Our Babies Have Left the Nest

For those that have been following me, you know it's not my kids that have left! Jackson turns six in less than a week, and Brady is 4. What did leave were our baby birds.

Block Party!

My in-laws have been visiting for the past week, and it's amazing how quickly time passes! They are able to visit us twice a year, and we haven't been able to travel up to see them because of the difficulty with two little ones. Luckily, in the spring we will be making our first trip north for my brother-in-law's wedding!

While they were here, I was able to throw together a block party. I was lucky enough to be chosen for MorningStar's House Party! This was an awesome excuse to invite old and new neighbors over to the house. They were calling for rain, but it ended up being a gorgeous evening. We set up some games in the backyard, visited with each other, and enjoyed great food.

Rainy Day Activity

We had a few rainy days this week, and it reminded me of a couple weeks ago when it seemed to be constantly raining. The boys were getting bored being cooped up in the house  and starting to drive me crazy, so I had to find something for them to do. Of course, all of their toys were soooo boring, so I had to come up with something new and exciting.

That led to the creation of our own little obstacle course around the living area. I didn't know how it would go over, but the boys had a blast. By the end, they were even coming up with their own obstacles to add.

We started with a tunnel that we have.

Then, they had to hop over a laundry basket. Since Brady's smaller, he hurdled over it with his hands. I put some pool noodles out, and they had to straddle around them.

Kinsey (my dog) got in on the action, too! They climbed over the ottoman, bounced on an exercise ball 10 times, and did 5 bicep curls with 2 pound weights (Jackson kept upping the amount).

They had to climb through another tunnel. I set up two chairs across the kitchen, and they had to hop on one foot from one to the other. Their last stop was the bear crawl along a carpet we have between our kitchen counters.

They didn't even realize they were getting exercise through all of this! I'm hoping they'll still be excited about it the next time we have multiple days of rain.

What have you done in the past to entertain bored kids? Feel free to add links back to posts.

Go Diego Go! Birthday Party

We had the best time at Brady's birthday party. I planned for it to be outside, so of course there was a chance for showers on the day of the big event. We waited until the last possible moment to set up, so I ran out of time to take pictures before our guests arrived. Luckily, Ryan was on photographer duty and did a good job. I'll share the pictures I have and the fun details for our Diego Fiesta!

Our budget is tight, so I had to do the best that I could with as little money as possible (which I normally do anyway). The first thing I did was make binoculars out of toilet paper rolls and yarn. I saved the empty rolls from our house and also asked if they could save them for me at work. I hot glued two tubes together and punched holes to tie the string.
I made Diego vests out of paper bags. Publix was nice enough to give me those. I printed the logo from the NickJr.com site. My mom was a huge help with all of the diy projects. So far, my total is $0!

I scoured my favorite place for ideas, Pinterest, and there was a great example for games at Amanda's Parties To Go. I used a tarp and pallet slats to create an alligator swamp and brought home toy alligators from work.

They're lined up and ready to go!

They had to swing over a pool of quicksand, which was made with paper bags. I delegated the creation of the quicksand to my dad, and his idea was just to throw the pile of bags under the bar! Again, still at $0.

This led them to climb into the Animal Rescue Center (our playhouse), use their binoculars to find trapped butterflies, and go down the slide to save them.  The butterflies were "trapped" in the fencing around our vegetable garden. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of this part, because the kids were so excited about catching the butterflies, they did it as they were arriving! I got three nets at the Target dollar bins and the butterflies from the Dollar Tree. The cost is now at $8.

The food and drink spread I kept pretty simple. It was an afternoon party, so I served finger foods. I typically try to keep the food somewhat healthy, since I know they'll be getting their sugar kick with the cake. We had "Baby Jaguar Juice" (lemonade), "Alicia's Apples," "Bobo Brothers' Bananas," and "Animal Rescue" animal crackers. I made little tags for each on cardstock using clipart of each character. For protection, I laminated them. I also served bottles of water with labels that had Baby Jaguar on them. Here's the best picture I could find of the set up.

I'm not sure how much the food cost, because my parents picked it up for me, and my dad has this bad habit of losing the receipt. Can I count that as free? The decorations for the tables included table covers from the Dollar Tree (the paw print on the black table was wrapping paper), a Diego stuffed animal that we found at a yard sale for $4, blow-up trees and animals that I had from my old classroom decorations and the Dollar Tree, and balloons from Party City. That cost me $12, bringing the total up to $20 if you let me count the food as free :)

The cupcakes were from Sam's Club, and they were yummy! Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of them before we started passing them out. They were really cute with Diego toppers I made with paper punches, toothpicks, and printouts from NickJr.com. I bought the punches, but I don't count those as an expense, since I'll use them for other crafts. The cupcakes were $14, plates and napkins $4, so that's up to $38.

For the favors, I wanted to make Rescue Pack and fill it with goodies. I like to try to find something the kids will actually use once or twice. I know when my kids get home from parties, most of the stuff ends up in the trash pretty quickly. Dollar Tree did it again! They had orange bags that were perfect for Rescue Pack. I printed off the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth using yellow, white, and red card stock. Tacky glue worked the best for attaching them. I found some Diego and Dora stickers and pretty cool bug kits at the Dollar Tree to use as favors. My boys have used ours, so I hope that our guests have found some use of them. The cost of this was hard to calculate, because RSVPing must be seen as unnecessary these days. Each favor cost $2.33. I will be returning the unused products.

Overall, I think the party was a great success, and the kids had a lot of fun. Happy Birthday to my little guy!

Sundays

Mondays

Tuesdays

Wednesdays

Thursdays
Fridays Saturdays

Super Bowl Sunday

Super Bowl Sunday is almost here!  Since the Patriots are no longer in it, the excitement has kind of died off.  That's my husband's team, and you would have been very entertained if you were with us when they were playing the Ravens.

Needless to say, I'm sure we will still be watching the game.  Since we've got little guys and have to go to work early the next morning, we make a night of it in our own living room.  Last year, I made little football sandwiches and put them on sports plates for the boys.

Not a big fuss, just deli meat and lettuce on dinner rolls.  I took shredded mozzarella cheese and created the football laces on the top.  This was all made with things we had on hand at the house.  It doesn't take much to be festive!

Even better than that in the boys' eyes was the fact that we let them sit on the floor of the living room to eat.  Since they aren't allowed to eat in there, it has become a special treat.

I always love an excuse to have a little extra fun!

What special treats are you planning for the Super Bowl?  Please feel free to link up posts.

Family Binder: Entertainment

Here's another addition to the Family Binder!  I've had piles of brochures around our office area that we got from our Visitors' Center when we first moved here.  They have been driving me crazy, so I had to come up with a solution.

Fisher-Price Playdate

My mother-in-law sent me a link to {House Party}, which I had never heard of before, with an opportunity to host a playdate with a bunch of {Fisher-Price} toys.  I investigated the site and thought at first there was no way I would be picked.  I decided to go through the steps to be chosen, and was lucky enough for an invite!  A few days later, the packages arrived.

 The toys just kept coming and coming out of the box!

 Fisher-Price also sent goodies for all of the guests.

 In order to receive the materials from Fisher-Price, I agreed to host a playdate for children to come over and play with the toys.  What a great excuse to invite the boys' friends over!  
Fisher-Price provided some decorations and other resources for the playdate.

I made some fun food and drinks for everyone and set up the toys.

The finger foods and punch were a hit with the kids!  I don't think they even realized it was all good for them. 

We received the {Rev 'n Go Stunt Garage} and the {Imaginext Eagle Talon Castle} sets.

The kids had a blast playing with each other and the toys!

Thanks Fisher-Price for this awesome experience!  The best part is that I can continue to sign up for other opportunities to host parties and receive products through House Party.  It's very easy to do, and there are all kinds of parties.
Have you hosted a party through House Party or something similar?  How was your experience?

Linked with: Dirt and Boogers, One Perfect Day, Play Activities, Taming the Goblin, The Golden Gleam