Another Birthday Boy

{I apologize if you've stopped by here this week and found a big disaster. We've been busy with birthdays and holidays (yes, more than one of them) and days off school, and all sorts of things that I want to blog about. And then blogger decided this would be a good time to get ornery about loading pictures. I'm hoping to get caught up soon. Here's the post I started 2 weeks ago.}

 We leave no time for boredom to creep in or dust to settle at our house in November. We're usually still finishing up leftover cake from boy #1 when it's time to celebrate another boy. I usually try to vary who has a 'big' party (meaning they might get to invite a friend or two) with who has a 'just family' party. This is all done in favor of my fleeting sanity! A few years we've even done a joint party but apparently they don't really count.

This year it was Reagan's turn to have some friends over. Turning 6 is pretty important. We decided on a Carnival theme. I've been wanting to do that one for a long time! I might have had more fun than the kids did. There is just a ton of things you can do and most of them are really quite simple and inexpensive.

The Menu: We simply had to do supper, so many food options that fit the theme. I invited the guests for a "light supper," because, as I told my husband, "that sounded better than we're just having junk food."

Ideally this would be an outdoor party so there would be plenty of room for the games but since my children's birthdays are in November and January that didn't seem all that ideal after all. So I removed as many spiders and dust piles from our old basement as I could and set up the games down there.

I love the challenge of finding a cake to go with the theme and it's usually fun to make them but I new better than to try to pull off a carousel cake which was about the only idea I could find online. I opted for cupcakes instead and they turned out super fun. (Bonus: they were e.a.s.y. p.e.a.s.y.) I ordered the clown picks online, $3 for a dozen, and used circus peanuts for some and mini marshmallows (cut) with yellow sugar, to look like popcorn, for the rest.

I had salvaged a bunch of cardboard with no idea what I would do with it at the time. I used it to paint all the little signs. My husband laughed at me and my junk hoarding but admitted later that it all turned out pretty cool. And once again we have my 2 best friends, cheap and easy! I threw in some balloons and red and yellow streamers to complete the transformation from dining room to circus tent.

  
On his actual birthday (the party was a day late) he chose cheeseburgers and fries for dinner. "White french fries with vinegar, lots of vinegar!" Silly boy gets frustrated when I make sweet potato fries because he likes the ones with vinegar better.

 {wearing the birthday king hat he got at school}

And the photo shoot of my Handsome Six Year Old.

 Love that Boy!

Brownies and Birthdays

  The thing about being a Mom is, if you stay home from church because your head feels like it might explode, you're barking like a baby seal and you have the energy level of a hibernating bear, you will still be expected to 1. iron clothes so everyone else can go to church looking presentable, 2. clean up the breakfast mess, 3. prepare a delicious, hot, dinner to serve when the troops return. Not just any dinner, a special request birthday dinner, because 12th Birthday's just cannot be ignored or postponed.

  We're not even going to talk about that number. I'll spare you my extensive rant of "How in the world did that happen?" Of "Seriously, this is the last year our house will be teenager-less until 2030!
{Oh.my.stars. that is a frightening thought!!} Of "How in the world can I mother a 12 year old when I feel like I'm only 22 myself?" It's mind boggling, I tell you, mind boggling!!

  No big party this year. He chose to invite his cousin for a game of laser tag and a sleepover. He requested brownies and mint ice cream, the perfect bedtime snack after an energetic game of laser tag.

  We treated his classmates to donuts. Nothing makes a sixth grade boy more popular than a couple dozen fresh made donuts. :) (I made sure to get a few extra for the 'quality control' test performed by yours truly a.k.a. delivery lady.)

  This sweet Little Miss accompanied me to make our donut delivery. I kind of got the feeling she thought she was the one turning 12. I think she would have happily stayed and figured out a way to fit in with those big 'stylin' girls! *Oh Sigh!* They're ganging up on me, all of them!!

  Since the sleepover and brownie celebration was a couple of days earlier I bought a small ice cream cake for his actual birthday dinner. A Mama's gotta have something to stick candles in and take pictures of.

  And a couple of quick shots of my handsome young man. I thought he looked so sharp in his 'Sunday-go-to-Meetin' duds but I couldn't get him to relax and give me a real smile until I put him back in jeans. I suppose he must be a normal boy.

Just checkin to see if 12 is when the 'superpowers' start showing up.

He's smart.

 He's responsible.
He's creative.
He thinks showers should be optional.
He's athletic.

He's funny.
He considers his room clean if you can walk from one side to the other
without serious bodily injury.
He's a leader.
He's courteous.

He's a "quality time" kind of guy.
He's pretty sure he's almost as tall as his mom. (He's not. YET!)
He's compassionate.
He likes Legos, pizza, trucks, sports and sugar.
He thinks body functions are hilarious.
He's outgoing.
He's respectful.
He's determined.
He's not perfect, but he's a great kid, and I get to be his Mom!

(And the thing about being a Mom is, if you stay home from church, you can have a  generous portion of leftover dark double chocolate brownie for breakfast and nobody has to know. :)

It's birthday mania week at our house. We getting ready for the next big event on Friday.
Rumor has it there's gonna be a Carnival.

Made Me Smile Monday

{a  snapshot from my week. with or without words. something exciting. something ordinary. something special. something silly. just something. that made me smile this week. a memory to brighten my day. to make me smile again. even though it's MONDAY!}

I got the best little package in the mail this week. 

It's that time of year again. Time to collect the coordinating outfits, bribe the munchkins, pray for the photographer and hope for the best.

Forget the nice, normal, sitting still, smiling sweetly stuff

we're going 'au-naturel.'

Oh the personalities that shine through and the captions that one could devise.

Feel free to add yours in the comments! 

This little guy? 

I just wanna stuff him in my pocket 

and do everything I can to stunt his growth.

Seriously, he's just too much fun!

Happy Monday

Who is making you smile today?

Inspiration Strikes

and at the strangest times I might add.


***I've been on my "knock-off Olive Garden Salad" kick for over a week now. It's my lunch almost everyday. Just yesterday it hit me, they've been missing the onions all along. It's just so sad! Today's lunch was so much better. :)

***I bought this  candle holder somewhere on clearance, certain that it would find a happy spot somewhere in my house. It's been sitting in the closet for years. I didn't want to get rid of it because I do like it. It's kind of different, unique. But it a strange size and I just wasn't willing to pay top dollar for a specialty candle to fit it. So it sat, collected dust, took up space.....

....until last week when I discovered the perfect use for it.

 plastic headbands hang over the one side....

elastic headbands hang from the curly-q's and the top is perfect for little clips and flower pins. Bingo!


***I treated the kids to "dinner and a movie" night, one evening while Daddy was working. In an effort to avoid ketchup on the beige carpet I did this. Worked like a charm! My one moment ingenious moment of the year.

***My kitchen/dining area is a coffee theme. The curtains and most of the decor is black/brown and I suddenly realized this fall that since we gleefully said goodbye to our red plaid couch their really isn't any prominent color theme in the living room either. Pretty much the only color in either room is accent pieces AND   **light-bulb moment** I could swap them out seasonally. With just a few new candles and quick changes I added a little bit of fall to my house. My fall decor in the past usually consisted of a mum and a pumpkin on the porch. I'm kind of loving the fall colors inside too.

[The mirror inside the front door & the reflection of the opposite wall.

I wish I had gotten about a dozen more of those little white gourds!]

***Last Saturday my husband mentioned in passing that an Amish lady gave him a homemade donut at one of his stops. It wasn't even that day. It was months ago. But he mentioned and I got inspired and that was that.

Mix

Roll

Rise

Fry

Devour!

Mmm. They're so good that first day now I think it's time to get back to that salad kick!


Your turn....what's your latest inspiration? I'm always looking for new tips and ideas to make a Mommy's life easier, prettier, more organized, more fun...............

Happy Friday!!

from Rural to Redneck

This is my view out the window from my favorite cozy spot where I drink my coffee every morning. I love it. The rural mailboxes. The sun peaking over the hill. The inviting porch (well, at least on warmer days than this one.) I can see a bit of what/who's  passing by outside but not enough to feel intruded upon.

(I've been thinking for awhile that I should snap a picture or two. I finally did it last week while the windows were sparkly clean. I had about 30 seconds to work with.)

And then last Friday evening, we came home late. It was dark. We were exhausted.

This....

(photo courtesy of  Mr. Hubs)

 ....is what we found in the morning.

(My heart  softened  somewhat when we found the note from the older lady who apologize and offered to make restitution. We had assumed it was a crazy, not very smart drunk kid.)

Since we host the mailboxes for all of our close neighbors on our property, the men in a joint effort fixed us up "for now" with 

this arrangement.

The title says it all.

And while this may not be my idea of "home improvement" we may actually "fit in" to the neighborhood a little better now. :)

Apparently she's pretty sturdy. She stood up well to "Sandy."

*********************

 We are very blessed. We have some minor clean up to do (mostly leaves) but no real damage here. We never even lost power. I think my children were almost disappointed. They were just so fascinated with the collecting of candles and the flashlight battery checking regime. And oh the questions a bucket of extra water can bring on.

I used to say I like one or two good snowstorms in a year but I've decided I don't think I even really like the snow that much. I think what I really like is the way it stops the world. In this case rain did the same trick for us and we didn't have to do any shoveling. School was closed and we had a great 2 days with everybody hanging out together here at home. Nowhere we had to go, nothing we had to do. I think, it was even more peaceful than a snowstorm because everybody knew we were staying indoors. The relaxing together during snowstorms has been known to get lost under the pile of hats, gloves, boots, snow pants, coats and wet socks, here.

 We are thankful! 

There are lots of people dealing with much bigger issues than a broken mailbox post right now!

It looked different...

Sometimes in my little Mommy world I get these crazy ideas in my head. I come up with some grand idea of something we could do and I immediately "know" how much my children will love it and what great memories will be made. I envision the stacks of "Kodak Moments" that I will capture and blah, blah, blah.....

And then in real life well, it looks more like......real life.

Several weeks ago our little town celebrated 250 years with a fireworks display. I thought it would be fun to pack all my pajama clad munchkins  into the van, pop some corn and take in the show. After all we had to travel all of two and a half miles, what did we have to lose?

It was time to leave. Finding seven pairs of footwear is apparently a 10 minute process. One batch of popcorn doesn't look like enough. The coffee pot drips miserably slow when it's being watched. Finally, with a few rolled eyes and several impatient huffs we stuff everyone into the van and run through the typical "he took my seat" scenario.

Mommy is starting the question the wisdom of this outing that  begins well after bedtime. But my spirits are renewed when we pull into a perfect spot. Not much traffic and we'll have no problem viewing from the comfort of our van. Except I forgot to calculate that fireworks typically go more than 10 feet off the ground. Our mini van is not a convertible.

 So we open the doors and line up on the edge. Now we're all whiny cause we're cold. We fight over the popcorn, blankets, good seats and mommy's lap while we wait. Finally, everyone is settled. Until the first booming explosion lights up the sky....they all burst into tears, "it's too loud."

Thankfully they got used to the idea after a few minutes. It was just the initial unexpected volume that startled them. And it turned out to be a pretty impressive show for small town USA.

And when it  was all over, I was glad we went. I usually am. I just hope that when my children grow up they remember the popcorn and fireworks in a "Kodak moments" sort of way and not the spats and issues between here and there. And we'll chalk this up as another reminder to Mommy to keep the expectations low, or at least realistic, whether it's about 'Grand Adventures,' small people and their chores, getting umpteen things crossed off my 'to do' list or sleeping through the night. Real life rarely looks like the previews in my mind, but why is it so hard to remember that?

it's the little things.....

just some things that made me happy recently......

      little things. quite possibly boring things to you.
           
           but they felt like a little "God-hug" to me.

 {shoes. new. with tags. $1.00 at a yard sale. i thought they must have sat in someone's closet for awhile but I saw these exact shoes in the store this week.}

{what boys do with double stuff oreos. when they think their mama isn't watching}

{a bit of crafty fun = my new best friend}

{toasty toes}

{first attempt at homemade egg rolls. success}

{fall colors that welcome me home}

{i've been searching somewhat frantically for boots for the little miss for this fall with no success. today I discovered these in her drawer. purchased on clearance last year and forgotten. and so stinkin' cute too. made my day. and maybe hers too.}

{thrift store jack pot. $20.97 for a huge box of wooden train stuff. i new at a glance it was worth way more than that but i was more than a little shocked with the results of my google investigation. over $800 worth of stuff in there. should make one little boy a really nice birthday gift. shh! don't tell him.}

{road side freebies. dreams of what could be. and a husband who patiently turns around to go back and load.}

{it's amazing how many smiles you can get out of three little quarters}