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My Disney Side Party

Thanks to Disney Side @Home Celebrations for my awesome box of party supplies for my #Disneyside party! With all these snow days we’ve just been off of our schedule for weeks, so I decided to keep it simple and do a playdate. Actually, I did a playdate and a pre-playdate the night before plus a few other random things throughout the week.

The first evening we had some friends over and the kids played the disney bingo and won prizes from our Disney prize bag – I used the stickers, balloons, bracelets, tatoos, and bumper stickers. A couple of the kids that were going to come ended up not being able to come as planned but we still had a great time! We had spaghetti for dinner and monster cupcakes in our Mickey Mouse cupcake wrappers.

The next morning we had our playdate. There were 6 kids total, we decorated T-shirts, played Disney bingo, colored our race posters, ate more cupcakes, and let the kids play.

I had traced mickey and minnie pictures onto the shirts before the party so all the kids (or moms) had to do was color them in. We all had a blast! I think the moms had more fun than the kids did coloring!

I don’t have a color printer or a photo printer so I gave away all the photo card paper at the party, and it’ll definitely get used. People were pretty excited to get to print their own pictures!

Only a few of the kids wanted posters so I had a few posters left over after the party that I sent to my sisters for Valentines day.

The next day me and the kids made our Mickey Mouse cookies and shared them with some friends we had over. The cookies turned out great and the kids had a great time decorating them! I finally figured out a good sugar cookie icing recipe (water, powdered sugar, and food coloring – when it dries you can stack the cookies without the icing sticking) so now I just need to nail down a good sugar cookie recipe. My recipe was ok but I’ve had better.

We’ve had so much fun showing our #DisneySide with our Disney @Home Celebration box!

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If you Give a Pig a Party

Hopefully everyone is familiar with the children’s book “If you Give a Pig a Party“. If not, you’ve probably heard of  “If you Give a Pig a Pancake“, it’s by the same author and has the same basic story. We acquired it in a Chick-fil-a kid’s meal one day and I can now quote the book (and probably draw you all the pictures) by memory. Basically, the premise is if you give a pig one thing, he wants something else, if you give him something else, he was something else again, and on and on.

There are just some things in life that I do that remind me so much of this book. And it’s frustrating and amusing all at the same time.

For example, my 5yr old had been asking for a pet for ages, and my husband kept talking about getting fish or a bird, so, one day at a yard sale I picked up a 10 gallon fish tank for $5. It had colored pebbles and lots of little rocks and accessories. My husband is all excited, we clean it, and he sets it up. About $100 later we have all the right filters, lights, etc. and my 5 yr old dutifully feeds the fish every morning.

We have 3 guppies, two males and one female. So…the female has babies, at least 30 babies. That’s a LOT of babies for a 10 gallon tank.

So, we get a 55 gallon tank and my husband and his brother build a cabinet (which still doesn’t have doors – so the baby gets into it all the time) for the fishtank. So, we fill up the fishtank and $200 later we have mostly the right lights, filters, bubbles, plants, and fish.

We let the tank sit for a few days then my husband starts moving fish from the small tank to the big one, the small fish tank was supposed to be put away before our Christmas party (which was a week and a half before Christmas). Well…both fish tanks are still up. The larger tank has an algae problem so he can’t move all the fish just in case they start dying. Which, we’ve lost a few fish, but we have over 10 guppies still so I’m really not at all worried about them. They’ll probably be having more babies soon… The moral of a story, don’t buy a fishtank!

Or, once my kids discovered their first barbies and polly pockets it just snowballed from there. They also discovered that said toys can be easily acquired at yard sales and Goodwill. Now, they have a room full of them! To be fair, they do play with them every day so it’s not a huge deal, but I am beginning to think that I should get rid of all the rest of their toys so they have more room for their dolls. Never buy that first barbie for a girl who loves pink, dresses, and lace unless you really want your house to be overrun by them!

Oh! and, my husband has recently discovered the fun of purchasing items on Craigslist. He purchased a copy of Rocksmith and decided he needed a guitar. He purchased 3 guitars on Craigslist (sold one of them so we’re down to two). How does Craigslist work at my house? I sell things and he buys things. I think we come out even in the end. Actually, hopefully, one of these days I’ll get around to trying out the game myself!

None of this stuff is bad, I’m glad the kids have their toys and my husband has his hobbies, just some days, I wish it all took up less space in my house!

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Sleep

So, what is the definition of a good night’s sleep? Seems like it changes every few years. I was reading an old health book the other day and it said 12 hrs a night was needed for an adult. I thought it was 8? And is 8 hours of interrupted sleep enough or does it have to be uninterrupted. As the mother of an infant, I’m definitely getting interrupted. What I considered a good night’s sleep before kids is way different than what I consider a good night now.

Someone posted an article the other day on how nursing a baby at night is so good for your baby. That’s nice, but how about some sleep for me? (actually, I sleep while I nurse at night). I saw this awesome nursing timer for using in the middle of the night, it lets you know when it’s time to switch sides so you know how long the baby’s been eating. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve woken up over an hour after I started nursing and found the baby sound asleep in my lap. (no worries, I know this happens so I make sure my arm is well supported with a pillow and the baby can’t go anywhere when I fall asleep)

The advice to “sleep when your baby sleeps” is great advice, but I’m not sure how I’m supposed to do that with two other little kids as well. I’ve tried it, and the house turns into a disaster zone while I’m snoozing. Or, better yet, they decide to join me in bed. I’m remarkably good at sleeping through things like i-pad games, dvds, and spilled beverages. (in the days before kids I also slept through tornado alarms, fire alarms, alarm clocks, and who knows what else).

So, what is a good night’s sleep? For me these days, it’s getting at least 8 hours and only getting interrupted once. And somehow, my day seems normal after a night like that. Even having to get up twice to take care of kids in the middle of the night isn’t too bad…

I compare this to my days before kids when I was getting 9 to 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep and if something woke me up I was so tired and grumpy the next day.

I remember as a teenager calling my mom in the middle of the night (1 am, 2 am, something like that) and talking for over an hour because I’d just had a really bad day. For some reason, mom never seemed to mind. I never understood, how was she not totally irritated that I’d woken her up?

As a mother with 3 little ones I finally understand, if my kids need me, I’m there for them. It’s ok that it takes me 3 cups of coffee to wake up in the morning. I still prefer my full night sleep, and 1 cup of coffee in the morning. But I know, there’s just those days when I’m needed, and when I need to be there, I’ll be available. And the truth is, I really don’t mind. (like these last couple of nights when the baby is teething, or last week when the girls were up sick, I know they need me and it’s all ok).

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Disney Side

I’m so excited! I received a bunch of free products from Disney Side @Home Celebrations to host my own #Disneyside party!

First of all, people started getting their boxes weeks ago. And these boxes had some awesome stuff in them! So, I was eagerly awaiting mine. Well, it was scheduled to be delivered Tuesday. And guess what happened Tuesday? Snow, enough snow that UPS didn’t deliver. So, I had to wait till Wednesday. Very impatiently wait, I might add.

Here’s a bunch of party supplies, Mickey Mouse themed plates, cups, napkins, cookie cutters, table cloth, bracelets, stickers and tattoos, banners, and craisins. There is also Disney bingo, Disney posters, HP Photo card packs, Disney vacation planning DVD, measuring cups, recipe cards, and Hanes white t-shirts with fabric markers.

And, a very special hostess gift. An American Tourister suitcase and Mickey Mouse luggage tag. I saw pictures of other’s suitcases and some were getting black with red, pink, and green. I’m not a pink or green suitcase person so I was really hoping for the black and red. Which is exactly what I got. WooHoo! I’ve really been needing some new luggage and I’ve honestly never owned a piece of luggage quite this nice before. Now, I just need to plan a trip…

Back to the party, my kids are so excited! I told them we would have a playdate with friends and we can decorate t-shirts and cookies and have disney themed snacks. I haven’t planned out my menu yet but expect pictures of whatever I come up with!

Thanks again to Disney Parks and MomSelect for all this awesome Disney party stuff!

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Walking on Water

Last week I talked about my difficulty with “setting out” and I talked about a song “Oceans” that I loved. The song to me, is a reference to Peter walking on water. So, the other day, I was really excited when my 5yr old’s Bible lesson was about Peter walking on water. I was like, last Sunday we sang a song about walking on water, last Tuesday I wrote a blog post about walking on water (really it was on setting out, but same thing), and today we’re studying Peter walking on water. Pretty cool. Not sure where God’s taking me with this, but you have to step outside the boat sometime, right? (actually hanging my foot out and testing the water with my toe sounds better, but we’ll get to that in a minute)

So, I’m always telling people how similar my daughter’s personality is to my own. And, one of the things I love about teaching my child the Bible is seeing the story from her perspective. So, some things to know before I describe her opinion of Peter walking on water. My daughter asked Jesus in her heart shortly after she turned 5, so months ago. We often discuss what it means to have Jesus in your heart and how she relates to others and circumstances because of that. My husband and I have agreed that her faith is genuine and we will allow her to take communion next time she is present with us for that, and we have begun discussing baptism – she’s terrified of water on her head so we’re not pushing it because this needs to be something she does when she’s ready but we’ve started dialogue to help her understand why we do it, what it is, and what it means.

Anyways…all that to say, I have a lot to work with when we do our Bible lessons. So, I’m excited about Peter walking on water, it’s one of my favorite Bible stories. It’s a story about faith, and trust, and doing the impossible. I start by telling her about this big storm, and all the disciples including Peter are out on the lake on the boat and they’re scared. So they see Jesus walking on the water coming to the boat. At this point, she thinks that’s pretty cool that Jesus can walk on water. He’s Jesus, so he can do anything!

I continue on by telling her that Peter sees Jesus and says “I want to walk on water too!” and Jesus tells him to “come on out!”. At this point my child states that “that’s crazy” (you see where I’m going with this now). I kept on with the story and told her about how Peter walked out on the water, he was actually walking on the water because you see, Jesus can do anything but with Jesus in our hearts we can do anything too. She looks skeptical. So we continue on, Peter looked around at the storm clouds and the big waves and he got scared and when he got scared he started to sink so he cried out and asked Jesus to rescue him. Jesus came over and pulled him out of the water, placing him back on top of the water and they walk to the boat together.

I think I did a pretty good job telling the story and emphasizing that with God all things are possible. However, my 5 year old’s opinion was. “if I was Peter I would have stayed in the boat, I might have sat down and put my foot over the side and put my toe in the water” (thought she seemed doubtful that she would have even ventured this far, the boat was obviously much safer)

I was shocked, what child doesn’t think walking on water would be awesome? Apparently mine.

But then I realized, actually, I agree with her, putting my foot over the side and swishing it in the water while remaining in the safety of the boat sounds like a pretty good idea to me. If I don’t like the water I’ll just pull my foot back into the boat and we’ll be done with the water. When I tell people my child is a lot like me, I’m not kidding. We seem to have the same automatic opinion of “setting out” or “walking on water”. We just like the boat better.

But, you know, when Jesus calls you out on the water, it’s important to go.

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Setting Out

Numbers 9: 23a “At the command of the Lord they camped, and at the command of the Lord they set out…”

Numbers 9 is talking about the Israelites traveling in the wilderness and following the cloud. When it lifted they followed it, when it stopped they camped.

Now, I’m not a big fan of change. And one thing I’ve learned about life, is that there’s always change. Babies are born, children get older, my kitchen is clean one second and dirty the next, children learn to read, children learn to walk, people get married, etc. We’ve had lots of changes this year, and as we just passed our 8 year marriage anniversary I’ve been reflecting on all the changes in the past 8 years. Change is good, you don’t grow without it, but sometimes I just want to sit still, rest, and have no change. (maybe that’s why I like yoga so much)

Some changes are harder than others. Some changes I even welcome. My oldest is learning to read, it’s SO NICE having a child who can almost read in the house! My baby just started crawling, while I rejoice in this next stage in his development, I also mourn that I must now put the baby gate back up in front of our steps – I’ll be climbing over that thing for the next year or so. (actually, I’m really happy he’s crawling, now he can follow his sisters around without requiring my assistance). We’re outgrowing our house actually, really, I think we have outgrown it. We’re looking for a new, larger house. Which is so sad. I love my house. We bough a foreclosure that needed work and things are the way I want them, we re-did the bathrooms, kitchen, flooring, doors, and even the roof. If I wasn’t running out of room, I would be happy to stay here forever. We’ve begun the house hunting process and it’s no fun. My husband doesn’t like the price, I don’t like the layout, it’s in the wrong area of town, it’s ok but not great, and on and on. It’s a good thing we don’t have to move anytime soon as this house hunting may take a year or so at the rate we’re moving. Added to that, we need a new car. I have 3 kids stuffed in the back of an SUV, so far we’ve determined that we need a van, we haven’t agreed on how many seats, how much we can spend, or even when we can purchase one. (if you haven’t figured this out already my husband and I both take a long time to make decisions, he has to research a lot and I have to come around to being ok with the change). I really like my car – actually, I really like my husband’s car but it’s way too small for 3 kids in the back – if only BMW made a 10 passenger van!

With a child in school – I’m homeschooling btw – things are just busier, I’m more tied down to a schedule because we do school every day. I’m loving that she’s learning but it’s changed everything. I’m having to evaluate what activities I have time for and what, if anything I need to drop.

Since the birth of our 3rd child I just feel that things have been constantly in a state of movement. New baby, oldest starting school, need a new house, work is busy (I freelance from home), etc. It’s a bit overwhelming.

As my husband was reading the girl’s devotions the other night he read this verse and it just made me pause. “At the command of the Lord they camped, and at the command of the Lord they set out…” What if they had just decided to stay where they were, there’s water, we already pitched the tent, we’re comfortable here?  Then Sunday we sing this song called “Oceans“. I love the whole song, especially the first line “You call me out upon the waters, the great unknown where feet may fail”. “At the command of the Lord they set out” Even if they didn’t want to set out, they still set out. Just like Peter set out to walk on water when Jesus told him too. I probably would have looked at the water, and at the boat, and said, “nope, I think I’ll stay right here, I know the boat is safe”. But, what if once, I just quit evaluating the circumstances for myself and “set out”? I wonder what would happen?

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Lots of Theories

I commented to my husband the other day that first time parents (and those without children) have a lot of theories but experienced parents have no theories at all, just lots of practical advice. He thought it was funny.

But, really, it’s true. We share all our helpful tips for surviving life with 3 or more little kids and laugh at each other’s stories and no one feels compelled to tell anyone else how they could have done it better, we’ve all been there and we know how it is. We may give practical suggestions if we have them and if we don’t have any practical suggestions we just laugh and share our own funny story.

For example, I was complaining about how hard it is to get the straws clean on those Take N Toss cups with straws because the straws fall through the silverware basket in the dishwasher. She pointed out that she just leaves the straw in the cup lid and sticks them on the top rack in the dishwasher…brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that? That just saved me 5 minutes washing dishes every day! Actually, my middle child likes to chew on straws so she ruined all my straws by chewing on them. I just threw them away and started buying the red striped disposable straws. I notice when I was at my friends house the other day that she has also switched to the disposable straws, she must have had the same problem I did. You’ll note though, not once did we discuss our theories for getting our child to stop chewing on all the straws, we just switched to disposable. Very practical.

And the question of how to keep your kids from waking you up at 5 am convinced that it’s morning. I tell my oldest 2 that they can’t get me up until it’s light outside. The’ll play barbies in their room for an hour waiting for it to get light and then come get me and ask for hot chocolate, and a host of snacks for breakfast. There’s no, “you just tell them to stay in their room and punish them when they don’t” talk, we discuss how we explain to our 3 yr old in a way that they can understand when it’s considered “morning” and they are allowed to wake us. One of my friends uses a timer on her kids lamps and when the lamp turns on they can get up. Another mom just sends them back to bed if they get up too early. And someone else just has them join her in her bed until it’s time to get up. But, not one of us is convinced that our way is better than the others, it’s just what works best for us and our kids.

And potty training, we all just smile and nod. So which candy did your child prefer? Did you use a sticker chart? You still using pullups at night? And then we launch into our most embarrassing/funny stories thus far. My kids love public restrooms. If they even think there might be one at a store they instantly have a need to go to the bathroom. The other day, I was shopping with the kids and headed into a dressing room. My girls were ecstatic, I had, without being asked decided to go into a public restroom. I had to leave my two sweaters with the nice ladies running the dressing room and take my kids to the bathroom and then come back to the dressing room and try on my sweaters. Now, I don’t try on a lot of clothing with all three kids along so up until this point the girls had not realized that there was such a thing as a dressing room at a store. According to my kids, next to public restrooms, dressing rooms are the greatest thing ever invented by stores. And our Sam’s has a child sized sink in their bathroom. Thanks a lot guys… I have to plan an extra 20 minutes in Sam’s just so the kids can go play in the sink. (they always have to urgently go to the bathroom the minute we step into Sam’s).

And the number of times our kids have removed their clothing at inappropriate times, and said things we just didn’t want them to say…don’t even get me started…we all just smile, laugh, and know that that’s just how life goes.

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Learning

The other day I pulled an old Kindergarten book of mine out of the drawer and added it to my Kindergartner’s stack of schoolwork for the day. Now, we have about 4 lessons left in her Kindergarten Hooked on Phonics so I’m about to order the First Grade set even though we’re only halfway through her first school year. So, I know she can read my old Kindergarten book, it’s 3 and 4 letter words, two to three sentences per page, and a picture to help. She’s read just about every one of these words in her Hooked on Phonics book, and the words she hasn’t read she knows how to sound out.

I hand the book to her and she takes one look at it and announces that she can’t read it. She’s convinced that because it’s a different book than what she’s used to it’s simply not readable (I am aware that this is a problem, she thinks she can only read her hooked on phonics stuff so my goal with this book is to prove to her that she CAN read other books and I waited until I was sure she could read this book pretty easily before handing it to her, I need this to be an easy success so I can get her reading other books). I informed her that she only needed to read the first page, it’s two sentences and about 8 words total. Pretty easy. It takes FOREVER to read that page because she’s convinced she doesn’t know the words, yet she is able to sound each of them out and read the sentences. The next day I have her read the second page, which is again two sentences and about 8 words total, this goes much better since she’s beginning to realize that she can read the book. The third day she reads the third page with practically no help, and then the fourth day she decides that she’s just going to read the last 3 stories in the book in one day because they’re so easy! After we finish the book I point out to her that this is book 1 (it has a big 1 on the front) and that I have book 2 for us to read the next day. She’s so excited because she loves stories and she’s realized that she can read these books that I’m handing her, chances are she’ll try to read all of book 2 in one day.

I knew she could read the books and I know what words she can sound out and which ones she needs help with (we’ve covered long and short vowels but haven’t learned things like “oo” and “st” yet) so I’m not expecting something she can’t do. She just thinks I’m asking her to do something that is impossible.

My oldest child reminds me of myself so much. I was reminded of how I reacted when I found out I was pregnant with her.

My husband and I had been married for almost two years, I had three months left of college and I wasn’t working at the time so really we were in a pretty good situation to have a baby. Only, I wasn’t ready for a baby. My brother-in-law was living with us at the time (was supposed to be 3 months with us in our 2 bedroom apartment and had been almost a year), I was heading into my Law School finals with terrible morning/all day sickness, I was really looking forward to getting a job when I finished school, and I didn’t want kids yet.

I’m the oldest of 8 kids and I had told my husband before we got married that I would probably want a child or two eventually but I did not want kids for quite a while. He would have liked a baby sooner but he was willing to wait for me to be ready. When I got married my youngest sister was 5 – she was my flower girl, so you get the idea. I know babies and young children, I grew up with them. I really wanted a few baby free years.

I was not happy to be pregnant, I was pretty certain the timing was all wrong, and I told God that I really did not think this was funny at all, seriously, I’m enjoying my “Hooked on Phonics” books, let’s just stay here for a while. I’m sure he does things like this to me because it’s funny – not a mean, malicious funny, but like how I felt trying to convince my 5 yr old that she can read a book that’s almost too easy for her. It is funny, why is she resisting so much, if she would just do it she would realize how easy it is…

I finally got over it when my baby girl arrived (by this time we had bought a 3 bedroom house and kicked my brother-in-law out, and I had successfully finished school), and I really felt like my 5 year old did when she realized that the book I handed her was something she could read, I wasn’t lying when I told her she could read it.

I’m the oldest of 8 kids, I grew up with babies. My Pediatrician probably thought I was the craziest first time mom ever. I never had questions, never freaked out over anything, and was very laid back about this whole parenting thing. But, really, what do you expect, the only thing I had to learn how to do was nurse, other than that, I’d done this baby care thing many times. I remember being actually bored with my first because I had so much free time after she arrived – she slept so much and I had no school, no work, and a clean house. I can just see God laughing at me and saying “I told you, you know how to do this”. (really, I think that if our society liked kids more, large families would be more normal, and there would be a lot less of this “freaking out over the first baby because I don’t know what to do with a baby” syndrome, but that’s a different topic for a different day)

Now, I have 3 kids and plan to have a 4th eventually (it’s like the stack of books hidden away in the drawer, once she found out she could read the first one she’s ready for the whole stack). I will admit, the third child threw me for a loop (plus my oldest started kindergarten and we’re homeschooling so imagine an infant and homeschooling for the first time! Scheduling Crisis!!!), I remembered the craziness that comes with multiple young children (I grew up with this, remember) and I’ve accepted it. Seven months in, we’re finally settled in, and my house is never clean. But, I honestly feel like I’ve just graduated from the “easy readers” or “I Can Read” as her books are titled to something a little bit more robust like a good mystery and I can’t wait to see what the next chapter holds.

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Resolutions

The new year is arriving and it’s that time of year when people like to make resolutions for the coming year. I’m really not a resolution person myself, I just think it’s stupid to make a resolution for the sake of making a resolution, which resolution you manage to keep for less than the first month of the new year. Really, if you’re going to decide to do something, commit to it, and do it, regardless of the time of year.

That said, I find that January is a great time to evaluate progress and make some goals. Resolutions, not necessarily, but goals, definitely. I look at it this way, I can resolve to kiss my husband every time he walks in the front door and when I break that resolution I’m done- with 3 kids I’m probably breaking that resolution sometime in the first week since I can’t just stand there at the door and wait for him to come through it. But with a goal I allow myself more space to create areas of growth.

Spending more time with my husband this year is a good goal since I’m struggling to find the balance of marriage and kids since the arrival of my third. Goals are less easily laid aside because my goal is to spend more time with my husband or to better understand my husband this year. Or, put another way, I want to see our marriage strengthened. Now, within that goal, I/we can set up ways to accomplish this. Maybe that means both of us agreeing to kiss first thing when he gets home from work, or maybe that just doesn’t accomplish anything for either of us and we need to focus on something else.

But, just announcing a resolution without any real plans to back it up just seems like a waste of my time. So, my goal for New Year’s Eve, spend some time, while we’re waiting for the new year to arrive, planning and discussing our goals for this coming year. (no worries, I’ve had this evening planned for months, I’m fairly certain we can accomplish this, and if not we’ll do it some time soon…)

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Merry Christmas!

Actually, Christmas is tomorrow, but I’m not blogging tomorrow. So, Merry Christmas a day early!

I love Christmas! All the traditions, tasty food, fun presents, Christmas music, and time with family!

With all my cooking skills you’d think I would have a food tradition on Christmas. My family always ate grapefruit halves with maraschino cherries in the middle, corned beef hash, and poached eggs. Some years we may have had waffles or toast. And, of course, coffee. I still drink the coffee in the morning but only me and the 5yr old like grapefruits, I’m the only one who will eat corned beef hash, and only me and the 2yr old like poached eggs. So, no using my family’s traditions for Christmas morning food. I’m working on a new breakfast tradition for us, I just haven’t found anything that works yet.

The train set every Christmas morning I did get from my family. We have a rather large geo-trax set that we set up every Christmas Eve after the kids go to bed. (which is actually rather late after we go to the Christmas Eve service, eat dinner, and open our Christmas Eve present). And then we trip over the train track for the next two days until I put it all away to save it for next year. The kids love it and it keeps them entertained while I fix breakfast – because I like breakfast before we open presents.

We’re doing an advent calendar this year with the kids and really loving that. The kids are excited every night to see what’s in the next pocket and I’m happy that we’re reinforcing the Christmas story all month.

So, regardless of your Christmas traditions, I hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas!