Layout:
Home > Archive: July, 2006

Archive for July, 2006

No More Toddler!!

July 31st, 2006 at 04:00 pm

Our little one turned 3 last week. WE had a wonderful time at his party. We had invited his play group. There are actually 2 other 3 yr olds in it but one has brothers so it ends up being a 7 yr old,one 5 yr old, three 3 yr olds, and a 18 month old. Six kids can rock this house!! They were all coming to his party but one got sick. and th elittle one had to stay home too. So we ended up with 3 3 year olds and a 7 year old for the party. We were doing a veggie tale theme. My DH and I were up early getting ready. The party was pretty cheap and could have been cheaper but we spurlged a little. DH took 8 x 10 pictures form the veggie web site and glued them onto cardboard. When they were dry he took a linoleum cutter and made jigsaw puzzles. He made different numbers of pieces for each child. The kids could put them together and then color them. We also had crowns made up in advance for them to wear. T used a group pic of veggies from the site and colored it then glued it to a cardboard crown I had cut out. We measured each kid on a long piece of paper. I had an extra growth chart that was free with a book purchase that I used but you could use anything. We took a picture to glue by their name so our DS has a record of who was here. The real fun began after they colored a picture for their treat bags (again from the site, free to print and color) We had several stations set up but since there were only 4 we did it all at once. First we "bobbed for Bobs" Most people do it for apples but theer isn't an apple on the veggie show yet. Even the parents got into it!! After that we reached into a container of fruit cocktail (make sure no sharp edges) and pulled out a grape (messy, very messy) We took a half of a cucumber (precut into a puzzle) and tried to put it back together, For the peas we had a small water toy that boats sail in but you could use anything that holds water. I dumped a cup of frozen mixed veggies into it and they had long handled spoons to pick out the peas. One for every year old they are. They had to pick up one pea at a time and take it to the table of course they had to hold the handle in their mouths, no hands!! For blueberries I had frozen one in each ice cube and they had to shave it with a snow cone maker I picked up for 10 cents at a grage sale. If you don't have one you could use another way to melt them. I hid baby carrots in grape jello (darkest color) and had them eat their way to it. After they collected all 6 veggies they got a prize. We used punch balls because they were 3 for a dollar at the dollar store. We "pinned the picture on the poster" I had a poster but you could make one off of the site coloring pages and we taped a copy of part of it onto the poster with a blindfold on. We only spun the older one. The others just had to find the poster. Last but not least was the piniata. I used a long brown bag and painted it green with a face on it. I'm no artist but it was familiar to any kid who has seen the shows. I filled it with dollar store stuff. It was for a boy so we had bugs, snakes, etc. You can get a bunch of stuff really cheaply. Instead of having them hit the thing I threaded strings through the bottom on the bag and had them pull two each. We all pulled at once because there were only 4 kids. After that we divided everything up evenly. You could put in candy but we don't encourage alot of sugar. I did have a small thing of fruit snacks for each child in there. For lunch we had Pizza, jello (strawberry banana) and cake. I decorated it with a kit but you could just draw a tomato and a cucumber on it with icing. We had chocolate milk to drink (a big treat around here)We gave each child a card game as a favor but you could skip this part if you wanted or get the games at the dollar store. The party probably cost us about 20 to 25 dollars but we could have done it cheaper if I hadn't gotton the cake topper or cups to drink out of. If we had had more kids coming we would have skipped the frills but 6 of stuff wasn't much. The part I enjoyed most was when the parent came for two of them and the kids started talking all at once about how much fun they had!!

back again

July 30th, 2006 at 06:59 pm

I haven't written anything in a very long time, or so it seems ot me. The last tiem I was here we were on th eway to MI to do a good deed for my MIL and run a garage sale. The phrase "No good deed goes unpunished" fits well here. After a couple days with her she blew up late at night in front of our 2 year old and scared him so badly that he regressed in several ways for a couple weeks. We are just now finally back to the little boy we knew before. My DH has said that she will never get the chance to do that again. So my little one will grow up without grandparents but will be safer, healthier and happier for it. I agree with his decision since we know it has happened with his cousins other times and we refuse to give the chance of repition with us. We forgive her, we just won't allow a rematch. I really admire my DH though. He listened (as we threw our things into a suitcase with DS clinging to me) and didn't lose his temper and return "fire" It wouldn't have done any good anyway. So no more MI entries!!

MIL "fun"

July 11th, 2006 at 10:05 pm

After spending several days with my MIL I am back at home and hoping to find a little sanity until I have to go back there. We leave in 3 days to once again attempt to help without losing our minds and our tempers. I am trying to not think about the fact that this time we will be there over a week. I wish I were rich so I could buy the stupid farm as is and not have to worry about it any more. At least my DIL and SIL are reaping the benefit of the lessons I receive at her hands. I hope they are anyway. I'm sure I'm a poor MIL but I try not to be as bad as that. I hope they know or at least have an inkling of how much I value, respect and love them. They are in my prayers, and have been for more years than I have known them. Ah well, onward to more garage sale research. I have to sell a myriad of items, from a driving cart (updated sulky) to antiques to a sawmill. Should make for an interesting week! On a plus note we had 14 tons of metal hauled out of there this past weekend and she got 50 % of the money for that! Made me feel like I had accomplished something at least.