3 Things

Happy Friday!  I wanted to wrap up the month of April with a 3 things post.  Here is a little update from everyone in our family.

Olive //

1. She's the reigning clover finding champion at our house.  She casually walked up to me with 6 clovers in her hand yesterday.  I found one or two this week and was so proud, but she finds me the best 4 leaf clovers anytime we are outside.  Stay tuned for a clover art project we're working on together.

2. Olive turns 10 next month (how did that happen so fast!?!?) and she's ready for this big milestone birthday!  We're working together to plan the cutest mushroom party.

3. She is eager to fully move into her own room.  Someone else isn't as excited about her having her own room now.  So our compromise has been a slumber party in her room.  I seem to remember being the oldest and eager for my own room only to wake up to find my little brother and sister on the floor of my bedroom.  Must be an oldest rite of passage :)

Fletcher //

1. He is ready for Summer.  He'll miss his school buddies, but he will not miss school :)  He's had a great year of first grade.  It's just that home > everything else in his mind.

2. His freckles are popping like crazy with all this time outside!  I always wished I had freckles so it brings me great joy that Olive and Fletcher have the cutest freckles.

3. He's an outdoors man, but I doubt he'll ever be a hunter.  He loves animals way too much.  You can currently find him magnet fishing, digging holes and using his metal detector and riding his bike any chance he gets.  His bikes skills are great!  He picked it all up so quickly after getting a bike for his birthday.  He's going on bike rides in the evening with Kevin.

Leo //

1. Leo is very into his stack of library books.  We let him get a few non board books from the library for the first time.  That might have been a mistake because he's loving those nonfiction dinosaur books hard.  Please pray for those delicate books in his hands.

2. Do you want to make his day?  Offer him white cheddar popcorn + Blippi.  Or invite him out on a bike ride where he'll zoom up and down our street.  His steering skills are not good so if he's coming towards you, MOVE!

3. If Leo gets in trouble or gets reprimanded, he tears up and asks for a hug.  He'll hug until he feels better.  He also must have a kiss on his boo boos.  I jokingly call him a bulldozer because he almost knocks me over all day long when he's just going in for a big hug.  Remember me telling you his Sunday school teachers call him little linebacker??  He's solid and so sweet.

Everyone else //

1. Kevin is putting down grass seed and watching the yard closely.  It's the first year for our sod to come back so he's keeping close tabs on it.  One of his mowers broke this week and he's worried about the frost hurting our baby trees so it's been a lot of yard talk over here.

2. I've been really consistently consigning things lately and it feels so good!  My favorite spot lets you drop off once a week so I have been putting it on my calendar every single week.  The kid's closets are organized and the clothes they've outgrown are gone!  They are all growing and changing so fast that this feels like a never ending job.  I'm thankful to have a good system in place right now.  I'm trying to get rid of toys they're done with as well as clothes.

3. I have about a million things I'd like to hang on the walls, but that is not my strong suit.  I can plan a gallery wall no problem.  But hanging things straight and finding studs.  Send help.  I need someone to volunteer to come hang things for me one weekend.  Think the cutest gallery collections in all the rooms.  I need a handyman.  We also need to hang some curtains.  But Kevin likes to hang 1-2 things and be done for the day.  I'm more of a hang things all day until the project is done type of girl.  Too bad for me that I've got 100 things that need hung.  Pray for our teamwork :)

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!  See you back here on Monday :)

Preteen Parenting: Episode 2

I've got a tip to share with you today that is going to thrill your preteen or teen.

Give them opportunities to customize their things.

 

Personalize items whenever you can.

Ask their input about their bedrooms and decorate accordingly.

Follow their lead when it comes to their hair, their wardrobe and their style.

Let their interests and personalities shine.

 

Here's what that looks like at our house.

Olive wanted new tennis shoes.  We tried on all the shoes and she found some she liked, but she wanted to make sure they were unique.  So we ordered some fun shoe laces to make sure that her shoes were one of a kind.  It was a simple swap that made her so happy.

Tell her the details of an event - it'll be dressy and many women will be wearing dresses - and help her sift through her closet to find an outfit that she likes and is excited to wear.  We also try out new hair styles or new hair ideas on the weekends so that she can see if it might be something to try for church or for school.

We've personalized her water bottles with fun stickers, her backpack and lunch box with patches and she also loves to pick out colors for custom manicures at home.

 

She's working on moving into her new room and we are doing the decor shopping together.  I pulled up new bed spread options.  We weighed the pros and cons together and read reviews and then she ordered a bedspread that she felt like was perfect for her new space.

None of these things are super complicated or super expensive.  They have just required me to slow down a bit, have a conversation and listen to her more as she's getting older.  She's been loving this change and having more of a say in her style.

What do you think your preteen or teen would like to customize?

Classic Buttermilk Pancakes

I've always wanted to have my own homemade pancake recipe instead of using a box mix.  But they always seemed like too much work or I didn't love the results.  That all changed last week when I tried @thebakermama on instagram's pancake recipe after seeing her share her pancake reel.  

They were easy to make and delicious!  Leo ate 6 pancakes at dinner and toddlers are harsh food critics.  I don't buy buttermilk every week, but now I know anytime I want pancakes on the menu I need to grab buttermilk.

Here's her Classic Buttermilk Pancake recipe that I'm saving as my favorite:

2 cups flour

2 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1/4 c sugar

2 large eggs

2 cups buttermilk

4 T melted butter

She recommends mixing all the dry ingredients first and then stirring in the wet ones.  I followed her recipe and her directions to a t and everything turned out perfectly.  I'd love to add blueberries into some pancakes next time since the chocolate chip add ins went well.

This recipe fed our family of 5, but could have easily fed 8-10 people if you are serving it with eggs and protein.  It's a generous pancake recipe.

I try to make pancakes that everyone will love - some at our house like them darker brown, others prefer them just barely browned and then the kids love chocolate chips in their pancakes.

Tip: I prep the pancakes and make them ahead of time.  Sometimes it's easier for me to stir them right up after school, go ahead and make them and pop them in my oven.  I set it on warm, cover them in foil and they stay fresh and warm until dinner time.  I do the same things with scrambled eggs and meat.  Cook it in the late afternoon.  Cover it all with foil and let it all stay warm until dinner time.

I served them with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon and fruit.  I'm still making my life a little easier at dinner time by using up our stack of Easter plates.  Smart mom move :)

Do you make homemade pancakes?

You'll have to let me know if you give these a try!

April Coffee Chat

Good morning!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  We flew kites, read good books and had a nice relaxing few days at home.  I wish I could meet you all for a coffee date this morning.  I'd grab an iced coffee and a breakfast sandwich.  Here's a list of all the things I'd love to chat with you about:

 

1 // Summer break starts in exactly one month for my kids!  Wowza.  I love Summer and I'm gearing up for a good summer routine with the kids home.  But being totally honest - it's always a bit of a shock to my regular routine with Leo to add in two big kids that wake up and want to know WHAT IS THE PLAN for today!  They've got art camp on the agenda.  I'm trying to talk them into VBS.  We've got a trip or two on our radar and I ordered some Summer workbooks for them.  We've got a lot of school fun to pack into these next few weeks - Spring Parties, Teacher Appreciation, Field trips, Field Days and more.

2 // I've been taking a variety of supplements (hello life in your 40s) and my nails are growing like crazy!  My nails never grow so this was an exciting surprise.  Now I just need to work on getting them stronger.  Do you have any product tips for that?

3 // I started watching The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and I'm intrigued.  It's spicer than I was expecting - but I adore the 1950s fashion, Miriam Maisel and the interesting life she leads.  Have you seen it?

4 // Olive is requesting some wallpaper in her new room.  Do you have any favorite peel and stick brands I should check out?  Bonus points if they've got a cute mushroom option and would be easy to install for a wallpaper novice.

5 // I'm excited about my menu for the week:

Grilled chicken salads

Taco Night

Chicken sausage & wild rice

Roast & veggies

French Dip Sandwiches

and I'm making a new pasta salad recipe for myself for lunches this week!

6 // I rarely meet other Whitneys, but these past few weeks I met two new Whitneys.

7 // Olive turns 10 next month and she's excited to talk about birthdays, her wish lists and ideas she has to celebrate this fun milestone.  We've been talking about a friend party, but she's thinking she might just want to plan some fun things to do with one of her good friends.  She gets to pick and I'm happy to help her plan!

8 // We are just barely starting the potty training conversation over here with Leo.  He thinks sitting on the potty is a really fun game, but he's not so sure that he has any need for the potty.  I'm hoping some potty books might help him be a little more interested.  He just turned 3 and isn't showing tons of signs of being ready.  So we're just being low key about the whole thing.  My mom always swears that I was potty trained at 18 months.  Maybe I should just put Mimi in charge of potty training Leo??

9 // I am really excited to go planting shopping for Mother's Day!  It's my favorite tradition to do with my kids - we shop and fill all my pots.  The weather is usually too unpredictable in Indiana until May so I'm ignoring all the garden sections until May arrives.  I might sneak in some fern shopping for my porch before then, but no flowers here until May.

10 // Have you ever heard of Miss Mouth's Mess Eater Stain Treater?

I've seen it promoted on social media as an amazing stain remover - will literally get out any stain from kid clothes so I had to see what all of the hype was about.  I grabbed a two pack and I'm here to confirm that it is AMAZING stuff.  Why did I wait so long to try it??  I've used it on my tops, Leo's clothes and my carpet.  I don't know how it works, but it is magic.  It has gotten out food stains, ice cream stains, pet stains and mystery stains.  I can't recommend it enough.  I have the spray bottles and the wipes are on my wish list.  

Here's my Amazon links for it.  There are 22k reviews for this magic stuff!

 

Thanks for listening!  Chat with me in the comments :)

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!  I hope you've had a nice week.  Ours was good - Spring festivities, sick day, luncheons and lots of time outside.  Did you catch my blog posts this week?

10 Tips for Hosting an Awesome Sky Zone Party - such a fun and easy party spot for kids!

Cheddar Bay Biscuits - so easy and so good!

Love Your People by Personalizing Your Grocery List - this tip works for all families!  If you're empty nesters or have a house full of kids.  Your family will love this!

Now on to the highlights of our week:

1// Signs of Spring & Sunrise

It looks like we aren't the only ones working hard to make our house a home.  We found this robin's nest in our new trees in our tree line along the back fence.  It has been so fun to keep on eye on it all week long and watch the nest fill with eggs.

2 // Bedroom Makeovers

I have been having so much fun gathering things for the kid's new bedroom set ups.  Olive will move to her own room and the boys will share a room.  They've all got big ideas and I'm doing my best to find mushrooms, night sky and dinosaurs.  Here's a sneak peek from the boys' room.  Target and Walmart have the cutest, most affordable twin sheet options that won't break the bank.

3 // Spring Choir Concert

Olive had her Spring choir concert this week and she did great.  She's enjoyed singing with her friends after school so much.  They did such a nice job that their season got extended so that they could sing at the 6th grade graduation.  She was thrilled!  Instead of giving her after the show flowers, I got her an after the show plant for her room, her favorite pumpkin cookies and a note from all of us.  We're going to let the roots sprout at little more and then plant it in a cute pot.

4 // Sick Day Chores

Fletcher got sick over the weekend so he stayed home on Monday.  By midday he was feeling much better and eager to do some projects with me.  He helped me take all the cushions off our chairs an couches and vacuum them out.  He did a great job!  He said "I think people would hire me to do this job for them!"  He's got his eyes set on vacuuming out my van next.  Yay!

Another highlight is that we finally found a vacuum that we like.  Ours broke and then we tried out several until we landed on this one.  The first once was too heavy.  The second one wouldn't stay put together and this one has worked great on our wood floors, rugs, carpet and now furniture.  I'll put my link here in case anyone else  needs a good vacuum right now.  It's got almost 70k reviews!

 

5 // Reading

We are reading some good books right now!  My older kids are loving The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  We try to read together before bed or before school.  

My first grader is loving reading me the Elephant and Piggie books.  They're sweet stories filled with sight words and they're perfect for early readers.  They are funny and silly, but my favorite thing is the confidence they give early readers to read books all by themselves.  

And Leo loves when his free book comes each month from the Dolly Parton Imagination library.  If you've got kids under age 5, you need to see if this free book program is available in you area.  You just enroll your kids and books arrive for free!  

Here are my Amazon links to these books: 

6 // 4 Leaf Clover Champion

Olive brings me a handful of 4 leaf clovers every time we are out in the backyard.  She's the best at finding them.  We're working together to make a really neat clover art project with them.  I found two this week and she probably found 20.  It's impressive!

 7 // Leo's Favorite Things

Leo is currently loving the minions + this fart gun, dinosaurs and sitting on the couch like this to watch his favorite shows - Bluey, Little Baby Bum, Cars on the Road & Minions.

8 // Hello Rainbow!

I love spotting rainbows!  The kids have been spending as much time as possible outside and I don't mind one bit.

9 // Farm Time

Our backyard neighbors have been busy this week prepping their fields for planting.  The boys have loved watching the tractor work.

10 // Bible Study

My Mom's group Bible Study finished up this week and I'm sad it's done for the year.  I loved the ladies at my table.  They've been great friends to me.  We've got some fun plans for Summer and had the yummiest luncheon together.  Leo loves his teachers and his church friends.  I'm hoping we can keep seeing them even if it's not quite every week.

 

I hope you have some fun plans for your weekend!

See you back here on Monday.

Linking up with Momfessionals

Love Your People by Personalizing Your Grocery List

I've been trying something new and it's been so fun!  It has won me some extra mom and wife points from my family :)

I try hard to personalize my grocery list each week and my menu based on things my family loves.  Let me explain.  I overheard Fletcher talking about wanting more spicy jalapeno chips and Olive casually mentioned that she really loves Granny Smith apples, but we never have them.  So I added both of those to my grocery list.  I just quietly picked them up and surprised the kids with them.

They were so excited to see some of their favorite items in the fridge/pantry.  I know they felt a little extra love knowing that I was listening and took note of their request.

Same thing with meal planning - Fletcher loves Taquitos so I put them on the menu.  Someone mentioned that we hadn't had charcuterie board dinner in a while so we are having that this week.  Little things that let people know you're listening really do make them feel so good.

It's a super simple thing, but if you are the one doing the meal planning or the grocery shopping, it's an easy way to show your family a little extra love without too much extra work on your part.

These are some things that I have gone out of my way to pick up for my family:

1. Kevin's favorite Gatorade drinks

2. Spicy Chips / Ruffles

3. Snickers Ice Cream Bars

4. Little cups of vanilla ice cream

5. Granny Smith apples

6. Taquitos

7. Mechanical pencil lead and fresh colored pencils - obviously not food items, but Olive was frustrated with her school supplies when she was doing homework.  I put both on my grocery pick up list to help her out.

8. S'mores ingredients so we are prepared to make s'mores anytime

9. Kevin's favorite bbq sauce

10. Some of those flavored drink drops that you can add to water

Keep an ear out for things that your family mentions this week and grab those items for them!  They'll love the surprise!

Cheddar Bay Biscuits

I love an easy bread option to go with dinner and these Cheddar Bay Biscuits are perfect!  

They are really simple to make.  You just need a few ingredients and they taste so good.  We rarely eat at Red Lobster anymore, but these are pretty similar to their biscuits.  They are light and fluffy and really flavorful.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 c Bisquick

2 t baking powder

1 c shredded sharp cheddar (I like the thick shredded vs the finely shredded)

2/3 c milk

1 finely chopped green onion

2 T melted butter

1/2 t garlic salt

Directions:

Mix first five ingredients until just combined.  Your mixture will be thick and hold its shape when you scoop out the biscuits.  Use a cookie scoop to scoop out even biscuits on a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 425 for 10-12 minutes.  Combine the melted butter and garlic salt while your biscuits are baking.  This recipe makes 10-12 good size biscuits.

Bake until browned.  We were in a hurry for dinner so you could definitely let them get a little browner to have a yummy crunch on the outside.

Use a silicon brush to brush on the melted butter and garlic salt mixture.  Let them rest for a few minutes and serve.

We ate these with an Italian meal, but they'd be great with any grilled meat, chicken or soup.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think of them!

10 Tips for Hosting an Awesome Sky Zone Party

We did something new this year.

We invited Fletcher's whole class to his birthday party at Sky Zone.

We had never invited a whole class to a birthday party before.

We were worried that only a few kids would be able to come over spring break.

And we were equally worried that the whole class might come.

Fletcher really wanted to have a birthday party and invite his whole class.  He has talked about it all year.  He is such a friendly guy that he said he could never narrow down just a few friends to invite.  We started doing some party location research and landed on Sky Zone trampoline park.  Kevin did all of the calling and booking.  We took a risk and booked on a week night over Spring Break.  The crowds were really low and we had a great turn out.

 

10 Sky Zone Party Tips:

1. Send home paper invitations to the whole class with RSVP information (Sky Zone makes them for you!)

2. Follow up the paper invitation with posting the invitation on the class Facebook page.  I posted the invitation and a picture of Fletcher and encouraged everyone to RSVP if they hadn't already.

3. Touch base with anyone you don't get an RSVP from through Facebook messenger.  We ended up getting RSVPs through texting, Facebook messenger and then some RSVP'd on the class Facebook page post.

4. Book a place like Sky Zone that lets you RSVP for a certain amount of kids, but then allows you to only pay for the amount of kids that actually show up at the party.  We had some last minute cancellations/no shows and I was really thankful we didn't have to pay for them.

5. Also, RSVP anytime you're invited to a party!  Those mom and dads are working hard to plan a great party for their child and they're spending money on favors and party food if you don't let them know your child won't be there.

6. Pick the party room that is closest to the trampolines so the kids can run back and forth easily for drinks.

7. Bring simple decorations - donut table cloths, napkins, birthday signs - and simple desserts so that you can set up quickly and enjoy the party!  We weren't let into the party room until after guests were arriving.  I was thankful to be able to quickly decorate and be ready to party.

8. I figured sending thank you notes would be challenging so I had Fletcher make up some party favor thank yous to pass out at the end of his party.  He thanked everyone for their gifts and thanked them for coming.  They loved their favors!  Check out the favor bags at the end of this post.

9. I think everything at Sky Zone is labeled for ages 4+ so we left Leo at home with my parents.  It would not have been fun for him to be there and not be able to bounce.

10.  Encourage everyone to fill out their Sky Zone waivers ahead of time so that they can check in quickly when they arrive.  They'll get socks and be ready to jump.

Kevin did almost all of the Sky Zone related planning and the party went great!  Sky Zone gives the birthday kid a t-shirt to wear for the party and coupons to come back and jump for free.  They are really helpful and they assign a party host to your party to help you.  Ours was a little slow to get going, but it was nice to have one contact person.

Fletcher was THRILLED with his party.  He had the best time celebrating his birthday with his school buddies.  It was nice to meet some more parents and some of his school friends.  We've gone to enough birthday parties this year and I've been in the classroom enough to be familiar with those cute first graders.

The kids loved these donuts with jumpers in them!  Amazon for the win.  Kevin thought ahead and ordered donuts from Donut Bank to pick up right before the party.  We got all glazed and it was nice to know our donuts would be reserved for our late in the day pick up time.

Fletch got some really fun gifts.  It was sweet to see the kids pick out things especially for him.  He got a good mix of slime and remote control spiders and gift cards and Legos.

Silly guy.  His voice was hoarse at the end of the party from laughing and yelling so much.

We went out of our comfort zones for this party.  We didn't know a lot of the parents ahead of time and we weren't sure a Spring Break party would work, but after lots of prayers and planning, we pulled off a fantastic party!

Weeknight parties for the win!  We had the place to ourselves!

Thank you favor bags:

I had Fletcher write the message and fill the bags.  It was so fun!

My Amazon affiliate links for our party supplies:

 

 

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions!  

Have you hosted a class birthday party?

We've had fun going to friend parties at Sky Zone, local bowling alleys, Deep Blue rocking climbing and ice skating.

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, friends!  I hope this week has been a good one for you.  We had highs (field trips and sunshine!) and lows (stomach bugs and cancelled plans!), but we've got a 3 day weekend happening thanks to having to use zero snow days this year.  Yay!  

Did you catch my blog posts this week?

3rd Birthday Recap - Leo had a wonderful day with all of his favorite things.

70 & Sunny Easter - I appreciated all of your sweet comments on the photo of me + Olive!

Lamp Shade Swap for a Steal - I love this deal and this transformation!

Now on to the highlights of our week:

1// New favorite family photo + new favorite earrings

We had a great Easter and Olive has a new favorite accessory - dangly earrings!  

I surprised her with several pairs in her Easter basket this year.  They're from Amazon and I'm blown away by the cuteness & the quality.  They are much nicer than earrings you'd find at Claire's and they are a fraction of the price.  I am giving her the rest of the set of earrings for her birthday in May.  She loved the daisies for Easter and the tiny pink mushrooms and popsicles for school.  We 10/10 recommend them.  And here's my Amazon affiliate link if you've got a girl in your life that would love them!  Preteen approved :)  

Both sets are so cute - we got the $13.99 set and are so pleased with them!

 

2 // New Harmony Field Trip

Field trips have finally returned at our elementary schoool!  Hooray!  I chaperoned the 4th graders at a neat local attraction called New Harmony Heritage Artisan Days where they got to experience what life was like in Indiana in the 1800s.  It was fun to spend the day with Olive and her friends.  We finished up the day by grabbing matching bracelets and having a popsicle date on the patio at a little coffee shop in New Harmony.  She loved the one on one time.  And a big thanks to Kevin for working from home with Leo for the day!  Neither of us had been to New Harmony and we're eager to go back to this cute little town.

3// Everything's Under Control

As the kids are getting older, they like to have more responsibilities.  Fletcher insisted he had the taco sauce situation under control and did not need any help from me... whoops.  I handed him a towel and he said he didn't need it because he'd just lick it up.  Boys...

4 // Walking Buddy

The weather has been beautiful so we have been walking a lot.  Leo told me his favorite flowers were the gray ones haha  We've been walking 30 minutes every day and it feels great.

5 // Sidewalk chalk season

Olive and I had fun making a flower garden in our driveway this week.  Flowers are our favorite and we can't wait to plant some pretty ones this season!

6 // Cousins

These cute cousins are the same age and have the best time playing together.

7 // Pizza Hut

Kevin ordered us The Big New Yorker pizza from Pizza Hut one night and it was delish!  The adults loved the 6 huge slices and I'd definitely get it again.  Fletcher's been reading a lot this year and had a stash of Pizza Hut Book It coupons to cash in.  He was really proud to feed all the kids dinner with his coupons.  Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas were my favorite when I was younger going out to dinner with friends.  So these tiny pizzas bring back some of my favorite memories.

8 // New New Bike

We got Fletcher a new bike for his birthday, but unfortunately the quality wasn't great and Kevin wasn't happy with the way it assembled.  We returned that and he picked out an awesome TREK bike from a local bike shop.  He's so proud of his bike.  He's riding it like a champion every chance he gets!

9 // Lettuce Wrap Burger

We got Freddy's for dinner and I really enjoyed their lettuce wrap burger.  It was a little messy to pick up and eat.  Next time I would just chop it up and eat it with a fork.  But it was yummy!

10 // Stomach Bug

I put Leo to bed like usual one evening this week and out of nowhere he started aggressively throwing up.  That lasted all night long - it was awful. Poor guy and poor us - but thankfully he make a speedy recovery and no one else got sick.  We took it easy and enjoyed all the extra snuggles.  He kept apologizing for the barf and talking about how gross it was.  Sick little ones are just so sad.  Thankfully snuggles, movies and baths all made him happy.

11 // Greek Yogurt Bowls

This is my current favorite breakfast or snack.  Bananas, greek yogurt from Aldi, granola from Sams, chia seeds and fresh berries on top.  Yum!

12 //  Visitor at School

The kids had a fun visitor checking in with them at school this week!  They always love when Jacque pops in to see them.  A little hug from home in the middle of their day!

13 // Creek Time

The kids have spent a lot of time in the creek this week.  Climbing, digging, exploring and doing new tricks.  They've all got scrapes as proof of their big adventures.  They also have big plans for different areas.  It's fun to hear their pitches for what the creek needs.

14 // Stickers

I have started putting stickers on the kid's lunch box notes and they love it!

15 // Snuggles

Everyone likes a good Leo snuggle.  He's been really into watching all the minions movies so we snuggle, snack and watch a movie together in the evenings before bed.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  See you back here on Monday.

Linking up with Momfessionals