Buy All The Things!!

My oldest is turning 5 in less than a month.  This blows my mind.  I mean on one hand I've witnessed nearly every single one of the 1800+ days he has had on this earth but on the other - WAIT. Hold. The. Phone. This kid has been with me for 1800 days!  Wow that is... yep see, mind is blown.  


Moving on... Jackson will be 5 and soon after he starts kindergarten. So I am in full blown mama bear planning a kick butt party mode!  The theme is Lego (c).  I have tons of ideas flowing through my brain, okay actually they are smashing around in there messing up my already cluttered thoughts.  Since we are new to Charlotte and haven't established friendships yet, we will be having the party in Tennessee.  Lucky for us I have awesome friends who are helping me to pull this off by giving me use of their backyard.  Did I mention they have an in ground pool??  So score one for mommy!  


Now on to the decorations.  I am choosing a bright primary color theme like this one.  Only ignore how awesome her party looks or you'll end up thinking mine is sooo not cool.  And we can't have that happen. 

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I still need to find the plates but for the most part the party planning is somewhat done.  Also if you could ignore the fact that I haven't sent out invites and the party is in two weeks that would be great, thanks! 


Once the best party ever has happened I will do a post on all of the extremely awesome and simply amazing decorations/ cake/ food that I chose to do. All ideas to be ripped from the headlines of Pinterest! Okay ignore that too.  


Now if you know me even a tiny bit you will know that I love to shop!  I mean I love it.  I even like grocery shopping. Well when the kids are chilling at home with daddy and not screaming at me in the bus of a shopping cart that these places provide so graciously for our rambunctious kids. Seriously those things are hard to steer! But I digress.  I love to shop.  And being that this is his FIVE year birthday...

What have I bought him you ask?  Books and some used movies.  WOW I'm gonna win the Mother of the Year award over here!  Watch out Supermoms, I'm an awesome gift giver! 


Is that all I will get him you ask?  Of course not!  You should see my Amazon shopping list!  My cell phone is loaded down with pictures of toys that I spot while out shopping.  


What's the hold up you ask?  (Man you are nosey.)  I don't know what to buy!!! I mean I know what I could buy, I know every little thing this kid likes, and I'm even capable of predicting toys he might like.  But... I want them all!  I mean, he wants them all.  What's a mom to do??  I've already gave away tons of my ideas to the grandparents and aunts but there is still so much!


This is his FIVE year birthday, I don't think I've mentioned that yet...

Hush you.  
Thanks and things,
~Kristin 

This Is For You Mommy

These littles love to draw and color and paint and cut paper in to teeny tiny itty bitty pieces that I have to vacuum up... but I digress.  Back to the point of this post, my kids love art! And I love to display their art but I also love to access my refrigerator at various points throughout my day and well this wasn't working.  

Okay so I've been known to exaggerate a little... but for my sanity I had to come up with a better solution.  Lucky for me I actually remembered something that I had pinned eons ago on Pinterest.  (Oh come on, I know I'm not the only one that pins something so brilliant that I wonder how I could live without it and then promptly forgets I've ever seen it.)  So I packed up the kids and headed to Hobby Lobby! 

My idea came from this blogger's post Naptime Craft Mommy.  You can follow her steps or you can do my modifications.  She purchased her wood from Home Depot but I found 3ft slats of unfinished wood at Hobby Lobby for $5 each.  A little more than she paid but I didn't have to make a second trip with the kids and in my book that's worth a few extra dollars! 

Item's used:

(2) Unfinished wood boards $5ea

(1) Acrylic paint $0.99ea 

(12) Painted wooden thingys $0.79ea<--- like the original blogger I have no clue what these are actually called

(1) Foam brush $0.14ea 

(1) Pack of wooden clothes pins $1.99

Grand Total $22.60  **Note this would be much less if you used coupons, or found some scrap wood, or waited for those little wooden thingys to go on sale. But I'm not that patient. 

Steps:

1) Paint the boards and let dry.  I think I let mine dry for 30 min.  And I only had to do one coat but you could do more if needed. 

2) Attach the painted thingys to the clothes pin using wood glue.  Let dry.

3) Attach the clothes pins to the board using wood glue. Let dry.  **Note: The original blogger screwed her clothes pins to the board but I opted for a lazier option, naturally. 

4) Make husband hold finished product up to the wall in various positions until you are either satisfied or have driven him crazy!  

5) Measure, level, and then nail to wall.  I didn't even bother finding studs because I'm not hanging bricks from this thing, just paper.  And unlike the original blogger I used a thinner, lighter weight wood so keep this in mind when you decide how to attach yours. 

6) Take pictures, admire your work, make your husband tell you how awesome this project is over and over and over... It's a good thing he loves me. 

  

Oh and enjoy having a fridge with only a few art pieces covering it! 

Thanks and things! 

~Kristin

PS Please forgive the blurry cell phone photos, my camera is in the shop. 

Littles

So I have these two littles in my life.  They are my favorite people on this earth. My first little is almost 5 years old and I'm in complete shock of this.  His name is Jackson and he plans to be an architect when he grows up, or a Power Ranger... either way I will be so proud!  The other little is 3 years of age and must be made of cling on material.  How else would I explain the fact that he is constantly attached to my hip (or leg, or arm, or neck)? This little monkey has the name of Liam. When asked what he wants to do when he grows up, he assures me his plan is to stay with his mommy.  (No we don't have attachment issues with this child AT ALL.) 


Now that you know a little about these littles that run my life, I'll leave you with the ABC's as Liam would sing them.

"A B C D E F G,  H I J K, Elmo, Elmo, P Q R S, T U V, W X, Y and Z" 

Funny thing is he doesn't even watch Elmo.  Totally dislikes the little red critter, yet he gains a place in the alphabet!  He also serenaded all of Harris Teeter's shoppers with this song yesterday. 

I'm afraid to tell him, but this will be the picture going in his senior year book with a huge I LOVE YOU message from Mom and Dad.  Not embarrassing at all. 

So there you have it.  Thanks and things.

~Kristin

Welcome and things...

I'm not sure how to go about welcoming a bunch of strangers into my life but I'll give it a shot.

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Thanks and things... is my new baby.  Here I will ramble discuss my amazingly crazy and wonderful life! (and you will love it! Or. Else.) I just finished my Master's of Business degree and promptly moved my little family of four to Charlotte, NC.  We are in the middle of new house organizing, friend finding, job applying, play date going, shew... I'm also a runner (of sorts), and apparently a blogger!  And no I don't sleep much but hey I'll sleep when the curtains close.


Glad you stopped in and I hope you find me as funny as I like to think I am!


"Life is Short, Laugh Hard"


Thanks and things...
~Kristin