A PINKALICIOUS birthday party

Ok, now all who know me know how much of a planner I am. I have to plan things SEVERAL weeks in advance and continually work through my list before the big day, perfecting and minimizing. I could not have been happier with the outcome of this almost month worth of planning party. Having children gives me the ultimate excuse to decorate, coordinate, and plan a party. 

For all 3 of my kids, I don't really ask them what they want to do for their birthday as far as a party goes. I like to surprise them. (It's worth the look on their face. I promise!) So when it came time for Jackie's birthday, I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited. She's a girl after my own heart. Literally, she wants to be me. There's nothing more humbling in the world then having a little girl look up to you and copy your every move.

Beginning this planning a 5 year old's pinkalicious birthday party adventure, I had to come up with a budget. In this family, the budget is always ZERO. We're a large family with one parent working, so the budget is always small. But I was realistic and set the budget at $50.

This is what our party's theme was based on... Pinkalicous. AKA Jackie's favorite book. It's almost like the book was written thinking of her. If you haven't read it, DO SO!

I already knew that the house had to be decked out in pink. That was a given and that was the easy part. The hard part? FINDING PINK FOOD. Who would've thought?

Decorating: streamers, 24 balloons, table cloth and 2 pinkalicious posters (handmade). TOTAL= $5.00

 

I was very pleased with the amount of pink. I didn't think it was going to be enough, but it truly truly was. The balloons in the dining room under the light turned the whole room pink. Next was the food...

Food: Heart shaped PB&J's, pink rice krispies, fruity pebble rice krispies, pink chocolate drizzled strawberries, pink white chocolate pretzel rods, pink animal cookies, strawberry marshmallows, strawberry malt balls, strawberry/banana skewers, taco dip/chips (not pictured), lemon pepper/buffalo wings (not pictured), strawberry soda, fruit punch, hawaiian punch minis with fun jackie facts, cucumbers and broccoli with pink ranch dip (green food in case of acute pinkatitus) and PINKALICIOUS cupcakes. TOTAL: $40.00

 

 

Next comes the games. Lee and I are obsessed with Minute to Win it so we figured we would play as many child friendly minute to win it games as possible. 
The list of games included: 
     1. Pin the cherry on the cupcake
     2. Face the Cookie (put a cookie on your forehead and without using your hands, get the cookie in your mouth)
     3. Cup Stackers (stack cups on top of each other and unstack them without all of them falling)
     4. Bouncers (bounce the bouncy ball into the cup)
     5. Blow Straw (use the straw to blow the ball across the finish line)
     6. Marshmallow Head (throw marshmallows into your partners bucket on top of their head)
     7. Jackie's Favorite Things (a quick quiz to see who knows Jackie the best.

The final game was supposed to be to turn JACKIE into a pink mummy, but she chickened out at the end so of course Ayden stepped up and helped her out. I told him to give me a scared face... yup, that's scared lol.

The party turned out to be a huge hit with the kids because at the end of the day, that's who it's all about. The adults can sit back and watch as long as the children are having a blast. The only bad thing about having an awesome birthday party is... how the heck am I going to outdo myself for the next party?

The Flu, Cheddar and Insomnia

It has been far too long since I've last posted. Things around this abode have been kinda nuts. (Like it isn't every other day of the year) The flu finally caught our family, thanks to my butthead of a brother, Eric. It hit us like none other. It started with me... a little sore throat, mild cough, a few stabs from Lee telling me that I was overreacting and that I wasn't really sick. The next day, Lee starts coughing and he tells me he thinks he's getting sick.

OH REALLY NOW? Look who's being over dramatic now!!

On the plus side, Lee spend 3 painfully sick days at home with me. We bonded over tissues and the ID channel. We took turns getting up for more hot beverages or refills on soup. The dinners for the children consisted of whatever took the least amount of time out of covers. (Sorry kids!) But cuddling on the couch together for 3 days was pretty fantastic. 

Aside from being sick and not keeping up with my blog, we also adopted a cat. Let me make one thing clear, WE ARE NOT A CRAZY CAT FAMILY! ....well maybe we are. But Lee and I are the same when it comes to animals, we can't say no. It's just not possible. Especially to a cat who needs a loving home. This cat was his sister Logan's. She moved back into her parents and the cat had to stay outside. He wasn't allowed in because of the dog and the other cats. He liked outside so it didn't seem like a big deal. But every time we all went to Lee's parents house, we would see this little furball outside begging for attention. It was so hard not to spend the entire time we visited outside cuddling this cat. I made the joke that we should take him home with us so we can give him the love and attention he deserves. As soon as those words came out, Lee's eyes meet mine and the decision is made. We will be taking this cat home with us.

Here he is... Cheddar. :)

Isn't he the cutest thing you ever did see? :) and he's so playful and cuddly and sweet and he MEOWS SO DAMN LOUD for wet food. OMG!!! It's like this cat never had canned food in his life. Best thing since tuna.

I blame his cuteness for my insomnia these days. He comes up to my face in the middle of the night and meows as loud as he can. Plus, we sit on the cough and cuddle, while watching Family Feud. (which we're doing right now at 2:21am) These days, I just can't sleep. Partially because of my completely stuffed nose from the flu and partially because I've slept so much over the past couple days that I just can't sleep anymore. Remember those days back when you were in your teens when you could go to sleep at midnight and not wake up until 4 in the afternoon? Yeah... those days are long gone.

Survey SAYS: ... I should really try to go to sleep...

Finally back in the Groove

Oh.My.GOODNESS! Christmas/New Years is now the MOST stressful time of year in our house. We are all running around with our heads cut off to make sure that we make it to everywhere we need to be and spend as much time with both of our families as we can. And then, after all that running around, we have to wait almost a week before the kids go back to school. (which can't come soon enough.)

But aside from all of that, Christmas is STILL my favorite time of year. Here are some highlights from our Christmas vacation...
  

Getting ready to go to Maryland for Christmas Eve

 

Cousins :)

 

 Opening presents at Grandma and Grandpa's (Maryland)

 Lee admiring his mom's Christmas present

Christmas morning at our house

Jackie excited for her Zebra blanket

Ayden super excited to open his present from the Barnes' family

Christian looking tired but ready to open some presents!

Our annual Christmas picture at my mom's. 

Me and my mom

 The boys getting so impatient for Andy's immaculate meal. (This picture cracks me up sooooooo much. boys... lol)

Jackie loves herself some Tyler.

We are Family

I am so thankful for our families. Of course I love my side of the family, but now I can finally say that I feel comfortable around Lee's family.

If you know anything about me, you know that I am one of the easiest people in the world to get along with. I get along with everyone and I am super friendly. With Lee's family for some reason, this was not the case. I was shy and reserved and didn't talk at all. Every time we would have a family function with them, I would have an anxiety attack. I have NO idea what was wrong with me. 

I guess it all comes down to ME. :/ I always thought they were judging me. I didn't think they liked me. I thought that they really didn't want to get to know me. They never really tried. It was all about the kids. That's all we talked about. Them or Lee's ex and what was going on with her. My thoughts/insecurities were that their family was already established and I was just another outsider. Maybe I would stay, maybe I wouldn't. 

In their defense, I was so stand off-ish. I wouldn't make the first move. I was so unbearably uncomfortable. It was the most insane feeling. I knew I had to do something about it though.  I knew there was at least one thing we can all agree on and that was the kids. I decided I was going to open up through the kids and their birthdays. I tried to go above and beyond for their parties to make sure that they understood how committed I was and how badly I wanted their approval. 

A lot of time has passed since those feelings. Now that I have tried my hardest to become a part of this family and put forth strong efforts to spend time with them and just be myself, I am happy that I am a part of their family.  One of the many wonderful parts of this family is that they are all about their grandchildren. It's all about them in every way. No wonder they love going to their Grandma's. :)

 Established family or not, they are now my family and I love them.



 

6 hours or less

6 hours or less and IT'S TIME!!!!!!!!!! I don't know about you guys, but Christmas is my FAVORITE! I cannot wait to see their faces when they open the gifts. I think that's my favorite. Or, playing with their gifts as a family as a close second. 

I always feel that I don't enough though. Like, sometimes I look on facebook and I see other friends with their piles and piles and piles of gifts for their children and I think I could've done better. But with Lees parents and my entire family buying them gifts, I don't feel so bad. We have 3 friggen Christmas celebrations. So, I know they're getting everything they could possibly want or need. After all, Christmas isn't all about the gifts. It's about the experience, family bonding time and love.

BUT I can't help but be excited. I'm giddy and anxious and I can't sleep. Go figure lol!!! I did this last year too. I was insane and couldn't sleep and stayed awake all night. I finally went around and woke up everyone at 8am. I was like, SERIOUSLY!!?? I remember waking my parents up at 5am to open presents. I was NOT playing around. This year, I'm going to try to go to sleep and let them wake me up. 

Merry Christmas everyone. I wish you nothing but joy, love and happiness because that's all you need in your life. <3

Christmas is the time for CUTE KIDS!

Pinterest is a bad bad bad bad bad influence on me. I am constantly finding new things to do and new ways to make sure I document our life through photos. Here is a prime example. The children's Christmas 2012 pictures via wrapping paper and my crappy digital camera. (I will get a Nikon one day...)

Oh my Gosh!!!!!! Aren't they the cutest things in the entire world??? And I did a pretty decent job taking the pictures as well. :)

The Perfect Christmas

Every winter, I have this vision of the perfect Christmas. The decorations, the atmosphere, the music, the glee, the children... everything. I want everything to be perfect. Is that an insane vision? 

This year, I have had Christmas decorations up since before Thanksgiving. I was just so excited and I wanted that christmas, joyous and loving feeling throughout the house. I started hanging lights inside the house, hanging ornaments in awesome places, putting little Santa Clauses in super cute places... I have this decorating thing DOWN!

As a new family, we are experiencing a lot of firsts together. This year, we decided that we were going to cut our own tree down. It was SO much fun. I remember doing this with my family growing up and I remember it being just as fun. But this go round, it was different. The kid's eyes were doe like and full of wondering looking at all the trees. 

The tree hunt begins!!!

Lee being all manly cutting down the tree.

 

 Christian helping dad.

 

 Ayden's turn to help dad.

 

 Jackie helping cut down some of the extra branches.

 

 I'm sure he hates me for all the photo ops I make him do. :)

 

 It was a super fun experience.

I love creating new traditions for our family. It's going to be so much fun making memories with these guys. 

As a blended family, I realize that we aren't going to see eye to eye on everything. This Christmas, as I'm buying presents for the kids and wrapping them, he's putting them under the tree. Whoa whoa whoa whoa buddy. What are you doing? He tells me that he wants these presents to be from "us" and he wants them under the tree. We'll put the rest of the presents we buy under the tree from Santa. 

Ok. BREAK!

Last year, we put presents out Christmas Eve... from Santa. ALL of them. I assumed we were doing that again this year. 

I have a Christmas morning vision in my head.... you wake up and there are a ton of presents under the tree (from parents and Santa). Seeing their faces is half the fun. but now, they're seeing half the presents already. There won't be that big of a shock. I'm not crazy, right? 

We had to compromise and keep half the presents under the tree. :/ But next year, we are totally going to do it my way. and I have vowed to start shopping as soon as January. Yup... I said it. I will do my very very best to start a stock pile of Christmas presents throughout the year so I'm not overwhelmed (like I am right now) and make sure that the 'shock and awe' effect is in tact. 

Other than that, our Christmas is going to be perfect. I am so excited. I think that I'm more excited than the kids. I wake them up and say "-- days til Christmas!!!" I love traditions. I really do. And more importantly, I love starting traditions with our little family. Our life is going to be so amazing.