Weekend Recap

This week was FULL of sunshine and celebrating and I mean - can you really ask for more than that???  Saturday morning Luke left for the lake with my dad, Mason and Dave headed to football practice and Griffin and I headed out to dance, the grocery store and a bagel run :) 

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, friends!!!  The following picture accurately depicts my mood about it being the weekend...

... because WHAT A WEEK!!!  Spring Fever is REAL and it is alive and well on our middle school campus.  You know that I love and adore middle schoolers buy HOLY MOSES has it been nuts this week.  I'm pretty sure 80% of them have lost their ever-loving minds.  ;)

Grad Gift Guide

I've had multiple people ask me if I have any stellar gift ideas for upcoming graduations and so I hit the streets (and by streets I mean I texted Anna Grace and asked her to ask her friends and asked for ideas on my Instagram stories) and have the best of the best for y'all today :) 

At the very top of everyone's list was gift cards.  Gift cards, gift cards and more gift cards.  For the campus bookstore, for Target, for restaurants near campus, for gas, for the grocery store, for coffee... pretty much college kids need money :)  Anna Grace said that one of her favorite gifts was a gift card to a coffee shop really close to campus that lasted her almost the whole semester. Moral of the story?  Kids love a gift card!

I think the way to make a gift card seem less "impersonal" is the note/card that goes with it - "Dear so and so, I'm going to miss our Chipotle nights... here's a gift card to enjoy some on me!"  or "You're probably going to have some late nights and early mornings so here's a Starbucks card to keep you going - can't wait to hear about all your adventures!"  or "I can't wait to see pictures of your dorm room! Here's a Homegoods card to help you find some fun accessories".  You get the idea :) 

Other ideas were...

O-Venture Key Ring

I'm going to admit that I had no idea what this was.  Apparently I've been living under a rock.  

What's Up Wednesday

Happy Wednesday, friends!  Today I'm linking up with Shay, Sheaffer and Mel for What's Up Wednesday...

Griffin's "Hippie Cat" Party

Today I'm so excited to share the details of Griffin's fifth birthday party with y'all!  Party planning/decorating is one of my very favorite things to do and I had a BLAST putting this one together.  Several months ago I came across  a roll of wrapping paper with cats wearing flower crowns  on it and I fell in love. (I found the wrapping paper on Etsy originally and then found additional rolls on Zulily!)   She LOVES kitties and the print was whimsical and unique and so I decided to run with it (PS - Griffin's party requests included cats, pink and Playstreet... EASY!)

Case of the Mondays :)

We partied (and party prepped!) HARD this weekend and while I had good intentions for the blog today ultimately Sunday night snuggles (and grading #allthepapers) won out.  Back tomorrow with party details!  HAPPY MONDAY, friends!!!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, friends!!!  Erika ,  Narci and I are sharing our FAVORITES this week and we'd love it if you'd join us by grabbing our graphic and linking up with us at the bottom of this post.

Party On

We've been partying on like nobody's business over here.  Mason's party was last Sunday, his birthday was Monday and Griffin's was Tuesday!  It's been a FUN few days!

Mason's party was on Sunday and Fieldhouse took care of EVERYTHING (yes ma'am!) except for party favors and the cake.  Since it was a sports themed party I ordered these little ball rocket things (that's totally the technical term), these candies and some eye black and then topped it off with a topper I made in Photoshop.  I assembled them during dance class on Saturday and was done quick!

Books Lately

If you've read here for a while then you know I'm a sucker for kids books.  S.U.C.K.E.R.

I think I've mentioned this before but we institute "quiet time" around here in the summer and what that involves is a one to one and a half period of time in the later afternoon where EVERYONE goes to their rooms and you can do whatever you'd like as long as it's quiet.  It's typically like 2:30 - 4:00 and after a morning of pool time (typically) we're all ready for some downtime.  They play independently (I don't let them play in each other's room during quiet time) and most of the time they end up either playing Legos, falling asleep or reading and typically they end up staying in their rooms beyond quiet time because they're having a good time.  This is usually where I try to read, take a nap or just enjoy my lunch in peace and quiet ;)  All that to say - having a good stash of books is a vital part of quiet time at our house and the next few picks will be PERFECT for summer reading.  

My kids current favorite books are non-fiction books that are packed of cool information and I love having these around to help build their knowledge base. 

The Street Beneath My Feet is SO COOL!  As the title implies, it goes into detail about what's going on under the ground and my boys can't get enough of this book...

Happy Birthday, Griffin!

Griffin Joy is FIVE and I seriously can't believe it.  I mean - on the one hand she was JUST a baby with a big ol' flower headband on but on the other hand she says things some days that sound like she's 12 :) 

Happy Birthday, Mason!

Mason is SEVEN today!!!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, friends!  I'm currently riding horses with 8th graders on a trip to the McDonald Observatory and will be making the LOOOONG (10 hr) bus ride home today.  So first up on my list of FAVORITES are my ear buds, blanket and pillow :)  

If you have FAVORITES to share you should join me, Erika and Narci by grabbing our graphic and linking up with us below.

After I put Easter away I wasn't QUITE ready to retire this tiered stand so I switched out a few things for some mugs, measuring cups (that were a gift from Luke and he's TICKLED that they're out!) and a candle. 

Lefty Tips

We noticed from a REALLY young age that Griffin was most-definitely left-hand dominant. 

Amazon lately

I had so much fun sharing the randomness that came to me via Amazon last month that I decided to do it again!

Here's a sampling of what's been arriving at my house lately...

Mason's birthday party is this weekend and I'm out of town chaperoning a school trip for the majority of this week so Amazon Prime has been saving my tail.  His party is going to be at an indoor sport facility and they're going to play dodgeball and flag football and I thought that  these eye black stickers would make for a fun party favor and photo op :)  Each boy will get a set to wear at the party and then an extra set in their favor bag when they leave.

Birthday Interviews

Last year around the kids birthdays I asked them each a series of questions and pieced it all together in a video.  I loved it so much I decided to ask them the same set of questions this year as well so we could look back and see how much they've grown and changed over the last year.  

I had the BEST time putting this together and think it will be a treasure for them as years go by.  

You can check out last year's video below if you have a few extra minutes :)

Happy Tuesday, friends!!!

Weekend Recap - TCU and Family Fiesta

Happy Monday, friends! I feel likeI say this every weekend, but we could really use an extra day just to recover from all the fun we had the last two day :) 

Let me set the stage by saying that Friday was about 80 degrees outside.  Then a huge storm came through complete with hail, high winds and a tornado warning.  We woke up on Saturday morning and it was below freezing.  Perfect weather for a TCU spring game :) 

Friday Favorites

  Happy Friday, friends!  It's the first Friday in APRIL which is blowing my mind!  Summer break is around the corner and we are getting antsy over here!

I'm excited to share my FAVORITES with y'all and if you have FAVORITES to share you should join me, Erika and Narci by grabbing our graphic and linking up with us below.

Birthday Mantle/Balloon Arch

Since Easter was so early this year and I was going to be taking my decor down after April 1 anyway I decided to kick off "birthday month" in our house by making a really festive mantle.  I found this banner that I fell in love with and plan on using every year and when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do on the mantle part I landed on a balloon garland.  Yes ma'am.  

The original plan was to do the balloons just along the top of the mantle, but one thing led to another, I got into a balloon "groove" and then next thing I knew it was 2 am and I had this....

Easter Weekend - Part 2

Sunday morning we were up bright and early so we could kick off Luke's birthday AND open Easter baskets before Dave had to be to work at 8:00.  It wasn't a problem since Luke was up EARLY anxiously awaiting opening presents :)  

Easter Weekend Recap - Part One

This weekend was four days long for us and FULL of fun so I'm going to have to split our weekend into Part I and Part II to avoid it being like 7 hours long :) 

Friday morning was a toss up between doing absolutely nothing and lounging all day in our pajamas and taking the kids to the arboretum and ultimately the GORGEOUS forecast won out and we packed some snacks and made our way to Dallas.  I am SO GLAD we did!  It was perfect weather and the kids and I had the best time wandering, playing, smelling the flowers and just exploring.  They're seriously at such fun ages.

Happy Birthday, Luke!

 Well, y'all.  Despite my best efforts to convince him to stay 9 - Luke went ahead and turned ten yesterday.  I didn't expect ten to hit me as hard as it has but double digits have smacked me right in the face with a WHOLE lot of reality checks (like we've had more than half of our years at home with him and we only have three years until he's a teenager). 

The plus side is that he's growing up into the sweetest, kindest, smartest young man.  He's inquisitive and tender-hearted, willing to try new things and has an awesome sense of humor.  He's a great friend, a wonderful big brother and STILL humors his mom with hugs :)

Luke-man, we love you to Maine and back!!!  Happy DOUBLE DIGITS!!!

And here are some pictures of Luke over the last year - because mama couldn't handle going too far past this without bawling her eyes out :)