This morning I took the kids to the park. We had a busy weekend, and I knew we would have to take it a little easy with school today. We powered through math, because we can't skip any math days if we want to finish the curriculum by the end of the school year, and then we got through a few other subjects before I called it a day and we headed to our library to pick up a few books. Then we grabbed some donuts and headed to the park.
Many times when we go to the park I'll listen to an audiobook while the kids play, but today I just sat in the sunshine, and alternated between reading a few lines and looking up to watch the kids' antics. Their whooping and shouting, and the birds twittering in the air, and the slight breeze - all of it just put me in the most spring-y mood. I'm feeling upbeat today. So now we're home, the kids are working on a project, and I'm sitting down with some fresh coffee to say hello here.
Latch Hook Kits
Speaking of projects, I have the kids working on latch hook kits right now. Remember latch hook kits? I started so many of those when I has a kid, and I think I finished exactly one. Pretty sure it had kittens on it, and pretty sure it's stuffed in some craft box in my garage somewhere now, long forgotten. What do people actually do with latch hook carpets when they finish them? Put them on the front of a pillow? Use them for a rug? I'm leaning toward the pillow option, personally. If my kids stick with it, we will have a Minnie Mouse pillow, a Mario pillow, a hummingbird pillow, and a patriotic eagle pillow in a few months.
Birthday Parties And Nerf Wars
Our weekend was so busy because we had a family birthday party for Wyatt's 10th birthday. Ten years is a big deal, the first year in the double digits, so we decided that would be the age when we resumed individual birthday parties for the kids. They all will get their own birthday party for their 10th year, before we go on pause again until either their 13th year or their 16th year (still trying to decide). With five kids, we just can't do individual parties each year, nor do I think kids need individual parties every year. In my opinion, it's good for kids to not expect a yearly birthday party anyway, but we will try to hit the milestone years if possible.
How do you go about birthday parties for your kids? Another reason I'm fine with minimal birthday parties is because I don't remember having a party every year myself when I was growing up. I do remember doing something special for my 10th birthday, and then a fun 13th birthday party, and I ended up having a surprise 16th birthday party which I didn't suspect at all. I think spacing out the parties like that made them extra memorable. If I had one every year, they probably would have blended together in my memory.
Anyway, we made his party a nerf gun war party, and I have to say, it was pretty epic. We rearranged all the furniture in the house, hung up painter's plastic to split up the rooms, and got out the laser lights since we played at night.
I might write a separate post about it later, but it was pretty fun! It got a little crazy by the end, but I think it will be remembered fondly.
Off To Read, But First, A Winner!
I'm going to keep this post on the short end because 1) my five year old has been calling me away every two seconds to help her with the latch hook kit, and 2) I'd like to have a little time to read this afternoon. I am trying to get through a ridiculous amount of middle grade books this month for the "Middle Grade March" reading challenge, hosted on Booktube. I think I have 12 books (or something...) in my stack. So yes, I need to read every day if I'm going to count the month a success!
But before I go, a winner for my reader survey giveaway has been chosen using Random.org, and it's my friend Holly B! Holly, if you read this post, keep an eye out in your email inbox, and I'll send the list of books you can pick from as your prize! My post with the books I read in February will be up later this week.
For those who said you were interested in the general results of my survey, here they are:
I also have to say thank you to everyone who took a minute to fill out my survey. It gave me some good ideas for things to write about, even some tougher subjects you all would be interested in (though I have to be honest, I have to stay away from overly-controversial subjects on here right now, just for my mental state and sanity). But was great to see what you all enjoy reading about, to see where that overlaps with what I like to write about, and yes, even to see what kind of harder topics may be worth tackling in the future. I also appreciate those of you who left me some encouragements in the comment box - that really brightened my day! I'm so thankful for all of you, the blog readers and friends I have connected with in all these years writing here. Thanks for sticking with me!
What have you all been up to in the last couple weeks? Are you getting the springtime vibes yet where you live?
My mom did parties for me much like you're talking about here! Of course they celebrated my birthday at home every year, and our family at large celebrated it together with Mother's Day (I was born on Mother's Day) but as far as friend parties went, we had one on my 5th, 10th, 13th, 16th. That was plenty for me. And now that we have something like 9 nieces and nephews, we understand the value in not going to a party every single year for every single kid! If we had children (which of course we do not) I would do what you're doing. Really special days at home with us every year, with bigger parties on the milestone years.
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