Greg's Five Year Old Pirate Party!

 

Greg turned five on Wednesday...he has been waiting to be five for months now.

I totally forgot he requested french toast and sausage for his birthday breakfast.  On a school morning. Shoot!!

Kneaders to the rescue - Dan did a quick run through the drive though. Whew - that was a close call.

The birthday boy got to be the helper at school.

Greg is annoyed with the camera these days.  

Tough luck Charlie...the camera will be in your face as long as I am your mother. 

He brought treats for his class.   To see what I did, go to this post here.

 

 He requested Red Robin for a corn dog.  Which he did not even touch!  Oh well, at least Dan and I had a nice lunch out and got a few great games of tic-tac-toe in.

 

Ahoy thar mateys!

3:00 p.m. could not come fast enough - it was time for him to become Captain Greg Sparrow!

Argh!

 

I don't recommend making a pirate cake at 1:00 a.m.  It was a little sloppy.  If you'd like to see a better version for  reference sake, please go to this post here.

Thankfully five year old boys are not critical and just like cake no matter what. Hmmm, come to think of it, so do I!

They were a little scared of the Shark's Blood punch though. 

They made Pirate Booty necklaces (Apple Jacks on a yarn necklace) Pirates in attendance were Long J Silver, Barnacle B , Black Beard Graham, Black Hearted T, etc. etc.  Pirate names were very important and they were cute trying to call each other by name.

 

Hot potato with a skull.  Graham was a good loser. 

Getting lined up to shot at the bad pirates.

Since it was snowing in the morning I had to mix up the games and cancel the outdoor treasure hunt.  But the kids seemed to like shooting nerf darts at the window. 

Walking the plank was also a favorite.  

What a cute group!  We were sad that two of his little friends couldn't make it due to illness but we took them some cake over afterward.  We had such a fun time...I cannot believe my little guy is five!

Happy Birthday Greggie John!

If You Haven't Already...

 Since we are already in the party mood at our house...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWAGBUCKS!

It's the 2nd birthday of Swagbucks TODAY!! If you haven't joined Swagbucks yet, today is the perfect day to sign up to become a Swagbucks member!!

 If you are already a Swagbucks member, you'll notice that beginning today, the Swag Bucks in your account have been multiplied by 10; for example, if you had 20 swag bucks in your account, you will now have 200 Swag bucks. I sort of freaked out when I first saw that but there is info about the change here. 

It used to be, on any other day, new members of Swagbucks would earn 3 Swag bucks upon registration, but today new members will earn 30 Swag bucks!!   

Using this code: MULBERRYGIRL

You will get 60 Swagbucks for just signing up! Click HERE to sign up.

For all of you that are already members of Swagbucks, there are plenty of other chances to earn!! Throughout the day, Swagbucks will be doing Swag Code giveaways on their blog, twitter, facebook page, and just for searching the web through Swagbucks!  

This is my #1 way to pay for Christmas this year...it's SO nice to have it NOT come out of our paycheck..so if you have been tempted to sign up before, you will for SURE want to look into it now!

 

Happy 5th Birthday Gregory John!

 Waaaa!!  Where has 5 years gone?  I thought it was yesterday that Dan and I brought our dark haired little boy home from the hospital.  (Thank you again for being my easiest c-section, Greg!) 

 

And now you look like this!  What?  Stop!  Stay four please, you are SO cute at four!  You love blueberry bagels, stealing Grandpa's chair, wearing cozy jammies but never an undershirt.  You love having grandma and grandpa pick you up from school to go get a doughnut on Fridays, hot dogs, the color blue, dinosaurs, Indiana Jones and G.I. Joe.  You love to run and build things with your dad.  You are reading now and you are so proud of the new things you learn!  You are precise about things which makes me think there might a career as a surgeon in your future?  You have a love/tolerate relationship with your brother and sister but are still my best buddy for any adventure. 

I don't play favorites but for sure Greg and I have had an instant bond from the get go that makes me know he was meant to be my son.  

I love you sweet pea.  

Hope you have a happy birthday and I can't wait for you to wake up and see your pirate ship birthday party! 

Booo Bajio Grill!

Notice anything different or flithy?  

Dan and I took the kids out to eat Saturday night at Bajio and we looked over and noticed that not just one or two...but every.single.table in that place needed to be bussed.  

How disgusting!  

The line was long and there were only two people working the counter.  Hello!  Don't they know everyone in Utah eats out on Friday and Saturday night?  Get some staff in there pronto hombres!

We pretty much decided to leave at that point. 

Gross. 

*I think the quesadillas that I ended up making at home that night for $6.00 tasted just as yummy, thankyouverymuch.

Because I'm Tired of Cub Scout Stuff Tonight....

Your Cell Phone? New Samsung Moment with a new # that I can never remember, ahh!
Your Hair? too dark
Your Mother? Funny
Your Father?  Kind
Your Favorite Food? Pineapple
Your Dream Last Night?  Blue Shirt
Your Favorite Drink? Iced Mocha
Your Dream/Goal? Successful business
What Room Are You In? Office
Your Hobby? Too many
Your Fear? Drowning
Where Do You See Yourself In Six Years? Happy
Where Were You Last Night? Watching Bright Star
Something That You Aren’t? Good at debating
Muffins?  Poppyseed
Wish List Item? A beach cottage
Where Did You Grow Up? Newbury Park, California
Last Thing You Did? Made a Cub Scout program
What Are You Wearing? Pj pants and t-shirt (black of course!)
Your TV? Old but free
Your Pets? Not anytime soon
Friends? Few but loyal
Your Life? Trying to get organized and enjoy it
Your Mood? Overwhelmed
Missing Someone? My brother
Vehicle? One paid for, one to go
Something You Aren’t Wearing? Earrings and lip gloss (!!!!)
Your Favorite Store? Nordstrom
Your Favorite Color? Pink
When Was The Last Time You Laughed? Tonight dancing with my kids
Last Time You Cried? Yesterday morning
Your Best Friend? Kjersten
One Place You Go To Over And Over Again? To God in prayer
Facebook? Yes 
Favorite Place To Eat? Red Robin or Cheesecake Factory

Moving?

If you are moving anytime soon Melissa over at 320 Sycamore (I LOVE her blog!) has got a great list of moving tips from other bloggers.  (Mine included!)  I am slightly obsessed with houses and dream about moving constantly.  

And then I remember how much work moving is!  

Yeah...so we are staying put for awhile!

Love Love Love

Dan and I have never really celebrated Valentine's Day.  Our first one together we weren't really *sure* we were *together* yet so he got freaked out and canceled our date had to work late and we went out the next night.  He still brought me flowers the 15th and I understood where he was with becoming of "us" so it was really okay by me.  I do like to tease him about it though.

 

The next year we were married and I found out I was pregnant with Graham on the 13th.  I tried to keep it a secret until the next day but could NOT!  I was SO happy!  So we celebrated on the 13th that year.  We celebrate the whole love thing, but rarely ever on the 14th...see, these are my Happy President's Day flowers that he bought me on Lauren's birthday. Ha!

 

Since it was Sunday and we were home after church we made a nice steak dinner (the boys favorite) and fancied up the table a bit.  On each spoon I placed 3 M&M's.  Before anyone could eat them you had to say something that you loved about someone else at the table. 

 

 Dan got his sweet LuLu a pretty new bracelet.  She loved it and kept waving her arm around in front of the boys to show them.  They were disinterested for some reason?? 

 

He bought me a necklace I've been wanting for awhile...didn't he do good? 

That's because I knew I wanted it and knew Dan would NEVER guess I wanted it.  So I bought it.  Then gave it to him a week ago and told him this was my Valentine's gift from him.

Just another reason why our marriage works.  

I have a man who loves and adores me and we don't play mind games.  I know some women like the grand gestures...but for me the small gestures add up and are more meaningful.  I never have to fill up my car with gas, whenever I ask him to help me, his reply is "Sure baby" and there is rarely a time when I make dinner that he isn't the one standing at the sink doing the dishes.  

I make things like this easy for him, just like he makes my life easy by everything he does for me.  Works for us.  

I love my husband and our little family.

Love love love..I hope your day (or weekend) was full of it. 

Little Bird Birthday Party

We celebrated Lauren's 2nd birthday yesterday!

 

I went with a simple birdie theme this year...

I made the centerpeice from things I had around the house mostly.  A terra cotta pot, some sheet moss, branches from my flowering pear trees out front. 

On the menu:

Margaret's famous chili

Dinner rolls

Mindy's 7 layer salad

Chips

Strawberries and fruit dip (yum!)

Homemade macaroni and cheese

Veggies and dip

Party Girl Punch

 
We had about 22 (?) of my nieces and nephews there, as well as grandparents, aunts and uncles.  So I needed to please both the young ones and the older ones with the food!

  

 Tweet tweet...two little birds for my sweet two year old girl.  I painted some glitter on the branches so it would shimmer and hot glued little blossoms all over.  It felt a little more like spring instead of cold winter that way.

 

Greg wanted the butterflies on the tree so we had them stay to play too.

 

 Wouldn't you know she took only half of her nap that day?!  And her brothers kept sharing their Valentine party candy with her.  By the time 6:00 p.m. rolled around she was a hyper cranky mess.  We tried to get a few pictures with not much luck.

  

 Grandma gave her a glo-worm doll that is so cute.  She hasn't let go of it since!

  

Dan, his darling sister Marie, his brother Nate and my cute niece, J.  

  

 Caught eating someone else's strawberries!  She can't get enough of them!

  

 Opening up her presents!  I took the boys shopping and let them pick whatever they thought their sister would like.  They both did great and were spot on.  Greg picked out a Barbie doll that came with Barbie's dog Taffy.  Graham picked out a Snow White Barbie doll for her.  When she opened each present up she would yell out "WOW!" 

  

 Dan and I gave her a Fairy Treehouse set as well as a Strawberry Shortcake doll.  I also bought pretty much filled up her closet with clothes for next fall that I got at the last Gymboree sale (and then I had to use my Gymbucks for more of course!)  She is set on clothes.  We had fun that morning as I let her look through them and she tried to put a few things on!

 

Happy Birthday to you Princess!  

We hope your birthday was a special one, just like you!

Happy Birthday Lauren Bridgette!

 

Happy 2nd Birthday LuLu!

  I am amazed at how fast the time has flown! 

Happy Happy Day! 

You love to sing and your favorite song is (funny enough) is your version of Happy Birthday!  

"Hap-py to yoooooo!"

You love playing dress up, and the minute you think anyone might leave the house or you behind, your shoes are on and you are at the door waiting to go "Bye! Bye!"  But you won't leave unless there is a bow in your hair!

You love grapes, "nack time,"  Barbie, Strawberry Shortcake, purses, shoes, getting your hair combed, brushing your teeth and reading books at bedtime with Daddy.  You love to carry your babies around the house.  Every time you hear the doorbell ring, you call out for grandma and grandpa by saying "Mam-Ma! Pap-Pa!"  You love teasing Greg and driving him crazy and adore Graham more than words could ever say.  You and Mommy are best of friends but Daddy owns your heart forever.

If I ask you "who's a pretty girl?"  You instantly throw your hands up in the air and say "ME!" You certainly rule the roost around here and we are still deciding if we should be concerned or amused over that.  

Either way you are the perfect completion of our family and we are so grateful for you!

Love-e-you sweet girl! 

Hope you have a happy day!

Similac Formula Coupon

I have a Similac Formula Coupon that I have no need for.  

Is there anyone who could use this?  

The value is only $4 but I know when you are buying formula every bit helps!  

Please email if interested and I'd be happy to mail it to you!

After Picture?

Oh...I'm sorry.  Did you come here hoping to see the much needed after picture of my office?  Yeah, that SO did not happen! :)

Dan and I had a fun date to see "Leap Year" on Friday night.  It was cute movie if you haven't had the chance to see it!  It was great to get out with him, it's been awhile! 

Saturday I went to a local craft fair with my mom and then came home to spend most of the weekend in bed.  I've been having really really bad pains...almost to where I was deciding if I should go the emergency room but thank goodness for leftover c-section drugs.  I'm a lot better today but I still have a call into my doctor.  

I'm a little stressed out right now - maybe that's why I'm feeling yuck?  Don't start calling me asking if I'm okay...I'm fine.  I am just hating how some things that aren't that important to me are taking over what IS really important to me and it gets me all worked up.  I'm only one girl and I can only do so much, you know?  I need to follow my heart and take care of my family first and foremost.

So if the Cub Scout Blue and Gold dinner is not as fabulous as my daughter's 2nd and son's 5th birthday parties...you'll know why.

Finally Friday!!

Can you believe it's 4:30 a.m. and I CANNOT sleep!  I hate those nights when you mind just starts spinning and falling back to sleep is impossible.  Especially when you know there are no naps coming the next day!

 

This little guy cracks me up.  He is getting so big and has stopped creeping into my side of the bed every morning to "nuggle."  Which means Dan is no longer getting kicked in the back from 5-7 a.m.  But it still makes me a bit sad. 

Graham...I feel like he is always at school and I don't have any pictures of him anymore!  He is been testing a lot of his limits lately.  I love that he is getting older and more independent but at 7 we are still working how the right amount for him.   

 

LuLu is wanting to go "Bye-Bye" all day long.  She pretty much is packed up ready to go all the time.  Looks like we need to find her some Princess shades instead of her having to wear Greg's Thomas glasses!

 Little Miss Fat Lip - she got a little crazy at the boys "Dance Party in the Living Room Lounge" performance two nights ago.  BONK right into the ottoman and bit her lip.  Ouch!  My poor girl!  At least now I can tell her lip injections won't be a good look for her when she's older and have proof.

 

And this is what I am tackling today.  

I have had a bit of "poor me" this week feeling like my plate of "to do's" is WAY more than my fair share.  Looking at other people's blogs sometimes makes that worse when you see how most people tend to only show the perfect side of their lives (rooms, whatever.)  

So for today I am just going to pretend that most of you have live in maids and your children don't actually LIVE with you to make messes, but are actually away at boarding schools.  

This is the the sad reality of my office earlier this week. 

Let's cross our fingers for a good "after" picture this weekend.