Alphabet Soup

While we are talking birthdays....I guess I probably should live up to my New Year's Resolution and post Baby Boy's 3rd birthday party. Seeing as how this party was in January! I wanted to do something easy and different. We went to a local paint your own pottery place, Color Me Happy.  The boys love going there and when we went over Christmas break I had the idea to have his party there. They gave each child the letters in their name to paint. After they fired them and wired them together, I picked them up and delivered them. I didn't even have to make favor bags! I LOVED going home and having nothing to clean up!!! He was so excited before the party, but it was overwhelming to be the center of attention. He ended up crying and being held by someone the whole time. He did NOT like having Happy Birthday sand to him. Silly boy!

 Cute alphabet birthday shirt from curious georgia on Etsy.

 Painters hard at work!

 Poor JT had more letters than anyone, so Mama ended up helping!

He was so perseverant.

 Birthday cupcakes!

 My favorite picture of the day! 

 The party goers!

His favorite present.

Monster Truck Birthday

Well, it seems that when you turn 5, it is a HUGE deal. JT has been talking about his birthday since January. His birthday was March 24. I have had to hear about this birthday daily. "I am NOT inviting so-and-so to my birthday party because he tore my name tag." Not getting invited to someone's birthday party is obviously the worst of worst put downs when you are 4. He wanted monster trucks as the theme. Now, the kid doesn't even watch Monster Jam. I tried and tried to convince him to go with a cute theme. Pirates? No. Super Heroes? NO. Legos? NO! Ok, fine. Ugly monster trucks it is.
I was determined not to have a Gravedigger anything. The days of cute birthday parties is almost over. I plan to stretch it out as long as possible. Pinterest to the rescue. I LOVE Pinterest. Did I tell you I LOVE Pinterest? It took some searching, but I managed to pull together some cuteness. Etsy is a lifesaver for busy moms. I ordered everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. I am learning that my time and sanity is worth just letting someone else do something. It really did turn out cute, and he had a blast, which is what really matters. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have. I was busy hostessing! I never got pictures of the front porch that we decorated with checkered flag bunting. We also strung it up all over the inside of the house. Oh well!

 Waiting for his guests to arrive!

 Favor boxes. Oriental trader boxes filled with another checker flag, monster truck bubbles, a monster truck bouncy ball, monster truck tattoos, and a plastic wrist band with racing themed words stamped in. All from Oriental trading. A monster truck iced cookie, made by me. Awesome hang tags made by my friend in Idaho. When she finally opens her etsy shop, I'll share the link!

 Wall banner made by above mentioned friend. Table runner from the Dollar Tree. Safety cones from Oriental trader and some monster trucks. He loved the banner. I am thinking about hanging up the bottom part in his playroom.

 Spare tires, aka. chocolate mini donuts from Target! Stolen from Pinterest.

 I had planned on dipping these pretzel rods in chocolate, but ran out of time. Alas...

 The birthday boy in front of the gift table. We put his presents in the center of the table as they arrived. I love these checkered flag plastic tablecloths I found at the Dollar Tree. Love that place for party stuff!

 Custom Birthday Shirt from Etsy. How cute is this? I ordered it from shababe and the quality is excellent! I will definitely order more customs from her! He LOVED his shirt so much he has worn it to school 2x already!

 Invites made by another friend. If she decides to start selling her creations, I will link her too!

 Blowing out his candles. I probably should have just gotten a 5 candle because they didn't really want to fit!

 How awesome are these cupcakes? Toppers came from cookiecovers on Etsy. They came in a box that was pretty enough to be its own gift! My friend from Idaho made the checkered flag wraps.

Monster truck tire painting. We had planned to do an obstacle course outside, but it was raining! I had found several cute games but they were fine acting like wild children racing the monster trucks around the house. It was a hectic day, but so worth the stress. I would say he will always remember this birthday.

Resolution 2012...Make the time to blog

Yeah, like that'll happen with any consistency! no really, I am going to try.

Life has been full of lots and lots of drama since I have last blogged. House burned down. Yes, my house burned to the ground. I plan to have a lot to say to help someone who is going through the unthinkable get past it. There are so many things that I wish someone had told me.

The eldest was hurt very badly in a car accident in November. He has a long road to recovery ahead of him, but he will be just fine.

Fun day we had over Christmas break. Lunch at our favorite place to eat on the water. It is not a meal without a trip to the dock.

so. incredibly. tired.

I am not cut out for having a full time job and a full time family. I am beat down. School started and things have been crawling along.
Work...laundry...clean...cook...laundry... bathe little people...laundry...paperwork... laundry...stories...bedtime...laundry...pack daycare bags and lunches...shower...fall into bed hopefully at 10...alarm at 5:30...repeat. Funtimes.
Then The Wild Indian and I were gifted the stomach virus. Now...I just can't catch up. Grrrrrr.

Summertime

It has been soooooo incredibly hot this summer. The farthest they have gotten from the AC this week has been trips to the back porch to blow bubbles. Really, it is too hot to do much of anything outdoors, even the fun park pool. I am bribing the kids with a pool trip tomorrow IF they help get their room clean today. I have high hopes :)

This has been one busy summer. It seems I have accomplished much of nothing. Repaint the house project= epic fail. Get organized project=epic fail. The big thing I did get done was getting my pesky gallbladder out. I feel so much better. I highly recommend gallbladder removal :) In my extremely incoherent, relaxation cocktail state, I asked them to save my stones so that I could show my mom. Now I have a pee cup full of gallbladder stones. What do I do with them now? Jewelry has already been suggested. Um...no.

During our hot, hot summer stuck in the AC, I have been making observations. I thought I'd share a couple. When a toddler runs, they look like a person doing an over the top impression of a drunken, gay man running. Apparently, 20 pairs of underwear are not enough to last a 3 year old 2 days, because you are supposed to change them every. single. time. you go to the bathroom.

He's Found His Calling

JT appears to have aspirations to become a painter. He did this in less than 10 minutes. I was making the dinner of champions, DiGorno's cheese pizza, and he was creating a masterpiece. He had announced that he needed to pee, because it is necessary to announce it to everyone in earshot when you are 3. I realized that he had not come back to announce that he was "done" and he was quiet. NOT good. So I send the Wild Indian to go check on him. He comes running back into the kitchen yelling, "JT is in BIG trouble!" I began to smell the stench of trim paint about halfway there. Here is what I found. Note the discarded jean shorts and resistance ball on the floor. I ave NO clue how he got the paint opened.

The conversation went a little something like this.

Me: "WHAT DID YOU DO!!!???"

JT: "I painting."

Me: "WHY" (Like a 3-yr-old can tell you why)

JT: "I helping."

It is high-gloss trim paint. I washed as much off as I could (off of the wall AND off of him.) Now I have to sand, prime with a sealer stuff, and repaint. Yeah me!!!!! Its been 3 weeks and I just don't have the fortitude to fix it yet.

Blocks

Just have to say that it is wonderful to watch the little boys paying in a tub of assorted building blocks that belonged to the big boys whe they were little. Now if they would just stop busting up the creations with a toy hammer and drumstick, I might be able to think.