Savannah turns 7!

My sweet Savannah turned seven this week and we had a 'ball' planning her birthday bash. She planned backyard games and water stations from Jouett's Fun Day and we added in games we saw in Family Fun magazine. If you don't subscribe to that magazine, go sign up now! They have THE cutest projects for your kiddos.

Since we started planning and shopping soon after school was out, which is the end of May here, we found a great selection of fun summer goodies at stores like Dollar General, Michael's, Wal-Mart, and Oriental Trading. I love reading crafty-mom blogs along with perusing Etsy and planning a party just gave it purpose!

Christian and Savannah made the 'Kid Wash' after the pattern Family Fun offered online. It was a smash hit and will be enjoyed for weeks to come.

Our local ice cream shop, Sweet Creations, made the sand castle cake with yummy Hershey's ice cream and the 'Candy Table' was inspired by the Anders Ruff blog. Sorry parents to load your kids up with sugar and send them home. Well kind of. :) I hope the crash was after bath time and closer to bed time.

We knew we wanted to decorate like Anders Ruff 'Splish Splash' collection but we needed it in girly colors. DimplePrints on Etsy had an amazing custom package of printables for an Under the Sea party. The package included custom invitations, 100+ pages of printables, AND custom thank you notes all for around $30! What a deal!!! I printed everything at home on my inkjet printer. I LOVE printables and keep thinking maybe I could create and sell some. I'll add that to the long list of other crafts.

My favorite decoration was the balloon wreath. I had bookmarked the blog HowDoesShe a while back hoping to return to it. There is a blog post just on the wreath and how to make it! I pulled it off alright but it took MUCH longer to make than I thought and took WAY more balloons that I had originally purchased.

My uncle, Steve Fuller, made fun-shaped balloons at the end of the party for all the kids to take home. The fishing poles and monkey-in-a-palm-tree seemed to receive the most requests. I'm amazed how he can make these and love how excited kids get to take home one of his creations. Thanks Uncle Steve! (P.S. You can hire him for your own party or event. Did I mention he does Magic Shows too?)

A last-minute brainstorm hit me Saturday as I was cutting the printables and that was to ask my friend Kristol Faucheux of tMoot to photograph the occasion since she is starting her own photography business. It's always so stressful for me to get pictures at my kids birthday parties while coordinating and keeping things moving as well. Looking back on the whole day, I would HIGHLY recommend asking a friend to take pictures or hire someone like Kristol. Didn't she do a super job? Having that photo pressure off my shoulders helped me soak up all the mommy-moments as they happened. What a perfect day filled with so many blessings.

The Season for School Supplies

It all starts once the Independence Day merchandise goes out and newspaper ads begin advertising "Back to School" sales. And there marks the start of the school supply season. I love it. And I'm fairly certain my daughter has caught the bug as well. Pens, pencils, highlighters, markers, paperclips, pushpins, notebooks, folders...it excites me to find the latest fun makeover of the simplest of supplies. My excitement is a carry-over from childhood. Shopping for school supplies was a little different back in my day, because it was done before the era of school supply lists. Crazy I know, but we managed to buy school supplies without teachers telling us exactly what to buy. Each summer we traveled to Kansas for our annual family vacation which included school shopping at Wal-Mart. We didn't have a Wal-Mart in Virginia then, and so our tradition of school supply shopping in Kansas was born.

Original site of McPherson, KS Wal-Mart built in 1986.

It is mid-July and our school shopping is done. Savannah and I have successfully found all the supplies she will need for this school year, (plus a few extra boxes of crayons for 40 cents each), and after price shopping a few of the regular stores, Wal-Mart STILL has the best prices. 

Let the labeling begin! I have toned down my label addiction a bit from SGG's Kindergarten year when I labeled each crayon in her crayon box so no classmates could claim her crayons as their own. Doesn't that just drive you batty when someone else is convinced your fill-in-the-blank is theirs? Anyhoo, I've matured in the last couple of years and instead of printing my own at home I have become addicted to Lovable Labels. Addicted might be a strong word but I just love these labels! I love them because you can put them on EVERYTHING! They are waterproof, peel-proof, sun-proof, and come in super-cute colors. Savannah is about out of her label supply from last year since I could use them on all her extra-curricular activity stuff as well. It's amazing how hard it is to recognize your child's tap shoes in the dance recital dressing room. Grin.

We label backpacks, lunchboxes, water bottles, Tupperware, coats, hats, GLOVES (does anyone ever have both gloves at the end of the winter season???), folders, binders, glue, pencil box, you name it. 

And my Lovable Label Tip of the Day... take one of your child's labels and cut off the cute pictures along with their first name and label your family dishes or coolers for safe return after any pot-luck! They stay on even after being washed several dozen times in the dishwasher. Are you sold yet? Get 10% off with coupon code LizGLB1.

Deflated, but not defeated

Our family's lack of summer routine has put me at the edge of insanity today. It's 1:25pm and both my 2 and 6 year old are fast asleep. I can count on one hand the number of times this has happened in their lifetime. Today I enacted mandatory naptime for both children at the same time.

It's not that either child is particular bad but they are both wearing me out with the little things. The little things are habits/reactions/behaviors that I am trying to help them grow out of but am unsuccessful at this point. Little things like saying 'huh', asking who I was talking to when I get off the phone, and pushing each other's buttons knowingly. Ack...Calgon, or anything for that matter, take me away!

I often think about doing chore charts but my 2 year old is a bit young for that in my opinion. I guess I could put a daily schedule on the wall like Supernanny but the beauty of Summer for me is that we don't have plans.

Savannah is swimming on the local swim team and those practices are 9:30am and 6:30pm. We try to make at least one per day but sometimes go twice a day and some days not at all. It is very flexible thank goodness. The somewhat-of-a-routine with swimming is that it usually gets us up and out of the house each day which is as close to a schedule as I really want in a summer.

For now, I'll sit back and enjoy my Diet Pepsi, in the A/C, all by myself.

Full Swing

Summer is in full swing here at the Goodwin household. In fact, I'm a bit overwhelmed after taking a week vacation, followed by a four-day ISTE conference in Philly, and then coming home to a dog that lost a match with a beaver. Beau, one of our two black labs, ruptured his Achilles tendon and needed surgery. I will omit the part where we had to pay an unbelievable amount of money and just say he is doing remarkably well with his splint and basement confinement.

Savannah is swimming on the Louisa Gator swim team this summer and earned 1st place in her breaststroke and backstroke heats! Go SGG!!! I am so proud of her. While I was in Philly she practiced twice a day and it immediately showed. Just that little bit of recognition has her pumped to keep up the rigorous practice schedule. I just hope I can keep up with her.

Grayson is about 70% potty-trained. Is it OK to put a percentage on that? I think so. Last night was his first dry night. He woke me about 2 am and then again at 7 am to use the potty. I'm so proud of him. We haven't really focused hard on it but it just seemed to be the right time for him. The M&Ms help too of course. :) I've enjoyed buying him big boy underwear. I was especially happy to see some stores sold boxer/briefs for little guys. How cute!