Eli's 4th Birthday: Super Heros

Eli had his fourth birthday a couple weeks ago and I thought I'd share what we did. It really was a pretty relaxed party. At our house the kids are allowed to invite as many kids as how old they are turning. So Eli was supposed to invite 4. And him being the wheeler and dealer that he is, he worked that into more kids. First he told me who he wanted. Then he kept saying that he wanted the moms to come too. Then he added in the other siblings. And then the morning of he was like WAIT why isn't Talan here (he lives across the street) so he ran over there and invited him to come over too. (And his mom ran to the store and bought Elie a present. So really Eli worked it to have way more than the allotted 4 kids to his fourth birthday. And really, that is soooooo Eli.

I made all the kids "capes" in the cutting of the men's t-shirts. It worked great and I made 12 in about 10 minutes. Perfect :)


Anyways, on to the picture overload. We made an obstacle course in the backyard. Really I think I do one at every boys party. :) SO this one I tried to think of super heroes and the things they "do".


First they ran through "flames" and weren't supposed to let the flames touch them. (the blowing wind sure helped them out on that!)


Then the had to climb through two different spider webs that Alden made. (It sure was good they had started our fence but just had the poles so we could use them!)



Then run to the trampoline to jump from one side to the other without hitting the bombs (balls) that were on it.


Then on to jump over the buildings




Then on to Target practice.


Then a "super break".


And they could do the course over and over. Which they did.




For the food we did Eli's very favorite thing in the world. Cereal. I bought a bunch of sweetened cereals that I never let them eat. And had milk and juice boxes.

I cut a bunch of super hero phrases out on my Silhouette Cameo and made the "city" backdrop out of poster board from the dollar store.


A little shot of the stamped spoons I got for the cereal... kinda fun :)


Eli having a cupcake. I should say blowing out the candles. Cause all he does is lick the icing. Four for four he has never eaten his birthday cake. So this year I got smart and made some yummy banana cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Icing. It was totally cause I knew moms would be eating them too. And since Eli never eats his cake, we might as well enjoy them :) HA


It was lots of fun and really nice that all the mom's were around to hang out too :) And the best thing is that almost everything we did I just gathered it all and threw it away. Really really fast clean up :)

Foto Friday: Our Year in Photos

Month 6 Week 1: Best Friends

For the first week of each month we'll focus relationships.

My kids have been blessed with good friends wherever we have lived. Really we have been very blessed in our lives in that area! If you ask Lucy right now she'd still say Anise is her best friend even though Anise lives in Calgary for a year (although it's almost done - hooray!) and they rarely get to see each other right now.

PS I can't help laugh at this picture of these two cause they are trying to be serious... but these two laugh ALL day long when they are together. They have inside jokes and are seriously nutty together.

She also has a Raymond best friend named Hadley.



Alden also says KAden (Anise's brother).


Although I'd say his best friend is Kolton from down the street (I need a picture of them together!)
or Ben from his class.



Really overall I think Lucy and Alden are best friends. But whenever I say that they say "she (or he) can't be my best friend, she's (or he's) my sister (or brother)!"



Eli says its Dad. :)

or James Baldry. (and he always calls him "James Baldry" which cracks me up :)




You can see all my other entries for this project here

Go check out Brooke's over here!

Dinner Club

Over a year ago I got invited to be in a dinner club. It is made up of people who love food :)

How it works: Couples rotate each month. The hosting couple picks a theme and prepares the main dish. All the other couples pick the other courses that go along with the theme and we get together and eat and eat and laugh. We get together once a month. Usually on the last Friday or Saturday of the month.

Themes we've had: Moroccan, Murder Mystery 80s, Halloween, Letter R, 100 Mile Challenge, Cajun Creole, East Indian, Man Night, French, Iron Chef - Lemon, Seafood, Finger Food, Mexican, Brazilian, Harvest, Nursery Rhymes, Martha Stewart, Kung fo Fighting and Literary Night

This past month we hosted and our theme was literary. So you had to have found the idea or food in a book that was NOT a cookbook. I have been reading a series of books by Louise Penny that take place in Quebec. And I thought of the theme because food plays a major role in setting the scene of the book.

For appetizer the Metz's brought Bruschetta. The drink the Edward's brought was Butter beer inspired by Harry Potter (it's not a kind of beer just in case you are wondering). (forgot to get a picture of both!)

Then the main course I did was Slow Roasted Lamb sandwiches on Rosemary Cibatta buns

Toppings for the sandwiches were Homemade Onion Marmalade, Mustard Aioli, smoked gouda cheese, argula and tomatoes


Then I made a favorite salad of mine to go with it.


hahaha Shawn...



Dessert by the Murphy's where Lonnie made sampita and krempita. Some fancy European pastries that she had written about in her journal when her and her hubby were dating years ago.


From a different dinner club...



FAQ about Dinner Club:

1. Do you make everything? Yes. Most of the time! One month someone made homemade ketchup, I tried homemade mayonnaise, Aioli, etc.

2. How do you pick your themes? Whatever strikes our fancy :) I think one of the best parts is picking out the theme! And no we aren't ruled by the theme. One month someone had the nursery rhyme theme and Regan ended up writing a nursery rhyme that went with the soup I made.

3. How many couples? Five.

4. Do you have the same people? Yes. It has been so fun getting to know everyone even better over the course of time. We did have some other couples that dropped out and a couple new ones that attend now.

5. Sounds like crazy food - ever have plain things? Nope. We all think that's kind of the point of dinner club. Fancy food most kids would hate on fancy dishes most kids would break.

6. Do you get tired of doing it? Nope! It's literally one of my favorite things we do as a couple. A couple people we know do a dinner club now but they go out to restaurants each month. That works for them and living in the city. We all love to cook and entertain! We play games after or chat. It's the best!

Drumheller

My brother and SIL invited us to go for a looong drive Saturday to the dinosaur museum. We wavered... it's a long drive from here. But I think it's good to try to do fun things like this with our kids. And friends going too? Great!
The kids surprised us with how good they travelled. And confirmed it for us - on the summer we'l drive down to Utah for a vacation!




Then we checked out reptile world and it was gross, cool and really really stinky.




Then we went and checked out the HUGE T-Rex you can climb up. (Totally a ripoff but the kids loved it!)


Then we all went out to Boston Pizza - the waitress earned her tips that night! And a crazy snow storm blew in while we drove home.

It was a great day!

Eli's "Mighty Machines" Party

Well since it's been a week (or more) since Eli's party, I thought I'd finally share what we did. He really didn't get the whole idea of a party and Lucy wanted to help out. So she was firing different theme ideas at him one day and said Mighty Machines. And once he heard that he couldn't get it out of his head. He didn't even know what Mighty Machines had to do with a party, but he loves Mighty Machines and wouldn't budge an inch onto anything else. When I asked him what he wanted for his presents, he'd just say "no presents, just a mighty machines party" confirming to me that he really had no idea what you even did at a party :) And because of that (and my general lack of energy lately) this was a throw together last minute party. I didn't make fancy signs (which I thought about doing) or fancy invitations (or even any invitations) or really go over the top in anyway. And really, it didn't matter. He's three. And he didn't care. :) And I tried hard to not feel guilty about the casualness of it all.

First up the kids decorated their own party bags with car stickers I found at the dollar store.


Then we went out in the backyard and went to "The Harbor". Where they were supposed to race their boats but really they just splashed them in the water and got really wet.


Then they had a little jumpy castle break (fine with me!)


Then they went to "The Racetrack". Where we raced dinky cars down the tracks.


Then they went to "The Construction Site". Where the digger in the dirt.


Then we went inside for cake. (this is one of my favorite shots of the day!)


Eli still doesn't get how to blow... so Ryan helped him out!


I did go all out for the cake. Which in reality is quite funny since now for three years he has yet to taste his own birthday cake. He never does. But he sure thought it looked cool :) ha!

I did the "dirt" with chocolate cookie crumbs

And since we'd be eating it too, I had to add a lemon filling.


Then they ate cake and had snacks. It was a weird group of foods on the tray but I wanted to do things Eli actually likes to eat. And that is a weird group of foods :)


Eli opened his presents and they all played with them for a little bit before home time. For their treat bags (that they had decorated) they took home their race tracks and cars, shovels and the boats they raced. It was casual and short. Just perfect for this little man!