Celebration Part II: Welcome to NEVERLAND

For Ella and Benjamin's birthday this year we decided to go with "NEVERLAND" theme, having them dress up as Peter Pan and Tinker Bell and inviting their friends to come dressed as pirates, Lost Boys, Indians, or Wendy. We ended up having all these characters at our party!

The trip to Neverland started out by Peter Pan and Tinker Bell sprinkling pixie dust on the guests as they arrived. We reviewed the story by going over some scenes from the movie, making sure everyone was aware of what the party was about. Below is a picture of us watching the movie...

Captain Hook (Keith) made special appearance and chased the kids around the house and back yard, making them walk the plank and having sword fights.
The kids got to play in the tent - LOST BOYS CAVE and decorate their swords with stickers.
We also had a Mermaid Lagoon (wading pool with some sprinklers) but unfortunately the weather was not really Lagoon friendly... We did get to "make shadows" by tracing each kid's outline on black paper.

Towards the end of the party we received a message in a bottle from Peter Pan, asking for help in finding his treasure before Hook got to it... Everyone enjoyed a treasure hunt, especially since they got to keep the found treasure (coin candies, treats, and a toy). Below I am giving out the treasure...

Keith decorated the cakes to make them look like the crocodile with the ticking clock. The kids loved those.

Even Jessie and I decided to join in on the fun by dressing up.

At the end of the night, after all the work we put into the party, we figured we deserved a turn at WII (the boys were playing during the cleanup!). Jessie beat me at tennis, just like she does on a real court!

Official Jam Tasters

The kids and I have been very busy this summer getting ready for winter - picking berries, freezing them, and making jam. This last week I've decided to make some new jams - blackberry and triple berry (blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry). The kids volunteered (actually, more like begged), to taste every single batch. Lena (being so much like her mom!) told me it was wa-a-y-y too sweet, Benjamin (just like he daddy), doesn't think there is such thing as TOO sweet.

Birthday Boy

Benjamin turned 3 last Sunday. Since him and his BFF have birthday only 5 days apart, they usually party together... This year, once again, the celebrations consisted of several phases. Phase one was a trip to Cold Stone Creamery to get their Birthday Creations (siblings and moms were invited). Earlier that day Benjamin got an awesome present from his cousin Katya (thanks, Manya and Dave!) - Buzz Lightyear Costume. So, Benjamin refused to take the costume off the first couple of days. In fact, when Keith checked on him that first night, Benjamin was asleep hugging his costume. We pretty sure he likes it...

Such a Silly Tooth Fairy!

A couple of weeks ago we went out to Subway for dinner. When Lena bit into her sandwich she got really upset and told me that sandwich hurt her tooth. I completely dismissed her complaints (she does tend to get headaches anytime I ask her to clean her room). However, to my horror I realized that her front bottom tooth was hanging by a thread! I was pretty annoyed that sandwich caused my daughter's tooth to fall out and vowed not to come back. The call to Lena's dentist in the morning revealed the awful truth - it is time for my baby to loose her baby teeth... Emotionally, I was not prepared to deal with such trauma, so I went into denial...

Keith had to bring me up to speed on the whole tooth fairy business before he went to work that night. I told Lena that if she managed to pull the tooth out on her own, the tooth fairy would come. My diligent child had accomplished that task within minutes. If only I were that good at my task... I accidentally threw away her tooth into the garbage can while cleaning up after dinner.The extensive sweep of the territory came up negative... Subject in question was MIA... I improvised by telling Lena that I would put the tooth under the pillow after she fell asleep because fairy was not allowed to come otherwise... I remembered someone mentioning coins but my wallet only had pennies which I did not see as worthy of a first-baby-tooth-out award. Paper dollar had to do...

I went to work the following morning excited to hear from Lena about her visitor. However, she never called. Imagine my shock when I came home and she still hadn't mentioned anything. I started questioning my sanity, wondering if I somehow lost the dollar between the kitchen and the bedroom. I ran and looked under the pillow... the dollar was still there... Apparently, I was more excited about the whole concept than Lena... She forgot to even check her pillow in the morning...

Tillamook - the home of Cheese Factory

So, every summer I get to audit some municipalities in Tillamook. This year my audit was scheduled for five days. Keith took some time off and drove up to see me with our babies. While I worked, they went for a swim, toured the Cheese Factory, checked out local library and Air Museum - very fun and active day. I met them for lunch at the Cheese Factory (but did not get to join them for the ice cream afterwards...)