Friday Photo Post

Some photos from our summer so far...

This and That

As usual, I did well at blogging for about a week and then fell off the map.  Sigh.

Anyway, here are some snippets of what's been going on:

• I said goodbye to my Blackberry and got an iPhone. I'm in love with it. So many really cool apps and so far the quality has been fantastic.  The only complaint I have is the same as many others in reviews I read before buying- the battery life is not super.

• Dee and I are almost half way through the Couch to 5K training program. It is 9 weeks of interval training three times a week to go from being pretty much a couch potato to being able to run 5K.  As you may know, running 5K has been a goal for a few summers now and I haven't achieved it. This year I will do it! Our town has a 5K run that benefits the food bank in the fall, so that's our goal date. And the other benefits to running are something I'm really loving- the loss in pounds!

• In just a few weeks Luca will start Grade 1 and Levi will begin Preschool. Gah!

• I'm pretty sure both boys have grown a few inches over the last month. They both seem so tall and just so much older!

• August 1 marked the start of my on-call period from now until December for babies. I have 1 per month at this point. I'll also be subbing again this school year so I'll be pretty busy! As usual...

• My sister Sarah and her boyfriend Mike have bought an adorable little house in Hinton. Mike was transferred there and they move next week. I'm super excited for them as they start this new chapter but I know I'm going to miss them terribly. Its been nnice having Sas only 45 minutes away and having both planned and impromptu visits frequently.  Now perhaps a wedding will be next?!? ;)

• The construction beside us is a serious thorn in my side. At 7am on the nose they begin working. For a few days it was so loud and was vibrating the house so badly that the CD I was trying to listen to kept skipping! And forget trying to sleep in...

Techie Tuesday

My boys are such "techies".

A few weeks ago I joined the iPhone community. My Blackberry bit the dust and I opted to go with an iPhone rather than another Blackberry. Chris already has an iPad so the boys are quite familiar with it.

When I got my phone, the boys wanted to play with it of course. They were asking for a game that Chris has and I didn't. I told them I didn't have that game and Luca's response was "well you can just transfer stuff from Daddy's iPad onto your iPhone you know."

Seriously. How does that kid know that?!?

Then about a week and a half later, while on our way to visit my mom, I was telling the boys that Gramma had an operation and that they had to be really gentle with her.  Levi says "How do you know Gramma had an operation? Did she text you?"

Clearly kids know that texting has become a main method of communication these days! Haha

Summer Bucket List Update

 

I can't believe its already August! We've blown right through July and have just a month left of summer. Looks like we've still got lots to cross off our summer bucket list too!



Here is a list of some of the things that I am hoping we will do this summer:

• go camping
• go on a hike
• make bubbles
• make our own sidewalk paint and draw masterpieces on the driveway
• go bowling
• have a picnic lunch
• visit the splash park
• go on a road trip
• go to the beach
• have a weiner roast with friends
• visit 5  3 new parks in the city
• make our own playdough
• go to a drive in movie (there happens to be one in town in August!)
• go "fishing" in our kiddie pool
• watch fireworks
• play mini golf
• stargazing/ watch a meteor shower
• make and enjoy our own popsicles
• run through the sprinkler
• read a chapter book as a family

Holiday Hangover

We're back from our week of camping at Gull Lake. It was fantastic. We really couldn't have asked for anything better- the weather was unusually hot (about 30 degrees every day), no evening thunder storms, the beach close by and we figured out how to use our AC on 15 amp power!

Every day we woke up, had breakfast and headed down to the lake where we would meet up with friends and spend the day playing in the water, in the sand and just lounging around in the hot sun or warm shade.  Most days we spent about 7 hours of the day at the beach. Lots of great conversations, fun activities and wonderful memories were made.

After the beach, we headed back to the trailer for supper, which was usually sandwiches as it was far too hot to start a fire to cook the meals I had planned. Then it was more time with friends visiting, riding bikes and playing at the park and making glowstick art in the air before everyone fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillows.

It was a perfectly wonderful week and I can't wait to do it again next year at the same place with the same fantastic friends.

But now that we are home, we're back to reality. There's dishes to be done, floors to be vacuumed, laundry to be washed, appointments to attend.....  I'm finding it hard to get back into the swing of normal life, wishing I was sitting on the beach, drink in hand and a book on my lap.

Ah, well. My holiday hangover will soon disappear...

Saturday Night Leftovers

• Summer is in full swing and we have been BUSY! We went to Ponoka last weekend for the Stampede and Luca's birthday. The weather was fantastic and we had fun at the parade, midway and my mom and I took in a rodeo performance.

• We came home for a day and then the boys and I headed to Lethbridge to spend a few days with Tasha and her girls. It was great to see them as always, but the boys' behaviour was less than stellar. Made for a long couple days with me constantly policing them. The next visit Tash and I have is going to be sans kids.

• I was going to donate blood while in Lethbridge but it turns out since I was in the Dominican in April, I can't donate for a full year. So, I will put donating blood on my 2013 goals list and try again. Unless I go somewhere tropical again to get out of doing it... ;)

• I don't think I've really mentioned it on my blog before too much but my BFF is moving to Houston, Texas when their here house sells. It makes me sad to think about. As often as we can, we try to spend quality time together. Today we had a great girls day that started with pedicures, then lunch with a slushy drink then something we've been talking about doing for ages....we got our noses pierced! Dee had hers done when we were at Augustana (cough...13 years ago...cough, cough) but it grew in many years ago. I'd never had mine done and have been wanting to do it for a while. So, I'm now sporting a cute little rhinestone stud in my nose. I was so surprised with how quickly it was done- literally it was a 2 minute process. That's not to say it didn't hurt, but it was fast!  You only live once, right? And what's a little tiny hole in a nose anyway? Chris calls it my midlife crisis.... tee hee.

• Tomorrow we are taking our week of holidays this summer and heading out camping to Gull Lake. I took the month of July off from doula work so that we could actually enjoy some family time without the phone ringing. We also have friends camping there at the same time- Luca's kindergarten teacher and her family and some family friends. It should make for a fun week and hopefully some tired boys each night!

2012 Goals Check-In

Well, here we are 6 months into the year, so I thought I'd check in on my goals for 2012 to see how I'm doing. Its not looking great.

• Run 5K. I got close this past year but in 2012 I am going to do it. Along the same lines, I'm going to make an effort to walk more rather than hop in my truck. To make this measureable- I'm going to choose walking or another "healthier" option 3 times a week.

PASS/ still working
I am walking more when I am in town. I'd say I am successful at choosing walking over driving 3 times a week (now that the weather is nice). I'm still working on my 5K goal- my goal date is September 29th when our town holds its annual Fun Run.

• Donate blood. This was also inspired by Tasha. Both of us are 30 and up until last week had never donated blood out of fear- of the unknown maybe. Tasha did it on New Years Eve and said it was no problem. Donating blood is something that has always been at the back of my mind as something I should do, especially since in 2005 I was the recipient of 3L of donated blood when I had emergency surgery.

FAIL. However, I am planning to donate blood when I got to Lethbridge to visit Tasha next week. I need someone to help me follow through with it. I'm scared!

• Blog more frequently. I know I've been sporadic and I hope to blog at least once a week, if not more this year. (Tom and Lisa- hold me to this! If I'm not blogging, email me and kick my butt in gear! For those that don't know, Tom and Lisa are my brother and sister in law that live in Ottawa and are probably my most frequent visitors to my blog. Its the source of much of their information on our family. :) )

Uhhh....FAIL. I was doing really well for a while but then I sort of fell off the wagon. Oops.

• Keep a Thankfulness Journal. I saw the idea on pinterest about 2 months or so ago and marked it as something I wanted to do. Then I was gifted this beautiful journal by a client and knew that I would reserve that book for this project. I started it today and my goal is to write in it daily and have 365 entries by this time next year. (Since its a leap year, I can miss 1 day over the whole year.) I think it will be a great activitiy, especially when I have days that I am frustrated or feeling down to force myself to sit and come up with at least 1 thing to be thankful for.

FAIL. I did well at this for a while but forgot a few times and then got out of the habit. I didn't think it would be so difficult but there were days that I had a really hard time sitting down and writing in it.

 

• Allow my children to do more activities and projects that may create messes. I tend to disuade them from doing certain activities due to the mess it will surely create, but I'm going to try not to be so uptight.

PASS. I'm getting much better at letting the boys pull out the paint and playdough.

• Start saying no more. This past year, with my doula business picking up, I found that I was getting overwhelmed with the commitments that I had taken on. I'm always eager to volunteer for something and then end up regretting it when I stress over getting it done and trying to fit it into my other daily activities. I'm going to choose my commitments more carefully.

PASS. I've resigned from my position on the Steering Team at MOPS and I'm thinking longer before volunteering for things. I'm trying to choose to do things that are really important to me and that I have enough time to do well.

Summer Bucket List



I was inspired by Tasha to create a summer bucket list. I didn't realize that it was such a popular thing until I started noticing it all over Pinterest and a quick google search brought up hundreds of ideas. If you are interested, start here, where I borrowed the adorable picture from.

Here is a list of some of the things that I am hoping we will do this summer:

• go camping
• go on a hike
• make bubbles
• make our own sidewalk paint and draw masterpieces on the driveway
• go bowling
• have a picnic lunch
• visit the splash park
• go on a road trip
• go to the beach
• have a weiner roast with friends
• visit 5 new parks in the city
• make our own playdough
• go to a drive in movie (there happens to be one in town in August!)
• go "fishing" in our kiddie pool
• watch fireworks
• play mini golf
• stargazing/ watch a meteor shower
• make and enjoy our own popsicles
• run through the sprinkler
• read a chapter book as a family

What's on your summer bucket list?

Star Wars Birthday!

Luca celebrated his birthday early this month because he wanted all his school friends to come. Since his birthday is a week after the end of school, we decided it might be easiest to do it early.

Being a social little boy, he wanted most of the kids in his class at his party, so we just went ahead and invited all 19 of his classmates, 16 of whom attended. With Levi and the siblings of friends, I think we had 22 kids in total.

Being June in Alberta, it has rained most days. As the birthday party date approached, I was getting more and more nervous about having up to 20 kids running around inside my house. To make matters just a bit more stressful, being that Luca wanted a Star Wars party, each kid was going to be wielding a Light Saber.

I must have done a realyl good deed because the day of the party brought sunshine! The party was scheduled from 1-3 pm and at about 3:15pm it started to rain. Wow!

For the party, I had a Light Saber making station. Chris got some pipe insulation from Home Depot which came in 6ft lengths. I cut each one in half and used Duct Tape and black electrical tape to make "handles". I then set out a variety of different colored electrical tape for the kids to create their own unique light saber.

They had a blast having battles out in the field behind our house!

We also decorated name badges which I quickly laminated, punched a hole in and put onto string.

All the kids had a blast and there were only minor light saber battle injuries to report!

Luca also had a special day to celebrate his birthday at school. He got a special birthday crown and sticker, a gift bag from his teacher and he was excited to be able to bring cupcakes to share with his classmates.

Kindergarten Graduate

Thursday was Luca's last day of kindergarten. I'm amazed at how quickly the year has flown by and how much he has grown- both physically and emotionally.  Next year my boy is going to be in Grade 1.

He used to say that he wasn't excited to go to Grade 1 because they don't do centers, but on the last day of school, they watched a little video that the current Grade 1s made and one boy said that they get to play LEGO in Grade 1, so now he's excited. He's also excited to get 2 recesses!

Luca and his fantastic teacher, Mrs. Chicilo

Luca came up with what to write and did it all on his own.

 He even drew a picture of himself and Mrs. Chicilo!



Along with a Tim's card, we made this little card to go in the potted flowers that he chose for her.

Luca's report card was great. The only negative thing was that this term he discovered his "whisper voice" as his teacher put it and was quite chatty at carpet time and had to be reminded to listen. I can't for the life of me figure out where he gets that from.... ;)

He's an excellent reader and his math skills are great. He loves to figure things out and he is getting to be quite a little artist.

A friend said it best when she commented on my facebook post. She said 

" Every year is something new, and I always have to remind myself not to be sad that they are growing, but to be extremely proud of who they are growing to be!!!!"

Those were wonderful words to read and a great reminder. (Thanks Jackie!)

I am so proud of the boy he is and the growth that he has demonstrated. While a little bit of me is sad, I am excited for the changes and new stages that are coming!

Friday Night Leftovers

• Somehow, June has been my busiest month for subbing this school year. Students are done on Wednesday and I am still subbing Monday and Tuesday next week! Usually mid-June is when I can assume I will be done work.

• Luca's last day of kindergarten was yesterday. A full post with pictures coming soon.

• I often work out at the Hutterite colony that is nearby. Last week I had promised some of the students that I would make and bring brownies if they did well on the math test that I was preparing them for. (Side note: Personally, I think Hutterite cooking is amazing so I find it quite funny that the kids love my Betty Crocker brownies so much! Haha ). True to my word, I did bring them their treat last Friday afternoon. I took the boys out with me and they absolutely loved the kids and loved playing there after school was out. One of the boys took us on a tour so my boys could see calves, ducks and puppies. The boys had such a fantastic time it tooki me half an hour to get them to finally leave. The only thing that finally worked was to tell them that we were going to come back on the last day of school to celebrate with them at a BBQ. Since that day, the boys have asked every day how many more sleeps until the "colony BBQ".

 Luca loved this calf that kept licking him

 Luca learning about how they milk the cows

 Checking out the ducklings

• Luca celebrated his birthday early in the month because he wanted his friends to be able to come and he wanted to have a special day at school. Another post to follow on this crazy birthday party!

• Luca's class was doing inline skating this past week and he absolutely loved it! If we weren't already getting him a 2 wheeler for his birthday, he'd be getting roller blades!

• Last week I volunteered at Luca's school for Sports Day. Levi got to come along and was so excited to be able to pack a snack in his lunch kit and eat snack with Luca and the other kids in Luca's class.

• 
  
  
  After 5 years in this house and enjoying our lovely view, construction started in the field to the North of us this week. Its been quite loud- with equipment starting up at 7 AM on the dot and going until 6 PM. I'm already noticing an increase in the dirt that is coming in our windows (if I forget to close them) and that is migrating to the edge of our yard. At some point in the near future, the powerlines that are along our property lines will be buried, so we are anticipating some loss of grass, shrubs and trees. :( 
 
 

This was our view (taken the day we moved in, 5 years ago)

Levi watching the equipment work from our kitchen window yesterday

The current view from our window.

Hands Down, The Best

Today we celebrated the man of the house- the fun, devoted, hard-working, loving father and husband.

While I appreciate all he does every day, it was nice to be able to use today to let him know how special he is to us.

The boys and I painted a ceramic popcorn bowl for him last week:

The list is endless but some of the things we love about Chris are

• how hard-working he is
• that he loves to spend time with his family
• he loves to show the boys new things and do special projects together
• he plays Lego Batman Wii with Luca even when he doesn't want to
• he loves to wrestle with the boys
• he is such a good cook
• he cleans up
• he does the bedtime routine with the boys most of the time- baths and stories
• "Turbo Boosters" in the truck
• watching movies together
• building Lego together
• his hugs
• and so many more.......

Chris, we love you more than any words can express. You are our rock, and life just woudn't be complete without you. You are such an amazing, natural father and the best husband a girl could ever dream of! We are so lucky!

A Milestone

It finally happened. Luca lost his tooth that he's been eagerly wiggling every day for weeks. This morning at about 6:30 am, he came barrelling into my room, squealing "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy! My tooth finally popped out!"

I tried not to appear startled to be awoken by a toothless, grinning boy with blood dripping down his chin and instead joined in the celebration with him.  We wiped the trickle of blood and then him, myself and Levi all inspected the tooth and the hole it left.

We had a very eager boy, all morning asking if it was time to go to school to show his friends.

Another big milestone reached.

Kids: On Death

I love listening to the boys' conversations. Tonight at supper, they had quite an interesting one. It went like this:

Levi: I can't wait til I'm 5!


Luca: Do you know that you only have 90 birthdays and then you die?


Levi: Yep.


Luca: Like Biz Nona. She was at least 90!


Levi: Yup but now she's a baby again. (Note: I have NO idea where he came up with his. Apparently he believes in reincarnation....at 4!)


Luca: No, she's not a baby. God made her back an old lady but she floats in the clouds and watches us and keeps us safe. (He then whispers conspiratorially) And little fairies fly around and kiss her on the lips!

Levi: I can't wait til I'm 90!

Haha, seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. Luca was so serious about the fairies too! LOL

My Firstborn

Perhaps I'm just being oddly emotional but the last few weeks I've been in awe over how quickly my biggest boy is growing and changing. He's really developed into his own little person with his own thoughts, attitudes and so much independence. It all started with last week's discovery of his first loose tooth...

Luca, when you started kindergarten 8.5 months ago, you were still so small and still needed your Mommy. Your cheeks still held the tiniest bit of baby fat and you still had that childlike look about you.  Now, you've grown so much in the last few months that it seems like every time you put on a pair of jeans, they are inches too short. Your face has thinned out and you look so much more grown up. I love the soft dusting of freckles across your nose and under your big blue eyes. 

And don't even get me started on that loose tooth. As soon as it falls out, your smile will forever change. First it will be the hole left by that tiny baby tooth, then it will be awkward, goofy looking, teeth-too-big-for-your-face look and finally, hopefully a beautiful set of teeth in a dazzling smile.

In the last month or so, you've decided to just wear shorts or pj pants to bed- no shirt anymore. When you come downstairs for breakfast wearing just jammie shorts and a bare chest, I have to stop for a moment and gather myself because you just look so...so grown up. What happened to the days of matching pj sets and snuggles with my jammie footed little boy? Sigh.

You are becoming so independent. I don't want to ever forget how excited you are when I let you do things on your own- like the first time I let you go to your kindergarten door without me walking you from the truck or the first time I let you walk down the street to meet friends. Of course, I stood at the end of the driveway and watched you every step of the way- my feet waiting to run to you if you showed even the slightest bit of needing your mama.  But the grin you wore on your face and the way you walked proud as a peacock told me you were ready to do things on your own.

You are getting so close to riding a two-wheeler all by yourself. By the end of the summer, you'll be cruising along. Before I know it you'll be getting your drivers' license and wanting to borrow the truck. Yikes!

You are reading so well. You started Kindergarten knowing letters and sounds and you knew how to spell your first name. Now, you are sounding out words all over the place- naming stores as we drive past them and reading labels on the cereal boxes.  You can write your entire name- first, middle and last. You're sounding out words and writing little sentences on the whiteboard at home. In 8 months, you have been cruising along though 5 Home Reading levels. 

Maybe its the teacher in me, but this is a huge milestone and my Mommy-heart is just bursting with pride. Once the doors to reading have been opened, its not something that you can ever take away. You will never forget how to read the English language. Without even thinking about it, when you look at something as you walk past, you will read the sign above a door or the advertisement hung in a window.  You have taken huge steps, my son. Knowing this skill is one of the foundations to everything you will do in your life.

One of your favorite things to do right now, besides play computer games, is to build LEGO sets with the directions. You are getting so good at following each step of the directions until you have your masterpiece in your hands. And there it is again- that look of pure pride and joy when you bring it over to show me what you've accomplished.

One of my favorite things is to watch you and Levi when you don't realize I'm watching. When you get all "big brother" on him and try to teach him how to do something. The other morning at breakfast, while I stood quietly in the corner of the kitchen sipping my coffee, you tried to teach Levi some of the moves from your Spring Fling dance. You were so patient with him- breaking it down into tiny steps and helping him until he got it right. You were so encouraging- saying things like "You can do it, buddy" or "You've got this!".  That right there- those 5 glorious minutes- erased the frustration of the fighting from the day before.  Levi is so lucky to have such a cool brother. I hope that you both teach the other wonderful things throughout life.

Of course, with this newfound independence comes the bit that drive Mommy and Daddy nuts- the talking back and trying to find how your opinions fit into our daily schedule. The bossing around of your brother. The frustration when things don't go quite your way. I try to remind myself that this is all part of growth and that with the exciting new developments come the ones that you have to figure out as well.

Earlier this week you were invited to attend Beavers with a friend. As I dropped you off, you were so eager to go, you gave me a one armed barely-there hug and away you went, leaving me staring at the closed door and just feeling the internal struggle of pride and sadness.  I am so proud of you- I'm proud of your confidence to go without me and your eagerness to try new things. I'm proud and happy with the friendships you have. But I'm sad that my first little baby is no longer a baby. You're growing up so quickly, my boy. In a few short months you will start Grade 1. You will spend more hours in a day away from me than with me.  That's hard. I know it is a rite of passage and everyone goes through it. Its just the way it is. And its just the first of many of these growing up moments to come. I'll just have to deal with it. 

I love you, son. I love these "growing up" moments, even if they are hard at times. While I know there will be moments that I look back and miss my little chubby faced, jammied baby boy, I also know that there will be so many more exciting things to come as you get older.

Now, please excuse me while I go cry into my coffee....

Friday Night Leftovers

The Complainer Edition

• The rain of the last week has been getting to me. The first day I didn't mind it- the rain I knew would bring green grass, buds on the trees and flowers poking through the ground. But the cold and the wind and the greyness was bringing me down. It was nice to wake up to sunshine this morning, but it is to be short lived- more rain in the forecast for the weekend. Blah.
 
• At the end of 2011, we found out that Chris would be losing his company truck at the end of June- the office staff would no longer get this perk. So, we've known that we needed to buy a car soon. We'd been watching kijiji and did see a few we liked, but didn't get so far as to go and look at. Then Chris found a Subaru Outback. It was a great price and looked to be in great condition. He talked the price down a bit and agreed to purchase it. The family that owns it is moving mid-May, so the agreement was that Chris would put a deposit on it and then get it when the family moved. That actually turned out to be a good thing because it gave Chris some time to call the Subaru dealership and have them pull the service records. It turns out, there is a major repair that needs to be done, so Chris contacted the owner and was able to get $500 more taken off the price of the car. So, we got a really good deal on teh purchase price but will need to do some repairs when we get it.
 
• Speaking of repairs, because 1 vehicle isn't enough, the front end of my truck was making "clunking" noises. Yes, that is my very educated description. Chris looked at it and had an idea what it might be and we decided to take it in. Well, it's fixed and we now have the "honor" of owning the most expensive shocks that repair shop has put in. Yay us! We didn't think about the luxury suspension system when we bought a "luxury" vehicle. Lesson learned and nearly $2000 poorer.
 
• The boys were supposed to start soccer in Mid-April. We were told that when the fields were dry, we would begin. April came and went with no communication at all. Finally, we got an email saying that there weren't enough coaches and they didn't know if they could run the U4 and U6 teams. Perhaps they should have communicated this mid-April so they could try to get some volunteers? NOT 2 weeks after they were supposed to begin playing... About a week later, we got another email saying that soccer would indeed start this Saturday- May 5th and that the coaches were getting thier lists early this week. Have we heard from anyone? Of course not. Last year, Luca was somehow missed and not even put on a team until we contacted the person who runs it (after weeks of trying to get in touch with her unsuccessfully, but that's another story). Ugh. I'm so irritated and annoyed. Apparently this is how disorganized it always is every year. That's not ok with me! If the person who is doing it is finding it to be too much, she needs to ask for help or pass some tasks to someone else! Grrr!
 
 
 
Ok. Complaints over. I feel better. Now off to do a bit of gardening before the rain settles back in....

Levi's LEGO Birthday Party!

Levi turned 4 last week and wanted a LEGO party. Thanks to Pinterest, making this a success was easy!






I made the invitations on the computer with a LEGO photo background and then cut them out and glued them onto yellow cardstock. Sorry, no photo.

The decor was simple- a red table cloth, a vase with LEGO in the centre of the table and some yellow balloons with faces drawn on stuck to the walls.

(sorry, you get sideways photos. I tried deleting and reuploading them a few times and they just won't go teh way I want them to!)

As the guests arrived for the party, there were LEGO coloring sheets out on the table that I got from this site. They are customizeable, so I was able to make them specific for Levi's party. There was a page to design their own character and one with blocks to color.

After seeing mini fig heads made out of baby food jars, I knew there was a reason I had been hoarding saving all those jars!  I spray painted the jars yellow (taping the threads so they didn't get all goopy with paint), then drew the faces on using real LEGO mini figures for inspiration, then sprayed a clear coat over top. The kids loved them!

I filled them with a surprise LEGO figure bag and some LEGO candies that we found in Banff. 

I made the cake to look like a few large bricks. In my head it looked a lot better. I had no idea that Oreo cookies (used for the top) were so difficult to cover with icing! Also, I ran out of icing and at 10pm the night before the party, I just didn't feel like making more. So, there are crumbs showing through the icing. I was beating myself up over it until Chris convinced me that the 4 year olds wouldn't care. And guess what? He was right!

I covered juice boxes in construction paper and used one of my scrapbooking punches to make the dots. Easy peasy! LEGO drinks! And I found some square yellow paper plates that fit just perfectly!

We played a "pin the mouth on the figure" game that I made out of poster board. All the kids except Levi thought this was pretty great. In typical Levi style, he decided to pout and not participate at all.

And just a few photos that my sister took that I thought I would include....