It's a Dino Party!

This year it was Phoenix's turn for a birthday party, and dinosaurs provided the perfect theme . . . especially since we already had conveniently dinosaur-themed plates (see above), napkins, banner, and party blowers thanks to Grandma DuBravac (ahem, from over a year ago :).

I know it seems awfully heartless of me to insist that the kids take turns having a birthday party, but I've found that it is just too stressful to plan two birthdays, buy presents, make birthday breakfasts AND have two parties all within 1-2 weeks. Entirely TOO much! Some years the kids can agree on a shared party, some not. Last year Lutece got her own party and Phoenix was happy to go without. This year, it seemed only fair that Phoenix get his own--and, I might add, very first--party.

I gave the kids a couple of tasks to help with the party (but mostly to keep them out of my hair while I worked on various last minute details). They placed the dinosaur footprints on the front walkway to welcome Phoenix's guests to the party. It was even their idea to put rocks on the footprint so they wouldn't blow away. Smart kids.

They also had the job of creating a dinosaur nest in the backyard . . .

. . . in which were hidden the fossilized dinosaur eggs I made earlier in the week. They were made with a salt dough recipe with sand and dirt mixed in. Tucked deep inside each egg was a plastic dinosaur. The kids had to hunt for hidden dinosaurs in the backyard, and when they found one, they brought it to me and were, in turn, presented with a fossilized dino egg to crack open. At first they tried beating them with rocks, throwing them against trees, stepping on them, until they realized they could just bend them really hard until they broke open.

There were other activities: painting dinosaurs, popping dinosaur eggs (balloons), etc. But the real hit was the dinosaur hunting guns. Yes, you heard me right. We gave out guns to Phoenix's party guests. Jeepers. I never thought I'd say that. In fact, they were marshmallow dino shooters, and Stayc and Phoenix had built 10 of them. These ended up being our party gift to his friends in lieu of gift bags.

The kids had a great time shooting marshmallows at each other, er, at the dinosaurs in the backyard.

Definitely a hit.

Cake and ice cream (balls of vanilla ice cream rolled in rainbow sprinkles, then frozen . . . dinosaur eggs, of course!) were next on the list. This is supposed to be an ankylosaurus. Uh-huh, it is.

See. See the tail.

And finally, presents, which turned out to be a complete free-for-all. I was cleaning up cake crumbs (yes, red velvet cake does stain), and Stayc was "monitoring" the present opening (although I use the term loosely). When I asked him later that day who had given which presents, he was stumped. Sigh. Thank-you notes will be vague this year.

Friends were generous (although the invitation clearly stated, "Presents not necessary."), and Phoenix was quite gracious, making an overarching announcement at the end of opening everything, "Thank you all for the presents. I loved them all!"

Aren't birthday parties great! Thank goodness they only happen once a year.

Note: Today, when Phoenix was writing thank-you notes, he was very certain about which presents came from which friends. Thank goodness *someone* was paying attention!

Get Crackin'

Phoenix had a dinosaur-themed birthday party over the weekend. I think everyone (possibly except for Lutece) had a great time. These were the invitations sent out to Phoenix's friends . . . BOYS only!

The kids helped me with the invitations by painting with watercolors over oil pastel designs of their creation.

All I did was cut them out, put them together, address them, and send them. Hardly anything.

Death by Blackberry Picking

The day before school started (that would be, ohhhhh, three weeks ago), we went with a bunch of friends on our annual Blackberry Picking excursion. We went quite late in the season, but the pickin's were still good. The only difficulty was the EXTREMELY high temperature and humidity. By 10:00 a.m., everyone, kids and moms alike, were dripping with sweat. This is a picture we took at the end of our time on the farm.

And here's a closeup. Needless to say, we went swimming later that afternoon . . . and then we had blackberry crisp for dessert that night.

Day Off from School

It's so weird that we can't just take off and go hiking whenever we feel like it now. Well, Phoenix and I still can, but it feels very sad to leave Lu behind. So when, after just a week of school, there was a "Teacher's Work Day" (read: no school), we convinced some friends to go hiking with us at Raven Run.

There were lots of kids, lots of snack breaks, in which lots of candy and cookies were eaten. Luckily, there were no accidents and only one bug bite.

We did a shorter loop (about 2 miles) since there were some less-experienced hikers and some small fries, but overall, we had a great time.

After the hike, we stopped at the large field near the Nature Center for a picnic lunch . . . perhaps the most fun of the day. While the kids played, the moms talked.

Lu brought a homemade book in which to record nature. Instead, she ended up writing a story about the make-shift "football game" the kids had. Tackle football. I'm amazed there weren't any tears. However, I think that's why Lu opted to write about the event rather than participate in it. She got tackled one time too many.

And then there was the apple picking. I had to coax Phoenix out of the tree, but he certainly wasn't the only one trying to retrieve apples out of the tree at any cost. I got hit twice by apples thrown by boys who were trying to "knock" apples out of the tree.

After the football game, the whole gang of kids got involved. Notice the large pile of apples they've gathered near the picnic table. Hours of entertainment, I tell you. Hours.

I Do Not Smell Like Strawberries!

I had my first parent-teacher conference this afternoon, and I have to admit, I feel much less stressed. Lu has a great teacher (if a bit old-fashioned), and I think (despite my frequent freak-outs and anxiety attacks) this will be a good experience for her.

She has commented to me that the boy who sits next to her is "distracting" (her words). I mentioned this to Mrs. Vest who responded with a laugh, "Oh, he's distracting to all of us." She continued, "He wrote the funniest thing today in his journal." And then she proceeded to get his journal out of his desk to show me. All the kids had to write two things about one of the people who sits near them. This boy had written about Lutece: "Lutece looks nice. She smells good." Apparently, they also had to read what they'd written in front of the class.

When I got home, I mentioned the incident to Lutece, and she was rather grumpy about it. She added, "I do NOT smell like strawberries." It seems that he had embellished a bit more in front of the class. HA. So I asked her what she had written. She responded, "I did NOT write about Blake (the boy in question). I wrote about ___________. I wrote 'He makes me laugh and he is kind-hearted.'"

Seriously though, who wouldn't want to smell like strawberries :)

Note: Don't you just love this little outfit? Thanks to Grandma DuBravac for the cute, cute dress and socks. I found the perfectly-matching leggings for $3 at the Gap.

Swimming Lessons

I discovered a fabulous secret this summer. A life-altering secret. If I'd only known this secret two years ago, I could have saved myself precious time, energy, and money. I don't want you to have to flounder in ignorance like I did, so I'll tell you the precious secret. Come close . . .

Private swimming lessons are WAY better than group lessons and are worth EVERY penny!

Our personal secret (which we ended up sharing with half our friends) was named Lyndsey Skanchy and she was like a swimming miracle worker. By the end of the summer the kids could swim with confidence, perform numerous feats (even tea parties) underwater, and do at least three different strokes.

These pictures are woefully inadequate (partly due to my crappy camera, partly due to the fact that photographing children who keep going underwater is extremely difficult), since we spent a good two-thirds of our summer at the pool. Lessons twice a week. Swimming two to three days a week in addition to that.

One of Lu's favorite things to do was her "Superman glide," which required her to go underwater for extended periods of time. At the beginning of the summer, Lu wouldn't even put her face in the water. By the end, this was no problem.

Swim, little girl! Swim!

In fact, we all enjoyed the pool much more this summer with everyone swimming.

Ahhh, it was a good summer for swimming. And now that we have our secret swim weapon (aka Lyndsey), we intend to sabotage any full-time job she may get for fear it will interfere with next summer's swim lessons. Be very careful Lyndsey!

Note: All photo credits for the *good* pictures go to Courtney.

Jazz in the Park

This summer was a good summer for family. We got to see a huge chunk of both the DuBravac and the Hendricks families. (And hoping to see even more this Christmas and next summer). In July, Courtney and Aaron drove from Colorado, through Michigan, and down to Kentucky with their two little dogs in tow. That's love and devotion for you.

Remember that baseball game we *thought* was happening, only to arrive at the stadium to find out it was NOT happening? Yeah. Well, we headed over to Ecton Park for Jazz instead, which was also (but probably not as) fun.

All photos come courtesy of Courtney. I always forget to take pictures when family is visiting. Which is so sad.

It was so great to have Courtney and Aaron here . . . and the kids would add, Penelope and Annabel too. Yes, even the dogs were nice to have around . . . for a few days :)

Hey look! Another family portrait. This one is a little bit more true-to-life.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

We have wanted to go to a baseball game for ages, but never seem to get around to it. When Courtney and Aaron visited this summer, Aaron suggested going, and we were all over it. Sadly, when we arrived at the *empty* stadium, we realized the game was scheduled for the following Tuesday. Oops. Last night, we finally went with our friends, the Birds, and watched the Lexington Legends play. Wahoo!

But I have no pictures of that. What I DO have, are pictures from Scott's visit of a couple of weeks ago that, because they are baseball-y in nature, came to mind. Everyone got in on the action. Phoenix and Lu both had their turns at bat.

And even I got into the action. Who says Mom's not fun?

Nota bene: I still have numerous pictures from the summer that I haven't yet posted. Next up, Courtney and Aaron's visit, since the baseball game last night also reminded me of them.

The Best Kids' Museum in the ENTIRE World

Although I haven't traveled the whole world, and I haven't been to the kids' museums in most of the places I *have* traveled (since we didn't have kids when we were mobile enough to really travel), I am STILL fairly certain the City Museum in St. Louis is the VERY BEST museum EVER. It's just that good.

It is housed in a 10-story old building in downtown St. Louis (something like 4 of the floors encompass the museum, but the 10-story slide runs from top to bottom) and it is a veritable circus of activities. It is so crazy, and so amazing that I kept thinking, "Wow, how can they allow this sort of stuff without having people sign insurance waivers." And then lo, and behold, Phoenix shoved his leg into a hole that was not meant for a little leg in the "Cave area" and ended up with bloody scrapes up and down his shin. All in the name of freedom to play as children are meant to play.

This area was like a huge cement skate park. Some of the slides were nearly vertical.

(You can see one of the three bandaids covering his leg from the aforementioned mishap.)
You could run, slide, jump, smash into other kids. And I didn't even get pictures of the outside area. This stuff was the TAME stuff. The twisty tunnel in the first picture? They had those things balanced in mid-air outside, going from one crazy platform to a gutted-out plane (3 stories up), to another gutted-out plane (4 stories up), to a tower, back down to a . . . well, you get the idea. Amazing!

They also had a wonderful art area where Lutece and I spent 1-2 hours. She never got sick of it. I finally had to pressure her to explore some different areas in the museum.

Phoenix found some other ways to entertain himself while we did art. He must have stayed in the ball pit for at least an hour (this was just one of three ball pits in the museum).

The balls? Not those lame little plastic ones, but full-sized rubber balls for throwing.

I have a couple of germ-phobic friends (you know who you are) who would have FREAKED OUT in this museum.

When Stayc pulled him away from the ball pit (Lu and I were still in the art area), they found this awesome room where you could make huge towers and then swing from the rope in the middle of the room and knock your tower over. Who thinks these things up??

Not the greatest photo to end on, but this post wouldn't be complete without a picture of Lu on the mini-train (she's sitting in one of the cars). It chugged around one of the floors of the museum. She loved it! The conductor was a small person (as in, a dwarf) dressed in full conductor regalia. When we first saw him Lu and I both thought he was a statue. He was standing so still and right next to a miniature train, and . . . well . . . he was a dwarf. Then he spoke to us, and we both jumped a little, realizing that he was, in fact, a real live human. Oh my.

Needless to say, if you ever go to St. Louis, I don't care how old you are, you HAVE to head to the City Museum!