The Biggest Party Ever!

Eddie wanted to invite his entire preschool class to his 5th birthday party. There are 16 kids in his class. When I told him he might want to maybe invite only a few of his friends from school so he could invite several neighborhood buddies, he declared that he wanted to really invite all his preschool and would eschew his neighborhood buddies.

Not wanting that to occur and banking that only half would accept, we ended up inviting 19 kids. This is about how many kids we invited last year, but only 11 kids (plus some siblings) showed up last year. This year, as the RSVPs trickled in, all but 1 kid we invited came!!! What are the chances of that happening? I have never thrown a party where every.single.invitee.came. I'm thrilled for Eddie that they came, but man, that was 19 kids (including Eddie and subtracting the one who couldn't come), plus younger siblings (including Josie) and we had 25 kids total in the house.

Eddie wanted a racecar theme, so Den crafted some cute invites and then we based most everything on racecar themes--as much as we could. It was difficult coming up with things for an indoor party.

We all but implored the parents to drop their kids so there would be room at the house. About half the parents stayed. My parents were in town, Josie's Godmother came, Cookie came and then we had several parents who jumped in to help. I ran out of games/activities in about 15 mintues and we forgot to do one of the games.

We had the kids all sign a scrapbook page so that when I get to doing a scrapbook, I'll have it all set, and then we gave each kid a 'Pit Pass' with their name that we loaded with stickers after each activity. After everyone arrived, we played hot potato and the kids got a kick out of that. When they got eliminated, they were supposed to go to the living room for a set of 3 activities, but somehow it ended only being the car fishing with magnets. The magnets on the poles kept getting hooked to each other, but it kept the kids busy a while. We were supposed to have a bean bag toss into the tires of a racecar Den made, but I didn't realize it wasn't occuring. Then we were going to have a tatoo stage with racecars, but I worried about parents showing up with tatooed kids, so we skipped that at the last minute.

When we did the craft last year it took nearly 20 min. whereas this year it was about 5. We had them decorate with beads a race car cut out and then color a printout of a racecar.
So in 15-20 flat I had worked through all the activities I had planned for the kids and it was only 45 minutes into the party. I should have come up with a couple extra games on the spot--simon says (which Eddie reminded me we didn't play), but instead just had them all play with toys until it was time for cake.

I think most kids had a good time and one kid didn't want to leave at all. Cookie I think brokered a couple playdates.

I'm not sure what to say were the lessons learned. I hated that I didn't have more games lined up, or didn't bother to do more games on the fly, but there were just so many kids, it was difficult to come up with the space to do them all. It was a bit to windy and the ground was soft enough to sink into.

The silver lining is that while it wasn't completely programmed this time I felt like I had time to talk to the other parents, spend time with the kids--except my own.

Eddie had stood at the door waiting for each child to arrive and then he sat on the steps with all the goody bags to hand out. He had a great time and remarked that his favorite part of the party was having all those people around to sing happy birthday and play. This combined with him telling me that he would be happy with whatever gifts people brought (some moms were asking what he'd like), made my heart melt. What a sweet kid and how fun it was to be able to give him something he enjoyed so much and if he is like me, will remember.

Five Years Old!

February 22, 2005---Five years ago the doctor held up Eddie for Den and me to see with one hand supporting his head and his other hand holding up his body. Fast forward to Feb. 22, 2010 and Eddie walked into our room, toting this balloon, asking why we had given him a letter 'S'.

I made him 7 layer jello to bring into preschool and then got him blue-frosted cupcakes for after dinner desert.

Icing, the best part!

I used to do regular updates of the kids as they aged. At five years old, Eddie can write his name and can read familar words, such as the names of people and words he sees all the time. He can write all the letters of the alphabet and count to 100. Every now and then he gets up higher and we have discussions about 100s, 1000s and even more conversation about infinity.

His pre-engineering skills are developing nicely and he can assemble things his mama can't and seemed to be able to read multi-step instructions really well to assemble toys.

I hesitated writing about his likes and dislikes too detailed, this being a public blog and all. However, I will say he is your typical 5 year old boy. Den and I remain convinced he has a photographic memory.

I love watching him interact with his sister. I marvel at all he can do at five. I'll try and write more later...but need to get this up before it's Josie's birthday.

OUt and About in FLA

More Highlights:
Sami is quite the athlete and we manage to catch a soccer game each time we come to visit. It was quite windy the day of the game, so Josie and Eddie snuggled under this blanket, half fighting over it and half trying to keep each other covered.
After the game, cousin Kirsten and Sami played a little with J and Ed with the balls. It was really sweet--they are both so good with the kids. Enjoyed catching up with all the cousins...
I was so tired from being up half the night with the kids either coughing or dreaming or whatever, so all my plans for activites went out the window and we just hung out at the house. It is definitely hard to be a single parent...but it was so nice to have the cousins for the kids to get to know...they talked about them all the way home.

While There was a Blizzard...

The kids and I went to Florida for what was supposed to be a 4 night trip while Den went skiing in Utah. I was completely stressed the whole time we were in FLA about what was happening back home, but we still had a great time. The kids are real pros at flying--when we walked up to security, Eddie had his shoes, coat and backpack into a bin before I could turn to help Josie.

Highlights:
Flight was delayed both directions. Our flight home was cancelled on Sunday due to the weather, but despite calling the airline 2 hours before, and the monitors in the terminal showing it was taking off, we didn't learn this until we had returned our rental car and presented ourselves at the ticket counter. Grabbed a new rental car and headed back to hang out with Cousin Sami, whom the kids adored.
[note: to get home, we got the rental company to drive us to curb side drop off and the driver even helped me get the carseats in their bags; then someone else noticed me struggling with the 1 suitcase, 2 carseats, 2 kids, backpacks, and the bag with Ed's nebulizer trying to get inside and they carried a carseat and suitcase in. Yet another couple helped when we had to move down the counter to an agent from the self check. All in all, we really lucked out. I did have to do battle with another passenger who said that she had 2 elderly people she needed to check in who were in wheelchairs. I told her that I had a 2 and 4 year old who both had to go to the bathroom and we'd been waiting at the counter for 25 minutes. I said, "I can go toe to toe with you, if you'd like". She graciously allowed us to go in front.]

Had a fun time hanging with Gwyn and then hit the beach in the afternoon. The kids had a blast, but it was freezing. The playground I'd planned for us to use was closed due to the Superbowl festivities. Ugh.

On Friday, Cousin Sami got to skip school after taking a test and we all headed to the Miami Zoo. We rented these little bicylces and the kids had a blast, imploring Sami and I to peddle faster. That was until it rained on us and then Sami and I peddled as fast as we could move the bike.

I had promised Eddie both a camel ride and a ride on the monorail. The later was a complete bust. Ugh. The camel was a rip-off--less than 2 minutes for $5/person, but Eddie can say he has ridden a camel. To be continued...

Facebook | Your Photos - February storm

Facebook Your Photos - February storm: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=47714&id=1043519422&l=86e0614983
Lets see if this works...

Still Here

Promise to post with pictures soon, but for now, we just got home late Monday night. Den went skiing in Utah while I took the kids to visit cousins in Florida. We came home to about 17-20 inches of snow and lovely neighbors who shoveled our walk for us! Tonight we are expected to get 8-16 more inches (depending on where one lives). We've already got 4 inches and it is supposed to snow all night and all day on Wednesday. Lots of fun pictures to upload...
From FLA: cancelled flight on Sunday because of storm
Eddie: I never want to leave Florida
Josie: Is Sami sad for us to leave?

January Snowstorm...

We got 6-7 inches of snow on Sat. Forcasts were all over the map, from 1 inch to a dusting to a braver forcaster who called for 3-6. Personally I was leaning towards the 6 inch camp. It was a light fluffy snow and cleaned up pretty quickly, but it was COLD. Temps on Sat. were around 22 and today (Sunday) finally rose to the 30s.

This first picture is today. I just missed Eddie being completely buried in the snow (just like being buried in the sand) and Josie is hoping up to take her turn "I don't want my head buried though", she said as she laid down.

Here the kids anxiously await Den to take them out. J wasn't out 10 minutes before she asked to come back in. Got all her outerwear off and declared herself ready to go back out.

This pikkie in the dining room is actually from way earlier in the month. The kids were singing and dancing some song we found so funny that we videotaped it...now to find that video...

Smiling for the camera...

Visitors...

We had Den's brother and his family in town for the weekend. The kids had a good time playing with their cousins who are 11 and 13 and we saw some local sites.

The night before their arrival, the kids were playing princess and pirate. I think I need to expand their dress up/ pretend clothing options...it involves Eddie helping Josie put on every necklace and bracelet she owns and Eddie putting on his eye patch and whatever else he decides is pirate garb.


Where's Josie?







Eddie voluntarily agreed to be in the whole group photo, saying he didn't want to be in the photo with his other cousins (no particular reason), but he would cooperate here.

This photo, not so much. Good time had all around.

2010

The kids and I have been having really good days together lately. Except that Eddie asked me why I was coming into the family room. Apparently I don't play as much with them in the family room). He Josie played together all weekend for several hours each day having a great time. Nevermind they had every stuffed animal and half of all the play-kitchen related toys stashed under the dining room table. They also had a load of books. 2 days later, we are still missing a slice of pizza.




This year we gave away our artifical tree because we were tired of it shedding so much. Guess it had been a long time since either of us had a real tree because we were not prepared for the shedding that occured as the kids and I removed the lights and ornaments. Still nice not to have to shove up in the attic. Next year I'd like to find a tree that we could then plant in our yard...







One of Eddie's favorite gifts seems to be this elevated wooden railroad track. It's quite fun, and he has learned how to make his own layouts instead of adhering to the layouts proposed in the drawings he and Den struggled with in this picture.
















I include this final picture of all 4 cousins because it cracks me up that Tyler and Will are in matching PJs and that Josie and Ed are in matching PJs as well. There were working on Ed's new solar system puzzle.

Sept. sidebar -- to save off

Sept sidebar

I WANT MY FLU SHOT NOW! Said Eddie as we waited at the CVS minute Clinic for an hour. In the end he couldn't get his because of the prednisone (we called his peds). Will get next week...

Photos taken as of Sept. 15: 6658. Not sure if that includes videos...

Josie, you want to wear big girl underwear? Huh? You want stripes, polka dots, what do you want? Eddie convincing Josie who has expressed a definite dis-interest in potty training to wear underwear.

Can we do the States puzzle? Eddie asks almost daily. It's a 100 piece puzzle I paid $1 for at a yard sale and has some of the oddest set of puzzle shapes I've ever seen in the puzzle. All the States are mostly appropriately shaped, but as ever my pet peeve, Alaska and Hawaii are shown directly to the south of CA.

We went to three parks today! Josie said excitedly (Beach, the preschool and Blue, in case you wonder).

I can read that book to Josie (Eddie as I'm reading a book about hats, with the word 'hat' on every page)

I'm going to make soup all by myself (Josie as she showed me 2 kid-sized pots)

I want to wear pajamas just like Josie--do I have fish pajamas? (Eddie to me)

These books are bad!!! Josie screams from her room if she has finished reading the books we gave her at bedtime, or forgot to switch out the books from the previous night.