Catching Up with our March Madness

March has been a busy month.  A good busy.  I'm gearing up to lead a discipleship breakout at our women's retreat so I've been working hard on that, finalizing our Spring Break trip, and starting to come to the acceptance of a certain someone's 40th birthday right around the corner.  

Deep sigh.

It's been a good exercise of the heart.  I am starting a countdown to 40 just to get ready for being Forty and FABULOUS!

But until then, here's some fun and random things going on in March.  Firstly, Micah is loving tae-kwon-do.  He is counting in Korean and even has Caelan memorizing how to count to 10 and say thank you.  "Kom Som Nee Dah"

Since daylight saving, the boys have been off their schedule a bit---mostly Tristan.  Here's a cute cuddly picture in the morning before the sun comes up as the two older boys oblige Tristan as he gets dibs on his favorite show:  Chuggington.

One of our family nights, we decided to make homemade pizza and we had a pizza off.  Who's tasted better?  Patrick's was on the left (thin, cheesy, unpolished) and mine is on the right (thick, cute, and gourmet-looking).  Neither one of us won because we each thought ours tasted better than the other.

Speaking of food, I've been bringing over meals to tons of new moms and I figured out a way to bless them and save money for our family!  At Wegmans, you can get what they call $6 meals---a meat and two sides.   OR...... no one knows this---- you can get no meat and 4 sides! Well, for four sides ($6) and a cooked rotiserrie chicken ($5), you can get a family of five dinner for under $11.   The Caesar salad is not pictured here because I ate it all before dinner. :-)

Also exciting news!  Our six year lost his first tooth.  We were struggling about the tooth fairy (like we did with Santa and the Easter Bunny) so we told Micah that there is a thing called the tooth fairy and it's pretend.  She will leave you money underneath your pillow, but the tooth fairy is really mommy and daddy.  He seemed to be okay with all of that, as he was ecstatic about his dollar under his pillow the next morning!

Last random update is for those that contributed to my mom's church building fund.  With your help, we raised close to $2,000.  I praise God for your faithfulness in giving.  Thank you, thank you!

We can't wait to have her back.  The boys keep asking for her.  Unfortunately, we will be away for Spring break when she gets home!

Aggh...maybe my mom can help me get prepared for the big 4-0.  Let the countdown begin to May!!

Kristin's Shower

This is the fun stuff!  Saturday was Kristin's Baby Shower for first boy due in May. When Amy asked if I could help with food or decorating, it was pretty obvious which one I thought was a better fit for me! :-) We found out from Mike what the nursery colors (Navy, Green, White, Baby Blue....) were and there came my inspiration: Kristin's Darling Bowtie Shower!  

 

Everybody had to put on a bowtie.  Super-easy to make with a 10x10 piece of fabric.  I spent about $4 on fabric to make 16 of them.  I saw a tutorial to sew them, but I glued them instead.  So much faster!!

Once the colors came into play, it was easy to go looking for things.  Like at the thrift store, I found these two plastic storage containers ($1.50 for both) and turned them upside down for a centerpiece.  The door sign was a fun graphic to design.

Probably the cutest thing ever was the tiny bowties I made and hung on 5 onesies.  This draped our main table.  With the same theme, I put ribbon around newborn diapers (part of my gift) and made little bowtie diaper banners.


  

I printed some of their pictures on 5x7 photo cards and bought frames at the Dollar Store.  To make the pictures pop, I added an outside element like the shoes, or the straws to bring to life the pictures.

Kristin felt blessed and overwhelmed at the same time seeing all these things for baby that she has to "figure out" but if anyone can transition a new life into their marriage well, it's this couple!

 

Super fun, thanks for letting me a part of your special day!  Can't wait to see your precious little man (in a bowtie, of course)!

Micah is a White Belt!

We recently enrolled Micah in an after-school program called Character that Kicks.  It was mostly so he could be with his friends Owen, McKenzie, and Denali but it turns out the class really gave him some confidence in fighting, and in his skills in martial arts.  He really likes it.

He comes home so excited asking me if I want to see his 10 basic motions, or his 10 basic elbows.  The funniest thing was when he was practicing his kicks around the house and yelling "Ass-kick! Ass-kick"  I'm like, "What?#@  What is this class teaching?"   Micah says, "Front-Axe Kick, Mom.  Axe Kick."  That was funny.

He is a white belt now.  Woo hoo!   Here's a must-see board breaking debut!

Nice job, Micah.  We're so proud of you.  Now he gets his uniform. :-)

More than Just A FAMILY Night

You ever watch the Brady Brunch and wonder how all 9 of them could get their homework done, eat dinner together as a family, and STILL have time for game night before the whole-- bath, books and bedtime routine?

Me, either.  I guess that's why it was a TV show.

Well, at the Ring household, the only way for us to do it is to skip one night of bath and books so we can make time to play games. Chutes and ladders, Memory Game, or Micah's favorite: Battleship!!!  Daddy, you sunk my battleship!



For us, it's about nurturing family relationships early on.  Begin with the end in mind.  What we're building now is going to be crucial in those teen years!  Later on, they'll see that we are modeling that we make time for family.  When they're all in school and our days are reduced to a "hi" and "bye", this time together will be even more important.

 

We don't want to talk about your grades or your girlfriend we don't like, we just want to have fun together and have a safe place where the lines of communication are open.  We hope it will allow them to talk about anything.  And if you're with us and it's fun and cool, you're less likely to be engaged in other things not so fun and way not cool.  Heck, if we do this right, you may be bringing your friends and even that girlfriend (we still don't like) for family night.  Um, better our house than hers!

Movie Night with the Newtons and Pavones

And this is good old-fashioned fun where we can watch a movie and laugh together or play games----which means that you are free of distractions with ipads and iphones and xbox's and whatever virtual nonsense it will be in 8-10 years! 

Popcorn, anyone?

We plan to continue our Wednesday night family nights and with a little budget as they get older, we can do indoor rock-climbing or laser tag or screen on the green.  The fun is limitless and creating a ritual now will be so much easier than trying to enforce togetherness when they are in their rebellious adolescence.  Hope this works!