Omaha finally got enough snow to cover the grass. I never know whether to be happy or sad about snow. Everyone is home and needs to be taken care of and then there is all that snow gear. It seems like the older I get and the more kids I have I have gotten more and more tolerant of going out and coming in a jillion times in an hour and everything off and everything back on. That just seems to be life for now and it wont last forever that's for sure. In fact it seems like the phases of the children's lives go by so fast I can barely remember them anymore. Hopefully this blog will help me remember these times and all the fun we've had......well sometimes!


    There wont be any pics of David in this post because he was being a stinker and wouldn't let daddy take any pictures of him :(

                                                All suited up and ready to go!

                                                             John-Paul

                                Helena ready to go! We are so fortunate to have a sledding hill in our yard

                                                            Going down together!

                                    He wasn't sure what to do with his hands:) The gloves didn't fit quite right

                                    Making a kitty snow fort:) For Helena it's all about kittys all the time!

Skating Adventure

Skating did not seem like a good idea with three little ones who have never skated before in their lives. In fact I even tried to chicken out on my friends who had invited us:) To my amazement it actually turned out great. Helena and David both skated without holding on to mom! John Paul on the other hand decided he needed to be held the whole hour and a half, but that was better than running around and getting into trouble, so it all worked out. The skating rink employees even taught the kids a little lesson on skating and played games with them and at the end they even got a snack. I had two worn out kiddos at the end of the day! Awesome!

                                                     Look Mom! We are on our own!

                                                    If only they were always this cute!

                                                     David in motion. He was really focused!

                                                    Helena playing the game.( You had to hold out your arms)

                                                 Wow! he really looks like Daddy here!

                                                                  Limbo!

David's Buzz Lightyear 4th Birthday Party

Wow! What a great day we had for David's party. And Hannah and I had a great time planning it! It only took a few months ! LOL:) Hannah and I made all the decorations from scrapbooking paper! We even made all of the games. The kids had a blast! Here are some pictures of the decorations we made:

This is the sign we made for the entryway. We had jetpacks for each kiddo to wear during
the party:)

The party favor bags Hannah and I made to look like little aliens!
And I made the the garland out of paper and ribbon. We got the wall decals from the dollar tree! Score:)

Hannah and I painted this and hung it over the door to the kitchen! I think I will hang it up in his room later!

 

 

 

       These are the jetpacks we made out of two liter soda bottles! We drank a lot of pop! But it was fun. This was cheap too because it was  just spray paint and duct tape ! WOOHOO:)

                                The kids decorated this with stickers from wal-mart They had fun.

                                         Each kiddo got a space ranger necklace.

                                               Since helium is at a shortage i taped the balloons to sticks and
                                                 taped the eyes and ears on.

                                    We painted this out of two science boards taped together! I
                                           thought it turned out pretty awesome:)

                                                     The party food and cake table!

 

 

                                                   We covered my metal stars with foil ....Heehee!

                                                      These were hung on the windows beside the fireplace

We made a ton of these out of paper towel rolls and paper!

 

 We kept the food simple. Hannah and I made the cakes and we found some simple ideas for space food on a website.

 

 

                                                 simple idea for plates! I loved these!

                                             Buzz fruit green and purple buzz's colors! Too simple!

                                                   The cake idea was from family fun. But it was so
                                                                        easy and yummy! oreos crushed up in the frosting!!!

                                              Little green Alien cupcakes ! the girls decorated these!

                                           Moon and stars! Ritz crackers and cheese cut out with a cookie cutter!
                                          The kids had fun eating all the cheese "scraps"

                                         The rocket fuel was hawaiian punch and water bottles
                                         covered with print outs from the internet!

When the party guests arrived we had centers to keep everyone busy until we were ready to start!  

 

                             We had coloring sheets and moon "dough" (just black playdough I made with glitter in it) and space guys to play with in it:)

                       This was kids knex to build an alien an the game toy story kerplunk.

 

                                                           Helena playing kerplunk!

 

                     I have been collecting several buzz lightyear and space toys to set out around the house to keep them all occupied......

 

The games were great fun for the kids! They all participated an cheered eachother on

it was so cute! First we had space ranger warm ups led by the beautiful commander Hannah

the kids had a blast. They each had a jet pack or wings and a finger laser that I got from amazon.com

for practically nothing. We had the kids run in place saying "I will protect the galaxy" ! It was fun to

watch! And of course they ran around the room shouting "to infinity and beyond" , and saluted to

star command! They did karate chops saying attack zurg, and practiced using their finger lazers, Helena wanted everyone to say pew pew on this part:) Here are some pics of the space ranger camp:

                                                     The very pretty Commander Hannah! I couldn't of done this without
                                                       her! 

                                                  We made a list of the games , so the kids could see what was up next!

                                                 Mommy and the birthday boy! David is into the cheesy smile
                                              stage of life.....YAY!

                                           One of the guests using his finger laser!

                                            Space Ranger training camp! FUUUUUN!

 

                 Here are some pics of the games and prizes. We had a lot of fun

planning these!                    

                                                Helena getting the ring around Saturn !

                                   Super easy and fun game for little ones just a ball and a hula hoop
                                     the prize was peach rings in a ziploc with a label that we made on the printer:)

     Zurg target practice . We made Zurg heads from scrapbook paper the taped jenga blocks to them. we covered our bar stools with trash bags to make them tall. We had the guns from last christmas the ones that shoot out little foam discs to "shoot down the Zurg heads! The kids had a blast!

                                   David takes his aim!

                                      This was the prize: rockets made of tp rolls with buzz fruit snacks inside!

                             This is the gun:

 Comet toss game we got this off the family fun website. We made the comets out of little wiffle balls......It worked really well

                       The prize was little "planets" that we made bags and labels for and used jelly beans and
                                                   skittles.

                      Helena playing comet toss!!!

 Alien knock down game . we made these out of covered coffee cans. the kids loved this . I used ball pit balls for the kids to throw.

                     The prizes were bouncy balls that glow in the dark

                            this guy really had a good arm!!

                         This game I saw online i changed a few things but my kids loved it and it was educational! I had the sun at the bottom and all the planets in order with point values on them going up the stairs, the kids had to use the "shooting stars" i made to land them in the containers. At the end they could add them all the points up that they scored!

 these are the shooting stars i made for the game. Each kiddo got to bting a star home for a prize, i just hot glued felt stars together with rice in the middle and of course the ribbons :)

   The last game was space rock relay. The kids and I crumpled up foil to make space rocks and I bought little grabber claws from Target for 5.00 . I wasn't happy with the price but my kids loved the things , so it was worth it. the kids had to pick up a rock from one container with the grabber then carry it across the room and drop it into another container and then give the grabber to the next in line. I had two groups so they got to race. The prize of course was pop rocks:)

                   running in the space rock relay!

After the games were over we had a space ranger induction where each kiddo could get into the space ship and say I space ranger and their name promise to protect the galaxy to infinity and beyond! Here are the pics from that:

                                                                        Baby Olivia had to give it a try

                                                    David really liked this part!

Next we had the cake and snacks. The kids were super hungry by then and we had almost completely killed the two hours I had allotted for the party YAY!!

                                                             Standing by his moon cake !

 Very serious when we sang him happy birthday! So cute :)

                                                     Licking the spaceship!

   Whew! What a party we were all worn out, especially David he had been looking forward too it all year, the only problem is what will I do with my life now? LOL! with five kiddos and a grandbaby I always have a party to plan ! Woohoo! Actually my next project to tackle is my once a month cooking endeavor. I've been testing recipes all month and I think I'm ready...... wish me luck:)

                                                      Here are some random pics from the party I just had to share:

                                             Space Rangers Helena David and Olivia

                                                               Derek and Hailey

                                                        Family pics

                                         Oops! sideways ......little space ranger!

                                                        The Group !

                                                             David................so cute!

                               Not Happy JP !!! He was tired 2:00 was a bad party time for a two year old!