Big Truck Night

I know I've been neglecting this blog.  I intend to do a Charlotte's 1st birthday post, but I'm waiting to get some pictures back from our photographer.  Yes, I hired a photographer for her party.  We did a "photobooth" where there was a backdrop, lots of fun dress-up props and pictures.  She loved it.  But I digress, that is for another post.  This one is about Big Truck Night.

I enlisted two kid-free friends to come to Big Truck Night at the mall parking lot on Saturday.  My kids had a blast.  Last year we got there too late to get the free t-shirts, so I was determined to get there at the beginning this year.  We barely got the shirts.  The lady giving out shirts brought one for Charlotte and told me they were out of all the other little sizes.  I asked about size 3 or 4 and she said they were gone.  I was a little sad because we had waited in line.  But then she returned with two size 4/6 shirts that fit both boys!  And there was much rejoicing.  On top of that, we were there in time to get free pizza, too!  (We missed out on that last year as well.)

Me with my kiddos 

But while I was glad to get the free stuff (and not have to worry about dinner for myself or the kids), I will say that the truck variety was pretty lame in comparison to last year.  I mean, last year there was a fire truck, ambulance and a big monster truck in addition to all the trucks (or types of trucks) that were there this year.  Simon had been going on and on about wanting to see a monster truck, and thankfully for me, this mudder was a monster truck in his eyes:

Simon & the "Monster Truck" (Mudder)

Still, it was fun.  I got to hang out with a couple friends and each of my kids had their own wrangler!  I took some great pictures and the kids got worn out.  The low-light of the evening was probably when Simon cried because we did not win a door prize.  But even that was kind of cute.

Oh, and I got to do a side-by-side pic of the boys on a cement mixer last year and this year:

I couldn't decide whether to use the pic of just the boys this year or all three kids.  I chose the boys for the side-by-side.  But I'll still show you all three:

And that was Big Truck Night. 

I have an over-abundance of cute pictures of my adorable kids, so I'm trying to be a little more choosy about my posting.  I dump a lot of them on Facebook (I mean, I can do that straight from iPhoto, so why not?) but tell more of the story here.  Maybe some day I'll have more than my kids to post on, but I'm not hearing any complaints for now.

Stinking Cute

This is how stinking cute Jonas is... He has this Chewbacca doll that he's been referring to as "Baby Chewy." Tonight he insisted on swaddling in one of his snuggle shirts. Then I caught him putting Baby Chewy to bed in Charlotte's crib. So I helped Jonas make a place for swaddled-up Baby Chewy to sleep next to Jonas' bed. He even told Baby Chewy goodnight when he went to bed himself. Adorable, I say!

Dangerously Cute

This one is dangerously cute.  Yes, I mean it.  She doesn't quite understand the power of her adorableness yet, but when she does, she will be able to use it to her advantage manipulating everyone around her.

Right there, she was smiling for the camera.  At 11 months, Charlotte smiles for the camera.

Look at that.  She is going to get exactly what she wants.

And this one makes my stomach churn because I can hardly stand the adorableness.

Cute crawling baby.

Adorable baby attitude.

A little sassy and a lot cute.

Right here, she was posing.  Seriously, I could not have posed that if I tried.  But Charlotte knows exactly what to do for the camera.

She's being super silly.  I'm fairly confident I have one of Jonas at that age making the same face...

Those squishy baby cheeks.  I just wanna squish them and squish them and then nibble them a little.

I took these pictures for Charlotte's 1st birthday invitation.  It was super hard to choose one to use, so I used four!  Let's just hope she uses her powers of cuteness for good rather than evil... and that if she does end up using them for evil, that Jonas doesn't join her because we'd have absolutely no hope.  (Simon will end up on Charlotte's side no matter what; she already has him wrapped around her finger.)

Star Wars Bad Guys Birthday

  

Simon turned four years old this weekend.  Yup, four.  To celebrate he wanted a Star Wars party, but not just a Star Wars party, it had to be a Star Wars Bad Guys party.  If you weren't at the party, maybe with this blog post you can pretend you were. 

Darth Maul and Darth Vader had to be on the invitation, and Darth Maul was a must for the cake, according to Simon.  Above you saw the front of Simon's party invitation (which I designed) with him in the sith robe I made for him.  Next, you'll see the back of that invitation.

 

Very Star Wars, right?  And now for the centerpiece of it all, the cake and birthday boy:

  

I guess I could have built up to it and left it for the end, but like Simon, I'm too pumped about the cake (and this awesome boy).  Yes, I made it.  No, it's not fondant, it's something else.  Buttercream plus an edible secret.  I wouldn't say it was difficult to make, but it was time-consuming and got frustrating at points.  But I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome.  I wish I would have added some embellishments around the side, though.

Next, we have the decorations.  I made some garland with Darth Vader, Darth Maul, a storm trooper and Darth Sime.  Each piece had "Star Wars Bad Guys" on the back.  Plus, we had crepe paper going across the room.  And maybe these decorations are still up...

Another highlight was the Star Wars Bad Guys themed food...

 

Storm Trooper on-the-go Mix (pretzel twists, candy-coated pretzel twists, Chex-like cereal & raisins), a Death Star cheeseball (with crackers, triscuits & pepperoni) and Light Saber pretzel rods (candy-coated)

Here are the special drinks:

 

 

Dark Side (Hawaiian) Punch, Jabba Java (coffee) & Join the Dark Side Sweet Tea

 Next up, party favors:

 

 

There were storm trooper or Darth Vader rings in each bad guys cup, along with a tattoo, Vader pencil and a handful of candy.  I also made some masks so our guests could tap into their inner bad guy.

 

Simon's Aunt Laura and (almost uncle) Aaron were pretty convincing here.  And below you'll see a bunch of small-but-awesome bad guys...

 And that's pretty much it.  Everyone came over, we had snacks, sang "Happy Birthday" (when Simon blew out his candle before we finished singing), had cake & ice cream, Simon opened his gifts, all the kids played with his toys and then most of our guests went home.  At one point Simon was standing in the living room looking around and said to himself, "I'm just having so much fun!" I'm so glad he had such a fun birthday party and am so proud of my four-year-old big boy.

Oh, the Circus! (And Crying Jonas)

We're pretty much a circus-loving family. The kids do "circus tricks" with their daddy (Chase lays on the floor and has the boys stand on his hands as he pushes them up in the air, he flips them and even Charlotte has a little trick or few). The boys have seen the circus twice. Charlotte is a little contortionist. Simon had a circus birthday last year. The kids like Dr. Seuss' If I Ran the Circus, and I took them to see a couple Ringling Bros. clowns do a storytime at the library today where they read that book. It. Was. Awesome.

These are the clowns that came to the library.

Charlotte really enjoyed the clowns.

Simon loved the clowns.

Jonas thought the clowns were OK.

This clown juggled chickens. All the kids thought that was hilarious.

Jonas got antsy and kept climbing all over me, which wouldn't have been so bad if Charlotte wasn't trying to crawl to the clowns at the same time.

Clown Simon (they gave out free clown noses)

Clown Jonas

Clown Charlotte

Now, this next picture is one I love. I love it because there are Ringling clowns. I love it because my kids are with the Ringling clowns. I love it because of the colors are fun, the light was bright (no flash needed!) and it's just all around interesting. I love it because it is real. Jonas is having a meltdown...


Jonas didn't love the clowns (obviously), but he was not really afraid of them either. He had been a little uneasy when he first saw them, but he ended up enjoying himself. Mostly he was crying because he was tired of being cooped up in a room where he could not run around. And I'm just a weird and mean mama because I like pictures of my crying kids. (I don't make my kids cry to get their picture, but if they are crying and it is cute or funny, I will take their picture!)

OK, I was just searching my blog to link to my all-time favorite crying kid picture and can't believe I never posted this! (It is on my Facebook, though.) This is Jonas, age 1, at the Cincinnati Zoo, way beyond naptime:

Bonus nostalgic picture, just for you!

Preschool Paint Project

This morning I had the boys do the whole painting with marbles thing while Baby Charlotte napped. You know, the project where you stick some paper in some sort of container, glob some paint in it and let the kid(s) roll marbles around in the paint to make tracks. Of course it turned into just regular fingerpainting, but the boys thought the marble thing was cool.

Simon & Jonas' artwork

This little project led to a conversation with Simon (the older) about what we could find outside to use to make tracks next time. Here are some things he thought we could use:

Pinecones
Sticks
Leaves
Flowers
Rocks (stuck together with peanutbutter)
Cake

I'm not sure why the rocks must be stuck together with peanutbutter, but that's the way it has to be. (He said, "Peanutbutter is sticky!") And I really don't think we should use cake we find outside, but it's an interesting thought. He may have added a few other things, but I got lost in thinking of why we'd find cake outside.

You Sound Like a Robot

The ear is a marvelous thing. It not only is responsible for hearing, it also affects balance. When something goes wrong with your ear, it sure can throw the rest of you out of whack; I know this firsthand.

Yesterday I awoke not to small children getting up too early, but to a terrible pain in my ear. (Of course the kids slept in on a day I could not!) The boys went to work with Chase & Charlotte went to prompt care with me. The doc said I had either a herniated or hemorrhaging ear drum probably from coughing hard. He called the pharmacy to get me some pain drops & I headed to the store to do some grocery shopping and was going to stop at the pharmacy on the way home.

While I was at the store, I had some pain so bad I doubled over and almost threw up. This happened three times. Then I heard a crackling & felt wet in my ear. It was bleeding. I used one of Charlotte's burp cloths to keep from making a mess and finished the shopping as quickly as I could. Chase met me at home & took care of the kids and groceries while I headed back to prompt care.

It had only been an hour since the doc saw me, and in that time my eardrum had turned into a "bulging S.OB." (doc's words). I was sent to an ENT (ear nose throat doc) who said I had a blister on my ear. She prescribed me some antibiotic pills & drops because even if it's viral, the oozing means it can get infected.

So now I have a ringing in my ear, it's hard to hear, loud noises are painful, I get dizzy after standing for more than a few minutes, and I'm just kind of lethargic. I am feeling much better than I was last night, though. There's one more weird thing, every sound has this odd electronic-sounding echo that makes especially people's voices sound like robots.