Time for Change: Behavior Chart {free printable}

With summer quickly approaching, I knew that I needed to do something to help keep my boys in line. They tend to get a bit crazy when home all day with each other, day after day. This always leads to boredom, whining, fighting and my biggest pet peeve - not listening. Ugh. So, I found this behavior chart while scrolling through Instagram one day. Thanks, Lindsay! You can find many similar ideas on Pinterest, of course. This one has worked pretty well so far for us!

The boys start their day on GREEN (ready to listen). If they behave, and make good decisions, they move to BLUE (good choices). If they continue to do well throughout the day, they move to PURPLE (great job!). If they do something exceptional, then they move to PINK (special privilege).

From green, if they start having problems like not listening, fighting with each other, etc, then they move to YELLOW (warning!). If their behavior continues, they move to ORANGE (oh no! stop!), and finally to RED (consequence).

For us, special privilege includes things like using the iPad, extra reading time with Mom or Dad, a special treat while we're out, staying up a little later, etc. We let them choose what they want their privilege to be. Consequences include things like early bedtime, no TV/iPad, time out, etc. Instead of letting them pick their consequence, I pick. I try to have them line up with the behavior they were exhibiting, or something that works best for them (i.e., no iPad time for my oldest is torture).

To keep track of where each child is, I placed their name on a wooden clothespin. The pin moves on the chart throughout the day. I think the chart works because they can visually see where they are, even as young children, based on the faces. It works well for my oldest because he strives for perfection, and always wants to be "the best," so he wants to stay on blue, purple or pink as much as possible.

My oldest's kindergarten teacher uses a similar system at school for her students. It's a card system with green, yellow, orange, and red cards. When they do something they aren't supposed to (like not listening, talking when they are to be quiet, etc), they have to "pull a card." They all start on green and go from there to yellow, orange, then red. Parents have to sign a form if cards are pulled to acknowledge what their child did. Once my son pulled his first card, it was his last. So, I knew a similar system would work well for us at home, too. :) If they are able to stay on green for the entire month, they get to pick a prize from the box. More motivation. :)

I'm hoping the chart continues to work well for us throughout the summer. I may also be adding something like a "consequence jar," full of popsicle sticks with specific consequences on each one (color coded by child). Then they would pick a stick from the jar if they hit red on the chart. This takes the pressure off me to come up with a consequence that might set off another tantrum. They pick it, they do it.

Here is a copy of the chart. It's a 3-page PDF file. The file includes fields that you can fill in for your family name, and your child(ren)'s name(s). Just print on heavier paper, trim around the color part and tape the pieces together. You can hang it anywhere that's easy for the kids to see it! I hope it works for you, too! :)

Noah's Firetruck Birthday Party

Now that I've updated you about Noah's 3rd year, it's time to talk about the party!! When I asked Noah what he wanted for his birthday party theme this year, he told me he wanted firetrucks. Well, firetrucks and Darth Vader, so we settled for firetrucks. ;) So, away I went planning an adorable red, yellow and aqua firetruck-themed party for my little guy. First on the agenda, the invitations. I love including photos of the birthday boy on the invites, so I thought, what better way to do this than to have Noah driving the truck?! :)

I was so happy with how they turned out! I wanted to create a more vintage-inspired design for the truck itself, and I like how this one came together. It had to have a dog, because well, my boys love dogs! Instead of printing on the back of them, I decided to mount them on red card stock. As a plain white invite, I thought they might look nice with a bit more color around them, as well as how sturdy they become with the added layer. I also wanted the water from the hose to stand out more, so I hand-painted the aqua water splashes with aqua (on the lighter color) and clear (on the darker color) acrylic paint on each invite. It gave it a nice texture as well.

After the invitations were mailed, I started brainstorming (aka, browsing Pinterest) ideas for the party. To decorate the house, I bought some red, goldenrod yellow and aqua latex balloons (inflated with helium and hi-float) at the local party supply store. For this party, I also bought a silver "3" and a generic firetruck balloon. I made a custom banner that read "Happy 3rd Birthday Noah" using the same firetruck/color theme.

Here's an example of the banner letters, close-up. I used dark gray yarn to string together the pendants. It worked well and looked great!

For the party favors, I bought plain white paper bags with handles (from Michaels) and added personalized tags with each child's name and picture to them. Inside the bags, I added a firetruck coloring book and red firetruck crayons that I made (I bought this chocolate mold and these red crayons, melted the crayons down, poured them in the mold, and voila, red firetruck crayons!). For a themed "snack" I bought individually wrapped white Lifesavers and packaged those in clear, plastic bags and topped them with favor tags (reading "Thanks for coming! You're a real LIFESAVER!"). To help decorate the room, I set the bags on our bookshelves and tied a balloon to each one, and set a firetruck hat on top of each bag. I personalized these for each child as well with their names, along with personalized fire chief stickers that they could wear. I also set out a jar of the Lifesaver mints for all of the party guests. :)

This year, I made a cake and cupcakes for the party. I didn't want to attempt any elaborate decorating of the cupcakes on the day of the party, so I made cupcake toppers (coordinating with the banner and invite elements) to stick in the simple, white-frosted, vanilla cupcakes that I baked that morning. I purchased these cute white cupcake liners from Michaels. For the cake, I made my favorite vanilla sheet cake recipe in two 8" round pans. I tried a new recipe for an icing that I found here. To decorate the cake, I used Wilton's color flow icing to trace the firetruck to place on top. It wasn't perfect, but it worked. ;) All of the plates, bowls, napkins and utensils were purchased at our local party store.

I found a recipe for a gorgeous golden yellow punch here. I roughly followed it, using 1.5 large (46 oz) cans of pineapple juice, a 2 liter bottle of Sprite, 2 cups of Country Time lemonade mix and 2 cups of cold water. I topped it with some slices of lemon as garnish. The flavor was delicious and the color was perfect! For those who didn't want punch, I also provided bottles of water personalized with labels I made. I bought the cute, 3-gallon drink dispenser at Walmart last summer. I had the aqua straws leftover from his party last year, and added some red ones that I found at Michaels.

For the dinner menu, I chose:

• HOT dogs (100% all-beef hot dogs)
• BBQ pulled pork sandwiches (pulled pork tenderloin with Montgomery Inn BBQ sauce)
• SMOKEHOUSE baked beans
• RAGIN' CAJUN macaroni (macaroni pasta with a Cajun-seasoned cream sauce)
• FIERY fruit (strawberries, oranges, pineapple)
• MATCHSTICK carrots (carrots with ranch dressing)
• FLAMING Jell-o (layers of raspberry, mango and lemon)
• BLAZING cheese dip (jalapeño queso with blue and yellow corn chips)
• SMOKIN' s'more pops (marshmallows coated in chocolate and graham cracker crumbs)

I wanted the food to go with the party theme, which is why I chose what I did. Thanks to my mom, dad, and sister for helping me get all of the food ready, as usual! I also did a small ice cream topping bar to top the homemade vanilla ice cream that my dad makes. Sooooo good!!

Here are some pics of the birthday boy enjoying his day!! :) His firetruck outfit (how lucky I was to find it in coordinating colors, too!) was purchased at Kohl's.

The final item to take care of was the thank you notes. I started with a flat 4" x 6" card, but decided to go with a folded 3.5" x 5" card instead. Plenty of room for a sweet thank you for friends and family!

I wanted to try something new for address labels, so I made a "wrapped label" that puts the return address on the back, and the mailing address on the front. They're cute and fun! :)

Because who doesn't love getting something sweet in the mail instead of bills? ;) It was an adorable, fun party for a little guy who loves firetrucks!!

Happy 3rd Birthday to our tiny man!

All items you see above are available for customization and purchase through my business page, kreations by kristy. You can also find me on Facebook and Etsy.

Ethan's {Star Wars Themed} 5th Birthday Party

Shortly after Christmas, I asked Ethan what theme he wanted for his birthday party this year. He threw out several different ideas, but finally settled on Star Wars. He's watched all six of the movies with his Daddy, and he's very into all of the characters right now. Never having watched this series of movies myself (I know, I know. I'm just not interested!!), I did have to do a little research to prepare for the party this year. ;) Then, I started where I always do, with the invitations.

This year, we decided to have two separate parties to celebrate Ethan's birthday. One would be for his preschool friends, at Wallabies (a local bounce house), and one would be for family, at our house. Something about the possibility of twenty 4- and 5-year-olds running around at our house just wasn't too appealing. ;)

So, I made one invitation that could be easily mailed to family members, and another one for his preschool friends that included a glowstick "lightsaber," since those would be distributed by hand at school. I was so happy with how those turned out and Ethan loved them! All items you see here are available for customization and purchase. Please message me at seeleylanedesign@gmail.com or convo me via my Etsy shop.

Darth Vader is his favorite, so of course he had to be the focus of the design. Next, I wanted to incorporate some purple, as that is currently his favorite color. I tried to give it an outer space feel with the dark, starry sky as well. I always like to include a picture of the birthday boy, too, so I added in one of those as well.

After the invitations were mailed and delivered, it was time to start designing the other elements of the party. I tried to get as much done as early as possible this year, as hubby had a couple out-of-town work trips planned the two weeks before the party. After long days solo with the boys, it's hard to find motivation to tackle party planning after I finally get them all tucked in to bed!

I did some brainstorming and a lot of Pinterest browsing (of course!) and here is what I came up with for party decorations and food.

To decorate the house, I bought some balloons at the local party supply store. They had a couple different Star Wars balloons, then I bought some plain black and colored ones to coordinate with those. I also made a custom banner that read "Happy 5th Birthday Ethan!" using one of the Darth pictures and colors from the invites. Below is a digital example of the flags. After printing them out, I pasted them onto a goldenrod-colored scrapbook paper, then trimmed them. I strung the flags all together with black yarn.

I also made tags to label the food items that we served at the party. I found lots of ideas on Pinterest for Star Wars themed food items, then also made some of my own up. Here's what we feasted on...

Hamburgers (Han burgers) and hot dogs (Hutt dogs), on buns (Princess Leia, to be exact), make for easy party food. I always like to serve fruit, as the boys love it, so fruit kabobs (Obi-wan kabob-ies) were perfect! Pasta salad (Bow-ba Fett) made with bowtie pasta and Chewbacca's chips and dip were also tasty sides. Carrots (C-3PO) with ranch (R2-D2) dip, Carbonite jell-o and Ewok food rounded out the main course items. We served Echo Base ice cream (homemade, yum!!) for dessert, with the cake. To drink, I had planned Yoda Soda and Vader Ade, but with a last-minute reduced guest list, I decided to nix the latter. Food tents available for purchase here in my Etsy shop. <---- convo="" etsy="" i="" me="" order.="" please="" to="" via="">

I made favor bags for his preschool friends to take home with them. Ethan helped me make the actual treat bags. I purchased plain black paper sacks from Michael's, then we splatter painted the bags with white paint and a toothbrush! Fun! This was a trick I learned in middle school, for creating what looks like a starry outer space! Perfect! I printed each child's name (in the Star Wars font, of course) on a label to put on the front. For inside the bag, I kept with the glowstick light saber theme (what kid doesn't love glow sticks? I've learned that my boys become quite agreeable if I give them one to play with! Haha!), and created a cute little card thanking his friends for coming to the party. I also pasted these onto the goldenrod scrapbook paper, too. I like to include fun treats for the kids to eat, too, so I packaged up little bags of the Ewok food (Goldfish crackers, pretzel sticks, and dried cranberries), too. I found the clear plastic, round treat bags at Michael's, and created the tags to print. I also included a Star Wars light saber sucker that actually lit up when you push a button (I got a fantastic deal on those at Toys 'R Us), some Star Wars fruit snacks (our local grocery's brand, Food Club, offers these), and a Star Wars character sticker.

Then there was the cake I made for the party at our house, and cupcakes for the party with his friends. Ethan requested a super star destroyer for his cake this year, so I googled some images and came up with one that looked like this. I bought some color flow icing to use, but this icing unfortunately ended up bleeding while it was hardening, and looked awful. So, I ended up free-handing the design onto the cake instead, and it turned out ok. Ethan liked it, so that was really all that mattered! :) I tried to make black icing (it turned out dark gray instead) for the outer space with silver sugar sprinkles for stars. I found the cute Darth Vader light saber candle at our local party store.

I made my favorite vanilla sheet cake and chocolate Texas sheet cake recipes for the cupcakes for the party at Wallabies. I used silver cupcake liners, and the same (almost) black icing with sugar sprinkles on the cupcakes themselves. Then, I created cupcake toppers to decorate them. I made "Happy Birthday," "5," "Ethan," and character ones. These were also pasted onto the goldenrod scrapbook paper with the 4" sticks glued between those pieces. Another fun treat for the party - light saber napkins! These each held a fork and spoon as well. Here is an awesome tutorial by the creator of this fun idea. I used her printable for the handles and printed them on a heavy card stock. They worked, and looked, great!

Finally, I created a coordinating thank you note to thank friends and family for the gifts they gave him. He's not quite up to writing the entire note himself yet, but at least he willingly signed them all for me. :)

And here are some pics of the birthday boy!! He had a fantastic time at the Wallabies party with his best buds and enjoyed all of the fun Star Wars themed items at the party at our house. I would say that both parties were a success! :)

Happy 5th Birthday to our big boy!

Happy Valentine's Day {free printable}

Valentine, you make my heart glow! (singing in head, "Wild thing, you make my heart sing!") Hehe!

Isn't this adorable?!? I had discovered this super cute idea for valentines via Pinterest (of course!), on this blog. So, when I found glow sticks in the Target dollar spot (15 for $1!!), I decided this would be the perfect, fun valentine for the boys this year! With a total of 26 classmates between the two of them (I guess this number probably won't be getting any lower though!), and after spending a good chunk of change on Christmas treats for their preschool friends, it was nice to save some money with these. :)

So, I designed the tags, printed them on 120# cover, cut them out, punched holes in the sides, and threaded the glow sticks in! Quick and easy!

Now, they are all ready for the boys' Valentine's Day parties at school tomorrow...unless the snow cancels on us again! :/ The blog that inspired these valentines offers a printable, but it would need to be printed on colored paper. Since I wanted to be able to print on white cover, I made a colored printable. If you're still in need of some cute valentines for your kiddos, feel free to click the print button below to print this 8.5"x11" page! :) You will need to view the PDF from a desktop or laptop computer. It will not load on a mobile device. I have this PDF available in my Etsy shop, with editable PDF fields for typing your child's name in before printing! :)

So, that's all I've got for you this year. Nothing super exciting, like three years ago around Valentine's Day, when we announced that we would be having a second little boy...

Or like last year, when we announced that we were expecting our third baby!

But, I will leave you with all of this cuteness! ;)

Happy Valentine's Day 2014!

Merry Christmas 2013!

Merry Christmas to you and yours, from the Seeley family!

Here is our update for the year. :)

We did manage to get a visit in with Santa again this year at the mall. The boys were definitely very into that this year and eager to ask him for what they wanted! Haha!

When did they get so big?!?

The boys had their Christmas program at preschool last week. Too stinkin' sweet. Ethan was a donkey in the nativity scene. He may have looked more like a dog, but that's ok. ;)

Ethan, the donkey :)

The first day, Ethan hid in the back, so we didn't get the best pics of him. And though Noah did manage to stand up there in front of everyone (without hugging tightly to his teacher's leg! LOL!), he kept turned to the side the entire time, so this was the best shot we got of him, before he turned. Haha!

With all of their buddies at the preschool program!

They thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas cookies after the program, which made it all worth it for them! Haha!

Ethan participated in both days of the program, since he goes to school every day, so the next day, he did a better job staying closer to the front so that we could see him. We watched as he sang all of the words and did all of the hand motions, too! :) What a difference a year makes!! I love the last pic, where they are singing, "Let's all do a little jumping, let's all do a little jumping, let's all do a little jumping, and spread Christmas cheer!"

He had no problems performing on stage this year! :)

I decided to make Christmas gifts for their preschool friends again this year. I was inspired by this pin to create my own little tags to add to the treat bags, stuffed with Hershey's kisses and a tube of Lipsmacker.

Christmas treat bag tags

The treat bags were a pretty quick, easy thing to make, which is good, since I had 32 of them to do!! Yikes! I love plays on words, so this one definitely appealed to me. :)

I wanted to make something cute for their teachers, too, but ran out of time trying to find the supplies that I needed. So, I settled with Target gift cards. When I saw the red envelopes they gave me to put them in, I was inspired to create little Santa belts out of them. This was super easy, but made for a super cute gift! I completed them with little chalkboard tags that I found in the dollar section at Target. Unfortunately, chalk didn't work well on them (go figure), but I had a silver metallic Permanent marker that worked perfectly! I love the result!

Santa belt gift cards with tags

I think that starting a bit earlier than the day before handing them out might be a good idea next year! Haha!

We had lots of fun again this year with Rusty, our elf. You can check out all of his antics on this page, if you'd like! He left good reports for the boys, and they were placed on the "nice" list. :)

They made the nice list for good behavior, but he gave them some things to work on, too. ;)

Santa brought them the toys they haven't stopped talking about this past month...a "double helicopter" for Ethan, and a firetruck for Noah! Amos couldn't ask for a Johnny jump-up, but he loves trying to jump while standing on us, so I figured it'd be a hit. ;) Daisy has enjoyed her Cincinnati football rope toy, so I think we did ok with that one, too.

Christmas morning, 2013

I hope that you have had a wonderful holiday season and are enjoying it with your loved ones today. We had a fantastic month and can't wait for what the New Year brings!

the seeley family, christmas 2013