Annual Balloons-in-a-Box Gift

Good Wednesday morning!

The Shepherd's Pie was a HUGE success. I know this because there are NO leftovers. Pics of the finished product are below.

RANDOMNESS #1 - Three out of five of The Faulkner Five voted together last night. And of the three that voted together, the newest voter in the family was the most well-informed. (He's taking Government this semester.)

The normal parent-to-child question of "Do you have any questions before you vote, Josh?" was replaced with "Have you heard anything about this guy in class, Josh?"

Yet, another humbling experience.

RANDOMNESS #2 - As I told you Monday, I am working on the itinerary of our New Orleans City Adventure.

There is an awesome World War II Museum in New Orleans. You start the tour by going to The Solomon Victory Theater to watch Beyond All Boundaries. The 4-D film is narrated by the wonderful Mr. Tom Hanks. (I love Tom Hanks.)

And get this. When a bomb blows up in the movie, your seat shakes. And when the weather in the movie is rainy, you get wet. And when the weather in the movie is snowy, an arctic breeze hits you in the face and fake snow falls on you.

How fun does that sound?

The guys going on the trip are all for it. Roxie... not so much. She would rather go shopping. I think we'll have to take a vote since there are five guys going to the Museum and there are five girls who may or may not want to check it out.

Roxie and I may have to break away to go boa and Mardi Gras mask shopping.

I always say, "A girl can never have too many friends... or boas."

RANDOMNESS #3 - Don't ask me why, but recently I have enjoyed making pancakes. Chocolate chip pancakes, vanilla pancakes, regular tasting pancakes. However, the pancakes I have been making are the "silver dollar" variety. Tiny, circular and neat.

I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and make giant, fluffy pancakes, so Monday night, I tried a new recipe... and it worked. The new and improved pancakes look like the pancakes at Pancake Pantry in Gatlinburg.

Now, I have to work on different flavors. And for some reason, I'm looking forward to experimenting.

At 10:00 o'clock last night, I had a highly unusual (and short-lived) burst of energy, so I made a stack of fluffy pancakes for Mikie and the kids to heat up for breakfast this morning.

Even though I told the kids what I was doing (and they were excited last night), this morning Roxie forgot. Josh forgot, too. And Mikie had a breakfast meeting. Luckily, they'll be good for tomorrow's breakfast.

But it does kind of put a cloud over my "pancake-makin'" plans for tonight.

I was going to experiment with Coconut Mango Pancakes... Butter Pecan Pancakes... or maybe Hot Fudge Brownie Pancakes.

But now I have to wait until the fluffy ones are gone.

Otherwise, you-know-who will eat them.

And that would be bad. Really, really bad.

RANDOMNESS #4 - You may or may not have noticed today's Randomness was a bit more "random" than normal.

I cannot explain my thought process (or lack thereof), but I'll try to get it together before tomorrow's post. That's all I can do... try.

Wednesday Wisdom - I found the following quote on Pinterest last week, and I liked it very much.

"Life isn't about finding yourself. It's about discovering who God created you to be." Anonymous

It makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

Annual Balloons-in-a-Box Gift

I saw this on Pinterest, and I thought it would make a lovely tradition.

Pick a random non-holiday day during the year. (I would pick a summer day because all of my kiddos are home during the summer this year. I'll just go ahead a pick August 1.)

Fill one box per child with inflated balloons. (I think 10 to 20 would be great fun.) Before you blow the balloons up, put a $1 bill, love note, joke, etc. into each and every one.

If you have younger children, you could put a new crayon into five or more of the balloons, miniature plastic dinosaurs or jungle animals, rolled up sticker sheets, etc., etc.

Just use your imagination.

When the boxes are filled with colorful balloons, wrap them with brightly colored wrapping paper. Set the boxes at the foot of their bed OR at the breakfast table.

Could anything be more fun for any child (any age) to find than a large wrapped present filled with love and silliness on just a regular no-holiday day?

I didn't think so.

And to make it an official tradition, plan on doing it every year on the same day!

Have a lovely Wednesday. We are experiencing "on again/off again" thunderstorms in my part of the world. It's like someone is pushing a button. Thunder... check. Torrential rain... check. Push the "Stop Immediately" button... check.

I'll be back tomorrow with Blog Linkage and a fun Date. Visit if you have a chance.

Take care, and I'll talk to you in the morning.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting Belinda