5 Ways To "Get On Your Bike" And Make Some Mom Friends

Hi Foxy Friends! You must be thinking, how can getting on your bike, make you friends? Let me tell you a story. Back, about 10 years ago, I was at my cousins graduation party from college and my uncle was giving a speech about my cousin. Saying how charismatic he was and how easily he made friends. Then he went onto say that when they moved, he had no neighborhood friends, so he simply got on his bike and went door to door looking for friends. Ever since that speech Mr. and I would tell each other, we need to get on our bikes to make some friends. So I'm giving you 5 ways to "get on your bike" and make some Mom friends.

| ONE |  Take Initiative

When we first moved to our city, I had one friend, but she didn't have kids yet. You know how that is, when you have kids and they don't...it's harder to get together and too many months pass before you see them again.  It is a daunting task to try and make friends in a new city. Where to begin? This part can be scary, you have to take the initiative to find friends. I went online, searched "MOM Groups" in my city, and a bunch popped up. To be honest I can't even remember when the group was called, it was an app...not even Facebook. It was like findfriends, or something...but I said, what the heck. we're meeting in public places, I can do this.

| TWO | Show Up

So I went online found peopel to meet up with, and this is important, you have to actually show up! Super scary, to show up to Starbucks and not know what anyone looks like? I just showed up, didn't know anyone, but we all had kids, that's at least one thing in common.  I don't even drink Starbucks, but gosh darn it, I was showing up to find my people. It took many meet ups to find people who got me, but eventually I did.

My first play date with my new friends.

7 years later we're still talking, granted the one on the left moved away, but we still try to get together when we can.

| THREE | YOU Make The Plans

I find that when you are trying to make new friends, if you ask, they will most likely say yes. Most people are not planners.  I am a planner, have you seen my day planner? I like making plans.

So I find a time that works for me, and I sent out a text message or email and say, hey let's have a play date, or let's do a Mom's Night Out...and then it gets the ball rolling. It just takes one person to take the initiative and the rest will fall into place. Am I almost always the one initiating? Yes, but they keep saying yes, so I'll keep planning.


| FOUR | Find Common Activities

What I mean by this is you need to find something you like to do, and you'll find people. After having Baby Fox, I wanted to get back in shape, I had heard (by one of the ladies from the Starbucks meet up), that there was this thing called Stroller Strides (now called FitMoms), I mentioned them here. Basically it's a group that meets outside, with strollers and you go through a series of workout moves, each day is different, and you get to workout with your kids in two. Sometimes we would have 30+ woman all running with their kids from station to station doing different exercises. It was an amazing way to meet friends and to also get Mom advice.

Do you see me?

| FIVE | Make One On One Time

It's all great and dandy have a group of mom friends you meet up at the park. But what we all crave is that person to call or text random photos to.  This part is a little more time consuming, but worth it in the end, you have to  make time for some one-on-one time with your new friend. Whether it is a play date with just the two of you and your kids, or a Mom's night out. Make time to really get to know your new friends, so that your conversation is more than just surface/small talk and you can start talking about things that really matter in your life.

So those are my 5 ways to make Mom friends. I know it can be super scary, but if you put yourself out there first, more times than not, people will welcome you with open arms, because remember they are just like you and probably feel great that someone reached out to them.

Linking up here

Summer Plans

Hi Foxy Friends! Today I'm hosting over on The Blended Blog, so if you are from there, welcome! Thanks for stopping by! I know you are all dying to know what we're doing this summer. Staying busy that's for sure! Last week I told you how we plan our summer vacation. And today I'm sharing what we're doing!

I'll sort of follow the 5 steps to plan your summer vacation post.

Step 2 was prior commitments: We always go to my cousins house for 4th of July. The kids look forward to it every year, they get to spend the night with their cousins and we get some really good family time in.

Step 3 was to plan kid stuff:

Mini Fox

She is doing her first VBS (vacation bible school) with her best friend. I'm excited and nervous for her, but I'm sure she'll do great.

Baby Fox

Is doing several things, the first thing he is doing Build a Fort, which he loves, next year he'll be able to participate in the big kid fort building and he is so excited for that.

Then we try to do some education things, I gave him 5-6 choices and he picked what he wanted to do. So this year he is going to do some computer programming and a Lego building class. Both classes are 2 weeks, so in all he is doing something for 5 weeks, luckily they are mostly Monday - Thursday, and in the mornings (they are mostly 1.5 hours each).

Step 4 was visiting people:

Last year we spent a long weekend with some good friends, we were in each others wedding and traveled Europe together (pre-kids) and we wanted to see them again. So we are planning a long weekend with them, we're going to travel to their house since they just had another baby. And then we decided we know several people in the vicinity, so we're going to visit with them, then take an extra day to visit our orthodontist friends (they were the ones that did our invisalign, how we met them), and then we're going to extend another day to see my Aunt and Uncle. So what was going to be a 4 day trip turned into a 6 day trip. :)

Then we're also doing Yosemite again this year, we're so excited and can't wait! And we decided to stay an extra day, so that's going to be awesome. It's about a 7 hour drive (not stopping), so last year, we drove 3/4ths of the way, spent the night at a hotel, then drove into the Valley in the morning, and had that day, plus a full day the next day and then we left. We felt for how long it took to get there, it wasn't enough time, so we are staying an extra full day, which will be nice.

Step 5 The Little Things:

We plan on taking the kids to the zoo, and Legoland, plus doing lots of pool time and beach time. Can't get enough of that!

So what are your plans this summer? Head over to The Blended Blog to link up your summer plans!

Friday Favorites #167

Hi Foxy Friends! Today is my day off and I'm going to enjoy it. Starting off with a gym dance class with some friends, then we're all taking the kids to the pool for some fun in the sun to start off summer right! So let's get to Friday favorites:

In case you missed it this week:

Monday: 10 favorite places to travel
Tuesday: 5 Tips to Plan The Best Summer Vacation
Wednesday: Rompers are my new favorite
Thursday: How to Make a Pallet Sign 

I also made a video for the pallet sign for those that are more visual learners. I am doing it in two parts, the video was getting too long. The first video is how to make/prep the sign, and part 2 is going to be how to stencil your pallet sign...so stay tuned for that.

Last weekend started off great, with Mini Fox getting her first/last horse back riding lesson. Well last for a bit, we feel like she's a little too young to start, a little expensive for what we're getting out of it, and they want you to spend all of this time at the stables, and this mama is allergic to every thing there.

I'm not sure why they are holding each other, I can't remember, but it's so cute.

Saturday we headed to Legoland. Each year Legoland has Star Wars Legoland days, which we randomly went to last year, but this year we were prepared. Mini Fox wanted to participate in the costume contest, so we brought her Princess Leia costume with us. While she was super gun ho on participating, as soon as she got up there she got super shy and wouldn't talk...but the fact is that she didn't cry, she got up there and rocked it, even if she did forget to smile...haha! She had a blast and wants to do it again next year, that's all that matters, she had fun.

Baby Fox crawled up here and said...Mama, take a picture of me!

Tuesday, was a big day. Baby Fox had a Readers Theater performance and performed two books. It was super cute.

He was peach pie in this book.

Little sister wanted to go and get a picture with him, he obliged, such a good big brother.

 Tuesday night we headed to a play place...why you ask? Our baseball team had the most volunteer hours, so the whole team got a party here.

No fear this one.

She was the ONLY girl that tried to do the warped wall...so proud of her. That's her to the right (from behind she looks so old!)

Baby Fox showed us some cool moves on the trampoline.

The boys were thrilled I was trying to take a picture...

End of school year stuff started Wednesday. I was able to help out with his class party. They walked to a local park and played, threw some water balloons, it was a blast.

Pandemonium when every kid got 3 water balloons, they hadn't yet said go to start throwing.

Last day of school picture, yep he still wants to be a mechanic, just like last year.

Last time dropping him off as a 1st grader.

I was also able to pick him up, which was nice, and he posed for yet another picture.

Then we went for ice cream with the grandparents. So fun to have such a special tradition at the end of the school year.

So now summer of craziness begins! Come back on Monday to find out what our Summer is going to look like!

Linking up here

How To Make Prep A Pallet Sign For Beginners

Hi Foxy Friends! Today I am sharing a project I decided I wanted to do back in March. I don't know how the time escaped me? How does that seem to always happen? I wasn't sure how I was going to do it, and I watched A LOT of YouTube videos and figured I would combine them all together and do whatever the heck I wanted! Okay let's get started.

I did this project for my Aunt who has a wine cellar in her house and she made a tasting room out of it, so I decided to make a sign that says "Good Friend, Good Wine, Good Times". The last time I was at her house I snuck down there and measured how big the space was. So your measurements might vary. Okay let's get to it:

What You'll Need:

4" wide boards x 1" thick Boards (I bought Pine wood, length will vary depending on what you are making)
Wood Strip (thin board to hold boards together)
Stain
Polycrylic
Wood Screws
Foam Brushes
631 Vinyl (or stencil)
Mod Podge
Paint (I chose white)
Sand Paper (small grit, 320)
Spray Sealer

*Let's assume that you have a spot in your home you want this and you vaguely know how big you want your sign, i.e. 30 inches x 16 inches

Directions:

Step 1: This one is important one, go to Home Depot, Lowes or your local hardware store and find the boards that you want. Hint: Home Depot will cut boards for you, as long as you know the length they will cut for you. I know I wanted 4" boards and I wanted them to be 30 inches long. I found a board that I liked the grain in it. I can't remember what I ended up getting. I think I got Maple. Have the guy at your hardware store cut the wood to your specification. You'll also need to pick up a some wood strip, and have them cut that down for you too (if you know the size of your sign, have them cut it to that size)

I knew I wanted 4 boards wide (4 x 4 = 16 inches), wood strip needed to be smaller than that, so I had them cut it to 12 inch lengths.

Now that you have your boards cut for you, head home! Let's get this project started!

Step 2: Sand down the rough edges of the boards, no one wants splinters.



Step 3: Pick a Side and glue

You'll want to pick the side you like the best and have it face down, so you can use the wood strips to attach all of the boards together. I used wood glue to "glue" down the wood strip, but it ended up moving, so I have no idea if you really need this step. I'm fairly certain you don't...

  Step 4: Drill and Screw

I randomly picked out the screw size, based off of how many/the cheapest I could find, it was a pack of 50 and they were #12 screws. I used a drill bit to start my holes, and drilled through the wood strip and part of the wood board. Then I used the drill to screw in the wood screw, I did this on both ends of each board.

Step 5: Sand

I felt like the screws left some of the boards rough, so I sanded the wood around the screws so no one would get any splinters.

Step 6: Stain the boards then wipe

For this project I wanted to use darker stain. I painted the stain on with a foam brush, then after a few minutes I wipe the stain off the boards with some paper towels. You do this because you are not painting the boards, and you want those gorgeous knots to show through. If you don't wipe the stain off you'll be able to see the streaks of stain on your boards.

I of also made a video for those that like to watch directions, and see how it works. I decided to split it up, so here are steps 1 through 6.

Step 7: Print out your stencils,

I used Vinyl 631 and printed out what I wanted to say "Good Friends, Good Wine, Good Times". I used my Cricut, but you could use the Silhouette, or cut it out yourself. Reverse weed your stencil.

Step 8: Attach Stencil

Attach your stencil how you want it on your pallet.

Step 9: Base Coat

This part I think is sort of optional, but for me I don't want to skip it. This part is going to prevent the bleeding under the letters, because we all know that the vinyl and the wood is not perfect. By using this polycrylic base coat, that is what is going to "bleed" under the letters (which is clear), so when you paint, you get crisp lines. I let the polycrylic set for 15 minutes, then I quickly sanded it down, to make sure that the paint had something to stick to. Remember the Polycrylic was for the paint "bleeding" under the letters so you didn't waste your time doing this step.

Step 10: Paint!

Guess what? It's finally time to paint your sign! I used white paint, but you can use whatever color you want. If you look closely, you can see some of the black vinyl looks "wet", but that's the polycrylic. I did have to go over it three times with the paint. Because of how long it took me to get to the end of the sign, the paint from the beginning was dry, so I circled back to the beginning and did it again without having to stop. I went over it three times, to to make sure you couldn't see the stain behind the paint. It did the job, so I'm guessing three is a good number.

Step 11: Take Stencil Off

I waited 10 minutes before taking the stencil off. Mostly I knew that there was paint everywhere and didn't want to risk the wet paint from the outside of the stencil messing up the rest of the sign. I think the end product turned out fantastic! I wish pallet signs matched the decor of my house, so for now I'll have to settle for making them for other people.

Step 12: Seal

I'm not sure how necessary this step is, but I decided I wanted to seal the whole thing. I mean no one wants the paint peeling right? So I used a spray sealer to seal the whole project. I probably could have used the polycrylic from before, but I felt like the spray would be easier to use...It worked great, and I feel better that my sign is sturdy and sealed.


Side note: I did this for a 60th birthday gift. I decided to have the guest of the party sign the back, which was a great keep sake for my Aunt. I tried many different pens out and the ones that worked best? The ones from Michael's that I use for scrapbooking, so no special pens necessary.

What do you think? I think it turned out great! So what sign should I make next?  I'll have the next video with steps 7-12 up next week, so stay tuned!

Linking up here