Star Wars Birthday Party

Hi, I'm Jacob and I love Star Wars. I love it so much that I talked my mom into a whole birthday party of Star Wars.... because, really.....

what else matters in life but R2D2, Chewbacca and Darth Vader anyway??

Mom had some ideas for my party.....
I had even more.
And as much as I also love legos, it couldn't just be a

regular ole Star Wars party, it had to be a Lego Star Wars party

with a Lego table to build spaceships, too.

It was really cool to have all my best friends there....

Sutton & Madison were pretty fun helpers, too

And here's one mom made us take before we all went outside.

By the way, she asked my dad...... rreeeeeeeaaal nicely..... to pretend to be a Jedi and teach us how to use our light sabers..... she even sewed him a costume to go with our Jedi robes

and, best of all, it even had real bullets!

Here we are at our official Light Saber Training,
and, of course, we were trained by none but the very best....
there he is..... Luke Skywalker himself!

Dad, AKA "Luke" worked on our fighting skills

Luke was showing us all his moves....

I know that Luke guy is supposed to be the "Master,"
but just between me and you, I DEFINITELY took him down.....

After some training, we had to prove ourselves to the Jedi Master.
Princess Leia, on the balcony above us, let go of some asteroids
for us to keep in the air using only our light sabers.....

Watch out Darth Vader.... here we come!

Now it was on to the next task. To save the galaxy,
we had to find all our supplies in the jungle

So we took off to find all six things we Jedi's would need

Oh, look, Reese found one right there.

Uh-oh, I see the Death Star ahead......

It must be killed before we are killed!!

So we went after that Death Star with all our might.

And knocked the fool out of it..... we smacked it..... we creamed it....

And we creamed it again....

After three rounds each, we Jedi's were tired. That Death Star gave us a little more than we bargained for. So thank goodness, Princess Madison took a turn....
and Whoo-hoo! She knocked it on the ground....

Then Macy tried her hand at it....

Growing a bit frustrated, Sutton came in with the big guns...
Ahhhh, Look! A big crack!

So Luke grabbed that Death Star and showed it who's boss....

And F-I-N-A-L-L-Y we scrambled for some Death Star candy!

After all that fighting it was time for a little obstacle agility test.....
Jedi's must be light on their feet to battle the Evil Empire....

So we ran through that course....

And ran.....

and we ran some more....

And we crawled through a tunnel....

and we made our way out of the tunnel...

And we tossed some rings....

and we swung over hot lava....

And, in the end, we saved Yoda from the Vader Dungeon....

After all that training it was definitely time for some Galactic Grub. We went inside
where Mom had gone a little coo-coo with the decorations...

And the food table, too..... doughnuts, ice cream, pizza.... what was she thinking??

And we celebrated my 5th birthday in style....

and we ate like kings.... Junk Food Kings, that is....

So we were happy and we smiled....

And here's the cake she made of all my favorite things

She made me some Star Wars cupcakes, too

And Macy played the Birthday Song just for me!

And then I blew out those candle with all my Jedi breath

After it was all done, we settled down to play a little
Star Wars Bingo before everyone had to go

But most of all, we had a blast with our buddies.

May the Force Be With You!Thanks for helping me Celebrate!
Jedi Jacob
_______________________________

I've had lots of sweet requests to post more about this Star Wars Party, so if you'd like to see a little more about how it all came to be, check out the post HERE.

You can find the Star Wars Lego Printables at my Etsy shop HERE.

A Valentine Soiree

Another holiday..... another PARTY!! The girls wanted to have a little Valentine's get together for a few of their friends, and after getting some inspiration from my good friend Google, well, I got to work and tried to make it really special for them. I loved the idea of a candy table.... what kid (or grown up!) wouldn't love to dig into a table full of goodies?? I made some cupcakes and tried my hand at my first fondant roses.... then I decided to make a fondant cake, too. It was supposed to be a 2 tiered cake, but after I stopped for a while to get the girls ready for their Valentine's date with their dad, well, when I went back to the cake decorating the fondant had dried too much for me to finish the top tier like I had planned. OK, nothings perfect. The perils of fondant.... I just chalked it up to a first-timers learning curve and moved on to a single layer cake -- disappointed, but all in all, I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. So I've eaten nothing but candy and chocolate and marshmallow fondant for days..... that's mama's reward for spending days in the kitchen surrounding by nothing but sugar! Too bad mama's bikini won't agree.....

So the kids played some Valentine's games and they made a little felt rose craft to take home, and they of course, ate their weight in sugar-laden sweets. It was fun and a great reason to celebrate with just girlfriends..... who really needs those boys on Valentines Day anyway??? Kidding, Jonathan. Love you.

The invitation..... the reverse side had all the info

The candy table

... the cupcakes & the name of the candy table.....
M&M Sweet Shoppe for Madison & Macy.... catchy, huh??

....... the fondant cake

....... and closeup

..... mine & Macy's favorite -- the cookie sticks

........... and the rice crispy treats

........ more yummy table

....... the pudding parfaits

...... even more tempting zoomed up

the tags....

the white chocolate & heart sprinkle covered Milanos....

..... candy closeups

the girls digging in.....

...... and being silly

...... Maddie & Hannah

...... and Kate & Makenzie

....... and Macy & me

....... the crafting

...... sweet Valentine girls, Reagan & Morgan

Morgan's felt rose vase

..... and Macy's vase

It's Beginning to Look alot like Christmas....

And that makes me so happy! I love driving around and seeing everyone's houses decorated, and I especially love how excited my kids get if we are ever out at night. The gaudier the displays, the better as far as they're concerned. We're making hot chocolate daily and listening to quite a few Christmas tunes, too.... who cares if it's 70 degrees outside.... we're gonna get in the spirit anyway!

I thought I'd share a few photos of our house decorated..... I'm still planning to add some real greenery along with the fake stuff but somehow I haven't gotten around to it yet. It always looks so much prettier with a few magnolia leaves and holly branches thrown in. The Christmas tree, on the other hand, is quite real and just about to do me in..... 5-6 hours of stringing lights! I'm more ready than ever to cash in those evergreen branches for a beautiful plastic replica! I've always sworn I never would, but I guess you should never say never.

Here's the tree.... I had to move a bunch of furniture to make room for it, but I like it so much better in the den than when we used to have it on the front of the house in Jonathan's office.
Most of the gifts are ready, but of course, that makes the "PLLLLEEEEEEEASE can I open just ONE?????" from Jacob a wee bit annoying..... not to mention the puppy seems to like to eat frilly ribbons and bows.... ALOT.

Here's a shot of the dining room

The den mantle

The kitchen chandelier

The dining room mirror

Another display..... I love my angel

More dining room.....

And the girls opening another days' advent calendar surprise

And our favorite tradition..... decorating the gingerbread houses. This year I went a little crazy and decided to do 2 houses, a train and a village of little houses, too. Yikes! It was 2 FULL days of work, but I love coming into the kitchen and seeing it every day. It reminds me of all the great gingerbread houses my grandmother made when I was little.

Here's Maddie after her shower adding a few touches to her house.

And Ta-dahhhh!
The finished gingerbread village. Macy's designated each one as the school house, the playhouse for all the kids, the library, the church, the dentist's office, grandma's house, etc. I really love Jacob's train..... we've never done that one before, although I felt a little queasy smelling the black licorice train track. Oh, how I loathe licorice.

Here are Maddie's schoolhouse and Macy's playhouse for the kids.... they actually did quite alot of it themselves. But I have to admit.... I just can't give up full control. I wish I could let them do whatever they want but I'm just not there yet.... Mama's too much of a perfectionist I guess.

Here's a shot looking down the road through the little village

Jacob did alot more eating the candy than he did decorating with it.....
But, really.... should I expect anything more from a 4 year old?

And here's a close up of Jacob's gingerbread train..... Isn't it cute? Choo! Choo!

And this is what you find after a day's hard work making Christmas goodies,
yes.... Jacob asleep in Madison's toybox in her closet!
I couldn't find him anywhere and Madison went to help me.
She passed by her room and heard snoring.....
when she followed the sound, this is what she found.
How precious is that??

We're off to the mountains of North Carolina for a 4 day weekend..... can't wait!
I'll send some pictures.

An Advent Calendar

When I was a child, Christmas was truly my very favorite time of year. I loved everything about it.... especially how it seemed to make my family come together. My parents divorced when I was 10, but there were many, many years of turmoil between them before they split up (and many years after they split up, too!). Somehow though, the holidays always had a way of bringing them together and encouraging a temporary cease-fire. And therefore, I guess it brings back lots of great memories for me.

My mom was creative, and we had lots of traditions like making gingerbread houses and sewing special ornaments. I loved the music and the anticipation of opening all those gifts under the tree, and I especially loved the story my sister would tell me every year of waking up one night and hearing something on top of the house, and when she looked out, she saw Rudolph's nose shining in the black of night. I sooooooo believed her! I can remember waking up at 5:00am much to my parents' dismay..... back then it was so special to receive any kind of gift, and I could hardly wait to tear open the first package.

Ever since I've had my own children, I've tried to make the holidays a special time of year for them, too. This year I worked really hard in November to come up with lots of fun projects for them. And I created a little project of my own, too..... well, maybe not so little. It's an advent calendar for the kids to count down the days until Christmas. When I was a child, we would visit my mom's aunt every year for Thanksgiving, and there was a Christmas store in her town. I would buy an advent calendar there each year, and it was such a treat to open those little doors to find a new prize each day.

For years now I've wanted to make my own children an advent calendar to pass down and use each Christmas. So this year I got serious about it and came up with an idea to make a large countdown to display in the house. I scoured the stores for neat things I could cover with felt and hide prizes inside. Then I strung them all up on ribbons and attached a number to each of them. It was definitely ALOT more work than I anticipated, but now that I'm almost done, it was well worth the 100 hours or so it took to make. Here's a picture of the final result (well, except for day 21 which I still haven't gotten around to making!). If you click on the photos, you can see the a larger image.

Here it is hanging in the den. The kids wake up each morning and can't wait to find their prizes. Sometimes it's just a piece of candy.... sometimes it's a small prize....
and sometimes it's a piece of candy with a note about an activity we'll do that day.
It's been fun, and of course the kids are loving it.

Here are Maddie and Macy on the first morning about to open their prizes

There are stockings and ornaments, gingerbread men and houses, drums,
books, gifts and more all with prizes hidden inside.

Here are some close-up shots. I loved making all the gingerbread houses.... especially the church. The roof lifts up on one side to open the house up so the kids can find their prizes.

It was a huge project, but you could make it a little easier if you wanted to make one. I've seen small stockings at the Dollar Store or small gift boxes that you could string up, put a number on, and fill with treats. I even saw some cute knitted mitten ornaments that would be great to string up -- the possibilities are endless so have fun making one of your own -- your kids will LOVE IT!