~Ethan's 5th Birthday Party!~

Wow. 5!?!  Already?!?!  I.have.a.5.year.old.  Okay mini-meltdown over..that's how I felt almost three months ago when I woke up on Ethan's big birthday.  We had his party on the Sunday after his actual birthday and had our usual cast of friends for it.  This year however he got to invite 2 friends to the party...he chose two of his buddies from daycare. 

I, as usual, was the freak-a-zoid running around trying to make sure it was perfect.  Such a ridiculous habit!  But I just want it to be memorable for him...anyhow I digress.  This year Ethan wanted a Thomas the Tank Engine party.  Since we were in the middle of crazy (will link to post in a few days) I decided to just spend a bit of money to buy everything for the party.  I bought it online (I LOVE online shopping, less crowds, better selection)  I went to Etsy again for the party invite...I loved it!  On a side note I really need to take a photoshop class...it all arrived in time and looked awesome!  I made the cake myself and had Randy make the railway sign for the front step.  The cake took a painstaking 3 hours to do...but it looked wicked awesome and Ethan still talks about it!

We had a blast at the party and all his little guests did as well!  The proof is in the pictures!  I did train stops to coordinate the day.  Stop#1 was Pin the Funnel on Thomas, Stop#2 was Pinata Fun Stop #3 was Fueling Station and Stop #4 was Train Playtime in the basement.  Here is the railroad crossing sign Randy
made...I forgot to get a picture of it on the front step!

My little conductor put on his hat and got ready to welcome his guests!

The first thing they had to do was bring their 'ticket' and get their picture with Thomas and Percy!  Ignore the ghetto grey on the card, it of course, was not there when it was given out.  It is there however to prevent you from stalking me...teehee.

Each little guest got their picture taken with Percy and Thomas...

 Time for Pin the Funnel on Thomas fun!  The

boys had a blast with this!

Next Stop:  Pinata Fun!  Check out the expressions on those little boys standing in the line...love it!!!

 Playtime stop!  The little boys had a blast playing with Ethan's trains!  They probably got more play that day than they have in months!

The Thomas Cake!  It was a labor of love I tell you...it actually wasn't as hard to do as it looks...thank goodness for the template!

 The little boys had a great time discussing which part of Thomas they were going to eat...I was shocked at how adept they all were in all the Thomas terminology!

Ethan got some great gifts from his friends.  All were very thoughtful and reflective of Ethan's interests...he even got a $35 Visa gift card and a $15 Itunes card...which sent him over the moon!  You CAN buy your way into my kids heart with an Itunes Gift Card!  It was all fantastic and I know Ethan loved the entire day...that made all the running worth it! 

~Catch up From Christmas Post!~

Wow, I totally missed doing a post from our Christmas!  I can’t believe it.  Anyhow, we had a great Christmas season, we went to the Festival of Trees Teddy Bears Breakfast with our friends The Smiths and The Dombroskies.  It was a fun time however a bit complicated as we arrived late and couldn’t get a table to sit altogether.  Here are some pictures from the day!

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We had a great time decorating the tree!  I bought lots and lots of new little things for it this year…I think it was my favorite so far! 

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Randy and Ethan had their Annual Gingerbread House decorating Day!  This year they went ‘untraditional’ and made an Angry Birds camp!  Ethan had seen an Angry Birds design at the Festival of Trees and had his heart set on buying it…we didn’t bid on it as it was already over $200 and it was a bit rich for my blood.  Instead I suggested to Randy that they make their own…I think they did a great job, what do you think?

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We had a fun time at Ethan’s Christmas concert this season!  We arrived a bit close to the time though and ended up in the VERY back of the gym.  I had only brought my one lens so we didn’t get very good pictures being so far back…it was a very cute performance though and when the newsletter came out in January our little man was featured prominently in many of the pictures singing his little heart out!  We were bursting with pride!

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Our Christmas Day was just the three of us…we had a great quiet day at home.  We started out with our stockings of course and then quickly dove into our presents!  We loved watching Ethan open his presents as usual, lots of “Wows” and “Awesome” coming from his camp!  We had alot of fun wrapping his trains up….we bought him 90 assorted Thomas trains and freight cars…they were (thankfully) the highlight of the day and he still plays with his trains more than he did before!

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It was a nice Christmas.  We were sad that we didn’t have any family here with us and that we couldn’t travel but it was nice to spend the time just the three of us before we add a new baby to the mix.  Randy had almost 2 weeks off and it was wonderful for all of us to have that uninterrupted time together.  It’s been awhile!  We are hoping to travel home next Christmas to spend it with family and share baby’s first Christmas surrounded with them. 

~Father’s Day Gift~

Since I know Randy does not go on my blog I am posting my Father’s Day gift that I made him…I’m so happy with how it turned out that I’m posting directions on how to make one yourself!  You need a Silhouette or Cricut cutter, some vinyl, a canvas and some modge podge or decoupage glue.

I started with a 12x12 plain white canvas and added some paint…

Then I used my Silhouette to cut out my images, the tree I used came from the Silhouette studio.

The finished cut out…

Then I stuck it to my dried canvas…it takes a lot of convincing to get it to stay on…

Then I added my dates…I chose to just do birthdates.  You could do names as well but I liked the simplicity of the numbers…I started out with wanting to get Ethan to stamp his hand on top of the tree but since there is only him I thought it would look funny.

Then to decoupage the whole thing..

The finished project!  A family tree!  Don’t mind the shine…the glue was still wet when I took the picture!

I hope he loves it!

~Christmas Decor 2011~

Welcome to our home…the decorations are up!

~Christmas Decor 2011~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

~HaLlOwEeN 2011~

We had a spooky good time on Halloween again this year.  We didn’t follow through with our promise of a new family costume for this year though…we went as Pirates again.  No pics of us as a family though…it was a busy night at our house!  Ethan got to dress up for school this day as well and brought home some treats from there as well.  Daddy took him out for his first ever trick or treating jaunt that night as well.  He really liked that!  I stayed home and played Pirates with all the kids that came to the door…I think I might have had 6 groups! 

As usual I had fun decorating…I did my shelf and Randy decorated outside! Also Randy and Ethan had fun making their pumpkin!  Pics of course coming up!

TrIcK or TrEaTiNg VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Carving the Pumpkin VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Halloween Decor 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

As always, click on the pictures to see the whole thing…this album maker cuts off parts of the pictures.  We had a blast, looking forward to next year!!!

~Summer Shelf Decor~

Summer is here and it is time for new decorations for our shelf!  I went with soft and sophisticated for now…the flowers shown here I have drooled over at Micheals many a times but I’m just too cheap to spend $11.99 a stem!  So the other day at Goodwill on one of my Deal shopping trips I found a pot stuffed with a flower arrangement.  It was full of the EXACT flowers I had drooled over at Micheals…even the same colors!  It’s price?  $2.99.  I got 8 of the big stems and lots of little flowers and greenery as well, not to mention the actual pot and the foam inside.  It was a smoking deal!  So I tore it apart the other day and made my own arrangement in my own little vases and it looks great!!!  I’m so happy with how it turned out!

~Summer Shelf Decor~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I also got the Canvas print I had made of Ethan put up on the wall.  It is perfect and looks great!  I wish they weren’t so much or I would get more made!  It is a picture that we will love for many years…

I know I’ve said it before but I sure love having a house and being able to make it our own!  I’m super excited to get started on decorating the basement, I’ve got my ideas planned out and things ready to go, I just need to get the last coat of mud and the painting done so I can order my carpet!  So it’s going to be a couple months yet…argghhh!  I’m hoping that it doesn’t take all summer to get done but at the same time I don’t want to be in the house working all summer either…so it will get done around our fun time outside playing!  Which reminds me, I should take some pictures of the progress to share!  It is looking great down there, Randy is doing a great job!  But that’s it for now, hope everyone is loving the sunshine!

~Toy Story Pizza Planet 3rd Birthday Bash~

We had a fun time on Saturday with some friends for Ethan’s Birthday party.  It went off without too many hitches and I think everyone had lots of fun.

As usual I went a little overboard on the planning end of things…but it looked fun and tasted even better!

~Toy Story Pizza Planet 3rd Birthday Bash~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We had ‘Porkchop’ cake pops and green alien cupcakes with of course Pizza for the day.  The pizza wasn’t that great, we tried out Papa Murphy’s for the first time and I doubt we will again.  The green aliens were being ‘guarded’ by green army men and Porkchop had all his friends hanging out with him.

The first thing we did was to eat!  Much easier to have fun on a full stomach…

~Toy Story Pizza Planet 3rd Birthday Bash~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

From there we played “Pin the tail on Bullseye”  The kids got to decorate their Bullseye tail and then we blindfolded them and had them try to get it on Bullseye…it was fun!  Shontel won the prize for the closest!

~Toy Story Pizza Planet 3rd Birthday Bash~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We then did a fun alien craft with the kids.  They made 3 eyed alien stuffies!  No pictures of that of course because I was the one with the hot glue gun…They were cute but a little to advanced for the little guys.

Then came the real fun!  We had Buzz strung up in the garage waiting…

~Toy Story Pizza Planet 3rd Birthday Bash~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

After all that excitement and the Piñata bounty was collected we went inside to open presents and have some cake pops!  Ethan had to give lots of hugs and kisses to everyone!!!

~Toy Story Pizza Planet 3rd Birthday Bash~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

~Toy Story Pizza Planet 3rd Birthday Bash~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

At the end of the day, it was a fun time by all and a happy little boy for having spent time with friends.  Thank you of course to our friends that came and for the lovely presents for Ethan.  I’m already looking forward to next years’ party!