Ethan's Birthday Party

On Friday afternoon we had 11 of Ethan's little friends over for a construction-themed birthday party. It was a wild and crazy bunch--9 boys and 3 girls--but Dan and I managed to come out of it alive! Tired. But alive.

We tried to have a long list of activities to keep their busy little bodies busy! First we had snacks--nutella sandwiches, grapes, pretzels, gold fish and carrot sticks. We gave each of them a yellow construction hat and tool apron with their name on it. We had fabric markers out that they could decorate the aprons and add their own art work. Dan turned out to be the artist in residence and added saws, hammers and even a shark to various aprons!

Next we moved to painting mode. We had constructed a few cardboard houses and just drawn a few doors and windows on other cardboard pieces. Each child got to choose a paint brush and a cup of yellow, blue or red paint. I was surprised how long they were entertained with painting their houses!- We had many colorful creations. Dan also had his drills out with buffers at the end. The kids loved "drilling"with his assistance. Who doesn't love power tools?

It was a gorgeous day, so we went in the front yard and took turns swinging the bat at a "saw" pinata. Ethan had a bit of a birthday melt-down at this point: he wanted to keep swinging the bat and did not want to give anyone else a turn! Finally we had Dan hit the pinata open and the salt water taffy that rained down seemed to calm Ethan's tears!

We also did a wrecking ball game outside. Dan wrapped a rope with a tennis ball at the end to the limb of our tree and the kids would swing the "wrecking ball" to knock over a tower of boxes. Kids love all forms of destruction and this was definitely a hit!

Ethan opened his gifts and then we sang "Happy Birthday" and ate his home-made excavator cake and ice cream. He received a whole slew of construction vehicles and trucks. He has been beep-beeping, sawing, digging and excavating for days. He couldn't be happier!

            The silly birthday boy and his excavator cake: hand-made by his mom--a true labor of love

                                                           Here's the painting crew!

                                         Jack and Matthew are hard at work with their hard hats on!

                                             Gathering candy from the pinata. Yum!

Dan tries to calm to chaos of the wrecking ball game gone awry!

                                                          Are they really all sitting still?
                                        L to R: Sofia, Madison, Max, Jack, Matthew,
                                                                   Sam, Saxton
                                                  T.R., Eva, Ethan, Tommy, Preston

Sydney's Daisy Party

Thursday night we hosted a mother-daughter party for Sydney's Daisy troop. All of the moms and girls came dressed up and we all had a nice time eating and visiting. They really have a cute group of girls: still at a sweet age, with a lot of silly mixed in!

First we made a cute polka-dot mug and a pipe-cleaner, pencil flower. Then we played a game in which Remi read a few clues and the girls had to guess which mommy they described. My clues were: "This mommy loved to dance when she was younger/ This mommy loves to travel and has been to Mexico, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, the Dominican Republic and the Czech Republic." Syd guessed the first clue was me, but not the second.

We enjoyed some dainty refreshments: sparking raspberry sherbet punch, daisy cupcakes, chocolate covered strawberries and rice-krispie treats.

From L to R: Elizabeth, Brooke, Sydney, Elisabeth, Norie and Claire

The Gluten-free Cake that Wasn't

Dan had a sad mishap trying to plan a huge surprise for Mother's Day. One of the biggest things I miss eating, since being diagnosed with a gluten allergy, is cake. Specifically carrot cake! When you can't eat flour, you just can't eat any yummy pastry type items: cookies, cakes, pies, brownies, donuts, cinnamon rolls etc. So my sweet husband went to a lot of expense and effort ordering a gluten-free carrot cake from a specialty bakery in New York. The item was shipped UPS overnight and was packed in dry ice. I was so excited to unpack it and had figured I would eat one slice each day until Mother's Day. Unfortunately when the cake arrived, I checked over the ingredients and it was NOT gluten free! I think when he was searching their website, he saw a few GF items and then assumed everything was. Naturally I was disappointed, but I was even more disappointed to have to tell him. He had gone to so much effort! Since it's the thought that counts, he had just as much of my love and appreciation as if the cake had been GF! I adore him because he went above and beyond to try to get something that I would love. What more could I want?

Mother's Day Tea with E

Wednesday morning Ethan's preschool class hosted a Mother's Day Tea for all of the mommies. It was so nice to spend some time with just Ethan. He is at the cutest age. I wish I could just bottle him up! The kids started off singing us some songs: "Yes, Jesus Loves Me", "I'm a Little Teapot" and "Skidamirinkadink". They were all enthusiastic with the actions to the songs and sometimes enthusiastic singers.

The classroom tables were set for the tea party and Ethan and I sat at a table with Madison and her mom, Angela. Madison is one of only 3 girls in the class--the other 7 are boys--but she and Ethan love playing together and have a cute little friendship. Miss Kay and Miss Pattie served us strawberries, grapes, brownies, chocolate chip cookies and mini cinnamon rolls. Ethan was loving all of the sugar! 

For the grand finale each child came to the front and held up a picture they had drawn of their mommy. The teachers also read a little paragraph about how each child described their mom. This is what Ethan had to say:                                           

                                                             MY MOMMY
                                                           by Ethan Kottter
                                                   
                                                          Her name is Stacie.
                                                   I don't know how old she is.
                                              She is like this big (holds his hands out wide).
                                            Her eyes are green and she has light hair.
                                   Spaghetti is her favorite food--that's my favorite too!
                                                     Pink is her favorite color.
                                             My mommy likes to take me to the park.
                                     My mommy always says: "Time to eat breakfast!"
                                            I like to build puzzles with my mommy.
                                                     I love my mommy!

Ethan's 4th Birthday

Ethan celebrated his 4th birthday on Sunday, May 6. He was very patient to wait until after church and then until Mikelle got home from her meeting to open his presents! (I doubt any of the other kids would have been that patient!) He was thrilled with the pool water blasters from Logan, the whoopy cushion from Sydney--don't ask--the candy and gum from Mikelle. Grandma T. sent a package with a handsome church suit and an activity bag for church packed with crayons, color books and stickers. He loved the power tools from mom and dad: a lawn mower, leaf blower, edger and chain saw. He can't wait to get outside and help daddy this weekend!

We had the Van Horns, Candlands, Becks and Shepleys over the help eat cake and ice cream!

                                                           Happy Birthday Ethan!

                                              Ripping paper is serious business!

                                                Ready with the goggles and weed eater!

                                                              Where's the grass?

                                                           He's one handsome boy!

                            Ethan and his basketball cake. It was supposed to be a baseball cake--oh well!

                                                      Did he get his birthday wish?

Quick Trip to NY

My friend, Marcy Kerby and I, took a fun trip up to New York this weekend. We took the train up Friday morning and came home late Saturday night. We weren't there very long, but we packed a lot of excitement into our 2 days! We saw 2 Broadway shows: Newsies and Evita. These were two of the hottest shows in town and so we were glad to get tickets. Our seats for both shows were fabulous. Newsies was full of music and dancing and the cast was bursting with energy. I was excited to see 3 former contestants on "So You Think You Can Dance" in the 15 member cast--Evan, Jess and Alex. We stayed after the show to have them sign our playbills. They were all very kind and funny and you could tell they were basking their stardom! Evita was very dramatic and the costumes and staging were amazing. Ricky Martin played the role of the narrator, "Che". We tried to get his autograph after the matinee, but they explained that he stays at the theater to get ready for the evening performance. Marcy was very disappointed!

We found lots of fun boutiques for shopping. We made a few purchases and also enjoyed window shopping at the high-end stores. We stopped at Bergdorf Goodman to see how the other half lives and saw some Jimmy Choo heels for $3,100.00! Yikes!

We had several star sightings as we walked around downtown. We saw Martin Sheen in Penn Station; Matthew Broderick signing playbills on Broadway; and the guy from Will and Grace coming out from his performance in "Once." ( I guess I need to google his name and stop calling him that guy!)

                                         Marcy and I headed off to window shop on 5th Avenue.

New York is taxi cabs, traffic, honking horns and pushing crowds. But I love the energy and excitement!

                                                     Did we buy anything here? No.

                                                        Didn't buy anything here either.

                                          I just loved this shop! Book stores are a dying breed.

                                                       It's that "Will and Grace" guy!

Matthew Broderick was looking a bit frumpy AND grumpy. We were not about to ask him for a photo!

            Evita was playing right at the Marriott Marquee theater where we stayed.