balloon wreath.

Do you remember this picture? 
Do your remember this wreath?
Don't you just love it?

 

I first saw this wreath on HowDoesShe.
And then one of my dear friends made one.
And after seeing how easy and cute this wreath is I just had to make one.

I will let you know that my wreath ended up with waaaay more balloons then suggested.
Somehow I seem to go overboard on things sometimes.
My friends still talk to me. . .so I reckon its ok!

All you need to make this wreath is
a straw wreath form (plastic left on)
florist pins
lots and lots of balloons

Once you have all your supplies gathered, start pinning.
I found that if I folded the balloon in half and pinned in the middle it looked the best.

At one time I ran out of floral pins and thought I would try just plain straight pins.
Not such a good idea. 
The balloons did not stay put with straight pins.

Did I mention lots and lots of balloons?

After the whole wreath form in filled with balloons then I tied a ribbon around it for easy hanging.

The finished wreath is so stunning. . .I am actually glad I went a little crazy with the balloons.
Now whenever we have a birthday I can pull this out for instant decoration.

Happy Birthday!

only for him.

There are lots of things that I am good at. . .
I am good at cleaning the kitchen 12 hundred times a day.
I am good at not doing the laundry.
I am good at forgetting to exercise.
And I am good at cooking and baking.

But one thing I am not good at is baking a beautiful cake.

As I have mentioned before, I have some friends who are professional cake makers.
Every cake they make is perfect, beautiful and yummy.
So, needless to say, I will leave the beautiful cake making to them.

However, when it is a certain big boy's 9th birthday and all he wants is a 12-layer chocolate cake,
then, by golly, that is what he is going to get. . .I don't even think he noticed how lopsided it was!
I have made this cake many times and I do believe it gets uglier every time. . .oh, well!
Still tastes delicious!

 No judging. . .here it is in all its beauty.

Sweet birthday boy. . .
Oh, and there is that balloon wreath I forgot to tell you about. . .next post, I promise.

(Go ahead and count the layers, you know you want to.)

I have looked all over the web at many, many layer cake recipes and this one by far is the easiest. 
Lots of the recipes call for cutting layers and such. . .not for this cake maker.
The easier the better.

I would not recommend making this when the baby is awake.

Stay up real real late making it the night before the actual birthday,
lick the frosting bowl and then stay awake a little longer because of the sugar high.

Oh, and don't forget, cake for breakfast on birthdays!

ziplock ice cream.

How do you make a perfect summer day even more perfect?? 
By adding some homemade ice cream of course!

Our morning was spent at home enjoying "no agenda".
While Ben took his morning nap I straightened up the house and cleaned the kitchen.
And the big kids played in their rooms and read books. . .can you ask for anything better?!

When Ben woke up we headed for the pool where we ate a yummy lunch
and played in the pool until afternoon nap time. . .are you loving all these naps we take!! 
Summer time at its best.

Then when Kate and Ben woke up we headed outside to make some ice cream.

A few weeks ago I spied this idea in the Family Fun Magazine and thought today was a good day to try it.
I love finding ideas and recipes that use things I have in the house already!

One thing I will say, the recipe called for half and half,
which I didn't have. . . but we used whole milk and it worked just fine.

 

I put the milk, sugar, and vanilla in a sandwich bag and then ice and salt in a gallon bag .
Then the sandwich bag went into the gallon bag and was zipped up.
I made one of these for each kid and put their initial on the front so no mix ups!

Then for five minutes the kids shook the "crazies" out of the bag!

Oh, have you met my coveted fourth child Carley? 
This is her sweet self with Kate.
One day I hope her most wonderful mom and dad will just give her to us! 
She is just too stinkin' cute and so much help. . .I need her!
Not likely going to happen, but a girl can dream right?

Ben shook his too.

Let me mention here that reading "shake for five minutes" and doing it are two different things.
This was the hard part.
Mostly because five minutes is a long time but also because the bag gets really really cold.

So truth be told the kids did not actually vigorously shake for five minutes
but indeed it turned to ice cream anyway, yea!

Sweet ice cream makers.

Time to eat. 

Yumm-O!

Perfect snack for a summer day.

I hope that you are all having a great summer.

summer list

I almost forgot to share our Summer List!

A few years ago I found this neat idea at a blog called, Whatever.

Meg, from said blog, suggests coming up with a list of things your family would like to do over the summer and then to write the ideas down in a place where everyone can see them all summer.

If you know me, you know I love lists, so this was right up my ally.

And as you can imagine, it wasn't very hard for us to think of all the things we wanted to do this summer.

After we narrowed our ideas down, I wrote them on the chalkboard we have in the kitchen so we could check it every morning.

Here is our Summer List for 2011. . .

As you can see there is still lots to do this summer.
It kind of gives a little bit of direction to the summer. . .just a little.

Sweet Mac was the one that suggested, "have fun". 
I think we can do plenty of that.

(We have also added a few more things. . .I love summer!)

now.


Now is the time when I don't sit down
I don't empty the dishwasher until night time
and I don't have a clean house, but all are happy.

Now is the time that I always say "no"
I never truly rest
and I am constantly busy, but all are happy.

Now is the time I have been waiting for
and at the same time I want to go away, but I am happy.

Now is then time when our Ben has started to really walk!
(For real this time.)

Now is the time that our family of five will turn into a true
Party of Five.  (Do you remember that TV show?)
Walking will bring a whole new world to Ben
and to our family!  We are happy!

Thought you might time to see how Ben has gone from not walking anymore
to walking all the time. 
I had a little chat with him the other day and told him it was time to start walking again
and two days later this is what he is doing! 
Do you think he knew what I was saying??

(please disreguard the constant drool and the lack of clothes. . .like I said, now is the time we are all happy.)

summer.

So here is what I am wondering. . .

How is it that summer is already here?
How is it already half way over?

How is it that we have already taken our summer beach vacation and it is already over?

How is it already time for VBS and summer camps?

How is it that the pool is already a familiar routine?

How is it that Mr. Ben is not "walking" anymore.  Silly boy.

How is it that Mac is almost 9. . .is that possible?

Summer could you please slow down so we can enjoy having our kids this way just a little longer.

plug cover

This is a plug cover.

It is one of the many baby proofing items we have throughout our house.

Need I say more?

Got it.

I got it!
I finally captured a few of Ben's steps!
I will say it was no easy task.

He is one hard subject.
I might try a video next time.

Have you ever noticed that most of our pictures are outside or in the kitchen?
Does that tell you where we are 99% of the time.

I am voting for more kitchen and playroom pictures this summer. . .I heard it will be a hot one.
Thank goodness for the pool!
Hopefully I will be able to convince Ben that sitting in a float in the pool all summer long is the thing to do.
But, somehow I think "Mr. Hip Baby" will be enjoying the water a little closer to mama.

Thankfully Miss Kendall. . .one of our amazing and talented babysitters
that keeps leaving for college every August and is now graduated from college
and will soon get a job and be of no use to me  (hee hee). . .is out for the summer!
I can barely contain myself. 
She has already been put on high alert!

 

Let the summer begin!

I tried.

This sweet boy is almost 13 months!
He has never taken a step on his own, not even a little one!
He loves to "stand up" on his own and he loves to have help walking.
But no baby steps.

Yesterday.  All that not walking ended!

I was picking Kate up from school and put Ben down for a minute on the sidewalk while I talked to a friend and next thing I know Ben is taking a step!

I was so excited!
I lifted him back up onto his feet and he took three more steps.
I did that one more time and he took SIX steps!

Here is my question, how is it that this child can go from not walking at all to SIX steps in a row?

Could it be that his feet never touch the ground?
Or maybe that he is the fastest crawler I have ever seen?
Either way my life is about to change!

I tried my hardest to get some pictures of some first steps this morning, but Ben was not having it!
Playing under the table was much more fun!

Another little side note.

Ben has a bad habit.

He screams.

I don't mean sweet little screams to get our attention, I mean crazy loud screams just whenever he feels like it and when I say "no" (to the screaming) he does more!

Anyway.  My birthday was the other day and Trip had helped the kids get cards to give me.
All three of the cards were funny and sweet and both Mac and Kate's card had "mama"
written on the outside.
However, the card from Ben had "scream" written on the outside.
When I asked Trip about it he said that Ben didn't call anyone by their name. . .
he just called everyone "scream" . . .funny man.

 "Sweet Scream"