The Lego Party

I'm still recovering from the weekend of events and company. YES, I know it is Friday! Everything is taking 3 times as long these days. We had Mr. H's party here on Saturday and what a great success! The boys from his class are freaking adorable, and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute with them. I kept seeing every little moment as snapshots that we would look back on in 12 years of these men as babies. We have pictures of my brother and his friends as little guys and their round baby faces I knew so well as adults. My mom said "you are going to turn around and these little guys will be here for their prom!" Probably don't have to mention the tears that came along with that conversation!

We handed the boys their little take-out box of legos as they walked in the door. They grabbed them, plopped themselves down on the floor and started making really great cars! I thought they would need some help, but not one of them asked for any help at all. Here are some shots of the race track Marc made.

I had imagined each race would have a winner, who would get a prize, and then we would discuss WHY that car was the winner, and "which tires go faster?", and "why do you think that car won??" yeah, NO. It was so incredibly loud with their screams, and they were jumping up and down and racing each other to get back to the head of the track. It was great! He made the whole track out of scrap pieces we had around, and propped it on a plastic shelving unit from the basement.

Want to see the pictures of my awesome lego cake with fondant icing?? Yeah, I chickened out AGAIN, and ordered cupcakes from my favorite place in town - St. Cupcake (or St. Crackcake, as I like to call them), and OOOOOOh were they delicious. Thank goodness I decided to do that as Baby O. decided to stay up most of the night before, and I was practically delirious by the time the party rolled around anyway.

GREAT list

This is a really great, great list of beautiful toys that I wish my kids had grown up playing with. We tried really hard to go the "no plastic" route, but failed pretty miserably! If you are doing any holiday shopping for little ones, you should definitely check out this site first!

Lord England

LOOOVE this! I could watch it over and over and over. It is too freaking funny. OH MY!

I grew up with this guy, and adore him and his lovely wife!

LEGO birthday party!

My sweet little baby Henry is turning SIX YEARS OLD next week. How can this possibly be?? We usually have pretty huge birthday parties for the kids - I'm not talking about pony rides and hired musicians and that sort of nonsense, but we usually invite all of our friends, and really 'do it up' as I've heard they say in the South. I'll post some of the parties we've done later as they were great fun! This year we are having a Lego party for Mr. H., and limiting the guest list to family and the boys in his class. It is always hard having a birthday at the beginning of the year - the big friendships haven't been formed yet, and it is awful to exclude anyone. Luckily, there are 8 boys in his class, and we can invite them all.
We went to the Lego store and bought a package of a million wheels and axles and such, along with tons of loose Legos. Each little guy (and Miss Mae, she keeps reminding me) will get the same amount of Legos and wheels from which to fashion some sort of vehicle with which we will have races! My husband (a self proclaimed 'gear head') spent most of last weekend making a ramp with three lanes, complete with giant numbers shouting out the lanes, for the boys to race their Lego cars. It looks fantastic, and I hope the kids love it as much as Marc does! The boys can then take home their car and leftover Legos, as well as any 'prizes' they win during the races, as their party favors.
As I am NOT a baker, and I usually am focused on the other components of the kids' parties, I've never even attempted to make their cakes. Every year I toy with the idea, then think, "Hell, people do this for a LIVING. Let's buy one." We've had gorgeous ones in the past, including cupcakes with cherry blossoms, a volcano oozing with melted redhots and covered with dinosaurs, and a treasure chest with candy necklaces and gold coins spilling out... But I'm really excited about the idea of actually making a cake this year! I'm not going to go crazy and actually make the cake from SCRATCH or anything, but I'm going to stack pieces into the shape of a couple of giant Legos, and MAKE FONDANT FROSTING! YES!! I've always wanted to, and I think this is a nice baby step - just a big rectangle with a couple of cylinders on top, right?? My friend is coming to the rescue with all of the cake pans and expertise. Plus I've been searching the internet for instructions on fondant. This is a great tutorial: Joe Pastry -scroll down a bit to get to the layer cake instructions.
I looked up a million other Lego cakes, but they are almost always made with a spread cream frosting, and just look messy! I love buttercream frosting, but a Lego should really be completely smooth i think. I'm going to give it a try. if it turns out terribly, I'll run to the store, get a sheet cake, and make a Lego vignette on top!!

Isn't it funny?

Isn't it funny that when you have your first child it seems SO incredibly overwhelming, and you can't fit in a shower, and you are SOOOO tired you think you won't be able to make it?? Then have your THIRD, and you think "why on earth was it so difficult with ONE? If only I didn't have to take care of the other two, I would have HOURS of free time to gaze at my lovely baby!"

I hardly left the house after Henry was born! He was SO happy at home, he hated his carseat, and there was the whole FEEDING issue we had (read previous posts...). Plus i couldn't bring myself to sitting around with a bunch of other women and their infants singing songs and pretending our babies were listening to the woman reading stories!! NOW I know this is much more for the bonding of the moms, and that those girls all made great friends while they sang the silly songs, but i just sort of skipped that whole thing. Now I have to get 2 kids ready for school, feed them both SO many times a day, try to give them the attention they are craving, AND take care of this little perfect bundle who poops 4,000 times a day.

This morning, both of my kids are at school, and I've done pilates already, and hope to have the kitchen cleaned (after TWO days of not doing dishes - did I mention we DON'T have a dishwasher?? what year is this, 1945??), the laundry all put away, and more loads going. Oh, and I'm hoping to be dressed and presentable before I walk over to get Miss Mae from school.

Here is another GIANT milestone: Maggie runs into school, totally happy to be there and waves goodbye to Marc through the window!! No tears, no tearing her out of his arms... She was even happy all morning getting ready today - usually she is very nervous and talking about how she doesn't want to go to school for three hours every morning. GIGANTIC sigh of relief. This was the biggest thing she had to learn at preschool, and I knew she could do it. And I'm so glad the kids at school will get to see her amazing sparkling personality! Now what do I do about the fact that she can already easily finish all of Henry's kindergarten homework?

Great Day!

We are settling in with Baby O. He's a pretty great sleeper, still, we are praying that he keeps it up as his awake periods start to stretch out. He is perfect and healthy, and besides me crying at the drop of a hat - over good news or silly thoughts - things are great. My husband has to go back to work tomorrow. That, for lack of a better term, SUCKS. Sometimes, that is just the best description, i think. It SUCKS. I'm sure I'll spend a good bit of time in the morning crying about it.
My plan is to start back exercising tomorrow, as well. Hopefully that will help my mood swings - some good old endorphins. And holy crap, when did I put on all this weight?? I guess my preggo belly either confused me, tricked me, or somehow balanced out the weight I was gaining to the REAR of me. NOT so cute now on a not preggo body. I know it has only been 2 weeks, but I mean, REALLY, this is frightening.

SO THE BIG NEWS!!!! My sweet, perfect, adorable son was named student of the month!!! He was one of three chosen out of his kindergarten class! My amazing friend called me after the morning assembly at his school and told us, so we had time to get balloons and make cookies, and really do it up for him. He is so proud of himself, and we could NOT be more proud of him. I'd love to send a copy of his certificate to his past teachers who tried to either diagnose him, or battle wills with him, or tell me about all of the problems he was going to have once he got to school!!! The three of them were chosen for following the "Super Bee Rules", which are kindness, caring, honesty, and safety. What a great little guy he is. I can't tell you what a relief it is to hear him talk about how much he loves school and all he is learning. There is no better way for him to start his school career than with a lovely woman who is encouraging him in his curiosity and helping instill this love of school. GREAT PLACE. GREAT KIDS!! GREAT DAY!!!