Eli's first day of school

I know I'm really, really late on posting this, but I just found the pictures from Eli's first day of preschool.  This did occur in August, but I'd still like to have them up here! 
Eli was so excited to start school.  For weeks, before it actually started, he'd ask me if he got to go to school that day.  So, on the first day, he was ecstatic!  We packed his backpack with extra clothes and such, took the first day of school pictures, and left for school.

This is a total daddy face!  Isn't he cute? 

We headed downstairs to his classroom.  (It's only been a couple of months, and he's walking down the stairs like an old pro now.)  He gave me big hugs and kisses.  Then told me to leave...  I'm so proud of my big, independent boy!  We'd been talking for a long time about the first day (and how I'd leave him there to play then come back for him), and he was ready!

We like the Noah mural.  This picture cracks me up every time I see it!  He looks like a little Ark Cruiseline tour guide.  Love it!

He had a great first day!  Eli still loves school.  He loves learning, making things, and playing with the other kids.  It's so good for him! 

Lingering thought of the day: I am so very thankful that I get to stay home and take care of my babies all day.  I LOVE it.  I'm living my dream!

Eli's 3rd Birthday Party (Part 2)

Cake and presents!  Cake and presents!  Everybody loves cake and presents!

Anyway...now that I've gotten that nonsense out of my system, let's talk more party talk.  I made Eli's cake.  Eh, it's ok.  One of these days, I'm going to get around to taking a class.  For now, this will suffice.  So, I made the cake Friday and frosted it Friday night.  I thought I'd get a leg up and be extra ready and stress free pre-party Saturday.  It was finished.  Then we woke up Saturday morning.  There were about two minutes when I was out of the kitchen, and the birthday boy made his move.  There was a track.  There were cars.  There was sugary goodness.  I'm not sure why I expected him to be able to resist.  He didn't.

Yep, he took the cars and drove them all over his cake.  They'd torn through the track (literally).  As I walked into the kitchen, they were spinning out in the infield.  I'm not gonna lie.  I kinda flipped.  In hindsight, I should've just put a car upside down in the infield and another with it's front end stuck in the road.  Eli likes the crash scenes in Cars.  He probably would've loved it.  However, that idea didn't come until I'd fixed the frosting.  Thankfully, I had kept the leftover frosting & Oreo crumbles.  All of the pictures that follow are of the second go around of frosting.

The cake consisted of four 8" square cakes.  To try to give a little variety, I made four different types of cake.  They were:  white, strawberry, funfetti, and chocolate.  It shocked my socks off, but almost every child asked for white cake.  I did not anticipate that.

Eli has been singing "Happy Birthday" for weeks, months, years... That may be a slight exaggeration, but he sings it all the time.  He sang it all morning in anticipation for the party.  But when everybody sang it to him, he looked a little surprised by it all.  He picked out his candle himself.  He really wanted a number candle.

After cake and playing at the stations, the kids migrated outside to play.  I didn't want to drag them all back in for presents, and it was gorgeous outside.  SO...the presents moved outside. 

Eli's friends (and their parents!) were so sweet!  We really enjoyed having them all over to play.  Eli was so excited about them all coming over, and we had a lot of fun.  We had the party a little early for his daddy's schedule.  It was the weekend that worked best this month.  I can't believe our little man is going to be three already.  How did that happen?  He's a big boy now.  He is so very, very precious to me.  I love being blessed with him every single day. 

Lingering thought of the day:  I have a teensy little spider who lives in one corner of my shower.  Her name is Tess.  I'm going to go read for fun now. 

Thanks, Kim, for taking all of the awesome birthday pictures for me!  I appreciate it very much!

Eli's 3rd Birthday Party (Part 1)

Eli's third birthday party with friends was held at our house today.  It was great fun.  However, I have a few confessions to make. 
Confession #1--I get a little obsessed.  I plan.  I try to make everything play into a theme.  I decorate.  I write out lists...and then other sub-lists of things to accomplish.  It's my thing.  I LOVE to plan parties.
Confession #2--I hate party games.  Seriously.  I know it's wrong, but I truly do loathe them.  It doesn't matter if it's a party for kids, bridal shower, baby shower, etc.  I do not like them and will do my very best to avoid them.  However, my inner teacher can't necessarily just roll with free play either.  That's what led to stations...

Here are just a few of the decorations (my faves).  It took each picture about ten minutes to load.  Mercy knows, I'm not a lady of great patience.  Therefore, there will only be a skimming.

The front door (on the way in) had a "Start your engines" sign.  This one, on the back of that one, is what was seen when leaving.

Here's Eli's birthday banner. It's kinda hard to read, but who doesn't need a challenge, right?  Ok, so I should've made the red more prominent than the blue.  Oh, well!

Here begin the stations:

This was the coloring station.  They had little Cars coloring sheets and crayons in a Cars bucket.  We love this IKEA table.  It was all of $7.00.  Eli plays and eats on it.  He uses it for pretty much everything.  Back to the point...

This station was for driving Cars cars.  Eli and I worked really hard on this one night.  We took a cheapy shower curtain, a Sharpie, and joined creative forces and went to town!  Drawing a town...  Anyway, it was fun to make and fun for them to play with.  Had it not been for Eli's help, there wouldn't have been a whale or shark in the river.  I love his imagination!  Side note:  The red blob on the far right was the puzzle table (Cars, of course) and it was the leading favorite spot of sippy cup drop zone.  Whatever works!

This was a station for Chuck & Friends.  They drove all over the place.  The train table's set up next to it for some railway fun.  We have lots of things that go in our house!

BUT my very favorite station of them all was the drive-in  movie.  We had Cars 2 as the feature presentation.  We set up a concession stand with movie candy, popcorn, and Cars juice boxes.  The popcorn is from the local movie theatre.  I called a few days in advance to ask about buying whatever leftovers they had from Friday night for the party on Saturday.  They told me when to come in and gave it to me for free.  We filled 32 popcorn boxes and still had a full trash bag full.  I was totally amazed, not only by the amount, but by the free-ness of it all.  That was really, really nice!

Their cars were office paper boxes that were spray painted.  Then they had eye windshields, license plates, and tires put on them.  This idea was a Pinterest steal (as was the shower curtain road).  I do love Pinterest. I think the kids enjoyed this station quite a bit!  I'd recommend it for rainy day fun!

Tomorrow, I'll focus on cake and presents.

Lingering thought of the day:  Captain Crunch is ripping the flesh from my mouth.  I should probably never eat it again.  I'm giving it up.  That is, until I forget in a year or two, eat it again, and repeat this whole monstrously painful thing.

Lingering thought of the day #2:  I haven't blogged since April.  I've missed it quite a bit.  However, I've lost my touch in that time, so go easy on me.  Ok?