Wesley's "spider"

This week Wesley and I sewed a "spider" stuffed animal together.

****I use the word spider loosely. 

You may have to use your imagination to see its spiderness.

Oh and apparently spiders have 8 legs, not 6. ****

The spider was based on Mackenzie's butterfly from her 100 day project. 

Wesley helped me pick out all of the fabric, cut shapes out of certain pieces and sew them to the front of his "spider",  pick out the ribbon legs and stuff the little guy with stuffing.

Honestly it kind of looks like an ugly pillow with ribbons sticking out. 

With a silly face 

a W, a heart and other random shapes on the front. 

But Wesley thinks it is the coolest thing e.v.e.r.

He sleeps with it, swings it around and hits everyone with it (your welcome everyone), plays games with it,

and takes it everywhere we go in the car (and out to dinner when I'm not paying attention). 

And as long as he's happy, I am happy. 

And I'll keep sewing with my kids.

Even if it means making ugly "spiders". 

Together Box

 I love finding new (awesome) products and I love being able to share them with you guys. 

Last week we got to test out a Together Box.
You guys... it was so cool!
Together Box takes the hassle out of planning and preparing activities/experiments so you can get straight to the fun stuff.
And it fosters fun, family time.
Definitely a win win. 

Plus who doesn't love getting happy mail delivered to your door?

How about every month? 

Yes please. 

 "TogetherBox was created to make family together time easy. When you sign up, everything you need to have hours of family fun will land on your doorstep every month. You’ll spend less time researching, stressing and gathering supplies and more time spending quality time with your family."

Yes...all of that came in the box. 

You seriously get everything you need to do the activities (more than once), even stuff you probably already have at home.  

"Each box will come with 3-4 carefully crafted activities, experiments and games around a surprise theme. All activities are designed to appeal to a large age group so your whole family can enjoy their time together."

Genius! Who else is thinking...why didn't I think of that?!!
Our box happened to be the "Balloon box".

The kids had so much fun doing the different experiments and activities with the balloons. 
Every day they would beg me to "do something new out of the box."Our  first experiment was making balloon rockets. 


Then we split up into teams to see whose rocket was faster the boys or the girls.


The next day we made a balloon water fountain.


It was so cool to watch the water get pumped out of the bottle by the balloon.

cooooool

We also drew on balloons that were blown up and then observed how the drawing changed once we deflated the balloons. 

I'm not going to lie, it totally made me feel like a home school mom. 

In the best possible way. 

And the kids thought it was so neat to see how their big drawings shrunk into teeny tiny ones. 

We had so much fun with our Together Box. 

I loved being able to craft and do fun things with the kids without having to think of an idea or look for the supplies to actually do it.

It was so easy. 

And most importantly fun. 

But don't just take my word for it.

Go check out Together Box for yourself. 

Buy one for your family and gift one to a friend. 

And then do the happy dance because Together box is generously giving Lu Bird Baby readers $10 off your first purchase with the coupon code "bird".

A peek at our week

 Happy Friday friends! 

 Here's a peek at our week (or 2) from the lens of my iPhone. 

Enjoy!

 my sneaky little leprechaun

It might not be summer yet but it sure feels like it

these beauties make me smile every time I pass them

last weekend Kenzie has a Gamma and Bapa day and we took the little ones on an adventure

this little guy didn't like his birthday cake

 at all :)

we are weirdos

she's so cute I can't stand it

when someone offers to wash the dishes I don't say no. 

This is going up where we can see it all day everyday. 

I still can't get over the fact that my baby is one. 

Watching them grow up is so bittersweet. 

I love eating stuff from our garden. 

Arugula = yum

More growth charts are in my future

How was your week?

12 dates

Aaron and I are homebodies. 

Our usual Friday night includes dinner out (with the kids) sometimes followed by Yogurtland (my fav) and us watching a Redbox after the kids go down. 

But after reading my friend Courtney's recap of the 50 (yes five. zero) dates that her and her hubby took last year and how it totally changed their marriage

Aaron and I were challenged to commit to 12 dates this year.

12 well thought out, out of the house, get a sitter kind of dates. 

Last month was our first official one and it was so much fun! 

We went to dinner and then racing at an indoor go kart track.

It was pretty much the perfect place for 2 super competitive people.

Eat my dust.

We are natural speed demons.

Aaron got first place and I got third...out of like 20 people. 

Booyeah. 

Anyways, it feels good to be prioritizing our life and investing in the important things...like marriage!

Plus it's fun just getting to hang out with my best friend (and getting him all to myself).

What are some of your favorite date night ideas? 

Happy Birthday Hudson!

My baby is one! 

I don't really want to talk about it because I might just cry! 

Actually I'm still in denial. 

So let's just not talk about it, mmmkay? 

Hudson James,

Happy Birthday little man! 

You are the sweetest, most gentle baby ever. 

Your favorite thing in the world is to cuddle and you are happiest when I am holding you. 

You are fiercely loved by your 3 older siblings. 

They love on you and baby you all day long. 

You aren't in any hurry to walk and that is fine by me. 

You look just like your Daddy. 

One day you might have a real beard like him too. 

You can be a hard nut to crack but once we get you laughing you have a hard time stopping.

You love to watch what's going on in the world around you. 

Most of the time you would rather watch the craziness around you (usually your siblings doing whatever it is they do) than play with baby toys. 

You are very laid back and easy going. 

You love food. 

And you love. love. love. your thumb. 

You balance us out. 

I can't imagine our family without you in it. 

You bring so much joy and happiness to our lives and we love you so so much! 

I'm so thankful I get to be your Mama! 

I love you Huddy buddy. 

Happy Monday

grocery shopping and laundry.

That's what our Mondays look like.

So exciting, right?

What do you do on Monday?

 This is how we do grocery shopping (Kenzie was at school and Hudson is on me in the Ergo).

I have a love/hate relationship with those kid carts! 

I usually start by letting Wesley use his own cart as long as he is showing me he can be self controlled (stay by me, be mindful of other people, don't put things in his cart without my permission, etc.).

Some days he does great and other days he loses privileges and has to ride in the back of the big cart with me. 

This is Maddie's favorite way to ride in the shopping cart. 

 laundry!! 

You are the main reason Mondays are my least favorite day of the week. 

I know everyone has their own way of doing laundry. 

I do ours once a week. 

The main reason is because I hate laundry so much I don't want to be doing it everyday. 

That just sounds like torture. 

And the second reason is when you only do 6 people's laundry once a week there is so much of it you are forced to put it away because it literally overtakes your whole house.

And the putting away part is the hardest.  

So it's good to have some incentive. 

Like if I want to sleep on my bed tonight I HAVE to put away the laundry. 

Some of my other laundry secrets-

I don't separate colors. 

I know. gasp.

And I hang all of the kids shirts. And the girls dresses. 

Everything else goes in drawers.

And Oxyclean is my BFF. 

And to spread a little joy this Monday we surprised a friend with a card and flowers. 

 And dark chocolate filled with Speculoos cookie spread.

Because we really love her.  

And when you love someone you give them that chocolate.

(please tell me you guys have tried it)

Hope you guys had a happy Monday!