Felix's Winter ONE-derland

This weekend we hosted a Winter ONE-derland party in honor of Felix's first birthday. Considering this child was born during a snow, it seemed like an appropriate theme. Well, the weather had other plans and it was 70 and sunny! I could have hosted the dang party outside! 

Instead, I filled the inside with sparkly snowflakes and snowballs. We had the most adorable and delicious snowy treats known to man (although we decided on frozen hot chocolate instead of the real thing!) and lots of friends and family over for chili. It was a really wonderful day celebrating our precious little one-year-old!

Comic Book Birthday Party

Happy Comic Book Day! I thought I would share Griffin's four -year-old birthday party when Super Griffin banished the Party Pooper forever!

The invitation was my absolute FAVORITE part!

Play-Doh Factory Party

For Griffin's third birthday, he chose a Play-Doh theme.  Considering today is Play-Doh day I thought I would share one of my favorite parties I've ever thrown. PLUS, I want to reminisce about when my baby was three instead of SIX GOING ON 20!

Inspired by the us in russ, I decided to go with a Play-doh Factory theme. The invitees received tubs of Play-Doh informing them the Factory was hiring. (Cutest RSVP response goes to Abigail's mom who sent me an email informing me of Abigail's Play-Doh qualifications!) 

On the day of the party, we welcomed the new recruits who received aprons and busboy hats. Each guest then had to stamp their "time card" and take a photo for their employee ID card. (I added their names in Photoshop and intend to send the pics with our thank you notes.)

Then, our new factory employees made their way to the "Production Line" where they made their own magic Play-Doh with Kool-Aid. They each got to pick what color they wanted by choosing a Kool-Aid flavor. We premeasured out the dry ingredients and then had water and oil available for (parent-led) mixing. 

Next up, everyone made their way to "Research and Development." Some very generous friends had loaned me a wide assortment of Play-Doh toys. I spread them out along two long tables and let them go at it. Griffin literally sat at the R&D table for an hour straight. He didn't even get up to greet his buddies when they arrived.

I turned my dessert table into the Factory itself. I decided to try cake push pops for the first time since I thought they were reminiscent of Play-Doh tubs. I had fallen in love with rainbow mini-cakes a while back and decided to make rainbow push pops instead. My stepdad made a long holder for the pops that I put in the middle of the table to look like a conveyer belt coming out of a cardboard box I covered with gears. I was SO happy with the result. 

The push pops were a huge success, as was the party itself I have to say. As everyone left, they came to "Product Packaging" and I gave them their time card, some animal-shaped cutters, little mini rolling pins, and the Play-Doh recipe. 

Happy Labor Day Weekend

I'm taking today and Monday off from posting. We're headed to Kentucky Lake to spend time with family and soak up the last bit of summer. 

I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

How I STOPPED ruining Christmas

My journey with Christmas began in 2009. Up until that point, Nicholas and I had always traveled to our family’s and spent the holidays in someone else’s home. When Griffin was born, we spent our first holiday season in our own home and it was wonderful. The next year we traveled to Nicholas’s family for the holidays, which was hard, but we still only had Griffin so the trip itself was easy. 

As many of you already know, 2011 was the year that changed everything for our family and how we celebrate the holidays.

Nicholas lost his job in mid-November and we decided to celebrate Christmas without Consuming. We borrowed a tree. We canceled our Holiday Open House. We gave gifts of time and energy instead of presents. 

In many ways, that Christmas was the best thing that ever happened to our family.

It brought a certain intention to our celebrations. I began carefully examining the all-too-easy excess of the holiday season and realized that you really can say no.

However, much like Jessica’s journey, continuing to cut back began to depress me. Once our financial situation wasn’t as dire, I wanted a live tree. I wanted to open our home for friends and family. I wanted to buy my children presents.

My problem was that I wanted it ALL. There are so many traditions and specific celebrations that are important to me during the holiday season. So, I kept adding and kept adding, while at the same time adding children and familial obligations.

As a result, I spent many a holiday season stressed, overwhelmed, and over-committed. 

Jessica had been preaching her “Start planning now!” mantra for a while but I was SO resistant.

First, I thought it was mainly about buying gifts in advance. In my mind, I still had my pre-kid gift list from 2008. It didn’t seem like a big enough deal to spend months working on in advance. (Turns out, when I wrote it all down, it’s a pretty big deal.)

Second, I hated the idea of celebrating Christmas early. I didn’t want to suck the joy from the season by jumping the gun. We ALL enjoy grumbling about Christmas decorations going up in the mall before Halloween is barely over and I didn’t want to be part of the problem.

Lastly, I just couldn’t understand how it would help ME. I love Christmas. It’s not that I wanted to cut back after all and completing tasks beforehand felt like cutting back in a way.

Boy howdy. I was wrong. wrong. wrong.

Last year, Jessica FINALLY convinced me to join the team and pre-plan. So, every month on the 25th beginning in August I would check the Facebook group, watch the video, and see what I could do. Sometimes I wouldn’t do anything. Sometimes I would do a lot.

However, every month what the group did was put Christmas on my radar.

Turns out I had lots of great opportunities to buy Christmas gifts if I was paying attention. My town has a spring arts festival with TONS of amazing gifts. Last year, one of our local gift shops went out of town and I literally purchased all my gifts for under $300. I would never have even thought to buy those presents otherwise. 

I also began to realize that there were some Christmas traditions that I love to do BUT that don’t need to be completed during the busiest time of the year. Instead of spending one night late updating Christmas card addresses after returning from a holiday party, I did it in October! I bought my stamps. I had the photos taken. Then, ALL I had to do come December was the part of the process I enjoyed the most - picking the design and sending them!

I realized I love decorating - not making - Christmas cookies with my children. So, in early November, I made all the dough, rolled it out, and stuck it in the freezer. Now, I’m not exhausted by the time it comes to actually decorate. 

I also decorated my home in advance - something I swore I’d never do. However, through the group I realized that it is having a decorated home I love come December 1st - not decorating. When I put it off, I spend a few hectic days doing nothing else just to get it all up so we can enjoy it. This year I started a few weeks early and, as a result, was able to craft new decorations I’ve been meaning to do for years.

The other huge change I realized is how I felt overall. I have a tendency to pack my schedule and Christmas was no different. It works great to pack everything in… until it doesn’t.

I ruined FAR too many Christmases by not allowing space and breathing room for things to go wrong. Last year, I dealt with a major lice outbreak. Any other holiday season this would have sent me into a panic because there would have been SO. MUCH. TO. DO. Last year? No big deal. We’ve got time. Broken garage door? No big deal. Broken down CAR? Rolled with that one, too!

PLUS, I realized when I left a little wiggle room in our holidays season by planning ahead I also had more room for things to go RIGHT. The kids want to go see the holiday lights again? Sure! My husband wants to spend a little more time hunting for stocking stuffers? No big deal. I want to go get a massage? Don’t mind if I do!

So… if stopping in for a mid-holiday season massage sounds good to you, what are you waiting for! Sign up for our Christmas Comes Early course. You’ll get a personal assessment form so we can help you figure out what works best for YOU. Access to our Facebook group and videos for ideas and accountability. AND daily emails once the holiday season kicks off!

Plan NOW for joy LATER! 

The Secret to my STRESS-FREE Holiday Season

This is a guest post by my dear friend Jessica on an exciting co-venture we're launching!

When it comes to parenting, I get quite a bit wrong. My kid eats mostly sugary food for breakfast. He asks for dessert after EVERY meal. Last year, I handmade pretty awesome “Camp Ryan” birthday invitations (complete with old maps cut and folded into envelopes) and then forgot to mail them. And recently, I tried teaching him that if you’re smart, you should probably find other ways to express yourself other than using adult words (i.e. profanity); so now whenever he hears a four letter word, he blurts out, “Mom! That person isn’t smart.” 

Oh geez.

I realize these aren’t exactly end-of-the-world parenting failures, but they’re not necessarily things I’m proud of or like to publicly acknowledge. 

Luckily, there are a handful of things I seem to get right. Planning for a memorable and less stressful holiday season is one of those things. My type-A personality combined with a history of infertility fuels my passion for ensuring we wring every drop of magic and excitement out of Christmas.

While there wasn’t anything specific that happened, I just remember being very frustrated that the joy of the holidays continually lost out to the rush and stress of this busy season. My initial plan was to cut back. For two years, my husband and I didn’t exchange gifts. Then, I didn’t host any holiday meals or get togethers. Maybe we saved some money and a little bit of frustration, but ultimately, cutting out items moved me even further away from any Christmas joy.

A few years into cutting back, nothing seemed familiar. 

Then, several years ago, I started planning ahead. On the 25th of every month starting in August, I sit down for a few hours and plan out our holiday season. The first year or two were time-consuming; figuring out what needed to be done and how I wanted to spend our time wasn’t easy. I also worried that focusing on Christmas so early in the year might actually ruin things. After all, part of what makes Christmas special is that it only happens once a year for a short period of time. 

Truth be told, this organization is what brought the joy back into Christmas. 

The main reason is obvious: planning ahead spreads out the tasks and expenses. So, many of the essential tasks necessary to pull off a memorable holiday can be done well in advance. There’s no reason why I can’t update mailing addresses, purchase stamps and print labels for our Christmas cards in early November. These annual snail-mail gifts of friendship were likely the next task on the chopping block if I couldn’t find a way to tackle the holidays so I started with them. 

What began with organizing the Christmas card process quickly turned into managing other tasks: toys are purged in October; menus, recipes, and decor for holiday gatherings are finalized by early November; and gifts are purchased and recorded on a list all throughout the year.

An unexpected benefit has been that our family actually adds events to the calendar now. While we’re still establishing a few annual traditions, the planning enables us to more easily accommodate last minute invitations or visit exhibitions that may only be available this year.

Last year alone, we hosted an Elf Party, attended the Garden Glow at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, and I gifted my husband with 12 days of craft beer. Each of these experiences were only possible because I planned ahead and ensured the routine and repetitive tasks were done well before December. 

I focus on tasks now and enjoy experiences later.

My worry about ruining Christmas by focusing on it too early was unfounded and the reality has been that I very much relish the anticipation of December because there are so many events and memories to be enjoyed. 

Last year, several friends asked me to help them develop their own holiday planning process. Knowing how I was able to turn around our own holiday experience, I was confident I could help others do the same. Seeing the nearly 50 other individuals post about their planning successes was incredibly rewarding. Their organization throughout the fall months paid off in spades come December and seeing their “sitting by the fire, sipping hot cocoa and watching The Christmas Story with my family” posts solidify that this process works.

Their monthly to-do lists varied drastically, but the end result was the same: a more peaceful and enjoyable holiday season. 

It can work for you, too. Sarah and I have worked together to offer a special Christmas Comes Early online course!  

The course offers planning and organization assistance, short video lessons with ideas to help establish your own planning routines, and accountability to ensure you’re doing things which are important to you. We also have a short survey so we know how best to help YOU and an active Facebook group where you can go for ideas and support!

We're offering an early bird pricing of only $10 before the course begins on AUGUST 25TH!

So, sign up and PLAN NOW FOR JOY LATER!

Unique birth announcements for boys

When Griffin was born six years ago (SIX!??!), beautiful photo birth announcements had only recently become available to the masses. I spent a half an hour getting the perfect shot while he napped and ordered my sweet little birth announcement from Tiny Prints. 

By the time Amos arrived two years later, I wanted something a little more unique. I fell hard for the "Hi, I'm...." design on WestWillow and had my friend Emilee take the beautiful shot of Amos. 

Fast forward three and a half years later and the Hi/Hello motif is EVERYWHERE. I wanted something unique and something that spoke to Felix's third brother status. After months of searching, I finally decided to design it myself! So, the beautiful photo was taken by Brad Rankin and the announcement designed by your's truly!

Did you send birth announcements? Got a great source for unique designs?

Turbo Themed Birthday Party

Amos's birthday request was simple.

"I want a Turbo party!"

Then a Turbo party you shall have my son.

For those of you who don't spend a large portion of your time watching children's programming, Turbo is 2013 movie about a very fast snail put out by Dreamworks in 2013.

We started with printable invitations designed by Party Innovations and went from there. I relied heavily on racing themes with some snail specific games thrown in the mix. Amos's biggest request was a "TURBO CAKE!!!" so I reached out to Cathy's Confections with the idea of a layer cake with a small Turbo on top. Luckily for Amos, Cathy came back with the idea of fully Turbo-shaped cake. 

Y'all, this. cake. 

Amos lost it for this cake. Turbo was the centerpiece of the party and he was more than up to the task. 

I bought plastic trophies as favors because kids LOVE trophies and set up a "refueling station" and that was about it. I had plans for lots of snail-themed food, but I have three kids now and it just didn't happen! 

My favorite party was actually the races. We set up Hot Wheels tracks and had the little Turbo toys race each other. 

Then, I made snail costumes from Oh Happy Day's tutorial and used racing flags to make a little track. The kids LOVED it. If you have not watched preschoolers in snail costumes race each other in slow motion, I HIGHLY recommend it!

Turbo party snail races! #slowmo #turboparty #Paducah #PaducahParty

A video posted by Sarah Holland (@bluegrassred) on Jun 6, 2015 at 11:59am PDT

Amos was thrilled with it all, which is the only that really matters.