Parties Galore!

 Several weeks ago we had Reese's 3rd birthday. I decided to go with a Candy Land theme. I had sooooo much fun planning this party. I decided to make a huge Candy Land board in the front yard. Of course I had to make it more interesting than just colors. I decided that at the different places you had an activity to complete before you could move on.

Peppermint Forest: Ring toss

Gum Drop Pass: Jumping 

Licorice Forest: Belly Crawl

Lollipop Woods: Lollipop Dodge

Snowflake Lake: Swim and eat a popcicle

Chocolate Swamp: Hershey Rocks

Candy Castle was a bounce house. For some reason I can't find the pictures.

Giant Kerplunk Game

Lollipops to line the driveway and hang in trees

They were able to color a sugar cookie to eat while the waited for everyone to get to the party. I found edible markers. These made it extremely easy to decorate the cookies. :)

Birthday Girl!

 I made her this birthday skirt. I LOVE it!

Even the "big" kids joined in the fun. The party was on Saturday and when we had our family dinner on Sunday we all played. The kids even enjoyed it the following week.

Next, we went to meet our new family member. Isn't he adorable! Reese also got another birthday present.

Uncle Bens birthday party:

Petting goats! 

Cousin Matthew's Birthday Party!

Yes, we are swimming!!!!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. We have continued a little on Operation Organize the Red Roof, but not near enough. I will post another OORR blog later!

Happy 4th of July Everyone!!! (Pictures to come later!)

Day 5: Operation Organize the Red Roof!

We have had to take a break from organizing because of Vacation Bible School and Reese's 3rd birthday. I worked on organizing my dresser drawers for Day 5.

I used tension rods to hang my pants in my drawers. I have a really tall drawer and I never wore the pants in the bottom. This eliminates not being able to find a certain pair of pants and being able to see the pants. The downside is you can't shove as many pants in there, but if you aren't wearing the ones on the bottom anyway it isn't that big of a deal. I hung my shorts and capris in a smaller drawer. 

I used shoe boxes to put my t-shirts in. I kept losing my shirts in the deep drawer also, so this has saved me a ton of time. :) Overall I'm happy with everything so far. 

I have started a class, so I'm not sure how much I will be able to keep up with organizing. I may end up picking one day a week to organize. I will put up birthday pictures later.

1st Dentist Trip

Thursday was our first dentist appointment. I love going to the dentist. Mom still has the paper from Kindergarten where I put my favorite thing to do was to go to the dentist. :) I know I'm weird. I like to think of it as unique. Travis was able to go to the same dentist that I have gone to my whole life. 

We had NO cavities and he let them clean his teeth. :) He was Sooo excited to get his goodie bag. He racked up with a free ice cream cone, toy car, tooth brush, toothpaste, and balloony.

Eating his ice cream from Dairy Queen!

Travis and Balloony (Travis said, "Look Mom,  Balloony only has one teeth.")

We have been struggling with doing everything we need to get done and with some of our behavior. I decided we would try a chart to help us. I browsed through Pinterest looking for ideas. I looked at several different posts. I can't remember exactly which ones I used. Anyways, Travis and Reese both have chore charts. We have morning and afternoon chores. We put up stars as we complete the tasks. So far, it has worked out wonderfully. The first day, they read the chart at least 10 times to make sure they finished everything. We also have a behavior chart that we fill out at night. They get a red star if they need to improve their actions, a silver star if it was an ok day, and a gold star if it was an outstanding day. Our goal obviously is to have all gold stars. I wanted to make sure this would work before I spent a ton of time in making a magnetic chart for them. Reese is a little young for all of it, but I didn't want her to fill left out. Travis and I just help her out with her chores. Travis is working VERY hard to earn gold stars. He mentions them several times a day.

I also made a Memorial Day/ 4th of July/ Veterans Day wreath. I saw the cutest wreath on Pinterest at A Night Owl's blog. I modified it of course. I used Navy ribbon instead of tulle and I added rhinestone stars. I absolutely love this! So far, Bama has resisted eating it. She eats everything she can get her paws on. We have already been through several buckets and tennis balls. 

 

Day 4: Operation Organize the Red Roof

Day 4:Kitchen Pantry

Yes, I know it looks organized, but everything is just shoved in a box where ever it will fit. 

Step 1: Pull everything out. I chose to put them in piles as I pulled them out. Travis even helped me pull everything out and put it in the correct pile.

Step 2: Clean out the boxes and start putting everything into the boxes.

Step 3: Put everything back into the cabinet. When I put everything in the cabinet, I grouped the like items. (Breakfast foods, Baking, etc.)

Step 4: Make labels to put on the boxes. I think I am going to make labels for the can shelves also.

I found out I had several doubles of things. I also used some of those shower baskets to put my aluminum foil and ziplock bags. I love being able to find things. I want something to put the noodles in, but I haven't found anything yet. 

Several months ago, I found a blog about using a tension rod as a spice rack on Pinterest. I turned mine into a double rack using two tension rods. I must say that I am still keeping the spices organized. It makes it very easy to find the different spices quickly.

I also used the command strip hooks to hand all my measuring cups. I labeled the bottom of the cups. I am never hunting a certain cup that ended up in the back of the drawer.

Day 3: Operation Organize Red Roof + Stress!

Well, it seems like things always happen after I start a plan and am doing good to stay on top of things. Thursday we took time off because of dentist appointments. Travis' first trip to the dentist. I will put pictures up later since I forgot my camera card. 

Day 3: Organizing Cds

On Wednesday, I went through and organized all of the the cds and dvds. I separated everything in to piles. I went by the Dollar Tree after the dentist office to get some boxes to put everything in. I found these small lime green boxes. :) This morning, I was able to print labels and file everything into the boxes. I can officially say that the office desk is completely through!

I wanted to start on the kitchen pantry, but late last night James found out that our water pump was leaking. (We just replaced the silly thing!) Anyways, James stayed up forever last night trying to get it working again. We didn't have everything we needed to fix it. Isn't that how it always goes. I know it does for me. I am always forgetting to get something or don't have everything I need for a project. James woke up early this morning to make sure that everything was still good, but it wasn't. And again, we didn't have what we needed to fix it. Since James had to go to work, I called Daddy to see if he would come look at it. What we thought was just fixing the pipes turned into the switch not working. Dad worked on it all morning. He said he still isn't happy with it, but at least it works now. Needless to say, it has been an eventful couple of days. 

On another note: We played UNO with the family last night! It was SOO fun! I love playing board games. We used to play with several friends in NC once a week or so. I miss Shawn and Wendy!! :( Anyways, we had fun. Travis and Caleb had a hard time holding all their cards, so Stephanie and I made a card holder real quick. We saw it on Pinterest on Wednesday! I Love Pinterest! This is a horrible picture because I took it on my phone. Is this not the coolest thing ever??

Day 2: Operation Organize the Red Roof (OORR)

Day 2: Clean out Picture Cds

Today, I went through almost all of the Cds that we have acquired over the years. I separated them into piles. (Blank Dvds, Blank Cds, Pictures, Videos, School stuff, Trash, Cds to return or give away) When I went and looked at the pictures, I wrote what was on each cd if it did not already have it written. I trashed all the things where I had two copies. I knew that had happened from when I changed computers and made back up cds. I found copies of papers and things that I wrote in college. I haven't decided what to do with those yet, so if you have any ideas let me know. I don't know whether to trash or keep them. I also had some pictures that I knew several people would want, so if I had doubles I put them in a pile to give away. It was GREAT going down memory lane. I found all the 4D ultrasound pictures and videos from the kids. It doesn't seem like a lot accomplished today, but I went through at least 50 cds. 

The kids and I also went to Aunt Steph and Uncle Ben's house to swim. We did this on Memorial Day too. I did not take any pictures. I will do better next time though!

Until tomorrow...

Day 1: Operation Organize the Red Roof!

We recently bought a new house. Travis kept saying he wanted a red roof since that is his favorite color. We happened to find our house (which has a red roof) by chance. Now, everyone refers to our house as the Red Roof. Our friend Andrew calls it the Red Roof Inn when they come stay the night. Travis and Reese say are we staying at the red roof instead of home. Since school is official out, I have decided that this summer I am going to organize the house. You would think I would have organized everything as we moved in but life took over. I decided blog about everything so I will remember all the hard work I put in, and maybe I will be more motivated to not just sit things down.

Day 1: The office desk!

I totally forgot to take a before picture, so after I sorted everything into piles I took a picture. You can imagine how bad the desk started out because everything that is on the floor was on or piled around the desk. We have tended to say I will file that later and just throw it on the desk. It has been driving me NUTS since we moved in. I never actually used my laptop at the desk because there was never a place to put it, so when I put everything in piles I had space it.

I know! Scary!

Here are the things I accomplished today!

Step 1: Go through and separate all the papers. (Trash, Shred, Bills, Belongs Somewhere Else) I had a ton of opened empty envelopes that needed to be trashed. You would have thought James and I would have just thrown them away instead of piling them on the table, but that is what you get when you open the mail in the car and then sit it on top of the desk.

Step 2: Shred the papers that need to be shredded. I love my shredder. I bought it when we were in NC and it has been just shoved under the desk not plugged into the wall. 

Step 3: Get rid of all the pens, markers, and pencils that do not work anymore. If you look at the above picture, you can see my pile of get rid of pens and markers. It is amazing how many pens and markers we had that did not work anymore. Next, separate the different ones and put them up. I put all the markers in a different container.

Step 4: Make labels or file all of the bills and papers. I ended up having to redo some labels because of the move. I also made 3 files for the top of the desk (Bills to pay, file, and shred). 

Step 5: Make sure everything has a place. I recently read somewhere that you should never just have things just sitting on a table because it will become a pile. Our desk is a prime example!

Step 6: Take the trash out. I had three bags. Thankfully I had a wonderful son that took them to the dumpster for me. :) Sometimes he can be sooo helpful!

I still have to go through all the cds. Every time I had to replace a computer I put everything onto a disk. I still have the disks from before college! Yes, I tend to be a pack rat sometimes. I want to go through and organize all my photos. And most of the things on the cds are photos. In high school, my mom and I went through and started scanning old photos from my grandmother, so all of those photos are in there somewhere. Anyways, I think that may be what I tackle next. :)

Now, I'm going to finish the baseball team gifts and get ready for the game tonight.