Valentine Treats

Pinterest has ruined changed my life.  There were so many cute ideas and printables for Valentines Day notes.  The kids chose the designs they liked best and we printed them and made some really fun Valentines.    Having a son and a daughter means they both want different things.  Surprise!  Lucy chose the "You Rock Valentine" printable for the boys and the "I'm Bursting With Happiness You're My Friend" for the girls.  I had seen the "Extra" one on the site as well, but then I couldn't find the pin again.  I had to make one on my own.  It wasn't hard to make, thank goodness. 

Lucy's Valentine Choices

Tyler also wanted the Pop Rocks Valentines and the Extra Valentines for his teacher, but for the girls he wanted something a little less pink and friendly.  He thought the "Fish In The Sea" print out was very plain and didn't send the wrong message to any of the girls.  Silly kid.

Tyler's Valentine Choices

The clear goody bags were purchased at Target.  There are 50 to a pack for the smaller bags.  The Valentines were printed on cardstock and hand cut.  Then we just stuffed the bags with Pop Rocks, Starburst, or Swedish Fish and stapled the cardstock to the bag.  They were fairly easy and turned out pretty cute.  However, I do believe that we've set a standard for ourselves and will have to continue this year after year.  No more store bought Sponge Bob or iCarly Valentines for us.

Um...Are We Nuts?

Are we crazy?  Do we WANT to get divorced?  What are we thinking?

We decided to try and play soccer on a co-ed team together.  This has to be nuts.

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!  In our house we use any excuse we can to eat junk food celebrate and buy little gifts.  Thanks to Pinterest again I found some cute labels to put on candy and give Zach a little treat.  The kids got some love notes and sweet treats.  Nothing too exciting.

This right here, though, was VERY exciting.  Zach drove out of his way to get me this Cupcake flavored Popcornopolis popcorn that I REALLY wanted.  Like really.  He does love me. 

Valentines Day is supposed to be for lovers, right?  Well, these kids take up space in my heart and make my world go 'round, so they are my Valentines too.

But, if we're celebrating little lovebirds, then I want to celebrate this kind of love.  Big smooches and just going for what you want. 

Pennies for Patients

Each year at Tyler's elementary school they have a fundraiser called Pennies for Patients.  The kids are to empty their piggy banks (if they want) or ask family, friends, and strangers (not really) for change for their bucket.  Tyler wanted to earn a TON of money for the cause, so we came up with the idea of making cards and selling them for whatever price people wanted to pay. 

He's a pretty creative little dude, so he took some of the ideas that people gave him and made cards or he made up some ideas of his own.  He ended up earning $125 in donations on his own.  Pretty awesome!

The principal, Mr. Stewart, made an announcement to the whole school that he would shave his head and dye his hair blue if each class raised $100.  Well, the whole school did do that and Tyler was able to help with the dyeing process since he did such a cool thing and earned so much money.  Pretty proud Mommy moment.

The Newest Member of the Family

After Barkley passed away we were going to be a one dog family.  Things were going so well with just BB and she was able to go everywhere and she was just the best dog ever.  Ever.  And then Zach discovered duck hunting and just HAD.TO.HAVE a labrador retriever.  He found the one that cost the most had the best hunting lines and reserved her.  Pepper has been costing us warming our hearts since day 1.

 Sweet, sweet kisses with that puppy dog breath.  This might be the sweetest thing I've ever seen.

In all honesty, I really didn't want another dog.  I didn't want to spend the money, have the responsibility, do the potty training, deal with chewing and destruction, get up at night any more than I already do, and find one more thing to give attention to.  But, she's pretty dang cute and I fell in sort-of love with her pretty quickly.  (As a side note, since I'm writing this blog WAY behind...don't ask me how I actually feel about her this second in time...)

The other family member that we had to worry about was BB.  Would she like her new little sister or be just as annoyed with her as Jenn is now?  The progression of their relationship is below:

First Meeting

Getting To Know Each Other Slowly

Finally Getting Snuggly

Full On Playing and Becoming BFFs

It must be rough being so dang cute.  Zach bought Pepper this duck toy on the first day he got her.  She LOVES this toy and chews it daily.  Almost to the point of wondering if she has an obsession with this duck.  She's a duck dog for sure.  And she seems to like shoes, and stuffed animals, and soccer gear as well...

Good Morning Sweets

We don't drink coffee in our house.  Well, we didn't until Zach bought a Keurig...but mostly, we don't drink coffee in our family.  So, when I saw this cute cup o' milk recipe in Family Fun magazine I thought it would be a fun (and warm) drink to try.  I mean, the coffee cups have to get some use, right?!

Here is the recipe - Melted Frosty

Strike A Pose

Lucy turned 5 in style.

Portraits By Kristi

The After Party

Most really good parties have after parties, right?!  Well, we just had a really good party, so it seemed in order to have an after party.  Technically it was a pre-planned family party, but we'll just pretend that our party was so awesome we had to keep it going.

Lucy continued with the diva persona and pretended to be a rock star.  She had just gotten that outfit from the Allen family and wanted to try it on.  It sure looked cute on her.

 Happy Birthday To You, Happy Birthday To You...

 ...Happy  Birthday Dear Lucy, Happy Birthday To You!

 And then the party took a turn...and it was time for everyone to go home.

A Party Fit For a (Drama) Queen!

For the BIG F-I-V-E Lucy wanted a party fit for a (drama) queen.  She had been to a party in December (Gabi's Fashion Fete) and wanted to do the same kind of party, but with the amount of girls that she wanted to include it was going to be more cost effective crazy to have it at home.  So, after scouring Pinterest and everything Barbie, we came up with a plan for the BIG party. 

Pinterest provided lots of ideas for cute cookies, cake pops and vases, and cakes.  That website is trouble fantastic!

 My neighbor makes bows, and this being a fashion party...and wanting to help her business, I decided to make the goody bags a bunch of pink jelly beans with a bow (and business card) attached.  They turned out really cute.

 During Christmas one of my favorite cookies are the peanut butter cookies with the Hershey kiss in the middle, so this was a cute variation on that cookie.  In hindsight, we probably should have done sugar cookies with the "hugs" in the middle, but we made strawberry cake cookies instead.  They still tasted yummy enough to eat at least five a few.

One of the fun ideas we came up with was to get a red carpet (thanks to Kirsten Tremble and her parents) so that the girls could do a photo shoot and pose.  Lucy was the model as Matt Molinari set up the photography equipment.  He had to get it just right, because we were dealing with models here...

The girls would have their choice of sunglasses (Barbie brand of course), feather boas, jeweled rings, necklaces, and bracelets.  All of the most important accessories!  After the accessories are chosen, they got their hair done, their nails painted, a little make-up applied, and then their photo taken.  In other words...they were treated like queens!

 The girls (Haley and Bailey) had a good time choosing their extras and getting all dolled up.

 Sophia and Lucy look fancy!

 The birthday girl and her modeling shot.  The photos turned out really awesome!

 We were able to mostly get all the girls to look at the camera and sit at the same time.  (Can you see all the feathers on the ground?!)  We had quite the turnout at the party.  We probably could've made it the Project Runway:  Mini Version for a theme.

 Tyler and Bobby "crashed" the party.  They dressed up like rock stars, turned on a song, and then did break dancing in the middle of the living room.  The girls crowded around the boys and were cheering.  It was epic!  Everyone, but Lucy, thought it was quite fantastic.



Five years ago on this day my life was chaged forever.  There is a bond between a mother and a son and I was already lucky enough to have that with Tyler, but I never knew how special it would be to have a little girl.  She might make me scream and want to cry on a daily basis.  She might have attitude bigger than any rock star or diva.  But she also has the biggest heart, the brightest eyes, a smile that will light up a room, and a kiss so sweet you'll never need candy again.  She is my little girl and my heart and soul.  So, happy birthday Magoo.  On this day you deserve to be the Birthday Queen!