Zoo Day

Since Dell had President’s Day off and he’d been working all weekend long we decided we needed to do something fun and so to the zoo we went.  It was Lizzy’s first time and I think my favorite part was introducing the animals to her.  She loved seeing them all and did the sign for elephant at the elephant (and the bear, but we’re working on that) and said “blub blub” for the fish.  I think the fish and the hyenas were her favorite.  Not sure why the hyenas, but she sure squealed, smiled, and reached for them.  Mangy animals.  We’ve got to work on her taste in creatures.  :)

Looking at the hyenas

Henry feeding the birds.

Lizzy playing Praire Dog.

Jedi training party

Henry had his heart set on a Jedi party so we passed up the free party at the Karate studio and had a party at home.  (At the Karate studio they would have done everything but provide the cake and pizza, oh the easiness of it all.)

It ended up being fun for everyone—dell and I included.  When the kids arrived they put on their Jedi training uniform (simple wrap around tunics I sewed from pottery barn crib skirts I got for 97 cents each.  Not bad for organic cotton.)  They also decorated their “jedi bags”—gift bags sewn from the same cotton.  We practiced using the force first, but tossing bean bags with our eyes closed, playing pin the light saber on darth vader, and trying to drop bean bags onto targets from great heights to reveal the candy prize below.

We also did light saber training. They had to keep their balloon from touching the ground using only their light saber.

Dell also taught them some fencing moves—thrust, parry, etc… and dueled with each kid to reinforce the moves.

Once training was complete they each got 3 jedi bombs (bean bags) and a special pen to begin their jedi missions.  The first mission the young padawans had to complete was rescuing princess Leia.  She and some of her friends were trapped in balloons in the guest room and the jedis had to pop all the balloons to rescue the people.  Total mayhem, but fun.

Look!  H-y rescued 3-CPO.  Nice work!

After the princess rescue it was time to cross the lava to Yoda’s cave.  (Or make it from the couch in the playroom to the master bathroom using only things you could grab from the couch.)  This was probably the favorite—I think they did this three times making it tougher each time by removing objects.  The big cousins—Noble and Liam were a huge help.

(Preparing to set out for Yoda’s cave.)

We also destroyed the separatist base with our jedi bombs. (a blanket fort that we collapsed using our bean bags.)  We had a bunch of other missions planned and Dell was all set to make an appearance as the made up character Darth Malicious, but we ran out of time. 

After Padawan Pizzas with light saber veggies (mini pizzas with carrots and celery sticks) we had cake and ice cream and parents arrived.  All in all it was fun and while it was a lot of work it was definitely worth it.  Though next year, I’m campaigning for the Karate party.  :)

Oh, and Lizzy liked it too. 

yellow belt

A couple of weeks ago Henry had his belt test.  It was awesome to see him trying so hard.  He really wanted his yellow belt.  He was tired of being a white belt surrounded by belts of many colors.

Here he is doing a palm heel strike.  (The great teacher had the kids turn and do their moves facing their parents for a bit to give all of us some photo opportunities.)

Henry about to break a board—a real board!  And he did it in only three tries!  Go Henry. 

The class after getting their new belts being fierce.

Now the class being their normal selves.  Silly.

Picnic

Monday was such a beautiful day and Dell was home since he was starting nights that day so when Henry asked for a picnic as he got off the bus we just had to make it happen.

We had leftover, peanut butter sandwiches, pear, chocolate milk, and watered down juice.  Lizzy was like babyzilla and walked/crawled through everyone’s food.  She got filthy.  But she did become proficient at drinking from a straw sippy cup.

Thanks for the suggestion Henry.  It was a fabulous picnic.

Happy happy birthday Lizzy dear!

How we LOVE you!

where has the time gone

On Friday Lizzy turned one.  ONE!  I can’t believe it’s been 12 months, 365 days, a whole dad-gum year.  Really?  Really?  I don’t believe it.  I know that people said time goes faster when you get older, but if a year goes by in what feels like 3 months at 34 what will time be doing when I’m 50?  6 days?  At least Henry’s mission would fly by at that rate, but really, where has the time gone?

I think that’s a problem with life in the mild climate of Texas.  Most days are beautiful and you go from warm, to perfect, to hot, to perfect to warm, to 2 months of cold mixed with warm, and then back to perfect.  With enough random weather thrown in to keep you guessing and so you don’t have the daffodils, roses, colored leaved, and snow that give you sense of time passing instead you have the same thing day after day and suddenly you’ve gone from

this to

this

seriously, how did this happen?

Happy New Year

Hope ya’ll had a great new year’s eve.  We had one of our best ever.  Some friends invited us up to their property up north a bit for a hot dog/marshmallow roast and fireworks.  It was beautiful to be out of the city, and our friends are some great people so being with them is always wonderful.  We had a great time roasting hot dogs, marshmallows (though Henry does not like his toasted apparently) and enjoying the fireworks.  Dell’s decided that the ones that shoot into the air are the only way to go and next year we’re forgetting about sparklers and fountains and just going for the big guns.  Henry liked building the fire and wearing a head lamp when the sun went down.  LIzzy liked being outside.  She sat on her chair and clapped and she likes snuggling when the sun went down and it got COLD.  I liked sitting by a fire.  It made me long for camping and now that it’s getting warm we may just have to go next weekend Dell’s off.  I also loved coming back to our place for sparking cider and games after putting the kids to bed.  And we even stayed up to almost midnight.  :)

 

Dell and Henry get the fire going.

Lizzy enjoying her seat.

Henry covering his ears for the loud fireworks.