Friday, May 9, 2014

Paper Airplane Party


Rome celebrated his 9th birthday with a super fun paper airplane party. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do, but after some searching on Pinterest this idea really caught his attention. It was such a cute and easy party to put together.


Since Rome was only inviting 4 friends I went ahead and hand drew them all.  They turned out great I think!





Party bags and paper airplane cupcakes.



Everybody spent the beginning of the party designing paper airplanes.  We had 3 competitions to prepare for.  Distance, accuracy and design.  The kids all really got into making planes and came up with some cool ones.


One of Rome's friends was about to win the distance competition when Oz took his last turn.  His plane (which was actually the ONE plane that I made) sailed all the way across the room and totally blew everybody else's away!  It was completely unexpected and I was secretly glad this little guy got a chance to win.



Accuracy competition.  It was trickier than it looks, but seriously a lot of fun.  I think the boys would have just kept going.


After the plane competitions the boys went on a scavenger hunt.  I wrote all the clues on paper airplanes (of course!).  The treasure was all the goodies for their party bags - lots of candy and cool tiny flashlights that attached to their fingers.


Rome and his 5 best buds.  From the left, front-row: cousin Ammon, Rome, Eli (our neighbor), Oz.  Back row: Matthew (best school friend), Evan (Rome's BFF and church buddy).



I did a simple BBQ for dinner, hot dogs and lots of sides.  Seeing as when I usually do a party with a BBQ it's for tons of relatives, this was easy peasy.





Blowing out the candles.  It was a really fun party and Rome was so pleased with everything.  Only 3 more parties to go in the next 3 months! 

Oz Boy

I'm getting ready for Rome's birthday party later today. 

Oz is getting ready for the world's cheesiest smile competition.


He's goin' for the gold.

 

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Petting Zoo and Mustaches

There was a tiny petting zoo at the library instead of story time today.


And then there were these two handsome/shady gentlemen.
 

Fire pit

Nothing like dark, blurry fire pics! We LOVE our fire pit.  Great times, s'mores, happy faces. Cutest thing ever - when Oz brought out saltines and mini marshmallows and declared, "Time for s'mores!"

Water fun

If we owned an actual pool we'd have EVERY single neighborhood kid (and there are more than are in this pic) at our house every single day. Just our 3 baby pools draws a bunch of kids. So glad for memories being made, and my own memories of a great childhood.

Grand Finale

Coming early November, we are all SUPER excited!

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Snow

Because my Dad loves to call from sunny California, without saying "hello" first, and say things like "Is it really -10 degrees there?"

You have to imagine this being said in the "Dan Callister voice".

If you know Dan Callister then you know the voice.

 Yesterday.


Today.  "Dad we can't sled, there's too much snow."


luvs!

**UPDATE**

They got it going!