Project Life {January}

Ok, so the plan here is to share the photos that I will be including in our family Project Life album for 2013 here on the ol' blog.  (And I plan to be a bit more timely on this in the future!)  {If you've followed along for any given of time, you know all about PL and how much I love it.  If you have no stinkin' idea what I'm talking about...just scroll to the photos, k?}  There are a lot of just "everyday" photos that I haven't shown in a separate post, and they really give a good glimpse into life around here right now.  I thought maybe you'd be interested.

I am doing a lot of editing in Photoshop with these photos before I have them printed, and they appear here as they will in our actual physical album.  So many of them have some journaling on them, describing the photo or event, but most of them are pretty self-explanatory, so in the interest of time and posting here, I won't be adding any additional commentary.

I don't develop my pictures until Snapfish has a penny prints or free shipping deal.  They just had one last week so I anticipate receiving my pictures from January and February this week.  I hope to pop them into the album and then give a little preview here.  I know most of you are just interested in the photos (hence this post) but the album is a large part of how I document our life (along with this blog) so I'm going to go ahead and preview it here, too, as pages are made complete in the book. 

Without anymore blah blah blah...here was our January... (you can click on any photo to enlarge)

Hello, Four

Look who's four today!

 The first words out of Reed's mouth after waking up this morning were, "Mom, am I four yet?"  And when I said yes, a very quiet but enthusiastic "YAY!" came from his mouth.

Yep.  YAY!  Four is going to be good.  I just know it. 

After yesterday's party, today was pretty low-key.  Our usual Sunday morning at church, followed by lunch at home.  Then it was time to open presents from Mom, Dad and Drew. (We did give him one gift yesterday at his party, too.)

 More enthused with the bubble wrap inside the box than with the gifts underneath it.  Typical. :)

 A new movie. {Disney's UP}

 Drew was just as excited, and animated, as Reed.

 Trio building block set.

And a few other goodies.

 We spent the majority of the afternoon building...

{even getting out the MegaBlocks

and Lincoln Logs later in the evening}

and then tested out Reed's new Kinect video game.

And as for the birthday boy's dinner of choice... McDonald's.  McDonald's.

OHMYSTARS where have I gone wrong?!?!

Joking aside, the kid is a McD's fan.  So his choice is no surprise, and given the guy is old enough to pick for himself, I had to let this non-Culver's-celebrated-birthday slide.  Maybe by next year he'll have come to his senses. ;)

 Because no Culver's ice cream would be had (neither boy asked for it at McDonald's), both boys got a Happy Meal...which is very very rare.  {Drew said, "We should get a toy this time, Mom, because it's Reed's special day!"}

The evening ended in the Play Place...followed by a really long, bubbly, soapy bath. :)

My monkey isn't my little monkey any more.

He's growing taller and slimming down.

He's going to preschool in the fall.

He's *this close* to no more pull-ups. (fingers crossed!)

He's transformed into this...

...and he's just so simply awesome.

And I'm so so glad God chose me to be his mom.

Yo Ho! Let's Go {Celebrate}!

Reed's birthday weekend celebration began today when we hosted a small gathering of friends to wish Reed a super happy #4.  Just last week Reed finalized his plan to have a Jake and the Neverland Pirates birthday party.  He has been convinced, since Drew's birthday, that he was going to have a Sonic party.  I wasn't against it, but Reed has no real excitement or interest in Sonic so I tried to steer him another direction.  He then wanted a Lightning McQueen party, but when push came to shove, he settled on Jake.  And that was totally the right choice for him and his current infatuation for said pirates.

Any good party needs to set the stage.

Pirate shirt?  Check!

Pirate bandana?  Check! 

Pirate patch?  Check!

Pirate ARRRRRGHH?  Check!

First mate?  Check!

This party was really fun to put together.  And while I would never call the party planning process "stressful"... this one was the easiest and most fun to pull together.

First up, the invite.

Kraft cardstock + Photoshop + Google search for Jake image + my Cricut.
Inspiration taken from HERE and HERE.

The cake & decor.

A big cake.  Just as Reed requested.

Inspired by THIS CAKE. 

If it looks complicated, it really wasn't.  A few layers, yes, but no fancy pants piping was required.  We had the Jake figures (Reed got them for Christmas) and I used leaves (cut using the Cricut) hot glued onto the Piroutte wafer sticks for the trees.  Strategically sprinkle on some brown sugar, and there you go.

Homemade banner & crepe paper.  I have mad streamer skills, ya'll.

I have learned that a lot of food just isn't really required, especially for a small mid-afternoon party.  Cake and ice cream will suffice...but it's just so fun!  And thematic!

We served:

"Scully want a cracker?" and cheese

"Catch of the Day" goldfish (chocolate graham and cheddar)

"Cannonballs" (grapes)

"Treasure Maps" (more Piroutte wafer sticks)

"Pirate Planks" (pretzel rods)

Water

The pirate booty & pirate games.

Patches, bandanas & tattoos for our guests.

Knowing that there would be fewer and younger friends coming to Reed's party, I thought that THIS would be the perfect activity to do together --- decorate your own treasure chest!

I picked up the boxes at Hobby Lobby and the pirate stickers at Target.

Along with the stickers, we used sequins, foam alphas & glitter crayons (all in my craft surplus) to decorate our boxes.

I think all of the kids totally loved it!  They were all super involved in decking out their treasure chests.

And what's a treasure chest without treasure to fill it up?

Time to dig for lost jewels and gold!

I had seen this idea on a couple different blogs, but they had been outdoors and used sand as the medium with which to bury their treasures.  Not so much indoors.  So I came up with the idea of using shredded paper in a really big box.  I just asked for paper bags during my weekly errand to the grocery store, ran them through our shredder, and tossed them in the box.

Minus the whole shredded-paper-all-over-the-floor, it turned out great!

Each kid had to dig for their own treasure, and they could fill their box with two necklaces, one ring, and as much "gold" candy as they could fit in their little hands.

We also fashioned a plank similiar to this one, and we had a bunch of black balloons blown up to be cannonballs.  The kids liked chuckin' the balloons at each other more than walking the plank...and I'm not gonna lie - so did the two dads that were here!

After all that excitement, we ate.

Reed placing his candles.

Being sung to.

So shy!

And then gifts.

We are so blessed to have found friends here.

We are so blessed that they are as excited as we are about birthdays.

We are so blessed to have this little big guy.

Good-bye, three.

Hello, four!

Tidbits

I have yet to post pictures from January, and now February, that will be included in our Project Life album for this year.  Until I finally get my poop in a group and get that crossed off the to-do list, here's just a snippet of what's been going on around here lately...

*** We had another snow day this last Wednesday.  It snowed throughout the night, and I think we got somewhere around six inches (I have no idea, really...I don't see much for news around here), but I think it was the mixed rain/sleet/snow/ice that was the determining factor in calling off school.  So it was a nice mid-week break for Drew, but come on already.  The third snow day in a month's time.  Ridiculous.  I couldn't have Drew thinking we have too much fun around here when he's at school, so we put both boys to work.

Let me just say, it was Reed's idea.  And Drew just attacked it.  He was like a little Ironman.

Then, of course, he wanted to build a snowman.  Brad was off to work and I dressed enough to shoot some pictures but not to play so I said we'd come back out later.  He decided he'd start on his own.

That snow was wet and heavy and when I finally went over to help him roll that snowball over to where he wanted it, I could barely move it!  Such muscles for a little guy!  I helped him (quickly) make the middle and top section, and there you go.  Snow day snowman.

In other news, it's March 1st.  And I'm so over the snow already.  Come on, spring!  I've already started making plans for summer.  It's gonna be a long couple of months!

*** Reed and I are making monthly trips to the library, and I am still working on reading the books from these lists {HERE and HERE}.  Last week, we read I Remember Miss Perry.  Oh golly.  Who knew picture books should be previewed before reading them aloud to your kids!  It's a book about death and loss.  Miss Perry is a teacher and halfway through the book she dies in a car accident. (!!!)  I spent the next 24 hours worried I had scarred my children for life when, much to my surprise, both boys requested it again the next night.  Drew asked a few good questions, and made some inaccurate assumptions ("Nobody really dies in car accidents") that needed some gentle explaining.  But whoa.  It was a little heavy for a bit!

Right now the boys are loving their Cars Storybook Collection book, the VeggieTales Mess Detectives series, and the Kevin Henkes books we just brought home from the library this week.

*** Reed has pretty much given up naps, and any notion of any kind of quiet time.  Things are definitely different with the second child!  About once a week, he will look and act tired enough to warrant laying down in bed.  We'll snuggle in bed and read a few books, then we'll lay quietly and 9 times out of 10 he'll doze off.  And quite honestly, sometimes I do, too.  I won't let him sleep for more than an hour, however.  It can mess with bedtime pretty significantly if I do.

I could eat him up.  So delicious.

*** We had pizza for dinner seven times during the month of February; from four different pizza joints, our freezer, and homemade.  Oy.

*** Despite the OD on pizza, I am still attempting to make meal-planning work for me.  I just don't enjoy deciding what's for dinner.  I am also trying new recipes to broaden our menu, and our taste buds. I am making THIS baked potato soup for the first time for dinner tonight.  I'll let you know how it goes.

*** Brad was gone last weekend on a retreat with 19 of our junior high youth (and three other adults).  They went to Spring Hill, which is this ginormous camp about 60 miles northwest of us.  They host several gatherings like this one, and Brad said there must've been upwards of 800 kids there.  I think he had a good time, and it sounds like things went well.

The boys and I were on our own then, and despite my lack of sleep (I just don't sleep well when I'm here without Brad... lots of anxiety with my over-active imagination), we had a good weekend.  Friends of ours offered to take the boys for a few hours Saturday afternoon so I could take a break.  I shopped, by myself and for myself, for three hours.  It was nice. :)

*** Brad is preaching this Sunday.  Our church's website can be found HERE, and under the "Sermons" tab, you'll find audio and video versions of our Sunday mornings.  Feel free to have a listen.  :)

*** When the heck did he get so big?!?!

*** We are very slowly working on things around the house.  We have gotten a few small projects accomplished, but need to carve out some serious time on the calendar to attack some pretty large painting projects.  I just finished making these shelves for the living room and the boys' room, and now just need to get them hung on the wall so that we can finally get some pictures unearthed from the moving boxes!

*** Reed's birthday is in nine days.  He just finally decided what kind of party he'd like to have, although he has had his opinion on everything else about it.  For example, he wants to invite all the friends that came to Drew's party (meaning, Drew's friends from school) and he wants a really big cake, like Drew's Cars cake from last year.

*** Reed has been "accepted" into the preschool program we wanted for this fall.  He's quite excited! But nervous.  But excited!  And so are we!

*** The boys won a trip to Disney World.  But not really.  Blog post coming soon!