Up first: Ryder!
Ryder’s Slug-Themed Fourth Birthday
Ryder’s fourth birthday was Saturday and can I just say how much I LOVE Saturday birthdays!? They allow you to truly just enjoy the day and immerse yourself in birthday fun rather than worry about weekday commitments, activities, etc. For Ryder in particular, a Saturday birthday where we could focus on time together close to home was the perfect fit for our big-hearted, hug-happy, introverted, family-loving guy.
(Romper: Free People / Sandals: Sam Edelman / Oversize Scrunchie: Target / Bralette: Amazon — part of a 3 pack and I LOVE them)
Birthday parties are a BIG deal around here these days mainly because something about Chase turning six last year made him all the more aware of birthday parties and celebrating birthdays with friends and family. Chase repeatedly asked us what we were doing for Ryder’s birthday and this would just prompt Ryder to ask Chase what Chase wanted to do for his birthday in an effort to copy his big brother. Once I took the time to really chat with Ryder one-on-one about whether or not he even wanted his own birthday party, it became very clear he wanted a birthday party but really wanted it to be something with just our family.
We set out to create a low-key party with a slug theme because there’s not much Ryder loves more right now than searching for slugs under the rocks in our yard. As it turns out, according to the internet, exactly ZERO children have wanted slug-themed birthday parties. Pinterest inspiration for slug-themed parties was… um… sparse. We did our best to brainstorm a few fun games and LOVED the recommendation I received from a bunch of you guys on Instagram that encouraged me to make dirt cups topped with gummy worms for Ryder’s special day.
Thanks to the Harry Potter movies, I was able to find gummy slug candy and so the dirt cups ended up perfectly fitting our theme!
As for the games, they were simple but an absolute BLAST!
Game number one was “Find that Slug” and the big kids had to search a container of water beads and find six slimy slugs in order to win a prize. (Bless you, Amazon, for keeping weird things like slimy slugs in stock.)
Game number two was “Soak that Slug” and Chase and Ryder had to choose a water blaster to use to try to blast a slug across a chalk finish line to get a prize.
Game number three, “Search for that Slug” was the trickiest of the three! The boys had to work together to find three squiggly friends (slugs, worms, snails, etc.) within five minutes to choose a prize from the prize bucket.
Something about our simple Saturday birthday party at home served as a perfect reminder that kids don’t need the fancy, schmancy Pinterest-perfect kid birthday parties we see all over social media — complete with balloon arches, catered meals, party planners, the works — to have the very best time. Sometimes all you need is a water blaster and a fake slimy slug.
In addition to Ryder’s birthday party, our Saturday included some very special time with Nona! Ryan’s mom arrived in town late Friday afternoon and we are so glad she could stay with us for the weekend and join us for the birthday fun!
We filled the rest of Ryder’s fourth birthday with Chase’s second-to-last Speedy Meet swim meet, swimming at the pool, rock painting, homemade strawberry birthday cake (Ryder’s request and yet he only ate the buttercream icing off the top of his slice — ha!), butterfly catching and releasing and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for movie night (Ryder’s choice).
Ryder said he loved his birthday and I’m taking his sweet words to heart because our only goal for Saturday was to make him feel special and loved. He gave me one of his full-body, sprint-into-my-arms jumping hugs right before bed and I told him it was one of his very best hugs yet. Four-year-olds give GOOD hugs.
Father’s Day 2022
Father’s Day on Sunday began with gifts for Ryan from our family! The boys were excited to give him homemade banners, painted rocks and the lizard t-shirt he proudly sported for the rest of the day.
We had a day planned at Dan Nicholas Park, one of our favorite parks I’ve raved about on the blog a time or two. With Ryan’s only request for the day being that we spend lots of time outside, Dan Nicholas Park fit the bill since it offers a little bit of everything — playgrounds, a mini zoo, gem mining, train tides, a reptile house and more.
(Leggings: Athleta Ultra High Elation Tight / Top: Amazon / Shoes: Adidas / Sunglasses: QUAY / Hat: Nike)
We arrived in the morning and made sure to do a little bit of everything before making the one-hour drive home in the early afternoon.
(And yes, our boys really do feel the need to bring nets and creature cages everywhere.)
By the time we made it home it was close to 2 p.m. and Rhett really needed his nap. While he snoozed, I stayed back with him and worked during the nap trap while Ryan, Diane and the big kids went to the pool.
Eventually we all reunited back at our house and rounded our Father’s Day with a cookout, homemade cookies ‘n’ cream ice cream and Kung Fu Panda, Dad’s choice for movie night!
As for our plans for the week ahead, Diane will be spending most of today with us before catching a flight back to Florida in the late afternoon so we’ll be soaking up the last of our time with Nona! Chase is also in his only week-long camp of the summer but he’s still done by 1 p.m. each day so I’m sure we’ll fill our afternoons with lots of pool time and play dates. The second half of the week should be a good albeit overwhelming one. My mom arrives on Wednesday with a goal of helping with the boys while Ryan and I go into GO MODE and begin packing up boxes and getting things organized for our big move in less than three weeks. Ah! I’m overwhelmed just thinking about it so if any of you have moving advice or tips/tricks you used when it comes to moving (especially a move involving kids and multiple moves into two different rentals before our “real” move), I’m all ears!
I hope you all have a great week and I hope to see you back here in a day or two!
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I did a mini move before my big move and it sucks but it’s okay! Think about what you’ll need in the time you’re in the rental and make sure those are packed in your immediate bags. Then for things you know you won’t use like Christmas decor, ski gear, winter gear, etc. put that in the back of your storage unit (or wherever it’s going). If there’s stuff you think you may use while in the rental but not sure make that easily accessible in the storage unit. Also have the labels on boxes be specific so instead of just “kitchen” have it say “kitchen: tupperware, baking sheets, cutting boards” so you know what’s what when you go to open each box. If you take apart furniture that you won’t use in the rental, put any screws into a ziploc bag and tape it to the furniture if you can! If you’re scared of ruining that then label each smaller ziploc and then place them into one larger one so they’re all together.
Great insights Maureen! I would add that you need less than you think for clothing. We did a 40 day hotel stint between and I way overpacked clothing. Granted this stay is longer and over 2 seasons but would still offer that you don’t need to keep out everything – just some core layering pieces.
And while packing, be ruthless in purging. The Kidney Foundation will come pick up donations which is GREAT! Make a dedicated donate corner in the garage and watch it fill up. Happy packing!
Thanks, Lauren! And yes, the fact that we’ll be renting during the summer/late fall is throwing me for a bit of a loop!
THANK YOU!!! So helpful! And love the idea of taping screws to furniture — so smart!
The Habitat in the Lake Norman area will also come and pick up larger pieces of furniture. You just have to schedule it ahead of time.
Maureen had such great comments. I’ll take her specific labeling a level farther and say that I used colored paper for labeled and color-coded each room (green for kitchen, blue for master bedroom, etc). I also taped the label on the same place on each box. It made finding things in the storage unit super easy because I knew what colored label to look for. Plus, your kids can help with the moving/Unpacking because you can tell them the green boxes all go to the kitchen and so on. Good luck mama!
Maureen hit the nail on the head and agree on Amy’s color coding! I’ll take all that a step further and suggest you make a list on your computer or in a notebook of what’s in each box (and number the boxes!) That way you can look through your list if you’re missing something and then just look for the number box instead of sifting through all the boxes!
I just moved last week into a fixer upper. We’re going to be fixing up while we live here, so we won’t be unpacking everything right away. Maybe have everyone pick one thing that makes them feel at home (favorite stuffed animal, a photo, painting, etc) and have that available in the rental so it doesn’t feel *so* temporary. Good luck!!
Hi Julie! what a wonderful 4th birthday party for Ryder & I applaud you for mentioning it’s the simple low key celebrations that are the ones that are meaningful vs. a all out themed party that sometimes aren’t worth the stress of the preparations!
I hope this comment doesn’t come off as odd but as a women probably close to the same age as Ryan’s mom, she is a beautiful lady with a nice smile & Ryan looks looks so much like his mom.
As far as any moving tips, your readers who commented have great recommendations! When I asked my husband, who has done MANY moves for us & family members, he said if you can afford to get several plastic totes, those are sturdier and better than cardboard boxes, otherwise if not splurge on heavy duty boxes.
Have a most wonderful week ahead, and thank you for all you do on PBF, I appreciate all you do!
We had to move into a temporary space before getting the keys to our house. We packed up almost everything and rented pods (like shipping containers). The company dropped off our pod at the old house and almost everything went into the container. We only took a couple of suitcases with us for the temporary stay at another place. On the day we got possession, the shipping containers arrived the time we got our keys.
The best thing about this was loading and unloading only once. It was worth the cost and saved us on time.
As for boxes, I made labels that marked main areas like kitchen, living room, bedroom 1, bedroom 2, etc so movers knew where to put the boxes. Labels were also on the rooms.
Happy packing! It’s also a good time to purge!
We bought these large bags https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NZ4FRBW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 and used the heck out of them. We had to transition a lot of stuff into storage for a bit and they helped so much.
Embrace the chaos. We moved beginning of may and with two small boys we still aren’t unpacked
Our family went through 6 moves in 2 years which included a year overseas. Recommend purging as much as possible beforehand. (When going through a category of belongings I would sort by Keep, Donate, Unsure. Once done, go back to the Unsure pile and most will end up in the Donate pile.) For the temporary living time, the kids were each given one small container to fill with what they wanted to bring along. Make sure you have your important documents with you in some safe place. You will get through this and learn a lot in the process.
Oh man, we’ve done this kind of a move before…it will be crazy but it’s totally doable! I packed up everything we didn’t need (and was super rigid about the things we would “need”
In our rental) so we could keep as much in boxes as possible! That was a life saver! Also, when the kids needed a job while we were trying to pack, I handed out markers and stickers and let them decorate all the packed boxes – made them feel like they were “helping.” Best of luck! You’ve got this, and in just a few short months, it will all be a blurry/happy memory 🙂
Oh! Not sure if you’re hiring a moving company, but if you’re not, we hired guys to come put all the boxes into the truck and then hired them again to unload everything into the new place. I stood in the house and directed traffic – Worth every dime!
This is such an exciting, crazy time! I’ve done two moves like this in 2 years…for the first one, we rented a truck and had family help us load up, unload into a storage unit, and then load up truck again a few weeks later, unload into the house…we lived with family for about 3 weeks in between. Just a few weeks ago, we moved again. This time we hired help, which is my biggest recommendation. I hired a woman via TaskRabbit to come help us pack; she worked for about 6 hours and was AMAZING. She knocked out so much packing it was a huge help and relief to us. Worth every penny. We also hired a few people to load up the truck, and unload at the new house. We were only in between houses for 2 days, so we honestly just kept everything locked up in the truck for that time. I’ll echo the commenters above and say we purged A LOT. I was selling furniture, rugs, etc. on Facebook Marketplace for weeks leading up to the move, and we made a couple trips to Goodwill too. Oh and if you have this luxury, sending your kids to someone else’s houses for the actual move-in/out day is nice! We had our kids for move-out day, but on the day we signed the closing papers and moved in, our kids were with their aunt and uncle and it was a huge help!
Just a tip that worked for us on a local move (although we made many Navy moves in a 30 yr career) — the big blue Ikea bags (also on Amazon) work great for soft goods (clothing, linens, pantry) and mold to space in vehicles, unlike rigid boxes. Also, liquor store boxes with inserts work well for glassware, mugs, etc.
Adding another comment to let you know that Ollie’s (I know there’s one in Mooresville) has in this week’s flyer a “sensory slug” 7″ fidget toy. Maybe something your guys would like 😊
Label, label, label! You might think you’ll remember what is in certain boxes, but you won’t and it really helps with unpacking! Have a day of box (think cleaning supplies, toilet paper, paper plates, medicine, things you need for bedtime, must have kitchen items etc.). If you are using movers make sure they set up the kids rooms the way you want and get their rooms as close to done as possible so they will feel a little settled at bedtime. I made sure I had curtains too so that it would be semi dark in the morning. And definitely plan on takeout the first few days! And babysitting set up for that week if possible to give you some chunks of time to unpack.
So many good suggestions and the only thing I’d add (from my 25 yr Army wife, 13 moves life) is I used to put each drawer contents in big 2 gal ziplocks so unpacking into drawers (esp kitchen and office) was a breeze. On our temp housing times in Europe and Hawaii, we were glad to have sent our folding camp chairs, crockpot/IP ahead before our things arrived but hopefully your temp places will have those. Good luck!!
LOVE all of Ryder’s birthday party – seeing the joy in his face is everything!
The best thing I can suggest for your move is something I’m sure you’ve already done. We had one “box of knowledge” that we used to hold everyone’s medical records, paperwork, and go-to info which held anything that we might conceivably need throughout the move. When we moved into 5-month long housing, I also had one “kitchen” box that contained things I used every day, so I could cook and not feel like we had to continually go out for meals during the week.
I also found it incredibly helpful to subscribe to HomeChef/HelloFresh while in the apartment, since I wouldn’t have my typical spices or seasonings at hand. This took some of the stress of making dinner each night off my mind and allowed me to be more relaxed about temporary housing.
We’ll be sending you good vibes and love as you make this transition – I’m sure that you and the boys will enjoy this adventure!