

My kids have been excited all week to go to the Fall Festival at Lily’s school this afternoon.  I was surprised by Zach who finally got in the Bounce House and really enjoyed it. To finish out the evening, I received a call that I have won a basket. They sell ticket for $1 each and you place in which things you want to win. We purchased a total of $10 in tickets and place 2 in this particular basket.

The sign says that it has a value of over $250. After digging into it, I found around $400 in gift cards/certificates as well as 3 boxes of candy, 2 DVDs and a game all  in a Vera Bradley bag!  I am so excited about the bag because it is the perfect size for me and I have been wanting a new bag!

The gift cards/certificates included a grocery store care, a certificate for a manicure and European facial as well as lots of local and several national chain restaurants. We have talked about buying several  new DVD for our trip at Thanksgiving but now the kids well be watching Open Season 3 and Beethoven’s 2nd.

Someone had even placed $15 in cash in here so we ended up making our money back for the raffle tickets! It has been a super long time since I won so I couldn’t wait to share!

Pictures of the festival will follow!

Crazy Busy Life

This has been one busy weekend! Here are some highlights…

  • Thursday night was spent looking for ribbons to make hair bows for  family pictures along with hair cuts, cheerleading and colorguard.
  • Friday night was homecoming at Central. We ended up with both Lily and Kendall sound asleep before the end of the ball game. Matt carried both girls to the van. Zach managed to keep himself awake and walked to the van.
  •  Bright and early Saturday morning we all headed to Midway for Bible Quizzing. The day finished up around 2:30 so we came home and took naps!!!
  • Sunday is of course church. This afternoon we gathered at my parents and brother house for our yearly family pictures. Hopefully I can post some of the best ones in the next week or so.

Ever wonder why  I am tired?

 

Crazy Busy Life

This week has been one of those weeks, the ones where I wonder how we ever do it or better yet is it ever going to stop. Monday, was so nice, home all day and evening as well. How could that be only 5 days ago. I honestly, don’t even remember what happened on Tuesday, maybe that was the one day, I exercised or something crazy like that. Wednesday, I had a parent meeting for cheerleading and everyone else had kick off for Kid’s Club at church. A side note is that I actually picked up Zach from the church and then didn’t make it home until 8:30. On Thursday, we had doctor and dentist appointments as well as a special cheer practice. Yesterday, between working and set up for Bible quizzing today, I didn’t get home until 8:30 again. Today, was an awesome day of Bible quizzing but I am exhausted.

The most exciting news of the week? Zach is actually on the growth charts now! He weighs 28lbs (25%) and is 35 inches tall (3%). We are just excited that he is on the chart!!!

Next week does look a bit slower as my work is slowing way down but I do need a short break and God is providing!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

  • School mornings have not been the problem around here. But school evenings are a whole different story. Zach has been so bad the last couple of evenings. I want to leave. I am hoping that once we get into a good routine he will settle down if not then I may just cry all evening too!
  • Speaking of school, the traffic at both the elementary and High Schools this year has been awful. To pick up from both school is taking Matt close to 2 hours. Part of the issue is that the Elementary school, is forcing everyone to sit in the car lane and pick up kids from the sidewalk.
  • On a positive school note, Lily has had 2 “gold” behavior days. This is the best she can do!! I hope it continues! Haley has spent time doing homework 2 nights in a row, this is a huge positive as well!
  • The goal for preschool this year is 3 days a week. Kendall is working on learning to write her last name as well as recognizing all the letters. Zach is definitely a lefty and working on recognizing colors and some letters as well.
  • We are continue to try and limit our grocery spending by eating food we have and  only purchasing things we are out of! The plan is to go to Costco on Thursday.
  • I am attempt to get my weight under control again. I have been counting calories today on an app. I did 30 minutes on the Will last night and will do another 30 tonight.