may day flowers + “hello sunshine” printable

when i was a child, my mom and i lived with my grandparents in the rainy northwest. when i was about eight years old, my *grandpa was eighty-something and he had a notorious flower garden. i first learned about may day from this grandpa. each may first, he would slowly and carefully roll paper into cones, and take me out to pick flowers from his garden. then, we would go for a walk in our neighborhood and choose homes to leave the flowers at as a surprise. he would stand back, let me go to the door, leave the flowers, knock, and run…

one year, i was caught in the act and our local paper wrote an article about my grandpa and i keeping the may day tradition alive… and this week, almost thirty years later i am doing the same thing with my kids in honor of grandpa.

only, we are using glassware in place of paper cones because i like the idea that after the flowers die, there is a little treasure to keep.

have you ever prepared and delivered may day flowers? have you ever received may day flowers? i am so excited for sunshine, warm weather, and spring this year that there was no way we could skip this delightful may first tradition. i really enjoy making people happy, even more, i like to see them smile. surprising someone with flowers is sure to do both if only for a fleeting moment, right?

download the “hello sunshine” printable here and spread some flower love! xo.

*i shared another story about my grandpa here, and why i am fond of red poppy’s.

{photos and styling by me, Jane Rhodes. hello sunshine tags designed by lovely lindsay for seejaneblog}

Posted in create something, free downloads, free stuff, holidays, may day, sela | 7 Comments »

17/52

“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

kiana: has a closet full of incredible clothes, but still prefers to wear mine.
myla: extremely diligent with doing her homework.
kj: finished spring-cleaning his room this week. i had to stay in his room with him almost the entire time and remind him about every two minutes to stay focused. my easily distracted boy – there may have been some bribing involved too.
sela: stole brothers hat and the stripe obsession continues…

Posted in 52 project, kiana, KJ, myla, sela | 2 Comments »

birthday mornings.

so…. regardless if my kids have a friend-birthday-party or a family birthday party, we always have a family birthday morning.

and, birthday mornings are a big deal at our house. from the minute our kiddos wake up, we celebrate…

peek behind the cake: see that blue blob? kj requested blue crepes and bacon for breakfast!

we called them smurf crepes.

sela woke up early and tip-toed in to our room. she whispered to me

mom, don’t feel bad. i’m not going to snuggle with you this morning because i’m going to wake up kj with birthday snuggles…

right then. my heart melted just a bit.

we spoiled our handsome ten year old with ten gifts.

the first eight were fun, small, practical things – and then the last two were the big surprises:

new baseball catcher’s gear and a new bike! he’s been begging for a bike with gears! look at the shock on his face, it was so fun!!!

today was good. so good i get all weepy when i look at these pictures. kj called the shots all day – we went to his sisters soccer game {and played catch while there}, had lunch at his restaurant of choice, played games with him throughout the afternoon, he went to the baseball park with husband in his new catcher’s gear for practice, at 8pm he requested ice cream at a local ice cream shop, so we obliged. and now he’s still on is computer playing games.  it’s been all about him today.

i don’t have the words to describe how good my sons heart is. it may even drive his daddy a little crazy he’s so sensitive and sweet. but boy oh boy, it melts his momma’s heart. he kisses me, all the time. he tells me, you are so cute mom! you are looking fyne today mom! the sweetest words, all the time. he still leaves the dug-out in the middle of a baseball game to come over and kiss his little sister on the top of her head. he gets all choked up every time he talks to us about anything that affects him emotionally. he is a gentleman. he loves scouts. he loves sports. he likes all games, but especially chess. he’s an avid video-gamer. he will defend what he believes in. he’s ridiculously good with technology and fixes things around the house for me. he’s a very good friend. he adapts easily without complaint to almost every situation. the kid has been in three elementary schools and makes friends instantly. sorry for the ramble – my boy has a heart of gold. and i love every bit of it.

dude. in a nutshell, birthday mornings rock. and my son is ten.

{photos by me, Jane Rhodes}

Posted in birthdays, husband, kiana, KJ, myla, parties, party plans, sela | 7 Comments »

a glow-in-the-dark sports party

my son kj requests birthday parties that are true to his interests. when he was two he asked for a choo-choo party, he turned three surrounded by family and his passion for baseball had began, his fourth birthday party was one of my best-planned-parties ever and this is the only picture i have to share! (he loved the movie “cars”, husband built a homemade race track, the guests all made race cars out of potatoes, with pit passes etc. we raced all afternoon – it was so cute – maybe i’ll scan photos in one day since it was pre-blogging), he loved transformers when he was five, in a galaxy far far away KJ turned six years old, when he was seven his obsession with the military began, at eight years old we indulged in his love for video games, last year we celebrated with a neon influence…

and this year, for his tenth birthday, he said he wanted a glow-in-the-dark sports party. he follows in his dad’s sports-loving-ways.  i used a simple invite that was emailed out via evite.  we celebrated with all of the fourth grade boys from his school and because the party was going to be held at an event/kids academy, there wasn’t much else i had to plan {bonus!}. so, i focused on making a couple of details extra special and enjoyed the simpleness of not having to be in charge of anything else!

for the party – the kids were each given a white glow sports tee, glow necklaces, and painted their faces with glow paint. for seventy-five minutes they played glow-in-the-dark dodgeball, football, had a fort-building competition, then had a battle from those forts in the dark, obstacle courses, and much more! to say they had fun would be an understatement.  i couldn’t stop smiling, and i was just observing.

this boy of mine is such an original gem. he is so sweet, incredibly thoughtful, 100% boy, and becoming a young man/gentleman that i am so proud of. definitely a glowing light.

***

party details:

glow-in-the-dark-hat: i used the party hat template linked to here, and colored it with a glow-in-the-dark marker. it was so bright!
for the “10″ sign: used the same marker on felt fabric.
to download & print the “happy birthday” water bottle labels, click here. print on full page labels, and cut.
to download & print the “glowing thank you” labels, click here. print on full page labels, and cut. i used brown wax paper sandwich bags which can be found at whole foods market.
for the cake toppers, i used water balloons, filled them with tiny glow in the dark sticks and when the lights were off – each child had a glow-in-the-dark balloon on their chocolate texas cake!

***

this weekend we will have our traditional family breakfast party, and i’ll sulk in the fact that my kids are growing up.

{all photos and party plans by me, Jane Rhodes. labels designed by lovely lindsay for seejaneblog}

Posted in birthdays, KJ, parties, party plans, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

16/52

“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

kiana: enjoys cooking. she made two {low-carb} family dinners this week – chicken peanut-curry, and spicy chicken basil stir-fry! {they were both phenomenal!}
myla: takes Chinese at school and gives herself character-pen-tats
KJ: just a small patch of freckles on that nose.
sela: overheard me call kiana “bug” this week, and replied, “mom! you can’t call her bug, i’m your only bug… you can call her {paused… thinking… thinking.. thinking…} worm.”

Posted in 52 project, kiana, KJ, myla, sela | 3 Comments »

marblehead, massachusetts

my kids are on spring break this week, so we went exploring in marblehead, massachusetts yesterday.  and since spring has officially arrived here in boston we’ve been enjoying what nature has to offer daily.  we made three stops, two were recommended by a friend and the other we found all on our own – which i love. we also ate lunch at a cute, classic new england cafe’, and visited the local toy shop for kites and yo-yos. it was one of my favorite days in new england so far.

the first stop was castle rock -

our second stop was chandler hovey park, but i didn’t snap any pictures here. you can take a peek at how cute it is on this site.

our third stop was devereux beach…

i can honestly say marblehead is one of my favorite places in new england. the kids and i can’t wait to go back this summer.

spring is trying so hard to stay, but it’s still inconsistent. sunny and seventy one day, misty and fifty-two the next, the one thing about living in cold weather, you really appreciate spring…

Posted in family adventures, KJ, massachusetts, myla, sela | 2 Comments »

the art of… family

this past weekend, i took a whole lotta sidewalk chalk + all of my kids outside to our driveway. we spent all afternoon out there, and not only created some chalk masterpieces, but created some fun memories.

to see more pictures from our activity {more sidewalk chalk art!}, and to read my thoughts on “the art of… family” head over to the twig creative blog. and then, buy one of their wooden treasures, because they are the absolute cutest toys ever! true statement.

***

dear friends, thank you dearly for all your texts, emails, fb/twitter/instagram messages yesterday and this morning in wake of the boston explosions. our family went to the red sox game at fenway in lieu of the marathon yesterday and we were back home in the suburbs before any danger took place. it is a hostile world that our children are inheriting. yet, there is tremendous good in the world too, lets keep that in mind as we all pray for better days.

in passing of yesterdays events, my friend katie shares her thoughts about beantown. her words are very touching, a coincidence that our family is planning a picnic on a boston lawn this afternoon.

xo.

Posted in bloggity-blogs, create something, jane, kiana, KJ, myla, sela | 4 Comments »