Wands...

My Talmage is turning double digits this year.

My Sauce is turning 10!

A-mazing.

He really wanted to have a "friend" birthday party this year. 

It will be his first.

Back in Utah we always had a large family-oriented birthday party for our kids, but here in Texas, there is no family....

We all agreed that this was the perfect time for Sauce to have a birthday bash with his friends.

He chose a Harry Potter theme, which is great because there are so many party ideas on the internet.

One idea I liked was to make your own wand.  Now I had come across ideas of spray-painting pencils to  represent wands, or finding wand-like sticks to serve as wands, but I wanted something more authentic.

I found this site: http://dhandycraft.com/make-a-harry-potter-wand.html  which showed a step-by-step guide to making your own wand out of paper.  Yes, paper!  This is what I was looking for!

I rolled the paper like they showed, but I ended up wrapping it around a shesh-kebab stick as I wanted a little re-enforcement to them.  I also used two pieces of paper on some to extend the length.

Once they were rolled, I used hot glue on both ends of the wand and also to make different character marks on them (I wanted them to all look different).  After the hot glue was set, I used spray-paint to "set" them and get them ready to paint.

Here is the spray-painting phase.

Voila!  Wands are ready to paint!

Painted wands...

The final step was to paint the hot-glue character marks.  This part was a lot of fun!

The wands were definitely a labor of love, but Talmage was excited for the whole process, and kept thanking me for all the time I was putting into his party which absolutely melted my little mom heart!

I let Talmage pick the wand he wanted.  The other kids will have Olivander help them in the wand selection process.  

Here is the wand Talmage Pearson-potter chose:

Now, what to do for the rest of his party....

Leia Mais

Miss. Mae and Pre-School

Miss. Maidie starts pre-school this year.

It's hard for me to believe that she is three years old.

Time is moving entirely too quickly....

I'm absolutely biased, but I think she's the loveliest little Miss. I've ever seen (even if her shirt is tucked into her skirt...)!

She was so excited to wear her back pack!

I think putting on the back pack is a significant right of passage to little people.

You put your back pack on, and other kids start to take you seriously!

Maidie is attending a catholic pre-school called, St. Margaret Mary's.

Most all the pre-schools around us are religion based.

She found some play-dough to entertain her while she waited for class to begin.  She thought that was great until....

...her friend Soren walked into the classroom.  Then she was like, "mom who?".

Maidie and Soren have been friends since we've moved to Texas.  They have a love/hate relationship.  They get a long most of the time with a few whacks and name callings a long the way, but when they are apart, they miss each other, and want to know when they can play again.

Once Soren arrived, she would no longer look my way, and my picture taking opportunities were gone.  I'm glad that she is independent and excited for new adventures. 

*Sigh*

I guess I'll just have to go and enjoy the 4 1/2 hours I have to myself.

WHAT!?  4 1/2 hours to myself!  And it's not even my birthday!

Hooray!

Leia Mais

First Day of School 2012

First day of school for 2012!

I love this day.

Some moms cry and feel all melancholy as their children trudge off to school...

Not.  Me.

I do a little happy dance and sing a few songs of gladness!

I love my little people, don't get me wrong, but they are ready to have their minds stimulated and their knowledge challenged!  And I am ready to find where my mind ran off to during these past few summer months and enjoy some quiet sanity!

The Sauce.

I let him pick out his own shoes this year.

I would have preferred a nice pair of Nike's or New Balance's, but he couldn't resist those green laced Worlds Industries.

I'm trying to let them express their individuality.... I guess the shoes is a good place to start.

Luckily, I still have an influence when it came for Eric to pick out his shoes.

Blue New Balance's it is!

I'm so glad that my boys truly like each other!

Most all the kids on our street ride the bus to and from school.

My kids think it's the best.  They get to see their friends and visit before they have to get down to business at school.  On the first day of school, we were joined only by Ryan and Emily though. 

Lining up to get on!

This is the third year Miss. Linda has been our bus driver.  We love her!  She knows the kids names, and remembers their birthdays!

As with last year, I saw the kids off on the bus, and then drove to the school to meet them when the bus arrived.

Eric has Mrs. Roosken this year.  He quickly found his cubby and then his desk.

Talmage has Mrs. Pangilinan and Mrs. Bush.  He is excited because his best friend, David, is in his class.

The kids came home to traditional first-day-of school doughnuts and chocolate milk!

We all had a great day!

Leia Mais

Father's Blessings

It's that time again... the kids will soon be back in school!  The Sunday before school started Ty gave the kids their 'back to school' blessings.

Maidie went first.

She didn't want to "pose" for a picture, she just wanted "to fly".  So here she is not "posing" but rather "flying" for the picture.  This little sweetie has her dad wrapped around her finger!

I love that my kids are seeing Ty honor his priesthood, and that this 

tradition has been formulated in our family.  

Eric.

Talmage.

After I had taken pictures of the kids and their dad, I handed the camera to Talmage and asked him to take a picture of his dear old parents.  Then I walked up to Ty and gave him a big smooch!  My kids, all horrified, started to howl and complain at how gross we were being, but their lamenting was done with big smiles on their faces, and was accompanied with fits of laughter.  I think it's important for them to see me and Ty being affectionate.  They also see us disagree, resolve conflicts, and compromise on situations where we don't see eye to eye.  And while they profess to disapprove of our public displays of affection, I know inside they are happy.  And isn't that a valuable lesson to learn in life?  Even when someone doesn't share your opinion or view on something, you can still love and accept them, and agree to disagree.

Leia Mais