Tag Archives: Holden

Thrifty Thursday ~ Simple, Inexpensive, Homespun Birthday Invites

I’ve mentioned this before…you can spend LOTS on invitations.

I refuse to do that anymore. Personally, I also refuse to use evite. I think evite is genius and I’m all for being more {green}, but I prefer and enjoy coming up with cheap, crafty invites for my kids’ birthday parties. I love the idea of a hand or snail mail delivered invitation. I guess I’m sort of old-fashioned that way…

This year for Holden’s party I found some blank note cards at Michael’s for 50¢ a pack {8 cards/package}. I chose these specifically because of the red envelopes ~ so much better than plain, boring white!

The cards had a small graphic printed on the bottom right corner so I just made a {flame} template out of cardboard, cut it out, traced several flames on some orange construction paper, cut those out, used Elmer’s glue and some red & gold glitter and voila! It covered the picture perfectly. I chose a font we already had {cracked}, formatted it, came up with the wording and popped them through our printer.

I picked up some fire truck stickers at Target for 99¢ in the scrapbook area and added one to the inside of the invite and also to the front of the envelopes.

I addressed them “Firefighter so-and-so” and put the return address for the ones I mailed as “Fire Chief Holden”.

I calculated the cost of these invitations as less than 25¢ apiece.

We hand delivered most of them to save on postage, too!

Hamming It Up

This morning I made an appointment for Holdy’s 4-year well check.

We’re always curious to see what the scale says at his appointments. When he turned a year old, he sorta headed for the 3rd to 5th percentile and has been hovering down there ever since.

{I try not to dwell on the percentiles…at least he is short and lightweight so he doesn’t look too skinny!}

However, his newest culinary love interest is HAM.

How random is that?

This kid loves ham so much so, he pulled it out of the ‘fridge one day with a loaf of bread, put it on the counter and went to find Jay to make him a sandwich. I come home from running errands to find the dogs eating the ham out of the brand new package. {Our Border Collie was tall enough to grab it off the counter}

Adios ham!

Today for lunch he ate TWO whole ham sandwiches on wheat bread with mayo! I made him one and would’ve been happy if he had stopped there, but he asked for another one and devoured that.

I guess we’ll be stocking up on ham over the next month and seeing how many sandwiches this kid can put away.

Fingers crossed that he’ll hit 30 pounds at his 4-year check up.

{He was 27 pounds on 9.30.10 when he went in for his flu shot}

*****

Any of you floppers out there have any {healthy} secrets to getting your munchkins to put weight on?

Swine related or not, any advice is appreciated.

Oink! Oink!

60 Minutes

Want to know how to entertain your 3.5 year old for an hour?

Give them an almost empty jar of peanut butter…

…and a spoon…

…sprinkle in a little Wonder Pets…

…and you’re golden.

Damn Skippy!

{Peanut butter is good for the hair, right?}

*****

Have a peanut buttery Thursday!

Because

In my attempt to simplify, straighten up and Spring Clean, I came across a list of words and phrases that Holden said about a year ago:

“I did it!” (buckling carseat)
“Bravo!” (claps)
“Manny!” (Handy Manny)
“Rar Rar” (car – my personal fave)
“Brush” (brush teeth)

Now, a little over a year later, it’s simply “Because…” or “Because…because”.

He talks up a storm, but anytime we ask him to do something he doesn’t want to do (which is quite often) it’s just, “Because……because” and sometimes it’s “Because….I don’t want to!”

Some of his other favorites right now:

“Sorry ’bout that!” or “Never mind.”

So precious.

The “Because” thing gets old quick since he says it literally hundreds of times per day, but it really is quite cute.

Wish I could get away with just saying “Because” sometimes…

Jay: “Why did you go on this big shopping spree?”

Me: “Because!”

or

“Mommy, why can’t we go to McDonald’s and get a Happy Meal?”

“Because!”

Life would be so easy if we could just opt out of an explanation or awkward moment and just say,

“Because!”

*****

And something that Elliott has been doing lately…

“When I have a daughter and a son, I am going to let them get their OWN Happy Meal and Old McDonald’s.”

{Hint taken!}

Oh, and I recently caught myself repeating one of those phrases that my parents used and I hated when I was a kid…

“Because I said so!”

Seriously, this one I have to agree with.

Mom & Dad, now I understand where you were coming from here!

Ahhh, the things we learn as parents.

Have a fabulous Wednesday!

Why?

Because I’m the parent and I said so!

~ XOXO ~

TMI & TCFW

I know this is {t}oo {m}uch {i}nformation, but here goes…

Birthing 2 children + coughing non-stop for the past few days =

Lots of these! (with wings, of course!)

Some things will NEVER be the same after kids. Seriously……

*****

The Easter Bunny found these for Holden’s basket:

Are they not {t}oo {c}ute {f}or {w}ords?

His very first pair of Havaianas….a teeny size 7.

It’s almost, if not already, 100% flip flop wearin’ weather.

Spring is newly here, but Summer is right around the corner!

Darlings, Driving, Daydreaming & Dips

Our Sunday was filled with all things {d}ivine…

A sweet shower to welcome Baby Halle.

How {d}arling is this pic of the new peanut and her beautiful mommy, Jennene:

Watching E & H tear up and down the street in the neighbor kids’ Escalade:

{D}riving

Holdy decided to take a break from behind the wheel and {d}aydream:

Finally, I made my first ever French {D}ips:

Like my old school Crock Pot from 1926?

A stainless steel upgrade is on my wish list…..

I did little mini slider-type ‘wiches:

The au jus turned out flavorful enough, but we decided to add a little heat:

This recipe couldn’t be easier…

Slow Cooker French Dips

It was another {d}elicious weekend ~ in more ways than one.