St. Patricks' Day 2017

Well, you know me & holidays.  Saint Patrick's Day is not my favorite day of the year, but boy does Taya love it.  For some strange reason, it's always been her favorite holiday, so I try to make it fun & exciting for her.

Every year I do the same thing. . . a rainbow treasure hunt filled with games, activities, & yummy surprises.

For breakfast we started out with some green lucky charms.  You really can't get more Irish than that right?

The clue on the cereal box led us to the dryer where the kids found some orange mustaches & some green shirts to wear to school that day.

Once everyone was all dressed up, we took some pictures, but Craiger was NOT having it.  I think it was the mustache that upset him, but he refused to smile for any of the pictures.

The kids left for school & found the yellow piece as soon as they came in from school.

My kids' favorite activity on St. Patrick's Day has always been the mint chocolate chip milkshakes.  They come home from school SO hungry & hot & tired that these really hit the spot.

The yellow piece led them to the boys' room where they found the green piece with a fun leprechaun game.

We played the game just like you'd play cootie bug.  You roll the dice, & depending on what you roll, you draw a piece of your leprechaun.  The kids loved it.  And their leprechauns turned out adorable.

The green piece led them to the girls' closet (which needed a good cleaning).  After they got their clothes picked up, they got to have some outside time with a bubble machine.

Soon, it was time for dinner.  Green ravioli, green alfredo sauce, green apples, & a green salad.  Yum.

We finally found our final rainbow piece in the coat closet.

We played a game of minute to win it involving M&M's & straws, then we went in search of the final leprechaun's treasure.

They found it!!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.  :-) 

Pi Day

 Well, everyone knows I'm a nut for themed days.  March 14th is Pi Day at our house . . .

as in Pi

3.14159265.....

So I made a chicken pot pie for dinner with a cherry pie for dessert.  Yum.

and later that night we took Craiger to pick out a new bike since that was his birthday gift from us.  He chose an adorable spider man bike.  What a cutie.

Craiger's 6th Birthday Party - Angry Birds

I was secretly super excited when Craiger told me he wanted to have an Angry Birds birthday party for his 6th birthday.  Angry Birds isn't super popular, but boy would it make a fun party.

The first thing I did was paint our 2 kickballs (that we use for night games in the summer) so they have Red & Chuck's face on them.

Then I prepared all the cupcakes to look like Angry Birds.

I think they turned out super cute.

Craiger is such a cute little kid.  I swear he gets bigger every day & I just melt every time he smiles at me.  I can't get enough of his sweet cuddles & hugs.  I can't believe he's 6.

Seriously, look at that face.  How could you NOT love a face as cute as that one?

Nancy sent us a bunch of fun Angry Birds table things so we could really dress up the table for the party.  She is so wonderful.

And of course we had to have a green pig pinata.

The first thing we did was pin the eyebrows on Red.

Most of the kids didn't even come close to the poster.

Then we played a small, indoor Angry Bird game by throwing soft angry birds at some jenga pieces on the floor.

But the highlight of the party was the life size angry bird game.  I'd been saving boxes since Christmas.  Trek & I stacked up the boxes in different ways & put green pig balloons inside or on top of them.  Then we let the kids throw the angry bird balls at the boxes to try to knock down the pigs.  I think the kids played this for almost an hour.  They were having SO MUCH FUN.

After some outside fun, we came inside to have cake & ice cream.

And followed up with the pinata.  .  .  which the kids broke before I could even take any pictures.

Craiger has some adorable friends.  They all came & brought him the sweetest little gifts.  We're so blessed to have such good friends for the kids here in CA.  I love the people we've met & the friends my kids play with.

Happy Birthday Craiger man.  We sure love you.