Scott's party

We hosted Scott's 8th birthday party today at our house. He wanted a "space" party.  We invited his cub scout den to play and learn about space. The best part was that each boy earned the space belt loop.

As the kids arrived they played Legos.  We learned from Andrew's party that these boys love to create. All I had to do was dump the Legos on the floor and they had a great time.  As a matter of fact, this could have been the entire party and they would have been content.

But soon, we went to the dining room table to write the planets in orbit.  This was part that we needed in order to complete the Cub Scouts belt loop.

Then, the boys sat at the table and created and decorated their rockets.  They wondered what we planned to do with them, but that was our little secret. 

We launched them!  Using film canisters, Alkaseltzer and water, we watched them zoom high in the air.  It was so much fun!  I even sent extra supplies home with the kids so they could duplicate at home.

The boys enjoyed Star cookies and Space sundaes at the end of the party.  This was a party that I'd definitely repeat.

Once a teacher...always a teacher

My Mom and I celebrated our birthdays together last week. It was a fun and delicious meal, complete with our favorite bakery cake.

At dinner, she shared that she had seen the "most beautiful" pine tree in full bloom that morning on her walk. She knew the kids would love to see it.

So we took a field trip down Peachtree Street after dinner to learn all about pine tree pollination. They only pollinate for a few weeks every year, as long as the male pine cones last. The female pine cones are what we see throughout the year.


Is your car coated in yellow dust right now? That's pine pollen. Here Nana is shaking the tree to coat our kids in the dust. It was everywhere.


Amanda also tried her hand at tree shaking. The best part about these trees was that they were low to the ground. Most pine trees are so tall that you cannot reach the branches.
(PS - if you click on the above picture, you can see that Amanda is carrying her 80's look in to this outfit. She is wearing a pair of leg warmers instead of socks. It was hilarious.)

And just to prove that beauty can be found just about anywhere, Derrick snapped this picture of the sunset behind where we were standing.

After school fun

3:00 until 6:00 is such a tricky time of day for me. It is precious, but it is also hectic and busy. It's my only quality time with the kids. I try to be intentional with how to fill that time. Sometimes we put away clothes and do other chores. Sometimes we read a chapter book. Sometimes the kids read to me. Scott almost always has homework. Often we spend a huge chunk of that time outside.

But sometimes I'm busy cleaning the kitchen, prepping dinner and catching up on my own stuff. The day has slipped away from me and I just don't have the time or energy to be intentional. The kids are on their own.

The great thing is that they are getting older and able to do more and more on their own. Just last week, Scott wanted to work on experiments. In the past, I would have had to drop everything to help him. Last week, I pulled the box out of the closet and he went to work. Scott and Amanda had a great time working with fizzy and foamy experiments. Never mind that I have no more baking soda. I was so surprised and impressed with his level of independence and the amount of patience he showed to Amanda.

Andrew chose to work on Legos in the living room. We often say that Scott and Amanda are "two peas in a pod." Andrew is our "carrot in the garden." He is independent and entertains himself quite well.

A new dress

Amanda and I went to our favorite thrift store last week and she fell in love with this lovely pink shirt. She really wanted me to buy it.
I thought that it looked like a pink bath rug. "What grown woman would wear a pink bath rug? No, we don't need that."

But then I thought that Amanda would look really cute in a pink bath rug.

Don't you agree...
The best part about it is that it took a mere 10 minutes to transform the shirt into a dress. I was surprised it was so easy.

And it was just perfect to wear as we played "going to the beach" outside.

It is Amanda's new favorite game. She gets to wear her bathing suit and play with her babies outside. I get to sit on a towel and enjoy the beautiful sunny weather. It works out great for both of us. Here is a picture from earlier in the week.


Notice that there are many towels...One for me, one for Amanda, one for Merry (the doll) and one for Anna, Janna, Jacks and Recess. These are her imaginary friends, who come with us everywhere.

Anna has a birthday almost every day. She goes to preschool. Janna goes to the Primary school with the boys. Jacks and Recess are her "boys." Recess is sick fairly often, but he feels better also. They all love picnics and cupcakes.

The gift that keeps on giving

I think that the Fernbank membership that we gave Scott for his birthday last year was the best gift we have ever given. It just keeps on giving and giving.

If I remember correctly, we visited Fernbank 6 times this year, plus we visited museums in Charlotte, Houston and Austin on our membership.

We went last weekend for one final visit before our membership expires. As we left, I said again to Scott, "Happy 7th birthday," even though his 8th birthday is just around the corner.








I definitely think we will renew our membership sometime this year. It is such a good deal. This year we want to return to Houston, see the museum in San Antonio and possible add one or two more. It depends on where our travels take us.

Fashions from the 80's

Does anyone out there remember the Units clothing line from the 1980's? A description on a website I just found says this:

UNITS
A one-size-fits-all clothing store featuring knit skirts, shirts, belts and leggings in coordinating colors. The clothes were sold in UNITS boutiques located in malls throughout the United States. You could buy six different pieces of UNITS clothing and create an entire wardrobe from them. It goes without saying that UNITS did not make it out of the 80s.

Well, let me tell you, I LOVED these clothes. I thought it was so cool that you could mix and match...and that one tube could be a shirt, belt or miniskirt (although my Mom only allowed me to wear it as a belt.)

I can remember buying a set one Thanksgiving while I was in Middle School. We were at "The Mall" in Wilmington, NC and it must have been the only place open for miles on Black Friday. It was packed with people digging for sales. We passed one counter of khaki pants and the women were hurling them in the air, while yelling out the sizes. "34X36"...toss; "32X34" toss. People scrambled for the correct size. It was wild. My Mom and I had trouble fighting through the crowd just to get around them.

I loved shopping on Black Friday and I loved the feeling of having new clothes (although I almost always had to wait for Christmas morning to actually receive them as gifts.)

As with most clothes, those knit combos were forgotten, but for some reason never thrown away. My kids dug them out of the drawers in my childhood bedroom a few years ago, and we brought them home to use in the dress up box. When I was 12, I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that my kids would play with such fashions.

These are well-used pieces for costumes. Just last weekend, Scott used them to complete his Ninja outfit. They are perfect to store weapons in. And a few days later, Amanda took possession of them to carry her babies.

She has had a baby in it all week. Yesterday, she took Merry on a walk in it with Farley. We walked up the street to the stop sign and back. At the end of the walk, she announced that Merry had taken a good nap and was ready to get out. (In reality, I think Amanda was hot.)

In other Amanda news...

We met with a bride at church today whose wedding I'm directing this summer. She is debating whether or not to have flower girls. Amanda suddenly piped in, "I can be your flower girl. I'm wearing a flower dress." In fact, the dress she was wearing was covered in pink flowers.

And, yes, she has changed clothes since then. She is in a "three outfit per day" stage. The striped dress you see in the picture above is one of our "new" outfits that we pulled out today. As much as I used to love Black Friday sales, I love Hand-me-Down shopping even more. We pulled out an entire tub of summer clothes today. Amanda had a great time digging through the piles. She remember some from last summer, but most were like new to her. In the picture above, she has at least three layers under her Merry carrier.

Lego Party

Andrew loves Legos, so we decided to have a Lego party for his birthday. I had no idea there were so many great ideas posted on many great websites. This was a fun party to plan.

We made and sent the invitations a few weeks ago. I think the $10 investment in a 1" circle craft punch was a good one. Who knows...maybe Amanda will want a polka dot party next year and we will pull out the punch again.

The invitations were easy and Andrew really enjoyed helping punch the holes and placing them on the cards.




The punch also came in handy for the party favor bags. Derrick picked up these colored lunch bags at the Dollar Tree - 10 for $1. We filled the bags with a Lego Party Favor and some "Lego" Rice Krispie treats (I used pretzel M&M's since they were a better size). And as a bonus, some Lego candy. We had already decided that the candy was not worth ordering and paying shipping, but a few days before the party I went to a local bulk food store to stock up on oatmeal and barley...and they had the candy on the shelf!! I was so excited.
I also knew that most of the kids were bringing siblings and I just hate for someone to leave empty handed, so I bagged some extra RK Treats for the little siblings.

Andrew loved his cake. There are so many ideas online for Lego cake that involve frosting marshmallows. I was thankful for this much easier idea to use Dots candy...another Dollar Tree purchase. I was still up until Midnight on Friday icing and then cleaning up the mess.

Wouldn't you agree...this smile makes it totally worth it.

Several kids had concerned comments that there were *real* Legos on the cake plate. I think they thought I would accidentally serve them.

As the kids arrived, they worked on Lego Dot-to-Dots and coloring sheets.

Then, we moved to the family room for the big "Lego Dump." Dumping the entire box of Legos is a rare treat in our family. It is just too hard to pick up and Farley's hair gets everywhere. But my friend Laura had a great idea to dump on a sheet. What a great solution. I may allow the boys to dump more often now.

Of course the greatest part of the Lego Dump was the big crashing sound made as the Legos tumbled out of the box. The kids dove in, just as if it were a piñata.


The big activity was building cars and racing them. I had some other game ideas, but didn't need them. The kids were happily occupied for almost an hour. Back and forth...rebuilding and customizing. It was great.

Andrew can't have a party without hot dogs on the menu. Notice the little "Lego" hotdog. Derrick would only let me cut one - he didn't think they would be a hit with the kids.

Here's the birthday boy enjoying his hot dog. Notice the wrapping around the juice box. I found the template here.

It looks like a big party, but we only sent seven invitations and five came...just many siblings. I loved the size - just Andrew's best buddies.

(The crown was a gift from his teachers. He wore it all day at school on his birthday.)

Opening presents is always great fun!

Another very exciting part of the party was that my Godparents were in town for the ACC tournament and Jennie Lou came over with my mom for the party. She, along with Derrick's sister, married us. This weekend, she was able to meet our kids. What a treat.