Living Room - Post Nesting

After all my talk about the living room while we were waiting on baby #4, the little squirt showed up early and I never got around to sharing all the updates we actually made! Turns out babies have no respect for my blogging time. None at all. Well, never fear, because today I'll show you just where we ended up (you can see full pics of where we started in this post).

Let's just go down the list:

DIY Pinata - Our Birthday Tradition

If you read our post last week about how we do birthdays, you know that we love a good pinata in this house. And by that I mean a free, amazing, whatever they come up with pinata. So today I just wanted to give you a basic idea of how we make them, so you can go forth and make whatever your kids dream up.

Did you guys do paper mache growing up? Because that's all this is! All you need are balloons (or thin cardboard from a cereal box if you need square shapes), newspaper, flour, and water. Plus any paints and decorations you want.

Start by making your pinata form with balloons or cereal boxes. Don't use anything thicker than that or you won't be able to break the pinata when you are finished! Just do your best to make the basic shape of your item. Here are some examples:

• Death Star - one large punching balloon (easy!)
• Ninja - two regular balloons taped together with one blown up slightly less for the head (construction paper arms and legs added at the end)
• Long Neck Dino - two regular balloons taped side by side for a long body, a small balloon for the head, and a paper towel roll for the neck (we added construction paper legs when it was done)

Tape a loop of string to the form that you can use for hanging it when you are done. If you can loop it all the way around to the bottom that will give you the best hold.

3 Tips for a Great Kids Birthday

I love birthdays. Always have, always will. It's a good thing since we're getting to have a quite a few birthdays around here. In fact we just finished prepping for another one, so I thought this would be the perfect time to share how we do birthdays at More Like Home!

Over the last few years I've found there are really three keys to  making an amazing birthday that we all enjoy but all of it really boils down to this - it's completely un-pinterest-worthy. Because we don't do the pinterest big three: 1. elaborate decorations 2. themed party favors 3. a big party *gasp*  But we do our very best to make it a super special day for the birthday boy. And we do have lots of fun, lots of memories, and very few regrets. So here are the More Like Home top three birthday planning tips:

Sweet & Simple Play Kitchen Plans

Kids love toys. And moms love beautiful toys. So this post is for all the parents out there just as much as it's for the kids! Today we're sharing plans for this sweet and simple little play kitchen. 

Any parent knows how easily toys can overrun a home. Part of that comes from the number of toys (which is why we do a toy purge several times a year to help keep the clutter down), but sometimes we overlook how much the style of toys impacts our home. We know toys will be left out during the day. No doubt about that. But when those toys are easy on the eyes, they feel more like part of the decor and less like a mess. In fact, some toys are so pretty we leave them out full time! We have a set of wooden dump trucks from a yard sale that live on the window seat in our living room. They get played with every.single.day. because they are right there in front of the boys, and I don't mind seeing them out one bit!

But let's be real, not all of our toys are so simplistic and beautiful. Not by a long shot. We have a whole herd of beloved PJ mask toys that get just as much play time as this kitchen. But we've found any step we can take in that direction (especially with larger pieces like a kitchen) helps make our house feel more calm and put-together. Even with a play kitchen in the dining room.