My youngest son just turned four not too long ago. And let me be the first to say that I find that hard to believe! It seems like only yesterday he was born. Or perhaps just taking his first step or saying his first word. How can he be four!?!? That’s just not possible.

However, it’s true. He’s four. I have come to terms with that. And my oh my how he has grown. This past year alone he’s learned so much, and more and more he wants to be like his big brother. (Although there are plenty of times he can’t stand him, too).

Now that my children are old enough to make choices on how they want to party (and birthdays are something to throw a party for!), we let Asher make some decisions. This, my friends, is how a four-year-old thinks (at least mine anyway):

    1. He wanted to do nothing but play, play, play. And it was fun. There are two churches in town that have indoor play areas, and seeing as it was raining, that’s where we went. The one was our first visit and it was HUGE! We’ll definitely be going back. We also went to an indoor McDonald’s play place. I mean, we were eating there so why not play there!?!
    2. He wanted to eat out for each of his meals. This was okay as long as it was nothing too expensive. And really, at his age, he only knows fast food. Although he’s been to some sit-down restaurants, he’s still far too young (and active and loud) to frequent them. Therefore, he got a cinnamon roll for breakfast, Taco Bell for lunch, and the aforementioned McDonald’s for supper.
    3. He wanted his favorite comfort foods for his birthday party meal, which took place a few days later. That consisted of cheese pizza, cheese puffs, red grapes, and chocolate milk. Simple, and yet, somewhat, sort of, a little healthy. LOL!
    4. He wanted a Paw Patrol cake, which I’m thinking most four-year-olds do. We went to a new bakery, which I wasn’t crazy for after having eaten the cake, but they did a great job on the design! It looks big, but it’s actually only a 9×13″ size cut into a bone 🙂
    5. He also wanted to go pick out his own stuff to put on his birthday list. I was actually kind of glad because that takes a lot of guesswork out of it. I basically took him to a local store, went up and down the aisles, and then he picked out what he really found interesting. Then I wrote it down, and shared it with all those who buy him something. He was a happy camper when he opened those gifts! My oldest got something out of it, too! When I took our birthday boy shopping, our oldest did a miniature golf date with his dad. This is something that worked out well, and we’ll continue to do this.

Overall, I think he did okay with his choices. I know not all things may be the easiest or healthiest or smartest or cheapest or whatever, but you only get one day a year to celebrate. Why not live it up? It’s safe to say our boy did. And I believe it’s a good thing to let our children make decisions, I mean, as long as they’re not harmful/destructive in any way. Of course, with more important decisions, we’d be more involved, lol!

Anyway, it has been a blessing for our youngest to be in our lives! One of the best things about him is that he gets actively involved with church and can memorize scripture easily. I can’t wait to see where God takes him and how He’ll use him for His kingdom.

My father-in-law turned 60 two years ago already. My mother-in-law just turned 60 back in April. For each of their birthdays, my husband and I wanted to do something different and fun. Both of us have seen those types of poster boards with silly phrases and candy taking the place of some of the words being used for birthdays so we created our own. Some of what was used is typical on this type of thing, but others I made up. Here’s a picture of the front and back:

 

 

As you can see, tons and tons of candy – 22 different kinds to be exact! It takes both sides of this poster board. Of course you could condense it a little bit by getting smaller versions of most of this stuff, but I thought the regular or super size sizes were more fun.

In case you’d like to use something like this for someone you know, here is what is written (candy used in bold):

     Dear X (make it whoever you want it to be),
     Happy birthday! Now that you’re 60, do your bones crunch or snap, krackel and pop? Just kidding! Seeing as it’s your birthday, we wanted to do something amazing (used M&Ms and crossed out ‘&Ms’) to show how special you are to us. We wish we could give you a whopping (crossed off ‘ers’  from whoppers and wrote in ‘ing’) 100 grand, but all our money slipped through our butterfingers and it’s nowhere near payday. A pet kit kat, vacation to New York, or trip throughout the Milky Way didn’t seem appropriate either.
     However, we want to wish you mounds of joy (crossed off almond). You deserve to take 5 and rest a moment (crossed off ‘o’ from mentos) on this special day. We hope enjoying all this candy doesn’t make you rolover and get sick. If you get the Hershey squirts, we promise not to snicker (crossed off ‘s’).
     In all seriousness, though, we love you to pieces (crossed off Reese’s’). And pray for God to sheath you with His love and grant you many more years!
     Hugs & kisses!
     Love, Your 4 musketeers (crossed off ‘3’ and made it 4 – you can do what you want)
     P.S. Betwixt you and us, we wouldn’t trade you for the world!

COOL & FUN, right!??! You can do this for any age birthday or for some other occasion, I suppose. You can change some wording around, and personalize it the way you see fit.

Have you ever done anything like this? What would have been some other really good ideas?

 

 

For my husband’s birthday not too long ago, I decided to surprise him with a date night. He had to work all day so a night of fun and relaxation would be good for him. I didn’t want him having to wear his work clothes as we went out so I took it upon myself to pick out an outfit for him! (It didn’t work out because I failed to see the shirt I wanted him to wear had a stain on it.) Oh, well! Regardless, I picked something out and left this note on it:

It may be hard to read so this is what I wrote: Dear Jeremy, Put these on as well as your thinking cap…we’re going on a date, but you have to figure out what to do and where to go! You have 1 1/2 hours should you accept my challenge! Love, Frances

Do you think he accepted? ABSOLUTELY!

So what did we do that night? My husband LOVES going to watch movies so it came to no surprise when he said he wanted to do that, as well as get some Chinese food to eat. (Another no surprise – he loves Chinese food!) I definitely had no complaints since these also top my list of night out activities!

Anyway, we went to this fabulous, authentic, sit-down Chinese restaurant where we ordered a dinner for two. I swear that dinner could be for more, though. It comes with egg drop soup (the best, in my opinion), two egg rolls, four crab rangoons (my favorite), and then fried rice with two meat dishes. We were stuffed, but it was oh, so good!

When dinner was done, we went to watch “Beauty and the Beast.” We were hesitant at first because of a few things, but being one of the better options, why not?!??! I want to say that we were not disappointed. I think the acting was great. The singing was overwhelming at times, but you would get that with any musical. I actually had to laugh because my husband apparently didn’t remember that the original cartoon had singing. After a couple songs he asked if I knew it was a musical, and I just had to flat out tell him it’s all in the original, too!

One of the things we watched for was based on some news that had been going on around this movie. Some people were making a fuss about there being a part in the movie that would make gay people proud. I have to admit when I read that article that it turned me off from the movie a bit. NOT because I have anything against homosexuals, but because I didn’t think that would be true to the original movie, and who here likes it when things change!?!? Not me anyway! I also don’t like it when people use certain entertainment just to get their own views across. It happens a lot, though, I know.

So anyway, after watching the movie in its entirety (and I mean until the last of the credits scrolled past the top of the screen), we both came to the same conclusion: there was nothing that would have made me believe it was a moment for gay pride! In fact, had I never heard about this in the first place, I would never have once thought any of it promoted or supported homosexuals.

I share this because some of you may have heard the same thing and will not watch it now. I think it’s still worth watching! The movie was extremely well made, and I’m looking forward to when it’s on DVD so I can show the kids!

As a bonus, Ewan McGregor was in there! I had NO idea! He’ll always be Obi-Wan Kenobi to me, though!

Overall, great night. It’s fun doing surprises!

Welcome to March, everyone! If you’re like me, you’re wondering how in the world can it be March already!?!!? I can’t believe we are in the third month of 2016, and it seems with every new year that goes by, the faster time goes.

I’m not sure what your weather was like today, but it was snowing bad here in Michigan. Like they say, in like a lion, out like a lamb. So if this saying holds true, I can’t wait for the beautiful weather that’s just up ahead. Continue reading “March”