Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme


TodaysMama and GameStop are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.


1. What is your holiday wish for your family?
I really wish that our time spent together this Christmas is wonderfully memorable. I am very happy with the way holiday break worked out. We will have a week before Christmas home together to do baking and gift making. And a week after Christmas to play and just enjoy each others company.

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?
Our kids have(so far) been really good about waiting until a decent time to get us out of bed. Usually 8am. We have coffee and maybe cinnamon rolls and record the kids opening their overflowing stockings. It is so much fun, I always just want to stop time on Christmas morning! Then we relax, read directions to new toys, put stuff together, munch and cuddle until we get ready to go to my Dad and Cindy's for the afternoon/evening. Honestly I would not want it any other way. Its perfect.

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?
Hmmm...a Key West vacation for me and my hubby. someday:)


4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?
Oh we do lots of free stuff! Drive around looking at Christmas lights, make sure we watch some kind of Christmas tv special every night for the 2 weeks leading up to the holiday, we always make snowflakes for our windows(among lots of other crafts) We collect Christmas books that only come out this time of year and we read them and of course we listen to Christmas music. I think these are the things the kids look forward to the most!

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?
We were def a card playing kinda family! But also, if we had any new board games, we would play them too. Trivial Persuit, Life, Monolopy, Sorry, Etc...

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?
Cookie Day! Unfortunatly, I think we are taking this year off due to my schedule:(

7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip?
Honestly I don't want to be away from home on Christmas! But I suppose Disney, since the kids are our main focus this time of year.

8. Check out GameStop and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?
The XBox with the Kinect sound like its pretty amazing. The girls want DSi's SO bad, and I really would love a DSi XL, I think they are so cool!

Summer Girl Turns 9

Its a good thing we've been too busy to to really think about the fact that she is a year away from double digits. Man, does time fly. She really wanted a party this year, and because I actually remember what it was like being 9 and knowing how great a good birthday party can be, we put together a Candy Shoppe Party. FYI-Fridays are great for parties, I did it right after school, only 1 out of 8 girls couldnt make it, and you are not messing with anyones weekend plans! I picked the girls up at school(some of their parents dropped them off at the house) we did snacks, 2 crafts, gifts and then pizza and rootbeer(or Orange Pop) floats. No cake for the party due to the Candy Shoppe theme.

Napkin rings from candy dots...

dipped pretzels with a gummy assortment...

The sweets table...

wesco popcorn;)

I used leftover candy melts from the butterflies and dipped Oreos!

The girls filled goodie bags with all the sweets and broght them and a coke when we went back to the school for family move night. Moms picked the kids up after the movie.

I didnt take any pics of the crafts, but we did beaded braclets and fluffy flip flops(where you tie strips of fabric all up and down the straps)

We are so lucky that Summer has a great group of friends(finally!) I really enjoyed hanging out with them and hearing them goof around. They even really included Teagen, which made her life complete!!

And I think my girl had the best time ever, at least that is what she keeps telling us:)

Hey Ya'll!!

Where the heck have ya been?! I know, I know. I've gotta get my act together. Too busy right? Yep, that's about right...Having a little shin-dig for Summer's 9th tomorrow, so expect a great post maybe this weekend! Not gonna backtrack too far, too much life passed us by, but going to try to get back to regularly scheduled blogging, for sure. I still love it:)

XOXOXO

friday fill-ins

www.fridayfillins.blogspot.com

And...here we go!
1. The right words never comes to me when I need them.

2. Go to bed, and shut the door quietly, please.

3. Up an at 'em" is something my Dad always said when we were kids. Except I always thought he was saying,"up and adam" and wondered what Adam had to do with it.

4. Home is where you'll find me. Usually.

5. Ooh! What is that mascara/eyeliner/perfume you have on?

6. Getting to bed earlier is a good idea.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to working? not so much...tomorrow my plans include Going to Bob and Joan's for Jason's B Day dinnerand Sunday, I want to get some stuff done around the house, help Summer finish her project on Michigan, and just hang with my people.
Have a fabulous weekend!!!

Through the Eyes of an Eight Year Old

For Christmas, This girl... got a real digital camera. Not a kids camera, but one with higher megapixils than what I carry. I finally got around to downloading her pics and I discovered 400 little gems on this memory card. Here is a glimps as to what I found.

No less than 20 shots of Bling-Bling.

Cats do not like flash photography.

Chase is pretty good a hiding out most of the time, only 8 pics of her. But she was caught in the act of sleeping in Summer's bed.

And searching for abandoned pop tarts.

She took her camera twice ice fishing. She has learned that Schultz men cannot always be responsible for documenting some of these "fun" times. And goodness knows mom will not be venturing out there.

Pics of Kennedy when she was here for New Years Eve...

And about 45 photos of Grady looking like this...

and this...

Or this...

And even this!

But its OK when you have a little sister who want to be the next Vanna White.

I can't wait to see what kind of pictures she takes this spring when we are outdoors. In December, this is all there is:

Everyone does self portraits. But 12 photos of your feet? Really?

Is this not the pic used for every teenagers profile on facebook?

love this:

No lie, 26 shots of stuffed animals.

And a few from the apparent STAR of our house, 36, yes, 36 photos of my poor Griffin dog.

The poor tortured animal.

two shots of TV shows. I am guessing they were scenes she never wants to forget.

26 photos for Teagen on her birthday.

And lets see, what else...

4 photos of Grady sleeping. In the dark.

2 of the celing fan.

5 of her American Girl sleeping in her bed.

and 3 of a paper plate with a face drawn on it.

The kids got a lot of time on her hands;)

Teagen Turns Five

Teagen's day was pretty action packed, but really its the way to do it for preschoolers. And most importantly, keep it simple, make it special. Right? All I can say is thank the Lord for Family Fun Magazine that arrived about a week before her birthday. They covered my class treat and her special cupcakes(at the end of this post). Here are the treats: we have a milk allergy kid in her class. He is really sweet about not caring when he cannot have chocolate of whatever, but I like to try to find things that include everyone. Skittles+Starburst=milk-free!!

If you cant tell, its snack size baggies with clothespin butterfly bodies. The instructions called for glue and glitter sprinkling on the bodies, but I was able to find sheets of self adhesive glitter foam that I just cut in strips and covered the clothespins. add googly eyes and pipe cleaners(fold the tips of the pipecleaner so they are not so pokey) clip in the middle of the baggie and ta-da! Butterflies. What a hit. We now use the bodies as chip clips.(btw- you can get the baggies,eyes,pipecleaners and clothespins ALL at Dollartree. The glitter foam sheets are at the walmart. Easy-peasy)

And because I am insane, I invited the girls from Teagen PreK to our house for lunch on her actual birthday. On a Tuesday. In the middle of the day. When I am alone. With no help. When I have a three year old son. When I worked 4 days straight before the party. After I had a root canal. And I am a total baby. and I promised facepainting. ON A TUESDAY. A.L.O.N.E. what is wrong with me?

Thank you to the 3 moms who hung around. thank you thank you thank you.

It wasn't bad. It could have been. I know from experience. When Summer was in PreK, I invited her entire class(because her friends were mostly boys). I think 10 showed. All dropped off, some getting picked up WAAAYY late. Rachael helped me with that one, but we were both SUPER pregnant and Teagen was a baby. That was one of my craziest moments ever. EVER.

(lovin that BK crown, arnt you? They get them in class. Tea really thought it was somethin'. We dont do BK around here much.)



A cutie face...

Anyway, advice from a party mom:

Simple is GOOD. I planned on pizza, but at the last minute I decided to do tea sandwiches of Nutella, jam, and peanutbutter. I had a bowl of cheetos and a plate of fruit. I also had on the table the leftover skittles and starburst, and a little dish of plastic jewel ring I found for a buck. The cupcakes we on a cake stand, I used 2 dollar store table cloths, layered and bought cheap as heck valentine leftover napkins and table supplies. IF YOU HAVE GIRLS, GO CRAZY AT THE AFTER VALENTINES DAY SALES. Everything I bought was all rainbow-y with hearts and just super cute. And extremely cheap. Like less than a dollar. I have a set of paper lantern that I put up, stuck some balloons to the chairs. DONE.

I did this all in the 3 hours she is in school. not bad.

So all we did was have lunch, play, open gifts, play and facepaint, and then cake and icecream. I planned on a game, but the girls had more fun just playing together. It goes to show that not every minute needs to be planned out.

Oh and I did goodie bags(barbie makeup I purchased at 80% off after Xmas!!) as parting gifts. brilliant idea for 4 year olds that dont want to leave:)

Later that day, we had a more relaxed family evening of gifts and dinner out. Chinese!

I think it was Teagen's barbie year.

The Cupcakes!! Totally recommend. They were beautiful! Its a white cake that you mix up and divide into 6 bowls. Tint the colors of the rainbow, and layer by spoonfuls into cupcake liners. Easy with an awesome outcome.

A special day for my girl. She is such an awesome kid. I'll have to do her 5 year photoshoot this week. Cannot believe that munchkin is 5!!!