the time has come

Well, it's official. I have a kindergartner.

sad/happy day?

Today Logan and I went over to his school so we could register him for kindergarten. he is so excited. I am having mixed emotions. I am so proud of him, he is such a smart, sweet guy, but sad that he is growing up so fast. I feel like his life is on fast forward. (If something has to be on fast forward I wish it would be Steve's schooling!) We got to meet his teacher, and she seemed great. Afterwards I took him school shopping, and he doesn't seem to understand that we aren't going to buy him every single thing he wants. He had a bit of a melt down when I made him get the plain tennis shoes instead of the iron man ones. (why do mamas have to be so darn practical?)

Logan is 5?

Logan's 5th birthday party. what can I say. It was fun, exciting, and I am glad it is over!

Logan is extremely into sea animals and he asked for a ocean party. So I set to work, and it was a lot of work. With Steve in school and all, we are broke and I had to use my imagination and make as much as possible myself. (I actually like that part!) Everything (I think) that was bought, was bought through oriental trading. The cake is beyond words. It was painstakingly made by good friends of ours (who also made Bronson's bug cake).

For decorations I wanted it to look like we were under water so we hung crepe paper across the room and then every ten feet or so we ran fishing line under the crepe paper, higher than the crepe paper, so that it would pull it up and give it a "wave" effect. I had purchased some inflatable sea animals from oriental trading, and one had a hole, so they sent me a second set. So we ended up with twice the number of inflatables than we purchased. These were mostly hung from the ceiling so we could be swimming amongst them.

For food we had a table with a wide variety, from 'octopus' (hot dogs) to peanut butter and 'jellyfish' sandwiches. For the adults we had 'submarine' sandwiches. We had fish scales (potato chips) and more. some more creative than others.

The cake. oh wow. let me just show you!





I told you! The Morris's were so accommodating, they put on every. single. thing. that Logan asked for. Even the saw fish that was last minute! My personal favorite was the puffer fish, though I also thought the squid was especially cute. look at that cute little crab!
Alright, on to the party games. We had a table set up with brown paper bags and ocean stickers and letters and such for the kids to decorate as their goody bags. (yeah, that was a mess!) Each child got to personalize them and collect their loot for later.

We had a 'cake walk' type game where the kids walked around stepping on ocean animals (that I had printed off the computer colored, cut out, laminated, and cut out again). As a prize for 'winning' each child got an ocean animals memory game (That I had also printed off the computer, cut out, laminated and cut out again).

How could you have an ocean party without doing a little fishing? I took some blue fabric (that I had on hand) and hand sewed seaweed and ocean animal silhouettes onto ( I actually have a sewing machine, that Steve got me for Christmas last year, but I am too intimidated to try it out yet!) The seaweed I left raw so it would fray, but I didn't want the ocean animals to fray so I mod podged them before cutting them out. Worked really well, much harder to sew on. Took me days and days. (Logan is now using this as a curtain in his room). The kids fished for beach ball sea animals that were purchased from oriental trading. again we had some that didn't work and were sent an entire additional set, so we still have too many floating around our house. It was nice to have so many extra though because each child got to fish for what they wanted and no one was disappointed.
It was crazy during party time, luckily we had a lot of family in town who were willing to help out, made such a difference. Logan had a great time and he told me that he wants an ocean party again next year. oh well, at least we already have all the decorations!

School's out!

Hey all, I am now done with school and should have more time to blog and catch up on things. I loved going to school and did really well, (4.0, actually!). However, instead of continuing into this fall I have decided to wait until Bronson is in kindergarten (another 2 years). This semester was really, really hard on them, and I want to be able to take classes when they are in school. (Lets just say that Bronson rebelled to not having mama home in a #2 way. gross)

Now that the semester is over it is on to the hard stuff. Like getting my house back in order! and catching up on months of not blogging.

some things I still need to post about; Logan's awesome birthday party, our hiking adventures, Tarzan at Tuacahn, and some school stories. I know it all sounds so exciting, how will you wait!

Right now we are enjoying having 2 of Steve's sisters visit with us, we have them till Saturday, then maybe, just maybe, we will start getting things back to normal around here!

intimidation

I am taking summer classes at dixie right now.

So intimidated.

Haven't been to school in nearly a decade.

I feel too old to learn anything new.

Wish me luck! ( and steve too, as he is home with the boys while I am in class)

$15? really?

My sister recently told me about this awesome website (well, awesome service, crappy site) It is called Bountiful Baskets. Have you heard about it? Am I the last to know? Just in case I am not, I thought I would share the info with all 2 of you that read this.

This past Saturday we loaded the kids in the car and drove over to the pickup site, we volunteered for a few minutes helping to sort produce, then we went home with our own basket. You get half fruit / half veggies. This is our haul from Saturday.


$15. serious.

let me break it down for you.

1 head of lettuce
1 coconut
2 cucumbers
2 squash
1 bag of carrots
5 avocados
3 oranges
11 tomatoes
8 peaches
8 apples
9 bananas
1 clamshell of blackberries
1 clamshell of strawberries

$15!

Are you as impressed as me? okay, maybe it is just me. lol.

Just in case anyone else IS interested, here is how it works.

on Monday (usually after 4pm) go to http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/ and set up an account. pick your location and pay for your basket, then on Saturday bring a laundry basket or box. easy. try it. let me know what you think.

sneak peek

With Logan's birthday just around the corner, I have been keeping myself busy working on his 'ocean animals' party. I still have some things to work out, like invites, but for the most part I have it pretty well squared away. We have some fun things planned, and I think it is gonna be a cute party. Here is a sneak peek on what I have been working on lately.

You can't have an under the sea party without a fishing game, right? This is the curtain I have been working on, and the best part is it didn't cost us anything, I had every bit on hand already from previous projects. Can't beat free! I just had to include this pic. how cute is that?? I especially love that I don't have to change bums anymore, yea Bronson!

One more pic, Bronson randomly started making this face, happened to catch it on camera. silly boy.