Party time, Lex style!

Day two of celebrating Lex’s 7th birthday, family party! Family trickled in throughout the day and some joined us for an afternoon trip to a local Safety Day event. There we got kid ID kits (finger prints, vintage Polaroid photos, and a high-tech DNA swab kit!) The kids climbed bouncy things and checked out emergency vehicles, did craft projects, made buttons, and we all enjoyed a great K9 Unit demonstration.

at the safety fair

A beautiful day at the safety fair.

climbing

Eve loved this inflatable obstacle course.

slide

The big slide at the end. That's Eve on the way down and Molly at the top.

finger printing

My dear kids getting finger printed by the cops.

k9

This was the most well behaved dog I've ever seen. Once he did not obey the officer's command so the officer said "In the car." and the dog ran over, jumped through the open window, and sat still until the officer told him to come out again. Doggie time-out. I love it! I wish my kids ever did time-outs that well.

After that we were all tired and sweaty so we came home. Lex headed straight inside to play with the presents he’d gotten so far, while the girls played outside for awhile. Lex opened presents on an as-arrived basis, so there was always something new and interesting for him to play with. He got tons of Legos, of course, and cool origami books and papers, and an awesome microscope kit, and many other fun things. He is a very, very fortunate boy!

sandbox

Back home the girls headed straight for the swings and sandbox, while Lex headed straight for the new toys inside. :)

cookie baby

Ouch, you're biting my head! (This little girl was so cuddly with me all afternoon. Lucky me!)

hugs

Hugs with Mema.

For dinner we had an oatmeal bar. Like a salad bar, or an ice cream bar, but with Lex’s favorite dinner of all time. The dinner he has every night. Oatmeal! We cooked a big pot of oatmeal and put out tons of fixings. The kids had fun! Several grown-ups grumbled, but Lex was happy and it’s his birthday. As we heard earlier, “You get what you get and you don’t get upset,” right?! :)

oatmeal bar

Our oatmeal bar. Lex and I love oatmeal and eat it daily, often twice daily for him!

eves oatmeal

Eve added some of everything to her oatmeal! Including the fruit salad! Not surprisingly, she didn't eat much of it.

Then, because it was getting late, we washed down our creative bowls of oatmeal with a giant, three-layer, bright yellow cake! Lex decided to brave the candle thing as long as there was no singing. Alan started singing something else, not Happy Birthday, and I’m totally blanking on it now, and the crowd joined in. Lex wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. When I put the cake with lit candles on the table the crying won out. He opted to let Eve and Molly blow out the candles while he scooted down to the floor. Silly boy. He happily jumped back up to help us eat the cake. I just now ate a big piece of it (Alan went out for an errand and I’m home alone with a cake… DANGEROUS!) and I can feel the sugar eroding my teeth and hurting my brain. Ahh… I treat myself well.

cake

Cake time! The fondant covering was a last minute idea because I ran out of buttercream frosting and conveniently had lots of extra fondant from tomorrow's Lego cake.

candles

This is the moment he decides he can't handle the situation. His face looks so sweet.

girls

Luckily we had these girls around, always ready to help with candle-blowing-out jobs! (photos of my life are always marred by those darn water bottles!)

cut cake

There he is! Ready to help eat the cake! As requested, a three layer cake with french vanilla, chocolate fudge, and raspberry layers. Covered in bright yellow fondant. It says HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEX around the side and a big 7 on top.

story time

What's a family party without stories with Aunt Katie?

I got the kids in bed easily enough and Lex fell asleep dreaming of how much fun he’s going to have playing with Legos tomorrow. He is getting really quick at following directions and building the sets. For tomorrows’s Lego party (with his friends) we are going to stick to the big buckets of colored Legos and let the kids get creative. I’m getting a bit excited for that party too, but first I need to fold laundry and have a good long (ha!) night’s sleep.

Thanks to those who came today and big eHugs to those who couldn’t make it. We have a pretty amazing family!

Happy 7th to Lex

My baby turned seven today! Seven! You’ve come a long way baby! Recently I was telling him how lucky I was that he came along and made me a mom. I was a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a friend, but the day he was born I became a mother. A very fortunate mother, at that!

Now, seven years later, he is a strong, confident little boy. Succeeding in school, making friends, standing his ground, learning and teaching every single day. I am so proud of the person he is becoming. The son, the brother, the friend that he is.

We started our morning with a few presents and some pancakes. A good way to start any morning really.

birthday morning

A little something for the birthday boy. I like them to have a little something first thing in the morning. :)

bouncy ball

This is an awesome bouncy ball that has glittery stuff in it and lights up when it bounces. Everyone was entranced with it!

He opened his presents very slowly and carefully. Eve wanted him to tear it off, but no.

Lex: I’m trying not to rip the paper.
Eve: Why?
Lex: Because you never know when you’re going to need a piece of wrapping paper.

Ha!

shirt

I got him this Lego man shirt! :) I also got him the ball and two books. One called Science Rocks that he seems to love. :)

pancakes

Pancakes!

Then Lex was off to school with his cookies in hand (well, in box, then in hand). He was so excited! He told everyone on the way in that it was his birthday. Yesterday two of his classmates had birthdays so it has been a birthday week for his classroom. They all coordinated on the treats. Yesterday one kid brought cupcakes and the other brought ice cream, and today Lex brought cookies. When we walked in the whole class was bouncing and eager for a peek! :)

When I picked Lex up from school we had a conversation that cracked me up. It went something like this:

Me: Did everyone like the cookies?
Lex: Yes! Calvin wanted one with a mustache. (Calvin was very excited in the morning to see the mustached cookies.)
Me: Did he get one?
Lex: No.
Me: Why not? Is there a mustached one in the box? (we didn’t pack all of the cookies)
Lex: Yes, there are two. They are both still in the box.
Me: Why didn’t Calvin take one of them?
Lex: I handed them out. “You get what you get and you don’t get upset.” That’s what I told the kids.
Me: HAHAHA (Seriously. Right out loud in the school parking lot.)
Lex: What’s so funny?
Me: You knew he wanted a mustache one and you didn’t give it to him?
Lex: Well, it’s my birthday and I was handing them out and I said, “You get what you get and you don’t get upset.”

The kid is hysterical. He doesn’t at all understand why I think this is funny. I’m sure he just went around the room and handed each kid a cookie. I’m sure the process was much faster than having the kids all dig through the box to find the one they want. I’m sure it was his birthday and he was probably doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing. I still find it hysterical!

When we picked up Eve all of her classmates said Happy Birthday to Lex and we brought her teachers (his old pre-k teachers) some cookies too. I think the teacher likes him. They had talked about it being his birthday today so all the kids knew. :)

Then home to pick up Don and then off to visit Grandma. The visit was nice, but brief because the kids were wild and I was quickly overwhelmed.

grandma

Hugs with grandma. I couldn't get everyone looking in the same direction. Like I said, it was wild over there!

Our plan from there was to go to Panera Bread for dinner, but Lex decided he’d rather go home. I think maybe it had something to do with the fact that Eve had told him FedEx brought him a birthday present today. She really thought it was from FedEx. “How do they know that today is Lex’s birthday?!” she asked me. Kids are awesome.

So instead Alan and his dad went to pick up Panera Bread take-out and I took the kids home to open FedEx presents, which turned out to be an awesome Batman Lego set from Uncle B. Lex took the fastest shower ever and was right back in the living room ready and eager to build the Batmobile!

lego lex

The Batmobile!

At dinner silly me thought it would be fun to put candles on his bagel, no singing, of course. The idea was a bust and left him in tears on the floor. Bad mommy! You’d think after all these years I’d learn! So we removed the candles and enjoyed our take out dinner. Then more Lego building, stories with Eve, cake decorating, and off to bed. It was a wild day. The first of several.

I now have two cakes decorated in the fridge. Lego party goody bags packed and ready to go. Party games prepped. Nothing left to do but clean! Blah! That will be tomorrow morning. I’m a last minute cleaner. No point doing it earlier because it just gets messy again anyway! :) A family party tomorrow. A friend party on Sunday. I think I’d better get some sleep now!

Happy Birthday Lex! You’ve come a long way!

baby lex

Baby Lex

big lex

Big Lex

Another tooth gone!

Lex lost another one today. At school this time. The top right (his right) lateral incisor. It was very wiggly for a few days and he says it fell right out of his mouth while he was walking down the hall. He said it surprised his friend. :) He came home with the tooth in a little blue treasure box, provided by the school nurse.

I just printed off a cute tooth chart from a cute site called Lemon Squeezy. Now I have to go back through the blog (some day, not today!) and write down when he lost the other… six? Seven, maybe? I’m loosing track. Good thing it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of life! :)

Lego cookies

I am getting so excited for Lex’s birthday party this year. I hope I manage to get all of my awesome ideas done before the big day… not likely!

Lex decided he wants to bring Lego head cookies to class this year, instead of cupcakes. With inspiration from much fancier bakers than myself, I got brave enough to give it a shot! This project included hand cutting rollout cookies!

hand cutting cookies

I made a template out of a yogurt lid and hand cut the cookies.

hand cut cookies

Two done... many more to go!

I wish I could take the credit for this idea, but of course, I can not. Check out Sweet Sugar Belle for a great tutorial and much fancier photos.

Handing cutting 40 Lego heads and a tray full of squarish and rectangularish shapes took awhile, but it was worth it! They looked a little odd at first…

baked cookies

All baked, bare and ready for frosting! I could have measured those bricks and made them even and straight edged, but I did not.

cookies

These could be robot heads too! I'll have to save this template. :)

but once I started decorating them… so cute!

decorated

Decorated!

cookies

I was going to be all fancy and find a bunch of Lego faces to copy, but as usual I got lazy and just winged it! Lex helped me think of face ideas. Some came out better than others, but overall I LOVE them!

decorating with marshmallows

We used halved mini-marshmallows for the Lego "bumps" on the squares and rectangles. The kids cut them and put them on the cookies for me.

eating the marshmallows

I'd like to say they ate the marshmallows for me too, but of course I ate my fair share as well! :)

messy blocks

These were super messy! In hindsight I should have skipped the marshmallows, flooded the cookies, then pressed on M&Ms in corresponding colors. That would have looked better and been MUCH easier. Oh well. Next time, right?

more mess

The icing actually settled well and they came out looking pretty good, if you just ignore all the extra icing hanging down the edges. :) I'm sure they will taste just fine!

Far from perfect, but Lex was thrilled and I think his fellow first graders will be equally happy with these.

bagged up

I decided to wrap them individually. This made it easier to put them away (get them off my table before we ate them all!) and I think it will be easier for Lex to manage in school. We're sending in a few extras too, so he can deliver them to other teachers or staff if he wants.

all boxed up

All boxed up and ready to go! This makes me happy. :)

I was crafting a post in my head about “good enough” baking, instead of awesome baking like this, and this, and this. I used to have these blogs in my feed reader, but I had to remove them because I really don’t need a daily dose of adorably decorated sugar cookie inspiration. I really need some “get up and go” inspiration, not “break out the confectioner sugar” inspiration! I decided that “good enough” baking is good enough for me! As long as my “clients” are adorable children then I will better serve them with extra attention and “good enough” baking, instead of no attention and perfect baking!

Stay tuned for my awesome “good enough” cakes! One triple layer and one Lego cake. Bake on!

Chicks in class

I took Lex to school today for the first time in a week and a half. He and Alan have been biking to school and work lately. I miss taking him to school. On my way out I stopped to read the newsletter (darn broken technology makes it so I can’t read the e-version at home!) and I discovered that they are incubating baby chicken eggs in their classroom! And posting updates on Twitter! I was shocked! Lex hasn’t mentioned a thing about it to me. Of course I peppered him with questions when I picked him up this afternoon. Apparently the incubator is in the other classroom and the other teacher is doing the Twitter updates. He said they (the kids) have no done anything with Twitter. I thought it was a Farm/Technology unit all rolled up in one! Anyway, if you’re interested and on Twitter you can follow along with @chicksinfirst.

(Ok, I just checked their twitter feed again and apparently the kids ARE posting!)

A peaceful day and photos from the week

This has to be a quick post, lots going on and hubby is waiting for his turn to get some attention, but first, it’s your turn!

We had a super nice day today. Alan woke up early and took the kids out to breakfast again. I woke up late (7:30am!) and had breakfast and read the paper in peace. Then he texted me and said they were at a playground, so I put on my running clothes and ran over. Literally. We all came home together and the kids went outside to play with Parrish. The three of them had a great time playing together for most of the day! In the early afternoon Eve got tired and opted for quiet time. Then Parrish had to leave for an errand so Lex came in and had some quiet time. We got the wooden train tracks out of storage and Parrish came right over as soon as he got home. They played nicely in the living room all afternoon. I got the floors cleaned (well, as cleaned as they ever get around here!) and step one of the Lego man cookie decorating done. It was a very peaceful day.

outside

Our neighbors have fancy outdoor furniture.

They all sat on this couch for a long time, doing magic tricks, making pipe cleaner flowers, coloring, and just hanging out. Us grownups left them alone (with a mindful eye from at least one of us!) and they enjoyed each others company for the morning.

lunch

Bagels and watermelon for lunch. Yum!

eve

Eve

pet

Eve found a green inchworm and decided to keep it as a pet. Her first pet! She named it "pet" and stuffed the plastic container full of leaves and things. She brought it in with her for quiet time and carried it around all afternoon. Around dinner time she came to me sadly and said she could not see her inchworm in the container. We dumped the whole thing out on the porch and could not find that worm. I wonder where it got to! Hopefully not crawling around her bedroom. She was sad but decided to set up a "trap" (the container laying on its side with fresh leaves inside) to catch herself another inchworm.

lex

Lex "walked" his way from one side of the swingset to the other, swing to swing to swing.

drawing

Eve drawing a picture of herself finding the inchworm.

Ok, I’m out of time. Sorry. The pictures from the rest of the week will have to wait for another day.