4th of July Family Style

This year we decided that instead of making a huge deal out of the 4th of July we would hang out as a family have a nice barbecue dinner and for the first time ever do our own fireworks. I started out by making this incredibly cute cake by 17 and Baking. I used Tidymom's "The Perfect Cupcake" recipe for my cakes and they were so moist and delish!

Start with 3 cakes, 1 each Red, White and Blue.

I can't believe I forgot pics of the second step but you level the red and white layers and cut them in half and level the blue layer leaving it whole. Stack the first two layers of red and white on your plate filling with frosting ( I used canned ). Stack the remaining layers together and cut a circle out of the middle I used a small bowl to cut around. Once these are cut remove the blue outer ring and place it on top of the red and white layer and then take the two center red and white circles and place them in the center of the blue ring. Make sure to frost between all layers. Lippy Lou insisted that we use chocolate frosting, which turned out cute but I would have preferred buttercream myself!

Here is how our beauty turned out.

After dinner and cake we set off our fireworks and the kids had a blast!

Sparklers...Lippy Lou would have NOTHING to do with them so she isn't pictured.

I LOVE this picture of Lynner

(The Fish kept trying to blow them out)

Rare picture of Ky Guy

The Hubs ;)

Happy Birthday Lippy Lou

It is hard to believe that 7 years ago you looked like this....

And have slowly grown into a beautiful young lady. Even though you are our strong willed child that has been stubborn from birth with your sweet little chubby toes so wedged into my birth canal that there was no way the doctors could turn your 10 lb 1 oz little body around inside of me, we wouldn't trade you for anything (ok so somedays I dream of trading you for a never ending supply of yarn, but that is only when you are screaming at me for something). I love you sweet girl! Happy Birthday.

Summer Bucket List

When going through my blog roll the other day I came across this post from Lori at Be Different Act Normal and I just knew our family had to do one. So tonight after dinner we sat at the table and came up with our summer bucket list and I am so excited to have fun things planned for us. I will be taking pictures as we do each thing on our Summer Bucket List and share them with you all summer long!

Go camping in Oregon.

Summer camp for big kids.

Backyard camping.

Roast marshmallows.

Visit a water park.

Visit a beach.

See Toy Story 3.

See Karate Kid 3.

Visit library once a week.

Go fishing as a family.

Go to the zoo.

Visit six new parks.

Visit a Wildlife Reserve.

Visit a Farm.

Visit Seattle Children's Museum.

Visit Museum of Flight.

Visit Space Needle in Seattle.

Have Papa visit.

Family family game night once a month.

Water balloon fight.

Make marshmallow guns for a marshmallow war.

Make sidewalk paint.

Make playdough.

Have a scavenger hunt.

Take a train ride.

Sleepover with Leslie

Go biking once a week.

Movie night every other week.

Do three science projects.

Repaint Ky's Dresser.

Finish furniture project.

Go Hiking.

Make a blanket fort and leave up for a week.

Teach girls to knit.

No TV once a week (kids wanted this ;) )

Fireworks on the 4th of July.

Cook freezer meals together.

Potty train The Fish (aka 3 yr old)

Stay in PJ's for the day.

Bake cookies.

Buy a slip and slide.

Mom goes camping with her bff.

Dad goes camping with his bff.

Chore Charts - WFMW

Last year I made up chore cards and while they worked for a while some got lost and interest got lost as well so I decided it was time to change it up. And here is the new system I came up with.

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I got this adorable 16X20 inch frame at Michael's on clearance about 6 months ago with this idea in mind, but just last week had the time to put my idea into action. I then took a 12X12 pad of scrapbook paper and cut four coordinating pieces each 8X10 inches in size and taped to the "picture people" picture that was already in there. Then I printed out each chart made in excel for each child with their list of chores for the week and one blank calendar sheet for the 4th box as The Fish isn't old enough to do a chart with chores yet. I also cut our the names and the word "calendar" on my Cricut to add to top of each chart. I used the opposite paper scraps to do this so they would all match. Once it was all stuck down I put it behind the glass and had the hubs hang it in the pantry for easy access. The calendar is completely blank under the glass and I use a dry erase pen to fill in the month and dates and things like soccer, gymnastics, dr appts etc. But having a chart on the wall in the pantry has never quite fully worked for us either so I went one step further and made these...

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Each morning I put down the Morning/After School charts and as they do each item they mark them off and are on their way. They remain on the counter for after school as well. Then around dinner time I get out the evening sheets for them to get started on as well. We started these on Sunday and so far they are working great. We haven't been late getting out the door one day this week which is AMAZING! They are notorious for forgetting to do something making us a few minutes late going out the door. Ky Guy, the 12 yo, even mentioned that he likes that it says "pick up bedroom" because now he has just a little to do everyday and it doesn't get out of control. I have noticed this is working well for the girls too.

Each of these were printed on white card stock and tapped to scrapbook paper that coordinates with the chart in the pantry. Once they were all put together I laminated them so we could use the dry erase pens on them as well. What the kids don't know is that at the end of the week if they have at least all but one thing marked off for each day of the week they will be getting to choose something from a list of goodies that they can have for doing a great job. Each week the list will change. I plan on putting things like 1 hour of Wii time, paint nails with mom, go to ice cream with mom or dad, board games with mom or dad, etc on that list.

And that my friends WORKS FOR ME!