FAMILY Archives | Life is Beautiful

Back to School Party DIY

August 24, 2019~ EAT, FAMILY, PARTY

This post is sponsored by Walmart. Thank you for supporting this blog!

Fun Back to School Party Ideas

Every year it seems the Summer break goes by faster than the previous Summer. And this Summer was no exception for us! We were gone for almost a month on vacation(Hawaii for the kids, Japan and Hawaii for me and Jay) and came back on the last day of July and just as we were getting used to the jet lag, school started a week later!

To help get the kids excited about going back to school, I throw a back to school party every year.

It’s usually a lot more simple than this one but I wanted to make it extra pretty and fancy to give you some fun ideas you can implement for your own back to school party.

I got all the red paper plates/cups/fork utensils/polka dot napkins from Walmart. Using a green foam adhesive sheet, I got out the apple stem. For the name place card, I wrote in cursive on a name tag sticker and attached it to black construction paper. The place mat you see is a white board turned upside down!

During the party, the kids also get their school supplies, and their new backpack for the new school year. I also like to throw in a few items that are not a part of their school supply list such as glitter glue and a little toy.

We have been shopping at Walmart for their back to school supplies ever since my oldest started Kindergarten, so that’s going on 7 years!

The reason why we shop here every year is because getting every item checked off from your back to school shopping list can be very overwhelming and time consuming but I love that Walmart has everything we need at one place so I don’t need to visit multiple stores to get all of our back to school shopping done.

Don’t make fun of my poor attempt at calligraphy, I just had to get this black board stand because it was so cute. Get the black board here and the white chalk here. The wooden pencil case and colored pencils were a gift from a family member.

My 10 year old daughter helped me with the decorations, she made the giant ruler out of kraft paper, sticker numbers and a black permanent marker. I think she did an awesome job!

This was my first attempt at a charcuterie board. I am happy with how it turned out! I made the board with a bunch of their favorite snacks that they take to school, such as chocolate pudding, fruit, gold fish, peanut butter pretzels, banana chips and cinnamon sugar almonds.

I got this free cupcake printable here. A lot of my decor for this party was inspired by this blog so I’d like to thank them for throwing such a cute party!

The green book worms are are so easy to make! All you need is green grapes, wooden skewers, writing icing, and mini-chocolate chips for the eyes. Make sure to wash and dry the grapes before putting on the eyes so they don’t droop down.

The welcome back to school sign printable can be found here. There’s a ton of other printables offered when you click on it. Then to make the sign, just tape the back of the printable on a lollipop stick.

The kids each got to pick out a backpack from Walmart and it was fun to see what kind of backpacks they picked out.

My oldest picked a camouflage sequin backpack because she said camouflage prints are neutral so they go with anything but yet the sequins make it fun and give it an extra personality.

My second child picked out a Captain Marvel backpack because she said not only is Captain Marvel super cool, she is the only girl superhero in all the Marvel movies. Talk about girl power!

Then my youngest picked out a rocket ship backpack that has a circle window and even wings.

They have so many other cute styles and variety of options to choose from, I think any kid is sure to find a style of backpack or stationeries that they love, not to mention at amazing prices.

Walmart makes it super easy to shop with options to purchase in-stores, online, pick-up and also a Free 2-Day or Next Day Delivery. Click here to shop back to school supplies at Walmart.

I hope you enjoyed this back to school party, let me know in the comments if you’d like to implement any of the ideas into your own party! And if you have any back to school traditions you do with your family, I’d love to hear it to get some new ideas!

Our Spring Break at Zion National Park

April 20, 2019~ FAMILY, TRAVEL

First, we had to stop at The Creamery in Beaver, UT, of course! We just found out about this place, thanks to Jay’s co-worker when we went to St. George for our daughter’s soccer tournament in February. Now, it’s a must-stop for us whenever we head out West.

Try their fried cheese curds, it is AMAZING. Their fried cauliflower wasn’t our favorite, but maybe ask them to put the sauce on the side, it was drenched in this spicy sauce that overpowered all other tastes and made the cauliflower all soggy. Our favorite items to get is the short rib nachos, strawberry balsamic salad, classic cheeseburger pizza, and of course their signature fried cheese curds.

Then it took a little less than 2 hours from Beaver, UT to finally arrive at Zion Ponderosa in Orderville, UT, our home for the next 4 days! Zion Ponderosa is huge at over 4,000 acres so we drove/walked around to look at their different lodging options before settling into our place.

The cowboy cabin has one main room with a queen size bunk bed, porch and outdoor grill. Look how spectacular the view is!

This was one of my favorite lodging, glamping!

This beautiful glamp offered a queen bed, wooden decks, furnishing in campground area. I love how they decorated it, I’d love to come bac and stay here.

The kids’ favorite was the conestoga wagon. It doesn’t look very big but I was surprised to find that it sleeps up to 6 people with 1 King, 2 twin/twin bunk beds.

We stayed in one of their vacation homes which could sleep up to 16 people but they have other vacation homes that sleeps 6 all the way to 35 people. Besides these lodgings I’ve mentioned, you can also park your RV or bring your own tent so there are options for every budget.

Watch the video below for the tour of our vacation home. We kept talking about how fun this would be for a family reunion or a trip with our friends’ and all their kids!

After the kids stopped screaming out of excitement while running around all over our vacation home, unpacked and settled down at the house, we checked out their restaurant, Ray’s Restaurant. I’ll be honest, all of us didn’t expect much since we were by Zion National Park after all in the middle of nowhere, but we all ended up being super impressed with their food! Their prices were much cheaper than we had expected too, don’t you just love that?

Click here to see their dinner menu. I highly recommend their chicken pot pie, fish & chips, and fried ice-cream. SO good.

Fish at Zion, skeptical? It was delicious with huge chunks of fish meat, crispy and at great portion. I thought their tartar sauce was really good too, I kept dipping my fries in it because it was so good.

I dream about this chicken pot pie still! Hands down the best chicken pot pie I’ve EVER had.

Our second day we went on a Jeep tour with East Zion Jeep Tours. It was still fairly cold at Zion so we made sure to wear our coats and bundled up in the blankets they provided for us.

So stunning!

You might be wondering who those extra two people are, they are Jay’s brother and our SIL, Jen! We were so happy they were able to join us on this trip.

Later that day we went to Zion National Park and went on a hike. It is so beautiful there!!! Everywhere we looked was photo worthy. And did you know that if you have a 4th grader, the whole family gets into all the National Parks for free for a year? One of my readers kindly told me about it the day we arrived at Zion so we were able to get in the park for free! Go to this site www.everykidinapark.gov/get-your-pass/ to get yours, you take a two-question quiz and then print out a pass. Super fast and super easy.

This is the only time I see Jay with anxiety, when the kids are high off the ground, as Jay is very scared of heights. I am usually the one always paranoid and nervous the kids would get hurt so it’s pretty funny watching him be so nervous and on high anxiety since he’s usually the one telling me to calm down and chill!

And we made it!

On our third day, everyone except Jay and our son, got to go canyoneering! Zion Ponderosa offers this and make sure you sign up early, the guide can only take 6 people a day. Our son is too young to go(they recommend the kids to be at least the age 10-12), and Jay, like I’ve mentioned, is afraid of heights so he was more than happy to stay with our son. They got to go hiking and shop at a souvenir store while we were gone.

So cute in their gear!

The girls did so good hiking and the scenery was beautiful. For half-day, we got to rappell down 4 times, some higher than others, the highest being 70 ft. high.

Here is our daughter about to rappell down the highest one, at 70 ft.! They weren’t even scared!

I on the other hand screamed and made our tour guide take a bunch of photos of me in case it was my last.

We loved it so much, we talked about how we could go every week! I can understand why people become adrenaline junkies, it’s so thrilling and you feel so alert, awake and alive! I want to go again very soon.

The best part of our adventure was when my oldest child fell asleep on my shoulder when we were driving back home! I think the last time she fell asleep on me was almost 4 years ago so you bet I cherished every moment as I smelled her hair and gave her many kisses. Mothers are so creepy, aren’t we?

Then we got back to our vacation home and I took a bath and also a nap. Then we went to Ray’s Restaurant again, why not when we were sure we wouldn’t find a better restaurant in Zion?

And every night when we got back to our vacation home, we played hide and go seek in the dark where we turned off every single light in the house and had to hide or find in the pitch darkness. I think this was one of the kids’ favorite things we did on our trip, they never wanted to stop playing!

On our fourth day which was our last day of our trip, we went zip lining. Our son was so scared and cried two separate times and didn’t want to go, but after seeing all of us go and after some waiting and coaxing on our part, he finally went! After it was done he said, “I want to go again!” So he did.

Look at those smiles!

Then we ate at Thai Sapa which is right after exiting the Zion National Park and it wasn’t bad! It was a pleasant surprise since we did not expect to get Thai food at Zion.

Then we went on our last hike of the trip. We went at the perfect time because as soon as we were almost done with our hike, it started raining like crazy and was super windy.

Not pictured: our son right next to them crying

Our trip was so much fun. We love being surrounded by nature, it tends to have a way of making us more grounded. Zion Ponderosa was so amazing with their hospitality and all the fun activities they provide. We got to do zip lining, canyoneering and the jeep ride but they have so much more such as a horse ride, miniature golf, climbing wall, paintball and skee shooting! Check out all their activities here. We can’t wait to go back.

A big thank you to Zion Ponderosa for providing us with some of the amenities on our trip for Spring Break! It’s such a small world because while we were there, I got DM’s from so many people saying they stayed at the exact vacation home we were staying in, or they used to work there, this one girl’s parents own a store right by Zion Ponderosa, or they went there for a family reunion or church activity. The internet makes the world seem closer and I love that.

How I Raise My Kids to be Well-Behaved

April 9, 2019~ FAMILY, MOTHERHOOD, SHARING MY HEART WITH YOU

This post is in partnership with fairlife ultra-filtered milk and all opinions are my own.

One comment I get the most about my children is how well-behaved and sweet they are. Whether it be their teachers, their friends’ moms, or my friends, they ask me all the time how I raise them to be so well-behaved! My reply to them is always is that they were born this way! Heaven knew I’d be the worst mom in the world otherwise because I am not a patient enough person. So for the children’s sakes, I was given naturally well-behaved and sweet kids.

Of course my kids are not always well behaved and they bicker and argue here and there, and one constant thing they fight over is who gets to drink the last bit of our fairlife ultra-filtered milk. Every single bottle, every single time, guys! It’s more of a playful fight but then sometimes they get serious and say things like, “No, that’s not fair! You got to drink the last bit last time so it’s my turn!”

While they fight over the last cup of fairlife milk because it just tastes really good and they prefer the taste over any other milk, plain and simple, I prefer to give them fairlife milk because of all the nutritional value it offers. You can compare it to other milks for yourself here but while some brands of coconut milk and almond milk offers 0-1g of protein per 8 oz., fairlife offers 13 g. of protein. Compared to the regular 2% milk we used to drink, fairlife has 50% less sugar, 50% more protein and 30% more calcium. Compared to soy milk, fairlife has almost double the protein and 30% less calories per serving!

This is why I feel really good feeding my kids fairlife milk. It’s also lactose-free so my mom and my husband can drink it without having to go to the bathroom 30 mins. later. Too much info?

And how do I settle my children’s last bit of milk debate? I let my kids debate and handle it on their own and they usually come to a peaceful conclusion all on their own. They really are good kids and I am a very lucky mama to have them in my life. Heaven knew I’d be the worst mom in the world, because otherwise I am not a patient enough person. So for the children’s sake, I was given naturally well-behaved and sweet kids.

But no one is ever satisfied with that answer, which I wholeheartedly believe to be true. So they nudge and keep asking if there are specific things I do or ways I discipline them so I thought a blog post might be helpful on ways I raise my children. I don’t know if these will work for other parents but this is the way I raise mine and maybe you’ll find it helpful.

How I Raise My Kids to be Well-Behaved

I try to lead by example foremost instead of by lecturing or nagging. I don’t wail my arms around and scream in the middle of a grocery aisle if my kids tell me no or bite them when I get mad. But seriously, I was once told that the biggest influence on how our kids will turn out, is who we are as parents, not what kind of school they go to, what kind of music they listened to in our womb, what extra-curricular activities we have them do. Because actions speak louder than words. I am so far from perfect and I have so much to work on but I constantly try to strive to improve myself and be better. I am quick to apologize and explain to them why I yelled at them or did things I wasn’t proud of, and what I learned from it and why I regret it, but how I will do better from then on. I believe it’s very important for our kids to see that we are imperfect, flawed human beings and seeing us not as “adults who have got it figured out and got it all together” but instead seeing us as “human beings” whom are navigating this world and learning as we go by trial and error, just like they are.

I try to minimize the “dominant role” I have as a parent. I believe using my title as “I am the adult, I am the parent, I set the rules in this household and you just have to obey” creates this power dynamic that is unhealthy and minimizes their individuality and self-identity and confidence. I always tell them that no matter how much I think I teach them and show them the ways, they will always shape me and teach me to be a better person, way more than I ever will to them. I try to always listen to their opinions, insights, why they think their punishment is unfair and what punishment sounds more fair to them, discuss together in setting rules, or curfews, so that they learn to voice their opinions or debate using healthy communication to stand up for themselves. There is a balance of course to this, I believe in being a parent first and their friend second and I demand respect from them and they demand the same respect but they know that I get a final say in the end, after listening and discussing with them.

Kindness is always cool. Kindness is always the right choice. Of course there are times when you need to use self-defense and not be a pushover but for the not extreme circumstances, kindness is always cool, it is never outdated. I tell them to watch for those kids during recess that are playing alone, to reach out to them and be their friend so no one is alone during recess(unless they want to) or to always stand up to bullies and protect their friends and classmates.

In order to stop our children’s behavior, we need to first understand and sympathize why they are behaving that way first. Only once they feel understood, they will stop their behavior on their own. I let my children express their emotions without shaming them or trying to quiet them. I don’t tell them to stop or tell my son that boys don’t cry or stop being a wuss, they know that they can express their emotions fully and as long as they need to, without me shaming them or judging them or trying to rush their emotional process. I acknowledge how they much feel by reiterating to them and saying, “It’s hard to leave when you are having so much fun, huh?” When they are throwing a fit because they don’t want to leave the playground. Or “I can imagine how frustrated and annoying that must be to have your little sibling always get into your stuff and sometimes break them. I’d feel frustrated and annoyed too, I am sorry.” Once they feel understood and sympathized, they calm down and snuggle me in silence, no more feeling like they need to explain or prove to me why they feel the way they do.

I do not let them get away with any amount of sass or attitude. I will not take it whatsoever. At the first sign of sass or attitude, I zap it and tell them to stop. That I do not tolerate any ounce of sass or attitude.

If it’s a problem they can solve on their own, I let them solve it on their own and don’t interfere to be the middle-man(see my fairlife ultra-filtered milk example above for how my children have learned to resolve this problem on their own). It’s important for them to learn to argue or fight and learn to negotiate and make amends on their own.

I used the 1-2-3 method(a lot when they were younger, less so now). If they misbehaved, I gave them one warning. If they do it again, I silently just raise my 2 fingers and look at them firmly in the eyes. If they do it one more time, they go sit in the corner of the room or in their room(whichever they prefer). So for example, if my child came to me and asked for a snack, I explain that they cannot have a snack since I am making dinner and we will be eating dinner in 30 mins. And I want them to fill up their tummy with nutritious food instead so they will grow healthy and strong. If they whine and ask again, I raise my hand or say “That’s one.” If they ask again, I say, “That’s two.” or raise my two fingers. If they do it again, they go in the corner. I know some people don’t believe in the time-out method and I understand why shutting them in their room all alone(especially when they are babies or toddlers) can be traumatic for them. So I had them just to in the corner of whatever room I am in so they can still see me and I am in the same space as them and they know that I am not shutting them out. This distance is so that I don’t go crazy and lose my patience but also for them to have some quiet reflection time. Before using this 1-2-3 method, you’d need to explain to your children how it works and what they can expect. And with certain things, you don’t give them 3 chances, especially as they get older, some they only get one warning or two warnings.

Follow through. Always, always follow through. The 1-2-3 method will not work if you don’t put them in the corner or give them some other form of discipline. If you tell them, “If I count to 3 and you haven’t put your shoes on yet, you will not be able to go to your friend’s house.” And they don’t put their shoes on before you counted to 3, you have to follow through and they don’t get to play at their friend’s house. I have had my preschooler stay home from school because I told her that would be her discipline if she didn’t cooperate(which I quickly learned was more of a punishment for me since I didn’t get my free time! Never happened again!), or we turned around and went straight home when we were on our way to go get ice-cream and the kids kept fighting and bickering at each other. We gave them one warning and then they didn’t listen so we drove back home and they were devastated. But after that, they knew we meant what we said and that we weren’t joking around.

I hope you found my list above helpful for you.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve ever tried fairlife ultra-filtered milk and if you have any other tips for me on raising well behaved kids! I am always open to suggestions on parenting because once we know better, we can do better.

10 Reasons Why My Family Rocked 2018

February 14, 2019~ FAMILY

10 Reasons Why My Family Rocked 2018 Way Harder Than Yours

Well, you can already tell that I am rocking 2019, hence I am posting our 2018 yearly review video in such a timely manner, as it’s almost March 2019.

Here are the top 10 reasons why my family definitely rocked 2018 way harder than yours. And it’s not what you think, it’s not any of our accomplishments, fancy travels, trophies or recognition we received, it’s quiet the opposite as you are soon about to see! And if you dare to think you rocked it better than us, I invite you to compile a yearly review video as well and challenge me! Bring it on!

Family Photo Shoot/Christmas Cards 2018

November 15, 2018~ FAMILY, SHOP

Family photos can be so stressful, right? You want the moment to be the happiest moment for you and your family so that it can be captured in photos as part of family history and for us to treasure for years to come, but it is so dang stressful as you try really so hard to genuinely smile and look genuinely happy so you’re worried it looks like you’re fake smiling because you’re trying so hard, while trying to tell your kids and husband to give a real smile, to smile big, to look happy, to stop jumping up and down, to look at the photographer, while gritting your teeth closed and smiling and posing for the camera at the same time. Am I right or am I right?

If you want to read the most stressful and saddest family photo shoot we’ve ever had, click here to read it.

And after you see the photos, I will tell you why this photo shoot ended up being very stressful. Turns out, not thinking or worrying about it nor planning it one bit is not the way to go either.

Aiden jumped up in my arms right before the photo was being taken and then the girls decided to follow suit

Love my oldest daughter’s sense of humor. She makes me laugh everyday.

This girl is so sweet and creative. I know she will do great things in life and I’m so excited to see it!

And the photo that made it as our Holiday cards for this year is….

Do you like my final pick? I love all of the photos so much!

Here are what our Christmas cards look like this year.

(Simple, classic & elegant, I love this design SO much. Click here for the link to the design)

So let me tell you about why this photo shoot ended up being very stressful, despite me trying so hard not to have it be. Since I wanted it as least stressful as possible, I didn’t worry about it one bit. Seriously, not one bit. I didn’t even think about the photo shoot or pick outfits until the morning of the photo shoot. And our photo shoot was at 9 am! Jay had to leave earlier so I had him pick out the outfit he wanted to wear, then the girls picked out their outfits all on their own and then I did pick and dress my son’s outfit, which I do everyday.

I didn’t even realize we had the photos until the night before at 9 pm, so I told my husband then which took him by surprise and he had to maneuver his morning schedule around to accommodate the photo shoot. He did not appreciate me throwing this at him literally 12 hours before the shoot. But I honestly just forgot about the shoot!

By the time I remembered, my two younger kids were sleeping but my oldest was having a late night at a friend’s house and when I picked her up at 10:15 pm, I totally forgot to mention it to her and she went to bed around 10:45.

The morning of, I had to wake her up and she was so grumpy. She wanted to sleep in since she had a late night but she was not pleased when I told her she had to wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed and ready for photos in 30 mins. Oh boy, she was not happy. She gave me a lot of whining and fussing and then started crying and I finally lost it and yelled at her to stop whining and to just get ready, which made her cry more.

Then she called me Cruella de Vil. I looked at her and replied after a few seconds of silence, “I’ve never been called that before in my life.” And we both laughed. But her skin is so sensitive and reacts strongly to her cries so she had puffy eyes, red nose and red face the whole photo shoot. UGH.

We show up at the location and it wasn’t until 30 mins. after the photo shoot that I realized Jay was wearing slippers. He was wearing flip flops, guys. UGH. I pointed it to him and asked if he forgot to bring his other, nice shoes and he said, “No, these are the shoes I meant to wear to the photo shoot.” Eye roll.

And when we got the photos back, I looked at the photos and eye rolled my eyes harder as I looked at his slippers and his fake, half smile in every single photo. He didn’t even make an effort to open his eyes! So as I look at his squinty eyes(not because he’s part Asian, because he didn’t care and even try to open his eyes), fake, half smile, slippers and his loud, busy shirt that doesn’t match the rest of our subdued, classic outfits, I can’t help but smile. I have no desire to change Jay in any way and love him for everything that he is. His cheap slippers and all.

Below are the links to the card design I picked out this year, other card designs I loved, the custom stamp I went with, the cutest display bars for Holiday cards(comes in gold or copper in various sizes), and the cutest wrapping papers you will ever see!

Link to our card design

Display bars