For My Little Ladybug...

My little Lulu is ONE!  Her party turned out better than expected!

Maybe because I had an extra week and a 'trial' run at most the preparations thanks to our weekend in the hospital!  Her dessert table was the best.

  I'm not sure what was my favorite!  The ladybug pretzels were super yummy!  Grandma K's shortbread cookies tasted as good as ever and I was thrilled with how the icing turned out. 

I am super impressed with how her cake turned out!  I've never attempted to frost a cake before and never even touched fondant!  I read some tips on pinterest and videos on Youtube on how to get my frosting smooth and it turned out better than expected!  Admittedly my writing is a little wonky but The cake was adorable!

The smash cake was almost as cute!  I didn't like the shape of the head as much, but it just got destroyed anyway!

 

We had a ladybug craft and favors with red and black candies...

 

  

Everyone had fun and Lorelei's first birthday was celebrated like it was supposed to be!  I still can't believe my baby girl is one!  I'm ANXIOUSLY waiting for her one year pictures so stay tuned for more cuteness than you can handle!

At least I'm doing something right...

Elliot had a stomach ache off and on for the last week.   My typical response "have you gone to the bathroom today?"  He would usually stop complaining and go about his business.  Thursday night he was out of bed several times crying that his stomach hurt, threw up around 2 am and was fine after that.  He was fine all day on Friday until dinner.  He didn't eat anything. Not a bite.  If you know Elliot, you know that alone threw up red flags.  That kid will throw up and ask for a snack practically in the same breath.  He went to bed early (another red flag) and without dinner.  I don't think it was much more than an hour later when I heard the bedroom door creak open and I sent Aaron upstairs to check on him.  (I was elbow deep in bright red frosting!)  Moments later he hustled down the stairs carrying a crying, whimpering Elliot, who upon being put on the floor immediately curled up in a ball.  I don't think I've ever seen Elliot cry over a stomach ache.  When he broke his arm he cried for all of about 5 minutes.  For about a minute my mommy instinct said "something's wrong" and my head said "it's just a stomach ache, put him back in bed."  Mommy instinct won.  We packed up and headed to the ER.  Three hours, an X-ray, an IV, and a CT scan later and we got the appendicitis diagnosis.  Mommy instinct said "I told you so!"

Situations like this always open your eyes to character traits you didn't pay much attention to, or maybe just weren't appreciative enough of.

Since I had to go home so I could nurse Lorelei, I had to explain to Amelia what was going on.  When she woke up, I was already getting ready for a shower so I could hustle back to the hospital.  She immediately panicked realizing that Daddy and Elliot weren't home.  I explained what was going on, and she immediately threw her arms around me and burst in to tears.  Times like that I realize how big she's gotten because I cant' just pull her into my lap and hold her anymore.  She's too  tall!  About a minute later she jumped up and raided my computer desk of paper, ran into her room to make him a card.  She has such a good heart.

 

 

After his surgery, Elliot didn't want anything but apple juice.  Not even popsicles.  about 11pm, (I was at home with the girls so this was relayed through text from Aaron) he was awake and asked for some juice, apparently the nurse had to go looking for it.  The nurse went in to his room with 2 apple juices and joked "I think the whole hospital is out of apple juice."  Her humor was lost on Elliot who immediately melted into his sad face, tears, the whole nine yards.  When Aaron can finally get him to talk he said he was upset because he "promised one to Mommy and Amelia and they are all out!"  Aaron explained she was only kidding and he settled down and drank one of the juices.  As Aaron was getting ready to open the second juice, Elliot stops him and tells him that one is for Amelia.  Aaron tried to tell him that there were more and he is the one that isn't feeling well, so he should drink it.  Elliot replied "if you open it, I won't drink it. I'm saving the last one in the hospital for Amelia."  Sure enough, the next morning, he had a juice for both Amelia and I.  He also made sure to get a popsicle for Amelia! 

A 'Fairy' Good Time

I can NOT believe my princess is 7 years old.  That's just crazy!  Amelia wanted a fairy birthday party.  I had so much fun with this one!  She didn't want Tinkerbell so I pretty much got to do whatever I wanted for decorations.  She was so proud that I was going to make everything myself.  I think it turned out pretty great!  Here is the desert table...

We had Pixie Punch, and Kool-Aid popcorn...a recipe I found on pinterest.  Someone said it tasted like nerds.  I thought it was like super sweet caramel corn.  A word to the wise...Don't try it with RAW sugar!  My pink ended up looking about the color of Barbie flesh.  NOT appetizing!  Here's a link to the pin!

We had mini "fairy" sized cupcakes

 

A candy bar for the fairies to fill their treasure bags

 And candy coated marshmallow wands

After I loaded a bunch of second graders up with candy, I thought lets make them all sit down and do crafts!  I think I did it backwards!  Nevertheless...here's the craft table...

                           

They decorated fairy wands with glitter glue, made pixie dust, and got their nails painted with glitter polish.

The pixie dust station was my fave.  I got these cute little containers at the dollar store and glued flowers to the lid.  I did by some fancy glitter, but the pink and purple is salt glitter!  I saw the pin on pinterest here.  I should have read her warning about paste coloring!  You wouldn't think burnt salt would smell that bad, but man!  We sure stunk up the house!  I wanted neon colors so all I could find was gel color.  I cooked it at 300 for 5 minutes and it worked pretty well!

All the girls had a wonderful time, and when asked what her favorite part of her party was, Amelia said "All of it!"

Lorelei's First 'Haircut'

So Lorelei has been rocking a rattail since she was born.  We have enjoyed joking about it and saying it's cause she's born and raised in Kentucky.  Since it is newborn baby hair, it has a tendency to get super tangled and end up looking like a dreadlock.  I decided it was finally time to cut the rattail off.

Here is her incredibly long rattail.

And here she is after her haircut!

It looks so much nicer, but I have a few regrets!

A comparison...

Aaron is constantly saying how much Lorelei looks like Amelia.  I usually agree.  Everyone else always comments on how much she looks like Elliot.  So I thought I would get out 9 month pictures of Amelia and Elliot and compare!

 

What do you think?

First Day of Summer

Wow.  Today felt like the longest day of the year!  The day started off well enough.  We went to see the free movie at the theater.  The kids loved it!  Then we went and had a picnic lunch at the park with friends and the kids played on the playground.  I was sitting on the blanket with Lorelei in the shade when I heard a kid crying...so I looked around for Amelia and Elliot.  I could see his little blonde head sticking up on the other side of the playground border.  I hollered at him to get up but he didn't.  So I started walking over, when I realized he was laying there crying I started running!  If you know Elliot, you know that him laying there was a BAD sign!  I knew something was wrong.  I carried him back over to the blanket where he laid down and cried.  He was moving it a bit so I tried to convince him to move it more but he just cried.  When I started gathering our stuff to leave he stood there with his arm just hanging at his side!  So I packed up Elliot and Lorelei, left Amelia in the care of a good friend and headed to the children's hospital.  He continued to cry for about 45 minutes.  Also, VERY unlike him!  He dosed off in the car and I thought maybe he was just being dramatic.  But, as soon as I touched it he shrieked in pain.  My poor little bug!

X-rays are the worst!  he was so brave and tough until she tried to turn his arm over.  It's a good thing Aaron met us there cause I barely held it together!  Apparently it doesn't matter if someone is intentionally hurting my kid, or accidentally hurting my kid...I kinda wanted to hurt her!  (She was actually great!)  The x-ray confirmed what I already knew...he broke his forearm.  As far as breaks go it's a minor fracture, but it's still broken!  He has a soft splint for 4 or 5 days to leave room for swelling, then he will have a cast for 3-4 weeks.

It didn't seem to slow him down too much.  I don't know if he was really feeling okay or just trying to be tough but either way he over-did it!  He was crying by bedtime about how much it hurt.

The bright spot in my day was when Amelia told Elliot not to worry because God would make his body better.

A Quick Visit

This weekend we had a quick visit with The Morgan's on their long drive.  We grabbed a quick bite for lunch and headed to the Louisville Slugger Museum.  We've been through before but the kids still had a great time! 

It was awesome to spend some time with friends!  It's so funny how the kids pick up their friendship exactly where they left off when we saw them almost a year ago! (Last year we visited the science center)

 Kailey and Amelia held hands for the whole tour and so did Lexi and Elliot! 

 Wow!  They've all grown SO much!  Next time Tyler and Lorelei will probably be playing together and holding hands!

Later in the day Elliot walked over to me, very seriously and said "Mommy, I am SO CLOSE to marrying Lexi."  He was very matter-of fact about it.  And if you know Elliot you can just picture the hand-gestures that went along with this statement!  I hope it's not another year before we see our friends again!

Friday I will be having a "pinterest party." Do a pinterest project, blog about it and post in the comments.  What project have you been wanting to do?

Sidewalk Art

So we started the summer checking off things on our bucket list.  We went in the morning and the kids got their library cards and signed up for the summer reading program.  In 2 days Amelia has read all 4 books she picked out, including 2 chapter books!  The girl LOVES to read!

Then we spent the afternoon decorating our driveway with sidewalk paint.  Yet another pinterest find!  (I have a serious addiction!)  All you need is some containers (I used dollar store muffin tins), cornstarch, water, food coloring and paintbrushes.  Of course you'll also need some kids in clothes you don't mind ruining and ready to paint (the food coloring will stain).   Mix equal parts water and cornstarch and pour into containers.  Then add food coloring to make as many colors as you want!
Give the kids some paintbrushes and have at it!

When we started painting it just looked wet, but as it dried the colors became more vibrant and the longer it dried the brighter it got!

The colors end up being MUCH brighter than chalk, and it was actually less messy!  Amelia painted pictures of what we were doing on a bright sunny day...

Elliot made an army of "terrifying monsters!"

Elliot ran between the paints and his pictures, mixing colors and making splatters.  As someone on facebook put it...a budding Jackson Polluck!

And my budding Georgia O'keefe sat down to perfect her artwork and stayed far away from Elliot's splatters!

 

  And of course we had some supervision!

It's all in the details...

I posted here about our summer schedule and yesterday it went great!  Amelia (our mini Aaron) kept an eye on the clock and me on our schedule all day!  Even my little wild man seemed to have a pretty good day.  Quiet time was kind of a bust, but they'll get used to it.  I need to figure out  a way to keep them separated because Amelia would lay in her bed and read the whole time if he didn't bug her!

Anyway...the schedule...it's not perfect and not for everyone but it's something we're trying...

We are also trying a new approach with discipline.  It focuses more on rewarding good behavior than punishing bad behavior.  We call them "Gem Jars".  This is yet another pinterest find! 

Each kid has a jar and they receive gems for good behaviors.  There are different sized gems for different behaviors.  I occasionally do take a gem away for really bad behavior.  When their jars are half full we will take them out for ice cream, and when they fill the jars we will have a family "date day".  We've talked about going bowling, mini golfing, to the movies, or to a baseball game.

It seems to be working quite well!

Ready, Set, SUMMER!

This summer I have big plans...  Elliot will be starting Kindergarten in the fall and I'm determined to have him as ready as I possibly can.  I also want to see Amelia's MAP scores go up in the fall.  Last summer I did ok; her scores went up a few points.  At least she didn't go down.

With 3 kids, I think the only way I'm going to save my sanity this summer is STRUCTURE!  I've always been a fly-by-the-seat of my pants kind of mom.  That is not going to work with 2 busy kids and a baby!  I'm hoping our schedule will help our behavior problems too!

I'm a very frugal, DIY mom.  Enter my pinterest addiction!  This is a conglomeration of several different pins I've seen.

First up, the Bucket List...After all, it is summer and there is much fun to be had!

Then the schedule...There are a few things the kids are required to do for at least 20 minutes each day.  The first is "practice."  This is a skill I will work on with the kids.  It could be math, sight words, phonics, shoe-tying, etc.  They must also read for at least 20 minutes each morning.  Then there is "home."  They must spend 20 minutes doing a chore (more on how we decide what they'll do another day).  The top left frame is the daily schedule, then we have a frame for each day of the week to write down activities and to-dos!

Finally, the Task lists.  Each time they accomplish a task, they get a reward.  This could be money, stickers, treat; whatever works for you.  I'll talk about what we're doing another day!

This project cost me under $10.  All the frames are from the dollar store, and the scrapbook paper and stickers I had on hand.  The best part is you can write on the glass with a dry erase marker so I don't have to waste paper for every day/week!

How are you keeping your kiddos busy this summer?