My First Pinterest Party

This past weekend, a couple of friends and I hosted our first annual Pinterest Party. It was such a hit that the guests were already asking us to plan one for Valentine's Day! No one wants to wait a whole year before doing another one.

Here were the details of the invitation: everyone pre-paid $25 to cover the cost of the craft supplies, then my two friends and I each chose a craft. We didn't do a very good job staying within our budget, but it was a tough balance because we didn't want to pick something cheap and chinsy, or something that took too much time to complete. Even though we went over budget, we were really happy with the projects!

This was a two-sided Christmas/Birthday countdown.

(the birthday side - more neutral colors)

We also did a wooden painted JOY craft (it's supposed to hang - I haven't bought the Paper Tak stuff yet) and Martha Stewart's White Christmas Mason Jar Luminaries. 

As for food, we asked the party guests to each bring their own Pinterest dish. I set up the table with pre-made candy cane food labels and had the girls fill in the name of their recipe when they arrived.

I also put together a hot cocoa bar complete with mini marshmallows, toffee bits, mini chocolate chips, whipped cream, Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka and chocolate peppermint dipped spoons. 

I used an easy and surprisingly delicious crock pot cocoa recipe: 1/2 cup dry baking cocoa, 12 oz. can sweetened condensed milk, 1/8 tsp salt, 7 1/2 cups water, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla. It's perfect for a crowd. Try it! You'll thank me.

I also made chocolate peppermint marshmallow stir sticks with some red and white striped paper straws that I found at Target.

One last thing I added to the tablescape were these adorable meant-for-Valentine's Day candy cane hearts. Such a fun idea to do with leftover mini candy canes! Place the two candy canes with the top of the crook touching the top of the popsicle stick, bake on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet at 350* for 3 minute until the candy canes are moldable, pinch the ends together (top and bottom) to adhere to the stick and "fill" the center with melted white chocolate or almond bark. (I used a very fancy Ziplock with the corner snipped off)

Curious what the other guests brought for their Pinterest dishes? It was a complete sugar fest. Let's just say I regretted skipping dinner.

Caramel Apple Pops (contest winner for best presentation!)

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Cookies (not the most "Pinterest pretty" presentati, but Oh. My. Yum.)

Sparkling Cranberry Brie Bites (contest winner for best tasting!)

Reindeer Donuts

Snowman Donuts and Santa Hat Pretzels

Everyone arrived at 6:00, we ate and voted on the best recipes, chatted for about an hour, then we finally got started on our crafting around 7:30. 

The kids came home toward the end of the party and had fun with the fondue fountain.

It's safe to say that we all had a blast. The weekend we chose was horrible for attendance (everyone had office parties and other commitments 10 days before Christmas!) so next year, we'll schedule our Pinterest Party before the craziness of Christmas is in full swing. Which will probably have to be before Thanksgiving.

Go Hug Your Husband

I'd like to ask for prayer for my poor friend, Shelly. Her husband passed away suddenly yesterday morning. The day after Christmas. He was truly the love of her life. She has a baby girl, 3 year old twin boys and a 14 year old daughter. And she is now on her own with those sweet kids.

What began as a blood clot this summer, turned into a tumor, he began chemo, the tumors shrank, they celebrated when he came home from the hospital last week, God gave him all day on Christmas with his family, then Shelly found him unresponsive yesterday morning. And now he is with the Lord.

If you know Shelly or feel lead to help in some way (Dan had been out of work for months due to being in and out of the hospital, so they need lots of help financially, with groceries, diapers, anything will help) please email me at ktksu(at)cox(dot)net.

Whenever I was having a rough day with Mike or the kids or began a pity party about our situation, I thought of Shelly. Her family's circumstances put things into perspective for me so often and I hope this can somehow help you appreciate all that you have, too.

Seriously...go hug your husband. Just because he's alive and with you right now.

Chocolate Krispie Treats

1 c. sugar
1 c. light corn syrup

1 ½ c. peanut butter
10 oz. box Rice Krispies

Topping:

(1) 12 oz. bag chocolate chips

(1) 12 oz. bag butterscotch chips

· Mix sugar, syrup and peanut butter together over medium heat or in microwave. Stir often, cooking until the sugar dissolves.
· Pour over cereal in a large bowl. Mix well until all cereal is coated.
· Pour into large, buttered sheet cake pan and press lightly to the pan edges.
· In a microwave bowl or double broiler (preferred), melt both bags of chips together. Spread over top of cereal mixture. Chill in refrigerator until chocolate is hardened.
· Allow treats to come to room temperature before attempting to slice. Cut into 1” or bite-sized squares.
· This makes a large amount. Recipe can easily be cut in half and prepared in a 13” x 9” pan. Keeps well in the freezer.

These are one of my favorite desserts EVER. And they're easy to make, so give them a try. Becky brought them to "Hunko Bunko" last night at April's house (we dragged brought our husbands to Bunko with us - if you want more details, she effectively covered it all in this post) and I cheated and took a picture of HER creation so I could post it for your viewing pleasure. Because, you see, if I make these sinful little treats, I will eat them all. Seriously...when I make them, I have to put them in the freezer. Last night, I ate an average of one per hour (and we were there past midnight...) plus I brought two home.

Here is a picture of the Bunko girls who got their hands swatted when they tried to eat a Chocolate Krispie Treat...

And with our hunks...

300th post and learning that Ryan needs responsibility

First, this is my 300th post. Woo hoo! I realize my 200th post was just in May, so yeah, I've been a blogging fool lately. And what's crazy is that I had 10,000 hits less than a month ago and I'm just a few hundred away from already being at 15,000!!! It took me 7 months to get to 10,000 and only ONE month to get another 5,000. I must be posting something interesting...someone out there is reading what I have to say!

Moving on...I'm feeling a little nostaglic. I had "my girls" over for a play date today. Three of these five girls were among my very first friends in Phoenix and we figured out today that we've known each other almost 10 years! We started a Bible study and all of us were single (Mike and I were "just friends" at the time) and there was only one child between us, Kelsey, who was 4. She's now a freshman in high school and there are a slew of kids in the group. Over the years, a few girls came and left the Bible study, but this is our new core. Unfortunately, we live all over town and are busy with life, so now we hardly see each other. But I'll always love my girls! (This is the group, minus 4 kids who were in school):

And Sunday, you got to see me at 20, now you can see me at 2. How cute was I???

Last, a picture from this morning. We had a big storm last night, which brought in unusually cool weather, so the kids wanted to play on the swingset after breakfast. I was taking too long doing the dishes, so Ryan decided to help Kaylin put her shoes on. Notice Kaylin lounging back, watching him wait on her hand and foot. (pun intended!)

I've realized something in the last couple of days: Ryan desperately needs responsibility. When I don't give it to him, he takes on certain tasks by himself, often getting in trouble. I noticed that this morning...I was still in bed and heard Kaylin emerge from her room before 7:00. (a big no-no...she knows to wait until I come in to get her) I heard Ryan's door open, Ryan gasped, told her to go back to bed and attempted to usher her back to her room, Kaylin refused, Ryan tried picking her up and carrying her, Kaylin screamed...it was not what I wanted to wake up to. But I started seeing that, all day yesterday, Ryan was trying to "help." I'm constantly telling him that this or that is "not your job...it's Mommy and Daddy's job..." yet I've encouraged him to work things out with his sister on his own to avoid tattling.

Have I set this poor kid up for failure? "Try to work it out on your own, but if Kaylin gets mad at how you handle it and screams bloody murder, everyone gets in trouble." I hear him negotiating with her all the time, desperate to get her to comply so he gets his way, whether it's for her benefit or not.

So all day today, I asked him to help me. With everything. And I think it really worked...he felt like he was able to do big-kid things, I felt like I de-throned him from trying to be the third parent in the house to Kaylin, he felt important, Kaylin didn't get annoyed that he was doing things for her that she wants to do herself (because she is simultaneously becoming SUPER independent all of a sudden) - it was a good day.

Comparing kids isn't always evil

I hate comparisons. Always have. Maybe because I'm an only child and wasn't raised being compared to siblings - who knows? I intentionally try not to compare my kids to each other or to compare either of them with other kids, but it's so hard NOT to compare sometimes, you know?

We have friends whose son is a year older than Ryan and is the most well behaved boy I know. When his parents tell him something, he complies every time. I met the kid when he was about 2 and a half and he was this way, even then. Could be his temperament, could be their amazing parenting ability, they could beat the tar out of him when no one's looking, the world may never know. Regardless, he's a great kid.

I noticed recently that whenever we're with this family, Mike is particularly hard on Ryan. I finally figured out that compared to this other kid, Ryan seems near-obnoxious. We have to repeat ourselves (often) to get Ryan's attention and there are so many rules to follow at this family's house, he often forgets them and is corrected again and again and again. The standard is set so high. We tend to forget that Ryan IS a full year younger than this other boy and has a stronger will; he's less mature and needs more direction. He's not a bad kid, just different. But it's tough not to compare when this other child is SO well behaved.

A few days after our last visit with this family, I found a book called, Have a New Kid by Friday: How to Change Your Child's Attitude, Behavior & Character in 5 Days. I'm telling you...I'm only on the 3rd chapter and I have seen major improvements already. I won't get through this book in 5 days, so we may not have a "new kid" until Friday, July 25th, but still. The author goes through common issues parents face, using examples from tots to teens, all showing disrespect to their parents in various ways. All I've gotten through so far is tackling your child's attitude. The thinking is that you won't change your child's behavior until their attitude changes. It makes complete sense. Oh, and by the way: he walks you through changing your attitude as a parent before working on changing the attitudes of your kids. Of course! What parenting book doesn't work on training the parents before the child???

I'll do a full post on the highlights when I'm done with the book, but so far, I'm lovin' it. I highly recommend it if you have power struggles with your kids or if you find yourself frustrated that they're not "getting it" or if you're sick of raising your voice to get their attention. The 5-day challenge seems to good to be true, but I'm already seeing results and we're only on "day 2." Very practical advice.

All that said, today we had an out of town friend come over to visit. My friend's daughter is just a few days older than Kaylin, so you'd think the play date would have been a piece of cake. Granted, she was out of her element, likely overtired from sleeping in a pack 'n' play in a strange house, missing her Daddy, and had spent a lot of time with her tantrum-driven older-cousin the week before. So she was testing the boundaries quite a bit. But I found myself comparing my kids again. Not in a "I'm so glad they aren't acting like that" way, but in a "I'm so proud that they're behaving so well despite the fact that there's another child breaking our house rules" kind of way.

It got me thinking: Do I expect too much from my kids? Are they just having a better-than-normal day? Were they "good" this morning because they were in their own home? Are the results from this book making the impact I'm hoping for with my children? Regardless, I was completely proud of the way they acted and behaved. Yes, there was some whining and a time out in there somewhere, they weren't perfect, but given the circumstances, my kids generally jump on the what-can-we-get-away-with bandwagon and take a joy ride. But not today. So is comparing my kids to other kids always a bad thing? I've decided: not necessarily. Today, it made me hug them a little tighter, gaze at them with a bit more pride and appreciate them a little more. And I was revived for an afternoon of potential meltdowns to come!

Blogging Relationships

I forget that I have more than a handful of readers sometimes. I know my mom and Mike's mom read my blog, but other than a few friends who comment all the time, I tend to forget that anyone else is out there! (no offense...)

So when I'm writing my posts, sometimes I keep the above "audience" in mind. The light bulb moments that I have in parenting are meant to be shared with 2 or 3 select friends who have my same parenting style and experience the same struggles I deal with. Stories that I would likely share through email or call them to tell them about. The pictures of the kids and the antics they're up to are mostly for my own memories and for the grandparents to see. (I will admit that sometimes they're to amuse the rest of you, too) But the rest of the time, I just have something to say and need an outlet. Other than poor Mike, who has gotten the brundt of my chattiness over the years. (I wonder if he thinks I talk less since starting to blog...doubt it.)

I was discussing this with my hair stylist yesterday and she asked, "Since you post most of your thoughts, do you still have things to talk about when you see people?" Honestly, I do a lot more listening nowadays! I saw a friend a few months ago and when I asked how she was doing, her response was, "I'm so sick!" to which I replied, "Oh man, my family has been really sick, too. It's been horrible!" She said, "I read your blog...it sounds like a mess!" (I didn't even realize she read my blog) At that point, I didn't need to go through the drama we'd been dealing with. She knew it all. So I asked more about what was going on with her family, since I didn't have any more to contribute about the germs spreading around during that time. It could have been awkward that what I was about to say was stopped dead in it's tracks, but it was actually quite refreshing to feel that she knew what was going on with me and I could give her the floor to talk. (you know...since I have a habit of stealing it for myself...the "floor," I mean)

I've also been getting a lot of people commenting lately that they feel like they talk to me all the time because they read my blog. Now that, I can totally understand. There are a few people out there in blogland that I will never meet, yet from reading their posts, I know so much about their kids' personalities, their thoughts and opinions and their lives in general. I find so many stay at home, Christian mom bloggers out there and love getting ideas and inspiration from them. And reading the blogs of friends who I don't get to see often makes me feel closer to them, too. In fact, I'm thrilled beyond words that my matron of honor is starting a blog! She has more kids than anyone I know (5 of her own and 5 by marriage) and we just don't talk as much as I'd like. Come to find out, she's been reading my blog and knows all about what's going on with me, but I have no insight into her world at all. So I'm waiting on pins and needles to hear about the daily happenings with her. (and wondering when she will have time to sit down and type up a post!!!)

I brought a new mom a meal last week and when I was introduced to her husband, he looked very familiar to me because I'd seen pictures of their family on her blog. Yet he didn't know me at all. And yesterday when we had a family photo shoot (more on that soon) my friend Shelly mentioned that she felt like she knows my kids really well from my posts, yet she'd never met them. What other forum would make that possible? I think it's the same sort of familiarity that we get with actors or reality tv participants.

I even went to Bunco last week and was a little caught off guard when several (like 6 or 8) people approached me one after another, saying, "I love your front room!" Again, because none of them comment (no guilt, girls) I tend to forget that they're readers. And another friend said the same thing about my front room when I ran into to her at the gym yesterday. It's so fun for me to have people know what's going on with me without me telling them directly. Is that weird?

I'm a pretty transparent person. I do have a mental policy not to say anything that would embarrass my husband or kids on my posts, but other than that, I lay it all out there. I'm also intentional about not giving out too, too much identifiable information (to a degree) so stalkers couldn't find us. Not that I expect to have blog-stalkers, but you never know in this world! I mean sure, someone could go through and read every single post and find out that we live in Phoenix and that my husband works close to our home, things like that, but Phoenix is huge. And I'm careful not to specify which area we live in, what church we attend, where Ryan goes to school, things like that. I'm cautious, but choose not to be a completely anonymous blogger.

Something else I'm aware of (though you wouldn't know it sometimes) is writing super-long posts and posting too often. I get a little self-conscious when I see that I've done one of those things. I'll try to skip a few days of posting to give everyone a break. But what's funny, is that people will mention that they wish I would blog daily or razz me for not breaking up a "brain dump" into several posts. So I guess I would rather post a longer post (ahem...Tuesday!) instead of many shorter posts on the same day. I also like writing only one post a day for some reason. There's a sense of order to it in my head. I also like breaking up all of the word-i-ness with pictures, if possible. (sorry, no pictures this time)

What's my point? I don't know. These are just things that come up when discussing my blog with others and I guess I find them interesting. I know someone who's very proud that she hasn't "followed the crowd" by starting a blog, but to me, it's not about doing the "in" thing...it's really about having someplace to put my thoughts and to journal about my life. That's why I scrapbook. Yet, if my house were to burn down, my scrapbooks would be dust (the thought of all of that wasted time makes me shudder), but I will always have this little website to safely store my memories.

So THANK YOU for being a part of my blog and reading what's in my head. Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself, so feel free to comment anytime. I look forward to comments.