Hey Friday. It’s about time you got here. Plus, it’s not just any Friday. It’s the first day of fall! Which means there is officially no reason for side-eyes from my husband for having our pumpkins out already.
Today, I’m linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea for Friday Favorites!
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My new fall candles are absolutely a FAVORITE. I have Autumn Wreath, Apple Spice and Spiced Pumpkin. They are all amazing but Autumn Wreath is my hands down favorite.
My husband finished our fireplace remodel last weekend just in time for me to fill the new mantle with fall decor. The weather here in Iowa is in the 90’s this week but looking at all our pumpkins makes me feel all sorts of cozy! (This fall print and a bunch of others are available for instant digital download in my Etsy shop!)
For more fall love, check out my Celebrate Fall post.I joined a group of sweet bloggers to bring you the best fall recipes, decor, ideas for family fun and more!
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We spent last Sunday celebrating our sweet boys that turn TWO tomorrow. We had a train themed party fit for two and they had such a great time. My party recap coming next week is the final part in my twin birthday series. This week, I posted a two year old update and shared pictures of our FAVORITE sweet birthday boys.
For our second birthday spectacular last weekend, Josh and I decided to serve Luke and Reid’s favorite things. So we had mac and cheese, hot dogs, grapes and lots of desserts. 😉 I found this recipe for Mac and Cheese in the crock pot by Brown Eyed Baker and it was AMAZING. It tasted like total restaurant quality. I cooked the pasta early in the morning and mixed up everything in two crock pots before we left for Church. When we got back, everything was warm, gooey and ready for guests! It was the easiest party food prep I’ve ever done. (Easy party prep? FAVORITE!)
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We are so into the fight for post season baseball! As of Thursday when I write this, the Cubs magic number is at 8 (the number of Cubs wins or Brewers losses to get into the postseason). With only 10 games left after today and a big series with the Brewers this weekend, it’s getting down to the wire. So suspenseful and SO exciting to watch! Watching my team fight to play October baseball is always a FAVORITE. (Image via CSN Chicago)
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Has anyone watched Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race? Josh and I used to watch it years ago and we just started catching up with the season that is currently airing on the Food Network App. The seasons are short (usually only 5 or 6 episodes) but it is so addicting! A bunch of 3 person teams run different genres of food trucks and travel around the country competing to see who can make the most money. Like a typical reality show, there are random challenges they have to participate in and curve balls thrown along the way. We are loving it! Anything I can cuddle up with at night to watch with my husband that we both enjoy is a FAVORITE in my book.
Okay… that’s it for this week! I hope you all have the very best weekend. When I see you again… we will have two TWO year olds!
Happy Twin Tuesday everyone! It’s week 4 of my twin birthday series (you can check out week 1, week 2 and week 3!) and today I’m sharing a 2 year update of our sweet boys.They turn two in just a few days!
I can NOT believe it’s their birthday already and yet their 18 month update seems so long ago! Reading it again, I can’t believe how much they have changed.
Just in time for their birthday, Luke gave us a scare last week when he woke up in the middle of the night barely able to breathe. As a mom of four, I’m not easily concerned anymore but this was absolutely terrifying. He woke up screaming and gasping and we could not get him to inhale without shaking him to try. He was completely out of it and really struggling for air. We had to call an ambulance and spent several hours in the ER.
They diagnosed him with a sudden onset of croup and gave him steroids and a breathing treatment which helped him almost immediately. He had zero symptoms of a virus or cold before he went to sleep so croup did not even occur to me. It was one of the scariest moments of my motherhood and even just talking about it makes me shudder. We thank God for the wonderful paramedics, nurses and doctors who helped him and calmed my worried mama heart.
In less scary news, here are a few fun little facts about Luke or Reid or both as they turn TWO!
They really are the very best of friends. They play together from morning until night and wake each other up with jumping and smiles in the morning. It’s common for us to hear them playing and talking to each other during nap time or when they are supposed to be sleeping at night. 😉
Up until a month or so ago, they weren’t talking very much but just recently their language has really picked up. They say all sorts of words and try to repeat the things we say. I took them to the Church nursery with me the other day and one of the ladies asked what their names were. They both looked at her and said “Reid!”. It was hysterical.
These two are always on the move. They dance whenever they hear music anywhere, even at Church. I’m not even sure they remember what walking is because they insist on running EVERYWHERE. And let me tell you, these two run (AND dance!) with their entire bodies.
The days of them eating anything I put in front of them are apparently behind us. They have become so picky lately which I hope is just a phase that we will move past. We already have enough healthy food battles with our four year old for a lifetime.
I absolutely love that as they are getting older, we are starting to see their individual personalities more and more. Luke is pretty dramatic, always loud, independent, SO funny and has quite the sweet but fiesty side of him we are just getting to see. 😉 Reid is quiet, thoughtful, oh so very, very sweet, emotional, and loves to hug and cuddle.
Reid wakes up everyday with a smile. I will sneak into his room to wake him up in the morning or after nap and even if his eyes are still closed, he smiles when he hears me talking. I LOVE it. It’s just the sweetest thing.
Luke so desperately want to be just like his big brothers. He wants to play with their toys and do what they are doing all the time. Whenever Caleb and Eli run off to play something new, they always have a “Me! Me!” following right behind them. 😉
I always get emotional around my kid’s birthdays because these days are so special to me too! I have been extra emotional with Reid and Luke’s day because I feel so incredibly blessed that God chose us to have these two beautiful babies. We have double the blessings and I will never let myself forget that.
Happy Birthday sweet boys. You have taught me so much about being a mother and also helped me find strength, patience and true, unconditional love that I didn’t know I was capable of. You, my loves, are two of the five best things in my life.
Next week, it’s the last week of my twin birthday series. I’m recapping our ‘Chugga Chugga Two Two’ second birthday party. You don’t want to miss it!
I don’t care what the calendar says, it’s officially fall in our house! My pumpkin candles are lit, we have already hit up the apple orchard and I’m searching out all the pumpkin spice in the stores. (And I’m excited to see what crazy stuff they’ve come up with this year!)
Today, I’m joining with some sweet bloggers to bring you a list that’s full of all the fall you’ve been looking for. Read on for some of the best recipes, ideas for fall family fun, decor, fall crafts and more!
Happy Twin Tuesday! It’s week 3 of my twin birthday series and today I put together a gift guide for 2 year olds. (Check out week 1 and week 2.) Of course, since it’s Twin Tuesday this guide is perfect for twins but also for singletons. These are some great gift ideas whether you are buying for 1, 2 or 6 two year olds. 😉
Our twins turn two in less than two weeks and are into very similar things right now. I talked in last week’s post about my husband’s twin birthday experience and how he always preferred to receive a smaller gift of his own on his birthday instead of one large shared gift with his brother. Especially at this age, I absolutely support getting twins two of the same thing or a variation of the same thing if it is something they both love! Plus, it cuts down on the sibling squabbles!
My six year old got this easel for Christmas when he turned 2 and it continues to be one of our most played with toys. It has one side that is dry erase and the other side that is a chalkboard with storage underneath. All of our kids have drawn on it for fun and then practiced letters and numbers on it when they got older.
And take my advice on this! After many ruined shirts from traditional dry erase markers, buy these washable dry-erase markers to go with it! Two year olds just do not understand ‘the marker tips can write on things when not capped’ idea. The picture above is the one we have had for years and love but I don’t see it fulfilled through Amazon with prime shipping anymore (but it is through third party sellers). I also found this easel which looks very similar to ours and is available through Amazon with prime shipping!
We got our twins tricycles for Easter this past year when they were 18 months and they are only now actually starting to play with them. They scoot up and down the driveway a million times a day on them. Josh is trying to get them to work on pedaling but for right now, if they are happy scooting I’m happy! There are so many different color variations for these that I couldn’t even begin to link to them! Click the link above for the bike and scroll down the bottom of the listing for other colors!
We bought our oldest this car track when we moved to a new house when he was two. We wanted something that he would be content playing with a lot so we could unpack the millions of boxes. I truly am not exaggerating when I say that this track was played with that day and every single day since by at least one of our four boys. So clearly it is not only entertaining, but great quality and holds up! Plus it fits all our hot wheels cars that we already had!
I posted about these pop blocs we have before and our twins continue to love them! They just think it’s hilarious to mix and match the animal parts around. They are a great quiet toy for the car or for Church.
We just found this second set of pop blocks vehicles and got them right away. I do have to say though that this set is larger than the animals. Our twins still love them but in my opinion, they are too large to put in a backpack or diaper bag. These are more for us to play with at home rather than to bring to quietly occupy them when you are somewhere.
We had two of these bubble mowers for our older boys who loved them so much they wore out the bubble part of the mowers. We considered getting new ones for our twins but they could care less if the bubbles work! Luke loves to walk around with his ‘mow mow’ everywhere outside. There are days he wakes up in the morning and the first thing he says is ‘mow mow’. 😉 These have been a huge hit for us even after we burned through the bubble motor!
My almost two-year-olds are obsessed with their older brothers markers and are constantly trying to get into their art supplies. We plan to get them these color wonder markers and coloring book so they can color too! We have tried to let them color with regular markers and the resulting marker on the face, hands, furniture was a bit much! I want to be able to let them have at it without having to keep asking them to be careful! These are perfect for little ones who want to be just like their older siblings!
Is there a two-year-old around who doesn’t love Elmo? I’ve never met one. When my family asked for birthday ideas for my twins this year, we said ‘anything Elmo!’ Really though! They are obsessed and dance around whenever Elmo sings on Sesame Street. This talking/singing Elmo will be a hit in our house!
Or if you aren’t a big fan of talking toys, we got these Sesame Street figures for them for Christmas. They love them and play with them all the time. Perfect quieter toys. 😉
There is not much I love more than a funny t-shirt – especially on a child. This shirt had me laughing out loud.. for real. It comes in several colors and is just so adorable.
This one is so cute and comes in a bunch of colors too. And it’s SO true… right?
I don’t know what it is about Mr. Potato Heads but they are always a hit! My boys love to stick random body parts in the wrong spots and laugh hysterically that poor Mr. Potato Head has a mouth on the top of his head. 😉 Mr. Potato Head has come a long way from when we were little and now there are so many versions! They now have Star Wars, Toy Story, Super Hereos and a bunch more!
I’ve definitely made no secret about my love of books for kids! Book sets are always a great gift idea for any age. There are so many great sets I couldn’t possibly list them all but these three are some of my favorites!
Or if you are buying for twins, check out my Best Books for Twins list! Any of those would be great choices too!
Hope this list helps you find the perfect gift for that two-year-old in your life! If you have another great gift idea, let me know in the comments!
Happy Friday everyone! I’ve been loving this short week. Let’s just pledge to make every week 4 days. 😉
Like every Friday, I’m linking up today with Erika, Narci and Andrea for Friday Favorites! This Friday though, since my birthday is on Sunday I’m going to talk Birthday Favorites and all those things I’m coveting this year.
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I’m always on the look out for cute coffee mugs. They had a huge selection that I loved when I was at Hobby Lobby last weekend but I could only find a couple of them online to link to – here and here. Coffee makes me human again in the morning and its the only reason I’m able to enjoy some alone time before my kids wake up. Fun mugs give me some cheer on these sleepy morning!
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I’m LOVE loving these cozy double hooded sweatshirts from Mindy Maes Market. I have a couple shirts from there that I love and I think these are adorable! I look at these sweatshirts and I think fall. The striped ones are calling my name!
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Does anyone else hear angels singing? Haha! I’ve been wanting an apple watch for awhile for a ton of reasons but mainly because of the fitness appeal. I use my phone right now for tracking steps/mileage but I don’t always have pockets or a place to keep my phone on me constantly. I also love that you can get texts and notifications through it so I would be able to keep my phone up and out of the way of toddlers who are constantly hiding it or locking me out of it!
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A few weeks ago, Josh set my beloved Big Bubba water jug on top of the car assuming I would grab it before getting in. I didn’t see it. We drove away and it flew off the car and cracked down the side. (We still disagree on whose fault this actually was. Cough…his…cough.) This is my second Big Bubba that has perished in a fall so I’m thinking it might be time for me to try something a little tougher. I’ve been looking at a lot of water bottles lately but the Hydroflask has my attention. I’m loving the mint and raspberry colors and that handle! I always have my water bottle with me so I need a big one that I don’t have to fill up a million times a day!
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Are these booties not the cutest? I love the color and the fact that they would go with everything.
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These Gap cardigans! I love that they are a bit longer than normal without being trench coat long. I’m too tall to look normal in trench coat long. The berry and gray color are my favorite. They are the perfect wardrobe transition for fall!
I’m noticing that all my birthday favorites have a cozy, fall theme. 😉 I wouldn’t expect anything less.
Happy Wednesday! Today I’m linking up with Shay, Sheaffer and Mel for What’s Up Wednesday!
What We’re Eating This Week
Somehow this is one of those weeks that we have something going on every single weeknight. With back to school meetings, swimming and soccer practices we need some quick meals this week that can be ready for the kids to eat early and Josh and I to eat later once everything is done. I hate weeks like this but back to school brings all sorts of crazy. Enter slow cooker for the win.
We took the boys to a local ‘Farm Days’ festival last weekend and we had so much fun. We only planned to stay for an hour or so but ended up being there almost four because there was so much they wanted to do!
We ate a bunch of amazing kettle corn, went on a tractor ride, watched a tractor pull, visited the petting zoo and looked at all the beautiful old school tractors for display. We had the best time together!
They even had an old truck that looked like Mater. My boys saw that and they were sold!
What I’m Loving
My boys are enjoying the start of their school year so much! They are both loving their teachers who have done a great job making all the kids feel welcome and excited for the year.
Caleb has had a little bit of a rough time getting back into the school routine of early bedtimes and wake-ups and remembering what it’s like to have a tired brain at the end of the day! 😉 A lot of his friends from his kindergarten class are not in his class this year so I think he just needs a little extra time to get used to having a new group around. (P.S. No one told me I was going to be super sad on the first day of school dropping him off- I thought that was just kindergarten! I was a mess! I already miss having him home all day.)
My sweet Eli of course jumped into school with both feet and never looked back. He told me I didn’t even need to walk him inside. This one amazes me constantly. I wish I had his no-stress, no-worry, just dive in attitude!
What We’ve Been Up To
Getting back in to the swing of school and fall sports! Josh is coaching both older boy’s soccer teams this season so Luke, Reid and I have taken up residence on the sidelines. Luke tried to impress us all the other day with how many soccer balls he could hold at one time. He walked around like this for a long time! Haha!
We haven’t had homework yet since school started so we have been enjoying every minute of spending all our afternoons outside waiting for Daddy to get home.
These two are the best of friends and are so happy to see each other at school pick up everyday!
What I’m Dreading
I saw this and immediately knew this was meant for me.
I’m not really dreading anything… more like stressing about how to get it all done! The new school year brings about the start of school and Church activities for us and for the kids. It’s all good things that we love being a part of.. I just always get overwhelmed at the beginning of the year when I see all the deadlines and meetings looming. I used to feel this way at the beginning of a semester in college when I would get the syllabus and panic because it seemed like there was no possible way to get it all done. (It’s a character flaw. Haha!) It will all be fine.
What I’m Working On
I’ve been working on adding some new fall decor designs to my Etsy shop. These are only a couple of the ones I have listed. All of them can be customized to any color if you so choose. The fall signs are only $5 and available for instant download! Just send to a local printer like Walgreens, frame and display for a wonderful fall touch in your home! I also have a couple new family calendars added to the shop.
I’ve also been deep in party planning for our twins who turn two in just a few weeks. In case you missed it, Twin Tuesday this week was all about how to make birthdays special and unique for twins. My husband shared his expertise with us and took over the blog post for the day – he’s a dad of twins and a twin himself! (If you want to know what we are planning for Luke and Reid’s second birthday party.. check out my Pinterest boards!)
What I’m Excited About
I’m excited about getting to spend extra time with these two sweet boys while the older boys are in school. I’m also excited to see how much Caleb and Eli progress at school this year. I feel like the year before kindergarten has so many milestones and growth in different areas and I think my Eli is so ready.
What I’m Watching/Reading
Josh and I have started watching Friends From College on Netflix. There are 8 episodes in the first (and so far only) season and we are on episode 5. (Just got renewed for season 2 btw.) I love me some Fred Savage, Cobie Smulders and Keegan-Michael Key so I had some pretty high expectations. I’m honestly not sure how I feel about it. Clearly, we keep watching it so there is something about it we like – and parts of it are really, really funny. I’ll report back when we are finished with the season.
We’ve also been catching up with This Is Us. We started the season and never picked it back up when it came back from break in the spring. I feel like we are just about the only ones in the universe that didn’t watch religiously every week! We are trying to catch up before it comes back for the new season!
I just started What Alice Forgot and so far I really like it but I’m not far enough into it yet to comment more than that. 😉 I finally finished Lauren Graham’s book Someday, Someday Maybe and I LOVED it. It was a light, easy read that was totally relatable for any women who has ever doubted her path in life.
What I’m Listening To
Now that both older boys are in school for part of the day, I’ve been going on nice long walks with Luke and Reid. I’ve been listening to different podcasts but have really gotten into AfterBuzz Tv’s post-tv show podcasts. They have a huge long list of shows they cover but I’ve been listening to the Suits aftershow and The Bachelor franchise aftershows. Loving them!
What I’m Doing This Weekend
My birthday is this weekend! So I’m hoping a lot of family time, a lot of relaxing, a lot of football (how nice of the NFL to give me kickoff weekend as a gift!), and a lot of yummy food. And coffee!
What I’m Looking Forward to Next Month
While I love the holiday season, September is my very favorite month of the year. I love September for cliche reasons like the start of fall with cooler weather and beautiful scenery, a new tv season premieres, football is back, the fight for the postseason in baseball and I’m in the mood for baking all the things apple and pumpkin. For us though, September also brings my birthday and our twins birthday. It’s just my very favorite month!
Happy Twin Tuesday! This is week 2 of my twin birthday series and today we are talking about how to make birthdays special for twins. (If you missed it, you can catch week 1 here.) As you can see from the graphic today, we have a special in-house expert on twin birthdays you get to hear from today – my husband. He’s a dad of twins and a twin himself!
In our house we celebrate birthdays big and our twins are no exception! The birthday person gets to choose how we spend our day, what they want to eat, and their birthday dessert. We always do what we can do make them feel special. I love my kids birthdays because they are also so special to me! I remember the joy I felt when I saw them, the immediate intense love I felt for them and (selfishly) the pride in myself for nourishing them and bringing them into the world (and keeping them alive ever since 😉 ).
Twins have to share a lot of things in their life (including their birthdays!) but it’s my goal as their mother to never treat them as a ‘set of twins’. I never want to lose sight of the fact that they are two separate and unique children with their own likes and dislikes. We will always work to celebrate their birthdays in a way that makes both of them feel special as individuals.
Our twins will be celebrating their second birthday in a few weeks so I’ve only had a couple opportunities to work on putting these tips into action. Lucky for us, we have the privilege of my husband’s experience and knowledge on how he celebrated his birthday with his twin brother for thirty-some years. Today’s Twin Tuesday is going to switch it up a little bit and hand the reins to Mr. Loving Our Messy. 😉
Josh offers advice on how he liked to celebrate his birthday with his twin brother and we share what 6 birthday traditions we will keep for our twins to make their birthdays as special for them as they are for our singletons.
1) Plan activities that each twin gets to choose. Growing up, my parents would let us each choose something fun to do on our birthday (or the weekend that followed). Sometimes we would agree on spending the whole day at a sporting event or a Fun World type place. Usually though we disagreed – shocking for siblings I know. Eventually it became tradition that one of us would choose a morning activity and they other would choose an afternoon one. That way we both got to spend our day doing something that we wanted.
2) Two birthday cakes! My mom always, always made sure to get us our own birthday cakes with the theme/colors of our choice. Â We kind of took it for granted at the time and never thought about it. Now that I’ve seen how other families do joint birthdays, I realize what a great idea that was. It may seem silly and wasteful but as a person who had to share a birthday, this is a big deal! This is absolutely something we will continue with our twins just like our older boys have their own birthday cakes they choose.
(Side note from Amy: After seeing pictures from our twins first birthday, one of my friends mentioned that she always had to share a birthday party with her younger sister because they had birthdays in the same month. She said that she always hated birthday cake because her sister would choose chocolate cake and they only got one cake for the two of them. It wasn’t until she went to college that she got to choose her own birthday cake! Definitely a detail that all of us who don’t share a birthday take for granted!)
3) Sing twice! Last year we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to each of our twins individually and plan to carry on that tradition every year (alternating who gets to go first). While it may seem insignificant, I can’t tell you the difference it makes to someone who always has to share their birthday to hear “Happy Birthday dear Josh” instead of “Happy Birthday dear Matt and Josh”. Plus, then everyone gets to make their own birthday wish and blow out their own candles!
4) Get each twin their own gift. Even while our twins are younger and basically liking the exact same things, I will always insist that they each receive their own gift(s) to open. There is nothing worse then having to share your birthday and also having to fight over who gets to open the gift addressed to both of you. We have given our twins larger shared gifts at Christmas time but I won’t ever do it for their birthdays. Our families are really good about that, but Amy and I both always mention that two smaller separate gifts would be better than a larger shared gift to any birthday guests who ask.
5) Birthday kid gets to choose dinner x 2. In our family, the birthday kid gets to choose their favorite dinner and dessert to have on their birthday. We already know this year that Luke and Reid will choose different things for their favorite dinner and that’s okay with us. Pizza AND macaroni and cheese it is. Our older boys always get to choose and so will our twins!
6) Two kid parties for two groups of friends. When our twins are old enough, we will give them a choice to have two different parties for their friends. My brother and I were always put in separate classes at school so we each had our own set of friends. After a certain age, we always had two birthday parties every year – one for each of us. We attended the other’s party of course but it was great to be able to have our own party with our own friends!
Thanks to my husband for all the good insider scoop on sharing a birthday!
Are there any other ideas you have to celebrate your twins birthdays? Or any opinions from fellow twins out there?
It’s the start of my very favorite time of year! The kids are back to school, the temperatures in Iowa are unseasonably cool, college football has officially begun and you better believe I have already enjoyed my very first PSL of the season. It’s time for fall!
I spent part of my long weekend designing and adding these new fall decor signs to my Etsy shop. Just seeing these beautiful fall colors on my screen has me ready to bust out all our pumpkins and decorate the house.
These signs are available in my shop for instant download for only $5! Files are sent in .pdf and .jpg format. Just download, send to your local printer (Walgreens, Walmart, Staples, etc), frame and hang!
Any of the colors of any designs in my shop can be changed per customer request. I included my fall color palette but if you don’t see something you like there, I’m happy to send you some color samples of the color of your choice. Just contact me here or convo through Etsy.
Fall decor has a way of making our home instantly cozy!
Happy happy happy Friday! And the Friday of a long weekend too! I missed Friday Favorites last week and took the week off the blog to get all my kiddos ready for school. We finally got every last one of our supplies, filled our panty and they were off! They have had a great start to the school year and I’m happy to have a routine again. Even though I sometimes feel like a shuttle service. 😉 So I’m back, refreshed, linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea and ready to share my favorites on this beautiful Friday!
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I’ve been working on adding some new fall decor designs to my Etsy shop. I have two up and two more in the works to list this weekend!
The fall signs are only $5 and available for instant download! Just send to a local printer like Walgreens, frame and display for a wonderful touch of autumn in your home! I also have a couple new family calendars added to the shop. And don’t forget! Anything you see in my shop can be changed to a different color to match your aesthetic if you choose! Fall decor that make my home feel cozy is always my FAVORITE. After working on all these signs, my heart belongs to fall. My pumpkins might just make an appearance this weekend already.
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Today makes it officially the birthday month of half of our family and my very FAVORITE month. My birthday is next weekend then Luke and Reid’s is 13 days after that. We do birthdays big in our house so I’m pretty excited! Pretty sure a cookie cake, zero cooking of the meals and a day filled with football watching is all I really want this year. 😉
We are throwing our twins a train themed birthday party in a couple weeks and party planning/decorating is my happy place (until the night before when I’m scrambling to get everything ready and wonder what in the heck I was thinking obviously). I may be more excited than they are.
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My husband has been coaching both our older boy’s soccer teams this fall. The first grade team is at the age where they are starting to really get the game and the rules – and more importantly understand where to kick the ball. The preschool team? It’s like herding a bunch of super adorable, easily distracted cats. No one knows which way to kick the ball and they are having a hard time understanding why you can’t just pick up the ball with your hands and run with it. I’m telling you… if you haven’t watched preschool soccer before, you really should. It’s the best thing ever.
Anyway. My husband bought these soccer goals off Amazon to try to give the little ones a direction to kick and the older ones a chance to kick on the goal and practice being goalie. They have been wonderful! We’ve even been using them in the backyard at home. If you have a soccer loving child- think about these! They fold up in a small bag for easy storage/transport!
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Last Friday Josh and the boys built the most epic cardboard box fort that we have ever built. Josh’s work had just received a bunch of new office chairs so he brought all the giant boxes home from work for the boys to play with. Together they built a giant castle fort complete with a drawbridge, towers, windows, etc. All of them played out in that fort all evening long.
We left it out for them to play with the rest of the weekend and then Sunday night before recycling was picked up, they all played Godzilla and smashed it flat. It was so funny! The joy of free cardboard boxes – FAVORITE.
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We have gotten a lot of zucchinis from our garden this year and we were loving it. I love to roast zucchini as a dinner side- sliced with just a little EVOO and salt on it at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes. We also put it in spaghetti sauces or make little zucchini pizzas with the big ones. I have to say though, now that we are towards the end of the season my family is a little zucchinied out (I know I made up that word). Until I found Shay’s recipe for zucchini bread a couple weeks ago. I made one loaf to try it out which was literally approved and gone in seconds. Then I started making some double batches of it to use up our zucchini! It tastes awesome and freezes great (we wrapped ours in foil and then put in a ziploc freezer bag). My first grader has loved taking it to school as a morning healthy snack. If you have any extra zucchini in your garden or not, this recipe is a must try! FAVORITE for sure.
And as a little bonus favorite, if you missed my Best Twin Birthday Party Ideas post and have twins or siblings that have a birthday close together you should check this one out. There are choices for two boys, two girls and even one of each.
Hope everyone has the very best long weekend with your people.
I can seriously hardly believe that my twins will turn TWO in less than a month! In honor of my sweet boys, I’m going to celebrate with a Twin Tuesday birthday series over the next few weeks.
There’s a lot of things I love about being a mom but one of my most favorite things is getting to use my creative side in planning their birthday parties! With four boys, I’m coming close to throwing every boy themed birthday party that exists but I’m still pretty determined not to repeat. We’ll see if I can actually stick to that.
I love planning their parties but I really love designing the invitations and making the decor, food and cake myself to keep them within our budget. I almost always skip expensive decor and paper products from party stores in favor of easy homemade decorations and solid color plates/napkins/cups that go with our theme (for .97 a package from Walmart!). Saving money in that area allows us use the money we saved from those things to hold the party at a fun location or rent an inflatable for our backyard if we have it at home.
I’m still undecided about what theme we will use for their second birthday next month. For this week’s Twin Tuesday, I put together a list of some of my picks for the best twin birthday party ideas. I was so inspired while putting this list together, I may just choose one of these for Luke and Reid’s party! Under the set of pictures for each theme, check out the photo credit links to all the amazing blogs for these ideas and many, many more! These party ideas are also great for a joint birthday celebration for siblings.
I love a good play on words and I think a ‘Two by Two’ theme is adorable for a twin birthday party- especially a second birthday! My twins are obsessed with animals lately so I know they would love this choice!
All the baseball ideas are from the first birthday party we threw for our twins. Check out this post for all the details! I love the sports theme ideas for parties! This past year we did baseball and soccer themed parties so I would only imagine that a football theme is in our near future.
All of these party ideas are so much fun for twins, joint sibling parties or even parties for one child! I’m excited to pick one and start planning! If you want to know if I chose one of these or something totally different, check out my Pinterest boards. 😉 Happy party planning times two!
