a pirate's life for me

We did a Pirate theme for L's birthday this year, and invited some neighbors over to enjoy some celebrating. This was my first time (technically second, if you count Lady-LE's party here) planning a kid birthday party and I loved thinking about the details. Wish I could have done more!

We have made some amazing friends here in our neighborhood,  and mostly just kept it low-key to enjoy those friendships. All together we had 15 kids (ranging from 1-6 I think) and 16 adults. It was absolutely wonderful to have dear friends help me throughout the party, to see the support we offer one another. My goodness - my life is better because of these people! 

One of two tables of food. I really enjoy doing these photo numbers, and think it'll become a tradition. So fun to catch glimpses of how fast they grow! 

And can I just brag about two very important friends of the night? One made that seriously ridiculous treasure-chest cake in the middle there for L, and the other graciously took pictures of the whole party so that I didn't have to stress about capturing moments. She has an awesome artistic eye for precious "mommy moments" and I am forever grateful that I get to keep these photos to remind me of the great fun we had together! Both these women are amazing, and I am incredibly thankful for them!! 

 More food pictures. I mean really - check out that cake!! Just for record sake, here was our menu:

Hot dog Schooners for kids & Sub sandwiches for adults

Shark Salad: watermelon slices

Pirate Jewels: fruit kabobs

Captain L's Banana Bread Boats: banana bread muffins (per L's request. He doesn't like cake/cupcakes!)

Gold Nuggets: cheese cubes

Plank Cookies: nutty bars

Pirate Rope: licorice 

Parrot Food: dried fruit & nuts

Cannon Balls: donut holes

Mermaid Kisses: hershey kisses

Pirate's Booty: rolos & hershey nuggets

 Catch of the Day: goldfish crackers

Salty Bones: pretzel sticks

Sharks & Minnows: swedish fish (I tried looking for those gummy sharks everywhere!)

Sea Water: water bottles

Dead Man's Punch: squeezits

It was a fun menu, and we didn't have any crazy amount of leftovers besides banana bread muffin - but I had made FOUR batches of those. My family could literally eat an entire batch in one day, so we do not mind the leftovers at all. And many of the kids came up to me and told me the muffins were their favorite.  Score!

 Our only "game" was a treasure hunt. SO FUN! I'll admit, my clues were way too long for kids. I just couldn't stop the rhyming! They went to six different spots, and found pieces of pirate stuff at each place: eye patch, hook, hat, sash, and ending with a treasure chest full of chocolate gold doubloons. I must say, my husband has THE coolest pirate voice in the world. L was completely entranced, and I was giggling like a school girl. :) 

 Then inside to open presents. Note to self: at next party, do not sit in the middle of the kids to help the birthday boy. My ears were ringing for a few hours from all the yelling. Whew! 

We have such thoughtful friends, and once again I cannot express my gratitude for everyone!

The rest of the time we dug for pirate goodies in the sandbox, walked the plank, and ran around. 

And one more picture of the cake before we cut into it. It tasted as good as it looked, and I was surprised to not have very much leftover by the end of the night! Seriously people, that is one awesome cake! 

And my all-time favorite picture of the night: me and my boy!! I can't believe he is FOUR and we all had a blast together at the party. I'll do a catch-up on his technically real birthday soon, and try to explain his crazy-fun personality then. He certainly keeps us on our toes and we love having him apart of our family. 

Love you L!!

easter

Easter weekend landed on L's birthday weekend too, which meant we had a busy three days! But we loved it, and enjoyed some time with friends in the middle of it. 

L-man lining up with the bigger kids at our neighborhood egg-hunt. 

 LE didn't need any coaching at all she just joined right in.

 She took her responsibility very seriously.

 The boys made off pretty well too - and Daddy even won the huge jar of jelly beans by guessing the closest number. Score!! 

 

 Surprisingly LE wasn't scared of the huge bunny-man ... I think I was! 

 Every kid got to pick out an ice cream treat from an ice cream truck afterwards, and this was the first time LG has eaten an entire popsicle. We played and sat with some great friends of ours who we love! 

 Once again, LE needed no coaching. This girl loves anything sweet. And she was a complete mess at the end of it all. 

 Later that day we went to a good friend's house for another egg hunt, and enjoyed a great potluck dinner with great friends. 

 There were a ton of people there, and we all just sat on blankets and ate, talked, and played with kids. It is so wonderful to have good friends!

 Easter Sunday

 These azaleas are blooming everywhere around here!  

What a doll!! 

L-man got a birthday crown in Primary, and was kind enough to share his fruit snacks with his sister. 

It was definitely a good Easter! 

four years old

L-man is four! 

 The morning of his birthday - he walks down the stairs, and about half way he stops, gasps, and says in such a soft voice I could hardly hear him "is it my birfday?" And then he is super calm as he walks around the couch and kicks a couple of the balloons. No crashing, no running, no yelling. Who is this kid?! He was just saving it up for when his friend popped by, and then they both went nuts. 

 We went on a special trip in the morning to a fun library in Uptown - but to make it special we rode the train for the first time! 

L-man was completely mesmerized by it. For almost the entire 20-minutes it took us to get to Uptown he sat like this.

 (side note - I really liked doing a special outing like this with just me and the kids. Typically I try to save these 'unique' trips for when R can join us ... but that doesn't happen very often and I need to take the initiative to do it by myself more often.) 

 The return leg of the trip wasn't quite so captivating, and L-man found ways to entertain himself with little sister. ha!

The rest of the afternoon was low-key, but full of play times. We chatted with lots of family, opened presents while doing facetime with some of them, and played outside in the new-to-us sand table. 

L-man is growing so much. Preschool has been wonderful for him, and he loves to ask questions (and argue the answer ...). He is incredibly particular about small details (e.g. only girls can be cute. boys are always handsome), and is very ... intense about life. He will randomly tell me he loves me everyday, and loves to tell his entire life story to anyone willing to listen. He is crazy rough when wrestling; and he will argue with his little sister all afternoon, and then be the first and strongest defender of her if he feels she's being treated badly by anyone else. He loves to sing primary songs, and preschool songs (although I can't understand what he's saying in them), be silly, and write his name on everything. Peach yogurt and banana bread are by far his favorite foods, and wants to play with friends all the time. Every day we experience every emotion, and every day is an adventure. We love him so much and are grateful he is in our family! Here are a few of my favorite pictures of him from this past year:

(blurry, yet perfect for him)

We love you L-man! 

Happy Birthday!

march wrap up

 Needing to do a little catch up, and wanted to share these few pictures from way back in March. 

Kind of a while ago, but oh well. I'm working on it ... 

 Teaching L how to blow away 'wishing flowers' -- we're getting there. 

 We love our bike rides, especially in the warm sunshine with short sleeves on! 

 Working on the back yard a little bit and enjoying some pretty blue flowers. Any idea of what these are? It's a vine-type flower, and it will seriously takes over if you allow it to. 

 Enjoying the blooms of springtime on some neighborhood walks. Our spring was really early this year, and lasted a long time. 

Our neighborhood just replaced this playground - but the kids enjoyed it as long as they could and we're excited about the new one opening soon! 

folly beach

We just finished a week of no-work for Ryan and it was glorious. It included a little trip down to Charleston and Folly Beach in celebration. There are lots of pictures to share, but I need to get our house in order and finish a couple of higher-priority tasks first. We could seriously live by the water for the rest of our lives if it were possible. Maybe someday we'll get lucky, because it was fabulous. 

Beach trip in March? Yes, thank you!

"my dad"

L's preschool did a mock Father's Day since they don't have school in June. All the dads were invited for "Donuts with Dad" and they talked about fathers, made portraits of their own father out of a paper plate and construction paper, and learned about different jobs out there that dad's might have. Even though R couldn't go, L still had a great day and came home bearing gifts for his dad. One of those was a questionnaire that L gave the answers to. I loved seeing the way he views his dad! And I quote:  

 "My Dad"

My Dad's name is   Ryan   .

I call him   Dad  .

He is   8   years old.

He has   brown   eyes.

He has   blonde   hair.

His favorite sport is   wrestling  .

While I'm at school he    plays with mommy and Lady-LE  .

His favorite thing to do is   work - he makes sick people better. 

He is really good at   sleeping through the night  .

I like for him to play   wrestling   with me.

It makes me laugh to think about what sticks out to him. We've chatted about the things you get to do when you're eight years old lately, so it's been on his mind. And we pray every night that L and Lady-LE will sleep all through the night, so naturally Daddy must be very good at that. Wrestling is by far L's favorite thing in the world to do with his dad, if you can't tell. And I can hear exactly how L would describe his dad's 'favorite thing to do:' go to the "hostible" to "help feel sick people all better", and can see his teachers translating that into understandable structure. 

Oh I love this little boy. And I love his Dad even more. Definitely lucky to have these men in my life.