Sports Party

We had Tanner's 5th birthday party today. It was a "Sports Carnival" and the kids seemed to have a great time.

I had a lot of fun with all the little "details" for this party. About 3 weeks ago, I still hadn't decided on a theme for this year's party. And I am a big theme person!

Well, Target came to the rescue! I ran in one day to pick up a few things and of course I had to stop by the Dollar Section since it is right by the front doors and always calling my name. Lo and behold, they had a whole line of sports related party stuff. Even though it is the "Dollar" section, I am frugal. So, I probably would not have stopped except that it was all 50% off. Whohoo!! Even more exciting was when I checked out, it was actually 75% off!! Double Whohoo!! Of course, there were some things that I was waffling on at .50 but I had to go back and buy them since they were only a quarter!

And thus was born the sports party for Tanner's 5th birthday. Good thing the boy likes sports!

We started off with "craft" time. I love crafts and thus I often subject those around me to craft time! They made little sports flags with some VBS clearance items I found at Hobby Lobby. I made the flags from foam sheets and then the kids decorated them with the foam sports-related stickers. I punched holes in the sides of the flags for a dowel rod. Craft time only lasted about 10 minutes. I think I was hoping for longer...but these are 4 and 5 year olds so I should probably be happy with 10 minutes!








After they finished their flags, the carnival began. Every child was given a strip of tickets. They then went to each station, where they turned in their ticket for a chance to play. After playing at each station, they were able to pick out a prize for their goody bag.


We had four sports stations. Basketball - where they tried to get a basket in the hoop. Baseball - where they tried to hit a ball. Soccer - where they kicked the ball around some cones. And finally ladderball - throwing the balls onto the rungs. The last ticket was for popcorn - which was actually Cracker Jacks, even better!

Everyone had a lot of fun trying the different sports and thankfully I have a large family who was willing to help man the stations!
















Once we finished that, we had cupcakes decorated like baseballs and basketballs. I saw these online and they were super easy to make. I usually enjoy doing fun cakes - but I went for something a little easier this year!










After cupcakes, we opened presents. This year was the year of Legos - I think he got 8 different sets! Yikes!! I think I have spent about 3 hours today helping him assemble the various sets. My control-freak side meticulous, organized side is starting to twitch at the idea of keeping them separated and not mixed up. We had a talk before opening them about the importance of only working on one set at a time and keeping them in their respective bags. We will see how long that lasts!

All in all, it was a fun party - from organizing and planning it to actually enjoying it with my sweet Tanner and his friends!

Here are a few more fun "details" from the party.

Every kid had their own water bottle labeled with their name. It was super easy to do . I just made them on the computer and added some sports clip art. I then attached them to the bottles with packing tape.


For their goody bags, I found some reusable lunch bags in the Target clearance bonanza - for only .25! They had sport themed bags which I picked up for the boys, and some pink ones for the girls. I then customized them with everyone's initial. For the boys bags, I used orange and brown felt and for the girls bags I used some fabric scraps. I sewed the initials to the larger squares, and then used spray fabric adhesive to attach them to the bags. It actually went pretty fast - and I was very pleased with how they turned out. For less than .50 a bag, I was happy!!

Before:


After:







Happy Birthday Tanner! Still can't believe my baby is 5!!

My Big Boy

My dear Tanner,

It is hard to believe that you turned five today. I am misty-eyed just writing this letter, feeling like you have crossed some sort of imaginary line and entered boyhood. While I realize that you haven’t been a “baby” for several years, there is just something about turning five that makes it official for me.

I remember like it was just yesterday the day I found out I was pregnant with you. Your daddy and I were so excited to get that positive test result, after months and months of negative tests. I also clearly remember the day we found out you were going to be a boy. We were having our 13 week sonogram and the technician asked if we wanted to know what we were having. We were shocked because we never suspected that they would know that early! In fact, we hadn’t even decided at that point if we wanted to find out in advance or let it be a surprise. But there was just something about the simple fact that someone else knew what we were going to have, and all we had to do was ask and we could know. Well, it only took a little discussion to decide we couldn’t handle the suspense, and she told us we were having a boy!

I remember the first time I held you and fell so deeply in love with that precious little baby in my arms. You were truly a gift from God and our lives were changed forever the day you were born. I never realized how much I could love someone until that day!

Over the years, you have brought incredible happiness to your Daddy and me. Your love for life, beautiful smile, and sweet spirit bring us such joy. We feel blessed beyond what we deserve that God chose us to be your parents!

Our prayer for you is that you would follow the Lord all the days of your life and serve Him with all your heart. We realize that ultimately you belong to the Lord, and our desire is to raise you in such a way that you understand and value the importance of a personal, close relationship with Him. God has a unique and special design for your life, and there is nothing I desire more than to see you accomplish what He has planned!

I love you Tanner and I am so honored to be called your mother. And I will continue to enjoy and soak up those sweet little hugs and kisses for as long as you are willing to give them. I know the day will be here sooner than I like when you won’t be so free with them!

Loving my sweet, little 5-year-old!
Mommy

My little sister

My youngest sister, Miranda, is currently in Kenya serving as a communication intern with World Concern for 6 weeks.

God miraculously provided for her and I am so excited about this great opportunity that she has!!

Miranda is such an awesome young lady that loves the Lord, and I am very proud of her.

Check out her blog here (or click the picture below) and you can follow her adventures over the next 6 weeks. It should be interesting - I hear they even have a curfew every night so they don't get crushed by stampeding elephants. Crazy!

The Holy Trinity

Chris informed me the other day that he and Tanner had a long discussion about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit as they were driving in the car.

The Holy Spirit?? Really??

Apparently Tanner brought it up and was very interested in the topic. Chris said he even informed him that "Jesus is the Word"...very matter of factly.

Deep stuff for a 4 year old! Sunday school must be working :)

That night, it was obviously still fresh in his mind as we sat next to his bed for our nightly prayer.

Part of Tanner's prayer went like this:

"God, please come inside me. And the Holy Christ come too."

I tried not to giggle as he continued with his prayer. I think it will be awhile before he fully understands the Holy Trinity...but he is working on it!!

New product line

Wow...that title sounds like I have this huge, booming business!! LOL!

One can dream...

My etsy shop has undergone some product changes, due to patent infringement issues. I never in a million years would have guessed that there was a patent out there for household gloves trimmed with an oilcloth cuff.

But apparently there is...and I got the email notification two weeks ago that I had 10 days to remove my gloves.

I can't even begin to tell you how upset and disappointed I was. They were so fun, and I enjoyed making them. Who gets a patent for oilcloth gloves anyway???

My initial reaction was to just ignore the email...my rationale being that I wasn't a real threat to them. I mean really people, 11 gloves sold in 3 months IS NOT hurting your business. You think that argument would hold up??

But once I calmed down and stopped long enough to hear what God was trying to tell me, I knew that the right decision was to just move on and find something else to focus on.

I have had several ideas rattling around in my brain...and I just launched one of them today on my Etsy site.

Adorable, custom totes with an initial appliqued to the front. These are small, little-girl sized totes. If you click my Etsy shop banner in the top right corner, you will see more pictures of them in my shop.



I'm still not convinced that the price is worth the time I put into them, but I am going to try it and see.

I also got my stuff in one of the cute boutiques here in New Braunfels, which I am super excited about.

Now, if I could actually make some money from this endeavor!

4 year old theology

Tanner was singing a new song the other day in the bathtub...

And I couldn't resist the urge to pull out the camera and video it.

Good thing he's not old enough to be embarrassed that his mommy is videoing him while in the tub!

I hope you enjoy Tanner's theology on God's love.

Creative uses of a dish towel

One of my favorite blogs, Grace Violet. had a post several months ago about making little girl skirts from dish towels. Of course, she had found these ADORABLE dish towels at Target and despite my endless searching I was unable to get my hands on the same towels.

Mind you, I don't even have a little girl to make these for. But they were so cute, I wanted to try it anyway.

So, I was at Target last week and saw some new dishtowels and snagged them up. Still not quite as cute as the original towels, but they would work. So I have been busy sewing today, and made three skirts for my good friend's three little girls - ages 4, 2 and 6 months.

In my haste and excitement to make them, I didn't stop to take "before" pictures. And of course, I can't find them on the Target website. I might have to go to Target tomorrow and take some pictures so you can truly appreciate this post!!

But here are the finished products:





The only thing I added to the dishtowels was the pink ric-rac on two of the skirts. Other than that, I just cut the towels in half, trimmed a little off the sides, sewed the sides together, and made a hem at the waist for elastic. And voila!

So cute. So fun. And so easy!

That is my kind of project.

Three skirts for around $11 - not bad!!

If you want to try it yourself, check out the great tutorial here.

And the green award goes to...

I was working on dinner the other day, and heard Tanner say...

"Look at me Mommy. I have a lot of medals!"

I turned around to see this.



I had to laugh. We may not be the "greenest" family on the block, but Tanner has the award for reusable bags!!

Swine flu...and such

Well, it seems like the swine flu has shut down our little part of the world. Schools are closed for two weeks, parks are closed - they even closed church tomorrow! I think it is all a little crazy and I have my own conspiracy theories about the whole thing...but that is a separate post!

Despite all the doom and gloom, Tanner and I have had a great week. We have taken several walks, played outside, and worked on crafts.

We "attempted" to fly his kite.




We also spent some time throwing rocks in the lake.






Tanner's contribution to bringing up the lake level :)

We had a "see who can make the biggest splash" contest.




All in all, a good week!

Where did your legs go?

On Easter Sunday, I'm not sure what possessed me...something from my Pentecostal, dress-up-for-everything roots I suppose. But for some reason, I decided to wear hose with my dress. Black opaque hose of all things.

I can't remember the last time I put hose on.

Which was obvious when I walked out of my room and Tanner gave me a funny look.

"Mommy, where did your legs go?".

He slowly walked over, with the strangest look on his face, and reached out to touch them as he said, "I can't really see them".

Oh yeah, I think it is time to throw out the hose!

Easter Update

We had a great Easter weekend. I meant to post these several days ago, but here are some pictures from the festivities.

We colored eggs at Aunt Diane's house the Wednesday before Easter. This was the first year that I could just watch and take pictures without helping Tanner.




Cousin Rowdy on the other hand was a different story! First he had to taste the dye to make sure it passed inspection.


Then he had to see how well his fingers could be dyed. He WAS a blue and green Easter Egg by the time we were done!


Here is a sampling of the finished product...beautiful!


On Saturday, we had an Easter egg hunt at Meme's house. So much fun!!





Of course, the older cousins had to compare loot!



And then go through all their loot:




Finally, a picture of Meme with her "chickens".