Pictures Galore!

Here are a few of my favorites from my attempt to get updated photos. I didn't intend to do family ones, but we set up the timer and shot a few anyways! We are having a friend/photographer do some family ones in a couple of weeks. These were cute enough though!

Little Brother had just fallen and scraped his knee- thus, the weird pose in the photo above!

Love this one!

One of my faves!

(Family- if you want any copies, let me know what size and which photo. I'll be happy to order some for you! I already have some printed and ready to hang around here!

Preview

This is a quick preview of a "photoshoot" I did with the boys tonight! More to come later this week...

"See" 3PO and a funny cake story...

This really shouldn't be another Star Wars Post, but I couldn't help but share what little brother said to make us all laugh today.  Big brother was doing his "Sight Words Flashcards" and correctly read "See" and little brother immediately said "3-P-O". Sometimes he's hilarious without even trying!

In other news, I got a new lens for my camera. It's called a "nifty fifty". Anyways, it's a low cost fun little lens that can get up close and give those fun blurry backgrounds. Here's a trial I did of little brother the other night while resting from riding his bike...

I did a little editing. Here was the original...

Besides removing the leaves from his face, you can probably see a difference in the tone of his skin. I warmed it up, softened the skin in some areas, and sharpened his eyes and lips and hair. I don't edit all my photos, but this one was way better for doing a quick edit. Thought I'd share...

I promised a quick story about the Death Star Cake from last weekend's Star Wars Bash. So, here goes! 

I woke up was awakened by a sweet little boy before the sun rose. By 6:30am, I had already baked 1/2 of the cake. Feeling pretty productive, you know! Took big brother to school, rushed home to work on the surprise bedroom for the few hours I had. I put little brother on my bed to watch a show (well, a few shows). I was amazed at how good he was while I was preoccupied with my project. About 5 minutes before we had to leave to pick up brother from school, he came in, mouth full of chocolate, mumbling "I found birthday treats". I said calmly, "Is that Brother's birthday cake?" 

(Okay- I freaked out- not really a time of calmness!)

To which he cried and screamed and dripped chocolate saliva-covered chunks all over my bathroom. After getting him cleaned up, we came downstairs to leave and I found this:

and this:

and many more crumbs mashed into chairs, couches, and carpeting. We ran out the door and headed straight to Chick-fil-A for lunch. I couldn't bare another mess. Once I got home and could see the humor in it all, I snapped the above pictures. If only I'd seen the humor sooner, I could have shared the chocolate mess that occurred upstairs! 

It's a good thing he's so cute!

This was taken helping me bake the new cake!

So, lesson learned, TV is not a good babysitter!

Happy 6th Star Wars Birthday!

It took a couple of days to recover, but here are the photos from the big day on Saturday.

It turned out to be a great day and I think the kids all had a lot of fun! Until next year! 

This was the invite I made. I blurred out my personal info since this isn't a password-protected site!

It was nice for his birthday to fall on a weekend. He opened family gifts first thing in the morning and played until party time! The 2nd photo is showing off some karate moves after the party.

He started a tae-kwan-do class with Kevin, too. He was the only student this week and got a lot of attention. So far, he likes it. We thought it might be a good intro to see if he wants to try it out.

The party clan!

Daddy was a good sport and let the boys fight off Darth Vader. It got out of hand quickly. Good thing these were inflatable swords!

This pretty much sums up the party. Lots of little boys dualing with their light sabers. 

More party fun. The pinata was a bummer. It cracked after one small hit from the birthday boy. Nobody else even had a chance.

Little brother was intimidated by the big boys, but found some fun of his own. A few Star Wars gummy snacks always cheer him up!

The death star cake Kevin and I "created". Not amazing, but did the trick! A story to go along with this later in the week!

Lots of fun gifts and generous friends. 

If you're interested in more details- see below. If not, thanks for all you did to make his day so special! Once I get the house back in order from a couple of weeks of neglect, we'll be getting our official thank-you notes out!

Inflatable Lightsabers from Ebay

The party spread

Star Wars gummies and the goodies the kids left with (a personalized Star Wars notebook, chocolate covered pretzel "lightsabers", and candy from the lame pinata!

An example of the notebooks. Each one was a little different, but same idea!

Had the idea for edible lightsabers. We bought blue and red chocolate (Wilton) and melted them. Dipped in our long pretzel sticks. Wrapped the end in foil and there they were! Tasty too!

This was a first ever in the 15 years I've known this man! Decorating cookies. Had to prove it with a picture. He did all the stormtroopers and darth vaders. Pretty good! I told him he could be the baker over at King Soopers.  :-)

A close up of the cookies. (Star Wars cookie cutters are from Williams Sonoma)

A banner I made to string along the awning of the shelter. Just a bunch of star wars papers strung up on some rope- but turned out cute!

It was fun to see the boys having so much fun. Until next year. I wonder what the theme will be for number 7?

Star Wars Room Surprise

After working all day and keeping him banned from his room, Big Brother finally got to unveil his surprise. His very own STAR WARS ROOM! Many photos below show some of the details. It was a lot of fun designing and creating his new room. I think it was a hit! (The photos were taken at night, I'll try to update them in better light soon!)

A vinyl above the bed, star wars pillow case and a handmade bulletin board with photos of friends and family.

close up of bulletin board

My favorite view of the room

Love these vinyl letters (from Ebay) that say "May the force be with you"

His name made on wooden letters with Star Wars paper modge podged on!

I love the planet mobile from Pottery Barn Kids. The shelf is full of Lego sets he's created and photos of having fun with family are above the shelf.

A banner I made that didn't look good anywhere else- so ended on the bed!

More Lego Star Wars space ships to come here!

We spent the night looking up into the glow in the dark stars and planets. He loves his new room - can you tell?

May the force be with me!

Why does my house look like it's been invaded by stormtroopers and aliens from galaxies beyond? Because by Saturday night, I'll have made a 6 year old boy's dreams come true with a

STAR WARS BEDROOM

&

STAR WARS BIRTHDAY PARTY (for 15 boys!)

Stay tuned for more updates!

And to prove that this whole Star Wars craze has gone to my head too, check out my new car decals!

I got them HERE. 

So far, I've gotten a few compliments from the roller skating boys at Sonic! 

I think they're super cute!

(The stickers are cute- not the roller skating boys, in case you were wondering ;-)

Labor Day

Hope you had a great long weekend. We were busy- not much resting, but a fun weekend in all! We spent Sunday evening with our neighbors in the front yard roasting marshmallows and making S'mores. We seriously have the best neighborhood! My dad had never seen anyone making S'mores in the front yard. It must be a Colorado thing! (Don't expect great photos! I haven't figured this whole taking photos in the dark thing yet!)

Then, it was off to the Rockies Game on Monday. The weather was great, but we all wore pants (because Mommy thought a forecast of 71 sounded cold!) Well, everyone was sunburned and hot (and mad at Mommy!) Nonetheless, it was a high scoring, fun-filled game and the Rockies won! 

Thanks Dad, for coming out and spending time with us. We had a great weekend! Miss you!