Carnival Party

So Snuggle Bug turned 7 in May and he wanted a carnival themed party.  

Here is what we did:

This all was suppose to be outside at stations but of course we had gale force winds that day so we had to move it inside the garage last minute.

What you see is many plastic table cloths hung on a clothes line. They were 98 cents each at walmart.  I did not originally want them all touching but we had to squeeze them all in(plus they had to hide the junk in  our garage!).  You could also hang the table cloths on a fence.

Then we stenciled signs(construction paper) for each of the games. 

In the above picture you see Squirt 'em Down and Can U Hit 'Em.  

Squirt them down we had foam blocks we stuck golf tees in and then put ping pong balls on the tees.  The kids then had a squirt gun and they would try to shoot off the balls.  Be sure to have a bucket near the guns to refill them.  

The other game we simply wrapped cans of veggies with construction paper.  The kids would get a tennis ball to try and knock them down.  We started off having some foam board(we use it for a target for shooting a bow) behind the cans to stop the ball but that that didn't stay well so we had a toddler bed mattress behind the table cloths in our junk(see, junk CAN come in handy sometimes) that we just set up against the back of the hanging table cloth.

Here we have a face painting station and a Penny Pitch which proved to be the most challenging game!  To make the penny pitch board we took  a poster board and then dipped the bottom of a water bottle in some very light colored paint and stamped circle shapes evenly onto the poster.  Then we took brighter colors and filled in the stamped areas.  We put just one red circle in the middle that was worth 5 tickets(we'll talk about tickets more later) and then a few gold circles worth 3 and the rest were worth 1.  They got like 5-6 pennies each and had to try to toss them onto the circles. I made a sign that told how many tickets for each color. The tricky part  was the pennies bounced with the cement floor!

Then there was bowling(we had a set but can be done with filled water bottles too) and a ball toss game.  I had foam balls( they usually come 6 to a pack) that they tried to pitch into the buckets.

We also had this one.  You had to toss a stuffed lion through the 'flaming' hoop.  It's just a hoola hoop with red and yellow streamers taped on.  I wanted orange streamers too but they were all out.  I hung it on a shepherds hook(one that you usually hang plants on).

We had an adult at each game manning the booth. Every game had a strip of painters tape(or duct tape) on the floor to stand behind.  I also bought a roll of raffle tickets(told you we would come back to this) to hand out to the kids and here is what we did.  For the ball toss game we said a ticket for whatever # that bucket was.  So if they got a ball in bucket #1 and bucket #2 they would get 1 ticket for the first bucket PLUS 2 more for the second bucket.  But you do whatever you want.

For the squirt em game they got  a ticket for each ball they shot off.  1 ticket for getting the lion through the flaming hoop, a ticket for every pin you knocked down for bowling and same for the can game.  1 ticket for each can that was knocked down after 2 throws.  And then we already discussed the penny pitch.

You could also give the kids a certain # of tickets that they have to had in to play the games.  But we chose to to award them tickets which they loved.  I also bought some little chinese containers that I wrote each of the guests names on and that is what they put their tickets in as they collected them.

Snuggle Bug is holding his here.  I got them at Walmart for around 1.98.  

There were 4 or 5 boxes to a pack.

So what did they do with their tickets you ask?  Great question! 

They turned them in for prizes of course:

I just got some fun dips, giant pixie sticks, suckers, sour punch straws and so forth at the dollar store( those are mostly 8 for $1 candies).  The I bought a pinata pack at walmart of some toys.  There were a lot of different packs  to choose from but I tried to get a pack that seemed to go with the carnival theme.  It had the funny glasses you saw Snuggle Bug wearing in the earlier picture( they were a HUGE hit BTW), little flutes, some flying disc shooters, kaleidoscopes, round ball mazes and such.

Then I gathered some clear containers, jars, bowls and vases and put the prizes in them.  I also added some iridescent stones to the bottom of some of the containers.  We just had the stones at the house already and I thought they added some flare to the containers.

Now you could put a value on each of the prizes.  Like, flutes are 5 tickets and suckers are 7.  But I had no idea how many tickets the kids would earn and I didn't want the first customer to wipe out the prize table if they had a ton of tickets.  So I just improvised.

I would make a big deal out of counting their tickets and the say,"You can get 3 candies and 2 toys" or something like that.  They then put their prizes back in their chinese boxes to take home.  Smart huh?

The guests could turn in their tickets whenever they were done playing games.  

We also had a photo op:

I found a picture of lion online then free handed this, painted it and cut the circle out so it looks like the person is inside the lion.  They do have some like this online to buy too, but I was going for cheap. I taped the poster board lion onto a rolling clothes rack so that way the kids could get behind it.  

A doorway(with the door OPEN) could work too or a clothesline.

Here is our sign for the party

I drew the swagged part on top and painted everything under it yellow(actually Bubba painted it).  Then we colored every other swag red and just painted on the words.  Stenciling would have looked better but our letters wouldn't have fit on there.

And you certainly can't have a carnival without food!

We let the kids grab food whenever they wanted to make it feel more carnival-ish.  

We had hot dogs( the cute plastic holders I got a the dollar store the other year), doritos(ok they are generic), bags of popcorn, pizza slices, pop and cotton candy.  Ok we were SUPPOSE to have cotton candy but we forgot.  Sissy has a cotton candy machine and we had made up some extra paper cones to spin the cotton on but in the chaos of it all, it got forgotten somehow.  

Here is the hot dog holder (=

Some more pictures of the day's events

The tables that some of the games are on are just random things like coolers stacked on one another, a plastic shelving unit, a side table.  Whatever works and that you have handy!  It will be covered up anyhow.

And that is a VERY pregnant me attempting to paint a helicopter on a guest.  I didn't do too bad really.

I had wanted to do up a sheet with pictures they could choose from( pictures I could paint for sure) but I ran out of time. I am a decent artist so it wasn't a big deal.  The kids just told me what they wanted.  I did a butterfly and a snake too.  Pretty easy.

We also did bingo for a little bit.  I had a long table set up outside with a Bingo sign.  We also used this table to open presents.  The prize for Bingo was just something off the prize table( they picked).  I really wanted some circus music playing too but that didn't happen.  I also had red, yellow and white balloons and red and yellow streamers to decorate with but we ran out of time to stick them up! Oh well.

So how the party schedule went was something like this:

4:30pm Helpers arrive(for games).  Explain game and what they will be doing.

5pm Guests arrive/Explain games, tickets, prize redemption and food

5:00-6:00 Play games/eat/prizes

6:00-6:30 Bingo

6:30-7pm Presents/Cake/Ice Cream/GO HOME!

Everyone had a blast and the age span for guests was from 4 yrs old to 11 yrs old.  

And boys and girls alike had fun.    

But come on...who doesn't like a carnival??

UPDATE ON BUBBA

Got to talk to Bubba this morning!!!  Woo-hoo!!  I feel so much better.  He got to run the Art Museum steps yesterday( the ones 'Rocky' ran).  He had never seen the Rocky movies so we showed him a clip online of the stair running scene so he'd have some idea of  the importance of it.

The kids went by the Liberty Bell( not sure that they actually stopped).  I had Bubba read a book we had about he Liberty Bell and it's history and significance before he left.  We also felt compelled to watch National Treasure again since most of it takes place in Philly and they plot line has to do with Ben Franklin and the Liberty Bell.  Did you know there are 13 signers of the declaration and constitution buried in Philly including Ben Franklin.  So cool.

Anyway...Bubba tried an authentic Philly steak and cheese sandwich which he liked( I think he said he ate it with onions even! Whose child is this??).  The group bought 2 lunches and gave them out to a couple of homeless people and then prayed with them.

The kids Bubba was with in the picture on the last post were from a kids camp the center is doing.  So he said they were heading out to pick up those kids again today.

He also said it was HOT.  They all ran through...a fire hydrant I think he said, or something of that nature.

He only had a few minutes to talk so that's all we got from him.  Can't wait to get all the details when we see Bubba tomorrow night!!

Many Blessings,
The Mama

I Missed the Call

I missed Bubba's call tonight.  There are not enough unhappy faces to put on here that would express my sadness in this.

We were waiting for his call and Sissy and I went upstairs to lie on my bed and read through the new family fun( a little tradition of ours) and he called while we were up there. We were only upstairs about 15 minutes and he called 3 times during that period and left messages.  Messages that didn't say much in words but spoke volumes in tone.

This Mama's heart broke into a million pieces listening to the sadness in my boy's voice.

Even writing about it gives me that icky hollow feeling inside.

Neither Sissy or I heard the faint beeps on the answering machine when we came back downstairs.  We even have a phone up in our room!  But I took the handset downstairs last night when Bubba called so the Hubby and I could talk with him at the same time.  The main base(in the living room) rings even if the handset isn't on it, but obviously the secondary one in our room does not do that unless we would have heard it while looking through our magazine.

I feel sooooooooooooo horrible. And yes, I cried.  He sounded sooooo disappointed.  And there are only a few kids there whose parents aren't with them which makes it even worse to me.

We tried to quick text the adult's phone that Bubba always uses to call to see if maybe we could still talk to Jordan but it was almost an hour after he said he would have to be in bed.  And we never received a call back.

Did I mention how horrible I feel for missing his call?

Ugh.

The children's pastor that is with Bubba and the kids has been posting some pics.  We spotted Jordan in one from today.  The caption said Bubba and another boy from the missions group were leading prayer with some inner city kids-

Bubba has the Bengals hat on.  Can't see his face though.

I soooo wanted to hear about his day today. 

:( 

You can bet I will be carrying that phone around with me EVERYWHERE tomorrow.  I am praying that the adult whose phone we texted will allow Jordan to call tomorrow morning but I don't know.  I understand if they don't let him call though.  Rules are rules.

Well off to bed to further berate myself.

Mission Possible

So Bubba left EARLY this morning( we had to get up at 3:45am YAWN) for a missions trip with our church.  As we speak he is traveling the 12 hour treck to a particular inner city to stay for 4 days.

Please pray for safe travel for him and the other 19- 5th graders ( and 15 adults).

It is the first time he will be gone this long from home.  He was a bit nervous of course.  While Bubba is silly and outgoing here at home and with those that know him well, he is quiet and reserved among strangers.

One of his goals on this trip was to make some new friends.  So also pray that he is able to be himself and that the other kids will be open to him.  And obviously we pray that he can be Jesus to all those he meets.

I did a care package up for him to take( another pinterest find).  Here is a picture of it-

Here is what I did:

Take an envelope for each day the person is going to be gone and put the initial of each day on the envelope ( M above stands for Monday obviously)

Then get a cheap map of whatever and cut some rectangles to glue in the inner area of the envelope that you see when you lift the flap( just because it looks nice).

Then glue the flaps to the back of the other envelopes.

This is what it will look like when done:

I already had  notes in the envelopes so you can't see some of the map background.  

Then all the envelopes will fold up accordion style like so:

 I just tied it with a ribbon that could be easily slipped off and on.

Now I only had 4 envelopes for the days Bubba would be gone, but found that I had to add one more blank one at the end because other wise Thursday's envelope would be upside and everything would fall out.

So what did I put in it?  Well I put letters in each envelope from our family and then each contained a little surprise.  I used a pack of Bubba's fave gum, some starbursts, money, and a long thin sour candy( don't know the name but they are like 10 for $1 at the dollar store).  

On pinterest the ideas were like a starbucks card, a map of the area they are traveling to, a kit kat, etc.  

I had to find things that wouldn't melt easily and obviously Bubba has a planned agenda so he doesn't need a tourist map.  Plus he isn't allowed food in the sleeping area so I didn't want to get him in trouble at all.  So it all depends on who the care packages are for, what kind of trip it is and where they are going I guess as to what you include.

I did tell Bubba about the package before he left and showed him how it worked and everything.  I thought about just slipping it in his bag but thought he needed more instructions on it.

He was really excited  about it (=

So the house is much quieter already.  I thought of several things I should have packed as we were loading him onto the bus this morning.  The Hubby said to me, "You're such a mom." Yep and proud of it.

Bubba does get to call home each night to talk for 5-10 minutes so that's nice. I am excited to hear how it all is going and what he is doing.  Sissy is looking forward to going next year but she is a social butterfly and has been to camp countless times so she couldn't understand why Bubba was nervous about going.

Funny how your children can be so very different from each other isn't it?

So today I feel off kilter ( no thanks to getting up super early and then laying back down for a bit) and have got nothing accomplished.  

And today is another SCORCHING day so you sweat just picking your nose( not that I have tried this).  Ugh.  

There is a million things I should be doing- laundry, painting, scraping off more wallpaper( we are finally painting the dining room tomorrow BTW!), looking over our homeschool curriculum, getting all of our paperwork ready for our scout troops's upcoming year( paperwork is due by August 1st), cleaning the house, planning our trip to Florida that is coming up next month...BUT perhaps we'll just lounge around and watch movies today and pray that they cancel the ballgame tonight due to the near 100 degree temps.

Yes, I think that's what I'll do.  

Procrastination wins out yet again.  

Many Blessings,

The Mama

Berry Delicious Trifle

So there was a great dessert I  recently made that I wanted to share. 

 This was to celebrate the 4th but it can be made to accommodate any occasion or no occasion at all.  

Looks good right?? 

It was.

I am calling this Berry Delicious Trifle.  Here is the recipe:

1

box white cake mix 

1/3

cup vegetable oil

3

eggs

1

tablespoon  baking cocoa

1

tablespoon red gel food color

1

teaspoon blue gel food color

2

packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened

1        cup sugar, divided 3/4 and 1/4

1

teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2

cups whipping cream

2        cup sliced strawberries

1        cup blueberries

1 1/4  cup  buttermilk*

* I never have buttermilk.  Instead I use regular milk with a few tablespoon of vinegar mixed in.  I do that right away at the beginning and let it sit while I get everything ready.  It will end up looking curdly ( yum).  

1. Mix cake mix, oil, eggs, buttermilk and cocoa on low for 30 seconds and then on medium for 2 minutes.

2. Divide batter in half and mix red food coloring in one and blue in the other.  But this can be done with any colors you like.  I used Wilton food gel to get more intense colors( and it is impossible to get a red color from water based food coloring).  They sell these for $1 something at Wal-Mart now.

3.  You can either use 2 8x8 pans or do what I did since I only had 1 8x8 pan.  And that is to use a 9x12 pan and pour your two colors in at the same time at opposite ends.  Be sure to spray your pan(s) with cooking spray too.  

Just be sure that you start pouring the batters at clear opposite ends and that about equal amount of each batter is entering at the same time.

4. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes until done.  Let cool in pan for at least 1 hour.

5. While that is baking, mix your cream cheese, 3/4 c of your sugar and vanilla till smooth. In another bowl, beat whipping cream and 1/4 cup sugar till soft peaks form.  This is best done on a high speed as it allows air to enter the mix.

6. Now fold in about 1/4 of the whipping cream mixture into the cream cheese mix.  Then add half of what's left reserving the last 1/4 of the whipping mixture for garnish.

7.When your cake has set for an hour, cut it into 1' squares.  

8. Start layering!  I started with putting 1/2 of my red squares in the bottom of trifle bowl.  Add 1/3 of the cream cheese mix on top and spread around.  Top with 1/3 of your strawberries and 1/3 blueberries ( you can really add as much fruit on each layer as you want and whatever fruit you'd like.  Think raspberries, kiwi, etc).  Now layer on 1/2 of your blue cake squares.  Add another 1/3 of the cream cheese mix and top again with 1/3 of each of your fruit.  Finish it off with rest of your red cake squares, cream cheese mix and fruit.  Add the rest of your whipped topping to the top in a dollop and garnish with a couple pieces of fruit.

9. Refrigerate

* You will have 1/2 of the blue cake squares left over to eat or throw into another dessert or if your kids are vultures like mine they will devour them in about 20 seconds flat.  

But this could easily be done with adding colors for halloween/fall.  Or with red and green for Christmas... Easter would be nice with some pastels too.  

Whatever you do though, 

DO NOT SUBSTITUTE THE CREAM CHEESE MIX FOR COOL WHIP.

It would be very bland and the cream cheese is definitely what makes this dessert pop.

And as with any trifle this fed LOTS of people and many got seconds.

BON APPETIT!!

State of Chaos

My house is in a state of chaos right now.  Here's the proof:

I am finally tearing down the wallpaper in our dining room, living room, girls room and boys room.

Luckily, it's just the bottom half of the wall in the living room that I am tearing off and repainting a mocha kind of color.  And then the boys room just had spiderman border that actually pulled easily off(yippee!).

Alas, the dining room had 2 layers of wallpaper and so does the girls room.  Who invented wallpaper??  Whoever it was they need to be taken out and beat.  

Fortunately a lady from church let me borrow her wallpaper steamer.  So after we managed to get the 2 layers of wallpaper off we were just left with the backing stuck to all the walls which came off easily with the steamer, but still time consuming and mess inducing.  

The kids enjoyed having permission to rip the wallpaper off though with out getting yelled at as in previous younger years.

I am actually painting the dining room a dark blue from top to bottom  and then have lots of white and silver accents.  I have had 2nd thoughts about the color a dozen times since I got it.  But oh well, it's only paint(paint that's already purchased BTW).  

Here is what the decor was in the dining room before-

I am a patriot thru and thru but I don't like it in my dining room.  My blue is close to the color between those panels though.

Here is the living room before hand too.  Think purple-

The girls room will be grey and then I am painting their beds black and they will have different hues of pink.  The boys are getting blue and gold(bottom 3rd of wall) for their favorite team- Notre Dame.  

I also got 4 big volumes of our homeschool curriculum in the mail today.  So that is sitting in our living room along with our furniture that is pulled 2 feet from the wall.  What a mess!

I'll post pics of each room when we get them done.  There are some dents and nail holes i have to spackle in the dining room and a nice patch of mold that I have to bleach out.  I hate prep work.  I like to just jump in and do things.

Better get back to work-yay.  I mean, "Thank you Lord for making me healthy enough to be able to do all this work." (;

The Mama

Easy Microwave Corn on the Cob (No Shucking!)

There are tons of youtube videos on this.  I thought it was just so you didn't have to shuck the corn(remove the husks) and deal with all those pesky silks('hairs'),  but low and behold, it cooks the ears to perfection too!!  Cha-ching!  Here is how to do it:

1st pretend my microwave is clean.  2ndly, put 2 ears of corn in microwave, husks on.  A couple I had to take off an inch or so of the stalk so it would fit into the microwave and not get stuck when rotating.

3rd- microwave for 8 minutes

4th- BE SURE TO PUT OVEN MITTS ON WHEN REMOVING CORN FROM MICROWAVE

Then take a very big, sharp knife and hack off the end with the stalk like the picture above shows.

5th- Hold the corn by the top and kind of shake it.  The ear should just fall out and leave all the silks inside!!

My silks always stayed inside but sometimes the husks seemed tight around the ear and I had to peel them back instead of shaking.  But that was super easy too.

And here are the finished results:

PERFECT CORN!!

We had 6 ears to do so I just had to repeat this process 3 times.  And while I threw in the other ears to cook, I dehusked the ones that were done and cleaned up my area and by that time the next ears of corn were just about done.  So it all timed out pretty well.

I also wrapped each ear of corn in foil  after they were done in order to keep them hot while the other food for our dinner finished cooking.   It kept them piping hot!

ENJOY!

*MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT PUTTING IN MORE THAN @ EARS OF CORN AT A TIME*

4th of July Windsocks Craft

Here is a very simple craft that will show your patriotic colors:

Materials:
Paper lunch bag
star or flag stamps/stencils (optional)
paints-red white and or blue (optional)
red, white and blue streamers
tape
construction paper(red or blue)
newspaper
scissors

1. Get a paper lunch bag and decorate it front and back.  We used a star stencil, but you can use stamps, stencils, paints, whatever.  Just keep your colors in the red white and blue theme.  Let you kids be creative in decorating the bags.  We were pressed for time and the kids wanted to swim so they kept it simple( and quick).

2. Get some newspaper and ball up a couple pages and jam it up into the top of the bag so it will stay open.  It will stay in there on its own if you have enough and jam it pack it well.

3.Tape  red white and blue streamers to the inside bottom of the bag.  Ours were about a couple feet long but as long as they are long enough to blow nicely they will be fine.

4. Lastly we cut too slits in the very top of the bag and put a strip of construction paper through( they chose either red or blue paper) for our handle.  Just tape the ends together into a loop.

Here is the finished product.  It took maybe 15 minutes

( depends on how crafty the kids want to be in decorating the outside of the bag)

4th of July Lanterns

Here are the steps to some easy, yet lovely, patriotic lanterns to spruce up your porch or deck:


Materials:
Red, White and Blue Construction Paper
Scissors
Fancy Edging Scissors
Tape
Stickers, Stencils, Stamps, Punch Outs, etc
Rope or Fishing Line  (optional)

1.Gather red,white and blue construction paper.  I had each of my kids do the 3 colors.  Then fold them in half(there are already strips cut into this one which is actually step 2)

Please note that we found it better to fold them the other way.  This way will give you really tall lanterns which were fine, but we felt the squatty lanterns looked better.

2. Cut strips into the folded side of the paper

We found that you really couldn't go wrong here.  Generally we kept the width to about an inch or so but Snuggle Bug cut them as small as 1/4" apart and it gave a cool affect too.

3. Open the paper up now and turn it 90 degrees( so the cuts are now going up and down).  Use fancy scissors to cut the top and bottom edge of the paper.

Ok, I opened up the paper to cut it, but I see that Sissy kept hers folded and cut. I guess either way works!

4. Once you have cut your fancy edge and have the slats going up and down, fold the non cut sides around and tape them together at the top and bottom( don't overlap) .  We also made sure that each crease of the slats was creased really well by going back around and pressing.

5.  Then you can add stars( we glued foam stars and stencils) to the lantern, or if you have the punch out tool for scrapbooking that would be perfect too.  Stamps also would do fine.  We just worked with what we had.

6. We added handles by cutting strips of construction paper and gluing them on the inside of the lantern.  You man mix and match colors or handles or keep them matching.  Up to you( or your kids!).

Here is the finished product minus the handle

And then we just got some rope and strung them on our front porch like so:

you can see that the blue ones were  folded lengthwise, that is why they are taller.

Now if you really want to make them look cool you can string lights and stick some down in each lantern.  Or you can add a bottom to the lanterns and put in a battery operated or solar tea light.  

Glowstick would work too I suppose.

Our 4th of July Fun!!

4th of July is one of my fave holidays.  It use to be because it just meant swimming and cook outs but now it means so much more.  We are such a blessed nation in all that we have.  If you don't think so, go visit a 3rd world country.  You will stop feeling entitled real quick.

So I wanted to make it a big deal to my kids too.  But they were already in the spirit before me!  Bubba  has taken to making pancakes for everyone in the mornings and the kids decided to add blue food coloring to them yesterday and then put some star sprinkles on them to honor our country.  Here they are:

They were disappointed that they were a bit brown from the griddle

Then we did some crafts to decorate our front porch.  We started with these super easy lanterns in red, white and blue.

*Click HERE to learn how to do the lanterns*

We also did wind socks

Click HERE for windsock craft

And here is our porch with all the decorations

We grilled out when Hubby got home and swam some more.  Temps have been 100 or above so the pool feels great even when the water is at 92 degrees.   I made these great burgers with my usual flavorings( steak sauce, worcestershire-i know, it's hard to say, salt & pepper) but added in crumbled bacon and topped it with cheese sauce instead of slices.  OH MY GOODNESS!!  Those were soooo good!!!  I also found a new way to do corn on the cob.  Microwave them! Just leave them in the husks and they steam to perfection and all the silks just slide right off.  Click HERE to learn how to do them.

Then we played some glow bowling when it got dark.  I just filled 20 oz bottles with water( to make them heavier) and broke a glow stick so it was glowing and put 1 in each of the bottles and put the lid on.  We got our basketball and set the 'pins' up in our drive with a hockey net behind( to catch the ball theoretically) and started bowling!  Here is a pic of our pins:

They were really bright and the kids took them in and used them as lanterns when they went to bed.

I have also read that you can break the glow sticks open and poor then glow stuff into the bottles.  That seemed too messy and time consuming to me so we went this route.

I of course couldn't pass up the opportunity to quiz the kids about why we celebrate the 4th of July since we did go over the American Revolution this past school year.  They had no trouble with the answers.

( which was that America declared their independence from England with the Declaration of Independence.  The 4th actually did mark when the US became free but rather when we officially declared that we would  fight for that freedom)

Hope you had  great 4th and remember- Freedom isn't Free!

Blessings from The Mama

Happy 4th from Little Miss!!

Happy 4th of July! 

 And remember that freedom isn't free.  We have much to be thankful for in our nation.  

Little Miss is "Tongue-Tied", For Real...

I have noticed that Little Misses tongue looked forked at times and didn't think much of it... till today.

 She had a check up because of reflux issues and the Dr noticed she was "tongue tied"  I though he was jut being funny until he started saying that she probably wouldn't have been able to breastfeed because of it and talked a  little bit about some possible complications in the future( I don't even recall what he said and he was very brief).

I have never heard of such a thing.  So i looked it up.  And now I am worried. 

It can cause a wide range of difficulties involving speech, sucking, chewing, licking an ice cream cone, kissing, severe dental problems, messy eating, low weight, vomiting, gagging, social issues( because of the range of different problems)  etc.

)=

You just don't think of all the things you use your tongue for in life.  

It is highly hereditary( I don't know of anyone in either of our families that has this issue though), occurs in boys more than girls and usually happens in the 1st 3 months of development(kicking myself for not taking my folic acid).  It also looks different for each person( Little Misses is classified as looking 'heart shaped', meaning the top of the heart) and there are 4 different classes-mild, moderate, severe and complete depending on the length of the free tongue.  Little Miss is not complete I know and suspect she is not severe, but i will be looking at her more closely now.

So pretty much that little 'string' (frenum) under your tongue is too short  restricting movement.  It's too attached to the bottom of the mouth. Normally the excess 'string' would just kind of dissolve during those 1st 3 months of development.  Here is a picture of what it looks like(this is not Little Miss though)-

 People(and babies) can have surgery if necessary to help and I have read it is better to do it early before the string thickens more so I will talk about it with the Dr at her 2 month appt.  

My kids always have really weird problems it seems )=

But other than that Little Miss is looking great.  She is up to 9lbs 11oz!  She went from the 50th percentile 2 weeks ago to 75th this week.  So obviously the tongue tie is not affecting her weight.

Speaking of, I got to grab a bottle for her !  Ta-Ta!