Monday, June 16, 2014
Father's Day Weekend

Our weekend was filled with hanging out by the pool and celebrating the extraordinary man of our house!  Friday night Marvin, Sophia, and I went to a local shopping market to listen to a DJ and have dinner.  It's a really cute area.  There's a fountain, a large yard, and a playground area.  We ate the carryout we picked up while Sophia ran around.  She met some new friends and showed us 386,309,201 cartwheels, backbends, and splits.

We packed a picnic lunch up and headed to the pool on Saturday.  The weather was beautiful and the girls had a blast having swim races and doing flips in the pool.

Sunday we really put the celebrating into gear! I made Marvin his favorite breakfast: cinnamon roll pancakes! The girls and I put together a burger basket full of spices, a patty press, thermometer and patty papers.  It may have been a bit selfish of us because we LOVE his grilled burgers. But he loves grilling, so it equals out. :)

Also, I had the 2nd edition of The Adventures of the McNutts drawn up.  Last year, I used the Superman theme to go along with the Superman Donut Bar.  This year I used Captain Marvel as I recently found out he is actually Marvin's favorite.  Who knew.  I had never even heard of Captain Marvel.  No surprise there.

We ended the day by watching Field of Dreams and snacking on a mini popcorn bar.  I couldn't believe that my baseball-loving husband had never seen Field of Dreams!

We definitely had a fun weekend celebrating our favorite man!  He deserves all of that and more.  Thank you, Marvin, for being such an amazing daddy to our girls!

Photo credit: Amanda Basteen // www.amandabasteen.com

Monday, June 16, 2014

Birthday Palooza & Last Day of School

So as if watching Paris graduate from elementary school wasn't enough, Sophia turned 10 on Tuesday.  I definitely had to plan lots of little surprises to avoid drowning in "my kids are growing up too fast" tears.  It was Sophia's golden birthday, so we had some serious celebrating to do!

We started the morning with a fun breakfast as we always do on birthdays!  I made donut balloons for my donut-loving birthday girl to go along with our birthday donuts.  They were fun and super easy to make.  I ordered donut shaped balloons in white.  I painted the balloons using acrylic paint and used streamers for the sprinkles.  I cut the streamers to resemble sprinkles and attached them to the balloons using double sided tape.

I met Sophia for lunch at school and brought chocolate cupcakes for her classmates.  It was fun chatting with Sophia and her friends.  It was the last day of school AND there were cupcakes, so I was surrounded by happy, happy kids! 

Marvin comes home from work a couple of hours before the kids get off from school.  We had planned to have a surprise water balloon fight with the kids as soon as they got off the bus.  WELCOME. TO. SUMMER. However, our plans failed miserably.  The balloons we had picked up had holes and kept breaking.  At this point we only had about 30 minutes before the girls came home.  Thank God for Target being so close to our home.  We ran through Target, picked out 4 water guns, and made it home in time to DRENCH our kids to welcome them to summer vacay! 

We finished our day by finally giving the birthday girl the gift we have been so eager for her to receive.  Marvin & I have been dying keeping this secret from Paris and Sophia! We are taking a family vacation to Orlando, FL and going to DISNEY WORLD! We put a couple of Disney shirts, Minnie ears, the movie Frozen, and a note letting her know we were taking her on a magical vacation.  Watch the video below for her reaction. :) I can't wait to experience Disney again, and for the first time through the eyes of my daughters!

Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Middle School Here We Come

There's been some big accomplishments happening in the McNutt household!  Paris graduated from 5th grade this week and is officially a 6th grader.  It blows my mind how fast the time has gone.  I volunteered during Paris' 5th grade celebration and watching her with her new friends solidified what I already knew in my heart - our kids are resilient, hard working, and most importantly, friendly.  

Paris' graduation ceremony was so sweet.  All of the children were dressed up, the class president spoke, and the kids each walked the stage to receive their certificate of completion.  I was an emotional wreck and then I absolutely lost it when the children began singing Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up".  The song never sounded so sweet.  I literally just hard swallowed thinking about it again.  During the song, the 5th graders stopped singing and tiny voices began to sing.  The kindergarten class came out, sang a verse, and then they all joined in together. The kindergarteners looked so little compared to all the 5th graders.  It's a moment I'll always remember.  So sweet. Paris later told me that they had passed the torch to the kindergarten kids. :)

Congratulations to my sweet Paris!  I'm so proud of the young woman you're growing up to be!

Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Dreaming of Summer

I can hardly believe that summer time is upon us!  The kids will be out of school in just a few weeks and we have decided to put together a McNutt Summer Live List.  I'm sure you've seen the Summer Bucket Lists floating around Pinterest - it's our take on that.  I love this idea.  It allowed us to brainstorm as a family and each person was able to throw in something they would like to do.  I'm pretty sure this will become a summer tradition for us.  

MCNUTT SUMMER LIVE LIST

Have a picnic

Make S'mores

Have breakfast outside

Find a big hill and roll down it

Take a family trip

Science experiments

Bake

Walk the trail

Listen to live music

Sparklers

Rainy day Disney movie day

Go to the zoo

Puddle jumping

Go to the beach

Kids cook dinner

Water balloon fight

Paint

Make sushi at home

Have a lemonade stand

Go to the library

Have a fancy tea party

Tie Dye

At-home spa day

Celebrate Dad's birthday, Sophia's birthday, and Paris' birthday

BBQ Party with friends

Visit the Farmers Market

Fry an egg on the sidewalk

Volunteer

Catch fireflies

Celebrate Christmas in July

Go rollerskating

Make flower arrangements for your room

Take Polaroids to make a scrapbook of our summer adventures

Backyard movie night

Donut Date

Send a care package

Mail letters to friends

Go to the movie theater

See a play

Egg toss painting

Go to the Science Center

Of course, we'll also be spending a lot of time at the pool and the park in our neighborhood!  I can't wait for us to dive into this list!! Cheers to a carefree and FUN summer!

Flashback Friday // Breakfast at Brittney's Bridal Shower

My bridal shower was hosted by my mom and my sister, Jenna.  It was beyond what I ever imagined. It was absolutely beautiful and so personalized.  The theme was Breakfast at Brittney's - a take on my all-time favorite movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's.  They organized a mimosa bar, yogurt parfait bar and a candy bar.  If you know me, I am a HUGE fan of bars.  I always make them for my family and friends, so I thought it was sweet of them to do several for me.  :)

We all had such a lovely time and it felt great to be surrounded by women that I love and care about.  My heart was full!  My sister came up with such a fun gift idea.  Because Marvin and I were preparing to move out of state, she was concerned with us transporting all of our gifts across the country.  She had guests come up with date night ideas with gift cards included.  It was exciting to see how creative and thoughtful the ladies were.

I wish I would have gotten a photo of all the ladies together!  I did have a surprise visitor who stopped by briefly, very briefly - too many women in one room, I think.  My groom came bearing gifts for his bride-to-be.  Swoon! :)

He is Risen!

We had a very relaxing and fun Easter Sunday.  The girls woke up early to make sure the Easter Bunny had found us in Charlotte.  :)  The Easter Bunny definitely found us and left lots of colorful eggs filled with candy that I will be tempted with for the next couple of months before I finally throw it all out.  Marvin & I filled the girls baskets with a few treats, Essie nail polish, a Mason Jar tumbler, chalk, bubbles, and the big hit...Hunter boots in fun spring colors!  I'm pretty sure I heard some prayers for rain, so they can wear them.

Bunny booty cookies that the girls and I made on Easter weekend. :)

I made Marvin a manly Easter basket.  I wanted to put his goodies in something that we could reuse.  He's been going to the park lately to workout, so I thought an insulated lunch bag would be perfect for him to take with him.  I found a great one at Target and stuffed it with beef jerky, water bottle, Mios, Sandlot DVD, and of course I had to throw in some of his favorite treats!

In other news, the girls started their first day of school today in Charlotte!  They were nervous and excited.  I'm anxiously awaiting for 3:30pm, so I can pick them up and hear all about their day!  Fingers crossed for smooth transition!

I'm Back!

I'm excited to announce that I have dusted the cobwebs off of Mixed McNutts!  Our life is always busy, but within the last year it was absolutely hectic and chaotic and I was unable to keep up with blogging.  In the time that I wasn't blogging I realized how much I loved and missed it.  Then, I got a kick in the ass from my daughter.  "Mom! When are you going to starting blogging again?! I LOVE your blog." So, I'm on it!  A lot has changed since my last post.  Here's a snapshot to get you caught up:

-Moved from the Philadelphia area to Iowa

-Paris turned 11 (where has time gone?)

-Marvin was picked up by the Miami Dolphins 

-Traveled to Miami a few times

-Saw Marvin score his first NFL touchdown in a preseason game!

-Marvin was then picked up by the Carolina Panthers

-I traveled about every other week to Charlotte (and I HATE flying)

-Paris, Sophia, and I traveled to Charlotte for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years

-Wedding planning

-Marvin came to Iowa for his off season

-Ditched my wedding dress that I found in NYC

-Found a wedding dress that I L-O-V-E in Chicago!

-Bridal Shower

-More wedding planning

-Vegas trip for our Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties

-More headaches wedding planning

-Marvin and I got hitched on 3/15/14! BEST DAY EVER.

-Honeymoon in Cancun

-Moved to Charlotte, NC

The girls and I drove from Iowa to North Carolina last Saturday and it took us about 20 hours.  We had a UHaul trailer hitched on the back of our truck, so we had to stay around 55 MPH.  So frustrating!  My intentions were to stop about halfway and grab a hotel, but I drove straight to Charlotte because well, I'm a beast.  Actually, it's because I planned so poorly.  Somehow I thought I would just find a hotel in Kentucky without booking ahead of time.  Well, the Kentucky Derby kickoff was in full effect, so as you can imagine there wasn't any vacant rooms to be found.  The girls and I were both sick and tired by the time we arrived, but being greeted at home in Charlotte by my husband was well worth it.  We all love our new home and location!  I'm in the process of unpacking, organizing, and finding my way around the neighborhood.  I'm looking forward to new beginnings and experiences!