Love Notes To & From My Children

Hey everyone!

I wanted to share an idea with you all that I found on Pinterest! What would we do without Pinterest, right? I get so many wonderful ideas there that I had never thought of before. Today's post is all about how I was able to get closer to my kids using one of the ideas I had pinned!

First of all, I should explain what lead up to my actually using this idea. I am a nurse and I began working in a new facility. I truly love my job and know that I am doing what the LORD called me to do. This new job came with a new schedule and parts of it are good, but parts of it are not. I wanted a way to communicate with my children when I am not able to be home with them after school. We always talk about how our days went. I help with homework. They talk about issues they are facing. We go over spelling words. I remind them of chores to be done. They tell me if they need something special for school. A lot of communication was being lost with my working the hours I am and more important than that, we were not connecting like I wanted to.

I saw a post where a lady wrote in a composition notebook to her child and they became "pen pals" and took turns writing in the notebooks. Walmart had their notebooks on sale during Back2School specials and so I grabbed a glittery green notebook and a pretty composition notebook with a sparkly heart on the front cover. Javan and I share the green glittery notebook and Kadesia and I share the sparkly heart composition notebook.

I am so excited when the notebooks are waiting for me in my bathroom. When I get home from work and getting ready for bed, I just grab the notebooks and read the precious notes my children have left me. I will then write them each a letter back, sometimes to remind them of something, other times just answering questions they have asked, or just a new message about how much I love them.

My children find their notebooks on their bed and they enjoy seeing what I have sent them, too. I have a little better schedule now but we still like to use the notebooks for times I am gone and they just want to send their mommy a special note. I like that it encourages my teenage daughter to share moments in her life that she is going through. We have been able to swap messages back and forth and then when we get time to spend together, we have already laid the foundation to discuss those big topics that we might have not been able to share at all. My son is nine years old and I love that it is encouraging him to write. He needs practice and he is getting much better. It also increases his reading time because he is reading what I wrote to him, and is comprehending it.

The messages are not the same in the books because both of my children are very different. They are at different seasons in their lives. They are going through different things. They are not in the same grade. But the one thing that is the same in both notebooks is the message of love we send to one another. This was such a great idea and I know in years to come, those notebooks will be cherished memories of how we kept the lines of communication open, even when it was a challenge to share like we used to do.

I hope this inspires you to reach out to your loved ones. Find special ways to stay connected to those you love. Be sure to check out my Pinterest board for more ideas and inspiration! Definitely stop by Jennifer's blog and show her some love for this project. Thanks for hanging out with me today!

Hugs,

Simon Says Stamp Pin-A-Palooza

Hey everyone!

First of all, I would like to say that I am just simply sharing something wonderful that happened! I am not being sponsored and I am not getting anything for sharing this information. I just wanted to tell everyone about a treat I enjoyed recently. I have been a fan of Simon Says Stamp for a while now. There are so many awesome stamp sets that I love!! So when Simon Says Stamp announced their Pin-A-Palooza I was so excited to participate!

All I had to do was create a board on Pinterest, pin 10 items on my Simon Says Stamps wish list (but I pinned more than 10!!), email the link to an email they provided, and then I claimed my $10 gift card!!! It was so easy! I love finding cool deals like that!!

So here are the stamp sets that I got!!! I used my $10 gift card to pay for some of these! My daughter helped me pick them out and I think we got a lot of great stamps that I am eager to start using!

If you haven't ever checked out the website, I highly encourage you to go take a peek! I am not getting any special offers for you doing so. I have always received great customer service and enjoy the company so much! There are more than stamps available on the website: Die Cutting, Stencils, Embossing, Ink and Paint, Adhesives, Tools and Brushes, Embellishments, Pens and Markers, Studio and Organization, Paper and Fabric, Scrapbooking, and more! Just click the link below and start your wish list!

Thanks for hanging out with me today! Let me know your favorite Simon Says Stamp items!! Did you participate in the Simon Says Stamp Pin-A-Palooza? If so, what did you get with your $10 gift card?

Hugs

Javan's 7th Lego Birthday Party

Hey, everyone!

My son loves anything Lego! So when I saw some Lego shaped pencil sharpeners at the Dollar Tree, I grabbed a few packages and decided to have my son a Lego-themed birthday party for his seventh birthday! I knew I had one of the items for the party favors and then I turned to Pinterest for ideas and inspiration on how to make Javan's party super cute and fun! Here is a look at the party favors, decorations, and celebration!!

I created the party favor bag to look like a lego brick. I purchased a package of 10 blue treat bags for only $1 at the Dollar Tree. I used my 1" circle punch to create the "raised" part of the brick. I filled it with Javan's favorite things. His favorite candy is the KitKat and Tootsie Roll. I got a couple packages of those "lego-plastic-puzzle" type things, for only $1 per package. There was several in a package and I even had some leftover. He likes to have his own notebooks, so I found a package of 3 of those mini composition books for a dollar at the Dollar Tree. The pencils were neon colored and so I purchased one pack of ten pencils for $1 at the Dollar Tree. The stickers came from the Dollar Tree as well. They come in 4 sheets per package. He loves animals, especially cats and dogs, and he chose this particular sheet of stickers to share with his family and friends who were coming to celebrate his birthday with him. The lego pencil sharpener was the inspiration for the entire party. I was able to score 4 of these sharpeners per package. So for less than $20 I was able to fill 10 party favor bags and have a few items leftover.

Kadesia got her brother a special present and so I wrapped it up in green sparkly paper. I then tied a green ribbon around it. His favorite color is green. Since there were 4 rectangle shaped divided by the ribbon so I thought I would make faux lego bricks with the 1/2" circle punch. Super fun and easy!

I had a couple of box flaps and simly wrapped them in the same green sparkly tissue paper as Javan's present. I had a black paper 7 and I used the 1" circle punch to create a green lego brick! The green ribbon allows me to suspend it from the ceiling. It looks great with the Happy Birthday banner seen below.

I used the same package of letters and numbers to create a name banner. We used patterned scrapbook paper from Joann's. I wanted to create different shapes like you'd find in a box of Legos. Paul picked out the patterned paper because it looked like a lego already. He chose the letters, too.

This is the name banner hanging up at the party. He absolutely loved seeing his name hanging up!

Look at my sweet baby boy holding up seven fingers! The backdrop is a blue vinyl table cloth and a package of blue plastic plates from the Dollar Tree for only a dollar each! It looks like a big blue lego brick. This was a great background for the presents table for photos!

My brother made Javan's favorite treat: popcorn cooked on the stove top. There is nothing better! Mmmm! Mom and I made the Lego head pops. They were super easy to make. I stuck each marshmallow onto a sucker stick. I dipped each marshmallow in some yellow vanilla-flavored candy melts. I melted some mini chocolate chips and my mother took a toothpick to create faces on all 21 pops. They were super cute and yummy, too! Javan and his cousin Kaiden created the mega block decorations surrounding the pops! Great job guys!

 Here is a closer look at their work and those cute Lego head pops.

Javan loves nachos and cheese and hot dogs. So that was the day's fare! We added a little salsa on the side because we all love salsa...but Javan doesn't. He didn't mind at all that it was there, though!

Doesn't this Lego head look like he has a gotee? Totally an accident but it turned out to be a fun surprise!

Javan's mamaw Leann made these cupcakes with lots of love for this sweet grandson of hers! The lego bricks and lego men are actually edible! So colorful and everyone enjoyed them!

She did a great job on these!

Leann also made a Pin the Head on a Lego man game. The kids laughed and carried on, having a GREAT time with this game!

These two crazy guys are ready to pin the head on the Lego man!

Daddy put Papaw Roy's hanky over Javan's eyes and guided him towards the Lego man. He did pretty good!

 Next...

 Shawn's turn...

 Go, Riley, Go!

 And he nailed it!

 Brooklyn's turn!

Look at what a great job they all have done!

 Can't leave Mr. Jackson out!

What kind of party would it be without a LEGO HEAD PINATA?

The bottom finally gave way and out came a LOT of tootsie rolls and kit kat bars! They were SO excited!

 

Here are some of Javan's presents photos...



 

So it rained the whole day! The sky was just white with rain clouds and it was a steady rain the whole afternoon! But you know the best part of the entire party? Better than any game, any activity? Take a look!!

 This rain puddle and they even found a plastic boat to float across the puddle!

 Jackson even decided he wanted to have a seat in the puddle! How fun!

 They were soaked and it was messy but I said, "Oh well! Let them play!"



And they loved it! We even had some Lego guys at our party!

 Wait! Gotta grab your hat!!



Thanks for hanging out with us as we celebrated! I am so glad for all the help, all the family and friends who came, and the amazing celebration we managed to have even though our hearts were heavy. This was our first celebration without Dad and it was a tough one!



Hugs,