Photo Books!

Just wanted to share a link to yesterday’s post on my scrapbooking site:

My Photo Book Ideas PLUS Free Greeting Cards.

I know many of you are not scrapbookers, but you still might enjoy looking at the photo books :). Enjoy!

Robot Birthday Party Ideas!

*UPDATE July 2012* Thanks for all your comments and emails about robot crafts and costumes :)! Because the original robot supplies for these items are no longer available, I have designed my own free robot costume printable for you to enjoy :)! I have also put some fun robot craft kits for kids into my Etsy shop, Lovely Party Things. Click on the images below to see more :)!

I had so much fun planning Gabe’s robot-themed birthday party!  We had the party at a local kids’ science museum called Sci-Quest. They offer a party package which includes having all the kids build their own robot, but it is meant for kids 8 years old and above. So I decided to just bring our own entertainment :).

When I first looked around for robot things I wasn’t too excited about anything I found, so I decided to do most of it on my own. The first thing I made was the invitation. I used a digital scrapbook paper for the background and I used some cool fonts for the design. The cute little robots I used are from a “dingbat” font called Tombots. The other main font I used was Destructo Beam BB. I kept the Photoshop version of the invite on file, and later used it as the basis for the bag toppers for the party favors and the robot crafts.

The party favor bags were placed inside kid-sized cups provided by Sci-Quest. I found the wind-up robots for the party favors at Target, but you can also get them at Oriental Trading. I found the robot crafts and stickers on sale at Michael’s. The robot craft came in a big box of 24, so I separated out the parts needed for each craft, put them in bags and put my little bag toppers on them. I had scanned the picture of the completed craft from the original craft box, and I included it on the bag toppers so the kids could see how to make the craft. They seemed to really like it!

I also had some robot mazes and robot coloring pages available for them to do. Gotta love free printable activity pages :)!

After they finished the crafts, they could have their picture taken in the robot photo stand – so cute :)! It was surprisingly easy to make – I just enlarged another robot coloring page I found to use as a template to cut the colored shapes out with. I also added some details to the front from a robot costume freebie I found online (the original robot printable is no longer available, so I designed my own  for you. Click here for a free robot costume printable and tutorial) – I don’t know what I would have done with out all of these wonderful free printouts! I used that same printout to make mini robot costumes for the kids to wear during our robot games :). We played a robot freeze dance game, robot Simon says and robot red light green light. I was so surprised that Gabe didn’t want to wear a robot costume, but he still had fun because he got to be the one to start and stop the CD player for robot freeze and he directed the robots (his friends) during the other games. They looked like they were having so much fun :)! I love that one little friend wore a super cute robot T-shirt to the party too :)!

Another great idea I saw online was for robot-themed snacks, I saw some ideas here and here (this one includes more free printables)! You can see more of those awesome Tombots in use on my snack signs :). To make the robot table cover I just put down a plain white plastic tablecloth, then rolled out robot wrapping paper I found at Target to cover the top of the table, then topped it with a clear plastic tablecloth.

Luckily, there are lots of great resources online with ideas for food, games, crafts and of course the cake! Speaking of the cake, this was the first one I ever made for Gabe – my mother-in-law made the first two and I bought last year’s *gasp*! I admit it – I don’t love to make cakes. I would have bought one this year too, if I could have found a robot cake. But I couldn’t find anything, so when I saw this idea for a robot cake on the Betty Crocker site I decided to just go for it!

After the cake and presents, the real fun began for the kids when they finally got to go play in the museum. If you are planning on having a robot birthday party, I highly recommend having it at a children’s science museum! This was a great fourth birthday party for Gabe, hmmm… I wonder how I’m going to top this for next year’s party??

That was a blast – now to plan Julia’s first birthday party, which is less than a month away!!

Everyone Should Have a Crayon Roll

Here’s another essential from Gabe’s travel binder. It was handmade for him by our sweet neighbor, Lettie! You can see a tutorial about how to make these handy crayon keepers here: Crayon Cozy. What a great gift idea for kids! I really love that the crayons stay snugly in place in there, and when the crayon roll is open, Gabe can see all the colors and easily get them out. He loves organizing his crayons and rolls them up when he’s finished. He even tries to tie the bow, but needs a little help with that part :).

Rewards (AKA Jelly Belly Jelly Beans)

We have been trying a new reward system with Gabe: the “Manners Jar”. Gabe earns one jelly bean for every time he answers (without being prompted) “yes Ma’am” or “yes Sir” and quickly obeys what we ask him to do. So far, it’s working GREAT! He’s so motivated by rewards :). It even helps with his bedtime routine and naps, because if he earns one right before bed he knows he will get it when he wakes up only if he’s good. So he goes right to bed and stays there! Life with a sometimes “strong-willed” three-year-old was getting tiring and I was sick of time-outs and counting to 3, so I borrowed ideas from Michelle Duggar and Lisa Whelchel about speaking softly and rewarding good behavior instead of just using punishments all the time. We haven’t done away with punishments all together, but they are few and far between – which is wonderful! I hope Gabe is building lasting habits which won’t disappear once the rewards are phased out. We shall see. For now, we will just enjoy the sweet rewards of implementing this fun new system :). Fun fact: Gabe likes the brown and pink jelly beans the best (brown is still his favorite color, but he has added pink as a favorite so he can be like Mommy and Julia). My favorite Jelly Belly Jelly Bean flavors are “Juicy Pear”, “Buttered Popcorn”, “Top Banana” and “Toasted Marshmallow”. Julia doesn’t eat them, Chris likes them all :).

“Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Ephesians 6:2-3

Gardening with Gabe

All winter long Gabe kept asking if we could plant a garden in the spring, and on Wednesday morning we finally had our chance!

Gabe enjoyed the process and Julia liked being outside on a beautiful spring morning.

This is our first gardening experiment, so we decided to start small and just plant in some containers on the deck. We planted cucumbers and lettuce, and we are also going to plant some green beans and flowers too. We will try peas at the end of the summer. Come to think of it, I’d love a tomato plant or two as well. I hope we have at least one success!

Our neighbors are really good at gardening, we are inspired by their landscaping and huge crops of vegetables! P.S. Notice that Julia let Lettie hold her and didn’t cry, usually she only wants us to hold her!