Olivia turns 8!

How did this happen?  How did my little girl turn 8 so quickly?!

Olivia is such a sweet little girl with the kindest heart.  She is a smart little girl who thinks about everything before she does anything.  Translation:  She is a sensitive girl who worries about everything.  I am afraid she inherited this from me and it is (and always has been) my goal to teach her to be strong and confident - and that there is enough time in life to worry, later.

A few fun facts about Olivia:
*She ADORES her pet guinea pig, Logan, and every time she feeds him/pets him she walks away and whispers I love you to him:)
*She loves to play with Squinkies, Zinkies, BIGinkies.
*She loves her little sister one minute then will battle her to the end over a Barbie (when did this phase start? And when will it end?)
*She loves to watch Arthur on PBS after school while drinking her milk and or (yogurt) and eating Oreos.
*She struggles in Math with telling time and money... exactly what I struggled with in Second Grade.  I have clear memories of sitting in class and it just not making any sense to me.  To this day, when someone asks me what time it is, I panic.
*She loves to write in journals and notebooks.
*She has a "crush" on a little boy in her class.  He has curly blonde hair and sits by her at lunch.  He will help her open her lunch if she needs help.  Too cute!
*She loves gymnastics - still.
*She is a sweet little girl who I love and adore!


We had a great day with Olivia!  I was worried how we would combine Olivia's birthday with Easter, but I think we managed quite successfully!  Thanks to Mom for preparing Easter dinner - I think that would have pushed me over the edge.  Luckily, I only had to bring cupcakes!

Here are some pictures to remind us of how we celebrated Olivia and her special day...

I brought cupcakes up to school to share with her friends.

We took the kids to see The Croods on Saturday knowing that her birthday would be busy with Easter traditions too.  Some of these pictures were taken on my phone so they are a bit blurry.

We went to dinner on Saturday night.  Olivia chose PF Changs because she LOVES the rice.

Our server brought her out a chocolate cake with a candle.  The girls ate every last crumb!

The kids think the huge horse statues are the best.

They also think it is pretty funny that when you sit inside the restaurant you can see the horse's behind :)  You can kind of tell from this picture.

Olivia's birthday began with an egg hunt in the house.  The girls woke up first and quietly counted eggs in hopes they would remember where they were all hidden.  Caleb was a champ and found all three Easter baskets!  The girls were so excited, they didn't mind and were happy for his help.

This is how Caleb took inventory of his eggs.  He lined them up and used multiplication to count them.

Here is Ella's pile.  See her fluffy?!

Molly was in the middle of the chaos, not quite sure what was going on.

The girls blew their new colored bubbles.  Super cute - super messy!  The bubbles dripped everywhere!

Eight presents were wrapped in pink paper.  We picked out pink flowers.  I made a pink birthday banner.  Can you guess Olivia's favorite color?

Olivia opened a couple presents before we headed over to Gramma and Papa's house.

Molly quietly ripped apart one of the girls stuffed animals.  It was full of little beads that were all over the floor!  Sneaky puppy!

I made cupcakes with pink frosting.

We headed over to Gramma and Papa's house and Olivia opened her presents - a birthday Barbie in a beautiful pink dress!  And a jewelry box.

We ate a yummy ham dinner and celebrated with cupcakes!

We then went back home and Olivia opened the rest of her presents.  She received an Angry birds Barbie and tent, fuzzy Squinkies, a Zinkie house, a big clock, a dog and cat that she can paint, and roller blades!

She put on her blades and headed outside!

To end our fun day, the kids colored Easter eggs.

What a great day!  Happy 8th Birthday Olivia!!!

A letter to Korea

Last week Chad traveled to Korea for work.  Olivia was missing him, so she wrote him a letter.  I took this picture with my phone and sent it to him.  He responded right away with a big thank you/miss you too which made her feel very proud!

It is pretty cute so I thought I would share it with you too!

I love Chad's hairdo and Olivia's long arm :)

Now that he is back and Spring Break is over, let's hope I can get back on track.  I have two almost finished projects to share!

DIY Kids Chore Chart

If you build a chore chart, they will pick up.

For a long time, I tried to do it all.  I kept the house picked up, laundry caught up, toys were under control.  And then I started to notice how other members of my family were not picking up - or doing anything.  So I stopped in a sort of protest, I guess.  I thought I would show them.  That didn't work though.  No one seemed to notice and the house just got worse.  And worse.  And I got angrier.


Now, I am getting even.


Remember the list of projects I need to complete - this one?

#18 Make chore charts for kids.  And then make them do chores.  Chad too.

We have tried chore charts before, but I never really liked them so I didn't follow through.  Then, one day I found this one and it made perfect sense.  The chores were on cards (easy for the kids to see) and when the chores were done, the cards could be turned over.  I am a visual learner, so I knew this would work.

They are fairly easy to make.  Time consuming, but easy.  I had some of the materials at home (scrapbook paper, laminator) and only had to buy the frames (which I bought at the Dollar Tree) and some command hooks.

I cut my paper into 3 X 3 squares.

I placed colored printer paper in the cheap frames.  The colors are blue for Caleb, pink for Olivia and purple for Ella... the color of their walls and how we usually label things for them :)

I printed out the chores I wanted them to work on.  Some are basic like homework, others are what I need extra help with like wiping baseboards, dusting and laundry.

After gluing the chores on each card, I laminated and hole punched each card.  I attached the command hooks to the outside of the frames and asked Chad to hang them on the wall.

We hung the chore charts where they can be easily seen - and reached - in between the powder room and dining room (where we now do homework).

Once the chore is completed, the card is easily removed.

And is flipped over.

Amazing idea, right?!  Now, I just need to do my part and hold the kids accountable for their chores.  Next, I will post on how we are rewarding the kids.

Frankly, I am pretty excited about having some help around this house!  AND, I can cross one thing off of my list!!

Raise the roof and fix the fence

Sounds like the lyrics to a really bad country song, doesn't it?  Last week, we had a terrible wind storm blow through Texas.  Sections of our fence were blown over, two dogs that don't belong to us ended up in our now exposed back yard AND while we were working on homework black rectangles were flying through the air to the ground.  Those would be shingles.  From our roof!

At first they kids thought this was pretty cool, then panic set it when they thought our house was going to blow away!  Dad came over the night of the wind storm and helped Chad prop the fences back up until they could repair them.

To make matters even worse, Chad's truck was broken into (window smashed) last week and his work bag was stolen.  His laptop and badges gone.

This weekend Chad and Dad not only scaled our roof, but they repaired and replaced the broken fence.  Such a relief to have that done for a fraction of the cost we were dreading.  Thanks for helping Dad!

You can see how they propped the fence up so it wouldn't fall over again.  Our neighbor should really stain their fence...

Molly had fun watching them work outside.

What did we learn from this crappy week?  If you can climb to the very top of our roof with a hammer and nails, putting up Christmas lights IS possible!

Cleaning calendar

I am not doing very well at decluttering and cleaning the house.  I walk into a room, feel overwhelmed and walk out.

That doesn't help.

So, today I made a cleaning schedule.  A calendar that I am going to attempt to follow.  Each day I can glance at this calendar and take care of those "assigned" tasks.  I made this a generic calendar.  My plan is to print it for each month and then pencil in the dates.  Even if I only complete part of that days tasks, it is better than nothing.

I also have something planned for the kiddos that should help!  As soon as I am done hole punching I will take some pictures.  And, I am thinking I should make one for Chad too... seriously.

Have a great day and wish me luck in getting my house in order!