Cooper's 5th birthday party

I was given the task of creating a Wild Kratts birthday party for Cooper this year. Not only did he want the Wild Kratts (if you have never watched them, you should..they are pretty cool), he wanted the Wild Kratts to visit the polar bears. Stumped, I searched the internet in hopes to find some answers. I came across a few sites with examples of "creature power suits" but it seemed like all of the parties happened in the summer. What games could be played inside? How in the world were we going to pull this off?

Well, we did and I think it went pretty well. The creature power suits were only a piece of felt folded in half with a hole for the neck cut out. I then glued the paw print on them.

After the kids wore them, we then had to "activate" them by putting our "polar bear disks" on the paw print (just printed out a picture of a polar bear and glued it on a circle which was worn as a necklace). This enabled the kids to be "become the polar bears". I found this cute little print out of a polar bear mask which the kids put on and we traveled to Antarctica to visit the polar bears. Cooper and I hung polar bear facts on the wall and we took turns playing throw the snowball in the ice berg. After that, we had a good old fashion snowball fight with crumbled up paper. As cheesy as it sounds, it turned out pretty good.

Good bags consisted of polar bear ring pops, snowflake pencils, snowflake stickers, compasses, mini polar bears, and of course some gum.

And I couldn't forget the cake...how easy was that?

My big 5 year old had a fantastic day and I am so glad we were able to pull off his "big idea"!

Papers everywhere

I don't know about you but I find that we accumulate a lot of papers...

And I.HATE.PAPERS!

So, what do you do with all of those beautiful pieces of priceless artwork and school work?

This year, I decided to take charge of the papers. Each kid was assigned a crate where all papers would go when they got home from school/church. After they showed off their creations and decided if one was valuable enough to be hung on the door, we put the rest of the papers in their crate. At the end of each month, I go through each crate and pull out extra special projects or things that show their progress level and put them in a folder. The folder if then labeled and placed in a bin in their closet. Last year, Kylie only had 2 folders (full) of projects that describe her year!

Before:
After:

I have found this to be a great way to deal with the "paper situation"!

Now if I can just come up with a system for the "other papers" we accumulate...hmmmm

SLACKER!

I am aware that I have been slacking in the writing department these days. But with 4 kids, things are a little crazy around here. That being said, I have a few minutes to myself so lets see if I can fill you in a little on our busy life.

1. Christmas was super fun! The kids were all allowed to ask Santa for 3 gifts (a need, a want, and something to share). It was great to watch them carefully decide what to ask for. They all ended up with a lot of "stuff" anyways but I have seen them play with almost everything they received.

2. Speaking of "stuff"...we seem to have a lot of it these days. No matter how hard I try to limit things coming into the house and how often I purge what we have, I am still struck by how much STUFF we have. With 4 kids, we seem to accumulate a lot! I do feel that I am pretty good about getting rid of unnecessary things but still feel overwhelmed every once in a while. Time to do some purging!!

3. Organization is on the "to-do" list these days. Although I am NOT pregnant, I have felt the "nesting" urge lately. Yes, I even organized my spice cabinet. Must have something to do with #2.

4. Kallen is growing up too fast!

5. Looks like we won't have to wear our hats/gloves in the house anymore! We decided to invest in a wood stove. I am super excited to get it put in and cannot wait to cuddle up next to it with a good book!! YAH!!!

6. We seem to be going through more food than usual. Must have something to do with having so many people eating! Think we may have to revisit the food budget again.

7. I am learning a lot these days about God. Stay tuned for future blog posts on that one.

8. Zach has been making some super awesome cutting boards! Love that he has discovered a new talent.
9. My time is up...must accomplish something before the kids wake up from nap!