Zach's Rodeo/ Sleep Over Birthday Party

It's hard to believe that my baby boy is 10 years old!  But it's true.  Zach's brithday was on the 3rd of January, but I waited until now to have his birthday party.  One of Zach's best friend's birthday is in the first week of February so his mother and I planned a party for the two boys together. . . . a spend the night/rodeo birthday party for 12 boys.  It conveniently worked out that on the night of the party there was also a rodeo in a neighboring town and on that Friday night . . . kids under 12 got in free! 

Two words can describe the party . . . LOUD and CHAOS!   Ha!

Janice (the other mother) and I picked the boys up at school at 3 o'clock along with my friend Myra who helped carry boys out to my house.

The boys played outside on the hay bales while we got the pizza and snacks ready.

Janice picked up some Pizza Hut pizzas for the boys . . . and they were starving!

Dave and I cleaned up the garage for the party.  My parents had just recently pulled up the carpet in their living room to replace it with hard wood floors.  I borrowed the carpet and foam and laid it out on the floor of the garage.  Myra brought a radiant heater over to keep the garage warm.  Dave hooked up a TV with a DVD player that also plays Netflix . . . and he hooked up another TV with the Wii player for the boys.

They all got their pizza and snacks and settled in to watch something on Netflix.

Some of the boys took advantage of the carpet and started wrestling with Dave acting as referee.

We opened presents and the boys got lots of neat presents.

And then it was time to go to the rodeo . . . but before we left I took a picture of the boys on the haybales . . .  All the boys except for Shane . . .

The rodeo was so much fun!  I haven't been to a rodeo in a long time.  It's probably been 20 years since the last time I've been to a rodeo.  I really enjoyed it. 

When we got to the rodeo, we ran into Shane's best friend, Colt, and his momma and sister.  Shane was in heaven.  He and Colt are very best friends since birth.  They played and played together.

They both loved using my camera to take pictures.  Here is one that Colt took of me and Shane.  Shane doesn't like the flash.  Lol!

At the beginning of the rodeo, Alex started feeling bad. 

I didn't realize how LOUD the rodeo is and my sweet Alex has sensitive ears.  Even with earplugs, the loudness of the speakers and music hurt his ears and he started feeling sick . . . so Dave took him out to the van and let him play on the ipad.  I missed Dave being at the rodeo with me, but Alex needed him more!

Shane decided part way through the rodeo that he wanted to text his girlfriend, Mary Beth so I let him use my phone.

I wish you could see the mess he sent her!  Luckily her mother has received texts from Shane before so she knew what was going on.

Shane started to get hungry and the line to the concession stand was soooo long so I texted Dave and he walked back to the arena to get Shane.  He took Shane and Alex to get something to eat while we stayed at the rodeo.  I'm so glad he took off work and came with us!

Once Shane was gone, I began to really enjoy the rodeo.  I moved up by Zach and his friends and was able to watch every event and every cowboy/girl do their thing.

Barrell racing . . .

Bull riding . . .

I don't remember the rodeo being such a dangerous sport!  Several cowboys were injured. 

But then it was over and it was late so we headed home.

I made some hardy bedtime snacks for the boys . . . cheesy - sausage - rotel dip with chips, bar-b-que little smokies, left-over pizza, and finally  . . . birthday cake!

I baked the cake and made the icing, but my sweet friend, Myra came to the rescue and decorated it for me!  I love it!  It was a LOT of cake though. . . . a LOT of cake!  Ha!

I also made cupcakes and used my cupcake stands again.  I made cupcake toppers to match the plates, napkins, and invitations.

I also had a box of the cowboy boot mugs left over from Shane's Cowboy Birthday party so I filled them with beef jerky, beef sticks, fruit roll ups, and assorted mini chocolate candy bars.  The boys loved the beef jerky!

Please overlook the magic marker writing on the wall.  Shane got a magic marker and made some "pretty" pictures on the wall of the garage and they were waterproof!  :/

Some of the cupcakes didn't have icing because Zach doesn't like icing!  Weird child of mine!  Ha!

Luckily I had lots of cowboy hats and bandanas left over from Shane's birthday party to use for decorations.  The garage was really cute, but I didn't get a picture of that.  :D

I did get a picture of the boys' cowboy hats hanging on the barb wire fence.  I thought it looked cool.

Happy Birthday Zach & Matthew from . . .

                            the Ferrell boys and me!

I'm linking up to these parties:

Makeover Monday - Grout Refresh

The following post represents my opinion on the products used in the post.  I haven't been paid for my opinion and I'm not endorsing any product either.  This just represents my opinion from using the product.

I know today is really Wednesday, but I haven't had time to blog about what I did in the breakfast area this past weekend . . . so I'm blogging about it a little late.  :) 

Last week I cleaned the grout between the porcelain tiles in my breakfast area.  Although the Oxiclean did a great job cleaning the grout, I wasn't too happy with the color.

It's not easy to change the color of the grout once it's been applied.  I thought I could just add a layer of grout in a different color over the older grout.  Can't do that.  Apparently the new grout won't stick to the older cured grout.  One article I read suggested that I use an electric tool and break up or dig the grout up between the tiles and then reapply the new grout in the color I wanted.  Uh no thanks!  :D

In the course of "googling" for a solution to my problem, I came across a product called "Grout Refresh".  (Sorry not a great picture) 

This product is supposed to change the color of your grout and seal it too.  I decided to give it a try.  You can get it at Lowes in the flooring/tile section.  It comes in different colors . . . I picked "biscuit".

The first step is to clean the area.  I had already cleaned the grout with the oxiclean.  See Makeover Monday - Grout Cleaning.

I moved on to step 2 which is to apply the grout refresh to the grout using an old toothbrush.  I didn't use an old toothbrush.  I used one of those little foam paint brushes.

It's okay if you get some on the tile because it comes off the tile with water.

You let the grout refresh sit on the grout for 30 to 60 minutes.  I let mine sit for 60 minutes or more.
 

After letting it sit for the 60 minutes, you mist the area with water in a spray bottle and let it sit for 5 minutes.

After the 5 minutes is up, you then use a wet cloth to wipe (the bottle says scrub) the grout refresh up.  It comes up pretty easily, however, it does make a mess of your wet cloth.   I had to rinse mine out several times and some of the grout refresh will just peel up . . . it doesn't dissolve so it falls to the bottom of the water bucket . . . so you can't just pour it down the sink . . . I guess you could, but I didn't.  I poured the bucket of water outside which isn't probably environmentally safe. . . .  I just found an obscure spot away from the house.

I actually applied the grout refresh twice in the same area on separate days.  I wanted the first coat to cure a little before putting on a second coat.   I'm weird that way.  :) 
Here is the floor after the first coat:

You can see a difference (in the bottom of the picture) in the grout before I used the grout refresh and after. 

Once I cleaned up the second coat and everything had dried, my breakfast floor looked like this:

Dave and I are very pleased with the end result.  It has really brightened up the floor and the breakfast area.  It looks so clean.  :)

Before Grout Refresh:

Same area after 1st coat of Grout Refresh:

And Second coat of Grout Refresh:

The Grout Refresh is supposed to seal the grout, but I may use a grout sealer spray over it anyway.  I haven't decided about that.

Anyway, I'm slowly moving along in the breakfast area and checking off my to do list for that area of the house.  Next week I'm supposed to redo the table . . .

That's gonna be a pretty big job for . . .

                           the Ferrell boys and me! 

I'm linking up to these parties:

 

Valentine Fun at Ferrell Farm

Y'all know how much I love Valentine's Day . . . I made a a big deal out of it last year for the boys with a Valentine Kick-off Breakfast . . . .

 and a fun Countdown to Valentine's Day with different activities for the boys every day . . .

But waking up at 5 o'clock to make the boys breakfast on a school/work day  -- so not fun!  And thinking of 14 activities to do every day with the boys and actually doing the activities every day -- so not easy!  Ha!

This Valentine's holiday I wanted to do something special.  I also wanted to countdown to the special day in a special way for the boys.  Last year I saw a cute Valentine mailbox idea at The Anderson Crew  . . .

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So I've been on the look-out for some mini metal mailboxes for my boys.  And I finally found them at Walmart in the Valentine section.   There were lots of different mailboxes to choose from, but I decided my boys would love the character mailboxes more than frilly Valentine decorated mailboxes . . .

The Ferrell boys are Boys -- thru-and-thru -- afterall!  I stopped by the Dollar Tree and picked up some glass candlesticks.  I already had the E6000 glue.

I followed the directions on the glue and stuck each mailbox to the top of the candlestick.  For Shane the Toy Story mailbox . . .

For Alex . . . the Avengers mailbox . . .

For Zach . . . a Star Wars mailbox . . .

I have put together treats and toys for the boys for each day leading up to Valentine's Day.  I found some really cute FREE printables to use from a couple of the blogs I follow.
Here are the links for the tags I'm using.

We Love Being Moms blog has a bunch of really cute tags you can copy and print for your own personal Valentine use.

Candy Tag BlogPost Link

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14 Days of Valentines for Kids BlogPost Link

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14 Days of Valentines for your Spouse BlogPost Link

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I picked some out of each of these selections for the boys.  I also used some tags from Mommy By Day Crafter By Night blog.

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I attached a candy treat to the appropriate tag . . .

and surprised the boys on February 1st and each day since with a Valentine treat in their mailbox.

This was a very easy Valentine happy to do for the boys and the boys, including Dave, LOVE it!  It's the first thing the boys do in the morning . . . run to see if the red flag is up on their mailbox!  That's the signal that something has been added to their special mailbox!  It's been fun for me too.

Anyways . . . that's how we are doing our Countdown to Valentine's Day here at the Ferrell Farm with . . .

                            the Ferrell boys and me!

I'm linking up to these parties: