Pen Pal Kit

Life isn't fair. We can all agree on that. Sometimes it's even harder on kids than us adults.

We got lucky when we purchased our house. We had great neighbors! Fun, kind, and they had kids the same age as ours. Then two of the families moved. We got lucky again and had a family with three kids move into one of the houses and the kids almost instantly became great friends! Now they're moving too.

To say my boys are bummed is an understatement. In an attempt to help lessen the sorrow of losing their friends, we decided to put together a pen pal kit for each of the neighbor kids. It's something super simple, inexpensive, and thoughtful. Also, lets not forget that everyone loves receiving a letter in the mail!

What we included in our pen pal kits:

- paper/notebooks

- envelopes

- stickers

- pens and pencils

- crayons/markers

- hand sanitizer

- a bag/box to store everything in

Our pen pal kit was actually for a family of three children, so we made one generic bag with the essentials and then made three individual bags for each of the kids. 

Those bags included:

- a personalized reusable Starbucks cup

- paper notebook

- fun pen

We wanted to do You Got Booed this year for all of our neighbors (I think we'll still do it!) but because these neighbors were moving before October and we wanted to still include them, we just personalized these cups and gave them to them. I think the cups turned out really cute! And the lids glow in the dark! 

I also snagged this pen pal kit poem from Eighteen25 that we'll include as a sort of instruction page.

  

DIY Time: Snow Globe Tumbler

Have you noticed the new snow globe trend going on with double-walled tumblers lately? Maybe I'm late to the game, but I think they're super neat and wanted one for myself, but I didn't want to pay the prices they're asking on Etsy. So what did I do? I DIY'd one myself!

Since this was my first time ever attempting this craft, I didn't want to spend an outrageous amount of money on it. Otherwise why not just pay the money and get one that was already made? So I made a trip to Walmart, the Dollar Tree, and my craft supplies in the closet!

Here's everything I used:

• Double-walled tumbler
• Glitter
• Seed beads (optional - I used them because I had them, wasn't going to use them for anything else, and like the fall-y colors)
• Vegetable glycerin
• Gorilla Glue Epoxy
• Drill with 1/4 drill bit (you can use whatever size you want.)
• Paint brush
• Kids medicine syringe
• Water
• A sticker

Begin with your tumbler. Remove all stickers and labels from it. You can even wipe it down beforehand if you want.

Drill a hole in the bottom of just one layer of the double-walled tumbler. If you drill too far your drink and your snow globe will mix together and no one wants that. 

Next, pour some glitter onto the bottom of the tumbler and gently brush it into the hole with your paint brush. When I was doing this, the glitter kept piling up and I had to gently tap the tumbler to get the glitter to go down the sides and make room for more. I did the same for the beads.

I used a few seed beads in mine because I had them and I liked the fall-y colors that they added to the gold glitter. However, for this particular tumbler, I probably wouldn't suggest using any. They got stuck in the sides as I tapped them down and they don't really move when I shake the glitter up. Perhaps if I could find a tumbler with slightly wider double-walls? Either way, it was a neat idea!

Next I used an old kids medicine syringe to add the water and the vegetable glycerin. I did the water first and filled it up about half way. I think I actually went over half way, but not a big deal. Then I added the vegetable glycerin almost all the way to the top. I left a little bit of air at the top to help with shaking up the glitter.

I also noticed that it worked better adding the water and the glycerin if I tilted the tumbler a little bit. This allowed the liquids to slide down the sides of the tumbler instead of just sitting and collecting at the top.

Finally, I added a sticker over the hold I drilled and then applied the Gorilla Glue Epoxy over it. I've seen people add epoxy over just the sticker and over the entire bottom of the tumbler. The bottom of this tumbler was slightly "indented" so I just fill the entire "indent" just to be safe.

And that's it! I have a snow globe tumbler! Pretty neat, huh?!

Boys Bedroom Makeover: Window Edition

You know when you start a project and then it takes forever to complete? No? Just me?

We started working on the boy's bedroom makeover back in January when we found a bunk bed on sale at Costco. I ripped everything from the floors to the walls to the ceilings out. My hubby painted all the walls white, then three grey, then one blue. Next he installed new flooring, then new baseboard and crown molding. I began the plank wall but he finished it. Then I put together the new bunk bed and cabinet.

I am famous around our house for beginning projects and not finishing them. Well... I actually finished a project in their bedroom that I have been wanting to do since day one of moving into our house. I trimmed out their windows!!! They are far from perfect; I'd barely say they're even good, but I am ecstatic with them because I did it 100% myself! It was an amazing learning experience and I can honestly say I am looking forward to doing it again to all the windows in our house. Haha!

  

For now though, I am just elated that they are done and I can officially say that half of the bedroom is complete. Onto finishing the closet! 

  

7 Years Old!

 The saying "better late than never" seems to be ringing very true for us this year.

Normally I have excuse after excuse as to why I'm behind on stuff. All those excuses are usually unjustifiable, but this year they really are true.

Our plan for L's birthday this year was a drive-in movie themed party. My husband bought a gigantic blow up outdoor movie screen, we had the projector already (along with a stand), and were all stocked up with the snacks in our pantry. It was going to be budget-friendly and fun!

Prior to his birthday, COVID-19 happened and almost everything and everyone was put on lockdown. This didn't affect our plans too badly, but we did have to rethink the guest list and make sure we had enough room outside for people to social distance themselves. Then came the weather. We've been having a pretty rainy spring (but that's typical for the PNW, right?), so in order to pull off a drive-in theater party it would have to be a nice day. Well, that didn't happen by his birthday, so we had to reschedule. Then reschedule again. Aaannnd reschedule another time. 

  

The kids and myself had a 16 day trip planned to Portland to visit family. We had to have his party before we left. So we made the executive decision, that if everyone was okay with it, we'd have the party inside our house. I made a banner, we blew up balloons, got snacks and drinks ready, made cupcakes, and cleaned the house (Clorox and Lysol are my best friends!).

The day before we left for our trip, we pulled the party off - without any hitches! In my opinion, it went really well. It reminded me of the good old 90's when we used to decorate the house, make our own cakes or cupcakes, invite friends over and play party games (or just run around outside). I miss those days and I think we are going to be doing birthday parties at our house like that from now on (let's bring it back into style!).

I'm really just glad that we were able to have a birthday party for him (he's never actually had a birthday party with friends, only family). It felt really special and he seemed to enjoy it. 

Happy Birthday Logan!