Lego Late Over Birthday Party

 

 The parties just keep coming around here!  

After a small celebration for my dad who turned 70 (hooray!!) we moved on to Greg turning.....

  

Since we like birthdays to drag out forever, we started on Friday by me bringing in cupcakes to share with his class at school.

  

He got to wear the birthday "necklace" and obviously loved hearing his class sing to him!

 

 That night he invited some of his good friends over for a 

LEGO LATE OVER!!! 

Miss Natalie over at Natty Sue Designs made this awesome invite for us:

We did a similar party like this for Graham's 8th birthday also.  

It's a really fun theme that the boys love and not too stressful for me.  Which is what I needed!  

I am getting better and better everyday, but I'm no where near 100% yet so I am still trying to take it easy!

 

Dan put up some simple decorations and the boys set up the tables and chairs for me.  

As the boys arrived they played with a huge pile of Legos and waited for the rest of their friends.  

 Dan & Lauren went and picked up pizzas and breadsticks.  

We had 2 slices left over!

 

Hungry boys!

 We played a few Lego games...the first was where they sat in a circle and started building for 1 minute.  When the time was up, they passed their creation on to the next person who added onto it. 

 

After about 7-8 turns, the last person had to explain to the group what the creation was/used for.  We got some REALLY creative and unique explanations.  It was hilarious!

 Next up?  Lego Chopsticks!  

They had one minute to see how many Lego's the could pick up using the chop sticks.   We did this a few times, they loved this game!

Last up was the Lego Memory Game.  I put some odds and ends on a cookie sheet and they all had a short amount of time to look at the objects.  We then took the objects away and they had to write down what they remembered.

Lauren totally WON this game.  The boys were super sore losers to find out that a 5 year old girl smoked them.  Too bad, so sad.  

We all went downstairs to watch the Lego movie, Clutch Powers  

Have you seen it?  It's awesome!  The boys were mesmerized!  

We came up later for cupcakes and ice cream.   

 

I have gotten more use out of this cupcake stand, I love it!

I found these awesome Lego minifigure and brick molds on ebay

to make the cupcake toppers out of melted chocolate. 

 

I used the brick mold for crayon favors, really easy!

 

 I think the boys, and most importantly, Greg, had a great time!

 We are so happy that he has such a great group of friends.  They are all so fun and nice to each other.  

Happy 8th Birthday Gregory John!  We love you! 

Birthday Girl

Lauren had preschool the day before her birthday and celebrated there with her little friends.   

She was thrilled to get a pink crown, balloon and be the special helper that day. 

 

Two weeks ago, Lauren and I sat down and put together little treat bags to hand out to her friends at school.  Each had a cupcake, shape ruler, stickers and party horn. 

 We started off her birthday with her favorites for breakfast, pancakes! 

Not so easy to make a pancake in the shape of a 5, but Dan managed to pull it off.

She wanted one of her favorite friends, Miss P to come over and have a play date.  They are so cute together, they like painting their nails and playing Barbies.  They wanted to make Fairy Houses so they worked on that for awhile.

 Lauren and I made a cake for that night.  I saw this beautiful rose cake on the Farm Chicks blog and we decided to copy that.  It was SUPER easy to do and I thought it turned out darling!

So pretty for a Valentine week birthday celebration! 

I love this red cake stand my sister in law, Kelly gave me. 

 Pink wasn't enough, so Lauren asked to put sprinkles all over it.  We usually have birthday dinners with grandma and grandpa but I still wasn't feeling that hot and making this cake was about all I could do.  They came over later instead for cake and ice cream and to open presents. 

She made a BIG wish.  And wouldn't tell a soul. 

I was worried with my not being anywhere near back to normal yet that this might be a cruddy birthday for her.  It was low key but perfect and I think she still had a wonderful day answering telephone calls and opening up presents from her cute cousins.  

I'm still a little in shock that my baby is now FIVE!!

It seems like were JUST celebrating her first birthday last week!  

5th Birthday Fairy Party

After many weeks of counting down, Lauren has turned FIVE!! 

 Hip hip hooray!  

We started out the party weekend with some of her friends over for a Fairy party.  

Her nanny bought her a new birthday dress when I was in the hospital and it matched her party colors perfectly.  She was so excited to wear it!

My good friend Natalie, at Natty Sue Designs made these really cute invites for me. 

Let me stress that I sat almost the entire party.  Dan was the best Fairy King one could ask for.  I had almost everything purchased and ready to go prior to my surgery, so all he had to do was implement it.  

We forgot a few things.  I didn't have half as many decorating details as I normally do for my kids parties.  

NO ONE NOTICED.  

Lesson learned!!

 We started out making fairy houses.  

I found the cardboard bird houses online at Hofcraft for .83 cents each and bought some rhinestone stickers for the girls to put on.  I also had some silk flowers to glue on. 

  Dan's sisters, Sarah and Jaylene drove up to help with the party. 

Lauren pretty much idolizes Jaylene so she was thrilled to have her there. 

 They played a few games like Pin the bow on Tinkerbell (a poster I bought at Wal-Mart with pictures of bows I printed out online) and Hot Potato (with a fairy wand)

I pretty much recycle games for every kid party, just changing it up to fit the theme.  Lazy or smart, I can't decide.

Each of the girls got a set of glittered fairy wings to wear and keep.  They looked so cute running around the house wearing those! 

 Since there was a fiasco of 3 little girl parties in the neighborhood that day, we did the cake, presents at ice cream early, since some girls had to leave early and some got their late.  

We did a pinata downstairs.  I think I'm totally over pinatas.  

Too much stress wondering who will get whacked in the head. 

Making a very big wish on her flower cupcake!

At the end we had a little extra time and the girls watched Secret of the Wings downstairs while we waited for parents to pick up.  It was a really fun party!   

As sad as it was for me to sit there and not do much, I'm really glad we went ahead with having it.  You can't really cancel a 5 year old party without years of regret and therapy now, can you?

Ending the Year

We went over to my parents house for dinner.  My dad still wasn't feeling all that hot so we had the kids open presents in their room so he could be around all the excitement with the kids.  

We decided that we had enough toys around this house to last us awhile and thought a family membership to the local rec center would be a fun family gift.  But just telling the kids that would be sort of boring. 

 

So I wrapped up three presents.  Each one had an envelope with a puzzle in it, and they had to open the those in a certain order.

 Putting together the first puzzle...

 

 Lauren's envelope had $500 cash in it (for the membership...)  This explains her huge reaction and her thinking that the money was hers for a brief second.

 Another puzzle asking if they could guess what all that money was for.

 And the third puzzle telling them it was for the rec center.  They were SO excited!  They love going there and it will cover going to the outdoor pool in the summer as well.  

So it was all a bit silly, but prolonged the anticipation of opening up a gift and they were thrilled at what was inside when they finally figured it out!

 They made a New Years cake all by themselves.  I let go and walk away, letting them have total control in the kitchen.  They had so much fun baking, frosting and decorating our 2013 cake!

  Singing Happy Birthday to the New Year and making a New Years wish!  

I can't believe it's 2013! 

 I hope all your New Years wishes come true!

Happy New Year!

Who is excited to start a New Year?  

I AM! 

2012 has seemed like a long, bumpy road to me and while I think the beginning of 2013 will be the same, at least I can see the end in sight! 

Things I have learned this year, some lessons are new and some are just more of some old ones.

• Stop trying to please people.  Either people will like you or they won't.  If they don't, it's okay.  
• Real friends are not that easy to come by the older you get.  Treat the friendships you have with love & quick forgiveness. 
• Having a child who learns differently than the pack of sheep at school is a blessing, it has taught me patience and admiration for brilliance of doing things outside the box.
• Never turn down the invitation to snuggle with your son.   
• Make overs done by a 4 year old will turn out better than the time you wore full make up with blue eyeshadow at girls camp .
• Losing weight is fun.  Hard, but fun.
• Noticing your neck is aging is not fun.
• Getting the giggles when you're supposed to be quiet never gets old.
• I need to keep my mouth shut and listen more than I talk.
• Feeling closer to God happens more outside of church than in it.  Enjoy those moments no matter where & when they happen. 
• Be grateful every day for the amazing and handsome man I married.   
• Be grateful every day for the family and life we have made together.  Glamorous or not, it's ours.  
• Stop wasting time. Wasting time doing things I don't like to do.  Spend time doing things that I want or are good for my marriage, my family.  In my head I am still 20, but the reality is, I need to do things now before the opportunity passes by and I'm too old and it's too late.  I have never once regretted kissing a stranger on top of the Eiffel Tower. Would I do that now?  Of course not, but I am so glad I did when I COULD!  

I wish you the happiest of New Years!  We are celebrating by finally having our Christmas dinner with my dad now home from the hospital, the kids are busy baking the New Year a cake and we might get crazy and play a new board game Santa brought us.  Perfect night to me! 

What are your New Years plans?  What have you learned this year?

 

Catching Up

Last I posted we were having a grand time with the kids being off track.  Then two days later I ended up in the emergency room.  

If you are ever trying to make it to the emergency room in a hurry - do not have your mother drive you.  She will go into panic/auto mode which will make her car drive you to the nearest shopping center.  :)

I've been having problems with my gallbladder for about a year now and finally was scared into avoiding anything and everything that might aggravate it.  No cheese, butter, creamy stuff, sauces, very little dairy...you get the picture.  Which has resulted me losing a considerable amount of weight - but the more I lost, the more frequent the attacks.  So that sucker came out the next morning and the after 1 painkiller and a weekend at home, I was feeling great!  

Dan took pictures - this is where that picture would go if I wasn't horrified by this. 

GROSS.

It's nice not to feel scared of when that might happen to me again!

We celebrated Graham's 10th birthday!  

 

He didn't want a big party this year, just to go to Boondocks with his 2 best buddies.  We had a blast and it was a great birthday for him!  

We are so proud of Graham, he is such a sweet and considerate boy and is a grand negotiator.  He can always think of five different ways to do something better or more efficiently.  

(If only he would apply this to his room cleaning skills, right?)

 

And smart!  He was selected to attend the gifted science symposium with our school district in the spring and he is so excited about that!

And since we needed more excitement in our lives with such a boring month (ha!) we bought this precious girl.  Meet Miss Darcy, Duchess of Knightsbridge!  She is a King Charles Cavalier and is the sweetest puppy!  

Cavaliers come from England - and if they were good enough for Queen Victoria, they are good enough for me.  

Thus the name "Darcy" (get it...as in THE Mr. Darcy, but.. she's a girl)  and I am obsessed with all things English.  Knightsbridge was a favorite area of mine to spend a Saturday afternoon when I lived in London.  

We looked for about a year to find the dog in the breed we wanted and a tri-color (at the right price!)

Isn't she the sweetest?  We love her to death!  I will love her even more when she stops biting my toes and eating Lauren's headbands.