Fun.

When I posted about Valentine's Day, I dropped a hint about something "fun." 

We heard that Fun. was coming to Austin for a small outdoor concert at Stubb's BBQ.  This venue is known for it's concerts - Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Stevie Ray Vaughn...   We had been looking to buy tickets but the tickets were sold before we could get our hands on them.  I was so bummed.  Then, we found the last two tickets.  Ok, probably not the last two tickets, but who cares.  They were ours!

As soon as Chad got home from work, we left the kiddos with Gramma and Papa and headed downtown.  Our plan was to get something to eat and head to the concert.  As soon as we turned the corner where Stubb's was located, I saw them.  Fun.  Standing on the corner, talking with fans, taking pictures.  Chad yelled, "Get out of the truck and say Hi!"  I panicked and said, "I can't!"  I am clearly not good under pressure.  We parked and walked to find them.  They were gone :(  

We walked past their buses (which they were on) and I waved just in case they were looking.  We then saw the line for the concert starting to form.  We we hopped in line and waited.  And waited. 

They opened the gate and we went to take our place by the stage.  We were about 5 rows back, maybe 6.    5 rows people!  From a Grammy award winning band!  The New Kids will always hold a special place in my heart, but Fun. is pretty cool.

The concert was amazing!  We were so close.  The drums shook you to your core.  The lights flashed and they sounded so good.  I still cannot believe we were that close.  I took pictures on my phone but also tried to enjoy the concert as much as I could.  Nate looked right at me.  Twice.  I swear.   I sang my little heart out and had so much fun!

Nate and Jack are talking about just winning two Grammy's just two nights earlier.  Did you watch it?  We did!

Andrew was off to the side so it was hard to get a good picture of him.  He is a cutie!

Thank you Chad for buying the tickets.  It was a night I will never forget!  So much fun!

After the concert was over, we were starving -  and thirsty from all the singing and screaming (or at least I was).  We were steps away from Sixth Street, so we walked to get a slice of pizza.  It happened to be Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday.  Let's just say there was a lot of interesting things to see...  that involved earning beads.  I shall say no more.

Now go listen to some Fun.!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Since it is Valentine's Day I thought I would show you what we have been working on for Valentine's Day.  A better plan would be to talk about it before the actual day, but this week has been busy and that is my excuse.  Better late than never, right?

Olivia is loving pencils right now!  Pencils are to second graders what Target is to me:)  So, the obvious choice for her valentines were pencils.  I came across this maze through Pinterest!  I printed the cards on cardstock and rounded the corners with a punch.  Pencils are from the dollar bin at Target.

Olivia has a little crush on the boy :)

Caleb wanted Star Wars.  Once again I turned to Pinterest and found these.  What did we do without Pinterest?

I also printed his cards on cardstock which I already had.  The light sabers are glow in the dark bracelets from the dollar bin at Target.

Ella wanted crayons for her class!  We have tons of "old" crayons that we could reuse and I found the heart shaped mold at Target.  Melting and recycling crayons is all over the Internet.  I found this and it seemed like the perfect card.  Done.  Now, all I had to do was unwrap the crayons (not an easy task), break the crayons, fill the mold, time them so they melt perfectly, let them cool, remove them from mold - and
repeat all over again.

This is a pain in the rear, but the final crayons are so pretty.  And the girls were excited to help!  So, I guess it was worth it.  Those little stinkers better be coloring away right now.

For teachers we made these little treats.

We added them to little heart containers.  I will not tell you where I bought them.  You can probably guess...

I punched a little tag for their name and had the sign them.  I took these pictures late last night so the quality is not very good.

I placed the treats in a little bag to keep them nice and fresh.  Overall an easy project.  I had to make two batches because I over melted the first set of Hugs.

I bought these heart shaped baskets a couple years ago and never used them.  I filled them with a few simple treats for the kids.

These cute placemats are from the dollar bin at Target.  The kids can write on them and color away!

I set their little surprises up while they were at school.  Mornings are too busy and after school seemed like the perfect time.  The kids were excited to see their baskets and Olivia asked me to do this for every holiday :)

And I could not forget Molly.  I found this pink container and thought it was perfect for today.

All three kids had parties at school today.  Since I am the Homeroom Mom for Olivia's class I was not able to attend Ella's party.  Thanks to Gramma and Papa for going!  We then headed to Caleb's party where Papa got suckered in being the BINGO caller.  Papa is always willing to help!

We are off to swim lessons tonight.  Quite a romantic way to celebrate Valentine's Day, no?  Actually, I cannot wait to tell you what I got for Valentine's Day... as soon as I figure how to get pictures off my phone I will show you.  
One hint... it was so fun.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy 6th Birthday Ella!

She did it.  She turned 6.  My baby is not so little anymore.  sniff.  sniff. 

Ella celebrated her birthday last weekend on February 9.

She is now a 6 year old that:
*has to pick out what she wears each day (my coordinated choices aren't good enough anymore... her choices are rarely coordinated)
*has an extremely stubborn side and can hold her own in arguments with her brother, sister or any neighbor friend (which is great because she doesn't let others run all over her and is not so great because it is not fun or productive to argue with said stubborn child)
*likes school but often says it is borin' and all they do is sing songs
*loves to do homework but doesn't "need" any help
*always plays outside... in the dirt (or mud if she adds water without me seeing)
*adores her fluffy and sucking her thumb when she is tired
*begs you to "nuggle" with her at any time:)
*used to be deathly afraid of ANY dog, but now is attached to Molly and they play together like best buds

She is definitely teaching us a thing or two and the future should be pretty eventful with her :)  Please pray for us now.


We began her birthday celebration by filling her room with balloons while she was sleeping.  She woke me up in the morning and asked if I "got" all the balloons in her room?!

Papa then surprised her with yummy donut holes for breakfast.  Thanks, Papa!

When I asked Ella what kind of birthday she wanted, she said rainbow!  I decided rainbow cupcakes would be perfect.  I started with a white cake mix.

With Ella's help, we added food coloring gel to get the bright rainbow colors we needed.

I then layered each color in the muffin tins starting with purple and working my way up to red.  I was very careful to begin with but soon realized these are supposed to be fun, colorful cupcakes and just spooned each color on.

You will  have to read on to see how they turned out...

Gramma found rainbow wrapping paper for her gifts and I made the flower banner.  Please note how many flowers are on the banner.  Go ahead and count.  I will wait.

Six flowers!  Pretty smart of me, huh!  The ribbon holding the banner together is from the dollar bin at Target.  Do not buy it.  Each color is a super small section.  I tied each section of ribbon together to make a long ribbon and it worked.  I am so smart, it hurts.

We let Ella decide how she wanted to spend her day.  She chose Dave & Busters!

Someone at the table made this straw out of four straws.  I will let you guess who made it... it was not Caleb or Chad.  The kids went crazy and wanted it, but since it was Ella's birthday she got to drink from it :)

Ella's first game and she won 100 tickets!

The girls slicing some fruit like little ninjas.

I stayed with the girls so I could get some pictures of the birthday girl playing games.  Caleb would just buzz by with a smile on his face every so often.  I quietly hoped that Chad or Papa were watching him.

Whew - Papa was!

This picture sure makes a Mommy proud.  All three kids gambling away.  And Papa teaching them the proper timing to drop their coins to earn even more tickets.

The moment you have all been waiting for!

Not yet!  Presents first...

Ella got Barbies, Barbies and more Barbies.  She loves Barbies!  She also got a makeup box filled with sparkly makeup, a La Dee Da doll, and a Disney princess art kit.

Finally, time to eat cupcakes!  I found candles that had flames that burned the color of the candle =  rainbow!

Good job on the shirt choice, Olivia!  She is showing Gramma the inside of her cupcake.

And here it is.  A rainbow cupcake!

Ella also wanted to take rainbow cupcakes to school to share with her class.  These treats must be store bought.  I asked the bakery to frost the cupcakes with rainbow frosting.  Ask and you shall receive.

Gramma will be happy to know that Ella got her chocolate cupcake:)

Happy 6th Birthday Ella!  I hope you had a great day.  We love you very much!