Kee Squared

"Kee" is what Jack says for both his blankie and his binkie. He is a little attached to both. The blankie he is allowed to have whenever as long as we are at home. The binkie is only for limited use, basically for naptime and for nighttime. He always tries to manipulate the rules after his nap, earnestly requesting it, like he is hoping I forgot this time. However, in the morning he cutely looks at us takes his binkie out of his mouth and throws is (literally) down and then reaches up to be taken out. I really don't want a two year old with a binkie and hopefully we will be able to take it away soon enough. Right now he is still cute.

We Might Be 80

SO last night after putting the boys to bed, at about 7:15 in the pm, Spence and I went and lay (ps I am not sure the correct grammatical choice for that lay, laid, etc.) down on our bed for a little chat. No sooner had the chat started then we both started drifting off to sleep. I remember thinking, "I better no be falling asleep, because that would be super lame." The next thing I remember after that is Spencer waking me up at a quarter to nine saying that we should probably get under the covers. THAT's right we basically went to bed at 7:30. LAME. The extra lame thing is that when Jack woke up this morning at 6 I still didn't want to get up with him, so I popped his binkie back in and went back to bed for another hour. SO YES everyone we slept 12 hours. My sister Natalie says that everyone needs a good 12 hours sleep from time to time...I am not sure if she was just mollifying me or if she was justifying it because her and my sister Kenzie just did that like a week ago! So now I should be fully rested. FINALLY!

Happy, Happy Birthday Children Dear

Happy Birthday JACK! Here is a set

of digital scrap pages that I did for his

first birthday party.

Here are layouts from Cole's recent blast off

party. What a cute astronaut!

It has been fun to try my hand at digital scrapbooking. There are tons of differences from paper scrapbooking, not all good and not all bad...just different. Still, it has been good to let my creative side out.

Mission Completed

We have been to the moon and back. Cole's party has come and gone and was a complete success. All the kids came and started the party going to Space School. Here they learned a little about the sun, the moon, the stars, and the planets. They were so cute sitting in their little chairs. They each got a folder which had a chart inside of tasks they needed to pass off for astronaut training. Space school was where they got their first stickers.

Next came the fitness part, because we all know astronauts need to have healthy bodies. They lifted weights to see how strong they were, they did jumping jacks to test their hearts, and they stretched to make sure they were flexible. They got a sticker for each one. After they were done they got there space utility belt.

After that we learned about how to listen and communicate by playing "astronaut says". Most of them did well, some even always listened to the astronaut. After this they got their walkie talkies.

Alien recognition was next. Here they had to use their binoculars to find little aliens hiding on our wall. They all did great here.

Next was time to load on all of the astronaut gear. We added a helmet and jet pack to the utility belt.

All dressed and ready to go they each got to go into the rocket and count down to blast off. After a short "ride" through space, we opened the rocket door and walked down the rocket stairs (okay our basement stairs) and found we were on the moon. "Space" (black plastic tableclothes) was everywhere and stars hung above our heads. Here they got to hunt for furry aliens and kick moon rocks. PLUS they got a special moonrover (my jogging stroller) ride from Spencer.

Everyone came back to earth for rocket cake and alien ice cream balls. Who wouldn't? After this of course was presents where Cole came away with some really awesome stuff.

At the end of the party everyone got their space goodie bag and a certificate of completion, declaring them an official astronaut.

I had so much fun planning and putting together this party. It truly brings me so much joy to do this, and the outcome and Cole's enjoyment was all worth the work. Hope you enjoy the slide show, I wish I could show you every detail because it all was so cute, but I figured that would cross the line of obsession and bragging. Sorry there are no pictures of space, they didn't turn out that well since it was well space and that made it dark!

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...BLAST OFF

SO here is the "blasted" cake for Cole's space party. The whole process wasn't as smooth as I had anticipated. It took three cake mixes, and the middle main layer, which was baked in a pamper chef 8 cup measuring cup, took a couple extra nukes in the microwave to get the middle cooked. Talk about a pain. Also, p.s. fondant does not taste good.

Still, it turned about pretty cute and it was fun to be creative and think of ways to top it off (a tiny funnel rapped in blue duct tape) and ways to make it look like an actual rocket (the bottom is a cake plate and four cups wrapped in foil).

AND Cole thought it was the very coolest thing.