May the 4th (Birthday) Be With You

This weekend was the much anticipated, much prepared for, 4th birthday party for the Z man. It was obvious what the theme would be, and I decided pretty early on to do it at the park. At the time, I thought it would be a lot less work on me, but I was mistaken. It was just as much work as having it at my house, with the added stress of making sure we brought everything from serving spoons to cutting knives, tape, scissors, and whatever else we would or might possibly need. Plus, we had a good bit of clean up, loading, and unloading to do, which all got unloaded at my house which is now messy… Yeah, should’ve thought that one through.

Thank goodness, we had the foresight to borrow my dad’s car and have them come over and watch Z and Lu while we set up.

We really had a great turnout and everyone had a lot of fun. I bought a printable party on etsy, which got me, what I think are the cutest invites EVER

as well as a banner, food labels, cupcake toppers, and iron-on transfer for a t-shirt and all kinds of other stuff, many of which I didn’t end up using. We made a couple of things, bought most of it, and ordered some from Chick fil-A. On the menu was: Obi-Wan Kabobis, Wookie Cookies, Tie Fighters, Princess Lay’s, Captain Rex Mix, Padawan Puffs, Yoda Soda, and Jedi Juice (the water bottles were used to hold down the table cloths).

By far the most time-consuming, but also the thing that turned out the best were the pool noodle lightsabers. The intention was for them to have “Jedi training” and use them to keep balloons in the air. The reality was 4 year old boys battling with them. Either way, I thought they were great, and I was glad I took the million hours time to make them.

Couldn’t forget Lu’s lightsaber, which she loved and batted around making sword fighting noises the whole time the big kids were playing.

Then came the pinata.

 

Thankfully we made the game time decision to use the pull-string functionality as opposed to the beat the heck out of the thing traditional functionality, but either way, when the candy fell out, there was a mad dash, 20 bucks worth of candy gone in 60 seconds…

Then, we decided to let them take their energy out on Darth Vader.

Our sincere thanks to Mitch for risking his life for the fun of 6 children under the age of 8 :)

Then we sang to the birthday boy.

And, after several unsuccessful attempts, we lit the candle and he blew it out.

Is there anything more special than a crowd of people singing happy birthday to your child?! It makes me emotional every time.

It was a special day, and I want to give a special thanks to Mom and Dad, D, Amira Grace, and Margo for helping us out with everything. I don’t think Lu would have made it to the party dressed and ready to go if not for Amira, her best cousin (more on that later).

Zayd’s 4!

Z turned 4 on Friday, so we got to celebrate all day. We went into his room first thing in the morning singing Happy Birthday, and sang it several more times that day to the point where Lu started singing it!

We stayed home, and he helped me make his Darth Vader cake, which despite my best efforts looked nothing like Darth Vader. We sang, blew out candles, then after nap went to Nunna and Jido’s house to wait for Adam and Amira to arrive. Oh and did I mention the 3 hour double (turned triple) nap! It was an all around great day!

The weather was beautiful, so we played outside at Nunna and Jido’s, and Lulu played with the fa-fa’s.

Can’t believe my baby is four! It’s been an awesome year! Can’t wait to see what this year brings. Love you Z man!

Ten on Tuesday

1. We had such a fun weekend! I We are in full out planning mode for Z’s birthday. Because it is Star Wars themed, hubby is all in it, which is good, because it’s great to have him helping, but he is also really ambitious and wants to make a lot of stuff like Jedi robes (not gonna happen).

2. Z had another really good soccer game Sunday. It’s amazing what watching other kids dominate for two seasons will do for you.

We are lucky we have a dad on the team that takes really great pictures of the kids like these:

Photo credit: Todd Lester Photography

I love this last one, you will see Z is heading toward the goal, but if you look just in front of him, you will see the tenacious father-son holding hands team which (I think successfully) tried to stop the Z train from taking it to the goal. (no further comment necessary).

3. Z has been having a lot of dreams lately. It was not a big deal until one night when he had a fever and he had some bad dreams. He told me (at 3 a.m.) that he had three dreams, one about dinosaurs, one about emperial walkers, and one about nighlocks. Ever since then, he asks every night, “I’m not gonna have a dream, mama?” I have to tell him no, even though I have absolutely no control over it, so in an attempt to sway the odds, we start talking about all the good dreams he could have, some realistic like going to the beach or playing in the arcade at the mall, and some unrealistic like being Darth Vader and defeating Obi-Wan Kenobi (no kidding), being Master Yoda, or the Red Ranger. It makes him really happy to imagine these things and hopefully influences his subconscious a bit too.

4. Z is Star Student this week at school which is when they highlight one student for a week. It also means he is supposed to have a poster that will be hung in the classroom for the week that describes him. I was encouraged to let him have the creative control, right, my almost 4 year-old who can’t even color inside the lines, that’s gonna happen.

Not that I’m much better, but that’s what Photoshop and a good printer are for.

The teacher said he did a great job presenting his poster, although all he wanted to talk about was Darth Vader, no surprise there.

5. Lu was having some serious temper issues from about the time we got home from the beach until about a week ago (I think it’s getting a little better). We didn’t know what she wanted and she would scream and scream and scream. It seemed to be the worst at mealtimes. What I have now discovered is that she wants what Z has or is eating. Now that I have been giving her things like fruit snacks and granola bars when he’s eating them (two things I never would have thought a 16 month old would want or even be able to eat), she has been much happier. So much for only having one picky eater.

6. Now that the weather is getting prettier, we have resumed our after school routine of playing outside. Z rides his bike and Lu pushes her little push toy then we check the mail, flip through the catalogs, etc. Funny that last spring I would play outside with Z almost every day after school and worried so much about how that routine would change once Lu arrived, and now it has, for the better.

7. My sweet sweet brother bought us this Latte machine, and I am learning how to use it. My goal is to perfect the PSL by Thanksgiving!

8. Lu is becoming a professional cheerleader. She watches Z on Fridays at swim and on Sundays at soccer. She’s usually pretty cool on the sidelines, but every once in a while she tries to jump in the game/pool… One Friday, I let her go in the little pool with Z and me after his lesson. I have no pictures because I had to walk around behind her the whole time and catch her every time she fell forward into the water. She probably did it at least 5 times and it didn’t phase her a bit. Freaked me out though…

9. Lu’s got some new words, the main one that comes to mind is “Noooo” I hear that a lot. She’s also gotten pretty good at some animal sounds, fish is her first and favorite, but she does dog, snake, and lion, which comes straight from her throat. She is obsessed with animals, especially dogs and loves Brown Bear Brown Bear. She also likes flowers which she calls “fa-fa’s.”

10. This relates back to Lu’s food temper that I mentioned earlier, but she likes to feed herself and she doesn’t want you to cut up, bite off, or otherwise touch her food.

Exhibit A

I know, you don’t have to tell me that I win Mother of the year for giving my 16 month old a full-sized apple in the car, but believe me when I tell you the girl can handle it!

First (Second Third and Fourth) Goal!

Sunday soccer started back this weekend. Being Z's third season, we were cautiously optimistic that this might be his time to shine*. When we arrived, we immediately noticed he was looking like one of the bigger kids on the field (as opposed to last year when he wasn't even three and playing with four year olds). But again, we didn't want to get ahead of ourselves after watching him chase his shadow for a year. Then, it happened, Z went after the ball with tenacity, one might even say he had the eye of the tiger, and he took it to the goal, then he did it again and again and again.

 We tried to act cool but inside we were dancing the happy dance. I mean, everybody wins and blah blah, but Z kicked some butt, and it felt good.

*Use of phrases like "time to shine" and "eye of the tiger" were used in hyperbole and for entertainment purposes. I fully realize my child is 4 and probably not a soccer prodigy. I also realize that all that matters is that he's having fun and winning.

Beach Memories

The beach is like a distant memory now, but I still have some pictures on my phone I’d like to put up in hopes that they’ll be a reminder of the stress-free living we experienced for one week out of the year.

 

 

These were taken on our last day, only at the beach is playing with a bucket considered fun.