Easy Carnival Style Birthday Party

Birthdays can be a big deal. Every birthday I think about the book The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Birthday. As a parent, balance is the great elusive art. How do I make my child feel special and loved without overwhelming them and unintentionally feeding that tendency to believe It's all about me?

With three children and both sides of the family living close by we've worked out what seems to work well for our family. We do a birthday celebration with just our family on the actual birthday. The birthday child gets to decide what they want for dinner and the kind of cake they want. My parents have been doing an "experience" birthday with each of the kids, often including an overnight at their house. (Gracie gets to go to the zoo this year.) With Eric's parents we do another family celebration. With so much birthday we have decided that a big friend party at five (and probably ten) is a good fit for our family.

Well, Gracie turned five this week.

She had eight little friends, four boys and four girls. I love this age when it isn't exclusively a girl or boy party. Gracie loves to be outside and she loves pink. We decided to have the party at my parents' house because they have a great yard with a new swing and playhouse set from Costco. I had some carnival style games (corn hole toss, tin can alley, and an orange ball toss), along with some outdoor toys (hula hoop, jump ropes, balls). I decorated with pink and orange, inspired by the great wrapping paper from the dollar bin at Target.

My sweet hubby made this corn hold toss (with five holes). I can't wait to use it for more outside parties this summer!

Also we had these fun glasses (from Target), that the kids enjoyed and made for some cute photos. But an even bigger hit were the balloons. We got the long skinny ones ($10 at Party City for over 100) that you can twist into anything. I found out I was lousy at making animals, but the kids didn't care and lined up with their requests anyway.

It was so much fun and Gracie was so tired she fell asleep on the way home in the van. She slept for two hours (she hasn't had a nap in at least two years) before she woke up and was ready for her evening festivities with just the family.

Big birthday party every five years? Yep, I think for us that is a very good idea.

cami

Project Life | May Freebies Kit

Download HERE.

It's about time for another freebie, don't you think?

Here are some 3x4 journal cards, some 3x4 filler cards, and some tags. All digital. All free. Please limit your use to personal (no commercial use with written permission).

If you are new to A Little Grace and Mercy you might enjoy some of the other freebies available. My Project Life this year has been inspired by Project Life's Midnight Edition, which happens to be my favorite, and these freebies are my designs using that beautiful color palette. But I am feeling ready to design using some other colors too. So as I go back and scrap 2010 and 2011 (my pre-project life days) I'm going to be branching out a bit. So eventually we will have some other color palettes for your digital scrapbooking pleasure. But for now, here is a lot of yellow, white, and grey!

• January Freebies
• February Freebies
• March Freebies
• April Freebies

cami

Monday Morning | The Mother's Day Gift I Gave Myself

My One Little Word for 2013 has been Discipline. I don't have much of it in certain areas of my life, so it seemed like a good idea. For me that word has translated into some small decisions in my every day life (like getting up a bit earlier) and one extremely big decision, to exercise four to six times a week (which I have never done for more than a couple of weeks in my whole life because I loath exercise in any form).

In the past I've exercised to loose weight or to help my clothes feel better. Esthetics. And it's never lasted very long.

This year I resolved to exercise for a different reason: quality of life. I am quickly approaching forty and my kids are all still young (eight, six, and turning five next week). I have ten to fifteen more years of enjoying life with them home. I want to have all the energy to do fun stuff with them: hikes, playing in the yard, adventures. I noticed it wasn't getting any easier to be active with them. So I have been exercising since January with the purpose of making my body stronger. I have been faithful. I have been consistent. I have been disciplined.

This past Saturday I participated in Pregnancy Choices' Run for your Mum, my very first 5K ever. I didn't run, I walked with a little more than half of the participants. My sweet husband and three kids came to cheer me on. At the finish line I felt like I could have done the course a second time! The day was gorgeous, the weather ideal, the perfect walking partners. My body was strong!

Prior to Saturday I had been discouraged. After five months of faithful treadmill workouts I have only lost about five pounds. My clothes fit a little bit better, but I'm only down about one clothing size. But after I finished the 5K I was reminded of WHY I have been working out. My heart and body is stronger. I was barely winded. I could have walked faster. I could have kept going. I can do more than I once could. It wasn't about being able to do more than anyone else participating. (There were amazing women in our group RUNNING this race.) It was about being able to do more than I could have done five months ago. And  I was able to do much more than I could have five months ago! So as I head to Weight Watchers this morning I am going to try and remember my success when that scale doesn't sink low enough (or even at all).

cami

Project Life | Week 14-17

Getting caught up on Project Life has been on my to do list for several weeks. Until the last few days I haven't really given it much attention. I couldn't quite get in the mood. But like so many things in life, sometimes you just have to get started and the mood comes. So glad I finally just forced myself to do it.

I'll be linking up over at The Mom Creative this week too. I love, love, love to check out what everyone else is doing. It's such a great way to be inspired, encouraged, and to get some great ideas. I always come away with a handful of ideas of things to include that I hadn't thought of yet. So head over there too. Not only does she host the link party, but I love to read her other posts as well. Like this one she wrote this week that really struck a chord with me.

With my monthly calendar I didn't have much room for Easter pictures or Spring Break photos in week 14. But we didn't end up doing a lot for Spring Break this year. I am fortunate that the kids feel like a down week AT HOME is the very best thing in the world.

If you follow along here, week 15 looks familiar. I completed it out of order and posted it already. But because I can't handle too much disorder, here they are again, right between week 14 and 16, where they belong.

Week 16 is what happens when you have a camera mishap and a short week! I lost all the photos on one of our two cameras. That's a first for me. Plus, week 17 was going to include the whole weekend (instead of just Sunday) because the kids were at the Grandparents' house while we were on our Anniversary trip. So week 16 only ended up being Sunday through Thursday. So I decided to do a blog update and an update on part of my 40 New Things by 40 project.

I can't take credit for any of the pictures in week 17. Eric and I were gone on our Anniversary Trip. (I'll be posting those pictures in a separate post later (a mini album I'm putting together). These came from the grandparents, with whom they stayed, and Uncle Andy. I love including photos from others. They always see through the lens a bit differently than I do and it gives a fresh perspective.

Now that Project Life is more or less caught up, I'll be focusing on the mini album I mentioned and the May freebie kit.

Enjoy!

cami

Welcome Weekend

In a few moments I will need to stir my middle child, who loves to sleep as much as her mommy does. Forcing the day to start is one of my least favorite things to do. But it's Friday and with it brings the delight of the weekend. I love to welcome the weekend.

Today I look forward to my kids jumping off the bus and dashing up the driveway, full of joy. It's supposed to be nearly 80 degrees today. Perfect sunshine weather to end our uncharacteristically sunshine week. They'll be ready to play.

Today is filled with chores so that I will be ready too. My weekend includes my first 5K, six weeks of Project Life to get caught up on, completing my Anniversary Trip Mini Album, progress on my May Freebie Kit and lots of play time with my kids.

Whatever you are welcoming this weekend, may it delight you with the same pleasure that Friday evening brought you as a child.

cami