Friday Fun Facts 2/24/17

1) If Neela and Olive didn't look like twins already, they recently insisted on getting the exact same hair cut.

These two...

2) Earlier this week Titus wanted to have a "private talk" with just me. So we went in my room and shut the door. This is the conversation that followed...

Titus - "Dad. Sometimes I have a hard time at school."

Seth - "Oh no, why buddy?

Titus - "Well... Too many girls have crushes on me, and I don't even know what to do because I only like one girl not all of them."

Seth *laughing* - "I'm sure it's because you are so nice and so handsome."

Titus *deeply sighing and looking down* - "I don't like when I'm not nice. And it's hard not to be handsome."

He's just too much of a catch ;)

3) Chex Mix is officially Stevie's favorite snack in the world. However, she normally just picks around everything else to eat the little brown rye chips. Well last night in the grocery store she discovered they sell bags full of just the rye chips. 

In her own words - "This is want to eat everyday until I die."

4) For Christmas, Neela told me she was going to find me a wife. She literally asks every. single. woman. we encounter if they want to "marry her dad". To her surprise a few strangers have jokingly said yes, before I apologize profusely and awkwardly shuffle my little crew away. However lately she pointed out that the number of "yes's" have dropped dramatically. Her reasoning behind this is - "Dad. You are getting fat. Being fat is only good for Santa Claus and Sumo Wrestlers. You need to move to China or the North Pole, or you need to come with me to P.E. at my school."

5) This picture of Titus "acting like a fish" at a friend's birthday party will never not be funny.

6) This is what I find in my camera roll after the kids run up and tell me "Dad. We need your phone. It's an emergency."

Yup. You know the Megow kids are 4 of the probably 79 people worldwide that still play Pokemon Go.

7) After much help and suggestions with my proposed Valentine's Day pick up lines on my Blog Instagram, I finally settled on the winner. 

That wrapping paper looks tastier than the candy that was inside ;)

8) On the way home today, my youngest and I had this conversation in the car- 

Olive - "Daddy for dinner I want lots of bacon, macaroni and cheese, a banana, muffins with sprinkles, some turkey, and a glass of chocolate milk."

Seth - "Olive, I think that's too much food and it's not healthy."

Olive - "Well, girls like to eat unhealthy food. And we like to eat a lot of it."'

I'm pretty sure #tacotuesday will be the first hashtag Olive ever types. :D 

9) Stevie is our resident photographer. Her favorite hobby is to continue taking pictures once she has the initial shot. Everytime I get my phone back from her, this is what my camera roll looks like. :D hahaha

10) Back again to the "private talk" Titus and I had. This was the second half of the conversation -

Titus - "Dad, I'm excited about growing up."

Seth - "That's good. Why are you excited?"

Titus - "Because when I grow up, I'm going to be a daddy. I think that will be the funnest job ever."

Seth - "It is! I'm so excited that you want to be a daddy just like me."

Titus - "Well... not just like you. I only want two kids, because having four kids is crazy."

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing,

Seth

Megow DYI - Punch Prize Party Board

So Olive's 5th birthday was last Saturday. Her party I think had my favorite activity that we've ever done for a Megow party, so I wanted to share :) I got the idea a few months ago at work. I was just sitting at my desk working and I started to think back to when I was a kid. Back then, if you didn't feel good, you got to stay home and watch Price is Right. Then I started thinking about Price is Right and my favorite game. It was called "Punch A Bunch". Basically, the player got to punch a few little mystery containers and win whatever was inside.

The best Price is Right game ever!!!

Then suddenly I thought that would be the neatest birthday party game. Pinatas and other party games had become stale, so this would be perfect :D

I looked online for ideas and found a few that were cool, but nothing that allowed me what I envisioned in my head. Most of the one's online required way too much work and tools (hot glue guns, elmer's glue, staples, double sided tape, etc.). Really they were just too "cutesy" and not really as fun/functional as I had hoped. Most of these little pintrest tutorials seemed like they would take forever and only result in about 10-15 prize punches. I wanted kids at the party to have multiple attempts to punch for a prize. So I took a few different elements I saw online and some of my own ideas and mapped out a plan. Then I started it about 9pm the night before. (So yes, this is all very doable by one person the night before the party. Just be prepared to stay up a little bit. hahaha)

I don't really like to spend a ton of money of things if I can help it. I'm really big on maximizing a budget. It not only saves me money, but makes things a bit more of a challenge and gets my thinking outside the box. So just remember that when reading this.


So let's get started on this. hahaha (finally right.. :D )

1) Gather Supplies:
- Three of those tri-fold scientific poster boards we used in middle school

- Solo cups

- Prizes/candy to go in each cup

- Tissue Paper

- Little Rubber bands

- Razor Knife

- Duct Tape

- One cup slightly smaller than the Solo Cups

- Gift bags to hold the kids' prizes

2) Remember I wanted to have a TON of punch prize holes for the kids, so first thing I did was to map out where I wanted all of my holes to go. I took one of the poster boards and made a little template of how I wanted the cups to organized. 

18 per board x 3 boards = 54 punch prizes :D

3) So once I figured out how I wanted them to look, I started making my outlines to cut. This is when I used the smaller cup. I just found one where the lid was slighter smaller than the lids of the Solo cups. Basically, I wanted the hole that I was going to be cutting out to be slighter smaller than the rim of the solo cup.

4) Once I found the cup, I started tracing outlines of the small cup in the pattern that I laid out before. 

5) Then I cut those traces out with my razor knife. 

Helpful hint: 

So to save time on cutting the other two boards. 

I just overlaid my completed first one and used it as a template for cutting the holes.

That was the most time consuming part. 

Honestly, I probably didn't have to do that many holes, but I'm glad I did. 

Every kid got to punch a prize quite a few times,

 and still wanted to do it again after they had all been punched.

6) Once all of my holes were cut. I just duct taped all of the poster boards together to make one big board.

7) Now the fun part. Filling the cups with prizes and candy. So I set out 54 solo cups (since I had that many holes) and started to fill them up. I did half of the cups with candy and the other half prizes. For the candy, I went and bought the 70% off valentine's day candy. So in total that cost me like $3 for all of it. For the prizes, I went to the dollar store to buy a few cheap packs of party prizes (slinkys, bouncy balls, stickers, etc) but I also filled some with weird stuff (like dog treats, ramen noodles, an unused bandaid, etc.). So I filled up all of the cups and then sealed the top of them with a piece of tissue paper and a small rubber band. 

This is what they looked like. 

8) For the last step, I stuck the cups through the front side of the board. So when kids punched them they would stay put (for the most part, hahaha)

8) *Optional*  I really could have been done. My plan was to just put the cups in, put some stickers on the fronts of the board, and be done. However, the plain white poster board fronts seemed so boring, so I scoured the house and found a bunch of random paints. So I Jackson Pollocked the boards and let it dry over night. The next morning I was pretty pleased with the results 

9) *Optional* Then after I put all of the cups in, I thought it would be better if it were lifted off of the floor a little bit, so I mounted it on wood blocks and covered them with left over tissue paper. Then right before the kids lined up to start, I passed out little gift bags I found just sitting in my pantry from I think Neela's 3rd birthday party. hahaha

So I was kinda nervous to see how the kids at the party would react. I've found that sometimes if I put alot of planning into something and am REALLY pumped about it, it doesn't mean they will be... hahahaha.  But in the end, they all really enjoyed it. 

Overall, it was a super fun, simple party. Also, to make the party even more fun, my mom made something called a "pinata cake". Which was super cool. Instead of trying to explain it, I'll just show you the video of what it was. Olive loved it. :)

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing,

Seth 

Q & A with Olive - "Being Five Years Old"

What was your favorite part of being four years old?
Olive- “Titus’s birthday party. I ate 3 pieces of cake, drank sprite 2 times, and ate goldfish. That was my favorite day when I was four because I got the most food.”


What was the worst part about being four?
Olive- “When we went hiking in the mountains. I hate hiking. I hate nature and waterfalls. Stevie, Neela, and Titus like those things, but I don’t. I only like eating snacks all the time and being inside.”

 

What will you be good at when you turn 5?
Olive- "Helping Titus find sharks."

What are you the most excited about turning 5 years old?
Olive- “When people give me money. And pineapples.”

You keep talking about getting a “big girl haircut” lately. What do you want it to look like?

Olive- “I want to have a cow head.”


What does a cow head haircut look like?
Olive- “Smooth and spotty.”


What are three goals you have when you are a “big girl”?
Olive- “Get so much power. Carrying three cups. Getting my belly big. And help daddy wash dishes”

If you got $100 for your birthday, what would you buy?
Olive- “Paw Patrol Toys, A Hatchimal, Chubby Puppies, 2 Troll Bags, A Real Life Princess Necklace, and a Pixie Stick”


What’s something you can do when you turn 5, that you couldn’t do when you were four?
Olive- “Whisper very quietly, be around real lava, and draw a cat... not a dead cat, an alive cat.”

How much bigger will you be when you are a “big kid”?
Olive- “I will be very ‘scrong’. My muscles will be so big tomorrow. I will have the biggest muscles in my class except for Baker. He is still the ‘scrongest’.


Wow, I forgot that you will be super strong when you turn 5. What will you be able to do when you are that strong?
Olive- “I can pour my own Kool-Aid all by myself… but you can still help me a little. But only like nine times. I will be very scrong when I am 5.”


If your friend is turning 4 years old, what would you tell her to help her be really good at being 4 years old?
Olive- “When daddy says to clean your room, always try ‘weally weally’ hard to make your bed. Sometimes you can’t do it. But when you are a big kid you can do it… and brush your teeth or your breath will smell like a pineapple fart."


Be Blessed and Be a Blessing &
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY TO OLLIE!!

-Seth