4th of July fluff

Crafts I should have done, but it's been crazy 'round here so I haven't done much crafting!

these are SO cute! Would be cute, mixing round and square ones.

Seriously, these all would have been SO easy!



And food, I haven't done any planning for special treats yet. Check all these yummies out!

I really should get on it already!

All these and a few more ideas with links to the sources are found here!





4th of July Decorations!

So, I have been a slacker and haven't taken pictures of this years decorations. I didn't add too much this year though so I will share my favorites again!

See previous years HERE and HERE.

I try not to do ONLY the obvious, stars, stripes and flags. I try to do some more subtle things also, like baseball and apple pie!

I did get a few of these cute little balls the other day

And the more I look at last years pictures, the more I am sure I must have missed a bin, cause a lot of those things are MISSING, hmm. Well I probably won't dig them out this year, but adding to my to-do list!

Happy Monday!

Organizing Friday, or not

Instead we spent most of the day with some friends checking out garage sales!

The kids all had a good time spending their quarters on random toys and I picked a piece of vintage Pyrex! I am soo giddy over it too!

it's the big version of this and it has hot air balloons, moons and suns on it. The color is so cheerful!

So we weren't home long enough to do anything other than the essentials, dishes, a couple loads of laundry and playing with all our new treasures! 

Sweet Owl Favors!

These might be the cutest favors I've ever seen!

They are little pillow boxes, so you can fill them with whatever you want!



I didn't follow the tutorial, I just made my own, they are just too darling to pass up, I do plan on sneaking these 2 into Finnley's party, it's not and owl theme, but they will work, but not in bright colors. Mine didn't turn out nearly as cute as the originals though.

I didn't have any patterned brown paper, so I flocked some of the circles and used the chalk ink on the edges of the others. I'd never flocked before so they don't look that great, but I like that they are kinda furry!

Check out my Pinterest Board HERE for the link and the tutorial!

Want to see the mess?!

Just a warning... it is super messy!

Yeah, so that is the constant struggle with her! I printed some weekly chore charts to see how they go! But I also checked out Pinterest (I think Pinterest is the new Google!) and found some other cute ideas!

First thing I found was the chore chart we are using!

And there are some ideas that don't involve paper! I think I like those better!

This one is so pretty, but for us it's not practical. I think ours need detailed instructions.

This fridge one is smart!

love hos rustic this one is, and clothespins are cheap!

Laminated! These are similar to the chore packs.

This one is my favorite concept! The little tags are a good idea!

There are some more from Pinterest and the sources for the ones above. HERE, if you still aren't pinning let me know and I will send you an invite!

Monday and chores!

Kids need chores!
I really believe that! Learning responsibility is so important. We start pretty young here, if they are old enough to get the toys out they are old enough to pick them up. When our oldest was the only one, it was SO much easier, we used the plastic zipper bags that sheets/pillow cases and some blankets come in. We organized stuff that went together in each bag, and there was only one allowed out at a time. He is the best around here at picking up! The youngest, Finnley, gets it but thinks its too much fun to dump them out again as soon as he picks them up. Carsyn on the other hand, I don't think she will be a professional organizer or housekeeper !! It is a never ending struggle to get her to keep her room clean. We have everything in bins, she can reach,open and close and put away but she JUST.WON'T.DO.IT! Makes me nuts!

We have tried rewards, points and things like no snack until it's done, going to be early, not coming down to play until it's done, putting stuff in a bin to "give away"(or hide in the laundry room) and it doesn't do anything. The only way it gets done is if Ramsey decides to do it for her or you stand there and tell her exactly what to pick up. On a mission to find some creative way for her to get and to want to keep it clean, her room is cute, but dangerous if there are barbies out!

Our kiddos have other chores too but nothing written down, except taking their garbage's out on Sunday night (which they ask to do every other day!) So I am working on some kind of system that will work for the kids. I have MY chores all figured out HERE.  But I need something the kids can check off and earn their points for the day.

I'm not sure I what to do! I don't know that I want them to be able to reach the dry erase markers just yet, but I also don't know if I want to print a TON of papers for them either.  I think we will try a weekly chart with stickers for a couple weeks and see how it goes.

Some other ideas I think are great are the Duggar's way of doing things, their chore packs are smart and easy for all the littles to have exactly what they are to do easy to access.
It's a little much for us but still a good idea! There are a bunch of free printable charts online.
And How Does She shared this clever idea for multiple kids!

I'm sure I will be back with an update.. and maybe a picture of her room (YIKES!)

Organizing Friday... but a day late!

I got so busy yesterday I forgot to post this.

I will admit I have an ISSUE with birthday supply stuff, I kinda love it! But my birthday party supply cabinet was OUT OF CONTROL! Now I couldn't show you all the mess because I am pretty sure the fabric for Finnley's birthday would totally give away the theme!  Now I am working on a couple parties right now so there is a tiny bit more than usual in there.

Here is the upper cabinets, all that empty spot is where the stuff for Finn's birthday!

and some other stuff I took out of there!

Lower cabinet (yikes!)

I spent nap time going through all that stuff, organizing it and getting rid of some of it.. putting some away and all that. I didn't keep the boxes for my cricut cartridges, I just kept the papers, cartridges and keypads. I was able to fit them all into a smaller box and save some time.

I need to find a better way to store ribbon, that box underneath? FULL of ribbon!

And I need to stop buying birthday party supplies 3 years in advance!! I'm sure I won't break that habit anytime soon though.

After (but before I put Finn's party stuff back up, almost did though)

Now that it is SO much cleaner I think I can really get started on Finnley's paper goods for the party! Hope you are all having a good weekend!

Organizing Friday

Today we are super busy, so glad I was able to get this done before the day really starts!

Before

After

 

Nothing special, and I didn't really do anything different than before just cleaned it up and purged a few things!  But I do have some storage issues for some other rooms so I am getting some ideas before it's time to get to it. Lego's! So many and so small and tempting to the little one!

This is what he has so far, made by my handy Father in law! it's on wheels and rolls right under the bed, it works SO well but since then he has collected a few ton more Lego's so we need to find another solution for storing the majority of them.

 Found these ideas and I am sure that I can make something work from them

I personally like the Lego Head, but it's not very practical or priced well. I think instead I will check out what the Home Depot has the next time we are there!

Not sure what next Friday will have me purging, cleaning or organzing yet!

Pinterest Love!

Who doesn't LOVE Pinterest.com?! It's so much better than having a thousand random pictures saved to your computer taking up space, or the huge list of favorites! And the majority of the pictures are links to the source directly! SO helpful!

If you aren't already Pinning away and want to, leave your email in the comments and I will gladly send you an invite!

If you are already Pinning, find me here!

I wanted to share some of the super clever organizing tips I've seen pinned lately!

Like this! So smart for all those cords!

and

SUCH a great idea for storing scrap booking and craft paper!

 And I love this idea, I need it for THIS

And this is something I could start doing now! So clever, having all the meal ingredients in 1 basket, no more hunting for stuff in the pantry!

I could go on and on, but go check out this weeks smart finds HERE!

Another Birthday Sneak

Did y'all see this post yesterday? Here is the picture again

The pedestal plate is for Finnley's party, I am starting to make the stuff that needs to be made and ordering a few things here and there and I need to take his invite pictures soon too!

Summer To-Do Jar

2 days left of school and I am so excited, but also a little worried the kids will get bored sooner

 than they did last year. So, I made a Summer to do jar.

 There are all kinds of cute summer lists around like these

this one also has a printable!

And some more simple ones



And a bucket list in a lunchbox! Cute, and free printables!

I did a jar for a couple reasons, the first is I don't have any place big enough for a big list that the kids can't reach, especially the little one! And I think my kids will also like the surprise part of it, not knowing what the day will be until the paper is picked! 

I have 4 different colors of paper, the purple there are not as many of because they are things we will have to keep for the weekend when Daddy is home, stuff like baseball games, the aquarium and fishing. Stuff I am not doing alone with them or that I know he would want to do too! The pink ones are smaller things that I won't take out once they pick them, they can go right back in, those are for busier days where we have less time, stuff like the library, park or going for an ice cream.

The rest are all ones we could probably manage any day this summer!

I asked the kids to tell me some things they wanted to do this summer and I added some other stuff that they either didn't think of, know about or don't really want to do but needs to be done. I am pretty sure you can figure those ones out!

go get an ice cream

go to the beach

sidewalk chalk

make s'mores

ride bikes

do a craft

splash pad

plant some seeds

go fishing

go to the pool

camp out nap in the backyard

go to the movies

go bowling

play at the park

write letters to cousins

zoo

aquarium

baseball game

water balloons

drive in

carousel

blow bubbles

make paper airplanes

go for a nature walk

stay up late for sparklers

have an Otter Pop

swim in little pool

have cousins over

golf

pick berries

make jelly

run at the track

go to the park

make hot dog's on the firepit for lunch

bike ride

shop for pencils (I have one excited almost preschooler)

sort Lego's

sort Barbie's

go through Finnley's toys

go through Ramsey's toys

go through Carsyn's toys

25 jumping jacks and pick again

clean out mommy's car and pick again

pull weeds for 20 minutes

craft project

Chapter of Harry Potter and a treat (they love Harry Potter themed treats!)

make graham crackers

make granola

make trail mix

 

That is not all of them but a good portion and I am sure there are some more I will add to it too!

 

We also have plans to visit Grandma and Poppop's cabin for a week, see a concert at the State fair (and a  bunch of animals!)  Watch the parade at our local Corn Festival

 

I think we will start the jar next week, taking Friday off to recover from the last week of school sugar high and so I can make sure we have everything!

 

And I am LOVING this song, it is so sweet!