It Happened...

I'm 30! I had a splendid time celebrating my birthday too. My throat was still sore for my birthday yesterday, but I barely noticed I was having such a good time.

This is what 30 looks like! Mister caught this pic after he threw a self made hat on me and  I was fully clothed...thank goodness for that!

We walked to church without a coat for the first time! The service was lovely and there was a fantastic sermon. We had a great discussion in our Sunday school class on what could have been a very awkward subject (see 1 Peter 3). Then we headed to HuHot with my parents and grandma followed by a little playtime at the park for Mister.

Once we got home, the 3 of us relaxed in bed while Adam read some of The Hobbit. We went on a long walk to Dairy Cream for ice cream, since there was no cake. We decided to skip supper and have a movie and popcorn. We watched Cinderella on our movie screen and my boys got me my favorite tiny popcorn and white cheddar popcorn seasoning.

The weather was perfect yesterday and I am looking forward to what my 30s have to offer. Looking back on my 20s I really don't know what the big hype is all about. I went to college, struggled to stay afloat financially, and had one disappointment after another in the first half of my 20s. In the second half I had rough toddler years and spent all my time and money trying to dig my way out of debt. Not that it was all bad mind you, but I wouldn't want to do my 20s again.

The 30s hold so much promise! Our debt will be gone this year (except the house) and we have many options for our future. Yeah...I think turning 30 is going to be okay after all. And if not, There's always the 40s to look forward to!

Birthday Boy

My little guy will be 5 in a few more days! I really can't believe it! We had his Lego Star Wars party on Sunday and it went very well. Now on to the pics...

This is his yearly birthday mural (yes, we did miss the last 2 years). 

Inside our Lego guy jars we had homemade play dough for the littlest kids and Lego mini kits for the bigger ones.

Time to blow out the candles!

We always have a little themed snack and this year was light saber pretzels. 

This is our little instruction sheet for how to build the Lego ship. We hit the Lego store at MOA and hand selected each of these little guys. The staff and customers thought it was just the most amazing thing...we just thought the price was better than purchasing actual kits.

Adam made Wookie sandwich cookies instead of cake this year. It made things so much easier!

Here is a close up of the Lego Darth Vader. He turned out so well with our collaboration!

Birthday Swag

I am happy to host a birthday giveaway for The Crazy Elephant! Granted, I am the woman behind the elephant. Enter to win a $10 gift certificate to thecrazyelephantboutique.com and make sure to follow on facebook to enter the daily trivia challenge to win yourself a 30% off coupon code. Happy 3rd birthday Crazy Elephant!

Visit thecrazyelephantboutique's ArtFire Shop

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Birthday Fun

Jayne blows out all the candles

Jayne's birthday went great! We kept an eye on the weather all day and did end up having the party at the park. It sprinkled for the last half hour but that did not stop all the kiddos from having fun and running around like maniacs. Jayne came home with a wide variety of Lightning McQueen booty. The cake was a huge hit! Adam made it from scratch, it tasted like brownies, and looked amazing. We all agreed that it rated up there with last year's ham sandwich cake in creativity.

When the kids wanted a break from the light rain they popped back under the shelter and colored on our handmade paper shapes. It was a great way to go through some of them and were durable for coloring on the concrete. Each kiddo got their own Lightning McQueen crayon roll, complements of The Crazy Elephant Boutique. The kids really liked them and they were occupied for a good 20 minutes at least. I am excited for next year's festivities, but I can definitely wait for Jayne to get yet another year older!


Jayne in his new chair with his new friend



Homeschool Fun: Birthday

I thought a birthday themed week would be an excellent build up to Jayne's birthday party, which will be on Sunday. He had so much fun with it too. He loved playing keep the balloons off the floor, classic game. He really liked the birthday pack from Homeschool Creations. His favorite was the find the cake game. We played it every day during school, taking turns and having fun. He did the size cards very well and played with the 3 part cards too. The find the cake game definitely took the cake this week.

Jayne reveals the cake

His sensory bin was very cute too this week. He liked using the tweezers to pick out the beads (cake sprinkles) and tried to pick up everything he could with them. We took this fun little tweezers from his bug collecting kit. It worked out great and it will help him work the muscles he needs to hold a pencil correctly. We somehow ended up not having any art time this week! We have been busy preparing for his birthday party.

Jayne picks up an extra friend

Next week we start school! Not that we haven't been doing school anyway, but this will be full swing. It also means getting into our routine. It is going to be a great way to make sure everything is accomplished and that we make time for the important things like spending time together as a family and getting enough rest.

TCE August Preview

It is a big month for The Crazy Elephant Boutique! This month is our 2nd birthday. Today I am going to give you a preview of what the month has in store.

Our Line - I have created a new line and I will be launching it tomorrow! We have also done some price changes. I have done them already and for the items we have in our shops currently there was only one item that went up. The big deal though is the drop in the price of our lunch packs, perfect with back to school shopping under way.

Live Shows - We have 3 shows coming up this month. The details of each are below...

Rolling Stone Days

August 6th 9am-3pm

At the Park

Rolling Stone, MN

Rolling Stone Days

August 7th 11am-4pm

At the park

Rolling Stone, MN

Zumbrota Block Party

August 18th 5pm-8pm

On the main drag

Zumbrota, MN

Our shops will be closed online during the events, so plan accordingly.

Big Sale - Our actual birthday is on the 20th. We will be running a 3 day sale from roughly 8am on the 19th to 8am on the 22nd. I will give more info on that the day before the sale starts. It will be worth stopping by though!

I am so excited to share our TCE birthday with all of you! So, to start off the month, what is your favorite TCE item?

http://thecrazyelephantboutique.com

Last Night's Show

The weather was nice! We got to be in the shade and we didn't even need to put up the tent. Adam was able to come with me and that meant an evening of grown up time for us. It was really great! We saw lots of adorable kids and made some "interesting" sales. We will be showing at the Zumbrota Block Party again next month on the evening of the 18th. I am looking forward to it!

 

During our down times we discussed our upcoming birthday. That's right, The Crazy Elephant turns 2 next month! We have decided to take a look at our pricing, so you will notice some changes there (some up, some down). There will be a new line launched. We will be doing 3 shows, 2 days at Rolling Stone and 1 day at Zumbrota. There might be more happening, but that is all we have planned so far. I look forward to sharing our birthday with all of you!