First Day of Summer

Rain, rain and more rain. For the first few days of summer vacation it just rained. So we did what any fun family would do and played in the rain, hung out in pajamas, watched movies (Harry Potter marathon), played video games and built forts. It was awesome. I am so grateful that I get to be home with them this summer. I think they really needed their mom back.

Jack is super serious about pillow forts between the couch and ottoman. 

Cozy Coupe Ferrari

I found an amazing tutorial on Pinterest remaking a Cozy Coupe car a few months ago.  I loved it and immediately thought it would be a great birthday present for Jack.  Molly at Just a little Creativity created the cutest blue and green little tykes car and I was smitten when I found it and even more smitten when I found one on Craigslist for $10.


We happen to be Formula1 fans.  I love Ferrari and Fernando Alonso, the big boys however are Red Bull fans and happen to like Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.  So what did I propose to make for my little guy?  That's right, a little red Ferrari.  When we watch the races I make sure to teach the little ones how to say Ferrari or Alonso...more fans for my team!


I followed Molly's directions to take the cozy coupe apart and clean it and tape off the areas I didn't want to spray paint.  I however did not remove the door. Once it was clean and dry I spray painted it red (2 good coats using 2 cans) and then placed my Ferrari stickers on.  I had Dale print off Ferrari logos onto sticker paper.  I would highly recommend buying stickers specifically meant for cars if you want them to be super durable otherwise you may have some stickers come off if you don't use a ton of clear spray paint to coat them, or you have a Regan, or you leave it outside in direct contact with weather.  


The sticker areas have all done really well except for the cut out Ferrari lettering it says something more like Fe  ra  i.  Regan attempted to wash it with soap and a scrubber and of course her brute strength.  The Ferrari logos on the front, back and seat are all going strong and have been through rain, mud, sun and a two and three year old.  Jack could care less about the lettering and really so could I.  He just drives his Ferrari car.   

He was so excited!  My car car!!!!

Later he put his new Elmo in the back part and drove him around.

Who needs to be dressed if you are driving in the house?

I'm sure Alonso won the European Grand Prix last weekend because
Jack was driving his Ferrari too.   

So go rescue a sad looking old Cozy Coupe and make it look really awesome!  I really want to do a fabulous, sparkly pink one for the girls now!

Elmo Birthday Party

This year I whipped out the Elmo cake pan.  Ethan and Ellie both had Elmo parties for their second birthday, and I know that Regan will either be grateful or resentful that hers wasn't.  I was Elmo'd out at that point.  I probably could have done any boy theme and Jack would have loved it.  If it moves he likes it!  When they are little I keep it really low key and just family.  It's easier on me and they don't really know anyways.  There were a few things I knew I wanted and I just went from there.

For decorations I wanted things to be simple and easy to clean up.  For the birthday banner I printed off flag templates at Martha Stewart and decorated them like Elmo's World with loops, yellow scribbles and blue letters.  I let go of my perfection and let Ellie color the yellow background and cut them out.  I did the loops at the top and wrote the letters.  We tried having her do the loops, but hers ended up crooked and after 3 or 4 tries and we both wanted them straight across so she let me do that part.  She was really just looking forward to the cutting part.  I used orange curling ribbon to hang it.  I went to the pet store and got a plastic (yay for plastic!) round fish bowl, rocks and "Dorothy" for the table.  I put a glitter covered "2" in her bowl, just like on Elmo's World.  Jack loved Dorothy.  It was less than $15 which is pretty cheap for a center piece!  I printed out Elmo coloring pages and out those out with a jar full of new crayons.  I also had goldfish crackers in a round bowl to snack on.  I found an Elmo shirt on clearance at Wal-Mart (I know I caved) for $5 in the junior section and  used it on the birthday chair.  I had intended to turn it into a pillow but I have been finding it harder to sew lately.  I used a red tablecloth, balloons and cups with orange plates as big "Elmo noses".

Since it was also Father's Day we made a lunch out of it with hot dogs and bratwurst.  I know I won't be able to combine the celebrations forever so I figure I better do it while I can.  Sorry for the poor picture quality, these were not my best!

Dorothy seemed really interested in Elmo.  The 2 candle will float if you try to
just stick it in, so my husband shoved some wire into the bottom of it in the
shape of an "s" so it would stay down and be covered by the rocks.

Printables, crayons and goldfish- the kids loved it!

I watched A LOT of Elmo's World to get those colors right, LOL!

His new Ferrari, here is the tutorial!

Fire Ellie! 

They had to hold him back so he wouldn't blow it out until after the song, he
had already blown it out once!

That's all!  Simple, fun and the kids had so much fun making his day special.  The big kids had made gifts for him and took such pride in giving.  Jack lighted up with his "surprise" face with every gift and each grandparent.  Love my not so little family and watching them grow!


This week:
Cozy Coupe Ferrari Tutorial
Summer Fun and the Outdoor Pirate Ship
Things I learned at The Color Run

Easter Fun

Well we ended up having a pretty fun Easter.  The kids woke up to Easter baskets and a note from the Easter Bunny.  He commented on how pretty our dyed eggs were and told the kids to ask their parents to hide eggs in the backyard for them with the leftover candy that he left for us in the kitchen.  I don't even know how he gets away with this stuff, I guess when there is candy involved my kids don't care how it got there.

When the grandparents came over Dale and I hid the eggs in the backyard.  Ethan and Ellie got special camouflage and green eggs and were hid in harder places.  The little ones were hid on the ground.  There were rules like, for the first 10 minutes you can't help each other or tell the other where their egg is if you see it and if you peek while mom and dad are hiding your eggs you have to forfeit your candy to them.  I'm way better at hiding eggs than Dale is.  Or maybe I'm just meaner!

Game on!

Jack was really into it this year!

When their 10 minutes was up they started helping each other.  And this pic made me realize Ethan has a farmers tan.

Candy Break.

My Easter dress from 1990.  My Grams made it for me.  Loved seeing  Ellie in it, she is looking so grown up lately.

Regan lasted about 5 minutes.  Once she had about 6 eggs she went back inside!

We got Wendy's for lunch and had a pretty relaxing day.  One of the best Easter's we've had.  We decorated our eggs with googly eyes and sharpies.  I had already blown out our eggs awhile back.  Did you know that you can do that?  Blow your eggs out and make scrambled eggs, wash the insides out and put them in a carton.  Then you are all ready to go when its time to decorate.  Blown out eggs can be kept for years!  My mom has some that my brother made when he was a kid, 40 years ago!!  We watched movies and played outside and ate candy.  Easter was fun!

April Ten on Ten

Yay I remembered it was the 10th!  I completely forgot in March.  Pretty uneventful day, but a beautiful one nonetheless.  Have you been to A Little Bit of Sunshine and linked up to Ten on Ten?  You should!!  And if you are reading me from Rebekah's beautiful blog, welcome!

8am- Hey Mom! Easter is over!  Put us away before someone else gets cracked!!

9am- Yeah that time is way off.  I'm almost never awake at 6 a.m.

10am- Apparently she can't do her gymnastics with her brother up there too.

11am- Lunch is grilled cheese.  It's good for you if its on whole wheat right?

12pm- A little more jumping before nap time.  The sun came out!

1pm- The red door in the backyard project.  I WILL finish by the end of May.

2pm- Shhh!  Don't tell them but I go in their tree house to read during nap time!

3pm- More projects.

4pm- Snack time on the trampoline.

5pm- Rule #1 you don't talk about Fight Club, unless it's laundry day.

Join me tomorrow when I show some pics from the little ones Mud Party.  I am a whole lotta fun.

Friday Randomness

It has really been the craziest week and a half ever so here we go...

My mom found out she has Rectal Cancer.  They caught it early and it hasn't spread.  She still has to have surgery to remove an area but its pre-Stage 1.  Hallelujah.  This was her second cancer.  She had and beat non-Hodgkins Lymphoma when I was three.  I cried like a baby when she found out.  I mean she has cancer for the second time!  She was as cool as a cucumber.  I can't begin to tell you how happy I am that her ass cancer isn't going to kick her ass.  I love my mommy.

I was four days late and my IUD fell out.  Another Hallelujah that my "friend" came.  I was slightly  completely freaking out at the possibility of having five kids.  Thankfully my doctor is really fabulous and fit me in really early this morning and all should be good.  I love my Vagina Doctor.

Last Friday we had a vasectomy.  It went great by the way, Dale is a trooper.  It looked extremely painful.  He is my hero for taking a needle and stitches in the bollocks.  And I totally muahaha'd when I did the first cut.  He didn't care because he had a Valium before it started.  Yay for drugs and yay for the best husband EVER!

Jack has decided that sleeping through the night is stupid so he quit doing it.  I am really tired.  Regan has been getting up nearly every morning around 4:30 and getting dressed.  Thankfully she goes back to bed but it still wakes me up.  When do they start sleeping in?  I won't miss being woken up multiple times in the night.  In fact when they start sleeping in on the weekends I'm going to join them.  It's going to be great.  Ellie is the only one who sleeps in right now, she scores some major mom points with that one.

I signed Dale and I up for two 5K's.  First one up is the Rooster Day Run in May and the second one is The Color Run in June.  It's going to be awesome.  If you are in the Broken Arrow/ Tulsa area you should sign up too.  I like this whole running and getting skinnier thing.  I also love it that my husband wanted to join me and even cooler that my older kids wanted to run with me.  Look out world here we come!

Spring Break starts in less than two hours.  It's going to be the best Spring Break ever.  Mostly because I totally rock.  We are going to attempt homemade Nutella.  We are also going to build our garden and compost area.  I can't believe how excited they are.  Ethan is going to a basketball clinic and Ellie is going to art classes at the Community Center.  Ethan's Star Wars birthday slumber party is next Friday and I'm pretty sure its going to be the coolest birthday party ever.  And I get to be Princess Leia again, word.  He still doesn't know we're going to a Thunder game on his birthday.  Dale and I are going to be the best parents ever!

And that just about sums it up.  I would love to have that Tutu Tutorial up but its just not ready yet and I don't want to give you a half ass tutorial, especially for something that should cover a butt. And because I think you deserve to laugh, here is what happens when Jack discovers his sisters are taking a bubble bath without him...

Yes those are his pajamas.  I guess he wasn't clean enough the first time.

He was rather proud of himself for beating me to the bathroom and getting in the tub with his sisters.

January 2012 Ten on Ten

I fully intended on posting my Ten on Ten on the tenth, but instead we took the older kids to a skating party and by the time we got home and got everyone in bed there was no way I was plopping down at the computer!  By the way, you should totally go couple skate with your husband, its fun and makes you feel like you're 15 again.

7am Best thing to wake up to.

8am Crock Pot Baked Potatoes, dinner prepped and they were really good

9am-I put Tangled on, he loves Maximus and I think he's crushing on Rapunzel

10am- Made some new play dough

11am- Still play doughing and I made a Pascal

12pm- A good book before nap. Gosh I love those Classic Golden Books

1pm- My partner in dish crime.  Love looking at this while I do dishes.

2pm- Coffee time?

3pm-Awake and making music.  They love this Kitty Piano

4pm- Fresh baked bread for dinner, oh gosh its yummy!

Check out other Ten on Ten posts at A Bit of Sunshine.  And if you didn't do it this month get on board in February.  My goal is to do it every month this year!

The Aftermath

We're in it, the aftermath of 3 Christmases.  Which at first was really overwhelming Sunday night when we brought in the massive amount of things from the grandparents but with a bit of work and rearranging we are on the path to sanity again.

Thanks to the FlyLady we are cleaning things up 15 minutes at a time.  What would have taken me alone 30 or more minutes (like picking up the living room) only takes 15 minutes because I have willing kids, ready to help.  They know that I will only ask them to give their all for 15 minutes at a time and that when the timer goes off we will take a break.  All of us.  I'm on a break right now!  We made a list of the rooms that need to be cleaned up and we work on them, 15 minutes at a time, until they are done.  Sometimes we go back and forth between different ones and sometimes we work on the same one until its done.  If we finish one before the time is up, we get bonus free time.  It is amazing what can get done in so short a time.

So if you are feeling overwhelmed today with all of the CHAOS (another FlyLady term meaning Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) then set your timer and work 15 minutes at a time.  Then take a break (set the timer for that too!) so you don't get burnt out.  FlyLady has REVOLUTIONIZED my life and my house and while I'm still learning to FLY I am happier, healthier, skinnier and more organized than ever before.  Did I mention I have 4 kids....me now, compared to 2 kids, well I can't even compare it!  And there goes the timer, time to grab these kids and get at it!