3 Preteen Party Ideas

Did you wake up to snow at your house?  We did and are all home for a lovely snow day at home.  A surprise snow day is the best way to break up the week.

I have three really fun party ideas for you for your preteens.

1. Candy salad.

I have mentioned this before, but it's our favorite treat to make when the kids have friends over.  You can do this two different ways - have each person bring a couple of their favorite candies to share or provide all the candy for the kids.

I usually go with the second option and have my kids go to Dollar Tree and pick out 10+ different candies.  My kids LOVE picking out a fun mix of candies for their friends.  We went with a pink and red theme for our valentine candies.

Then at the party have each kid open the bags of candy and pour them in a big bowl.  The kids love mixing the candy and then we usually do two scoops of candy per kid in a ziploc bag.  The kids will eat and enjoy their candy all night long.  Sometimes we make popcorn and sometimes we write their names on the bags with sharpies.  It's always a big hit.

2. Play their goofy games.

They came up with the silliest things and I just played along for the laughs.  I sat with my back to them and they said Hi Mom.  I had to guess which girl was saying hello.  Then they dressed alike and I had to tell them apart only being able to see their backs.  Then they came up with hide and seek and volleyball games.

3. Favorite things party.

They each had to bring five of their favorite things to exchange.  

The rules were - they had to be about $1 each, bring five of the same things and then we supplied the gift bags to hold the gifts.  They came up with the cutest dollar assortment.  Hand lotions, candies, fun lip balms, straws, balloons, mini canvas art projects and more.  It was a really fun exchange that wasn't too expensive for anyone to participate.  Olive had the best time hunting around Dollar Tree for the perfect item for her friends.  She was between a claw clip and hand lotion.

Do you have any favorite activities to do with your teens??

A Weekend of Love

We had a sweet Valentine's Day weekend with slumber parties, pizza parties, a birthday party, baking and meal prepping for the week.  I also managed to squeeze in a rare Saturday afternoon nap.  The weather was so weird in Indiana.  3 inches of rain on Saturday and 3 inches of surprise snow on Sunday.  We're supposed to get more snow mid week this week.

I zoomed home from school on Friday and pulled together a sweet Galentine's Party for Olive and her friends.  She made an invitation, texted it out a few weeks ago and planned all the details.  

A huge perk of collecting colored decor vs. holiday decor is that I can pull together these red checked plates for 4th of July, Valentines & Christmas.  Then the placemats work year round.  I just pulled out all my favorite reds and pinks and added some conversation hearts to the tale runner.  Cute table for cute girls.

Mr. Mittens loved all the party planning and had to promptly be locked away for meal time at the party.  He's just too nosey for his own good.

I loved stopping by Fletcher's Valentine's Day party.  He had some really competitve games going on and then this prize punch game.

We did Valentine's Day stations at my class party.  Zero pictures of that because 22 kids + 30ish parents is a lot of people to meet and greet and manage.  It was fun though.

Kevin went to Leo's school party.  He loved it.  And couldn't wait to come home and examine his box of valentine treasures.

Kevin picked up Papa Murphy's heart shaped pizzas for the kids.

Add in some breadsticks, fruits and veggies.  Don't forget the pink lemonade.  The kids loved it.

It makes me smile to host.  Olive also informed me that our house has earned the title with her friends and extra fun becuase we go out of our way to make things extra special when they are here.  Yay!

Leo got a heart goat.

And one of his friends made the class love bugs.  So sweet!

I set my alarm to wake up and make heart waffles for the girls before they got picked up on Saturday morning.  They loved them!

Then we woke up to a surprise blanket of snow on Sunday morning!  It was so pretty.  The roads were pretty slick out so many things were cancelled.

I hope you have a lovely week!

Lots to LOVE This Week!

Happy Friday and Happy Valentine's Day!  We have three Valentine's Day parties, a movie party and we're hosting the kid's friends tonight for a valentine dinner.  Lots of fun and lots to do.  It's been a busy week here.  We're ready for the weekend!  

The best parts of our week were:

1. I love to surprise the kids with a fun afternoon snack every once in a while.  Filling a muffin tin with their favorite bite size snacks is always a hit.  Plus, if one of your kids comes home from school grumpy, this is sure to cheer them up.  Trust me.

2. Valentines!  Olive designed this valentine for Fletcher.  He was SO excited to hand these bottles of PRIME out to his buddies at school.  She also made my valentines for my class.  What a girl!

Olive designed these Chick-Fil-A valentines for me.  I printed them at Walgreens and we gifted all of their 7 teachers CFA gift cards this week.  The teachers LOVED them.  I put these two things in a cellophane bag and added some cute red ribbons.  It was such an easy, fun gift that I'll be doing it again next year.

Leo was the only one who needed to make a valentine box and Olive couldn't wait to help.  He loved how his Love Monster box turned out.  Did you notice a theme here - I couldn't have pulled off all this cute Valentine's Day fun without Olive's help.  6th graders are the best!

I LOVE seeing Leo's cute handwriting on his valentines.  I giggle every time I see Leo writing out his short name because when Fletcher was in PreK he was so mad that we gave him the long name and Leo got a short name.  Poor guy.

3. A really pretty grocery store bouquet from my favorite valentine.

4. A surprise valentine delivery from Mimi after school this week.  Mimi cookies and fancy chocolates.

5. Olive invited us to a presentation at her school in the middle of the day yesterday.  And thanks to great admin I was able to jet over to her school to see it in person.  She did a wonderful job presenting her project to parents.  We loved leaving the kids positive feedback on post-its.  It was great to see her hard work paying off and get to celebrate all of the things she is accomplishing in 6th grade.

6. Fletcher keeps finding my heart rocks on the way into school.  He'll slip them in his pocket and surprise me with a new one on my desk.  I love it.

7. New cat bowls!  I'm trying to be better about changing out our cat bowls and these cute ones are perfect to add to our collection.

8. Superbowl buffet.  Our neigborhood party got cancelled thanks to sickness so we pivoted and had a party of our own.  The game day apps were delicious.

9. I discovered a new favorite valentine candy - these Trolli hearts.  Amazing.

10.  We were hoping for a snow day mid week, but it ended up just being a rainy week.  Fletch found enough snow to make a snow ball on the way into school.

11. One of my good friends was teaching in Leo's class and she sent me this picture.  I love getting to see what the boys are up to at school.

12. Mr Mittens.  He's the cutest.  The kids keep trying to convince me that he needs a brother.  Penny & Pearl have each other and they are convinced he's lonely.  I'm not so sure.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend full of lots of LOVE!

Linking up with Momfessionals

Transforming Your Spaces with Wall Art

We have lived in our house for 3 years and my goal for this year is to hang art!

I have been collecting art for all of our rooms and it's time to hang it to make our house feel like a home.

I found the prettiest art at Marshalls this year.  I always scope out their framed art section and I gasped when I saw this pair of floral art.  It was perfect for my house.  I put it in my cart right away.  

When you see something you LOVE at stores like TJ/Marshalls/HomeGoods - GRAB IT!  You can always return it if you change your mind or if it doesn't work in your space.  Things just turn over so fast at stores like that.

You just can't beat the prices of large art at stores like that.  They have a lot of options and I bet you could find any kind of art - florals, ocean, abstract, kid art, animals, etc.  I have seen everything from framed geodes to silly bears riding a bike.  There is something for everyone.

Look at the pretty details.  Such fun colors.

I wanted to give this corner of our upstairs family room a makeover.  I got rid of the toy baskets.  Used vintage chairs from my childhood.  A table that was my Uncle Ray's and a floor lamp.  It's a favorite reading spot.  I'm sill on the hunt for a pair of bookshelves, a rug and a little more art.  Stay tuned.  Favorite spots take time to build.

In-Progress:

Here's the full reveal of the sister pictures.  Related, but not the exact same.  My floral loving self was so happy to find them.

Here's the most updated view of our upstairs family room.  It's still a work in progress, but I loves it so much.  Sorry for the cloudy day pictures, but honestly, cloudy days are the winter norm in the Midwest.

I'm working hard to frame kid art and frame our favorite family photos.  The kids are loving seeing new framed moments show up around the house.

Penny approves.

It is done for now.  But I'm on the lookout for a pair of matching bookshelves, smaller wall art and a rug.  I'll keep you posted.

Don't sleep on the art at Marshalls!

Take the Sick Days

Is anyone at your house sick right now?

We have lots of friends that are sick.  Our boys had the flu a couple of weeks ago and we are trying hard to stay healthy.  That isn't easy when you teach kindergarten and it's the germiest time of year.

A teacher mom of older kids reminded me the importance of being a mom first and taking sick days when you need them.  She assured me school would be just fine without me while I took care of my family.  I took three sick days when the boys were sick.  As a teacher, it is so much work to be gone for a day.  You have to map out a detailed plan for the entire school day, remember all the things for all the kids and it's just a lot to be gone.  But my class was just fine without me.  Everything went mostly okay and we're back to our regular routine.  None of my students remember those days now that they're behind us.  Yes, they missed me and were so glad to have me back, but it was fine to be gone.  

Do you know who really appreciated me being home?

My boys.

Leo kept telling me, "Thanks for being home with me!" when he was feeling terrible.  I loved being home with them and got a lot done around the house.  Kevin and I tag teamed the whole week and we both worked on the days we couldn't miss and divided up our sick/work from home days.

I'm glad I picked my family when I had the chance.  I'm replacable at school (greatly missed, but replacable :), but there's no other mom to fill in for me at home.

I have a few sick day tips to share with you that made our sick days a little bit easier.

1. Grocery delivery.  It really is the best thing.  We don't live close to grocery picks up so this saves me so much time.

2. We had super chapped lips and Leo was refusing any chapstick.  I found this tiny pot of vasaline, gave him his own chapstick to put on by himself and he was SOLD.  No more chapped lips.  I think I'll buy a couple extra to have on hand just in case.

3. Comfy blanket beds everywhere.  Sleep on the couch, on our floor or in the recliner.  Just rest!

4. We also hit a wall with medicine.  Leo started refusing and medicine.  This tiny straw in a medicine cup made taking medicine a little easier for him.  I just cut down a regular straw.  Anything to get him to take his medicine.

5. Extra showers, baths with toys, if it'll make you smile, I will probably say yes.

6. Homemade soup, popsicles, jello, Capri suns, etc.  Stay hydrated.  Eat anything you can.

I also ordered all the Emergen-C drinks, chewables and flu meds for the rest of us just in case.  We are prepared if we need any medicine.  We also got extra sleep and rest.  With a ton of hand washing.  Stay healthy!