Easter

Coming back from vacation the day before Easter made it a bit challenging to do our usual Easter activities.  However, we did manage to boil some eggs and had bought some Star Wars and Tinkerbell stickers to decorate them. 

The Easter bunny did manage to find us leaving the kids some Church clothes, Legos, a movie and of course candy. 

Luckily, we have amazing neighbors to enjoy a yummy Easter dinner with and a fun Easter egg hunt. 

STAR WARS!!

I still remember the day my baby boy was born Halloween 6 years ago at 3lbs 6oz and now we are celebrating with a birthday party.  His latest love has been Star Wars so when I mentioned we could use Star Wars as the theme he was very excited.  There is a lot of ideas and information out there for Star Wars parties so the only difficult thing was narrowing down what we wanted to do. 

I found a no sew pattern to make little Star Wars costumes out of pleather and light sabers out of swimming noodles and duct tape and went to work.  Our invitation stated "6 years ago, in a galaxy far far away, our little Jedi, Liam was born.  The council has now called upon him to seek out future Jedi to ensure the force remains strong.  You have been chosen to complete Jedi training on . . .", we used evite which I love because its online and people can RSVP right on the site and it's free. 

The decorations, plates, cups, party favors and Darth Vader pinata were all found at Party City for reasonable prices.  We have a party city location nearby so I was able to pick it all up and not have to worry about shipping. 

The swimming noodles were the hardest thing to find, being winter now everyone has put all their summer gear into storage.  Luckily a sweet woman from my ward had some she let me have so I had enough for every child to have their own light saber.  I just cut them in half and decorated them with duct tape and electrical tape for the handles.  Our games all centered around Jedi training so they were a critical part of the party. 

When the guests arrived I put on their cloaks and then took them down to the "training" facility where I let them chose a light saber and a character mask and took their picture in front of our poster.  We then did several training exercises for balance and defending themselves.  One was keeping a balloon in the air. 

We then led them out to the Darth Vader pinata and let them take several swings at him with their light sabers.  It was a chilly afternoon so we brought it in to pull the string and drop all the candy.  Then we went back upstairs for the Jedi food.  We did "imperial pizza", "vaders veggies" and "yoda soda".  Then sang to Liam and ate cake. 

The cake I made myself with chocolate cake and chocolate fudge frosting.  Then I found a technique on Pinterest called a "butter cream transfer".  Basically you find a picture of what you want on the cake and then flip the image, resize it and print it out.  Coloring pages work well.  Then you tape it on cardboard and tape wax paper over it then outline it with black frosting then fill it in with whatever colors you want.  Then place it in the freezer while you assemble and frost your cake.  When your cake is ready you remove the butter cream image and quickly flip it over onto the cake then place the cake in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.  Afterwards, you carefully remove the wax paper and you are left with the image.  A really fun process and something I will use in the future also.  I love being able to create things, especially when they turn out though I will admit they don't always turn out - "NAILED IT!"  Liam wanted me to add a couple of his toy figures so I obliged him, after all it was his birthday. 

After cake and pizza we opened presents.  Then headed back downstairs for our last Jedi training drill. 

While we were downstairs we heard some footsteps coming down the stairs and I was asking the kids what they had left to do to truly become a Jedi master.  Then Darth Vader appeared and the kids went crazy fighting him with their light sabers.  We were able to calm them down and told them they would have a chance to fight him one on one and complete their Jedi training. 

The kids loved fighting Darth Vader individually and we had a very patient, willing Darth Vader to let the kids all have their turn at fighting him.  I had the laptop turned on and we went to Star Wars soundboard to play a few of Darth Vader's own sounds and words. 

One everyone defeated him they all went after him one more time and he barely escaped with his life.  Time was over and parents started arriving to pick their kids up.  They took home their light sabers and Jedi costumes along with a little goody bag.  Afterwards, Craig (our amazing Darth Vader) and I crashed on the couch but Liam was so happy and excited so it was all worth it. 

  I printed out their pictures with their mask on in front of our back drop (this is Caitlyn) and am making up a little Jedi certificate and will put the picture on that with a little thank you note from Liam on the back and will hand deliver those to everyone who came.

 I thought this picture said it all.  He was so happy that day and has been talking about how much fun his party was the last few days, it reminds me that life is all about making people around you happy and them knowing you love them enough to take time to be with them and serve them.

Best Buddies

 Both Liam and Caitlyn are going to miss their favorite buddy Tommy.  It's been so fun having him come over and play or they love going to his house to play also.  Caitlyn always talks about the little kitchen and house in the basement.

Liam has already asked several times if he can go to Tommy's house, it's sad to tell him that Tommy lives too far away to go see him.  He said, "maybe we can drive there then drive back," and Caitlyn added "Tommy said he was moving too, maybe they moved by us."  

Jumping on the bed - Tommy's mommy is probably a little happy Liam will not be teaching him any other bad habits, like sliding down the stairs in a sleeping bag, besides jumping on the bed, couch and furniture.

Your first best friend will always be remembered!

Friends

We truly have been blessed with the most amazing neighbors that became our closest friends.  The last year or so all of us have talked about moving but we ended up being the first ones to try it.  We've become so close that we have keys to each others houses, we know their codes to the garages and some of us even walk in and eat treats while the other neighbors are gone. (you know who you are)  We have been there to watch out for each other and I always knew if I needed anything I had someone next door who would be there for me.  We have been there to see kids born and grow up.  Our kids have become best friends.  Our closeness with our friends will be missed while we are far away.   (they all have bets to see when we will be moving back) 

The girls - we had many girls nights out with some good talks and motivation to keep going.  Luann taught me to just be who I am and say what I mean.  Aimee is the homemaker who helped me be a better mother and cook.  Brandi helped me tap into my creative side with scrapbooking and sewing projects.  Even though we won't be able to go for our walks I know that with technology we can remain close and know what is going on in each others lives. 

The MEN or boys depending on how they were acting that day.  They helped each other with projects and taught each other a lot about life.

Did I mention they were usually goofing off?