Before we go shopping I usually pull out our bin of old school supplies. I have found Briar does not go through all the supplies they request each year. At the end of the school year I will keep everything still in good shape in our “School Supply” bin unless we want it for our home supply. After reviewing her school supply list we were pretty stocked up and only needed a few things from Target.

In today’s world you can purchase school supply packs and skip the shopping chaos, but growing up I truly enjoyed school supply shopping with my mom and siblings. I want my girls to have that experience so we still go in person and browse the aisles. Back to school sales are also the time I stock up on our home supplies too. Do we need more markers, crayons, glue? I still use mechanical pencils so I’ll usually grab myself some of those. This year I got myself some erasable highlighters!

The backpack is packed, so now the closet. This is a good time to do the whole family not just the school aged ones. I live in the midwest so we get a solid four seasons here. Before we know it sweatshirts will be worn, sandals will be stored away, and the first snowfall will come. I swear every year we have our first snow and my facebook groups blow up with people requesting snow pants for their kids, boots, waterproof gloves, and so on. The lack of preparedness always baffles me.

I started in Briar’s closet I found her lacking in long sleeve shirts for this Fall and Winter and noted that she needed a bigger size of sweatpants for her backpack. I keep a pair of sweatpants in her backpack because she told me her legs are cold at recess. When the class goes to get their coats, she pulls the sweatpants over her jeans or leggings.

Raya, my one year old, was plenty stocked up. Being the fourth girl grandbaby, she has lots of hand-me-downs. Speaking of hand-me-downs, in a sense, that is what Briar gets too. We head to Goodwill and go on the hunt for what we found lacking in her closet. Thrift shops are a great place to get that snow gear too!

Now for a little organization. We decluttered everyone’s bedrooms. We reorganized the girls’ hair pieces. Our coat closet is looking great and I still plan to do a deep clean of my car after what felt like living in it all summer long.

Getting organized is a great way to set everyone up for success. It can make the morning and evening run smooth. After one year of Briar being in school full time we are going into year two with a few new plans. We found we do all the morning readiness in My bathroom so the hair pieces have been moved to there. We have an extra toothbrush for the girls in my bathroom that they will use in the mornings. In the evenings they get ready for bed in their own bathroom. We are also going to try picking out our clothes the night before. We made an empty space in Briar’s closest to rest the clothes overnight and she can grab them in the morning to get herself ready.

If we are going to talk about being organized then let’s put some systems in place. Awhile back I found THESE CHARTS at Goodwill and I have been using one of them for Briar’s chores. The other one has no use yet because Raya is too young for chores. I decided to use it as a morning check off. These came with pre-made stickers making the whole thing perfect!

Briar is not a breakfast person. She doesn’t wake up hungry and she doesn’t want to eat right away. Obviously this does not work great when you sleep in and then have to get to school. I wanted something more filling than a piece of toast. Over the Summer we have worked on getting a good breakfast in and she has accepted she eats what is served. That being said, it is now my responsibility to make sure she is served well each morning. I am also not a breakfast person so I struggle with what to make. To solve this I created a rotating breakfast schedule. We are not perfect but the general idea is this…

• Monday: Sausage and Oatmeal
• Tuesday: Bake of the Week (usually dutchbaby)
• Wednesday: Our Special Eggs broccoli and oil combo
• Thursday: Bacon and avocado toast
• Friday: Pancakes

BREAKFAST AND COLD LUNCH IDEAS

Last year Briar was so excited to eat hot lunch at school. I think the idea made her feel very grown up. However, a couple months into the year she told me she wanted to pack her lunch. Coming up with what to pack for lunch and what to make for breakfast was a little too much food for thought. I needed an easier way to manage the lunches. I purchased a MENU PAD from Amazon and looked up a bunch of school lunch ideas from Pinterest. When I plan dinners for the week and make the grocery list, Briar’s box lunches will also be a part of that plan now.

So fun fact, I messed up the date on the invitation and only realized it after I sent it to all her friends. This was going to be Briar’s first friends only birthday party. I was aiming for a Saturday but dated the invite for a Friday by mistake. By time I realized it, I was already getting replies from parents that their daughters were going to be there. Since that date didn’t seem to be a problem, I figured instead of causing all the confusion and resending a new invitation, I would just keep the friends party on a Friday. I was not going to have a big family party like we always did in the past, but because our Saturday was free now and the decorations would already be up, I decided to get them all out here for one final bash!

Yup, Briar got two parties!

The day before Briar’s actual birthday my mom took our one year old daughter and our soon to be 6 year old to her house all day and then over night. During that time we were able to flip Briar’s bedroom into a little girl’s dream! I have a blog post with all the details if you would like to see more of Briar’s Room.

The 1:00pm start time was the same for both parties. We did not want to be in charge of lunch, just snacks and cake. For the friend party we had Sea Salt Popcorn, Sour Cream and Onion Chips, and Cheddar Chex Mix set out. We had cups out and the girls would just fill the cups up with everything and parade around the yard munching away. I made her a fancy cake for the friend party and served it with a side of ice cream.

For the family party we had Cheddar Sour Cream Chips, Cajun Spice Chips (very good), and watermelon. We made a small cake for the first party so we used the left over cake batter and another box of confetti cake to make cupcakes. This was fun for Briar because she piped the frosting on herself!

I make her a cake every year. I have the best frosting recipe and usually use the Almond Pillsbury box cake. I am worried they might be discontinuing it! I bought the only two boxes left in our Target store and I couldn’t find more anywhere else at the time. I do not always have a vision for what I want the cake to look like so I usually find ideas for the cake by googling the party theme and “Cake.” We already had the Paw Patrol figures and despite the cake being small Briar wanted every character on top.

No reason for anything but a swimsuit for this birthday girl! She was in the water before her guests even arrived. We did surprise her with a Paw Patrol hat to match her party theme.

Last year we rented a water bounce house and slide. The kids absolutely loved it. They loved it so much that for Christmas my mom gifted all her Grandkids a blow up waterslide. It travels around for the Summer. Part of the Summer at my mom’s house, Part of the Summer at our house, and then some of the time at my sister’s house.

We have a family sized blow up pool. We have been through a couple of these over the years because they get used and abused. This one was gifted to Briar last year. We did have to patch some holes on the side. They are pretty easy to find if they do happen. The kids love this pool just as much as they love the waterslide. You can fit a lot of 6 year olds in this pool!!

For the friend party I found these huge water balloons on Temu. I do not normally purchase from Temu and the reason is it takes 500 years to get through all the spin wheels and pop ups! The kids loved these Balloons and they lasted for awhile. Of course, all water balloons are meant to pop eventually. I will say they took forever to fill up with water and we had to Youtube some ideas on how to get the water inside.

For the family party I found brand new Paw Patrol bubble mitts at Goodwill. They ended up working great and the kids had fun with them. They were easier than actually blowing bubbles for my youngest niece and my one year old.

I purchased this invitation template from Etsy. I edited the words to fit our theme “It’s A ONEderful New Year.” Once it downloads from Etsy you can edit everything in Canva for free. The download link takes you right where you need to be. Once you have made the changes, either download onto you computer to print or order directly through Canva.

It was box cake, but this specific box cake my family and friends rave about. It is a great flavor but I also pull it from the oven as soon and the toothpick comes out clean. Sometimes this means towards the end I take it out of the oven and put it back in several times. It can be tedious at the end with all the “In and outs.” I do this because I get so many comments on how moist it is. I am sure my homemade frosting also helps lock in moisture and adds even more great flavor.

All the cake accessories were a packaged deal, except the “1” candle and the tiny pink balls (I had these left over from my oldest daughter’s Bubble Guppy party). I used natural food dye for the frosting. The food coloring I used was supposed to be red, but instead turned out a light pink. It might reach a red color if an entire bottle of dye was mixed in, but I wanted the pink.

If you are going to stack cakes make sure the top of the cake is leveled. Cake tends to dome while cooking so you will need to cut the rounded part off.

When decorating the cake you will first need a crumb layer. Spread the frosting all over the cake and it will not be pretty, but once the frosting hardens (I put mine in the fridge for a little while) then you can come back and spread on the pretty layer. You can smooth it out by dipping your icing spatula in warm water.

For food we made smoked deviled eggs. This was a first for us. My husband’s co-worker was the one that convinced us to try it. They tasted great. The deviled eggs and chips were the side dishes to our sliders.

We made the well known ham and swiss poppy seed sliders, and we made pizza sliders. By the time the sliders were coming out of the oven guests were arriving so I did not get a photo of the sandwiches. I will link the two recipes we followed; just click on the slider images below.

Additional things I want to note:

We have nice taupe fabric chairs in our kitchen, and while my daughter knows to eat over her plate and not touch the chair with her dirty fingers, I did not want to have to micromanage the other kids at the party. I purchased black chair covers. They fit my dining chairs great even though they are meant for folding chairs.

The table cloth I purchased was only $1.00 at Target and it has pretty scalloped edges on the sides.

Her birthday outfit is from Amazon. It fit true to size but her legs were not chubby enough to keep the socks on. The outfit does come with the dress, bow socks, and headband.

I purchased the backdrop from Amazon. That was really it for decorations. I did have a fun idea to go with the New Year’s theme, but the weather did not cooperate. I have large cardboard numbers that we cut out for first day of school photos. I was going to stake those numbers in the yard as a count down. Start with #10 at the end of our driveway counting down to our front door. Once you opened the front door I would have had a light up Number 1, but it snowed and I did not want the cardboard numbers to be ruined.

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For food we chose smoked chicken thighs brushed with barbecue sauce. We smoke these ourselves and it is one of our family’s summer favorites. We did have some hot dogs available for the kids as back up. For side dishes we cut up some fruit and I made my homemade Pico De Gallo. Of course there was cake too. I could not find reasonably priced Bubble Guppies plates and napkins in the number we needed, so instead purchased a waterslide set that included two different plate sizes, napkins and forks.

Why did I settle with waterslide themed dishes? Well, because we rented a waterslide of course! We host all birthday parties at our home so as a little treat this year we had a wet/dry bounce house brought in. The company delivered it to our house, set it up (we had to provide the water hose) and then they left. We had the waterslide from 10:00am to 8:00pm and it only cost $175. Bonus: they came and took it down too. We do not have to dry it or store it! When I told everyone at the party about it they were writing down the company name for themselves. If you are local checkout WHAT A BLAST RENTALS in Johnston, Iowa.

The cake design I did on a whim. I made three cakes with no definite design in mind. Usually I have an inspo picture or something. I did find a Bubble Guppies party kit that included a cake topper and cupcake toppers so I knew I was going to use those and then I had a number “5” candle too. I’ll share my go to frosting recipe from Design Eat Repeat.

The Bubble Guppies cake topper and cupcake toppers came with character balloons, a table cloth, banner and a backdrop.

The Bubble Guppies piñatas I found were what I considered “Pricey,” so Briar and I decorated an ocean piñata I found on Amazon. I thought I purchased Bubble Guppies stickers but turns out they were wall decals so after we decorated both sides of her piñata. I let her decorate the garage fridge with the remaining decals.

The piñata that I purchased included some trinkets to fill the piñata with and then I purchased some candy. Last year I took all the left over July 4th parade candy and put that in the piñata. However, I forgot I did this and because I have been test tasting dye free candies I purchased a few more to try in the piñata this year.

For Briar’s past birthdays I always picked out a cute outfit for her. This year I knew that she would be in her swimsuit from start to finish. I was right she got out of bed put her swimsuit on and waited for the waterslide to arrive. She was out there testing it out before the party started. Good thing Raya was here so I could still pick out something cute for at least one kid to wear. I found an ocean themed romper (trying to stick with the Bubble Guppies theme) that was also 4th of July colors.

I will note that Briar’s swimsuit is the cutest thing ever! If you read what we got for Christmas you might recognize it.

The decision was made and the next step was the foley bulb. Due to having a previous c-section there are only a few options available to get the cervix ready. My doctors preferred the foley bulb. Having the foley bulb placed hurt just as much as getting your cervix checked early in labor. It did not feel good but it was not near as painful as had been explained to me. I spent the entire day with the foley bulb resting on my cervix and the tube taped to my leg. It never fell out on its own. When they came to my room to pull it out I did not have my hopes high. If it had helped my cervix in any significant way it should have come out on it’s own. When they checked my cervix post foley bulb I was only 1 cm dilated. Having been a labor a delivery nurse in my past, I took that as no change. All the providers’ fingers are different sizes so a finger tip to one could be 1 cm dilated to another. They did note that my cervix was thinner which is also a goal of the foley bulb so there was that at the very least.

The next step was to start Pitocin. I had the foley bulb placed during the day (despite what my OB doc and I wanted) because the anesthesiologist team had requested they be in house in case I needed an emergency c-section. Otherwise, in most cases, the foley bulb is placed at night and you can sleep through it. In fact, I have heard that low risk mamas get the foley bulb placed and then go home with it in. What this meant for me was Pitocin was going to be started at bedtime. Just like with my first baby (who was medically induced) the Pitocin kicked me into a regular, strong contraction pattern right away. I will say I was handling the pain much better than I did with my first baby and when they came to my room to discuss the plans I told them I would allow my water to be broken before getting the epidural. They checked my cervix which was at 2 cm dilated and then called the doctor to break my water. The nurse came back to tell me the doctor had decided not to break my water until morning. I still had several hours until then and though I was managing the pain better than I expected I was tired and worried that if something went wrong I was going to be put under general anesthesia if the epidural was not in. Maybe I jinxed myself with that mind set because it did not take long after the epidural for things to get wonky.

First thing that happened was my systolic blood pressure fell into the 80s. This was not a huge concern for me because I was not symptomatic and I normally run in the 90s so it was not a significant drop. I had a newer nurse however who started to panic. I would rather a nurse be reactive than brush it off so I didn’t think much of her flooding me with fluid to get my pressure back up. A more experienced nurse advised her not to give any medication for it because I was not symptomatic. I felt totally normal. As she battled my blood pressure baby started only liking certain positions I was in. In labor they want you changing positions to get pressure on the cervix. I was becoming limited on positions as baby’s heart rate dropped with contractions. We did have a solid hour of a happy baby again so the midwife that works with the obstetrics team came into break my water. Call me weird but that was a cool feeling when the water gushed out. When my water was broken with my first baby there was barely any in there, hence why I had to be induced. This time there was A LOT! My socks were soaked. My bed sheets were changed multiple times; just a bizarre feeling, even if you have an epidural placed.

As the Pitocin dose increased and with a broken water sack, baby lowered and I started feeling pressure in my butt. With the pressure from baby’s head came more problems. Each contraction started affecting baby’s heart rate again. This time it was not correcting itself with any position change. The midwife placed some internal monitors to have a more accurate reading and it showed the same results. This is where I can pretty much copy and paste my first labor into this one. An upset baby led to an upset cervix and I started to swell down there. I was 3cm dilated but a swollen cervix makes it feel like you are closing up. This is the same thing that happened last time but I had gotten to 5cm with baby number one. So here I was again with a dropping heart rate and a swollen cervix. I had already messaged my mom and sisters and told them I thought I was headed for a c-section but the midwife hadn’t called it yet. Once the midwife felt my cervix and confirmed with the internal monitors that something was not right she asked me if I was ok to go back for the surgery. My exact words: “I have already had a c-section so the pressure is off. Let’s get this baby out safely.”

As we waited for the teams to arrive and all the prep that comes with the surgery. Rob was given his attire and the midwife explained to me there might be something internally with my hips that does not let baby come down correctly. This being the thought because I literally had the exact same thing happen with my first labor. To have this happen twice the same way seemed like more than just an occult prolapsed cord which was how my first labor ended. We thought I was a great VBAC candidate because my first daughter’s labor came to a halt with an occult prolapsed cord despite all the other issues, but when the same scenario started to play out again it seemed there was more to it than that.

Things did not go as planned obviously, but we have another little girl here and healthy. It was the recovery from the surgery that I dreaded the most rather than the actual procedure. I would say I did a better job of managing my pain this time, but I was very swollen from all the fluids I was given. I was given fluids for my blood pressure and more fluids when her heart rate started to teeter. Plus then the standard fluids you receive with labor/epidural, surgery, and postpartum recovery. I am not even kidding you, I could feel the fluid sloshing in my feet as I walked!

YEAR 1

The year of paper! Without knowing it we both got each other maps. We had planned to spend the first two years of marriage traveling. We were successful in doing so thus far so I got him a map he could scratch off everywhere we had been, and could continue to scratch that following year. He got me a map that said “Hold my hand and I’ll go anywhere with you.” He framed it.

YEAR 2

The year of cotton. Now Rob knocked this out of the park by giving me a large cotton canvas of our wedding photos and our song written in the background. I, however, struggled because he is not one for a cozy blanket or a pillow with lovey dovey words on it. I ended up getting him cotton tote bags. I know, I know, so lame. He has done the grocery shopping in our family from the very being and Aldi is his go to place. He would always have the groceries loose in his trunk, so I thought at least this gift would be useful. Heck we still use them to this day.

YEAR 3

The year of leather. I was newly into photography with my sister and between the two of us we had collected several lenses and photography tools. The bag the camera came in was no longer big enough. My gift was a leather camera bag. It was not all leather, but we just say to get as creative as one can with the gifts. I bought Rob some new shoes. Obviously, we are going with faux leather items here.

YEAR 4

The year of fruit. This was the year Briar, our little girl, arrived. So we decided she was the best gift. You know, “Fruit of our…” Jk, Jk! We don’t need to go there, but now that I made you all uncomfortable let me quick show you a photo of a cake I made out of fruit and Briar dressed up as a pineapple for our anniversary.

YEAR 5

The year of wood. I had always wanted a charcuterie board so that is exactly what Rob found me. I got him a “Man Crate.” It’s a wood crate full of treats depending on what theme you go with. It comes with a tool to break it open. Rob’s was full of different jerky and he had to open it with a crowbar.

YEAR 6

The year of iron. Remember I said we allow creativity with these gifts. Rob gifted me two curling IRONS and I gifted him a bunch of items from one of his preferred weight lifting shops IRON Rebel.

YEAR 7

The year of copper. I gifted Rob a Copper Bullet Garden Hose and A cologne based solely on the fact that is was called Copper Black. Thank goodness it ended up smelling good! Rob got me an infinity bracelet that was in the color Rose gold (we think that is “copper-y” colored). He also gifted me Benadryl because of the whole “Seven year itch,” joke with marriages.

YEAR 8

The year of bronze. It is a huge year of financial management with building a new house, expecting a new baby and needing a new car, so we decided that we would each buy a light for the new house. It just made sense.

Briar turned 4 years old this past week and we had so much fun celebrating! We kicked off her birthday week with some extended family at a theme park. I made some Sonic The Hedgehog sugar cookies and everyone sang to her. As her birthday rolled out I took photos and will share what we made and did below.

I am linking the best sugar cookie cut out recipe! Set the butter out the night before so it will be room temperature when you start mixing ingredients. You want to avoid having to microwave the butter. Do minimal handling of the dough once you start doing the cut outs. Make the cut outs thick. No one wants a thin crunchy sugar cookie. Here is the link for the best buttercream frosting!

I ordered the 5″ cookie cutter and it was huge! I recommend a smaller size. I also will tell you the cookie cutter is NOT dishwasher safe.

Leading up to Briar’s birthday her daddy just couldn’t resist spoiling her with a new character each day. He never did find Amy The Hedgehog but Briar had a special interest in the “Yellow Sonic” so that one is holding her place.

The characters were dad’s find, but I had already wrapped two other gifts for her birthday. We let her open them on her actual birthday as her party was not for a few more days. Normally Briar only gets one gift from us and then we go all out on the birthday fun and decor. She was a lucky one this year!

(our little secret the Our Generation Medical Kit I got was used off of Facebook Marketplace).

The cookies were gone and it was time to make the cake for her party. I googled cake ideas for a Sonic themed party and found one I wanted to recreate! I am sharing the screenshot I took of the cake and I will link the bakery that made it here.

READY TO SEE MINE?

I am a huge fan of wedding cake because it has the almond flavor. Turns out there is now a box version of wedding cake. Some day I hope to try and make my own cake from scratch, but birthday planning gets busy. However, I WILL ALWAYS make my own buttercream frosting. The same frosting I used on the sugar cookies. It is much easier to decorate with than store bought frostings.

If you are going to stack cakes make sure the top is leveled. Cake tends to dome while cooking so you will need to cut the rounded part off. When decorating the cake you will first need a crumb layer. Spread the frosting all over the cake and it will not be pretty, but once the frosting hardens (I put mine in the fridge for a little while) then you can come back and spread on the pretty layer. You can smooth it out by dipping your icing spatula in warm water.

For food we went with the Summer “Go To,” grilled hotdogs and burgers. Fun fact: Sonic The Hedgehog is always looking for a Chili Dog in the shows but it was just too hot to be making chili. We had a veggie tray, chips and dip, and a cooler full of pop and juice. If you are looking for a juice that is not full of additives and scores GOOD on the Yuka app I got one for you!

Her birthday outfit is from Shein. It fit perfect and was super affordable. She wears 3T/4T clothing and I ordered a size 4Y. We tried to get a Sonic outfit but it was slim pickings for toddler girls. Everything we found were older girl sizes. Our first purchase was this sonic jumpsuit and then I realized I was not shopping in the toddler section. In the end we went for an all blue outfit and then I surprised her with the adorable (high quality) bow from Etsy.

Party Decorations were from Amazon. I highly recommend this balloon arch contraption and a balloon air pump. I have had these for years. I have lost count how many times I have used these, as well as friends and family who have borrowed them.

This was our first year with a piñata. Briar was so excited so we decided to add to the fun with a costume. Rob dressed up as Sonic and ran around our back alley way with the piñata until everyone started to notice him.

I figured most of us mamas would appreciate a little less candy in the piñata, so I found some party favor toys to stuff inside and then I took the Fourth of July parade candy Briar picked up and added a little of that to the piñata.

Our party agenda was as follows:

People arrived at 11:30 and the food was already on the grill

As the plates cleared we gathered everyone back in for the birthday cake.

As we ate our cake Rob changed into his Sonic costume and started running around out back. He was noticed quickly, as our backyard is not huge. He ran in with the piñata and the kids lined up for the fun.

After the candy and toys were scooped up by little hands we went right into gifts.

Once the gifts were unwrapped we considered the party over, so if people needed to leave they could. We had lots of yard toys and a family sized inflatable pool set up for kids to play.

One Year: Donut July 4th Party

Two Years: Frozen In July Party

Three Years: Miss Independent/ Miss America