St. Patty's Day

St. Patrick's Day

 There kids were excited to see what they would find. 

 Did that tricky leprechaun play any tricks  or  leave any treats?  

No leprechauns found in their trap, but he did leave some green M&M's trailing around their room.

He somehow managed to turn our milk green , which Ethen thought that was great.

Each found a green plate with chips, a drink, lucky charms cereal and a rainbow of water colors to paint with. We made green shamrock pancakes for breakfast and drank the green milk. 

Dinner was even better. We had green eggs, deviled, ham, green mashed potatoes, salad, and green fruit. The kids had a fun time.

Ethen really wants to believe that there is a leprechaun, but he is pretty skeptical. He keeps asking if I'm the leprechaun, and he found some of the left over snacks and chips in the cupboard too.  Now he's asking about the tooth fair and the Easter Bunny. He's pretty sure it's me even though the girls and I try to persuade him other wise.  He's just too smart.

" Be a good little Monkey"

It's all about that Monkey!  Ethen is in love with Curious George. Around Halloween, he discovered the cute, fury monkey and 5 months later he still can't get enough. He will sit and watch it all day long.  So it was no surprise when he said he wanted a Curious George birthday party.  His last two birthdays where quite elaborate and a lot of work to put together.  But I love spending time  making  my own decorations and games. It keeps me busy and allows me to have a creative outlet. But this year  I decided to go simple.  No big ta-due and kept it a family celebration. 

I expected to find  a lot of ideas on this theme, but  it was not as popular as I thought it would have been.  This theme was used mostly for first birthdays. Not quite the age group I was going for.

 I loved the red and yellow color scheme and just went off that. 

I printed off coloring pages for the kids to color and hung those up. Made a plain yellow, red, and brown birthday banner. We had a ton of red balloons that we later played a game with a popped them. The one pintrest decor idea that I really liked was the man with the yellow hat, using plates and cups. 

Ethen is such a picky eater. I was not sure what we would have for his birthday dinner.  But he has just started liking pizza recently.  And we all love pizza .  He also wanted cupcakes and ice cream too. I made these awesome monkey cupcakes that were so incredible easy to do.  They look so cute. Chocolate chips and Nilla Wafers. 

I have been looking for an excuse to try my hand at cake pops. They look really good and quite simple to achieve. Or so I thought.  I had everything I needed, except for the stupid sticks. My pops became cake squares instead. The whole process is a little more time consuming than I like. And it really becomes quite messy and frustrating without the use of sticks. My kids loved them despite the novice look. They did taste good, but man it's too much sugar even for me and I have a sweet tooth. 

                                              

                                   

 Here is the whole ensemble.  

 It ended up just being the kids and I. Scott had to work a late shift at the hospital, but we did have a neighbor girl invite herself in to take part in our games, opening presents, and finishing off most of the desserts.

 Ethen picked out his birthday present from Scott and I a few days prior. A Nerf gun with 10 Styrofoam bullets.  Everyday was battle to not give into his fits about having the gun NOW. He promised he would wait.  I got so  tired of trying to explain he couldn't have the gun until his birthday. 

And waiting all day before opening the package from nana and papa was hard too.

Curious George book, pillow and PJ's. 

The pj's are way too cool. He wears them every night.

Some good friends gave Ethen a Geotrax train set that there boys had grown out of. Every time  Ethen goes to their house to play this is what he loves to play with. He loves it. We have been playing with this for hours.

Happy birthday Ethen, your're finally four. Your growing up so fast and keeping me on my toes.

I love you way too much!

valentines day

So here I am again playing catch up. I take a lot of pictures on my ipad, but they never seem to make it to my blog.  I really need to do better about getting  things posted. 

I went to pintrest and found so many fun ideas for valentines day. And like always, there is so much candy to be had. I tried to find some fun ideas that were treats, but yet not just chocolate and candy. But what is valentines day without chocolate? I ended up  putting together little personal M&M bags and a "I have a Crush on you" drink. Scott loves Red velvet cake! I found these limited addition  valentines, Red velvet Oreo cookie. They really were not that great. I think we will stick with the plain or mint. Each of  the girls found a Littlest Petshop toy and a word search book. Since Ethen broke our last one, he got a new fishing game.

 For Christmas, I was given this really cute scrapbook kit. It was a valentines theme and I couldn't wait to use it for the special occasion.  I had fun putting it together with Ethen's help. He picked out the colors of paper and stamped the red hearts.   We made a pretty good team. Our little treat bags turned out pretty good.