Mother and Daughter Night for Activity Days.

This past week I put on an event for my activity days girls and their moms. Since it was mother's day this month we wanted to do something for the moms. So the girls and I decided to do a spa night where the girls would give the moms a mani/pedi.

[To clarify if you don't know what activity days is: It is a program that the LDS church has for the girls that are ages 8-11. It happens twice a month. It is designed to help the girls pass off requirements for their faith in god and also prepare them to go into Young Womens.]

A couple weeks ago we had our activity day be helping the event. The girls help with what to do, gave ideas for food, and helped with making the invites to give to their mom. Some of the ideas they gave me were a little crazy but we tried to do our best to make it as much as we were able to happen.

I wanted to make the primary room feel like they were at a spa/resort but for kid friendly and girly, kinda like a tea party. We had a light dinner of three different salads with rolls and some fruit and veggies for everyone to eat with some lemonade and 'Shirley Temples' (the girls idea) to drink. Katie (my assistant and friend) and I made most of the decorations out of tissue paper. We made pom poms to hang out the tables to act like chandeliers and a tassel banner. They turnout out great. We got pretty much everything for our decor for the room at the dollar store or borrowed things from friends and family. [I have to say that the dollar store has some awesome stuff to help you throw a party, it is the way to go in my opinion especially if you have a low budget and don't mind doing some DIY projects.] Everything turned out amazing and awesome.

 The night went awesome too. When they walked in, I had them fill out a questionnaire about their mom or daughter and themselves. At the end we added put who had the most right and whoever did won a prize. We all eat first than the girls gave their moms their mani/pedi. As they were doing that we also had the girls read a little poem they read, (the girls wrote the poem at the planning activity before.) The moms also were able to paint the girls nails too. The girls really wanted to have a rose peddle or balloon drop for their moms but I couldn't figure out how to do that. So we blow up balloons and put them in the next room. We than had the girls come and get some and than throw them at their mom while saying "I love you!" 

The night turned out so fun and cute. The moms and girls both enjoyed it. I will call this a success. Now we will have to start thinking out a father daughter activity since the girls are already asking to do one.


♥ The Schroeder

Walker is o{fish}ally 2!

Walker is 2! It is crazy to me to think that I have a two year old, that two years ago I gave birth to my little man. I couldn't imagine life without him now. He is always right by my side, wanting me to join him and play with him. He is such a cute little guy and a fun little boy. He is not a baby anymore that is for sure.

Walker's two year old stats:
35 inches tall (60%)
25 pounds (14%)
Says about 25-30 words
Loves fish, ducks, and birds.
Favorite movie : Toy Story.
Loves being outside at the park, beach, or anyplace where he was walk around and explore.
Loves going to grandma and grandpa Schroeder's house and FaceTime with grandma and grandpa Theobald
Loves watching old cartoons like Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse
Loves music. Can tell you what xylophone, violin, drum, and trumpet is.
Knows the colors yellow and blue. learning red and green (can tell you what they are sometimes)
Picky eater but loves breakfast foods and bananas.

To celebrate his birthday we throw a party for him. Since he loves fish we decided to have it be fish themed. I made the invites on photoshop. I love using my creative side to throw parties and create invites for parties or anything. I think the invites turned out way cute.

We wanted the party to have more kids and be mostly family and close friends. It was a great turn out. My mom was able to come for the weekend, which was awesome to be with her and have her there to celebrate with us. I made a banner and some fish for the "aquarium" I wanted to create on a wall. We made the cake look like a fish as well. We did a small lunch like sandwiches, jello, salads and fruit. I also made fish sugar cookies with a little thing of bubbles for a goodie bag. The decor turned out great. I got mostly everything at the dollar store or target (my two go to places for parties) and also did a lot of DIY projects (happy birthday banner, aquarium wall, signs and fish around the party).

We had a great time at the party. Walker loves getting his presents but could really care less about opening them himself (maybe that will change next year). We had Casey's dad do some magic tricks for everyone while we ate and talked while the kids played with toys. It was apparently too much fun since Walker decided to take a snooze right as we were singing him happy birthday and bringing out the cake.

Walker dead asleep on Grandma Robin.

Even though Walker might not be able to remember it, I wanted him to be able to know that he is loved and also that your birthday is a special day and you should celebrate it no matter how old you get. It is always fun celebrating a special occasion with family and friends.

On his birthday we went to.. you guessed it... Disneyland! Walker loves going to Disneyland. Robin and Diane joined us for the day. We wanted to do some new things that day and some things that we know he loves. So for the new things we went to Disney Jr. (we have done this before but haven't done it in a long time so it is pretty much a new thing to walker), played some arcade games on the pier and won Walker a dumbo, went on the Mickey's Fun Wheel and met the one and only Captain America (I was speechless when meeting him). We of course did our usuals too, Buzz, Toy Story Mania, Little Mermaid, Winnie the Pooh, and many more. It is always fun going to Disneyland and having explore.

After we went to Disneyland, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to have pancakes and ice cream. Walker was very interested in the fire that was on the candle and wanted to touch it really bad. We told him no and kept taking his hand away while singing to him. He cried but it was his birthday so he could cry if he wanted too, right?

I want to wish Walker a very happy birthday and hope he has a wonderful and awesome year that is filled with many adventures and memories. I hope you, Walker, know that you are loved and that you will always be our little boy no matter how fast you grow up and how big you get. Love you buddy!

♥ The Schroeders

Will you be my Valentine?

We had a two day of valentine celebrations. To start it off we had Walker paint some valentines day cards for his friends and our family. Casey had the day before Valentines day off we went and spent the day as a family at the mall and just relaxing at home. I had activity days that night so when I got home Casey had a surprise for me (flowers, girl scout cookies, and a loving card).

Walker painting his Valentines Day cards | Father and son | The beautiful flowers and amazing cookies Casey got me.

On Valentines Day morning we went to the Ramona Cafe for breakfast. It was yummy. Walker seemed to love it. He loves breakfast food. It was very good. This was our second time going. As you probably can guess, it is just a small diner. I like places like those sometimes because you can take your time and not have to worry. 

That day while Casey was at work I decided that I wanted to go do something with my little valentine. So we went to SeaWorld for the day. It was fun spending some mom and son time. Walker loves fish and water so you could guess that he had the time of his life. It was fun having his lead and go where he wanted to go. It was relaxing and fun. In my opinion, it was a great way to spend the day. 

Walker looking at the penguins. He kept calling them birds.
We also were there watching them for about 30 minutes. He didn't want to leave.

Some of our adventures at SeaWorld.

When Casey got home we went to the Valentines Day dinner that the Young Women in the ward put on. There was a dinner than a dance after. They had babysitting for the kiddos too. It was a great way to end our valentines day celebrations. Until the next Valentines day. :]

♥ The Schroeder

Family Photos 2013

Here are our family photos for the year 2013. We wanted to update our family photo since Walker has grown so much since our last one. It was a little more difficult since all Walker wants to do is walk around and explore. But we did get some good shots of all of us. We took them at Jack's Pound Park in San Marcos. Can't wait to print them and put them up in our apartment. Thanks Aubry and Ricky for taking the photos for us.

 

♥ The Schroeder