Heart Attack

I decided not to scare the bejiggers out of all of you by calling this post:

Dad Had a Heart Attack

Nor the close approximation:

WE GAVE Dad a Heart Attack...

Wise, no?

But, we really did give him a heart attack!  It has become our tradition, in following the amazing creativity of blogger Shawni Pothier, to give each other heart attacks during the month of February for a couple of years now.  Since Dad was turning 39 over the weekend, we thought it would be fun to write out 39 reasons why we love him and plaster them all over the house on his birthday.

So, without further adieu, here are 39 reasons why we love John/Dad:
1.

2.  He is always there for me. (Katelyn)
3.  He makes me laugh so hard I cry.  And pee.  (TMI)
4.  He is good looking!
5.  He helps in the kitchen (at least with weekend breakfasts)!
6.  He sometimes lets me have a bubblebath when I want to. (Sara)
7.  He holds my hand.
8.  He helps me with my homework.  (Katelyn AND Matthew)
9.  He gave his iPod to me and bought me my new radio.  There is so much more I could not possibly list all of them.  (Tommy) ... ;)
10.  When he doesn't go to work, sometimes he plays with me.  And when he does go to work, I still love him.  (Sara)
11.  He helps me with Skylanders.  (Tommy)
12.  He is always willing to go outside and play sports with me.  (Matthew)  ... :)
13.

14.  He plays soccer with us.  (Katelyn)
15.  He cares about the kids' education and quizzes them.
16.  He takes us on awesome trips.  (Katelyn)
17.  He and Mom bought me Pokemon Black.  (Tommy)
18.  He helps me with picking new books to read.  (Tommy)
19.  He let me read The Belgariad and The Mallorean from when he was a kid.  (Tommy)
20.  He does math with me.  (Matthew)
21.  He is always on top of current events and he fills me in!
22.  He always has a logical answer.  { ; )}
23.  He sticks to his guns, sets goals, and sees them through.
24.  He plays video games with me.  (Matthew)
25.  He makes delicious pancakes. (Katelyn)
26.  He is a super star at the office.
27.  He is an AWESOME dad.
28.  He helps me with my pinewood derby car.  (Tommy AND Matthew)
29.  He has an awesome personality.  He helps me with things and teaches me new things.  (Tommy)
30.  He is smart and super good at trivia games.
31.  He knows how to do stuff and he researches the things he's not quite sure about.
32. 

33.  He is good with electronics.  (Matthew AND Me!)
34.  He knows my love language is icee mochas yet he helped me give them up in January.
35.  He always keeps things interesting.
36.  He's a super running partner.  Most days.  ;)
37.  He fills my van up with gas every weekend.
38.  He takes us to church every weekend.
39.  He's my best friend and the love my life.

Happy Birthday Honey!  We sure do love you!

Last Birthday Post of the Year {I promise}

We let birthdays play on and on and on around here.  At least it feels that way sometimes!  My man and I went for a run/bike ride tonite and I took a very deep breath in and out, then said, "I am so happy this weekend is over!" 

It's not that I don't love celebrating with my kids.  And it really isn't that their parties even require too much work anymore.  It's just...stressful.  I don't know why.  Probably the pressure of the time crunch more than anything, I suppose.  Peppered with a nagging fear of the real potential for chaos (not a fan). 

Yet, both evenings went off without a hitch - the boy's party Friday night and the girl's Saturday.  All said and done, 10 hours allotted for each due to early morning prior engagements for us to fulfill (certainly adding their fair share to the over-all feeling of being crunched for time!!!).

Nevertheless, Tommy's version of a 10th birthday party, complete with Domino's bacon pizza and Pokemon cake, as requested:

I love the dimmed light, cake on fire photo look:

Actually, I think half the boys at the table breathed out heavily just to save Pikachu's li'l plastic nose from melting.  And yes, I really did re-light the candles because they spontaneously blew them out too fast!  (See the worried expression over there?  What are you doing, Woman?!  He'll burn! Oh the humanity!  ;))

I consented to having the boys bring their DS game systems to the party.  We let them play them during a portion of the evening  ~ Tommy was super thrilled!!!  And the boys were quiet and well-behaved all night. 

I always love the 'whole room' shots...

We topped off the morning with pancakes with strawberries, chocolate chips and whipped cream, bacon, sausage, OJ and milk. 

Yum!

We are seriously blessed to have these boys in our boy's life.

On to Pookie's party!  Her friends arrived to pizza and cake, as well.  But, Pooks is more of a fluffy and furry girl vs, lightning bolts and fighting Pikachus:

She insisted on Hello, Cupcake's pupcakes, just like Sashi had at her first birthday.

I even taught the girls how to make these li'l puppers themselves!

Again.  Yum!  ...And the obligatory dimmed light, candle lit photo, cuz I really do just love them:

OK, I actually didn't completely lose the Pikachu tail-burning phenomena, did I? 

Pookie's wish was to watch Soul Surfer with her friends.  She is a HUGE fan of that movie ~ we can't wait for A Dolphin Tail to come out later this month!

It was a classic slumber party, with girls up watching TV til way too late at night.  Whereas all the boys were up and ready to eat in the wee early morning hours, these girls had to be called twice three times to their breakfast (of pancakes, chocolate chips, strawberries and whipped cream, bacon and sausage, OJ and milk ... ... it's down to a science, ladies.)

Still, we are just as blessed to have these girls' in our girl's life:

And now, on to the last days of summer and beginning of fall....
~kJ

Double Digits

Some kids we know celebrated a pretty significant birthday yesterday.

The twins turned 10.  It really does seem hard to believe.  10 years.  {pause}  "It goes too quickly," quotes the elderly woman in the checkout lane.  We all know it's true.

One of my little people - who isn't little, cuz, you know, he's like 10 now - desperately wanted this day to be something special.  I get that.  I truly wanted to give him that special day, as well.

So I spent four hours Sunday night blowing up balloons (which I threw all over their beds and floor to their rooms while they slept as well as taping them to the door frames) and baracading their doorways:

We took them to breakfast - SURPRISE!  Bread Co.  And then let them open the cards that had piled up over the last week and the presents from Dad and me.

The rest of the day we put them to work.  Did you know when you're 10 you're old enough to pick up the dog doo in the backyard?  True story.

Never fear, however.  It was all in the name of party.  And some of the work was fun.  See?

She did a such great job.  I love that {almost all} my kids love to bake with me!

[And I love that my friends help me eat leftover cupcakes when the two children born of my womb at the same moment (or no more than 1 minute apart, anyway) have such differing personalities as to insist on two separate kinds of cake.  And frosting.  {...who am I kidding?  Twice the Y.U.M.!!!}]

The real fun began at 4:00 when the family began arriving.  Presents presents presents!  That's what matters when you're turning 10, really.  So we didn't wait long before we let them start tearing into their gifts!  {They'd earned it with those smelly backyard bags, anyway!}

Before it grew too late in the day, we gathered on the porch for the obligatory, annual family photo:

These kids are pretty darn fortunate to have some very awesome grandparents!

And then it was time to sing and eat cake.

At the end of the night, Tommy grabbed me in a spontaneous and genuine bear hug.  He said, "Mom?  This was the best birthday ever."

I had to smile and agree.

:: How to Make {Diva} Flip Flops ::

How cute are these feet?  I know! 

You can't even see those finely pedicured tootsies under those ADORABLE BOWS!  You wanna know how we made those, right?  Right?

I let Sash have 'a friend party' last week.  A party of one ---> her BFF Miss R.  {As our beloved preschool teacher Miss Jane always says, "You wrap it up and put a hat on it and [to a preschooler] it's a party!"  I l.o.v.e. that!}  At the last minute - as always - we decided our 'goody bag' should be filled with Diva Flip Flops.  So ~~ without further adieu ~~

:: How to Make Diva Flippy Flops ::

First and foremost, Meiners and I watched this video that completely explains the ribbon-into-bow process in real-time.  Feel free to watch her and enjoy her southern drawl. 

Then come back 'cuz here's our bow-making process for Sashi and her BFF's birthday 'party' take-homes. 

First ~ Wrap.

Pinch and stitch.

Repeat.

Stitch all ribbons together in desired layers.

Wrap thread around the ribbon bundle and pull tightly.  Knot.

Take another string and use it to crisscross wrap the bow onto the flippy flop.  Tie tightly.

Now, here's where we deviated from the Mickey Mouse diva flippies that Meiners made.  For the teacher's custom fabric-wrapped buttons, we used this button maker from Hobby Lobby - after ironing on pre-fab stitched monograms also purchased there.  BUT, for S&R, Sashi found PINK pre-fabbed monogram pins that she insisted we use.  So - once the ribbons were securely attached, we stuck the pins in.  It might be wise to glue the pin part shut to avoid future oops-sticks.  We'll have to do that {Note to Kimberly}.   In the meantime...voila!

Diva Flippies.
Enjoy!

Baby is 4

I don't suppose I can legitimately call her "Baby Sashi" anymore, can I?  I mean, four?!  Four is Big Kid Stuff.  It's when she becomes a ballerina.  And doesn't take naps.  {According to Baby.}  But really?  Really she'll always be my baby.  Just like I'm my momma's baby.  {And yes, she does still introduce me as such.}  Even though Sashi complains and argues that she's not a baby now - she's Four!!! {insert exasperated toddler voice} - one day she'll find it endearing.  Especially when she has a baby that will always be her baby.  Then she will understand for sure.  In the meantime, here are four amazing things we love about our baby girl.

1.  She is quite seriously the best worker we have.  Yesterday, before her big family party, I gave Sashi a wet washcloth, four dirty kitchen chairs, and free reign of the kitchen sink.  Without any monetary or other external motivation {all things required for the Big Kids to get to work}, she made those chairs sparkle.  I only wish I'd gotten a picture of her in action.  She takes her work quite seriously.

2.  She is quite a mathemetician.  I just love the way she calls, "Easy! Easy! Easy!" when Daddy gives her a math problem at breakfast.  Then he gives her a tough one, but she holds her chubby little fingers up with the chipped nail polish of myriad rainbow colors and proceeds to add and subtract numbers to the correct answer.  She is almost always correct.  And always very proud.

3.  She loves to sing and dance {but refuses to be videotaped performing, much to my chagrin}.  I love how she runs up to me and asks me to watch her 'ballerina dance' - that always consists of the same choppy little leg lifts and askewed twirls amidst that beautiful little grin.

4.  She is really growing up.  I marvel at the Sashi of yesteryear who would scream and cry and carry on.  When the door opened at Target.  Or who screamed and cried and carried on.  Because it wasn't Mommy holding her.  She's still a momma's girl - don't let me kid you.  And we still have some behaviors here and there (like Thursday, when I said, "No" to waffles for breakfast).  But anytime I'm in the kitchen, she asks if she can help.  She independently feeds the dog.  Shoot - she actually plays with the dog.  She will dust and scrub the toilet and sort clothes {OK - she needs a lot of help with those things.}  But she's my girl who wants to grow up "to be a mommy." 

{notice her shoes}

 I love her.  We all do.  For a million reasons more than these four.  She really is something else.  She's perky and spirited and smart and helpful, beautiful and inquisitive and hard-working, sweet and funny, a wonderful little sister and true cicada saver.  She's Sasha.  And she's four.

Love you Baby.
~Mom