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timmy

Mom Life

Timmy’s Dinosaur Themed Birthday Party

Posted on May 11, 2017

Today I am sharing all the details of Timmy’s Dinosaur Themed Birthday Party. It was so fun to plan and he had such a special day. I’m thankful to our friends and family who came and loved on him for his birthday. Check out this video of his Dinosaur Themed Party!

This is Charlie’s year for a big birthday party since he is turning one this summer. Timmy’s birthday rolled around and I thought it would be fun to have a few of his favorite little friends over to play and celebrate with him. He really wanted a Dinosaur birthday cake which turned this into a themed playdate. Well I couldn’t stop there…I found myself on Oriental Trading with a cart full of dinosaur themed party stuff. Then I started talking menu ideas with my mom and she loves a themed party even more than me, one thing led to another, and we ended up with a full blown birthday party. The guest list remained small and we had a great time celebrating!

I ordered all the party supplies from Oriental Trading. They have tons of cute stuff for a dinosaur themed party. My only complaint about Oriental Trading is they run minimal promotions. I’m on the email list and I’ve been watching their email promotions over the last few months. The best you can hope for is free shipping and once in a blue moon there is a $10 off coupon.

Timmy loved the large cardboard dinosaurs that we put all over the house. He insisted we leave them up. They are heavy so they eventually fell, packing tape didn’t cut it.

Here’s my patient husband blowing up inflatable dinosaurs at 1 am the night before the party.

Party hats, sticker sheets, and cute baby Chars! 🙂

The menu consisted of pulled pork sandwiches, buffalo chicken dip, and dinosaur chicken nuggets for the carnivores. For the herbivores we had fruit, veggies, dinosaur fruit snacks, and dinosaur footprint cookies. My mom made the watermelon and it turned out great. She used marshmallows and olives for the eyes. She also made the cake! She was this creative long before Pinterest ever existed.

I made the dinosaur footprint cookies. On pinterest all the posts I saw said to put the dinosaur footprint in the raw cookie dough and then simply bake them. That did not work for me. When the dough was rising as they baked the footprint disappeared. I ended up putting the footprint in the cookie as soon as they came out of the oven. That worked much better. I used an actual dinosaur toy to make the footprint and then filled it in using a paintbrush and green food coloring.

I found a recipe on Pinterest for Raptor Juice that called for sprite, pineapple juice, lemonade, and a lemon-lime kool aid packet. I went to three stores looking for a lemon-lime kool aid packet and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I substituted the kool aid packet with a pack of lime jello. As expected, this punch was tart which I did not like but Timmy and Jordan loved it. I loved the color of this punch and it looked cute on the drink bar. I warned all of the parents that there was an entire pack of jello in it. #sugaroverload

These strawberries were quick to make and cute for the kids. They made me giggle because I’m not sure they look like dinosaurs?! I’m not really sure what they look like?! Timmy asked me what kind of dinosaur they were…we decided on a triceratops?? Haha.

I ordered a box of dinosaur eggs from Oriental Trading to have an egg hunt for the kids. Jordan and I set up the inflatable dinosaurs all around the back area of our basement and hid eggs for the kids to find. We had the bubble machine going and the kids loved it. We let them go wild down there for a little while and burn off some energy. The large red t-rex was a favorite!

Side note: if you have little ones and you don’t have a bubble machine, you need to get one! They are the best thing ever. I can’t believe I ever stood there with the bubble wand, becoming light headed, as I failed at blowing bubbles for the boys. It makes everything more fun. I get it out all the time. I recommend this one from amazon. I got a huge tub of bubbles from Five Below for $3.

Here’s Charlie showing off his new trick (WALKING) at the party!

He only ate the icing. No fork required for that!

Little brother looking adorable in his dinosaur onesie.

And last but not least, the sweetest and cutest Dad ever. <3

Mom Life

Timmy & Charlie: Feb-March 2017

Posted on March 21, 2017

Here’s an update on the Rowdy Routch’s and adventures with Timmy and Charlie. My goal is to write a post like this every month or two so I can look back on how the boys grew.

February was full of days that reached 60+ degrees. It was such a treat and a reminder that it is much easier to entertain little ones when it is nice outside. We snuck in a few days at the park and sometime in the backyard playing in the sandbox and on the swing set.

Jordan worked many long hours during busy season coupled with travel. We missed him a lot and had our bedtime routine via FaceTime many of the evenings. This picture of him at the park with the boys was taken during the only 2 hours we spent with him that week. We are glad he is slowing down at work and home for dinner lately. We are thankful for his work ethic…he’s always hustling whether at home or at the office. He’s the energizer bunny!

Charlie is growing so fast. In the last 2 months he has transitioned from needing to be held by mommy constantly to a little explorer who is gaining independence and curiosity. I used to long for a few minutes to put him down and now I find myself calling for him to come back in the room. Timmy started walking at 9 months and Charlie will be 9 months soon. I realized that Charlie could be running around the house in a few short months. When Timmy started walking the moments of holding him on my lap or hip became few and far between.

I decided about a month ago that everyday I was going to rock Charlie to sleep for his afternoon nap. I really want to be intentional about enjoying this stage. With the second child I can appreciate how quickly it comes and goes. Charlie has been getting a lot of teeth lately. He now has three teeth on top and two on the bottom.

Timmy will be 3 years old in one month. He is becoming his own little person. One of my favorite things lately is holding a conversation with him. I like asking him questions and getting his opinion on things. He can call someone on the phone and chat with them independently without me translating or mediating too much. It is cool to move beyond simple exchanges based on basic needs and encouraging him to share his thoughts and feelings about situations. He still loves all things animals and dinosaurs. We officially quit potty training and will try again this summer. He was getting frustrated and wasn’t making progress. He is really into surprises lately and it doesn’t take much to get him ultra excited. I take every opportunity to create these magical moments over simple things like stickers, ice-cream, or a new book. I love how their excitement level can go from 1 to 10 over simple things, it is one of the best parts about having little ones!

Now that Charlie is a speed crawler and able to maneuver around the room (holding onto furniture) Timmy is anxious for him to become a playmate. Some of Timmy’s favorite phrases lately are, ‘Chase me Charlie!’; ‘Charlie lets explore!’; ‘Charlie come under the table with me.’ It is so cute and I love watching their brotherly bond grow.

That’s the latest on my little loves. The next update may include Timmy’s 3rd birthday and Charlie walking?!?

Mom Life

Crawling and Potty Training!

Posted on January 31, 2017

Charlie just turned 7 months old and month 6 was packed with firsts! I feel like he officially transitioned out of that new baby phase. :’-(

His bottom two teethe came in, he started crawling, eating baby food, and pulling himself up on everything! Now that is he able to play around on the floor and get around a bit Timmy is all about playing games with him which is adorable. He plays hide and seek, plays animals, sings him songs, dances with him, and tries to wrestle him (with me regulating aka saving Charlie’s life). Timmy really is the sweetest big brother! The first thing he says to him in the morning is, “Good morning handsome Charlie!”.

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So far all of Charlie’s firsts have happened at the same time as Timmy’s. We’ll see if Charlie is able to keep up, I think he wants to start walking immediately to chase his big brother.

Charlie is so smiley and easy going. He goes right to sleep when we lay him in and never fusses. He’s sleeping in till like 9:30 which is great. I think he’s trying to make up for the first 5 months of sleepless nights. It’s pretty amazing have an official bedtime for both boys and not having to get up with them again until morning. Jordan and I got our evening hang out times back!

While Charlie is busy moving all around exploring and putting everything in his mouth, we started potty training Timmy. He is going to be 3 years old in April so I felt like it was time to crack down. We have been trying it for a while but we weren’t fully committed.

A couple weeks ago we removed the diaper and pants for 3 days straight…this was not glamorous. We roped off the carpeted areas of the house and went through a lot of paper towels and disinfectant wipes. A lot of people talk about using this method as a potty train fast method. It definitely helped us get further then all the other methods we tried but what I didn’t realize is this is the introduction and then it goes on and on from there, at least for us. We are still having lots of accidents unless we make him go to the potty like every 30 minutes or so. It is a big commitment. We’ve cut back a lot on the places we normally go during the week like story time at the library, museums, friends houses etc. If you are considering getting serious about potty training you might want to consider doing it during a month that you don’t have a lot going on. Although I’ve heard girls are much easier and faster to catch on!

This is the first time I’m potty training so any words of wisdom from experienced mommas? Please share! 🙂