Our Bike Rider

A couple of days ago Shawn took the training wheels and pedals off of Jase's bike. {A friend told him about the balanced bike technique to help kids learn to ride, where they use their feet to push themselves and balance without worrying about pedaling.} Well, two days later and he can ride his bike!! This is close to a miracle, as we did not think he would ever learn to ride his bike! It is so awesome to see how confident he is now that he can ride like a big boy. Proud of you JJ!!

Moody Gardens

Since Daddy has been traveling so much this year and we have been super busy with baseball since February, we haven't taken much of a breather at all.  We planned a short get away over this past Memorial Day Weekend to Moody Gardens in Galveston.

We visited Palm Beach all three days and had a blast each time.  There was plenty to do there to keep us entertained: lazy river, slides, beach, splash pad and a wave pool.  Nanny and Aunt Alisha surprised us Sunday afternoon and we got to spend some time with them at Palm Beach!

The Aquarium Pyramid was pretty neat and we loved seeing all of the underwater creatures in there!

Below are the only 2 family photos we got all weekend long...I'll take what I can get!  :-)

We saw 2 movies on Sunday: sharks and butterflies.  Shawn and I had seen the sharks one before and it is ok, but the butterfly movie was actually pretty good.  

Next we ventured in the Rainforest Pyramid.  I think this was my favorite! I loved looking at all of the flowers and plants and trying to spot the different creatures!

And right before we left the enclosed butterfly area, I had a friend come and visit me! This kids thought this was super cool!

And here is Miss Hollywood looking at her map and navigating us on where to go...even though she was way behind us!!

We ended up buying a season pass and look forward to returning over the summer for some more family fun!

Boot Camp Survival

Well I did it, I made it through my first session of boot camp! While it challenges me each time I go, I am really enjoying it. And for the record, I'm glad I stuck with the 5 lb weights! But watch out, I might be moving up to some 6 or 7 pounders soon! ;)  Next session starts this Saturday morning!

Finishing up Kindergarten

It is hard to believe that it is nearly June and Jase is finishing up Kindergarten! He has done such a great job this year and it has been such a blessing to watch his progression over the year.  He is reading so well and enjoys math too.  I am going to go out on a limb and say that his favorite subject is geography.  He is definitely his father's son...he loves maps! The last couple of weeks we have been studying the continents and last week we saw the shape of one of them without a name attached to it.  I said it was South America and he corrected me and said no that it was Africa.  I said no, I think it is South America.  Yep, I was wrong...it was Africa! I am learning right along with him!

Since are not having an official Kindergarten graduation ceremony, we thought we would celebrate in a different way: we surprised him with a trip to the Children's Museum of Houston.  At first I think that Allyson was more excited than he was, but he was pumped as well.  We do not go very often, but always enjoy it when we do.  And I bought our tickets on Groupon for 50% off (YAY for Groupon!!). 

Daddy took the older two to Kidtropolis, USA which is a really neat environment where kids act as grown ups and participate in the economy.  They work jobs to earn money on their Kid Card debit card and then they can turn around and spend it at the market.  Allyson and Jase both enjoyed this.

While Daddy and the older two were busy earning money, I took Finn to the Tot Spot.  He absolutely LOVED it!! So many new things to see and cram in his mouth! We stayed there for an hour before we met back up with Daddy.

Here is a short clip of Finn playing at the cars table.

Then it was snack time for Finn and puppet show time for the older two!  If you watch the movie clip then you will see that the kids cannot get enough of Disney's Robin Hood. Allyson is singing the first song from the movie in the puppet show!

After the puppet show the kids head over to the face painting area and give themselves a make over!

Sister and I made some cool looking shades while Daddy and Jase went to another exhibit.

We had a great time and are so proud of Jase as he is finishing up Kindergarten!  Oh and we were so happy to have Daddy home!!  He had just arrived back home from Africa earlier that morning and we missed him so much.  You never get used to having him gone.

That's a wrap

Well, it wasn't a W tonight. The boys played really well in the first two innings and then we couldn't hold them or make any plays offensively. We fell short in the 5th inning with a final score of 15-9. Oh well! So proud of them for advancing this far and getting 2nd place!! Go Blue Jays!

And Jase, Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you and how well you have progressed over the season. You made so many outs at 2nd base and your knowledge of the game continues to grow! I love all of our talks about situational plays at the table or in your bed right before bedtime. :) You're a great ball player with a wonderful attitude and you will always be our All-Star!

Another W

"I said a boom chicka boom. I said a boom boom chicka boom. I said a boom chicka rocka chicka rocka chicka boom!!"

So tonight we played a team that has beat us all 3 times this season. And we had a chance to beat them at least 2 out of the 3 times, but couldn't pull it off. Tonight was the night we did it!! So proud of Jase and the boys on his team. And even after devotions, Jase was still saying "man I still can't believe we beat the Giants!!" So cool!

This means we move onto the final game tomorrow night...the championship game!! Bad News Bears here we come! Lol! We are playing a team tomorrow night that also beat us all 3 times during the season; they have a great team, but so do we. {For the record, we got 3rd in league play behind these two teams...so we didn't lose to everyone!} But tomorrow would be a great time to break that losing streak against them!

Super game boys!!! "We are proud of you say we are proud of you"!! Do you have these chants in your head now?? Me too!

Coach talking to the boys and congratulating them on a great game!

So last night I helped out on the field, and I look up and I see my sister out there tonight! Haha!! I had to snap a pic real quick! She was catching balls for the coach.  Not sure if she volunteered or he asked! Too funny!  It wasn't 5 seconds later and I was out there as well, helping them get warmed up.  Come game time we were off the field this time though. Which was completely fine because I was a nervous wreck at the beginning of this one!! So neat that we pulled it off!  Final score was 22-16.

Game Ball

Last night playoffs started for the Blue Jays.  We were playing a team that we have beaten 3 times before, but hey you never know.

The first inning our boys held them to 1 run, but then they held us to 2 runs...YIKES!! Shortly after that we started hitting the ball and making outs and we never looked back!!  We ended up winning 17-10!!  Go Blue Jays!!  Jase made some great stops at second base and caught at least 4 balls from the short stop for force outs at 2nd! He hit the ball well this game too.  I was super proud of him!! At the end of the game, the coach awarded him with the game ball...Jase was so happy!!  We were all so happy for him as well!!

Oh and one other thing...I helped coach this game!!!  They needed one more coach tonight, so I stepped up to the plate and helped out!  I actually loved it!  I enjoy the sport and love this age of kids, so it was a win-win!  All of the boys are great kids and it was so funny to hear each of them tell me these lengthy stories in 5 seconds until the next ball was hit. You better watch out, I might be getting my own team together this fall!  Kidding!!

Only thing that would have made this night better is if Daddy was here to see it.  I know he is working hard to provide for us though.  Love and miss you, Dad!

Lego Indiana Jones Party

We just finished up Jase's 6th birthday party a couple weekends ago and it was fun one, if I do say so myself.  All of the kiddos seemed to enjoy it, which made all the work worthwhile.  I had such a grand time planning it out with Jase, as always.  I haven't seen an Indiana Jones movie in probably 10-15 years easy and Jase has never seen one.  He has only seen clips of Lego Indiana Jones mini movies off of YouTube.  If it's Lego, then you better bet he loves it!

I started off looking at several birthday parties I found on Pinterest and to be honest I used quite a few of those ideas.  I don't have time to reinvent the wheel over here!

I created the invite in Picasa and it was pretty easy.  Picasa is free to download and user friendly.  Plus, it beats having to pay for personalized invites on Etsy.  I printed them to my local Sam's Club on matte photo paper, slipped them in an envelope and I was good to go.  FYI- The price to print 1 hour 5x7's at Sam's Club vs. Walmart is half the price.

Also, this year we asked our guests to bring donations to the Boys and Girls Harbor instead of a gift for Jase.  I'll do a blog post on how that went in the near future.  But here was the insert we included with the invite.

Since the kids would be going on an adventure, I really wanted the kids to have hats like Indiana.  I called several Dollar Tree stores since that's where I read other mom's purchased them, but no luck.  I stopped in a local 99 cent store (even though certain items are now over a dollar!) and BAM I hit the jackpot!! I snagged enough hats for our adventurers and Jase loved them!

Jase helping cut off all the tags

I also thought it would be awesome if the kids had satchels, but did not have the money to buy each child one (I was preparing for 30 kids!).  Cue my mom...she entered the scene! We looked at several patterns and ideas on the internet and I finally found one that was fairly simple, yet cute!  We decided to go with burlap for the fabric since it looked nice and rugged.  Mom picked up the fabric and we worked on them together a couple of nights to line out all of the kinks.

Mom was a HUGE trooper and absolutely loves her grandson for the amount of man hours she put into these!  They turned out great and the kiddos LOVED them! One thing if you're using burlap: it will fray on you and all of the weaving may come undone.  So, we ended up hemming all of the straps on both sides and also on the sides of the front flap.  This still allowed it to fray just a bit which gave it a worn look, but the hem stopped it from unraveling all the way through.  Definitely worth the time!

Finished Product

The cake...it turned out AWESOME!! My best friend did a fabulous job! I had bought a Lego Indiana Jones set off of eBay and gave it to her to use.  And this was a family project as well, because her husband made the ark of the covenant from scratch...it was perfect!  Her cakes never cease to amaze me!  

And here is the other set-up we had.  I kept it pretty simple since we would be doing so many activities with the kids.

Here is food and naming conventions we went with.  A few of the ideas I found and the rest we made up on our own.

Pankot Pizza - Domino's pizza
Bullwhip Chips - Individual bags of chips
Villainous Veggies - Veggie tray
Fate of Atlantis Fruit Salad - Strawberries, apples and grapes
Booby Trap Baked Potato Dip - Sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese and bacon bits mixed together and served with Ruffles or Wavy Lays...tastes just like a loaded baked potato!
Mummy Hummy - Hummus with Pita chips
Snake's Blood - Fruit Punch
Lost Ark Lemonade - Lemonade
Fountain of Youth - Water
Secret Spy Sweet Tea - Sweet Tea

As kids started arriving, we turned on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse's The Quest for the Crystal Mickey, which is a spin off of Indiana Jones.  Jase thought it was a good tie in! :)  {And can I tell you that I'm glad he still likes MMCH!} After a few minutes, we captured the adventurers' attention by handing out the hats, satchels and compasses.  They all LOVED them!!  Shawn gave them a mini lesson on how to use the compass.

Then we told the kids that Indiana Jones left a note for them and read it aloud.

All of the clues were rolled up, taped shut and had the clue number on the outside. We stored them in an old wagon container we had.  The birthday boy started us off and read the first clue!

We stacked a couple of 5 gallon buckets for the stand and covered them with large paper garbage sacks.  And since this was a one time event, we used one of Jase's trophies as the golden idol.  It worked just fine...and it was free!

Since we had 20+ kids, we set up 2 stations so they would move through faster.  We printed 4 Lego Indiana Jones bad guys and taped them onto empty water bottles as our targets.  I purchased $1 jump ropes from Walmart and took one handle off, doubled the rope up and put both ends of the rope into one handle and tied a knot. {We had fun practicing this inside the house on a chair...you can really whip the jump rope!}

Now this was fun! We printed up a large Lego Mola Ram character and put it in a large poster frame that has a plexi-glass front.  Shawn bought three 10 feet sections of PVC pipe at Lowe's for next to nothing and he cut them up into 1 foot sections.  We {my sister} then vertically wrapped them in duct tape.  We picked out Realtree camo for the boys and a pink cheetah print for the girls.  We bought Nerf darts with section cups at the ends and they worked perfect and stuck right to our target! Everyone enjoyed this clue!

Now we headed out front to build our own paper airplanes.  And after you had successfully built an airplane, you tried to land it on the landing strip.  If you did not make it on the landing strip, then you crashed!

I asked my mom and sister to have this ready to go when we went out front to build and fly our airplanes.  They filled clear cups with a couple of drinks of sprite in each one.  As the kids came to the back, we tried to have everyone drink at the same time.

If was great watching the kids react to being poisoned!! The day before the party we blew up 30 balloons and in one of the balloons we put this message in it. 

Once they found the balloon with the clue in it, they had to figure out what it meant.

The white ram was Shawn's Dodge Ram truck!  We had an ice chest in the bed of the truck with Koolaid Gushers in it.  The kids loved the urgency of finding the antidote and passing it out to everyone and drinking it. {And a bonus was that I bought each 6 pack for $0.88 at Walmart. They price matched it for me from Food Town!}

Lastly, we had them go through a little Snake Pit obstacle course on our play set.  Once they exited the obstacle course, I gave them a puzzle piece, which was a map to the treasure.  Shawn did a great job on the map! We cut a brown lunch bag and he drew the map on there. He then put together a puzzle we had at the house from the dollar store (25 pieces) and mod podged the map to the puzzle.  After it dried, he used a box cutter to cut out each puzzle piece.  I love how it turned out!

One by one, they started putting the puzzle together.

After they finished the puzzle, they figured out where they needed to go and they were on the hunt!!

Using the same image from the invitation, I made each child a field journal with their name on it.  I simply created a 4x6 collage picture in Picasa and put the image on each side and typed their name at the top.  I printed the pictures out at Walmart, cut them and taped them down to some mini notepads  that were on clearance that my sister found for me at Walmart. I also had some individually wrapped Lego minifigures I bought off of eBay {way cheaper than buying them in the store} for the boys and some girly girl items for the girls.  All of the kids thoroughly enjoyed the adventure.  I know we did putting it all together.

So much fun! Still hard to believe that we have a 6 year old {and a 3 year old and a 10 month old!!!}.  Love my babies so much and feel so blessed.

Oh and here is my Pinterest Party Ideas board with several of the Indiana Jones birthday party ideas I found.  Like I mentioned earlier, a lot of my ideas I found on here.  :)