Yesterday was one of those days.  I was taking a serious look at myself (perhaps too seriously), and finding myself lacking.  I was questioning my motherhood ability and feeling very down.  It's amazing how teenage words can do that to a mother.

I knew that if I only waited until tomorrow things would be better.  They almost always are.  A new dawn brings new light on the day.

The sun rose on me this morning as I was kissing my little boys for school. 

Hunter gave me a kiss and said in a big voice, "You raised us well, Mom."

Now, I wouldn't really consider a 9-year-old to be exactly raised, but the words made my heart pulse all the way up to the back of my eyes and the pressure made them sting.

Not to be outdone, Connor gave me a big hug and said "I love you waaaay more than you love me!"

That really got my emotion going, so to quell it I told him, with a crooked grin, that he was a liar and that I loved him the mostest.

I realized then what a gift from God these two little boys are to me and that God knows me well enough to prompt those darlings to say the exact things I needed to hear most.

Although it was snowing when I woke up this morning, the sun was shining through bringing the dawn of this new day. 

It made me feel that maybe . . . just maybe, I'm not such a lacking mother after all.

We'll see how they feel when they are teenagers.

 

Pikachu Party Photos

 

The Perfect Pokemon Pikachu Party

Hunter turned 9 and wanted a Pokemon party.

Dejavue! It seems that every party Alex ever had, I'm redoing for Hunter.

I'm always last minute with these things, yet it came together with the help of the entire family and had great results--except for the weather.

As I was scrambling around, trying to decorate the cake and get some last minute game ideas off the web (5 min before the party started) I heard the weather service warning come on the radio! I was not happy but hopeful that it would kind of pass around our area. Not to be so. It hit with a vengeance right after all of the kids arrived. We had to rearrange a few things and have the party inside.

So here is what we did:

1. Okay, so this one took a lot of prep time: We made a Pikachu piniata using a balloon for the body, a paper plate slit to the center and slightly overlapped to create his cute pointy nose and face, attached with some crumpled newspaper under it to get the perfect angle and shape. Hands and feet were created with toilet paper tubes slit down the side and bent. Streamers cut into fringe covered the body. Printer paper rolled into a cone shaped the ears and card stock made up the features.

2. Welcome Craft: Create a Pokemon. After coloring a Pokemon picture, the kids each got a paper bag and craft supplies to create their own Pokemon for a future game. They put some crumpled up newspaper inside and twisted the bottom. Then they took feathers, sequince, crayons, googly eyes, etc. and made a Pokemon. Then they tied a string to the bottom. I told them not to be too technical because they may get ripped in the game.



3. Games: I think the pokemon game is way too complicated, so we played some simple games with a Pokemon theme. "Gotta Catch 'em All" was adapted from a game that I found on familyfun.com The kids sat in a circle with their Pokemon in the middle. One person is the "catcher". I yelled "gotta catch em all" and the catcher would try to catch one of the pokemon with a bowl or lid at the same time the children try to jerk their Pokemon out of the way. They loved this game. It can also be played with candy on a string and you use dice. If the catcher rolls doubles the lid comes down.

James played "Ash says" with the kids while I prepared the Pikachu ears party hats. (this should have been done before hand, but since it's me we're talking about, it happened during the middle of the party)

The next game was a relay. Pokemon Trainer Practice: The kids had to put on a baseball cap and back pack, run through a tunnel and tent, up the stairs (since it was indoors :( , shoot Team Rocket with a nerf gun, throw a Pokeball (practice golf balls painted half red with black line around middle) into a bowl and run back and tag the next player.

If we would have been outside, we would have done one final game of catching the pokemon. The older siblings would have dressed up like a specific Pokemon or worn a picture of a Pokemon on their backs and the kids would have had to try to capture them with their pokeballs. Then they would have recorded the captured Pokemon in their Pokedex made from printer paper folded into a booklet and stapled with a picture of a pokeball on the front. It would have been awesome.

4. Food: I am learning as I get older to simplify things if possible (yeah, right). Well, I simplified with the food, anyway. I like to have parties in the afternoon--too late for lunch, too early for dinner. It also helps if I have the morning to prepare since I always wait until the last minute. So cake and ice cream it is. I made the cake in my round Pyrex bowl and added a round cake pan to make the circle a little bigger. I used way too much red food coloring and it made the frosting really yucky, but the kids didn't seem to mind.

5. Presents: I always take a picture of Hunter with each gift and gift giver. It's nice to have a record for those thank you notes ;)

7. Piniata: Still raining, so we just dumped the contents of the piniata onto the carpet and let the kids go for it. We taped an image of a pokeball to a clear goodie bag and gave each child a bag. They loaded them with loot from the piniata. I'm glad we didn't have to smash up Pikachu after all. He was way too cute for that!

The party went over about 15 min, and then they all went home. AAAhhhhh. The perfect Pokemon Pikachu party!

Happy Birthday, Hunter!

The Perfect Harry Potter Party

Hunter has been reading Harry Potter this past summer. One night he called me into his bedroom with the excitement of discovery in his voice. When I went to his room, he leaned over his top bunk, placed his make-shift stick wand in his book to mark his spot and gleefully said, "Mom! Magic is REAL!"

It was so precious that I didn't want to let him down. After all, if he still believes in Santa Clause, why shouldn't he be able to believe in magic? Right? I let him down easily, though, and was able to use the moment as a great gospel teaching lesson. He was fine with that.

In our household, your eighth birthday is one of your biggest. It's the year that you become a member of the Church through baptism, so we wanted it to be special. We let Hunter have a big birthday party. Of course, he decided on a Harry Potter theme.

Our Schedule:


Welcome to Hogwarts

Make Snitches and watch Quidditch

Get Wands

Learn your Patronus (choose your animal)

Cast off Dementors with your patronus

Make Butterbeer

Choose Broomsticks

Play Quidditch Relay

Chase Golden Snitch

Eat Lunch

Open Presents

Eat Cake
(and the best part) Go home happy!

 

With only a week's notice, we handed out the invitations. I'm becoming a pro at last minute parties for some reason--Ah, yes, lack of planning. But, I had already done a Harry Potter theme for Alex's 9th birthday, so I didn't think it would be any big deal. At the time of Alex's party, I had never read the books, so I was very clueless. I also spent way too much time on the cake: a chess board with all of the pieces made out of chocolate! And honestly, I don't even remember what we did! So I consulted the Internet where I found way too many ideas for a week's time to plan. I narrowed it down to one website, then tweaked it to fit my needs, and we had the Perfect Harry Potter Party!

Note: This may be a little too detailed for the average reader. If you are feeling a little overwhelmed with the descriptions, please just browse through the photos and make up the story in your head as you go. If this isn't enough detail for you and you are trying to throw your own HP Party, please email me for even more info. I would love to send out as much help as I received from the web!Our Welcome Activity was creating a golden snitch. They were able to stuff pre cut and pre stitched felt circles. I went around and sewed them together, then they had help hot gluing the wings on the back. Since this was a little time consuming, I put on the Quidditch match from HP 1 for them to watch. It worked out nicely. The smartest thing to do when planning a party: Keep it SIMPLE, oh yeah, and delegate! Hannah dressed Hunter Potter, and I say she did a smashing job! Emily did the lightening bolt tattoos with washable marker. It was great until it dripped as the kids sweat (or sweatted?).

A very simple sign with a Hogwarts monogram from aforementioned website, and tons of red and yellow balloons everywhere!

I take full responsibility (almost) for the favor bags. I downloaded a photo from the net and circle punched it. My daughter taped them to the goodie bags. I created the scarves out of a sheet of red felt with yellow strips glued to it, then with a ruler and rotary cutter, I sliced that into strips, then loosely tied them around the baggies.

We took a short break to make Butter Beer in Potions Class. Combine root beer, ice cream, and butterscotch syrup. Walmart was out of butterscotch syrup, so we improvised with caramel syrup. Truly, the kids didn't care! I made sure that no one touched it until they each had a glass in front of them. Then I explained that the potion wouldn't work if they didn't do it exactly right. They had to stir one time to the right, then quickly three times to the left, then to the right again slowly (or something like that). See those smiles? They loved it!

Here is the amazing cake that I {didn't} make! My best idea yet! I LOVE making my kid's birthday cakes, but I am always so stressed out getting them finished before the party. This year I picked up this simply decorated cake from Sam's Club and suspended our Christmas ornament above it. Perfect and so easy (except that I forgot to write on it)!

Cute little wizards.

Lunch was also kept very simple: PB&J sandwiches on white and wheat cut in squares to make a checkerboard (made by sis, Emily), watermelon and pumpkin juice (orange Koolaid).

Learning how to play Quidditch was so much fun when taught by the Quidditch Master himself, Professor Jamesledore.


James picked up sticks from the Burn pile and stripped off the branches to make broomsticks and wands. He had all different sizes lined up along the fence. The kids chose broomsticks and wands according t0 their sizes. I had originally planned on buying different sized dowels and wrapping paper grocery bags around the ends and taping them, then having the kids shred them to look like broom sticks. Wands could also be made from thinner dowels. This ended up being much too costly, and it was difficult finding paper grocery bags.

They did a relay through the yard weaving around obstacles, throwing a balloon (the quaffle) through a suspended inner tube (the goal) and flying around and cursing the basilisk (stuffed snake) with their wands, then flying to the next person in line and tagging them.

Then they took turns chasing the golden snitch (James) around the yard until the snitch pooped out and landed on the ground.

When asked what their favorite part of the party was, ALL of the kids said it was the Dementor part. Alex dressed up like a Dementor and was instructed not to be scary at all, but to be very goofy. During Hunter's 5th party, Alex and his friends put on a very realistic Star Wars battle that was a little over the top for a bunch of 5 year olds, so I wanted to make sure we were clear on the Goofy Dementor part. I didn't want any children having scarring memories from Hunter's party.

Happy Birthday, Hunter! You are one special little Amazing guy! Have a MAGICAL 8th year!