{ turtle + iphone }

Equals about 50 pictures that look kind of sort of like this.

Love this kid.

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{ popie's boo boos }

This weekend, we paid a stealthy, surprise visit to my grandparents' house.


We kind of had to. 


I had mentioned to Turtle that Pop's knees weren't working right and he was going to need to have them fixed, and Turtle got very concerned about Popie's boo boos.


He was quite insistent that we had to bring him bandaids.


And cookies. With sprinkles. Like the ones they have at Publix.


Because bandaids and cookies make everything better.


True story.


So we put together a care package, full of Jujy Fruits and word search booklets, Batman bandaids and homemade sprinkle cookies, packed up the car, and headed off for the weekend. 


The trip was a complete surprise. 


And Turtle was so proud of himself to deliver such an important package to his great grandfather.


He put himself in charge of putting bandaids on Pop's knees,

and then joined him for a snack of cookies.

These pictures are just so incredibly special. 


He even went ahead and adhered about eight bandaids to his own legs. For solidarity. Or something.


It was a wonderful visit, and Turtle is pretty sure that his medical ministrations were just what the doctor ordered. Doc McStuffins would be proud. 

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{ buy, save, give }

We have been a little spoiled.


Turtle has always been pretty reasonable and laid-back. Oh, and highly communicative. Which has saved us from the ravages of the legendary "Terrible Twos" and other developmental "challenges" that would otherwise end with me sobbing in the pantry and drinking copious amounts of wine.


But now we're into Turtle's fourth year, and we are navigating another chapter of life. One where he has more opinions and wants to assert himself more. Sometimes, those assertions take the form of dramatic bursts of emotion. 


It's hard. 


We don't have rules, exactly. More like Acceptable Standards of Behavior. All of these are based on respect and kindness and being a nice human being. It's a method that works for us and has, for the most part, been relatively successful.


Sometimes, though, we get off track. I find MacGyver and I getting less and less patient and more and more frustrated, and all of us getting away from the core of respect and kindness. 


It happens. We're only human, and it's so easy to fall into that downward spiral of negativity and anger. So we take it back to the drawing board to try to refocus that negativity into a positive way that encourages everyone to want to do well within the structure of our home.


Turtle has always responded very well to responsibility and incentive charts. I think it's a good visual cue for him to see the things that we expect (or don't expect) from him, and there are short term and long term benefits to it. He loves being involved in picking his responsibilities and he also loves sitting down to discuss how his day went so he can get his magnets, or find out what he has to do in order to get one the next day.


This time, though, we decided it was time to up the ante.


I'm not really big on the whole allowance thing, especially not at this age, but Turtle is starting to express a lack of understanding about where things (toys) come from and how we get them. It is also about time that he learns, in a little more depth, about helping those in need. 


So we thought, and we thought, and finally, came up with a new system, that seems to include the best of all worlds.


The responsibility chart is back. Turtle will have three chores (setting/clearing the table, picking up his toys and helping out) and two behavior expectations (no whining and using his listening ears). 

He also has three jars, labelled "buy", "give", and "save."

At the end of each week, if he has had a strong showing on his chart, he will get one dollar in quarters.

One quarter will go into the "save" jar for college, rainy days, emergencies. 

One quarter will go into the "give" jar. We had a long talk about helping others and we selected four charities from which he could choose (Ronald McDonald House, March of Dimes, St. Jude's Children's Hospital and WWF - the wildlife one, not the wrestling one). Turtle picked Ronald McDonald House. Probably for the compelling reason that he likes Happy Meals. At the end of the year, we'll wrtie a check for the amount of the coins on the jar and donate it to the cause.

The final jar is the "buy" jar. There are several toys that Turtle has his eye on, including but not limited to, a Captain America shield, a Spiderman action figure, and an Ironman mask and hand thingamajig that pretends to shoot some kind of pretend electromagnetic pulse. Every week, two quarters will go in this jar.

Each of those three toys is taped on the jar as a visual reminder to show what he is working towards. We don't expect him to earn the full amount to purchase these or other things. At least not right now. We've assessed a value for each item (20 quarters for the shield, 10 for the action figure, etc), and we will chip in the rest when he gets to that point. It takes away a little of that instant gratification thing he has going on, shows him the value of the money he has and gives him something to work towards.


It also gives us a positive way to channel our energies if we find ourselves getting frustrated.


At least, that's the idea.


This is Week One, so we will see how it goes. 


I'll be sure to keep you posted!

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{ i didn't blog on mother's day }

You know how your friend asks you to babysit so she and her husband can out for a little bit, and you spend a few hours playing with one of the cutest little 16(ish) month old girls you know, and then she gets tired and naps and you sit down and watch some "Don't Be Tardy for the Wedding" on Bravo, thinking to yourself that it will be nice to go home, and make tacos and rent something on Pay Per View and catch up on some blogging. 


Just a nice, quiet Saturday night. 


Except you drive home and walk into your kitchen and there are about 20 people standing there, cameras in hand, yelling "Surprise!"


Yes. That's exactly what happened.

No, I don't always travel with a pillow. Although, after the shock of the evening, I'm a bit twitchy about walking into houses, so I might need to start carrying one for security purposes.


It would seem that when I mentioned it would be nice to have a real-live, fancy, grown up party with pretty food and music and plastic flatware that looks like real silverware, people were taking note. Namely, MacGyver and some of the best friends in the world. 


And somehow they pulled off a ridiculously perfect luau, complete with pretty food...

a gorgeous (and delicious) cake, made by the talented Lydia...

A real live bar with fancy drinks (and a volunteer bartender to shake it up)...

And live music in the form of the amazing Matt Collins.

I was absolutely blown away. And possibly speechless. And that doesn't happen. Ever.


Needless to say, my Mother's Day was spent laying very, very, VERY low, recovering from the late night.

So, it's a little belated, but I hope all of you mothers and grandmothers, sisters and aunts, and maternal figures of all kinds, had the most beautiful day. I was lucky that Turtle was content to snuggle and then ask to go to Cracker Barrel for our special dinner. Which is probably just what I needed.


I do believe things are going to be a little quieter around here in the upcoming weeks. Today is Bentley pug's birthday, so we are going to have some scrambled eggs to celebrate. He's not cooperating for pictures today, so this will have to do. 

Thank you again to everyone for being part of this wonderful surprise. Of course, to my amazing husband for getting it set up, to T, K and L for helping him pull it off, to L for the gorgeous cake, to  J for making the trip, to Matt for playing, to R and K for taking Turtle for the night, and to everyone else for just being so incredibly wonderful. MacGyver, Turtle and I are so very lucky and so blessed to have such wonderful friends. I know I say it a lot, but I think it's important that you all know how much you are loved and appreciated.


And now, it's back to real life!


Happy Mother's Day, Happy Monday, and have a great week!

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{ things about the 6th anniversary of my 29th birthday }

I took a little break yesterday to enjoy my birthday with MacGyver, Turtle, some friends and the pugs.


It was the best day, and I just want to share some of the highlights with you.


1. I have amazing family and friends. Uh. May. Zing. I cannot even begin to tell you how lucky I am to have them in my life.


2. You are never too old for a tiara of any kind.

3. Pretty much the best gift you can get is a drawing of a whale with the word "mom" written by it (not in reference to the whale, thank you very much, but in a "dear mom" kind of way) created entirely without adult assistance or prompting, from your child.

4. The next best gift after that? Yeah.

5. In 35 years, I never learned how to properly tip a belly dancer. I need to rectify that.


6. If a menu offers something called or described as "flaming cheese", get it. Eat it. You're welcome.

7. I love the 30s. Not the 1930s. Being in my 30s. They've been great to me.


8. However, it's nice to have younger lungs to help blow out all those candles.

9. It's ok to start the next year of your life with a broken promise. Like when I made that vow that i was never ever ever going to read those 50 Shades books? But now, I have to because of all the hype and all the controversy. And because a friend loaned them to me. I'll get back to you in a few days with my thoughts.


10. If you want to eat leftover chocolate cake for breakfast, you need to be sure to get up before your child and husband. Otherwise, there will be a lot of questions you just don't want to answer. 


Hope you have a wonderful rest of week!

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{ diy: teacher appreciation school supply cake }

Wednesday's theme for Teacher Appreciation week is "school supplies."
I had some great inspiration from browsing online, but then I was ready to get creative. I hit up Walmart, Target and JoAnn's for supplies:

• 3 pack of papier mache nesting boxes (I painted them tangerine and fuschia)
• 3 rolls of matching ribbon
• bag of cotton balls
• 24ct box of wood pencils
• 8 boxes of 24 ct crayons
• 3-4 boxes of 10ct markers
• 2 6ct packages of small glue sticks
• 4 bottles of school glue
• 4 travel size containers of hand sanitizer
• box of Kleenex and package of travel tissues
• large rubber bands
• hot glue gun
• cake board, larger than the biggest nesting box.

I started by hot gluing the largest box to the center of the cake board (I did not glue the lids on the boxes - instead, I filled some of the boxes with leftover supplies or supplies I didn't use - cotton balls, pencils, extra glue sticks and markers).

It took me a few attempts to figure out what I wanted on each layer, but finally I decided to make the bottom tier a combination of glue bottles, glue sticks, hand sanitizer and tissues.

For support, I used dots of hot glue and regular glue dots to hold the items in place along the bottom box. If you have a rubber band that's large enough, you can use that instead.

To complete the bottom layer, I measured out a length of my widest ribbon and bound it tightly around all the items, using hot glue to secure the ends at the back.

My middle layer was the crayon box layer. Glue the mid-size nesting box to the lid of the bottom tier, and then secure the boxes of crayons around the box using a large rubber band. This time, I used a contrasting ribbon as a band around them, gluing the ends in the same way I did the first layer.

For the top layer, I removed the markers from their boxes, and inserted them into a rubber band wrapped around the smallest box. At intervals, I inserted my remaining travel tissue packs. I then hot glued the top box on top of the middle box and glued the right length of ribbon around it.

Almost done!

I found this great box of tissues from Kleenex - brightly colored and shaped like a bird. I couldn't resist, and this formed the topper for the school supply cake. I thought it was fun and whimsical. You can use any kind of box you find, or you can even wrap a plain box in fun paper if you want to jazz it up.

Finally, I made the signs: an orange-y star with the name of Turtle's class and a black rectangle with the names of his teacher and her assistant.

Voila!

You can really make this project with whatever supplies you want. For older classes, you can incorporate notebooks, calculators and scissors, or anything else. You can also bring in more art supplies - bottles of paint and brushes, for example. There is so much flexibility!


Have fun!






Inspired by What's Scrapping and The Butlers

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{ diy: teacher appreciation week apple cards }

Monday's Teacher Appreciation suggestion was for your child to bring in a handmade or storebought card.


Cards are not my thing.


My mother can spend HOURS in the card aisle, reading each and every one, searching for precisely the right sentiment. She's committed.


Me? Not so much. If I have to open more than three cards per person in order to find the right one, I'm doing something wrong and have to abandon that store to try again later. 


Patience is not my virtue.


To add insult to injury, I couldn't even find a Teacher Appreciation card in my local Target.


Handmade it was.


Oh, did I mention? I don't know the first thing about making cards, either.


Joy.


I do, however, understand hot glue guns and paint. So when I stumbled across this GENIUS idea on the Fiskars website, I knew I had found a winner.


You start with some wooden spools (I got these in the wood aisle at Michael's). 

You will also need:

• paint (I used green and red, because we like both colors of apples)
• cardstock in white, black and brown
• ribbon, raffia, twine
• hot glue gun
• scallop-edged scissors
• hole punch

I also got little Kraft paper gift bags and some teacher-themed stickers for gift bags.


Paint your spools. I only needed two, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to do two red apples, or one red and one green. 


While they dried, I added stickers to the gift bags to dress them up a little bit.

I typed out little messages on some white cardstock. Each included a personal thank you note and a quote about teaching. I cut them out using the scallop scissors, and then cut out shorter strips of similar width for the base of the "apple core."

Hot glue time. I secured one edge of the short strip to the wooden spool, 

wrapped it all the way around and secured it with some more glue.

When that dried, I used more hot glue to fasten the message strip to the apple, as shown.

Punch four little circles (or hearts) out of the black cardstock and cut each of those circles in half. These will be the apple seeds.

I used a little dab of regular Elmer's glue to attach the seeds to the inner core

And then again to the outer core, so you will see them when the message is all rolled up.

For the stems, roll up a little strip of brown or green cardstock. I dabbed a little hot glue on the edges of the cardstock before inserting into the hole at the top of the spool.

Very carefully, I rolled the message strips around the core, and tied a yellow bow around them.

I made little tags for each bag, which I tied on with extra ribbon and Turtle took them off to school.

I can see this being cute for party favors, end of year gifts, or just little pick me ups for the special teachers or apple-lovers in your life.


Happy crafting!



Inspired by Fiskars and Lisa Storms

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{ moments that take your breath away }

It's easy to forget, sometimes, how lucky we are.


We get so wrapped up in ourselves, it's so easy to miss the amazing things that are ever present around us.


But sometimes, if we're lucky, we get little reminders.


Like when we went to dinner last night at this little dive crab shack with amazing food, that is so very close to our house, but which never seemed to make our regular dining rotation. Turtle was antsy and we were getting frustrated, so I took him for a walk on the dock. 


The dock I loathe, because it is only about four inches over the water. Which is, allegedly teeming with gators and snakes and all kinds of things that I imagine are not to be deterred by a measly four inches. Which is not at all fenced, gated, or otherwise protected from the wildlife. 


But I did it, to make life interesting to Turtle, gripping his hand and wrist so tightly that his fingers were probably blue from lack of circulation, keeping him as tightly pressed against my leg in the middle of the walkway as I could.


Which is when I saw it.


Graceful, and elegant, slipping beneath the water in a soft arc of mottled silver and gray.


A manatee, most peaceful and serene of all water life. 


We both just stared, as it slipped into the dark depths of the river and out of sight. 


And I was so sad because i had left my phone (and camera) back at the table. 


And Turtle was so amazed because you just don't see that every day.


There were other splashes, farther out in the water, certainly more hostile and less manatee-ish, so we headed back up to dry land. I grabbed my phone and told Turtle to start on his grilled cheese, that I wanted to run back to see if I could catch one more glimpse.


And lightning struck twice in night, because there it was, right in front of me, nibbling on some vegetation that it had found, its nostrils and muzzle just above the water.

Close enough to touch. Completely oblivious to the hustle and bustle to the world outside the river. 


It took my breath away. And reminded me to always remember to stop long enough to really see and appreciate the beauty all around us.

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{ turtle's drive-in birthday party }

Saturday was the big day.


Party day.


I will spare you the insanity that went into deciding this year's theme. I don't know if it's just hard for me to pick a theme or there are too many themes I want to do and can't settle on one. 


However, after researching ideas, we decided that we would have another party at the house. And we were going to go out on a limb and do a nighttime event, featuring a movie on an inflatable screen in the backyard.


Turtle loves movies, and the weather is generally nice enough in April to make use of our yard, so it seemed like a pretty good solution. 


Also, Turtle has been staying up later, so we were hoping that a later party start wouldn't be prohibitive to his friends. The movie wouldn't be able to start until dark, and that turned out to be close to eight o'clock. The plan was to start at six, enjoy food, playtime and cake by seven-thirty, and then if anyone had to skip out to catch bedtime, they would have enjoyed everything up to dessert.


So here we go.

MacGyver and I bought a Costco membership this year. We normally bring in deli trays from Publix, but this year, we looked at Costco's offerings, and decided we would change it up with a platter of ham, turkey and roast beef croissant sandwiches with chicken salad and Hawaiian rolls. We also got a large tray of nuggets from Chick-Fil-A and served Publix spinach dip with fresh pumpernickel, chips & dip, veggies & dip, and a watermelon fruit bowl, carved in the shape of a shark (damn you, Pinterest!)

Ok. Maybe it was more of a whale. Whatever. I hate carving fruit.

For dessert? A movie themed cake, lemon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow "popcorn." In the bowl were little cut out cookies, iced to look like bursts of buttered popcorn.

A close up of the cake. Turtle wanted orange cake, but not orange flavored, so I tinted vanilla cake with orange gel and used chocolate frosting.

We set up tables outside, with centerpieces of flowerpot, painted bright green, holding trios of orange, lime & aqua balloons, and filled with Cheetohs and Doritos, Turtle's two favorite snacks, which he only gets at parties. It was so windy that the tablecloths were blowing up and I don't have a great picture of those. 


The kids played on the swingset, with the bubbles from the bubble machine, listened to the music playing through the speakers, and generally ran around, having a grand time.


We had a photo booth set up in the corner, too. 

I got the masks from etsy seller The Manic Moose. I couldn't resist the orange shutter shades and the 3D glasses. The aqua chevron fabric was from etsy seller, Cupcake & Company.

Turtle shows us that he is, in fact, four years old.

He was just so happy, having a great time with his friends! I think my favorite part of the night was watching him interacting on his own with his buddies. It's not often that I get to observe him in large groups to see what he does. I loved how cute they were, playing together and being silly.

Molly, on the other hand, was pretty traumatized by the whole thing. I think this picture sums up her feelings on the evening quite nicely. Run, Molly. Run.

The movie screen was up and ready to go (Y'all, you would not believe how big this thing was. I had the dimensions, but I didn't realize it would be as tall as our house! Craziness!)...

but first, we had to have cake. Yum. Cake. As you can see, Turtle was very excited about getting down to business. 

We got cleaned up a little bit, and I brought out the little drive-in cars. Inspired by a site that sounds like "winterest." 

We had four of them, with little snack holders clipped on the sides. I didn't think the kids would actually sit and stay in them, but they piled in, two to a car, and I would say they sat there for a good hour, riveted by the big screen.


There were also glowsticks and necklaces that we passed out and my friend K brought glow swords, too. The kids were in love with those.

Turtle's shirt? Custom made for him by the lovely Dana at Morning Star Loft on etsy. it was absolutely perfect for our theme and I cannot thank her enough for creating it for him. <3


Everyone settled in for the flick with fresh popcorn and candy from the candy bar.

And later, we had little bottles of milk and chocolate chip cookies as a late evening snack.

On leaving, we passed out CDs of some of Turtle's favorite songs, and wrapped cookies, iced to look like buttery buckets of popcorn (orange-striped, of course).

It was a wonderful night. We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends, and even luckier that our friends' children are such amazing friends for Turtle. Thank you to all who made the night so incredible!

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