Inviting Our Third Child In

A few of these "Before you have your third child..." articles have been circulating lately, and I felt moved to spew my own take on this issue.  I am currently expecting my third child, after several pregnancy losses, and my children are not "back to back" so to speak, they are spaced quite nicely if you ask me; Boo will be seven soon, Bubs just turned three, and our little one will be here at any time...and how that all works out is a mystery to anyone...because we're not there yet...so here is what I WILL expect and put out into the universe;

What about family dynamics???

Having a third child has already brought us JOY, and she's not even here yet.  
When Bubs was born, it had a profound impact on our very spirited and then four year old Boo, and in the best way.  Having a little brother has given him someone to look out for, and a way to see immediate reflections of his impact on the world, in a pure and in-the-moment way, in kindness and in hurtful words and actions.  They absolutely love each other, and absolutely torture each other daily.  My little Bubs is showing his BIG personality in his little cute self more than ever now, but is also VERY excited about his new "baby sister", at least for now.  With another baby entering our lives, I see the potential and the love GROWTH that is possible, just as I have told these soon to be "big brothers", love does not get divided, it will only grow bigger to accommodate.  While I can't guarantee the same goes for my patience, that part is up to me, I know that this baby is already lifting us all out of ourselves and into another higher purpose, and is an opportunity for us to grow together even more.  Oh, and I have recently reaffirmed a stance that was well expressed in THIS blog article as well, that our priority must be SELF, then PARTNER, then CHILDREN....and then the WHOLE can function.  This is not to say that we don't drop what we are doing for our children when circumstances warrant it, but our primal needs MUST be met or we are of  no use to anyone else, and what better way to teach our children healthy boundaries and relationship skills, than to model them as best we can?  When I work on my marriage and myself, I am doing my children the GREATEST service, greater than any lecture I could give them for certain.

You Realize the Children Will Outnumber You Now, Right? 

The children will now outnumber the adults, but I've already learned that ONE child can fill a room, so I'm really not worried...because I find worry to be useless. We also work very hard to NEVER see the parent/child relationship as "US vs. THEM".  
I have been close to "the edge" before, but I have no choice but to just do what needs to be done.  Our first born has been an extreme challenge for us as parents and even just as people, with strong personalities meeting another person with a strong personality!  But...since I've always said he counts as three children himself at times, another little bundle is not going to phase us.  Timing can be everything, and I do believe things are working out the way they should for us.  I mean really, my first can tie his own shoes, help his little brother go potty and get dressed, he can even make a few sandwiches, and they both clear the table on their own now...so the more I think about this...the brighter it all looks from where I stand.  Some things work themselves out and others are out of our hands...so we just do what we do and we do it with love.  I have found that can carry quite a lot in life.

What About Money???  Kids are Expensive!

I have been cursed and blessed with a love of second hand treasure hunting and drop of the hoarder gene...wherever that is...(probably somewhere in the attic...next to a stack of old Organic Style magazines) but it has actually served me well half the time.  I collect and store things pretty well, and I also apparently have a MAGNET attached to my aura, which attracts awesome stuff, because people give me things, and I am able to find high quality stuff most of the time...for very little money.  I am finally learning to get rid of things and passing on and selling what I can, and embracing the living and using what I have and need "thing", and not stashing more than I can use...but also...we have clothes, we have stuff...it's all matter of opening up the door for things we prefer or need MORE, and liberating the things we have do not serve our lives.  This ALL applies to children.  Toys, clothes, even food; if it's not serving us well, we need to get rid of it.  The more I do this, the more comes IN.  This to me is the manifestation of energy flow, and I've seen it happen in so many ways in my life.  Also, honestly, It has never once occurred to me to gauge children by finances.  Ever.  Maybe it's the hippy/dreamer in me, but agreeing to allow a human spirit to enter the world through my body and into my home did not require a spreadsheet, it required mediation and deep breathing, and love.  So, yeah, we need to have food, and shelter, and water...and we are BLESSED, no doubt with these things right now...but they could vanish tomorrow with or without three kids, so...che sera sera.  We prepare the best we know how.  We educate ourselves.  We make it work.

I may have a total panic attack tomorrow and forget all this lovely ideology before I have my one cup of coffee, but for now, I am logging these positive ideas and projections to bring this new child forth into our lives.  She could be here any day now...and everything starts over, and new, and transformed.  This is the lesson my children have brought me, because children do not allow you the luxury of forgetting the transient nature of life.  If you fight it, it fights back...and it will kick your ass...so...everything is about to change...again...and I'm going to let it!
What an adventure...and we don't even get a map!

A Royal Birthday Party

For my little Boo's 6th Birthday, I wanted to do a fun Medieval themed party, with knights and princes and dragons and all.  I started combing the internet for inspiration and stashing them in my Pinterest file for "Birthday Party Ideas".  I started with some easy decorations found online, knight themed and with a color scheme in my head, to match the birthday banner that we use for birthdays in our family.  I like to have fun with coordinating things and bringing it all together.

I found this set and picked the items that we needed, purchased from Birthday Direct.  I have ordered from them before, and we've been very happy with what we've received.

I chose gold and silver cups and plates, to keep with a more general castle feast feel, and it costs less that way too.  I did find some great theme perfect cups on Amazon.com, so I ordered those too.

A few fun wall hangings and a dragon pinata and I was ready to start designing the cake, which I was SURE had to be a castle.  SO...off to Youtube.com for a few tutorials.
The problem I had at first was that most of the tutorials I found either involved fondant or a square cake pan, and I did not want to have to buy a new pan for this one, and I have not worked with fondant as yet, and needed to limit my work load as much as possible...within the realm of my crazy need to do all of this in the first place.  After a few videos, I sketched out my intention to make a castle cake on a round cake base, with a few turrets and little to no artificial coloring.  This cake was also gluten free as a few of our guests had a limited diet.  Thankfully, I have experience in the GF cooking and baking department, so it was no trouble at all to make the entire menu GF dominant.  Everything we prepared was either GF or organic.

I love party planning...and I haven't done it in quite a while, so I may have gone a little overboard...BUT...with a medieval theme party, how could I not go for the fun themed foods!
So, I pulled together a few easy to eat things that I knew would be delicious and practical with kids and not require too much preparation for us.

THE FEAST:
-Baked chicken legs from THIS recipe
-Mini meat balls
-Finger sandwiches (PB&J)
-Kale/spinach bites (from Trader Joe's)
-Dragon Eggs (hard boiled eggs...treated with food dye...in our case, natural food dye)
-Children's "Mead" (white grape juice and water...yes, it actually tastes like mead!  Really cool)

 I wanted to get pics of the food out on the table, but it was GONE before i could find the camera.  Speaks well of the food though, right?

Want to slay a dragon?  YES!!!  ...and he shed dragon scales (glitter confetti), chocolate gold coins, fruit leather, fruit snacks, plastic jeweled rings, and ring pops 

I also read a great book for the kids, called The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie DePaola to keep in the spirit of things.

I had HOPED to prepare felt crowns for everyone in our little royal court, but I ran out of time and had to drop the project.  I have found that knowing one's limits is key to having a good time, and not getting stressed out.  

THE CAKE:
I started with a Bob's Red Mills Gluten Free Vanilla Cake Mix.
Easy to use, delicious in the end.  I did use Coconut Oil instead of the suggested vegetable oil, which added a hint of coconut flavoring...but that was a pleasant surprise in my opinion.

I also prepared organic (wheat flour) chocolate cupcakes from THIS RECIPE.  A...MA...ZING.

The chocolate frosting, from the same recipe as the chocolate cake, is the BEST chocolate frosting I have ever tasted.   It's all natural and so so so yummy.  

I was not sure at first how to make the turrets, but utilizing some of what I learned from watching Cake Boss and my love of Rice Crispy Treats, I knew that was the way to go.  Then, I remembered a trick I used to use when making candles, and it's a great re-purpose/recycle secret: 

Pringles Potato Chip cans = AWESOME MOLDS FOR STUFF

SO, rice crispy treat based pillars and turrets!  Simply stuff the hot treat mix into an empty, clean Pringles can, and when they are hard, peal the can away.  

 THEN, I made a second tall tower and cut and shaped the top until they both looked how I wanted.

 Using my favorite butter cream icing recipe, I mixed up a triple batch and colored it with my all natural blue dye, which comes out a lovely shade of grayish lavender; perfect for a castle!

 I placed the short tower on the cake base, after prepping the base layer with a "dirty icing" layer.  Then using a plastic cake leveling scraper, I cut stone-like markings around both, to try to imitate castle stone.

 I had purchased a bunch of cookies and such to experiment with for castle windows and draw bridge, and in the end, chocolate wafer cookies won. They were cheap, light, easy to cut and shape and looked super cool IMO.    *please ignore the piles of stuff behind the cake in the photos.  My husband had not yet removed the unsightly piles of recycling from the corner of the room, and I didn't want to have to move the whole cake just to take a photo.

 The turrets were ice cream cones, smoothed over with frosting and rolled in red sugar.  The red sugar was the only "bad" dye I used.  I placed a few cupcakes in their designated spots, topped them with cones and voila!  Castle cake.  The cupcake wrappers and knight toothpick decorations were also purchased on Amazon.  Not cheap, but SO cute and really added a special touch.  The cake basically ended up costing around $35 to make, but it was FUN and enjoyed by all.  I think it really added something special to the day.

In the end, the birthday boy was happy, and everyone had a great time.  That was the goal...and I got to have fun doing it!