Thursday, December 18, 2014

pumpkin carving and costume parade

The title of this post should be self explanatory so I am not going to provide any more text.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

bub turns four

Gus turned four.  He wasn't excited about it or anything...
 His one present request was "a light saber like Obi-Wan, Anakin, or Luke." 
The Force is strong with him so he got his wish and immediately practiced his Jedi moves.
 But Jedis aren't the only thing in his life right now.  Superheroes have become really big of late.  Not sure where that comes from inherently in some boys, but Gus has that bug.  He has never really watched any shows with Batman or the rest, but he thinks they are the coolest ever.  He had wanted to be Batman for Halloween since last year, but changed to Iron Man to do the Avengers with all his cousins.  Once I told him he could dress up like Batman at his birthday party, he was happy to be as many superheroes and possible and get to have as many costumes as possible.  The morning of his birthday he wore this ridiculous get-up that we inherited from someone...
 He is always happy to show off his moves for the ladies.
The costume didn't last all the long though and he opted for just his Batman t-shirt for the most of his party.
 This is the first year my boys got separate parties.  Last year, we only did very small family things, so this year Jimmy was really pushing for a real party with his friends from school.  That, of course, makes it trickier to limit who all to invite.  Gus is still at the age where is friends are all my friends' kids.   The idea of two parties stressed me out a bit, but ultimately two smaller parties worked better than some of the bigger ones I have thrown in the past.  For Gus, I decided he is at the age where he doesn't need anything fancy, but really just thinks the idea of having a party just for him is awesome.  Basically, I threw a glorified play-group with other mom friends that have kids Gus is friends with.  He was so excited to have all his favorite friends over and eat his Spiderman cupcakes.  Basically, other than cleaning my house, that was about all I did.    I really didn't have time to plan too much since my brain was also dealing with the pressing issue of finishing Halloween costumes by that very night.  I told the mom's they could bring food if they wanted.  Some of the kids came dressed in Superhero attire.  I put out some lemonade and crackers and we sang Happy Birthday to Gus.
 The moms hung out and the kids played in the backyard...
Lucky for us, Mimi was there to entertain all of the kids.
And ride the swings with way too many off them for one small lady...
 
Gus was a little desperate to open his Duplo from Mimi, but since I didn't want to risk all the pieces getting lost in our yard, I had to tell him he had to wait until the party was over.  I think he was about to cry or possibly ask all his friends to leave, so I had to think fast and come up with some kind of distraction.
 I started tracing all the kids with chalk and decorating them to look like superheros.
 Gus thought this was awesome and was so proud of the Batman he made (with some help from Mom).
In the afternoon, Jimmy came home with the Woods' cousins who brought Gus some Star Wars action figures that he was thrilled about.  Jimmy hadn't loved the idea of missing the morning party, but I kept reassuring him it was just going to be littler kids.  The bigger boys got the enjoy some extra cupcakes so it felt like a party to them, too.
Then that night we had our now annual pre-Halloween photo-session party at the Speier's house (more photo session pictures to come).  
Everyone was nice enough to remember it was Gus birthday and make the night about him as much as possible.  
He thought it was awesome that he got to have two parties.
 Dot sure thinks her Gussy-Bub is pretty awesome...
Heck, everyone thinks Gussy-Bub is AWESOME!!!
Happy Birthday you hilarious and wonderful boy!

Monday, December 8, 2014

a party and a que pastas show


In October, my sister and her husband came for a visit and to have a Phoenix celebration of their marriage.   
I was not the best photographer at the party, but at least a few cheeseballs pretended to give me some candid poses.
The kids had some good cousin time playing croquet the yard.
 However, the highlight of the visit for the kids was getting to see their first Que Pastas show at the Phoenix Children's Museum.  
Uncle Gene and Simon put on a pretty great show.
 Gus "feels cooler with his sunglasses on"...
 Then after the show they got to play at the museum...
 Even the big kids got in on the fun...
 We enjoyed time in the Noodle Forest...
 The pickle car...
 The Carwash...
 And the fort room...
Can't wait for your next visit Aunt Erin and Uncle Gene!