Hosting a Boy Sleepover

Fletcher's birthday always falls on Spring Break so celebrating with his friends is tricky.  Last year we weren't able to pull off a friend party.  This year I knew I had to plan one in early March before all the busy Spring Break plans started.  I texted his friend's parents to come up with a date that worked for everyone.  Then we got busy planning.

You know we've hosted Olive's friends for sleepovers for years.  Fletcher was excited to host his friends for his first birthday sleepover.  He had a good time.  However, we quickly learned that it's different to host a bunch of boys than a bunch of girls.  Hahaha.

The girls are easier to entertain, calmer and stick with activities longer.

The boys were crazy.  Fletcher would agree :)  They bounced from activity to activity very quickly.  Inside.  Outside.  Upstairs.  Downstairs.  Around the neighborhood.  Ate all the snacks and the house was loud.  It was a lot of fun, but took us a minute to recover from all the fun.

Fletcher picked donuts and pizza for the menu.

We loved putting together favor bags for the boys.

We grabbed Fletcher's favorite things - treats and gifts.  Dollar Tree has the best crazy socks, a butter squishy and a cross necklace for all the boys.  They loved it all!

We did a candy snackle box.  We also realized for the boys it might have been better to do individual treat bags or candy salad bags for each boy.  Some boys took tons and it wasn't divided up very equally.  Lesson learned.

A pizza buffet.

Gifts and games.  The had a blast.

Then I did a cereal bar for breakfast the next morning!  That was a hit.  We had a busy Saturday so a quick and easy breakfast worked perfect.  I like to get 3 kinds of cereals, milk and then let the kids pick their breakfast.

It was so fun to celebrate Fletcher with his buddies!

3 Homemade Salsas

I made three different homemade salsas for the boy's family birthday parties.  They were all delicious!  It was an easy way to make taco night extra yummy.  They are all easy to prep a couple of hours before a party or dinner.

Guacamole //

3 ripe avocados

1/2 c store bought pico

salt

pepper

fresh squeezed lemon juice

Kinder The Blend seasoning

Mash the avocados, add in all the ingredients, mix until well combined.  Leave an avocado pit in the bowl to keep the guac from turning brown.

Pico //

Finely chop the following ingredients.  Stir until well combined.

Cherry tomatoes

purple onion

yellow onion

green onion

sweet peppers

fresh squeezed lemon juice

Kinder The Blend seasoning to taste

Corn Pico //

1 bag frozen sweet corn

purple onion

green pepper

salt and pepper

fresh squeezed lime juice

I served these salsa dips with two different proteins - seasoned ground beef and carne asada pork.  Look how yummy these tacos turned out!  I hope you can give them a try.

Friday Faves

Happy Friday!  I hope you've had a great week.  We had something fun every night this week!  Whew!  We are ready for the weekend.

1. Pumpkin posing for the camera is a favorite.  He's the sweetest cat in the world.

2. We popped into Chick-Fil-A for lunch and tried their new drink of the Summer - the Strawberry Hibiscus Lemonade Refresher.  It was good, but we love last year's drink more.  Nothing beats the Cherry Berry Lemonade in our books.

3. Dollar Tree has the cutest cat toys right now!  Look at this cuteness - Lazy chips, Furitos, Purr-ritos adn Cape Cat.  We loved the clever spin on popular chip brands.  Hopefully the cats love them when their birthays roll around.

4. Mr. Mittens loves a sunny spot!

5. The boys love an audience when they play video games together.  I have no clue what's happening, but I enjoy being included.

6. Yummy school lunches!  Add in some dry cereal, granola bar bites and strawberries this time of year!

7. Leo's teeth are all falling out!  He's lost 3 and has more wiggly ones.  This last one came out at school which was very exciting for him.

8. I love heading into school with the boys every day.

9. Olive and her favorite guys.

We learned something new about cats - turn their paws upside down and you get a teddy bear!

10. Working mom life.  Thankfully, Leo enjoys playing while I get caught up on work most days.

11. We got to celebrate the boys with Kevin's family.  I made bundt cakes and enjoyed celebrating them.

Linking up with Momfessionals

Have a great weekend!

Hardy Concert

I took Olive and Fletcher to see Hardy when he was in town last weekend.  We had a blast!  Olive went to her first concert (Kane Brown) last year and Fletcher has been anxious to go ever since.  We made plans to go to see Hardy over our Spring Break.  I love when fun artists come to our city.  A 20 minute drive with my kids and no hotel/travel/parking expenses is my kind of concert night.  Have you seen Hardy at any of his Country! Country! tour stops?

We loved that his set list was longer than we expected, loved hearing him sing McArthur and thought it was cool that he did a loop around the arena when he sang God's Country.

We arrived early to check out the merch.  The kids each wanted a tshirt with his concert stops on it.  The lines moved quickly and we got to our seats a little early.  The openers were fine, but no one that we were very familiar with.  We were more than ready when Hardy hit the stage.

We had so much fun!  We heard most of our favorite songs and learned some new ones.

Q: What's our next concert, Mom!?!

A: On our radar: Phil Wickham, Thomas Rhett, and Brooks & Dunn!

Leo is SIX

Happy Birthday, Leo!  We love you!  

Life was so strange when you were born at the kick off of all the craziness that came in the Spring of 2020.  Life came to a standstill in mid-March and then you were born April 7th when the hospitals were empty in anticipation and visitors were not allowed.  We spent more time together at home, working from home, doing school from home and staying home than with any other baby.  You got held more, played with more and were surrounded by us 24/7.  I also had 3 big surgeries in April, June and July the year you were born.  My heart beats a little faster reliving all the sweet and hard moments of your first year.

You'll always be our baby even though you are quick to remind us that a six year old is not a baby.

Leo's favorite things:

Gardettos, Chex Mix, Goldfish

Apples, Carrots and french fries

You love all cookies, Reeses cups and M&Ms.

You love a good car playlist.

You are sporty and say you want to play football, basketball, golf and flag football.

You really enjoy playing games.

You love to make a deal especially on your terms.

You are an excellent writer and speller.

You are correcting your speech errors every day.  You'll say a word.  Ask how to spell it and then practice saying it properly.

You love books.

You play basketball at recess.

You love home days in your pjs.

A few favorite pictures of Leo:

And a tiny stroll down memory lane.  All of my newborn photo shoot options were cancelled in 2020 so I took matters into my own hands.  I picked out coordinating outfits and I took picutres at home.  These pictures are some of my favorites.

Now I'm all in my feels :)

Happy Easter!

Easter was filled with highs (sweet times together!) and lows (a stomach bug!!), but overall it was a great time to celebrate with family.

Leo and I dressed up in Bible times clothing and participated in a Passover Seder meal with the whole kindergarten.  My sweet assistant loaned him a costume and he woke up at 6:15am because he was so excited for the day.

I surprised the kids with Parlor donuts on Good Friday!  We loved having the day off together.

Family time!

The big kids and I ran some errands.

We dyed eggs.  No one needed help this year.

The weather was all over the place.  Welcome to Spring in the Midwest!  We were thankful to have such a beautiful sunset on Easter Eve.

I made carrot cake.  Yum!

I put together Easter baskets for the kids.  I love collecting things they will love!  I always try to do a mix of practical (new pjs, new outdoor games, art sets, hair stuff, etc) and fun (Needohs, rubix cubes, cross necklaces, fun socks and their favorite candy).  The baskets were a hit.  I also try very hard to stick to the rule that their gifts must fit in their basket.  If it doesn't fit, I'll save a gift to give them later.

A jellycat bunny, Needoh, headbands, pickleball set and more for Olive.

Bath bombs with a surprise inside, burger rubix cube, Needoh, Marble drink and Peelerz for Fletcher.

New books, mini cars, finger puppets, favorite candy, bath bombs and fresh colored pencils for Leo.

I hope you had a really nice Easter weekend with the people you love!