Sophia and James' Family Birthday Party

Ahhh ... February.  Forever and ever to be known as "birthday month" in our household. 

It started with Steve and my birthdays, two days apart, at the end of the month.  We added Sophia in there, right smack in between those days and then James at the beginning of the month.  Four out of six of our family members celebrate another trip around the sun within three weeks of one another.  That means, that there are a lot of candles, a lot of cake and ice cream and a lot of wrapping paper.  And I love every minute of it because birthdays are my favorite.

This year, I suggested to Sophia and we could combine the family party for her and James and celebrate with a "unicorn and dragon theme."  She was completely on board with the idea -- both celebrating with her brother and then having a solitary unicorn party with her friends two weeks later.  I had never planned a joint party before (double the cake, double the decorations, etc), but I love how it turned out.  And I especially loved that I was able to re-use the unicorn decorations again for her friend party.

I went with a green/pink/slight rainbow color scheme and decorated the usual canvas backdrop above the cake table.  (I later commented to my mom that I never guessed when I bought this canvas to hang in the dining room seven years ago that it would be covered and used over and over again with various decorations for all of my parties).  I love how it turned out from just using random supplies in my craft closet.  I drew the dragon and unicorn and then incorporated the kids' birthday ages on it.  It ended up hanging for over a month in that room before I begrudgingly took it down.

For Sophia's cake, I opted to use the universal unicorn symbol (ears, unicorn, eyes/eyelashes and flowers).  James' dragon looked a lot like the alligator that I made for Sam's rainforest party, with a cake body this time and dragon wings.  Jimmy laughed every time he walked by it that day.  And ... the nose of the dragon was officially deemed to be HIS cupcake because (like every single child at this age), he sampled some of the frosting when my back was turned before the party!

Fresh flowers make every party better!  And these lasted for two weeks!

The girls surprised me by working on their own decorations for the party that morning.  They used Bunch 'Ems to construct a unicorn ...

... and a dragon!  They did this without a single template or anything.  Just their own creativity.  I loved them so much, that we made a place on one of the tables for them.

"Always be yourself unless you can be a unicorn.  Then always be a unicorn."  I love that message and promptly printed it and put it in a frame left over from a previous party.

Sophia helped make the birthday banner to hang on the mantle and it was way more glitter then I had planned on.  But I love how it turned out. 

And I really loved that we used some ribbon that once belonged to my grandma.  It was in my ribbon box and I recognized it immediately.  I like to believe that she smiled as I weaved it through each and every piece of cardstock and was with us that day.

Again, Sophia helped to paint and design the "2" and the "7" for the party.  Dragon scales for Jimmy and jewels from my craft closet for Sophia.  A perfect fit for those two.  And the tissue puffs turned out great too.  Some drawing, some cutting and some gluing and now the kids have them in their rooms to remember this party.

Sophia picked out a special shirt for her day and smiled the biggest that I have seen her smile lately as she took in all of the decorations and especially her cake. 

The kids took turns opening their presents and it was so fun to watch them with each and every item that our guests had handpicked for them.

Opening gifts with Momma:

Ready to make a wish and blow out her candles:

Blowing out his candle ... it took a couple of attempts, but he did it!

Happy, happy birthday to my February Birthday Babies!

Valentine's Day 2018

For the last couple of years, the kids have chosen to forego the typical store-bought valentines for their classmates and instead assemble them with something a little different.  I always provide options/ideas for them, purchase the necessary items and then oversee the process.  As the girls have gotten older, it seems to take less time -- they are able to write names faster and they love and appreciate a nice assembly line (just like their momma).

Jack only had about 12 valentines to do for his classroom, but he took his job very seriously and carefully wrote his name on each and every one.

And then he stuffed a growing cactus (you put it in water) and a box of candy in each bag, while I stapled the card on top.

The girls came inside after playing hard in the snow and warmed up while working on their personal valentines. 

Sophia chose a squishy cat (they are very popular right now) for her friends and also included a package of candy.

Samantha chose the same concept as Jack, which made this pretty easy for me.

I always put the valentines inside a bag with handles, which makes it easy for the kids to transport them to school.  All packaged and ready to go ...

Samantha was the only one of the three kids that needed to bring in a decorated box for her friends to put their valentines in this year.  Both Jack and Sophia designed bags inside their classroom.  We weren't given a lot of notice on this, and Samantha insisted on turning hers into an elephant (???), so we did the best that we could with supplies from my craft closet.  In the end, I am so pleased with how it turned out.  And Samantha was too!

• Large, floppy ears (check)
• A truck that lifts up to insert valentines inside (check)
• Rosy cheeks (check)
• A happy 4th grader (check)

When the kids woke up that morning, I wanted to have a little something special waiting for them at their seats. 

Each of them ended up with some candy, a shirt (for the boys) or socks (for the girls) and a little Beanie Boo stuffed animal (which each of them adored).  Sophia carries hers with her wherever she goes and sleeps with it each night.  Later, the boys put their shirts on for the day and the girls wore their socks to school.

And, of course, cinnamon rolls for breakfast -- a crowd favorite.  I even added some red sprinkles for the day of love!

Happy Birthday, James!

James turned two on Superbowl Sunday this year and that alone, makes me smile.  You see, Steve likes to tell the story that this is Jimmy's third Superbowl Sunday and he just turned two.  Jimmy was three days old, and one day home from the hospital, when we make the trek down to the neighbor's house for their Annual Superbowl Party.  He was passed around from one person to another (except when he needed a feeding, and then he was all mine, of course) and everyone was in awe that we took a three-day-old baby to a party.  We laughed and said, "when it's your fourth kid ... nothing phases you."

We started out the day with our traditional cinnamon rolls with candles in them, but Jimmy just wasn't feeling very well.  You can tell that he sinuses were bothering him, but he at least tried to look at the camera and put forth a little effort.

We sang "happy birthday" to him and told him that he had to blow out his candles.

It took several attempts to master it ... but he did!

Later that day, once everyone had a decent lunch, headed into the dining room so that Jimmy could open his presents and blow out the candles on his cake.  (I put the cake together the night before -- just a simple one -- and he woke up to it and presents on the table).

Jimmy couldn't wait for all of us to join him before he began ripping open the paper!

Jack and Sophia were sooooooo patient with him.

Opening a whole tub of potato head parts.  He just recently discovered our supply of Potato Heads and I decided that he might like a few more parts to play with and be creative.

His new sunglasses.  It's safe to say that he loved them.

He's an expert now on blowing out candles.

Later that night, we headed down to the Annual Superbowl Party (we split up knowing that some of us would be coming home earlier than others) and managed to capture a family picture while we were there.  My hair was a bit wild after chasing the Toddler Tornado around (ahem, James!), but it's still a "keeper."

Happy birthday, James!

Jimmy's Big Boy "Bed"

We have always transitioned the kids out of their crib before they turned two; Samantha was only 19 months old when we made that milestone and Sophia and Jack were both about 22 months old.  Some of it had to do with the fact that we were preparing for another baby's arrival and some of it was because I didn't want them to climb out and potentially hurt themselves.  Also, I'm a firm believer in the idea that the earlier that we made the transition, the easier it would be to train them. 

From the beginning, we involved the kids in the process -- from helping to disassemble the crib, to picking out their own sheets at the store, to helping actually make the bed.  There was always a lot of talk about their "big" bed and not being a baby anymore.  And the more kids there were to talk about it, the better it became.

I was ready to transition James out of the crib and onto a mattress on the floor for a while now, but I wanted to be sure that Steve was back from Mexico.  That way, he could take the crib apart (better him than me!) and be involved in the whole thing.  We prepared ourselves for at least a week of die-hard transitioning ... picking Jimmy up and putting him back in his bed multiple times (at night and during nap time) with some crying and sitting outside his door to make sure that we intercepted him immediately.

Tools in hand and ready to begin disassembling:

Of course, Jack didn't want to miss out on an opportunity to help.

Meanwhile, he discovered the pillows ...

Promptly put them on the bed and then jumped on them.  Remember, this is the first time that he has ever really used a pillow.

Yup, it's safe to say that it likes a nice, comfortable pillow.

Putting the blankets in place:

Practicing getting all tucked in:

Not too bad.

And you know what?  It took almost no time at all to train him.

The first two nights, I laid down on the floor next to him to make sure he was asleep before I sneaked out (he just liked knowing I was there and laid softly in his bed the whole time -- not a peep).  And at nap time, I had to be firm a couple of times and remind him to stay in bed.  But by Night 3, Steve laid him in bed that night, and he went right to sleep.  He never made a single noise, never cried, never got out of bed ... and slept all night long.

In fact, he doesn't come out of his room until we go to get him.  Occasionally he will get up and gather some toys once he is awake.  But, he just gets back in his bed and plays with them or looks at books. 

In a few months, we'll put his mattress up on a box spring with a headboard and I'll officially decorate his room, but for now ... this works perfectly.