Natalie's Many Faces

I mean seriously, could she get any cuter? I could just eat her up.  One day, I told her that and she looked at me and said "no mommy".  I guess she hadn't heard that turn of phrase before ;) 

Happy 6th Birthday Dylan!

Dylan's first birthday in our new town.  To be honest, I thought this was a chance for me to scale back the birthday party celebrations.  There seems to be a mentality of having to keep up with the expectations of previous parties but with a fresh start comes no expectations.  Dylan's only request was a tiger and alligator party.  Simple enough, right?  Well, my brilliant plan was to have it at a park, after lunch time. so all I really need is a birthday cake.  I even slacked on the invitations, sorry Dylan, it really wasn't intentional though. The problem is, Dylan wanted to invited only a few classmates, not the whole class....and we all know that if you only invite a few, you can't ask the teacher to hand them out. That meant, I was going to have to stalk the car rider line and pray they were picked up and not ride the bus home....but wait, there is an easter egg hunt tomorrow at school. Eeeek.  I run to the store to buy invitations that you fill out instead of making my own.  I know Dylan doesn't mind but it really bothered me. This is the first one that I haven't made.  I did see all the parents minus 1 which ended up in the car rider line behind me...whew.  Thankfully I included a rain location in the event in rained.  Guess what, rain was in the forecast.  The night before, I had to bite the bullet and make a decision. I decided to have it at our house instead of the the park. That meant decorations and games to entertain the littles. Why do I wait until the last minute to do this? After all that, the rain, even though it RSVP'd for the party, didn't show up.  ACK!

We still had a great birthday party and I think it worked out better in the end. The kids were contained to play outside in the back yard while the adults hung out in the air conditioning :)  The kids also had access to all the "weapons" to play superheros.  It was all good.

Thankfully I did find a few tiger/alligator like elements to spruce up the party.

The snacks were : "marsh melon" aka watermelon, "croc eggs" aka grapes and "tiger bait" cheez it mix.  Not pictured but served, green hawaiian punch for "gator ade"

I found some tiger print and grass print cardstock at Hobby Lobby. I used photoshop to give me the right size triangle and traced that onto a cardboard cereal box for my template.  I found some letters in the poster section of hobby lobby for $4.99 and used my 40% off coupon to make it $3.  This took a lot of stress and time off the project. Throw it some black curly ribbon and viola.

 Balloons were just green and zebra print but I like to say they were white tiger print. I love just tying these to fishing lines and hanging them on a banister or on a frame.

 I found some wooden alligator paint kits at michaels. I bought them all out and 2 locations.  I had a big bucket that said "adopt a gator". The kids loved painting their gator and then they took it home. Craft + Favor = awesome.

 Even the littles had a gator to paint.

 We played a game of pin the tail on the tiger. Always a hit for any party and so simple to do it.  Thanks google for teaching me how to draw a tiger step by step.  A little chalk for your outline that's easy to erase then finish it off in marker.

 My camera lens is broken (the shutter is broken) so there's a little too much light in this picture.  I used a corn hole board. I covered it in artist paper, then cut out an alligator with it's mouth open enough for the hold in the corn hole board to create "feed the alligator" The kids tossed the bags into the alligator's mouth.

 I found a zebra fur fabric square at Michaels.  Again we pretended it was a white tiger. I rolled it up into a tail and the kids took turns tucking it into their waist line to play "catch the tiger" .

 All that play worked up an appetite.

 Finally his cake. He picked out the cake from Publix. It was a fishing cake, but we just didn't add the kit that went with it. Instead, I picked up 3 figurines from the toy store, that Dylan collects and added those to the cake. I love how it turned out.

 Happy Birthday Dylan!

Dylan's favorite gift, Nana scored this prize, his new electric scooter. He was baffled why there were only sticks in the box.  

 Then he found the real deal in the garage.

After a little reluctance (he was scared to ride it at first), he was zipping all over the neighborhood. 

Soccer Star

As much as he says he hates it and soccer is boring off field...he sure enjoys it and thrives when he's on the field.  Every season we hear "soccer is boring" "I don't want to play soccer anymore".  This is our little Dylan being stubborn. He can talk that talk all he wants but as soon as he's on the field, he's smiling and having the best time. Especially after he scores a goal or his team mate scores. It's high fives and sometimes hugs for everyone.  We tell him that he's really good and God gave him this talent and he needs to use it.  

 He kicks and scores...

We are so proud of you Dylan.  You bring us so much joy when we watch you play. On this game, which was your birthday, you scored 6 goals!

 Next up, Natalie has requested to play soccer next year.

Wordless Wednesday

Dragon Boat Racing

Damien joined a dragon boat team at work. (I never knew what these boats were called but always wondered.)  This past weekend, they had a dragon boat festival on Harrison Bay.  We met up with Damien in time to hang out and see the second race.  I have to say I love this little spot.  Dylan enjoyed playing in the water. Natalie enjoyed running around.

Damien's team barely missed the finals by 10 seconds but I am sure as they practice more, they will get better as a team. They improved their time from the first to the second race by a big margin.  Way to go team MARS.

Hunting Squirrels

This week we got 2 new bird feeders. We have some trees right on the other side of our fence, and there always seems to be some birds hanging out.  I love to watch the birds while I am doing dishes...it's a little escape from mundane.  My little eucharisteo.  ( You will want to look up that word now :)

Soon after putting it up, I discovered someone else was enjoying it too, a squirrel.  That's when I called the dogs' attention to it and sent them out for a little hunting session.

 The squirrel was cornered. He was up in the "see rock city" feeder. Sophie and Griffin had him surrounded. Finally he got up the courage to jump from the feeder to the fence. Luckily, he cleared it. Once he was safe on the tree, he started screaming. I have never heard a squirrel make so much noise. It was like he was putting all the other squirrels on alert.

The rest of the day Griffin spent much time looking out the window.

 Since then, we've seen the squirrels come into the yard, but they haven't dared to run up the feeder. They now feed from the ground...the seed that has dropped. Smart critters.