6 Flags

For Bruce's 7th Birthday this year, we kind of weren't sure what to do. After having just thrown such a huge party for Zander the month before, we were pretty burnt out. But we still wanted to do something special. So The Daddy and I decided to surprise them all with a trip to 6 Flags! They had never been to an amusement park before, and have only been to a town fair like once before. So this was going to be a big special treat for them!

We had a blast of course, it was great to see their faces. And see them enjoy this family fun day! The only real downside was that towards the end of the day, Zander fell and bumped his head real good. Got himself a nice big goose egg. :( Poor guy. He is ok now. We got him checked by a medic and  he toughed it out. But boy was it scary!

Also we had the pleasure of a family friend (Whom has been dubbed as my Washington Mom, since she took that role on. while The Daddy was in Iraq, when we lived in WA and I was so far away from my own mom and family!) visiting with us for Brucey's birthday that week, so she joined us and was a nice help too. So now I'll let the photos do the talking... I tried to narrow them down and collage them so it wouldn't be so overwhelming. Still its going to be a photo heavy post.

Beat Summer Boredom!

With Summer coming up, all of us momma's struggle at times with boredom from our kids! With all the extra time on our hands they often resort to TV or other electronics! When we dont want them in front of the screen all day what do we do!? Well I just found out about Babba co. and their Fun Summer Survival packs aka BabbaBoxes! 

BabbaBox is a kids products subscription services. Each BabbaBox includes solutions specifically designed for four different occasions that are part of all parents’ routines: TV Free Mornings, Sanity Saving Weeknight Activities, Purposeful Weekend Plan, and Story time.
 
The BabbaBox is designed by parents who understand that different situations call for different solutions.  While sitting down and spending an hour doing a project with your kids is fun, the reality is sometimes you are juggling dinner and need something they can do relatively independently. 

The BabbaBox is about so much more than just arts & crafts.  Each month includes a different combination of hands on projects, books, games, sensory activities, kid-friendly science, imaginative play and more.  And everything included is designed by BabbaCo’s early childhood experts to develop important critical thinking skills – of course while having a ton of fun in the process.

Each month has a different theme!
June: Deep Sea
Take a voyage to the bottom of the sea, enjoy a colorful book about some of our favorite creatures, make and plan an adorable fishing game, plus so many oceany activities.

July: Camouflage Animals
Where’d who go? Not only is camouflage on animals totally cool, but it also services a purpose – to help protect them. This month we will learn about all the amazing kinds of camouflage, play a little hide and seek ourselves and other well disguised fun!

August: Pirate Treasure
Bring your sea legs! This will be aarugably our most fun theme yet, as we set out on an adventure, pirate-style. We will sing songs, meet famous pirates through an amazing book and become experts in life on the high seas!

Right now they have a Summer Survival Discount to use as well! Use “SURVIVE” at checkout to save 10% on any Summer Survival Pack.
Includes:
•    Digital ($41.97)
•    BabbaBox ($56.97)
•    Premium Summer Survival Pack ($119.97)

I love the idea of this fun subscription box for kids that is fun AND educational. That its something we can do together and things they may be able to do on their own. Especially for those "lazy" or "boring" days when its hard to think of something to do.  Such a brilliant idea! Plus, my kids always see Mommy getting fun mail. I'm excited to have something fun come in the mail for them!

 Thanks to BabbaCo by Jessica Kimfor sponsoring today's discussion

Mathematical Genius

As mom's, we all want to think of our kids as extraordinary!
And though we are not wrong, each child is talented and special in their own way...
But sometimes us moms can get a little over excited, and maybe think a little too highly of our kids.

Like me the other day when I thought Zander might be a mathematical genius! haha
So here is what happened....
Zander loves angry birds, and he loves activity/coloring books.
He really is super smart, he loves to learn.
So he gets excited about the purzzles, and the "find whats different" activities in the coloring books.
He even loves to count! And for the most part he gets these activities correct.
Its super sweet and I love watching his learn.

Well, one morning he was coloring, and I was doing the dishes.
He comes running to me asking for help.
"Mommy, can you write a 2 here?"
I'm only half paying attention, busy with chores on my mind, as he hands me a crayon and I write a '2'.
He runs off and then comes back a minute later...
"Mommy can you write a 9 here?"
I do what he asks, and this happens one more time when he asks me to write a 3.

Finally I'm like "Wait, what!?"
I stop and focus for a moment, and realize that he isnt just counting the angry birds and having me write how many he has counted... These are MATH problems, Addition, subtraction, multiplication & division....
AND he is getting all the answers CORRECT!

I was in awe! Wondering how in the world he understood and knew the answers to these math problems. I thought to myself, wow could I really have a mathematical genius for a child!? So I got down on my knees to his lever to talk to him.

"Zander, wow good job! How did you know what the answers were? Can you show mommy!?"
Zander gets an excited and proud smile on his face and says yes. Then he flips to the back of the book and shows me where it has the answers!!

HAHAHA
Oh boy, it STILL makes me laugh just thinking about it.
My sweet little smarty pants!!

Online Shopping + Pinterested = Spark Studio

Hello friends, today Ive got something really cool to share with you... Walmart* has combined two of my favorite things - online shopping & Pinterest - to create a fun new way to shop, Spark Studio.

Spark Studio is the fun, new, and exciting way to shop Walmart. They have created an innovative shopping experience that will give you the opportunity to shop how you want to. Inspired by Walmart shoppers, you can find and select items crowd-sourced by Pinterest users.  Find something you like? Pin it, or purchase the item through Walmart [dot] com.

With Spark Studio you can browse items Pinterest style, and be able to purchase them too! How cool is that!? Just click on the arrows in the main banner to scroll between different categories of products such as Inspirations, Fashion & Beauty, For the home, and more. From the homepage, you can also choose a brand or find items by a specific color.

I love how Spark Studio is super easy to navigate.
With Spark Studio, you can browse and shop products by:
1) Inspirations- Items by Walmart shoppers on Pinterest
2) Fashion and Beauty- Discover must-haves from Walmart shoppers
3) For the home- Solutions and ideas from Walmart fans
4) Babies- Search the top picks from Pinterest moms
5) Pets- Find everything you will need for your pet
6) Playtime-  A collection of items to entertain the whole family

Here are a few of the items I found (And Pinned) using Spark Studio:

In the For the Home Category I found these great items:

In the Fashion & Beauty Category I found these:

And in the Baby/Kids catagory:

You can check out my Spark Studio Pinterest Board {here} to see what other great products I found! Check out Spark Studio for yourself and let me know what you think. And maybe even create a pinterest board of your own with your great Spark Studio finds. Allow it to help you redesigns a room in your home, find the best makeup products, see the cute new fashion items Walmart has to offer, and what baby items are a must! I'd love for you to share your finds/pinterest boards with me! So if you do create one, leave a link in the comments for me and others to check out. ♥

*Thanks to Walmart Labs for sponsoring today's discussion

Zander's Circus Themed Birthday Party

Recently my sweet littlest buggy boy turned 4! I tell you, he was SO excited to be turning 4. He kept talking about it. Asking 'Momma, when I gonna be four alweady!? I dont want to wait no more!'

He wanted to be a BIG BOY, already. But also he knew he was going to have a BIG special party too! Which he had requested. Up until now, Zander has only had very small celebrations with just Me, the daddy and the rest of the Kidlets. Sometimes we had a few extended family members there. But nothing big.

Well, ever since Brucey's big Pirate party last year, Zander has been talking about wanting a special party for himself too. He would tell me 'Momma, when my birday come, I have big pawdy yike Brucey did?' And I'd tell him of course! So I had to make this one big and special... As you are about to see with all the photos below!

We decided on a Circus/Carnival Theme with theme colors being Red & Blue (his favorite colors) & Yellow! Just about all the candy and supplies, including the custom stickers & labels where purchased from Oriental Trading Co. If you have not heard of them before, you MUST check them out. They have EVERYTHING you can think of for party supplies and the prices are so great. I only spent about $100 on supplies from Oriental and got my two huge boxes of stuff! (And no this is not sponsored at all.. Ive been purchasing from Oriental for a long time, and just love the variety, and prices they have!)

Taffy, butter mints, bubble gum, stickers, temporary tattoos, bubbles, single bags of cotton candy, custom labeled suckers, popcorn bags, and custom drink labels all purchased from Oriental Trading Co..

We had TWO cakes and LOTS of cupcakes!
This is the cake that I made for everyone to enjoy.
It was a triple layer cake in his theme colors red, blue & yellow with white vanilla frosting.
The toppers were free printables found here on One Charming Party!

I spent quite a bit of time making some fun theme cupcakes too!
Cotton Candy & Popcorn Cupcakes!
The "popcorn" was made from mini marshmallows.
You can find a tutorial on how to make them here.

Circus Cupcake liners from Oriental Trading Co.
Cupcake stands, I made from gluing together dollar tree trays and plastic cups, then spray painting white.

The second cake was made by my awesome and very talented sister Mona!
It was also made with Zander's theme colors and a Superman candle... Whose colors also matched them theme. And was perfect since he HAD to wear the superman shirt that she bought him too. ♥
Mona also made the blue cupcakes with the red 'Z' on them. Which Zander LOVED because he knew that the 'Z' stood to Zander, and that meant they were special for him. He excited exclaimed 'Momma yook at dat Z. Dat Z for my name Naner? Right? Dat my name Z-Day-N-D-E-R!!' ♥ I love this kid so much.

ANNNND this is why he had his own personal cake. We all know kids arent the best at keeping the spit in when blowing out candles... Not that Zander had lots of spit, BUT he DID have a hard time blowing out the candle! haha Took some time for him to finally get it. So he got to have his germs to his self. ;) I love his precious little face though trying so hard to get that candle!

Party game details. Everything here I crafted together myself. Using old food cans. Tickets from the Dollar Tree. The Bean Bag toss The Hubs and I made a few years ago for Kiah's Birthday. I have the DIY tutorial here. I had repainted it last year for Brucey's birthday which you can see here. And then I just re-painted it again to match the theme for Zander's party.

We usually always have to have a jump house. If you live in the Tehama County area, I recommend Gonzalez Jumpers. Great prices, and they also have tables and chairs to rent as well (which we did). The jump house is ALWAYS a hit, and one of the most memorable things about our parties. The kids love them and stay entertained for hours!

As for food, we kept it real simple and cheap. I decided it would be fun just to keep with the theme and do foods you would normally eat at a circus or carnival. So we had a popcorn machine, the peanuts and then we did hot dogs and sausages!

On top of everything else, we also got a pony! YUP. Well just our luck my sister in law (The Daddy's brothers Wife) rides horses and has a friend with a pony that she usually rents out for parties. And she let us borrow this sweet little guy for free. ♥ And He was a hit just as much as the Jump House was! All the kids at the party were super excited for rides and lined up waiting. It was adorable. Zander just LOVES riding the pony.

My little superman/cowboy. haha

And here is Brucey on the pony.

And Kiah. ♥

Presents....

Pinata!

Annnnnnd lastly..... ME. Yes, I of course had to dress up for the party too!
I was going for a Cutesy Clown Doll look.
You can see more detail on my makeup and outfit on my other blog Agape Love.

I had a blast planning this party for my sweet little love bug.
And whats more he LOVED it and so did everyone else.
Totally worth it to make the first party he will remember a really special memorable one!
He has STILL been talking about his special party and its been almost a month since. ♥
Sweet little guy.