oliviaisms

Josh had late shift last night, so the girls and I were dining alone.  I rarely sit down and eat with them when Josh isn't home.  

But, I had actually planned a dinner for the evening, so I sat down and ate with them.  Everyone was in a really great mood, and no one complained about the food.  Well, maybe Amelia complained about the food, but I didn't notice because she complains every night about the food.  I digress.  

Anyway, so we had a great dinner.  The girls were laughing with each other and telling stories.  And it seems like the end of our meals always turn into making silly faces at Olivia and trying to get her to do funny things.  

Tonight, Olivia was just jabbering away, saying absolutely nothing decipherable {as usual}.  Amelia looked right at her and said, "Olivia, your words make absolutely no sense!"  This reminded me of another dinner conversation shortly before Olivia was born about her possibly being Chinese and us not being able to understand her.  And then I thought, maybe she IS speaking Chinese and that's why we can't understand her.  Just something I'm currently pondering.

So, as a little background to the next part of the conversation, Olivia's favorite word is no.  All day long.  I'm sure I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that she says it at least 200 times a day.  She often says it once very firmly and loudly, and then follows that up with several short, trailing off nos.  

Conversation between A and O:

A: Olivia!  Do you know what a cow says?!

O: NO!!  {As in, don't ask me these types of questions; I have no time for your silly cows! Think Grumpy Cat style.}

A: Olivia, a cow says "moooooo"!

O: {in the same tone that Amelia just said mooooo}  Nooooooooooo!

Hysterical laughter followed.  Love these girls.   

just breathing

Well, here were are.  It's summertime.

We pushed our way through the last couple of weeks of school, and we survived.  We finished May 17, and it was such a great feeling!!

As a homeschool mom, I absolutely love summer.  It is such a blessing to not have to keep everyone on task.

We're playing games.  We're playing outside.  We're playing with water balloons.  We're playing in the garden.  We're playing with the garden hose.  We're playing at the park.

We're staying up late.  We're sleeping in.  We're eating lunches outside.

Oh, and we're potty training.  Overall, it's going well...more on this later!

If I haven't commented on your blog recently, it's because I haven't been reading it!  Sorry.  I'll catch up eventually.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

ten years

Claire is ten years old today.  Oh, how the time has flown.  This girl is one of the most determined individuals that I know.  She is always up for a challenge.  I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, "where there's a will, there's a way" sums her up perfectly!  She is a natural problem solver, and her leadership qualities shine through continually.  

What a blessing it has been to be a parent for ten years.  Our pregnancy with Claire certainly caught us off guard, but it has been a truly joyful ride.  

Happy Birthday, Claire!  We love you so very much!

camping themed birthday party

Birthday parties.  I'm not typically a big fan.  This year, though, Claire is turning 10.  Ten seems like a pretty big deal, so I decided to actually do something special for Claire for her 10th birthday.  

I asked on facebook several months ago for some ideas for a 10th birthday party.  My friend, Heather, linked me to Dramatic Fanatic.  For $35, I purchased a mystery party that can be used for 8-16 girls.  Claire chose the Summer Camp Mystery, and we invited 16 girls to our house.

So we had a party. :)  And it wasn't nearly as crazy as you might think!

Of course, Pinterest came to my rescue.  I found a fabulous invitation online {although I can't find the link to it at the moment}, and I used the image from it to make the invites.  It was a free download, and I was able to plug in our info.  It had a large fingerprint as well as the silhouette of a detective lady with a magnifying glass.  

I fed the envelopes through the printer as well and put the image on the back of the envelopes with a tagline that said, "Help us catch the criminal, unless of course, it's you..."

So fun.  

So, 16 girls arrived at our house at 6:15 tonight.  And, as far as I could tell, the entire party was a hit.  The best part was that a couple of Claire's friends are a bit older {and fabulous actresses}, and they ran the majority of the party for me.  Most of the moms stayed and chatted it up outside on the deck, so I pretty much owe these girls for letting us have a mom's night out! :)  

Like I said, the theme of the party was a Summer Camp Mystery, so we decorated with camping food/decor.  It was super easy and fairly inexpensive!  

Here are some pics:

 

 

The Menu:

-caterpillars: grapes on kabob sticks with little eyes attached with frosting {I didn't have those attached when I took the pictures}

-bananas: cut into chunks and served in an aluminum pie plate

-cupcakes and individual ice cream cups {the only way to go for a party!!}

-fruit cups: strawberries, frozen blueberries, mandarin oranges

-mud pies: gluten free chocolate cookies {made by my good friend, Amanda}

-s'mores on a stick: large marshmallows on popsicle sticks, dipped in chocolate and rolled in crushed graham crackers

-wild animals: animal crackers served in an aluminum pie plate

-firewood: cream wafer rolls cut into chunks and stacked like firewood

-dirt pudding: served in cups

-water bottles: covered with fun duct tape and camp critters hot-glued to the side

I purchased almost all of my supplies at the Dollar Tree.  There I purchased the tablecloth, plates, napkins, popsicle sticks, critters for the water, brown bags, and pie plates.  Seriously, I only spent $10 for the supplies for this party!!  I really wanted the pie plates for the girls for their serving dishes, but they were 2 for $1.  I just couldn't justify paying $8 for 16 plates when I could buy 28 checkered ones for $2.

I used regular cans from this week's dinner for spoon holders.  I cut a napkin and wrapped it around the cans to make them a bit cuter.  

I used marshmallows to hold all of the food labels as well as to add a few more pieces of decor.  I found all of the printable camping pictures from the camping preschool unit from 2 Teaching Mommies.     Those ladies have a ton of themes...I knew I could find what I was looking for! 

My mother-in-law brought over a lantern as well as some big old binoculars and their holder.  Like I said, super simple decor in this house!!  I'm all about the simple.  

For favors, we put together some s'more packs for the girls to take home.  They included enough supplies to make two s'mores.  I found these fun s'more printables from The TomKat Studio.  

I fed some brown paper bags through my printer to put a message on the favor bags.  I didn't know if the bags would go through, but they did!  Total score.  Claire was impressed. 

We had a great time, and overall, this was a really easy party to put together.  It was my first kid birthday party ever, and I'm thankful to have a two year break before the next one.  I don't think I could do this 4 times a year!  I'm pretty sure that we'll probably go the same route for child #2.  Looking forward to it!

celebrating amelia

We have a Peep and the Big Wide World theme going this year for birthday cakes.  I don't think that this cake looks a lot like the Peep that we see on the cartoon, but this was image that Amelia chose for her cake:

I think she turned out pretty well...although I think she looks a wee bit angrier in my cake than in the image.  But, thankfully, Amelia didn't care. :)

Our favorite neighbors, the H family, joined us for cake and ice cream.  

 .

It took her about 6 tries to get her candles blown out.  She blew at least 3 times before extinguishing even one candle.  As far as I know, the germs that ended up on the cake didn't result in illness. :)  On a side note, I love Olivia's face in the next photo!!

april fool's day recap

I realize that April Fool's Day was 16 days ago.  Let's pretend that today is April 2, and I'm posting this in a timely manner. :)

I did some research on April Fool's pranks ahead of this year.  The girls and I had discussed the jokes/pranks that people play on each other on April Fool's Day, and they were really hoping to take part in the fun.  

So, like the simple mom that I am, I chose 3 things that took less than 5 minutes.  The first {and arguably the best} was adding mustaches to a couple of little faces.  I added the first half of Amelia's mustache, and I was laughing so hard that it took some composure to add the second half!

{On a side note, I used a black washable marker so that it would come off of their faces and their bedding easily!} 

I also gave Meredith a mustache, but Claire was more difficult.  She is not a super-sound sleeper.  Her face was turned toward the wall, so I tried climbing up on her bunk.  That didn't work either.  She began to stir, and I knew I would get caught.  

The next morning, Claire was first up.  She said, "Why does Amelia have marker on her face?"  I said, "For April Fool's!!"  She thought it was pretty funny.

Amelia came out next.  Claire and I were cracking up at her.  She wouldn't go look at herself as much as we tried to trick her into looking in the mirror.  

Meredith finally came out, looked at Amelia, laughed, and said, "Amelia looks so funny with that mustache!!"  I said to her, "Have you looked in the mirror lately?!"  She ran to the mirror and completely cracked up.  It was pretty funny.  

Amelia, of course, was not so amused at first, but she came around. :)

I had also put Cheerios in the Fruit Loops box.  I only let the kids get 1 or 2 boxes of sugary cereal a month, so I thought this was going to be great.  I even put the box on the counter so that they would all see it when they came out for breakfast.  

I said, "Would anyone like Fruit Loops for breakfast?"  Seriously, no one wanted any!!!  Epic fail.  So, I said, "Meredith, I bet Olivia would like Fruit Loops.  Could you please pour some for her?"  Now, I had a taker.

The milk was colored blue, and at the same time, I asked Claire to get the milk out for the cereal.  They both enjoyed the cereal and the milk!  People seemed a bit leery of that blue milk, though.  I had to keep giving it to Olivia to drink. :)

We really had a good time with this, and I know the kids are looking forward to next year!

super easy caterpillar cake

One of the girls' favorite things to do is to look through old pictures.  They love to see their births, their birthday parties, and past Christmases.  We were just looking through 2005 pictures, and we came across Claire's cake from her 2nd birthday!

This was one of the cutest cakes I ever made.  It was so adorable and soooo easy.  I just had to post it since I didn't have a blog back then. :)  

To make him, all you need is a bunt cake pan.  Bake the cake and let it cool.  

-Cut off 1/3 of the cake with a straight cut.

-The bigger piece turned up on its side becomes the main body of the caterpillar.  

-Cut the smaller piece in half and put one piece on each end.  

-Frost the entire cake.  I used m&ms for the feet, mouth, and the number 2.  I used a big marshmallow cut in 1/2 for the eyes and attached a couple more m&ms.