My Secrets To A Great "Boy Party"

Our oldest, CJ, is turning 6 on Wednesday.

Cuh-raze-eee! 

To celebrate, we had a "boy party", per his request. 

(You'll note in the pictures that two girls were present. One is CJs sister, Miss Mak, the other is a friend to play with Miss Mak when the boys inevitably ganged up on her.)

When it came to activities for the day CJ only asked that they play Legos and wrestle. 

I found the request strange and also figured those two things alone were not enough to keep the crew busy for three hours so I added a few things of my own. 

The results were rather low-key but still a lot of fun so I thought I'd pass along some experiential wisdom gathered today...

Step 1: Have plenty of water on hand. If you mix dirt with that water, even better!

Step 2: Be on guard. You may or may not get wet.

Step 3: Water your newly seeded grass during the party. This provides unintended but long lasting entertainment.

Step 4: Bury gummy worms under a mound of whipped cream and send them digging using only their mouths.

Step 5: Expect some confusion about your WANTING the kids to get messy.
"It's okay to get dirty, bud, mom's not here."
"But I don't know how!!"

 Step 6: Hope for at least one clear winner.

Step 7: Also anticipate that some weirdos may not enjoy whipped cream or gummy worms and request that they provide the "in-game-entertainment". This guy gladly  did so with his "on-demand" burping.

Step 8: (Not pictured) Have your laundry room ready and waiting to do one load during the party.
Step 9: Provide Legos and be delighted when the party-goers give you a chance to clean up as they quietly exercise their little engineering minds.

 Step 10: Purchase at least two bottles of Diet Coke and a pack or two of Mentos.

And finally...
Step 11: End the party with a round of "arm-farts" that are done with such vigor that everyone's faces turn purple.

You're welcome. 

Calendar for Tots

Oma and Opa went away for two whole weeks and promised my kiddos a special lunch upon their return.
You can imagine how many times I knew, over the course of those weeks, I'd be hearing "Are Oma and Opa back yet?!"
Maybe you've experienced something like this when your kids are looking forward to visitors, parties, or vacations.
I'm here to offer you an INCREDIBLY simple and helpful tip that will save loads of questions and get the kids excited about the upcoming festivities.

Cut white printer paper, notebook pages, or construction paper into strips long enough to create links.
Signify a big event by picking a brightly colored page or ink.
On each strip, write a date starting and continue writing dates on the strips through the date of the event, being sure to starting the numbers over if you cross over from one month into another.
Each morning, have your little ones tear a link off the chain.
That's it!
After the first day or two they'll likely not need to be reminded to tear a link off the chain and you'll find that they'll inform you of what's going on and maybe be your reminder for events you tend to forget about.
It's quite handy, really!

 

Additional Tips: 
- Encourage number recognition as you create the links by writing dates on each strip, jumbling the strips, and having your kids put them in order as you staple them into links.
- For your kiddos who read, write general scheduled events like soccer practice or field trips so they can keep track of what they have to look forward to.

On a related note...  Only 27 days until Thanksgiving and 54 days till Christmas!

Homemade Catapult

 

 

As is often is the case, this is not Krystle original idea. I actually found the link for this guy here at Random Scraps which sent me to Spoonful for directions. I noticed that Spoonful didn't offer any pictures with their directions so I took some pictures as I went in case any of the steps were confusing or if you're a visual person like me. Hope it was worth it for you!

Happy Thursday!

DIY Building Blocks

Do you remember the cardboard bricks that only the best church nurseries and day cares had?
I loved those things and thought they might be something CJ,  Miss Mak, and Bean would like too.
<enter my inexpensive solution with big impact>

This was the perfect time of year to start our collection as boxes flowed in to our house with the Christmas gifts. Each time the kids opened a gift that came in a box we tested the sturdiness of the box and if it passed the stability test we set it aside to wrap in wood grain contact paper which we purchased from Home Depot for about $7 a roll. The set we ended up with took three rolls of contact paper and we love the result! 

They were easy to put together and the kids love them just like I had hoped. One of the great things about the set we created was that we picked the box sizes we wanted and so we are able to make castles and forts that Hubs and I can fit into with the kids. 

{Miss Mak the princess and CJ the ferocious fire breathing dragon}

{the princess showing the dragon who's boss}

Looking back we should have given this to the kids for Christmas and saved ourselves some work finding other gifts but our pain is your gain as I highly recommend giving this a shot if you have builders in your home. You can start saving boxes now and have a huge stash for next Christmas!  

 

 

And... if you're not up for making boxes or don't have access to larger boxes, my sister was able to find sets of 40 for our kids for Christmas from Melissa and Doug. They are smaller but also much sturdier since they have cardboard supports in the middle whereas our boxes are empty and can't have weight put on them and smaller size means easier to store. {Another painful lesson learned.}

Happy Building!

Clearning Nasal Congestion

First off... I don't know how the past week whizzed by!
I cannot believe how much more quickly time seems to pass with each kid we add to this family.
It's IN.SANE!
So anyway... after all this time I have so much set aside to share and yet I have found something to trump it all.
Something I think every parent of little ones, from newborns to toddlers and maybe older, should go purchase.
I mean NOW!
I mean, after I tell you what it is...

My sister gave it to me for Nugget this Christmas.
Thankfully, he has had some minor congestion at night due to our dry house (I get it too) and so I put it to use as soon as I got it home.
This baby works!
It's called NoseFrida the Snotsucker and yes, the picture is correct, you literally suck the boogers out of your kids' nose with this little baby. (Don't worry, there's a healthy sized filter between you and said boogers!)
It cleans way better than a the good ol' nasal aspirator and though the suction is stronger I feel as though the process is much gentler. I've used it every night since I got it. After dropping a couple of drop of saline water into Nugget's nose and massaging each side, I place the mouthpiece into my mouth, the other end at little guy's nose and begin to suck away.
So strange.
So gross (I couldn't do it with Hubs in the room, I was afraid to laugh and blow air in instead of out).
But so good. 

Pantry Rescue for Bored Boy

CJ is four.
He gets bored easily.

He loves to build.
Pantry to the rescue!

Marshmallows and toothpicks.
That's it!

Happy Thursday!