Pierce's Birthday Party

Pierce had his party this year at pump it up. It was his first "big" party. He had a blast. Kids love bouncers so it is the perfect place to have a party. The other great thing is they do everything. You don't have to clean up or anything. It is great. Keith and Rich both took turns trying to bounce the kids off this one. It was great. The kids loved it. I can't believe someone didn't end up with a concussion.

It was really hard to get pictures while they were jumping, but here is the group picture.

Pierce had a Star Wars cake. He was so cute sitting in the big chair.

These are a few of the boys he hangs out with at school. Niko is his favorite but not in this picture. Niko was in Kindergarten last year when Pierce started primary. He was Pierce's mentor. I found out yesterday that all the older boys wanted to be Pierce's mentor which I though was sweet.

Niko is the boy right next to Elle. I think we are going to have to watch the little blonde boy, his name is Rock and he really likes Elle. Hey pal, we got our eye on you.

Here's a little video from the party. Pierce is so cute when they are singing Happy Birthday to him. I could just eat him up.

Pierce is 4 years old!

I can't believe that my baby is four years old today. Time goes by so fast, especially when you have two kids. Pierce is such a wonderful little boy. He has always had such a wonderful disposition. He is always smiling. He can't help it. Even when he wants to be in a bad mood, if you just smile at him he smiles back. It comes from his heart every time and lights up his entire face. Once he started learning to smile he never stopped. I can't imagine not having him in my life. He is a joy. Happy birthday Pierce. You smiling little maniac.

A little of this, a little of that.

Since I have been behind on blogging I decided to catch up with a some of what has been happening around here. Between working and training for the half marathon, we have had a lot going on. A few weeks ago several of us got together to do a walk for Spina Bifida. We have a large population of Spina Bifida patients at work so it was a for a good cause. Here is a picture of Elle having fun at the the walk.

This is Sophia and Elle. Sophia reminds me so much of Elle when she was little.


Right after the walk we headed over to the kids school for the fall festival. They had many games and activities set up for the kids. They were really excited because all their friend were there too.

Elle got her face painted and her hair sprayed. By the the end of the day she looked like a scary villain from Batman.

In September, Jenni, Janelle, and myself competed in a relay triathlon at Lake Pleasant. Although I wanted to do the run portion of the relay, I ended up swimming. It was probably a good thing because we each rocked our portion of the triathlon and ended up placing third. We were the only all girls team too. Sweet. This was the area that I did the swim. The water looks calm there because I took it a few hours after I swam. But while I was swimming the wind was so strong it made the water very wavy. It was a tough swim. After the swim I had to run uphill to the transition area which was tough too. Overall I had a 29 minutes swim.

This is us before the start of the race.

Jenni after finishing the bike.

Janelle after her first three miles, heading out for more.

After we finished.

I love this picture of us drinking our beer. This is after we found out we had won third.

The last several months have been very busy. I now have to start sewing my Christmas presents. At least I know what I'm sewing, I only have to go out and get the material. Below is a little video of the jump house at the fall festival. Kids just love the jump house!

Halloween 2010

Halloween this year snuck up on me. I always say I'm going to start early, but I never do. This year our theme was Star Wars Clone Wars. Because I didn't start early enough, I made Elle and Keith's costumes, but bought Pierce's and mine. I don't think I could have made mine even if I wanted to. You will soon see. Anyway, we went to our friends Jennifer and Rich again this year. They have an awesome neighborhood that really gets into Halloween. They had a block party "potluck" before the trick-or-treating festivities which was great. Around six everyone packed up and started going for it. The kids really scored on the candy. I am sure we will be throwing plenty away come Christmas. As soon as we got to the party the kids took off so we didn't get a lot of pictures. We will be taking more this weekend for our annual Christmas cards and I will post more then. In the mean time, here are a few from last night.

Elle went as Ahsoko Tano. She is from the Clone Wars. She is an alien that has tentacles. I couldn't think of how to create a head piece for her but Keith came through. The first picture is with just her costume. I made all of her costume which came out great.

This is the head piece. She wore it a little, but didn't keep it on very long because she was running the entire time and it kept falling off. It did look great. It's amazing what a little duct tape can do!

Pierce wasn't very cooperative with getting his picture taken. He looked soo cute.

Random cute picture. :)

My costume was very interesting. I ordered it because I couldn't find a pattern for a jump suit. It was very cheap and too short in the torso. For all you women out there, I think you know what it did to the crotch area. I decided to make a little loin cloth to cover up that area. I also made a cape because this was a pretty "revealing" costume. I did find a body suit to wear under it that helped.

I made Keith's robe and tunic. I think it turned out great too. Keith worked on his beard all week which added to the effect.

Overall I think the costumes turned out great. I was sewing up until a few minutes before we left, but that's how I roll.

Here is a little footage of Keith verifying he is a cool Dad. I also participated in the light saber fight, but there is no footage of it. I'm cool too.

I told Elle last week that not all parents dress up for Halloween and she looked at me with big eyes and said "that's really weird."

Mission accomplished.

Halloween 2010

Elle's 7th Birthday

Elle's birthday was September 26th. I am a little late getting this blog out. In fact, I haven't blogged since August. I am officially a blogging loser. Once the triathlon was over, so was my motivation. But....I have started training for the Rock 'n' Roll half marathon so maybe that will give me more motivation. Who knows.

Anyhoo, Elle had a swim party for her 7th birthday. We decided to have it at the club house of our condo. It turned out great. The kids had an awesome time. I can't say we spent less money, but a good time was had by all. Oh, well, maybe not for the kid in the back of this photo on the noodle. Apparently she almost drowned three times...even though she could stand up. That's a story for a different day. Here are a few pictures of the kids playing in the pool. If I was a great comedian, I am sure I could come up with a caption for this picture. Elle holding a cup and her friend with the bucket on her head. Any idea?

Look how big this girl is. I can't even believe it. Seven. How did that happen?

I already know the green clumps of "grass" on this cake look like poo. Elle loves this cake because it was a pet shop cake. Anyone who has kids Elle's age knows what pet shops are.

Here is Elle's second cake. Since she doesn't actually like birthday care, we made a rice crispy cake for her. The kids loved both.

Ryan and Sophia given a little knuckle.

I think Sophia had a good time.

What you can't see are the puddles of water on the floor as they ate their pizza sopping wet.

Hey good lookin. Love the smile.

Right before Elle perched in this chair she announced to everyone it was her birthday and everyone had to do what she says. Funny, she is still saying that and her birthday was a month ago.

We gave her our birthday presents the next day which included a new bike. She was very excited. So far we have practiced once. A couple more times and I think she will have it.

Oh, hey good lookin. You again?

I think you can guess what's on Pierce's list for his birthday. Look at him eyeing the bike with pure envy.

Happy 7th Birthday Elle. You are such a joy. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful daughter. I can't wait to see what this year brings.