"You're not invited to my birthday party!"

Have you ever been the mom who's child didn't get invited to a birthday party?  Most likely it made you sad for your child.  Sad that they might feel excluded or rejected.  Hearing that your child wasn't invited probably brought up a whole slew of feelings of rejection that you've experienced over the years with your own friends.  That feeling sucks!!!!  I've been there as a mom, and as a person.

However, I've also been the mom who could only afford to invite 12 kids to my daughter's birthday party.  And guess what, 1/2 of those kids had to be her siblings and cousins!  So then she's left to only invite 6 friends.  And between classroom friends, family friends and neighborhood friends...6 isn't a lot.  So what's a mom to do?

What I tell my children is that they can invite a certain number of kids, but they are not allowed to go to school and talk about the party...to anyone.  They have to remember that not everyone can come and feelings will be hurt and they need to be sensitive to that.  And if a child asks them if they can come, but they are not on the guest list, we have a prepared response like "I'm so sorry, I could only invite a few kids.  But my mom's bringing treats for school lunch on my birthday and we can celebrate then!"

I ask my child which 6 kids THEY want to invite. I don't invite the kids "I" want to invite since it's their party.  Before my kids were in school, they didn't really care and I just invited my friends and their children because those were the kids we hung out with all the time.  But after they went to school and made their own friends, I had to let go a bit.  It's their party, so they should be able to invite who they want.  With the exception of inviting the opposite sex to sleepovers, ect.  I would hate it if my husband made me invite someone I didn't like to my birthday dinner.  I respect my kids enough not to do that to them.  And I won't go bankrupt to invite ALL the kids she knows. So if there can only be 6 friends, it's her choice of 6 friends.

Also, when I'm the mom of the birthday child and I know that there are a few children, in particular, whose feeling might be hurt by not being invited, then I like to call/email their mom and give them a heads up and explain the situation.  This gives the mom time to prepare her response for her child.

With that said, planning a birthday party can sometimes be very stressful and time consuming, so if I don't call you, please have grace for me.  I probably forgot to call or just didn't think about it with all the birthday planning craziness occurring.  When in doubt, forgive me please. :)

So what do I do when my kid's excluded?  Well first I feel sad.  Then I feel angry.  Then I  finally tell myself the truth.  I tell myself that there was probably a good reason they couldn't invite my child and that this isn't an evil master plan to exclude me.  Then I put my ugly big girl panties on and say to myself, "that's right Holly, everything in life is not about you!"

So after I've processed my feelings of rejection, I sit my kid down and explain to them how life works too. Teaching them how to push through rejection and disappointment is such a great quality to learn.  I make sure not to do it when I'm feeling rejected or angry; otherwise, I know it will come through to them and be more about me then them.

What I say to my child is this: "Listen honey, sometimes you get to be first and sometimes you have to be last.  Everyone gets their turn in life.  And just because you weren't invited doesn't mean they don't like you.  It might just mean that they didn't have enough room or money.  And it's ok to be sad about it.  I've not been invited to parties before too and it stings.  But let's not be angry at the birthday boy/girl.  However, we can feel sad we weren't able to go. (hugs) Fortunately, there will always be more birthday parties.  How about we go to the park that day instead and make our own fun!"  This teaches them to process their sad feelings without becoming resentful and bitter.  And that they can make their own fun and don't have to wait around to be invited to "fun".  And if I'm truly honest with myself, I'm probably a little relieved that I don't have to buy another birthday present!  HALLE-FREAKIN-'LUJAH!!!

Now, what if my child doesn't particularly get along with my best friend's child?  What if my child doesn't want them to come at all?  What do I do?  I've experienced this before and it sucks.  It sucks because you don't want to hurt your friends feelings or their child's feelings.  But you also want to respect your child's wishes for their special day.  You don't want your friend's child to come and ruin the party because you know they will hit other kids, fight over toys, have a bad attitude, open all the presents them self, start a food fight and make your child miserable.

In this situation I would swallow the vomit that's pushing up my throat, and then talk to my friend and say "my daughter chose a certain number of kids and I'm so sorry to say that your child wasn't one of them. Some kids have good chemistry and some just don't; just like adults.  I know it sucks and I wish they got along better, but I want to respect my daughter's wishes on her special day."

Bottom line, life isn't always fair.  And to teach our children that it is fair is such an injustice to them.  When my children feel excluded, I try to help them process their sadness in a healthy way, let them cry, validate their feelings, hold them and comfort them.  Let them feel the disappointment so they will learn not to be scared of that feeling in the future.  They will eventually learn that they won't always be included in everything (us moms know that better than anyone) and that's ok.  They are in charge of making their life happy and fun.  They don't have to wait on other's to invite them to fun.

And, on a side note, I never had a birthday party growing up.  It's important to me to teach my kids just how freakin' special it is that they get one and that they get to go to other people's parties.  I want them to be grateful that they even have friends to invite them to begin with.  That's the real deal! :)

Quality Time and Perspective

Today is one of those days where I'm just tired.  I don't want to do anything.  I feel like I need a mental health day off, but we all know that's not possible with kids.  Despite my work outs and healthy eating, I have zero energy today.  Maybe it's the heat, maybe it's the crazy swim team schedule, maybe it's the lack of chocolate?  Regardless, I'm tired.

I'm typically a person who goes, goes, goes all day and then I crash at night.  I don't like coffee, espresso, beer or wine...so I get no pick me up with caffeine or liquid patience with wine.  I'm considering changing my taste buds! ;)

When the kids go to bed at 7:30pm I take off my "mommy hat" and put on my "wife hat" and my hubby and I retreat to the man cave and watch TV the rest of the night.  I used to think that was so boring when we first became married.  But since having kids, I long for it.  Typically the longing doesn't really start until 4pm...but today I've been longing for the man cave since 10am.  That makes me sad.  Sad that I don't want to be around anyone today.  I like people, just not today.

Why is it hard today?

It's the mondane:
Most days I hit the floor running with gusto and a song on my lips.  That's right, I'm Mary Freakn' Poppins... in the mornings anyways.  But eventually the same dishes I wash every day, the same loads of laundry I wash every week, the same floors I sweep everyday...it all just gets so boring and repetitive.  And believe me, I've sang the "just a spoon full of medicine" song over and over and snapped my fingers and it doesn't help.

And for this extrovert who likes being creative and challenged...housework just sucks!  It takes every single ounce of discipline inside of me to clean each day.  And although I do (some days better than others), I don't enjoy it.  Music helps some days, but quite frankly it's just a job everyday that I do that I don't like.  So I suck it up knowing that I'm in good company with millions of other SAHM's around the world.  Did I mention that I hate sucking it up?

It's all the questions:
Studies show that one 4 year old child asks about 300 questions per day.  I have 4 children ages 5-7...I'm thinking I get at least 1000 questions a day.  Some days I just can't handle them all....like today.  And when the same questions have been asked and answered 3 times already...well then I feel like I'm just dealing with children all day!  And then I remember I am....and I beat my head against that imaginary brick wall.

It's the lack of  alone time:
At one point today my son heard me whispering to myself "I want to scream"...to which he responded "and shout, and let it all out" to a lovely contemporary song.  I had to laugh. :)

I actually don't want to scream, I just want to hide in my bedroom and watch ridiculously shallow TV like "Pretty Wicked Moms" so I can feel better about myself.  Or finish reading the book I agreed to read for book club.  A book which I love (The Orphan Train) but now I'm just stressed out about it because the meeting is in 3 days and I'm only half way done.

But here's the biggest rub:
Hubby is working his butt off all day.  He's stressed, making hard decisions at work and has the weight of providing for our family on his shoulders everyday.  That sucks.  So when I think about what he does for our family and that he never takes a day off, then I feel guilty.  He's so dang disciplined that it makes me sick ....but mostly envious of that characteristic that I do not possess.

Quality Time & Perspective:
So what do I do on these days?  I send the kids up to fold and put away their laundry (which should take at least an hour) and I read my Orphan Train book.  And let me tell you, it's about a sweet little girl who is in such a horrible place of starving, not having a home or family, being abused, ect.  And do you know what that does...produces more guilt! :)  I'm being ungrateful...and human.  It was good to be reminded...us humans so easily forget.

So I get up and do my chores and love on my kids and am grateful for my family, this beautiful home we have and a full fridge.  Some days you forget to be grateful.  So everyday you have to take some quality time for yourself to truly re-energize and appreciate just how good you have it. 

And by quality time I don't mean zoning out on FB or playing candy crush (unless that re-energizes you).  But I mean taking 30-60 min. mid-day to read, watch or mediate on something life fulfilling.  Being reminded of our deepness in the mundane moments.  For me that's re-energizing.  

At least that's what worked for me today! ;)

P.S.  Sometimes watching Pretty Wicked Moms is deep...because it reminds us that we do have it good...comparatively. :)

Now if someone would just call me at 2pm everyday and remind me to have some re-energizing time, that would be great!  I forget to give myself permission.

Birthday Family Fun

Each year I plan a birthday party so that my kids can invite their friends.  But I also like to celebrate on their actual birthday in a more intimate, less formal way, with the family.  And since the "friends" birthday party usually must fall on a weekend and the birthDAY typically falls on a weekday, it's two day of fun!

Recently I posted our birthday checklist which is solely for the child's actual birthDAY.  This helps me stay on track for the day and not let the party overshadow it.

Child's Birthday Checklist

So I just wanted to share some photos from what we do on that day.  It's typically different depending on how much time I have to prepare for this day.  My checklist is a list of all the things I "hope" to do on that day, but I've actually never had a birthday where we accomplished it all.  No worries...it's just a guide to keep me on track.

I like to start the morning off by decorating their door.  There have been times I've done the balloons in their rooms but streamers are way easier...and sometimes easier has to win out! :)  Look at their excitement!

Breakfast is typically Birthday Pancakes!  I make a simple powdered sugar/milk icing and add some sprinkles, throw on a candle and it's magical!  I always put my collection of birthday books out too and we read them over the course of the week.  

I also created a birth book for each of the kids.  It's a simple shutterfly book that I made that tells the story of when they were born and who came to visit.  They love this book all about them.

We also have a special plate and a fun cup that we use for everyone's birthdays!  I made this one at some ceramic shop years ago and it was the best idea ever! 

 My 2 girls birthdays always fall during the school year, so I take in donuts for their whole class.  I'd love to do something healthier, but they always want donuts and since they eat healthy the majority of the time, donuts it is! :)

My boys birthday is in the summer, so I just gathered some of their friends and took them to the neighborhood pool for lunch.

I fed them all turkey/cheese rolls (or on whole wheat bread), veggies, hummus and fruits.  The horrible juice box reared it's ugly head, but oh well, sometimes you just gotta take the short cuts.

 Now I love a good birthday outfit! :)  Here's Bella this past birthday!

Here's one of my twins...we went to the pool and I wanted to let everyone know it's their special day...so out came the sharpie! :)  We use these to write on them for swim meets so I thought, why not birthdays too?

My girls both love when I paint the rock at their school (next year the boys will want it too).  At our school you can sign up for a day and you can paint it and have it stay that way for 24 hours.  They love to come with me and help spray paint...what kid wouldn't want to smell those fumes...as the daughter of an auto mechanic, I'm in love with spray paint and gas fumes! :)  Don't worry, I don't sniff them. 

 

 Sophia's took place on a rain day.  Yeah, I was that mom out there with an umbrella and towels trying to pain this sucker.  The paint job wasn't great, but hey, we did it!

  Birthday dinners are always fun.  I have all the decor and pretty much just reuse it each year.  I throw the cake and books on the table and a pennant banner up, and voila, we have a party!  My kids love to help me decorate for it.

Sometimes I make their cakes...sometimes I buy them, depending on my stress level that day.  A moms gotta be able to take shortcuts when needed otherwise the whole family will crash!

These cupcakes make me laugh!  They wanted my healthy homemade donuts.  So I made them.  And after tasting them I realized I switched baking powder for baking soda.  DISGUSTING!!!  Then I realized I ran out of vanilla.  So I quickly scoured through my pantry and found a 2 year old box of egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free cupcake mix.  HALLELUJAH!!  I threw in a couple chocolate chips and found a tub of chocolate icing and voila...we've got cupcakes!  Shortcuts and flexibility will take you far! LOL!

What they pick for their birthday dinner is always fun!  They wanted McDonalds.  I wasn't too excited about that shortcut so I grilled turkey burgers and baked some fries, added some raw green beans and humus and it was delicious!

 My favorite part of the birthday dinner is talking about how much we love that person and then them blowing out the candles. 

Presents are always given at the party.  

Their grandparents take them out to dinner and for a sleepover each year which they ADORE!!!  We rarely go out to eat due to the cost of 6 people and wanting to each healthier so this is a special treat.  

The two things that I struggle to remember every year is the photo in front of Daddy and the video taped interview.  I have about 30 questions that I ask them every year and record it.  It's hysterical to watch!  I always do it every year, it's just not always around their birthday.  Such is life! :)

Lastly ever year around their birthday their dad takes them to dinner and a movie.  He loves it, they love it...and, me, the extrovert, is stuck at home with the other kids.  Oh well, sometimes you have to sacrifice to make good memories!

One thing I want to start doing is decorating the car windows saying that it's their birthday.  Now that looks fun!  Who am I kidding, there's a ton more stuff I'd like to do, but can't physically do it all.  But I think these traditions we have going are good...we're happy with them! :)

Child's Birthday Checklist

Every year, it seems, our kid's birthday falls on a weekday and the party is on the weekend.  Some families just ignore the actual birthday all together and are fine celebrating just on the party day.  But I like to do fun family celebrations on their actual birthday and then just have fun with their friends at their party.  My husband thinks it's overkill...he might be right? :)  But it's what I love to do!  And as a person who never had a birthday party growing up, it's my desire to let my child have a day that's special and all about them!

I'm typically pretty prepared for the party day, but tend to not be so prepared on the actual birthday.  So this year I went ahead and created a checklist for myself.  After birthing 5 children, my brain isn't what it used to be so I LIVE off of checklists; otherwise I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat that I forgot something.  So here's the checklist I created for my family.

For full disclosure, I don't always do everything on the list.  It's just what I "hope" to accomplish to make the day special and acts as a guide for me.  But I don't let it stress me out if I don't get to it all.  I don't think I've ever had a birthday that I've got it all done on that day....especially the video interview.

Am I exhausted at the end of these days?  YES!  Do I think it's worth it?  YES!  I don't always love doing the work, but I love having done the work! :)

I hope it inspires you to create your own and start some fun traditions to make magical memories with your kiddos!  Good luck!

To download this checklist, click here: Child's Birthday Checklist

First Day of Summer

The first day of summer is this Friday, June 21, 2013 at 1:04am.  As with most holidays, I like to give a fun surprise, but I like to give things to them at that time that I know I need to purchase anyway.  Every year we need new sand toys (our lovely dog likes to chew them up).  We always need new sidewalk chalk, goggles and bubbles.  

I do like to also get new beach towels...there's something about having all matching towels when we go to the pool/beach that makes me giddy! :)  It's just easier to keep track of them all when they are exactly the same and there's no arguing over who gets the dang spiderman towel!  

So here is what the kids woke up to last year on the First Day of Summer:

This day is also a great day to grill out.  Corn on the cobb, chicken kabobs, zucchini...it's fabulous! 

Dessert...this is what we did last year, flip flop cookies :)  Just some nutter butter cookies with a little line of icing and mini m&m's.  Easy peasy and it's something the kids can help with too.

Last year I had lots of chores to do so we didn't go to the pool.  Instead I created a fun "water slide" for them by dragging over the kiddie pool to fit under our playground slide.  Then I rigged the water hose to run down the slide.  So, this wasn't the safest thing ever...they went down the slide and banged into the end of the pool with force.  However, they loved it! :)

So here is what happens on this day...scientifically speaking and all:

We know it's summer because the earth's axis tilts toward the sun from June to September - this means warmer weather and longer days. For people who live in the Southern Hemisphere, (basically the other side of the world from North America), they will have colder weather and shorter days.

Read more: Summer Solstice: The First Day of Summer http://www.kidzworld.com/article/890-summer-solstice-the-first-day-of-summer#ixzz2WTSs8V3H

Wreck-It Ralph & Fix-It Felix Birthday Party

As you all know, I am a born event planner.  It is my obsession/hobby to create!  It comes easy to me and I love the whole process (well, clean up the next day sucks for sure)!  So when my boys came to me and told me they wanted a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party, my heart sank!  I said "Boys, you know your mommy can throw an amazing party for you right here in the backyard, right?"  I started promising them freakin pony rides and superheroes...to no avail. :(  They saw that stupid Chuck E. Cheese commercial and their heart was set.  

Despite my disappointment, I do love a challenge! :)  Fortunately they wanted to do a Wreck-It Ralph theme which I thought would work perfectly since it's all about arcade characters.  Now, with every party I have a budget. My budget is $500 for a birthday party (there may or may not be times that I do go over that by a couple hundred dollars, but let's not let the hubby know that).  What?  Things add up! :)  That budget includes EVERYTHING from the venue, decor, all the food, presents we get them, costumes, favors, ect.

Since having 12 kids at Chuck E. Cheese already cost me $225, I had $275 to spend on making this a little more custom to my family.  Listen, let's be real, these birthday parties are about the kids, I certainly want to give them a magical experience and what they envision.  But since this is my hobby, it's about me too.  If I'm the one planning the event, I want it to look the way I have planned in my head too.  Am I a little OCD? Yes.  Am I ok with it?  Yes. :)

First of all we have to have costumes! :)  Costumes always make parties so much more fun! :)

Now, getting my husband to dress up like I want isn't always going to happen, LOL!  But he's a good sport in meeting me half way! :)  So we all gave it a good attempt without spending an arm and a leg.

Now, back to Chuck E. Cheese.  My personal opinion is that I hate character parties.  When everything is covered in the commercially produced Elmo image, it steals my ability to be creative.  So I like keeping the decor more basic, and throwing in the characters in smaller quantities.  I think it makes it less busy on the eyes.  So I decided to go with the chevron pattern for this party since it looks like the brick building that Ralph likes to wreck in the movie :)

All the chevon materials were purchased at www.orientaltrading.com

There's not a lot of room to work with on the tables at Chuck E. Cheese.  So basically I had one end to decorate.  And the centerpiece was this cake made by my friend from Lexie Cakes!  She did an amazing job, spent 16 hours making this and delivered it to the venue!  Contact Lexie Cakes

I wanted the cake from the movie, but obviously it is way too high and too much cake for just 12 kids.  So we compromised.

And look at this inside!  She did a 4 layer cake on top of a Styrofoam block!  Genius!

So this was the outcome!

We had a welcome sign:

All the printables I designed myself and printed at
Staples on cardstock.

Gold Medals for the heroes!  This was a huge part of the movie and a great way to keep an eye on all the kids in our party.

 Instead of using Chucky's little plastic cups, I wanted to give each kid a bucket with their name on it so we could identify it from all the other kids playing there at that time.  They loved that it said "duty" like in the movie!

Each child also got a hammer like Fix-It Felix's as well as a toy brick like what Wreck-It Ralph slept on each night.

Then at each place setting I gave them their basic paper products with their name on their cup.

We even had a live band! :)

 

  Then it was time to play!  And they just wanted more and more gold coins!!! :)

   

How cute is Felix? :)

Chuck E. Cheese gives the birthday kids an opportunity to stand in the ticket blaster and grab as many extra tickets as they can get.

They loved it!

And Chucky showed up to give them crowns and sing Happy Birthday to them!

All and all it was the easiest birthday party I've ever done.  And thank goodness because it was the week school ended and Swim Meets started and we were extremely busy.

It was also very fun!  The kids loved every second.  And just so you know, you'll spend an extra $60 on more tokens for the games.  They were going through them like candy!

But I feel like I accomplished my goal of making a "packaged" party more custom to us and memorable.  It was a good mix of being creative and easy!  I would definitely do it again there!

p.s. my favorite part of a party is watching the kids open their presents.  We ran out of time and I was so bummed we couldn't do it there with the gift giver.  So we went home and opened them and this was the aftermath! :)

What a mess!  And totally worth it!   

FATHER'S DAY

Father's Day is this Sunday...you moms all geared up?  With my husband and I, what we expect from these days are completely different.  Being a mom who is home all day, every day with the kids, what I want is breakfast in bed, homemade cards from the kids, flowers and then to go out to eat and stay away from home as long as possible.  I don't want them to cook anything in my kitchen and then I deal with "Mother's Day Hangover" on Monday morning where I'm cleaning all day from Sunday's mess.

However, since my husband works a lot, and often travels, for Father's Day all he wants is to stay home.  I'll cook (as usual) and we'll hang with his family (since my family lives in another state).  I'll take care of the kid's every need and he gets to be the "fun" one for the day.  The kids will make cards and this year I even got him a gift!  He loves just spending the day playing with them all! But he doesn't want to go anywhere or do anything...he wants to stay home, play and relax.  Which I'm good with! :)  So it's always an easy day for us.

In any marriage, there are things that annoy me about my husband.  But I have to say, his fathering abilities are not one of them.  He's a great dad!  It's one of the reasons I married him!  My father was an absentee dad.  He's never been interested in pursing a relationship with me and that was extremely hard for this little girl.  So honestly when I met my husband and saw how much he loved animals, I thought he'd make a great dad...rocket science, I know! :)

He's extremely helpful around the house.  He's playful with the kids.  He has patience, he's an amazing provider, he's a disciplinarian, he's affectionate with the kids, he's a protector (have you seen his biceps?) and he's a jokster...which my kids love!  Everyday I feel extremely grateful that he's their father and I get to finally witness what it's supposed to look like between a child and their father.  It's magical!

With all that said, I know that Father's Day is very hard for a lot of people.  Perhaps their father is deceased.  Maybe they don't have a good relationship.  Maybe they keep trying to be a father to no avail.  Or maybe they are away from their family serving in the military or traveling for work.  Whatever the case may be, it can be hard.  Life can be hard and I'm sorry this day is hard for you. :(  It's hard for me too sometimes.

One thing I do know is that it doesn't take sperm to be a great father...although both would be helpful!  All around me are great men who have influenced my life in amazing ways...and I can call them father in my heart.  Hopefully on this day we can look to all the men who have positively impacted our life and be grateful.  And if I drank wine, I'd cheers to all you great father's out there!  Hopefully you will accept my cheers of diet Dr. Pepper! :)

Diet Dr. Pepper Cheers to my wonderful husband who is a great father & sperm donor! :)

FLAG DAY

Flag day is tomorrow, an although it's not one of the Patriotic holidays we go all out for, it's still one of my favorites!  When I think about summer, I think about the colors, RED, WHITE and BLUE!  Mostly because the summer is full of the Patriotic holidays, starting with Memorial Day (May), then Flag Day (June), 4th of July and ending with Labor Day (Sept.).  And let's not forget about President's Day in Feb. and Veteran's Day in Nov.  

When we planted flowers in our backyard, I chose all red/white/blue flowers simply because those are the colors of summer for me! :)  All my summer dishware are in those colors too, so needless to day, I love these summer holidays!

Flag Day makes me so proud!  Proud to be an American, proud to have the freedoms we have, proud to raise my children here knowing that they can grow up to be anything they want to be.  Saying the Pledge of Allegiance or singing the National Anthem always chokes me up.  As a student of history and a former missionary who traveled to other countries, I am always happy to plant my toes in American soil.  I do have a heart for the world, but Americans are my family, my mafia, my people.  America is in my blood and I am overwhelmed with emotions about her!  So when I get a chance to acknowledge this symbol of my freedom, my family, my pride, I take it!

Historically, Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States in 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress. The week of June 14 is designated as "National Flag Week." During National Flag Week, the president will issue a proclamation urging U.S. citizens to fly the American flag for the duration of that week. The flag should also be displayed on all government buildings. Some organizations hold parades and events in celebration of America's national flag and everything it represents. The Betsy Ross House has long been the site of Philadelphia's observance of Flag Day.

So, what do we do to celebrate this day?  Well here we go....

I love celebrating with food...and especially really easy food!  This is our typical flag day breakfast.  Easy Peasy and yet a fun tradition!

And, if you haven't noticed yet, I am addicted to matching clothes for my kids!  #1 because I think it's so stinking cute.  #2 it's way easier picking out all their clothes if I only have to choose 2 outfits.  #3 when we do go out in public to parades or events, it's WAY easier to keep track of all these rug rats! :)

And clothes that coordinate with holidays is no exception.  Every year I always buy  my kids a set of patriotic swim suits, simply because there are so many opportunities to wear them! :)

I also have a dozen of these American Flags that I always stick in the ground along my front walkway.  It's just the easiest decoration to place and take away! :)  Again with the matching clothes!

Then there's always a fun dessert!  Here is the easiest one I've made lately.  Just buy the red chocolate melting chips from your cake decorating section at Wal-Mart.  Melt, dip pretzel rod and sprinkle on some festive sprinkles.  Lay on wax paper and put in fridge to harden.  Easy peasy! :) 

Hope you have a fabulous Flag Day tomorrow and wave it proud!

Check out my Flag Day Board on Pinterest for even more Flag Day ideas!

Flag Day Pinterest Board