Christmas List Time, Girls!

I'm in danger of turning this blog into one big youtube collection and I don't care because this is brilliant. If you think this won't be under my girls' Christmas tree, you don't know me at all.

Rock your brains, Girls!

Mother of the Year

Ladies, put your applications down. I won the "Mother of the Year" contest. I'm that mom, the one who got her daughter all excited about a sleepover party and arrived...a week early. Awesome. I guess now we are all ready for the party, when it eventually happens?

In my defense, I have been traveling a lot. And, evites are harder to remember than an actual invite. And, well...yeah.

Unprepared

I didn't want to write this post.

My friend died today. Even though she had a terminal illness, I really thought she'd keep beating the odds. I honestly thought we'd get a miracle and was pissed when I realized we wouldn't. There is more to be said about Rachel and the lessons I've learned in the past few days. But, I honestly just can't. My heart hurts for her husband and their families. And, us.



This is my friend Rachel, and she was awesome. See?-here and here; awesome. She will be missed every day by many people. I wish you could have met her.

Good-Bye December

I usually love December. Christmas is my favorite time of the year, even more so now that we have children. I love all our traditions, the lights, the songs, the anticipation. This year, I felt a bit off. I was just getting in the groove when the terrible tragedy occurred in Newtown. I couldn't think. Not for days. I couldn't process it. I'm not going to write about the tragedy because I still can't form all my thoughts. I don't have words for the pain and anguish those parents and families are going through, the trauma the survivors will face...it's too much. Many others have written more eloquently than I could. I tried keeping things normal for my kids (they still don't know, just that we've been praying for families in Connecticut who need our prayers), but I know they'll never be normal again.

We had a typical crazy, fun, busy Christmas season. We had another American Girl explosion and are capping off December with a short trip to our Property. I've already had to clean up squirrel poop from a squirrel who was apparently pooping his little pea brain out as he tried getting out of the cabin. I hate squirrels. On the upside, no mice. hooray. Sigh.

So, Good-bye December and take your pooping squirrels with you.

Friday Favorite- Life of Leisure

I've spent the past week enjoying time off in between jobs. What a blessing. I've done all most the errands I never have time to accomplish. Did you know that grocery shopping on a Tuesday mid-morning goes super fast?! It's freeing. More importantly, I've gotten to eat lunch with my girls, read to the class, and be there to pick them up after school. I've really enjoyed spending those little bits of extra time with my girls. I know the end of my free time/life of leisure will be here all too soon. I'm really trying to relish every free minute I get. I've also learned a lot-there is a whole sub-society of school moms and their understood ways of doing things. Whoa. Eye opening. The only drawback so far has been trying to ignore all the Halloween candy calling my name. I need to go and try to cross some more items off the TO-DO free time list (and avoid bite sized candy bars)! Have a great weekend.

My current (but quickly going away) Life of Leisure is my Friday Favorite!

Harry Potter Party- Class Schedule

Before I forget (like I did with her Nancy Drew party last year), I figured I should document my daughter's Harry Potter 8th birthday party. I have to say that this was one of the most fun themes: 1) because we are big Harry Potter geeks, 2) because the Internet is literally full of thousands of great inspiration parties. It's so easy! The only hard part was deciding what to do since my girls were full of TONS of ideas.

We started in the Owlery. The girls were supposed to make owls by gluing feathers on Styrofoam balls. They ended up just sticking feathers into the balls in weird alien ways. Oh well, at least they seemed to have fun. If I did it over again, I'd plan better and follow this tutorial for felt owls. I even have a ton of felt I could have used-grrr. Crafter/Party Planner's remorse. Sigh.

Wand Selection- I made the wands after googling and went for the easiest option. I ended up using dowels (I already had a bunch lying around), dripping hot glue over them, and spray painting with regular spray paint then with some glitter spray paint I had. My mom played the role of McGonagall and gave them wands after the sorting hat ceremony.

Potions Class- my dad played the role of Dumbledore and he was excellent. I wish I prepared more experiments for the girls/wizards. I really liked the experiments from this party and used two of them. My dad showed the young wizards Liquid Enemies (above) and then everyone made Exploding Elixir. It was a big hit.

While the girls were working on their potions, I took pictures of each girl in the Harry Potter Photo Booth I made inspired by this Sirius Black photo prop. I repurposed the Barbie photo booth- I knew that huge box would come in handy.

Defense Against the Dark Arts- I drew a bunch of evil monsters, trolls, etc, and had Hagrid (my husband) equip each wizard with a fighting potion (silly string) and they just went crazy. Silly String is part of each of our parties now; I have to find a way to work it in. The girls love the Silly String fights. It was funny to see my husband running around with a giant Hagrid mask, trying to see where he was going.

Divination- we gave the girls color changing drinks to tell their future. I think the colors we used were: Blue for Loyal Friend, Green for Fame, Yellow for Smart and Hard-Working, and Red for Love. I was most excited that I could use my horrible Craft Fail as part of the decoration in this room.

Of course, we ended with a trip to Honeyduke's sweet shop. The girls got to try Bertie Botts Every Flavor Jelly Beans (yes, that even included flavors like dirt and vomit) and Butter Beer. I found the jelly beans and butter beer at a local candy store-they just got them in that week. thank goodness for a late September birthday! Note- I bought a couple Bertie Botts and mixed them with Bamboozled jelly beans to save on costs and little tummies.

I didn't get pictures of the two classes I was in charge of, so here's the whole school schedule: Owlery-owl craft and goody bag decorating
Sorting Hat Ceremony
Wand Selection and Readiness
Potions
Pictures
Divination
Herbology-paint flower pots and plant seeds
Horcrux Hunt- scavenger hunt
Defense Against the Dark Arts-Silly String Craziness
Honeyduke's

We planned on playing Quidditch at the end of the party, but it was just too hot. I decided to just turn on the first Harry Potter movie and let them chill out for a few minutes at the end of the party-being a wizard takes a lot of energy.

In case you are wondering, our goody bags included the "owls" they created, flower pot and plant, wand, candy and a Harry Potter themed cookie.

Harry Potter Party -Exhaustion

I'm suffering a bit-exhausted from planning and hosting a Harry Potter extravaganza for my daughter's 8th birthday.

 The owl balloons were part of the birthday invitations we delivered. So cute. My favorites yet.

The owlery-the project that didn't quite turn out as I envisioned. That's 8 year olds for you; they have their own ideas. As long as they had fun-that's what counts.

I think everyone had a good time. But, I'm wiped. Also, a little ticked by one family who didn't RSVP, dropped their kid out of a running car (with no hi, or hello to us) an hour into the party, picked up without a word of thanks, and didn't even bring a gift for the birthday girl. Plus, the kid kept trying to ruin all the potions by telling everyone what she "knew" the "real" ingredients were-NOT my favorite kid. Ok, apparently I'm a lot ticked by them. Grrr. The party as a whole, though, success!

The End of Summer

Our Summer list is sadly complete. The girls had fun making the list before Summer started (we cheated a little by adding a few new things to our list after our beach vacation!) and crossing things off all summer. *Our entire list is not pictured-we had a lot of things on that list.

Today was the first day of school. I now have a first and a third grader. I have no idea how that happened. I might sit in a corner and cry. I can't since I have to fill out a thousand forms with the same information-Why? WHHHHYYYY must there be so many duplicate forms every single year?!

The Beach!

School starts next Monday. Next week at the office will bring me more work than ever-really dreading that. I'm a beach girl at heart and needed to feel the sand between my toes. We escaped for one last hurrah. Even though it didn't start off as planned- courtesy of flash flooding and fleas, it's been pretty great so far. Lots of beach time, playing in the waves, and just sitting down and playing games. A week of slowing down and enjoying; ice cream before dinner; staying up late; and even petting a (baby) shark.

 My views today-I took my iphone to the beach and didn't even check email.

The only work I want to do-helping the kids (mine and our friends' little boy) build a ditch from the water to the blanket! A lot of sand in between the toes- just what we all needed...I'm so relaxed that I don't even mind too much when my husband wants to watch hunting on tv!-I lied. I still mind because those shows are B-O-R-I-N-G no matter where you are!

Friday Favorite-Cookie Monster Call Me

My girls (and I) love to sing the Carly Rae Jepsen "Call Me" song. I'm sure you've seen several different parodies. But, have you seen Cookie Monster singing "Share It Maybe"? Well, now you have.




Cookie Monster-My Friday Favorite!

Barbie Party-Activities

We've set the scene with a great invitation, next up decor (oh, the decor). Say you invite 9 little girls (plus our 2) to a birthday party and they all accept, you better find something to occupy their time. One of the moms remarked that our birthday parties always have such fun activities. Oh, the pressure! Here's what we did, which kept all our little dolls entertained and happy.

1. Barbie Design Studio

Intended to be an actual Barbie dress decorating station. You go ahead and Google "Easy to Sew Barbie Dress" because I did. But, you now what? Those websites LIE. Sewing a Barbie dress is a huge PIA. Let's just say that sewing Barbie dresses for 11 dolls was not going to happen. Enter Plan B. We had an awesome invitation that included paper dolls. I decided to print out a bunch and have the girls glue, color, sequin, marker the dresses. WIN!

2. Pin the Bow on Barbie
Hi-larious. No photos because I was too busy laughing!

3. Barbie Beauty Salon

Make-up, mess, great fun. Word of advice, if a 5 year old offers to give you a "Make-over", I suggest politely declining. Their make-up jobs were...interesting. The ponytail holders were part of their goody bags.

4. Barbie Story & Pass the Present

I got each girl a Barbie and wrapped them identically to pass around the circle. The two with ribbons were the ones my girls selected ahead of time; being the birthday girl (and her sister) should have some benefits. Each time the story said "Barbie," they passed the gift. At the end of the story, each girl got a doll. Which was all very! exciting!! Little secret- since my girls had no Barbie dolls prior to this party, I had no idea how much Barbie costs these days. I thought each doll was around $3. HAHAHAHAHA! Basically I spent every night for several weeks scouring eBay and the city of Houston for the cheapest Barbie dolls I could find. Oh, the irony of the mother who wouldn't buy Barbie dolls out buying 11! Anyhow, they LOVED the game.

5. Bash Barbie-just kidding pinata time

At the request of the birthday girl. Self explanatory. NO, I did not make the pinata.

6. Barbie Blow-Out
We had to scrap the Silly String. It was just too wet. It rained on and off all weekend. Heck, it's been raining for months now. (Not complaining, we are still recovering from last year). Rain and silly string doesn't match up really well.

7. Pictures and Playtime
I was thisclose to turning on a Barbie movie when I realized, "Hey, the kids are playing. Quietly. Let them play Barbies." And, it was good.

Party Time-Barbie version

It's no secret that Barbie is not my favorite toy. Prior to Sunday, my girls didn't even have any Barbie dolls (they had Disney Princess dress-up dolls, but I don't count those). Of course this meant that M was obsessed with Barbies. OBSESSED. For the past year, she's wanted nothing but Barbie stickers, books, and the holy grail-a Barbie doll. I held her off as long as possible. Until it was time for her to pick her birthday party theme.

Of course M wanted a Barbie theme. It's her party, so she got what she wanted. Well, if we were going to have a Barbie party, it was going to be a retro Barbie. I found this doll on Gilt and made that the jumping off point for the whole party. I have to say that the party was a lot of fun to plan, decorate, and watch. There are lots of great Barbie parties on the internet-hooray for good ideas. I'll compile the hits of our party over the next several days for the next party planner looking to host a classic Barbie party!

Yes, I made the cake. At least my cake decorating skills have improved!

Monday Musings- Camp Edition

Things I have learned from my daughter's first sleep-away camp:

1) I'm pretty sure that the camp told the girls to roll around in sand. I have approximately 10 tons of sand in my washing machine.

2) I also found a couple lanyards, a friendship bracelet, a mood ring, and a nickel in the washing machine.

3) The camp had this whole list to determine "Is your daughter ready for camp?" Notably missing was- Is your daughter a big baby about bugs? One of Em's tent mates (let's call her Allison, since that's her name) was deathly afraid of bugs. At a camp in the woods. Where the girls slept in tents. Apparently Allison's antics made the entire tent late for most activities, etc.

3) Em came home with her dirty laundry in the specific laundry bag we packed. Hooray! And, her clean clothes underneath her wet towels and muddy tennis shoes.

4) I have done more laundry than I thought possible.

5) At least Em wore all the underwear we packed. The first time my brother went to Boy Scout camp, he came back with 5 clean changes of clothes (including underwear) from a week long camp.

6) They teach the kids a lot of camp songs. Ask me how I know.


7) Em used her camp store money to buy a little trinket for her sister. Awww

8) She might have been (very) dirty, but she was happy.


Now to prepare for next month's camp!

Tuesday Thoughts

I missed Monday Musings because I was musing, musing a lot about my baby away at camp. Oh my heart. I take full credit for any angsty mommy feelings I have-I caused them all. I brought up the idea for camp, found the camps, packed the bags, paid the money, etc. My 7 year old is at her first sleep-away camp. She's at the same Girl Scout camp my sister and I attended when we were little. I know she's having a great time. I know she's far too busy to write home. I'm just having a hard time adjusting to life without her (even for a few days). I've had that little voice and smile around for seven years. Being away from her is hard. (Seriously, sniff, mah baybee) The camps have all these questions about whether or not your kid is ready for sleep-away camp, they should have had questions for the parents! My daughter would leave for college now if she could, little Miss Independent. I've got to suck it up to prepare for her leaving for a two week camp in July. Eep.

In other news, I signed my younger daughter up for a theater day camp. She's got quite a flair for performing and literally sings all the live long day. I thought it would be nice for her to have a special camp while her big sister was away for her camp. I could not have imagined how perfect the theater camp would be for M. To say that M loves theater camp is an understatement. I think she's found her calling. It's as if all the lights turned on for her and they are all Broadway lights. I'm glad, but y'all, there are stage moms at this camp. I do not understand-it's a half day camp for 4-6 year olds, is it really that big of a deal?! Geez. Being a pushy stage mom is not in my genetic material!

It's been a weird few days, watching my independent girlie become even more independent and watching my little one shine in ways I couldn't have imagined. Oh, and planning a big birthday bash that makes me think of this phrase "My colors are Blush and Bashful." "Your colors are Pink and Pink." More to come on Blush & Bashful. Let's just say the party I'm working on was one I never thought I'd host. The things we do for our kids (see above).

Monday Musings

Not one for the traditional baby book- My youngest daughter said her first curse words this weekend. Lovely. At least she waited almost six years. Let's just say there was no debating where she heard it, ahem, HUSBAND.

My husband's birthday was this weekend. It should surprise no one that he received a bag of pee. OK, technically, it was urine- pig, deer, and raccoon. It actually was pretty darn funny. But, still...my husband got a giant bag of pee for his birthday. I married Ted Nugent.

Emily brought me Trader Joe's Mini Peanut Butter cups. She's pretty much the best ever. Today my boss gave me a bag of Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Covered Pretzels. Trader Joe's opens in a week! Best Week Ever!!

We took the kids to the movies yesterday and saw a mini trailer for "Despicable Me 2." The movie producers know their market well, my 5 year old thought the trailer was the most HI-larious thing she has ever seen.

The wedges I posted about Friday are Amazing. I've worn them 3 days in a row, for three separate events, and they are perfect each time. That Princess Catherine can pick a good shoe!

Two of my design decisions (that my husband does not like) were featured on "Property Brothers" on HGTV. I believe that means I'm officially designer-y. I tried using the show to prove that I'm right. To which my husband replied, "Yeah, well, another HGTV designer put moss on walls." So, yeah...

Monday Musings

I think my husband is messing with me (more than usual). Exhibit A: he has recently started leaving the toilet seat up at night. It's like he WANTS me to fall in. Exhibit B: He calls me Friday, "I'm at the cupcake store." Me-"Great. Um..., are you buttering me up for something?" Him-"I need the name of a good divorce attorney." Me-BLINK. Him-"For a friend." No Kidding. Not funny. OK, slightly funny. Mainly mean, but slightly funny.

My kids are out of school for summer. I wish I still got a summer. Wouldn't that be awesome?!

I don't understand the point of French manicures. Why not just paint your nails clear or light pale? Also, I've been to France. I've never seen one actual French woman wearing her nails like that. Why not just call it the "American Manicure"? So called French pedicures confuse me more.

There's been a lot of media coverage on the Queen for her Jubilee. I'm glad to see all the interviews, but I have yet to see the one interview I really want-Princess Catherine sharing the secret for her super shiny, super awesome hair.

My two girls look so much alike. We regularly get asked if they are twins (nope-2 years apart). But, Em is fastidiously clean and put together and M is quite possibly the messiest child I have ever met. She ate a cookie the other day and one of my friends said it looked like a "Smurf exploded all over her." Ha. How is that possible?

Afro Circus Hilarious

I would normally keep this to highlight for a Friday Favorite. But, these youtube videos are too funny not to share immediately. I found these this weekend and we have laughed ever since, with "Mommy-Afro Circus PLEEEEEASE?!!".



Even funnier, the multi-language version.


Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

A Pool with a View-Texas Style

We used the long weekend to put a pool in at our "ranch" property. We have a pool at our house and thought it was past time we put a pool in at the property. Look at that great Texas view; we hate to waste that during the hot Texas summers.

It's the same type of pool that ranch and farm kids have played in for years. My mother, a rancher's daughter, had one growing up.

Oh, you expected a real pool? Ha. Not happening for years...unless we win the lottery. It's a galvanized feed stock tank and I have to say, it works really well. It fits the four of us with enough room for a rowdy game of "Marco Polo." Plus, it adds character to our little piece of property. Why buy an inflatable pool from a store when you can get a galvanized feed tank from the farm supply store? 

Monday Musing- School Lunches

I was so proud when I taught both my girls to pack their lunches before school started last Fall. I thought I was so smart. I patted myself on the back. Then, they took their sweeeeet time making their lunches. It would routinely take them 30 minutes to make their lunches. Don't ask me, I have NO idea what they were doing either.

Today it dawned on me. Require them to make their lunches BEFORE they get dessert (lunches are made after dinner each night). Ding-ding-ding-WINNER. It only took me 10 months to discover the key. Well, at least next year they will be quick about making lunches!

Those of you who don't yet have kids, that's free parenting advice for you. Be ye not so slow.

Family Time-The Property

We get asked, so "What do you DO at the Property?"

Well...

We pick flowers.

The girls picked these for me

Em calls these the "Lorax Flower."

We Fish.

We haul a TON of limbs to burn-no pictures of that, I was too busy dragging limbs everywhere! By "we" hauling limbs, I mean me hauling limbs. While somebody (my husband-ahem) was off hunting and checking traps. 

We use that fire for s'mores. 

We (I) hope and pray there are no mice or scorpions in the cabin. 

We discover that M can make pitch perfect hen turkey calls.

I go for long runs on country roads. 

We make family time.