Lily's "Panda"monium Party: Part 1

      Yesterday we celebrated Lily's birthday, you know, almost 2 weeks after her actual birthday.  You do what you gotta do.  Her party was so much fun!  A lot of work, but the pay off was worth it.  Turns out, my little Panda princess sure loves a good party and loves having all of her friends at her house.  As you may recall, about a month ago, I said to Lily, "You want to have a penguin party?"  and she said, "No.  I want a Panda Bear party."  And thus began Pandamonium 2012. 
      I'm going to break it up into two posts - one being the actual party post and one with some of the extra details that went into it.  I have realized that I sort of love planning parties.  Having a theme and running with it is something that really gets my creative juices stirred up.  And, pandas are really cute, so there is a lot to work with.  In the end, I think this turned out a lot cuter than a penguin party would have for us - way to go, Lily.  Here's the birthday girl post party in her panda attire.



Here are the girls waiting for our guests to arrive, while watching Rack, Shack and Benny.  This is the only Veggietale Lily has cared to watch recently, so I find the Bunny Song playing in my head relentlessly.



First thing on the party agenda - eating.  I went for sort of a Chinese/Chick-fil-A theme.  I was going to get actual Sweet n Sour chicken, but decided that for ease and cost to us, I should serve Chick-fil-A nuggets with Polynesian sauce.  I made Peanut Butter and Jelly "Sushi" and had Chicken Egg Rolls, Edamame and fresh fruit as our lunch spread.  I mixed some Strawberry Breeze juice with Sprite for a fun "Pink Panda Punch."

Everyone ate, which is a major feat when dealing with this many toddlers, babies and young children.  It always feels a bit circusy, but fun.



After lunch, it was time for the party activities.  In keeping with an "Asian-ish" theme, I thought it would be fun to do a game involving rice.  We got a 50 lb bag of rice from Sam's and filled a tub with it.  Then, we buried little spiky plastic balls in it.  We gave the kids each a set of chopsticks with the little kid helpers that make them like over-sized tweezers.  In two separate groups based on ages, we had the kids try to dig out the balls with the chopsticks.  Whoever had the most when it was over - after about 5 minutes, won!  We had the older group of kids 4 and older go first.  It was chaos, but the kids seemed to really be able to do it and enjoy it.



They used extra favor boxes that we had on hand to put their balls in.  The winner received a copy of the Kung-Fu Panda DVD.  Bella was crawling around trying to eat the rice off the floor. Like we don't feed her. And, Lily was kicking it while the older kids dug through the rice.




Then, it was time for the "Fly-Weights" as John kept referring to them as.  This was even more chaotic, but they did manage to get the balls out.  It turned out to be a lot of fun. 




While groups of kids were playing the Chopsticks Challenge game, other kids, with their parents' help, were "Painting" their own Panda.  I had an ink pad of Pigment ink out, and kids put the bottom of their fists into the ink to then stamp on the Panda's ears and eye spots.  They then glued on the googly eyes.




Quick, easy and cute.  Also, the ink came off with water - it even came off of the wall with just water, which was great to later discover.  After the downstairs party activities, we headed upstairs for cake and cupcakes.




Everyone sang Happy Birthday to Lily, and then, I blew out her candles for her, because she froze up a bit under all the scrutiny.  But, she loved the panda cupcake.

To round out the party fun, we did a Panda pinata in the garage.  This was entertaining for so many reasons.  First, John told the kids to line up from shortest to tallest.  They all stared at him sort of blankly.  After they did form some semblance of a line, they got started hitting the pinata.

It came time for the last little boy to hit, and the pinata broke open.  Sort of.  The body came apart from the head, but the candy did not come out.  Sort of creepy to have a decapitated panda.  And funny.

After that, we decided to let an adult actually break it open, and then it rained candy.  Always good times.




After that, we gave everyone their take-out favor boxes and wished them on their merry way!  Bella enjoyed the farewells, because she loves playing by the door.  A dangerous passtime, but one I can't seem to break her of yet.

As John said, "No one will acuse you of doing this half way."  And, it turned out to be so much fun and everything I could have hoped for.  Which is nice, since it was a lot of work.  We are so blessed with wonderful friends here that come and celebrate with us like family.  I cannot believe we have a 3 year old on our hands, and so far, 3 has been much better than 2 for us.  We want to celebrate the good times, I am so thankful that we have had a couple of more peaceful months with her. 
      I plan on doing another party post going into more details on the favors and cake and invites - I had fun putting them all together!

An Ode to Hobby Lobby

      Well, I said this was an "ode," but the truth is, I could not write a song if my life depended on it.  I was listening to an interview on NPR yesterday (nerd alert) with the guy that composes all of the music for the Final Fantasy video games.  He said that he always has melodies floating in his head, and the hardest thing for him is to pick which ones to use.  I cannot even imagine having melodies that I was creating in my mind.  For me, I always have crafts floating in my head.  I am regularly planning things to make and figuring out how to do it in my mind.  It sometimes literally keeps me up at night, which probably means that I am crazy.
        Which brings me to Hobby Lobby.  I go there usually about twice a week.  Here are some of the things I love about it.


(last night the sunset was gorgeous!)

1.  Lily used to call it Hobby Hobby.
2.  Strains of all-instrumental versions of old Amy Grant songs like, That's What Love is For that transport me back to my childhood.
3.  The people know me and my children.  They talk about how the girls have grown and notice when I get my hair cut.
4.  You can get most things half off from there.
5.  There is almost always a mobile coupon for 40% off to be pulled up on my phone.
6.  They have a fabric section with a good selection.  (which is why I like it more than Michael's, though I frequent Michael's as well)
7.  When we go there, we drive past Waffle House where Lily always remembers that her daddy took her to breakfast there and tells me about it, reminding me of how wonderful my husband is.
8.  I know where everything is.  This is critical when shopping with two little friends.
9.  There is a forest of Christmas trees almost 6 months of the year to be enjoyed.  They are currently not there, which is severely disappointing to Lily.

So, that is my list.  Do you have anything else to add?

Keeping It Real

      This week I am under the weather again.  What does that even mean, "under the weather"?  I am shooting up Afrin every 12 hours to be able to breathe through my nose.  It seems to be my drug o' choice that does the trick and allows me to pretend that I am not sick and carry on with all the things I think I need to do.  And, many of them, I do need to do.  I need to care for my children, feed them and clothe them and love on them when they jack their little faces on the sides of tables.  (Poor Bella.)  I need to make sure we have food to eat, clothes to wear and keep our house picked up.  I am the Mom.  These things fall to me.
      But, what about all the other things?  The things I want to do.  The things I think I should do.  There are so, so many of those, and sometimes, I feel like I start to crack a bit under the strain of my own expectations.  I have these expectations that I can and should do it all.  I want perfection.  Is that too much to ask?  I want (in no particular order) to have a clean and beautiful house, clean and cute children, a wonderful marriage, deep and satisfying friendships, the best birthday parties, great ministry, a sense of personal style, fitness, folded laundry, a cute blog that people like to read, a potty-trained daughter, an intimate walk with the Lord and then time to craft to my heart's content at the end of each day while I leisurely take in the latest episode of my favorite show.  And, sometimes I trick myself into thinking that this is attainable.  What is wrong with me?  Why am I so broken in my heart?
      I have always been an "achiever."  I am a first-born child.  I have always looked for the quickest, most efficient way from point A to point B, and I have had success in doing this in many areas of my life.  But, life is not about efficiency or how many things I can cross off of a list in one day.  That is not how God measures my time, and I want to be more about what he wants in my life.  It is all his anyway.
      So, the question that is echoing in my heart and mind this week is, "How can I make more of God and less of me?"  I am naturally bent the wrong way to want to make the most of myself, to think that I could possibly have any good without him.  As John the Baptist prayed in John 3, "He must increase, but I must decrease."  Somehow, decreasing sounds painful and hard.  Just as I have always sought after efficiency and success, I have always shunned pain and trials.  I have valued and do value my comfort far more than I should.  "He must increase, but I must decrease."
      Instead of pursuing perfection, I want to be pursuing more of Christ.  More fullness.  More joy.  More love.  And sometimes, more pain and suffering, because he promises to be near to those who suffer and count it all joy.  It goes against the grain of this girl to really want that, but that is what I feel God is putting on my heart.
      So, that is where I am this week.  I am planning for Lily's party and wondering about all of my priorities.  I guess I can be a little intense at times - at least, that is what one of my friends told me this morning.  Also, my mom tells me this, so it must be true.  Mothers never lie.

And, I firmly believe that every post needs a least one picture, so here are a couple of the girls.  I love the story that these pictures tell.

Also, is Lily's apron not the cutest?  Thanks, Aunt Ellen, for making such a sweet gift that she loves!

Weekend: Starting to Get Things Organized

      This weekend held many things - a seven mile run that did not involve vomit (yea!), fun shopping at Sam's and walking past the security cameras,



marveling at how much food this little friend can put away in record time,



and playing a fun game in the garage.





Blowing a ping pong ball out of a PVC pipe brings some of the loudest giggles I've ever heard.  And, aren't Lily's pigtails the cutest?  I thought so.

      In between some of that stuff, we managed to rest and prepare for a new week.  One of the things that I wanted to accomplish this year was to re-organize (or organize for the first time) our house.  I wanted to do it last January, but instead I started a blog.  Which has been great, but does not make my pantry easier to navigate.  So, here we go.  I have an organization board on Pinterest that you can see by clicking here.  There are so many great tips out there, but the bottom line is still that I just have to do the work.  Or rope my super-organized husband into doing it for with me.  He is the best.
       One of the sites I pinned is doing a 52 Week Organization Challenge, and while I am not exactly participating, I am doing my own little version of it.  She makes several great points - organization does not happen overnight, and it really does consist of forming better habits.  So, after looking through all of the areas that she is tackling, I made my own list of areas in my house that need to be addressed and the order that I wanted to do them in.
       The first area that is being tackled is our kitchen, which was broken into several sub-categories so I could check stuff off the list.  We spent some time in the pantry this weekend, and I am loving the results.  Now, it was not that bad at all, but it was bad enough that I found that I had at least 4 bags of chocolate chips - two of them opened.  That would not have happened if they were all where they were supposed to be.  I didn't take a before picture, but I did take a "during" shot.



      He truly does love "arranging" things, which is lucky for me, because it is not my strong suit.  I can keep up a system (when I put my mind to it), but I am not particularly visionary in this area of life.  He helped me group things in ways that made more sense and moved things around to shelves that made more sense.  When we had it all the way we wanted it, I used our trusty label-maker to label it all.  As John says, it will provide a little accountability to me in our pantry when I see the labels.  I am more likely to put things back where they are supposed to go.  (The shelves all pull out, so it is a very accessible pantry that I love.)

      John helped me make everything more functional, and now, I just have to keep it like this.  Hopefully it will keep me from having three Basils, two Poppyseeds and way more canned tomatoes than any one family needs on hand.



Having a list and doing a little bit at a time seems to be the key for us.  I get overwhelmed thinking of trying to get everything in perfect order at one time.  But, I can clean out the pantry (with John's help) in a couple of hours one afternoon.  It is not all-encompassing of our lives, but over time, and with each task - more of our home will be more functional.  I will keep you all posted on the progress.
      Planning for things really does make a difference.  I look forward to sharing more of our planning and action steps - hopefully, you'll be inspired to do the same!