Where in the world were we last week?!? Cali for Spring Break!! (so fun…will post lots on it later). What about the week before that? Well…I was quite busy cleaning up puke and packing for Cali. Right as Logan started getting over his tummy bug the week of his birthday, Aiden got sick (and I’m talking like the VERY day Logan finally seemed normal again). Aiden wasn’t well from Saturday – Tuesday. Guess who threw up early Tuesday morning? Brady! He ended the week of sickness with the piece de resistance…throwing up in the car. Needless to say, that was the toughest clean-up job, but now he’s got a wonderfully sparkly-clean kid seat. I also washed all the floor mats…we were over due on a good clean for both so…that’s my glass 1/2 full! With the kids taking turns being sick, it was hard to run errands and get things done. I was actually forced to take a sick Brady to Target for some last-minute packing items (I’m sorry to whomever used our cart next…I really and truly am…and I hope you didn’t get the bug!!!)

HOWEVER, by St. Pat’s Day, all was right in the world again. The leprechauns paid the boys a visit while they were sleeping. Signs of mischief included: shamrock-shaped marks on their backs, tummies and faces, toilet water dyed green, furniture turned over and couch cushions all over the living room. They took most of the coins from a bowl we have in the living room (an old reward system) and left a note about a scavenger hunt! While Brady slept in late, me and the older boys made our rainbow cupcakes. There was a rainbow-themed scavenger hunt for them after school which led to the delicious pot of “gold” (Rollo's!)

It was a busy day over all: cupcake baking, Spanish class, school, scavenger hunt, guitar lesson for Logan, first outdoor soccer practice for Logan and then a fun girl’s night out for me which ended at the too-early time of 10 so that we could head to Cali the next morning at 3:45 am.

cupcake innards:

Brady’s got on his angry face, but here are my green-clad men.

On the hunt!

the gold has been located!!

rainbow cupcakes with cool-whip “clouds” on top. Forgot to mention that I did a corned beef for dinner which Brian got ready while we finished up soccer practice. Great St Pat’s all around!!

Here are some pictures and a quick re-cap of Logan’s birthday party from last Saturday:

Details: The theme was “mad scientist”. We set up 4 different stations of experiments, one upstairs and three in the basement…er…I mean, the downstairs lab :) My amazing friends helped me man all the science tables and the dessert production after dinner as well.

The color station, run by Heather and Jen, had the following: milk fireworks done with food colors, full-fat milk and dish soap, color mixing and UV bead bracelets – these are beads that are sensitive to only UV light so they look white indoors. We had the kids make bracelets, then step out on the porch to see the beads magically turns different colors.

In the lab downstairs, we had 1. Fun with Balloons (run by me and cousin Max): we did self inflating balloons by filling small water bottles with vinegar and then attached deflated balloons that I had pre filled with a small amount of baking soda. Once the two mix, the gas formed fills up the balloons. We also did an experiment with water balloons fitting inside of jars.

2. Fun with polymers, run by Anne and Susan: the kids made fake snow (so cool!) and played with these crazy marbles that you soak in water for a day or so before the party. The clear marbles literally disappear in water. We filled a pie plate with just the marbles and put a picture of a mad scientist underneath. You can only see the picture once you add water to the pie plate…it’s like a magically appearing image.

3. Fun with ooey-gooey, run by Anna and Kristin: I ordered some amazing stuff from stevespanglerscience.com including atomic shaker slime which is super easy and super cool slime making…plus it glows under black light and atomic worms. The worms are made by squeezing a premixed polymer solution into a water/calcium solution. The polymer makes these crazy gooey worms the instant that it touches the water mixture…they also glowed under black light. fun!

4. After a dinner of pizza and bosco sticks (cheese filled bread sticks that are AWESOME!) for the kids and an amazing nacho bar Brian made for the adults, everyone returned to the basement for an “invent your own ice cream sundae” bar.  There were two colors of cake and brownies to choose from on one table. The next table had giant tubs of ice cream and toppings in various science containers like cylinders and test tubes, the last table had sauces like chocolate, strawberry, marshmallow and the cherries (I had cans of whipped cream, but we forgot to bring them down!) Logan went through first and we sang happy birthday before all the other kids (moms and dads) made their sundaes. We then all ate in the basement…in chairs, on the floor etc…kinda like a picnic.

In his true, “must be dressed in costume at all times,” fashion (and much to the dismay of his mother), Logan changed from his “cool guy” cloths into a falling-apart Wolverine costume and aviator shades for the duration of the party. Hopefully someday he doesn’t say something like, “why did you let me do that?” I mean seriously – this costume is literally disintegrating…there’s nothing left to the back of it and it’s got nylon runs all in the rear. I figure, you can only get away with that stuff for so long so why not…it makes him happy.

Bear helped me make the cakes one day while the other boys were at school:

We made a purple cake and a green cake then cut them up for the sundae bar. I made the brownies later that week.

Signs for each station

 

The basement “lab”

These are the crazy marble things that we used for some of the experiments. These ones were soaked in colored water  

Since I manned the balloon table, I have lots of pictures of that activity. Here is the group of oldest kids watching their balloons magically inflate.

Logan’s group:

Aiden’s groups (no pics  for Brady’s group though…I think they were all running around per usual)   

These are the thank-you cards I made…and need to fill out, like today! :)

Yesterday was Logan’s 6th birthday! We just had his big party this past Saturday. Good thing too because he’s been sick all week. It started with some puking in bed Monday night and a lazy house-day on Tuesday. I was really hoping he was better yesterday, but he had so little energy and wasn’t very hungry. He went to school and then, instead of the dinner we had previously suggested, he chose to go see the movie Rango. Since daddy had to meet us there, we did a late show, dressed the boys in PJs and went after a quick dinner at home. Sadly, as we were leaving the theater, Logan and daddy went to use the restroom where Logan, thinking he had a big burp, puked EVERY where. Poor baby. I still think it was a pretty decent birthday. I let him open his gifts from us in the morning: a long cowboy duster jacket, vest and hat, an army costume that actually fits and a black fedora (he was looking for one the other day to do his “cool guy” outfit). We had pancakes per Logan’s request for breakfast (well…me, Aiden and Brady had pancakes…Logan didn’t eat any).

Pictures!

Helping make pancakes (Logan has the makings of his cool guy stuff on including his new fedora)

Pancakes by design: a lizard for Aiden, a dog for Brady and a 6 for the birthday boy. I know…the lizard isn’t very good ;)

We added some m-n-ms to our pancakes, used the 6 candle from Logan’s party, put it in his pancake and sang happy birthday

The lizard looks a little better with decorations I think! :)

Flashback: Logan right after his 1st birthday in March of 06. We were in South Carolina celebrating GGpa’s 80th birthday!! I’m all big and preg with Aiden!

 

with Auntie Denna on a boat

…you have a super busy day (like say potentially you’re hosting 25 kids and 20-some adults at your house for a few hours in the afternoon), but decide to do a quick blog post anyway…you might have to start your post then move away from your computer, but maybe you forget to save what you wrote…then your 3-year old finds a fun “button” under the desk and flips the switch…to the power strip running your entire computer/printer/phone/lights situation in the office and you lose everything…??

…ya…today wasn’t the first time! Brady and I need to have a talk about that fun little button ;) Actual post coming…potentially tomorrow :)

Weekend before last, Brian and I finally got around to tackling the 2 un-used rooms upstairs. “Aiden’s old room,” which shares a jack & jill bathroom with the boys’ current room, had a full bed and a crib in it from when Auntie Denna visited with Nate. Brady’s old room had a dresser and a recliner/rocking chair in it because we disassembled his old crib and took it out. Our plan was to make Brady’s old room the official guest room since it’s got a private bathroom and Aiden’s old room into a craft space for me (yeah!) So we moved everything into Bray’s room – got that squared away with the very same decorations that we used for our bedroom in the downtown condo as a newly married couple, and then went to analyze the situation.

We were standing in the “craft room” talking about what kind of desk/table/storage I would need…and maybe a computer/printer etc. It just started seeming too big and too far away from the action so I suggested moving the toys from our “actual” office (which was packed to the brim with the boy’s stuff plus a big desk/computer/giant printer) and making the room upstairs the new playroom. We debated the distance of a 2nd floor playroom, the inability to watch the boys as closely (which both happen with basement playrooms), the cons of having toys constantly moving from the top to main floors, the pros of having an adult office/craft area just for us etc etc. Finally ,we just threw caution to the wind figuring it’s only an afternoon’s work to undo it. So far so good and I have to say that I LOVE the change. We moved the desk in the office to a main wall, actually purchased one we’ve had our eyes on for quite some time, and the playroom seems to be working out really well. It renewed an interest in old toys and it’s now another “station” of activity during the day. I do have to shoo them up there a bit…and Brady is fond of playing in the bathroom sinks between the rooms (puts toys in…not himself!), but it’s been amazing to reclaim the first floor as pure adult territory! I even took the nice-looking wicker toy box from the living room up to the new playroom and made it the dress up box. Then…I moved my craft stuff from the front closet to the office and all the rockband stuff from the corner behind the couch into the front closet. I’m telling you people…we’re all grown up over here…not a toy in sight at ground zero (don’t look at the mess upstairs though! ha)

pics!!!

Here is the office with most of the toys removed. Daddy and Brady were taking a puzzle building break.

Slowing moving stuff into Aiden’s old room…the boys set up a trick track which they haven’t done in ages!

I think we need more shelving, but we’ll deal with that in a few weeks!

Logan strips down and makes for the costume bin!

Wow – I can breath! This is the desk moved to the center wall. The new desk will be here in a month or so.

These shelves needs some major organization. I see a visit to Ikea in our immediate future!

Finished product:

Logan came home today and told me, “mommy…you have an invisible bucket over your head. When it’s full, you’re happy and when it’s empty, you’re sad”. Turns out they read a story in school today about treating others nicely and how your actions either empty someone else’s bucket or add to it. (it’s called “How Full is your Bucket”). We were actually in a hurry after school because Logan takes a guitar class at the YMCA on Thursdays with Miss Kati and one other student, a cute little girl named Peyton. He was eating a quick snack before leaving when he announced, “mommy…I want to put a drop in the bucket of Miss Kati and Petyon”. He then proceeded to gather pennies from his piggy bank into two zip lock bags. I explained that, while money is nice, they might like something like a hand-made card a little better. I have TONS of blank cards around so I told him to grab his colored pencils and do a drawing for each of them while I went to see what I could cut on my cricut (any excuse I tell you!) We literally had 10 minutes to do these, but I couldn’t let a sweet thought go un-realized!

I quick found a guitar and some musical notes, cut those, then cut an oval for the background, grabbed my glue stick and did the fronts of the cards as Logan did the insides. He hid them in his guitar case and gave them to Miss Kati and Peyton during class. Miss Kati was so cute – she absolutely loved her card and couldn’t get over the cute “Logan and Peyton holding hands” one that he made for his classmate.

The outside of each card:

This says “Gtar clas rokcs” = Guitar Class Rocks. This was Miss Kati’s. The picture is of Logan, Peyton and Miss Kati with her guitar case.

The inside of Peyton’s card: “I like Paitin” <--- which is exactly how he pronounces her name! “pay TIN”

Frum! too cute!

At one point, I was going to start a separate blog (it’s still out there somewhere) of all my craft projects. Then I realized it’s too much work to do 2 blogs :) So…here are some of my recent projects:

For Christmas, Brian bought me a computer software program that allows you to cut pretty much anything with the Cricut machine. I had to train myself on it using youtube videos and had to download 2 additional (free) software programs to make it fully functional, but I figured it out and now I’m obsessed! Also, my wonderful mother-in-law stood in the freezing cold on Black Friday and scored me the BIG cricut so now I can cut giant stuff. Oh the possibilities!

The first thing I did with my new-found knowledge was to make stuff for the boys’ room

I painted and then sort of distressed two flat canvases, added a square of chalk-board paint to the center of each, then used my cricut to made stencils of “home”, “visitors”, and stars in circles using very thick paper. I sponge painted through the stencils, then cut square frames for the chalk board areas and attached them to the canvases using spray adhesive. This is my version of an “old school” score board. The pennants on the wall are from Land of Nod. 

These are more traditional canvases that I picked up at Michael’s and painted to match the colors of the boys’ bedding. I found super cool ball designs and cut them with my cricut. I attached them with spray adhesive and then sealed each canvas with clear finishing spray. I have since put these up on the walls in 2 different groupings.

Another flat canvas.

I found this image as part of a coloring page that had all kinds of cute cupcakes on it. I broke the image apart and cut it with three different papers. This is a card (1 of 2) that I made for 2 of Aiden’s classmates (twins) for their birthday party.

These are the bags I made for the same girls. The butterflies are in two different, layered papers. I attached them to gift bags with tiny fasteners. I also cut out the girls’ names and put them on the bags, but I lost that picture.  

The cover I made for Logan’s teacher’s book. I used the cupcake again :)

Bags I made for Logan’s classroom Valentine’s party

 

Logan’s 6th birthday party invite (the third bubble has our contact info so I didn’t photograph it). The green circles aren’t glued down in this pic so they aren’t totally where they should be…like the Logan is turning 6 looks sideways a bit.

My current project: gift bags for Logan’s party:

And finally, a card I made for my good friend who just had a baby girl. She loves elephants :) The front of the card is an image I found, doctored up with flowers, and cut in two different papers with a layer of brown underneath. The baby is just a small mirror image of the mommy (love this software!) The design on the back of the card is what was left over on the cricut mat after I pulled off mommy elephant.