Macklin's 5th Birthday Party

We were able to celebrate Macklin's birthday on Saturday due to the upcoming baby! We just moved all of our April 3rd celebrations to Feb 28th...nothing like an early birthday right? Anyway, Macklin requested a Planes: Fire and Rescue movie party and playdate, so I ran with it! It was a great day with a fun group of little boys! 

The Set Up

All of the printables came from a great Etsy shop called XochitlMontana. Daniel helped with the printing and Justin's TAs (high school students that serve him as a teacher assistant for a period) cut it all out. Seemed so easy without those steps. I decided to go with a fun little die-cast toy for each boy instead of a bag fun of little goodies. They loved having a toy to play with during the movie, in addition to Macklin's collection. The printable set came with candy bar wrappers and popcorn boxes, so you know we used those too! 

The Cake 

I am normally a cupcake kinda momma - fast, easy, and predictable. But for this year, Macklin requested that we put the Planes smokejumpers ontop of a cake. It gave me a reason to try fondant, as I had been curious about how that process works. I bought the Wilton packages from the store and gave it a try. Four hours later and wee into the morning hours, this is what I came up with! I am happy with the result, but not sure that I need to attempt this again. I kinda feel like I could do it all with icing (the side flames I mean) and that would have taken a lot less time. :) I dyed the fondant myself and that was fairly easy. It was hard to estimate the amount needed at times though. I went with an easy top of graham cracker crumbs, fondant rocks, and a blue icing river. Add smokejumpers and the cake was complete! The top Planes logo was a long shot. Now I know that fondant cannot be dried out in the fridge and be expected to stay on sticks for a period of time. You can see the fail in the little pic below (in the background). No worries though. Macklin liked the cake and that is all that mattered! Serious kudos to the pro and amateur cake makers out there! 

 

 The Party 

The boys had a blast. So precious to listen to 8 little voices be excited about a movie together. Macklin loved being sung to and we even opened presents at the party (a debatable activity in my mind for a five year old). The boys enjoyed watching him open the gifts, but it did get a little hectic quick! 

The Guests 

Precious little crew we have here with their new Fire & Rescue toys!
Thanks so much for celebrating with Macklin! He felt very loved! 

Bedroom Improvement

The nesting phase is in full force around the Brandt home. I had to try something else with the kids room and I think I found my solution! I moved the dresser to the closet! Now I won't have to stain it and it is out of the room :) Double win. I think it feel much more open, although the closet is a bit crammed. I am still get to all the clothes, I just have to know what is in there to begin with. Now...onto wall decor! 

Macy thinks she found the best new hiding spot too! Can you see her?

Triple Bunk Beds

Updates from August 2020 

Update: We have since taken the fan out of the room. Thanks for the concern. Just didn't have the new light when we took these pics. 

The Triple Bunk Completed Project

Over Thanksgiving break, my incredible husband and our good friend Daniel completed my triple bunk vision. In just over a week, they produced this awesome new bed for our two kids 

(and one to come!). 

We used the plans from The Handmade Dress link originally posted here and the plans for the link have been removed - sorry about that. 

The plans were very helpful to get us started and then we changed a few things to fit our needs and space. We did all of the construction in the room and then painted the whole thing afterwards (which was not as bad as I had imagined). 

Changes we made from the plans:

-We made our railings out of 1x4s. 

-We made our ladders a little differently (Did not make a solid vertical piece and then insert the steps. We put the steps all the way across and rested on the vertical pieces as the vertical pieces were cut to fit between steps.)

-We routed all of the boards for a nice smooth finish (not sure if that was in the plans or not, just a mommy request). 

Details:

-We painted the plywood frame bases to match the walls. Provided some good contrast for underneath. 

-We painted the wall supports to match the walls, as done by The Handmade Dress. 

-We cut out the baseboards on both sides of the room to accommodate the bed going all the way to the walls. 

-We made a sweet little vent adaptation so that our floor vent would not be covered. (Not shown in pics but I should post one). 

-We pre-drilled everything to avoid splits. 

-We filled the holes with wood putty and sanded it all down. I would not recommend wood putty if you are planning to stain it (original idea) as it looked "dirty" after a test stain. 

-We jammed the drop cloth under the structure in order to paint the edges well. Very helpful. 

-We used floor paint to paint it white, as recommended by the sweet older employee at Lowes. I will let you know how that goes in about five years....if it is more durable or not. 

UPDATE - The white floor paint worked well. It is easy to wipe down. I have repainted the side panels once in the last couple of years. 

Construction Pictures

 

The kids already loving it! 

You can see the plywood base in this one. 

Final Project Pics

Bedding is from Land of Nod

Update: The beds are holding up so well! 2020 and I have three big kids in them! 

No durability problems at all! And look fun with some Christmas bedding from last winter. Bedding from Target's Grinch line. 

Kids Room Transformation

Here is how our nursery looks originally and I loved every bit of it.  

The kids room as it stood a few weeks ago as we grew into the space with two kids...

Green walls with black furniture. 

Twin bed and a toddler bed. 

Changing table and a dresser. 

(disregard the wet spot...it was just a water cup that spilled)

Their new room!!!!

Light gray paint with white furniture.
Triple bunks complete.
New bedding from Land of Nod.
One natural wood dresser in place (not pictured) and more furniture TBD.
Wall hangings TBD as well. 

I am so proud of my hard-working hubby for taking his Thanksgiving break to work on our kids room. They love the triple bunks (as long as they aren't getting hurt on them) and I am anxious to get the rest of the room figured out and get rid of the "sterile" look. We do have room for a crib too (in it's old location) when the time comes next spring. All other details in the works, but the kids can sleep and play as they wish! 

Thankful Tree Tags

While there are still stories to share from the past couple of weeks, I wanted to show off our final list of Thankful Tree tags for 2013. Last year (below) was a bit more "mommy-guided." This year, I just let Macklin decide each day! If he talked to someone of saw a picture of a friend, they probably made the list. I will note that two forms of H2O made the tree before mommy ;) I think we will continue this tradition as it is a great intentional way to talk about thankfulness. 

Murphy Bed

This is going to pay out big when we have a 2nd baby! 

Justin did such a nice job putting it all back together! 

Putting Away Christmas

Only 2.5 weeks after coming back home, we have Christmas put away! We were so blessed from our friends and families that we had to do a little cleaning to make room for things! You can tell from the above pictures that we brought a lot of things back (and no, we didn't get a lot of eggs for Christmas, just good boxes)! On the way there, Baxter totally had a spacious back of truck, promise! 

It was hard to put things away because every time that I tried to sort, de-clutter, and put away, Macklin would always want to play with it all! 

 

New bath paint! 

The BeardHead hat that Uncle Kevin got for Macklin fits Macy pretty good! 

New BabyLegs 

Macy's New House 

Macy's New Wardrobe! Lots of animal prints! 

Check out the new play room! We are changing the "guest room" into more of a play room. I have really enjoyed the new status of this room. It is now bed free (soon to be changing again though). There is so much floor space to play in now and all of the toys have a home! I was so excited to get this done! 

I ended my Christmas organizing with a high five from my sweet husband. 

Gypsum ends their Christmas celebration by burning everyone's trees in a HUGE bonfire! This picture was from just behind the Stop N Save. It was a fun 12th Night festivity that we have been missing out on the past 5 years in Gypsum. Macklin thought it was cool to watch the firemen work!