-
10 Birthday Party Themes & How to Make Them
I’ve gotten a couple of responses to my recent birthday posts asking for ideas, about how we figured out our birthday party themes or how we did certain ones so I’m thinking I should be for hire – anyone planning a birthday?? I’m a terrible business though so I thought I would just share some of our ideas here for you all anyways! 🙂 I’ll try to separate them by category to make it a little easier. Have fun party people! Outdoor Pool Party: This was one of my favorites! The kids love swimming in the water and they got to splash around with some of their favorite people! Win-Win!…
-
Sesame Place: The Chaos of Fun
So you might say I’m a glutton for punishment, but I love to take my babies to theme parks! This is the first time we’ve gone with all three little ones in tow, but far from the first time the older two have been to a theme park. Most of them are free until they turn 3 which is an added bonus too! My little man is growing up so fast and I know there’s so much more to come, but he just seems like such a big kid now! He is massively in love with Elmo (he even has an Elmo with a blankey “just like him!”) so we…
-
Birthday Parties!
As we begin to plan for our third 1st Birthday in two years I thought I’d share some of the tips I’ve learned on planning and enjoying first birthdays! For our water loving sons July birthday we had a pool party/bbq while our April daughter had a book themed party at our house filled with some of her favorite stories – food and decor to match. Our third daughter is kind of a mix and doesn’t have as many set preferences yet so we struggled in deciding what to do for hers. We ended up doing a traveling Minnie Mouse theme because she is our traveled little babe (coming to…
-
Flying with 3 Babies (under 2)
So we just returned from our first long distance solo trip since kids and phew… It was the first time we left them for a whole weekend ever so I’ve never been away this far or for this long! Not that they weren’t in good hands – we had about half my extended family watching them – so lots of love and fun, but man did I miss them! And the whole time we were flying I couldn’t get over how little stuff we had on us (like what did I forget?) its just so weird! Does it ever get any easier?? Anyways, all of this casually arriving at the…
-
What Really Puts Pressure On A New Mom To Be Perfect
As with every year when the Pan-Mass Challenge weekend finishes off I am reminded of all the true inspirational stories out there, kids celebrating another birthday, starting high school, starting a family, doing all the little things we take for granted everyday because the research and treatments are getting better. And they are – I’ve seen it with my own eyes but there is still a long way to go to a cure. I think about these stories often when I think about motherhood because I’ve lived it and I’ve seen it in my work with Child Life Specialists. I’ve been the person who sits and plays a game with…
-
Music Week: Day Four
Today I’ve been letting my kids be composers! I created some sheet music for them and let them fill in the notes – once they dry Mom is going to attempt to play their songs for them! This was so easy to set up! All it took was a simple sharpie: some lines on a paper and a little dot art! If you don’t have the a set of dot arts (try them they are great!) you could always use a small bottle cap dipped in paint or a sponge cut into a circle. Even a thumb print would be a fun way to create some notes! I…
-
Music Week Day Three: Music Books!
For this theme week we decided to put away most of our usual toys and just keep out our music toys & books. It helps keep things interesting and when I bring back everything else it’s exciting like brand new toys! Plus it gave us room to play and to put out some of the bigger instruments. In the past I’ve also done trades with other parents for a week or so which is a great way to introduce or try out some new stuff without having to buy or overload your house! Creating our music library was so much fun and the kids have loved all the sing along…
-
Music Week: Day Two
My babies are just LOVING music week! It’s been really fun to see my 15 month old really starting to sing full verses of songs and my two year old spontaneously singing full songs by himself or to his sisters. Today he was really into singing Happy Birthday to our youngest who turns one in just a few weeks! Time is really flying by… and while most of our day has been spent trying out our new jump pad (aka mattress pad) and singing our favorite jumping song, we did managed to do a fun musical art activity. We’ve been really working on turn taking with our instruments and our jumping…
-
Music Week: Day One Songs
I find that we often get into song ruts in this house – even though as a friend of mine told me recently I “have a song for everything.” And it’s true I pretty much do have a song for everything from eating to driving to playing play doh – and will often get asked advice for songs from parents who are struggling to do something (like put their seat belt on). Even with all these songs kicking around in my head I find that I will do the same set of songs for a while forgetting about certain ones until they suddenly strike back up. They come and go…
-
Our Next Theme Week: Inspired by Darius Rucker
So our family went to a wedding a few weeks ago and heard the Darius Rucker song Wagon Wheel. Our two year old loved dancing to it and the reaction he got from the family crowd didn’t hurt his confidence either! It is now my kids #1 most requested song to listen to (right behind the Elmo Song and Raffi’s Baby Beluga). While he sings the chorus my 15 month old throws in an appropriately timed “Hey!” or helps scream “wagon wheel” for another round as we listen to it while we drive literally anywhere we go… If anyone is keeping track we should be somewhere around our three hundred…
