Hulk 6th Birthday Party

I got some of these Hulk ideas from Pinterest, the cupcakes are my original design, though!  After a chaotic all-boy party at the house last year, we decided to go ahead and celebrate Jason's 6th birthday at the park. It was a beautiful day and the kids had fun playing tag, sidewalk chalk, soccer, and baseball in between snacks, cupcakes and presents.

Happy birthday, Jason!

Getting Settled Back Into our Same Ol' House

To say that we got a lot done this weekend is a massive understatement. We had virtually nothing planned for the 3-day holiday weekend and I was thrilled. Equally relieved to have a little downtime and excited to tackle some projects around the house.

Over the past few months, as our potential cross-country move lingered in the air, the to-do list grew and grew. After Christmas, I spent so much time decluttering to prepare the house to be on the market, all other tasks fell by the wayside. It just seemed silly to organize anything, when I knew I would just be packing it up and moving as soon as the house sold, so closets and cabinets slowly turned into one disaster after another.

The garage was so crammed with empty boxes (and some that I'd already started packing) that Mike has had to park outside for months. It became our dumping ground for keeping the house realtor-ready and it was a nightmare! 

Since taking the house off the market, the empty boxes are gone, but I still hadn't unpacked anything. Until this weekend, that is. I suddenly had to make space for things that I've been doing without…beach towels, 3 large boxes of personal pictures, board games, etc.

I started this weekend with a very long list of things in my head. Tasks that seemed daunting, but I wanted them done. I figured that if we had gone through with the move to Dallas, we would have had pictures to hang, curtains to put up, furniture to arrange, closets to organize, and plenty of boxes to unpack. 

We are no longer moving, so finishing up the loose-ends around the house seemed doable. We needed to settle back into our home again. 

Saturday morning, I went to breakfast with some friends while Mike played baseball at the park with the kids. We relaxed when I came home, then I started asking favors. "Let's move Jason's bed into his new room" and "I wonder how long it would take to fix Ryan's dresser drawer?" Before long, Ryan and Mike were working upstairs while I tackled tasks downstairs. 

After church on Sunday, we went to Lowe's with a list. Jason awoke at 5:30am with the rising sun in his new yellow room. He desperately needed shades on his windows!  And while we were there, I wanted to gram rods to hang my bathroom curtains…and the laundry room lightbulb was out…as were lights in other parts of the house…and Kaylin wants to paint her room…we were there for more than an hour. When we got home, we had plenty to keep us busy! Then the projects continued today. 

Here are a few before and after pictures of work we did…

Before: The old playroom (new schoolroom) closet

After: The new schoolroom closet

Before: The shoe/utility/outdoor closet 

After: Some shoes still on the door (moved the rest to their bedrooms) and games/hobbies/crafts

Before: The upstairs schoolroom

Afte: Jason's new room (the lighting in both pictures is horrible!)

Before: The old schoolroom closet (it had become a hiding space for junk when people were coming to see the house)

After: Jason's new closet

We got so much done this weekend! The garage is cleaner than it's ever been. We brought donations to Good Will, I made appointments for a guy to come fix my windshield next week and for someone else to give us a quote on new garage cabinets, Mike fixed a cabinet door that Jason's been using as a step stool, all of the boxed I had packed are now empty and given away. I still have many pictures yet to hang, but I'm considering completely changing how I have displayed pictures in the past…so that might take another couple of weeks.

Our weekend wasn't all work and no play. We went to the movies, went to lunch after church on Sunday, Mike played baseball and basketball with the kids, we played Go Fish and Memory and baked cookies, we had sleepovers with the kids complete with pillow fights. Kaylin even painted a canvas for her new room.

It was a full weekend…tons accomplished mixed with plenty of fun activities. We will finish up school this week and take the month of June off before jumping into our new school year after the 4th of July weekend. 

During our short break from school, I think we're going to repaint Kaylin's room and give her a bigger girl theme. I'll finish decorating Jason's new room, maybe hang some pictures in Ryan's room. I'll have plenty to keep me busy!

#60 - Teach Jason to unload the dishwasher

This has been done for a while now, but I've been waiting to get a picture of my proud kid unloading the dishwasher by himself. We have a drying mat that he puts items that are too high for him to reach, but he's in the habit of regularly helping in the kitchen. #60 is crossed off my 101 Goals in 1001 Days list!

Jason's 3rd Birthday - Airplanes!

Our adorable Jason is turning three. And to celebrate, I paired two of his favorite things for his party: airplanes and the color orange. (Every night at dinner, he ends his prayer with "...and thank you, God, that I get to go on an airplane someday.")

The Evite read...
Arrival: 10:28am
Departure: 12:04pm
Gate: The Park
Fly on over and join us to celebrate Jason turning THREE!  Consider this your online boarding pass for a party of outdoor fun.  Passengers are allowed to carry on parents and siblings. In flight lunch and cake will be served. Your reservation may be subject to cancellation if you do not respond to your booking agent by 10/15/12 to confirm travel.

We arrived early at the park to set up...the weather was beautiful!

"The Drink Cart" - Hi-C orange drink boxes for the kids, Crush and V8 Splash for the grown ups. Orange, orange and more orange.

I got this idea from this site. So adorable and not nearly as difficult as they seem. The dads were the most impressed by these little creations. 

"In Flight Service" = trail mix. I was going to do just peanuts, but raisins and M&Ms add a little something extra.

"Baggage Claim" - Party favors were giant bubbles, wooden airplanes and whirly birds.

Airplane-shaped PB&J and boring triangle ham & cheese (because I wasn't going to torture myself further by attempting to shape the ham sandwiches into planes. See this post for details from that fiasco) Our orange food included: Doritos, carrot sticks and cheese puffs. I skipped out on the orange slices because sticky hands + sandy playground = a mess!

We had some outdoor games, footballs and nerf guns to play with. We also had a paper airplane making station that I forgot to take pictures of. The dads had fun comparing their flight creations.

But who needs organized games when you have "race down the hill 1,000 times"?

Jason did unusually well opening gifts in front of the crowd.  I made Ryan open his gifts after his 3rd birthday party, expecting overstimulation and meltdowns. Jason even opened the cards and showed the crowd of kids the picture on the front and inside, like he was reading a story. Too cute!

Ryan asked to spray his hair blue to go with the orange and blue theme. We had some leftover from crazy hair day a couple years back. Notice his orange mustache...that won't come off for days, I'm sure.

The party was a success! Since Jason doesn't have many little buddies of his own, it was just a great excuse to invite our closest friends to hang out, have lunch and sing Happy Birthday to our big boy. A fun time was had by all!

Behind the Scenes of a Theme Party: What Other Mothers Won't Tell You.

I could be quick in my description of Jason's to-be airplane birthday party in the morning, but the story of the process is much more entertaining.  Got a minute?  Okay, let's go.

On Monday night, it hit me like a ton of bricks: "OHMYGOSH! Jason's birthday party is THIS Saturday!" Weeks ago, I had pinned some Lego birthday party ideas, then we switched to an airplane theme with lots of orange and some royal blue. (his two newest obsessions are airplanes and the color orange)  Pinning ideas is great, but {most of the time} if you expect to use any of these ideas, it's best to peek at your Birthday Party Board more than 5 days in advance. 

Just sayin'.

One of the cutest ideas I saw were little airplane-shaped sandwiches tied with little bows. I had planned on looking for an airplane cookie cutter, but clearly forgot.  So, at 10pm on Monday night, I Googled.  Sure enough, I found one for only $1, but to assure it would arrive by Friday, I had to pay $8+ shipping. That was painful, but as I pictured myself driving to different craft stores all over town, hauling all three kids in and out, in and out, in and out of the car, I decided that the time value of money was worth the expense. (See, Jess?  I actually listen when you speak!!!)

Glad that something was checked off my to do list, I posted a status on Facebook: "Today I had a moment of, 'Um, I think Jason's birthday party is this weekend,' realizing that pinning ideas on Pinterest doesn't count for *actual work* the week of a birthday party.  I totally just paid $8 to expedite shipping of a $1 airplane cookie cutter. I'm a little appalled at myself right now." Within minutes, I had comments from people saying, "I have an airplane cookie cutter you could have borrowed!" Curses.

I quickly emailed the company and asked them to cancel my order. I immediately halted my Etsy search for an orange shirt with an airplane on it. Because I'd learned my lesson!  I posted a plea on Facebook asking if anyone had an orange or blue shirt with an airplane.  Sure enough, I got some positive feedback.  Yay!

But not before I emailed a few Etsy ladies about their shirts. Most required an additional $20 to express ship, after racing to complete my inconsiderate rush order in a timely manner.  But there was one. ONE who insisted that she could whip up the shirt and send it, regular mail, for me to have by Friday. I didn't believe her, but I paid anyway.  

Back to the cookie cutter. The next morning, I got an email confirmation that my order had been shipped. NO! I responded asking if they'd gotten my cancellation email? They had not. Whatever, liars. They do, however, have a "very generous" 30 day money back guarantee.  "On the $8 shipping?" I asked. "No, on the cost of the product," they responded leaving out the "BAHAHAHAHAHA, I don't think so, lady." (*sigh*) 

We left the house bright and early and ventured to Target to start collecting orange and royal blue party stuff. Thank goodness Halloween is so close!  We got tons of fun, color-coordinated goodies. Later that afternoon, I printed out some cute food labels and some fun covers for the party favors that were purchased before the color theme was decided on. (Gasp! They won't match?!?!?! Oh well, I'll survive.)

Fast forward to Thursday. A friend brought over the slate blue airplane shirt she promised, which I originally wasn't too excited about because the party is more of a royal blue hue. (yes, I realize how stupid I sound) But when she arrived, she whipped out an outfit that she'd forgotten about that is PERFECT. Blue and orange plaid shorts with a great airplane matching blue shirt. Yay! Except I just paid $17 for that other custom, orange shirt. Bummer. Oh well, we're borrowing the outfit, he'll wear it at the party, then he'll wear his orange shirt on his actual birthday...and probably every other day after that because he's so obsessed with orange and it will give him variety from the ONE orange shirt that he currently has, not that it matters because we rarely leave the house anymore anyway and no one realizes he wears this particular shirt at least three times a week. (exhale)

Thursday afternoon guess what arrived in the mail? The $9+ cookie cutter AND the orange shirt. Man, those people are fast!

This morning, I pulled out everything to assembly line the airplane sandwiches for the party tomorrow. I went to cut the first one and it tore apart! No. No! NOOOOO!!!  Not my $9 cookie cutter!!!!  I played around a little and landed (no pun intended) on freezing the bread first, then filling the sandwich, then putting it all together. Which I should be doing right now instead of blogging, but I'm procrastinating that piece of the party until the morning.

This afternoon, I assembled the coolest 3-year old birthday cake EVER. I mean seriously, tell me this isn't awesome!!!!  The only thing that would have made it more perfect is if I'd spent the money to get all orange M&Ms or even enough bags to pull out just the orange and blue ones.  But I'd just spent $9 on a cookie cutter that wasn't doing it's job and $17 on a custom shirt that he's not going to wear at his party, so buying extra M&Ms just didn't sound like a good financial decision at this point.

How genius is this?  Another Pinterest find.  Two bundt cakes, cut and shaped into a 3. I bought a giant bag (2 lb? 3 lb?) of M&Ms and it was more than plenty. Kaylin sorted the colors for me and I put them in stripes. It didn't take too long doing it together, but the M&Ms are already starting to soften, so I probably should have waited until the day-of to decorate.

I was putting everything together today thinking, "Why does everything look so perfect on Pinterest?  Why am I the ONLY ONE who seems to admit when things go wrong during the party planning process?" (please refer to the cake pop fiasco from Kaylin's Hello Kitty party last year) Or am I the only one stupid enough to try to attempt these types of over-the-top ideas that other "I should have been a party planner" women are casually tossing out there like they're no work at all. Because I never wanted to be a party planner, I just like hosting fun parties with cute themed details. Is that so wrong??? 

To sum up the solutions for the things that went wrong during preparations for this party:

1. Plan ahead, but not too far ahead that you think you're on top of it then forget about it for weeks until it's too late and you end up throwing everything together at the last minute.

2. If you're going to cut sandwiches with a $1 cookie cutter that ends up costing $9, freeze. the. bread. first.

3. As you're assembling your cake, do not agree to let someone come look at clothes that you posted on Craigslist. The frosting (ahem, your GLUE) will dry and the M&Ms will fall right off.  Thankfully, you can apply more fresh frosting to help them adhere, but the better scenario is to push off the Craigslist lady until tomorrow.

4. Do not spend the evening before the party blogging. Blow up balloons, assemble food, do something productive. Then go to bed early, not at 11pm.

Cracking the Code of my Strong-Willed Kid

Jason's new "stink face" - it's hard to take him seriously when he's trying to be mad!

Call me slow, but I'm finally starting to figure out my stronger-willed, youngest child. Jason will be three years old next month, so maybe he's coming out of his "terrible twos", but I'd prefer to think that I'm beginning to uncover some of his complex, little layers.

The weather in the afternoons is starting to dip down to a more comfortable level, so the big kids have been spending more time playing in our shady front yard before dinnertime. This has quickly become my favorite time of the day. My little buddy and I spend time together reading and baking and setting the table. Jason's my helper in the kitchen and has an amazing disposition and attitude when it's just the two of us. On football practice days, Mike will take the big kids and I'll keep Jason at home or run a few errands with him. His behavior is consistently stellar.

However, when Ryan and Kaylin burst through the door, talking at full speed and taking my attention off of Jason, a switch is flipped. He becomes competitive, LOUD, grabby, bossy, unjustifiably controlling, he refuses to take direction from me and certainly not from THEM...it saddens me to see these differences and I don't know how to appropriately respond. Jason would clearly make an amazing only child. It's almost disappointing to realize that he's a different kid when he's alone with me, considering the fact that he has siblings and that's not going to change!

This week, I've taken the route of working with the older kids. I've encouraged Kaylin (who is also secretly pretty competitive) to give Jason the opportunity to do the things that his little two year old body and mind are able to do. I've asked Ryan to step up and include Jason in his big-kid stuff, teaching his little brother how to respect his things instead of destroying them for attention, as Jason is currently in the habit of doing.

Consciously, I know that spending individual time with each of my kids makes a difference in their attitude and behavior.  I'm not sure if they act out to get attention or if (like most of us) they are simply more comforted by the fact that their emotional love tank is full when they get personal attention. Regardless, spending time with my kids individually each morning changes the way our whole day goes.

I forget this little gem of wisdom too often. If I could get into the habit of rotating one-on-one time with each child, especially Jason, at the beginning of each day, how would that change the dynamic of our home? I go through phases of doing this in our homeschool day, but sometimes the fighting and gnawing for attention starts way before that. I can't fit it all in before breakfast, people! We are thrust into our daily routine with no down time each day...I'm not sure exactly how I could manipulate this one-on-one time to benefit everyone before they begin interacting with each other. Because seriously, if Jason's mood is off, the battles begin immediately. It's exhausting.

I'm not looking for perfect harmony all of the time, but I'm ready for less sibling conflicts. Less whining, less bickering, less "STOP IIIIIIIIIT", less tattling, less odd-man-out, more smiles, more agreeable attitudes, more unity, more cooperation.

Hmmmm...cooperation. Maybe that's where I could start? Intentionally teach them how to work together at their own levels...? I'm not quite sure what that would look like. Have I rambled enough to get your mind going yet? Do you have ideas for me? I'm open to suggestions...anyone?

Yesterday, um...didn't go as planned

I know not all of my readers are Christians, but my week has God written all over it. Some might call each incident a "coincidence," but when so many "coincidences" happen at one time, well, I call each one a "God thing."

I'll work backward, as yesterday's portion of the story is the most interesting.

My day was all planned out: health food store, dental appointments for all three kids, lunch, naps, get some work done and sneak in a workout before a 4pm party.  

The morning went smoothly. While Ryan walked Kaylin to the bus stop, I made plans with a friend (let's call her "Julie"...because that's her name) to come over and show me how to use my new iPhone. (Merry Christmas to me - thanks, Mom!)  When Ryan came home, Jason argued with him about who would close the door and then I heard it slam, followed by screaming.

"MOM! Jason's bleeding!!!"

I raced Jason over to the sink and noticed that his entire thumbnail had been (brace yourself) up-rooted and was hanging on at the tip of his finger. The bleeding wouldn't stop and I didn't know what to do, so I called 911.  

I put pressure on his finger and Jason calmed down. I rocked and sang to him, putting pressure on the base of his thumb to curb the bleeding until the firemen arrived.  When the truck pulled up, he began to softy cry again and said, "Mommy, I scared..." He was being such a trooper, but I teared up at his sweet comment.

They helped me bandage his thumb and talked me through what to do. At this point, we just thought his nail had been ripped loose, so I needed to change and clean it daily until the nail finally fell off.  During this time, poor, unsuspecting Julie showed up.  Having a second set of arms to hold Jason was such a blessing!  

Julie held Jason while I changed his blood-soaked gauze wrap again. I showed her the wound and she asked, "Um...is his actual thumb cut?" We looked closer.  "Katie, I think he needs stitches."

Ryan went with Julie and off to the pediatrician I went. Because, of course, they're closed from 12-1, so no one answered the phone when I called.  Julie suggested that I wait in the parking lot until they opened.

Unfortunately, the doctor's office said they don't do stitches and she wasn't even available until 3pm. They sent me to Urgent Care. Sweet, exhausted Jason fell asleep on the way. (remember, this is all happening during his nap time)

The people at Urgent Care were amazing.  No one was there, so the staff fell all over Jason. He got stickers, coloring supplies and tons of attention.  Unfortunately, as soon as the doctor undressed his bandage, he said, "I'm very sorry, but I really think he needs to be seen by a pediatric doctor.  You need to go to the emergency room." Awesome. From what I've heard, ER visits are super cheap. Yay!

My mom had joined me by this time, since she had planned to come babysit at 3:00 anyway. We got to the ER and waited our turn. Patiently. Waiting. Jason was acting 100% normal at this point, until someone tried to take off his bandage.  Then he flipped out.

They took an x-ray (which I thought was a little over the top) then set us up in a room where we waited and waited some more. Jason was thirsty and starving, begging for water and a snack. They wouldn't let him eat or drink, which I thought was odd.

Then the doctor came in and broke the news: he needed surgery. Basically, the end of his thumb had been sliced in half (not all the way through) under his nail, that's why the nail popped up. (*sigh*)  This quickly went from bad to worse.

To make a long story short, he got surgery last night and is now in a cast up to his elbow. A splint would have been fine for a less active, less determined kid, but the surgeon wanted to set up the thumb to heal properly. He stitched the tip of his finger back on and put the nail back under his skin, hoping to save the future nail.

To add insult to injury, when we returned home, everyone was so frazzled from the trauma that nothing seemed to go right: we had two major Sprite spills (a treat from Grandma), Jason threw up the five cups of apple juice he drank as he was coming off anesthesia, the big kids melted down because of lack of attention during the chaos, I dropped the toilet paper holder in the toilet, OH - and I broke my own thumb nail really, really low into my skin causing it to bleed and throb. How's that for irony?

Are you ready for the God things? I'm choosing to focus on those, because they were glaringly obvious until everything fell apart when I returned home.

- The plastic surgeon who operated on Jason's hand just happened to be in the building at the time we were there, checking on another patient. If he wasn't there, we'd have had to go to a hand surgeon (they have those?!?!) and who knows when that would have happened.

- Julie was at my house (which is rare anymore) when all of this happened and took Ryan for me, then picked up Kaylin from the bus, which came exactly 15 minutes after she needed to pick up her own boys from school, which is 10+ minutes away.

- Julie noticed the cut in Jason's thumb, which I could barely see through all of the blood, and suggested the stitches. I wouldn't have gone to the doctor otherwise.

- When Julie picked up Kaylin from the bus stop, she drove by our mutual friends house where she saw their almost 3 year old CLIMBING OUT THE 2ND STORY WINDOW onto a steep ledge. If I wasn't at the ER, Julie wouldn't have picked Kaylin up from the bus. If she hadn't have picked Kaylin up from the bus, she wouldn't have dropped off the party table to our neighbor friend. If she hadn't have gone down that street to head home, she wouldn't have seen Audrey climbing out the window.  THAT is no coincidence.

- Julie's husband, who has his own business and works a ton of hours, called at 4:00 to tell her he was getting off work early (for the first time in forever), which helped Julie keep her afternoon commitment with her daughter while her husband stayed home with the other kids.

- I has just activated my iPhone the night before so I could take pictures. Okay, so maybe that wasn't a God thing, but it was awfully good timing!

Here's another other crazy piece to this story: Monday afternoon, my mom randomly called to see if I'd like her to help by putting the kids to bed since we had Bible study that night and she knows Mike's been working late.  My mom's offered a lot of help over the years, but she has never once offered to help on a Bible study night. Regardless, I accepted her offer and left the gym to go home to give the kids dinner.

Dinner was pizza, which we picked up for Super Bowl Sunday but didn't eat. We rarely, if ever, buy pizza.  And if we do, it's a small Freschetta and I serve it with a huge salad. I'm not into kid food...it's not usually healthy.

Once home, I got an emergency call from Julie: "Can I come drop the kids off?  I need to go to the doctor. Now." Even though I had 15 people showing up in 45 minutes, of course I agreed. I was so grateful that my mom was randomly coming over. Which, you'll remember, has never happened before. Ever. Another God thing.

Julie's kids needed to be fed. I had a huge pizza in the oven (kid food!) which we hardly ever have. Plenty to go around. My mom took over until Julie's mom arrived to bring them home. I was still able to jump in the shower and set up for Bible study all before people showed up. If my mom hadn't have been prompted to call, I would have worked it out, I'm sure (those nights are tight for me anyway, without Mike home) but the fact that I had an extra set of hands made everything less stressful.

I'm so glad yesterday is over. Jason woke up once last night crying, then woke up this morning talking and singing to himself.  He was so brave through this whole process!  

And I kind of have a feeling that this is definitely not our last trip to the ER with this kid. I just sense it...