Saturday, April 23, 2011

Hristos a inviat! He is risen!

OK, I have a ton of things to say but really I am too tired right now. We had a wonderful day today with Shane, the kids and my parents going to an Easter egg hunt. We took the Mt. Rainier Railway steam train about 1.5 hours away from where we live. It was an unbelievably gorgeous and warm day today. 

Anyway, I mostly wrote because I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Easter. I have been reading with Dacian about Jesus' last days and have been pretty emotional the whole week. What pain He went through for US, what love he has for us, it's just incredible. 
I am so grateful for all Jesus did for me and for all of us. 

Much love to all my friends, 
Maddy 


Sunday, April 10, 2011

It worked!

Thanks Holly. I tested your method and now I can add pictures again and not have to change my blog or pay for it. Yay! And a picture of a cake my mom made. Seriously delish. She really makes the best tasting cakes with everything from scratch.  

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Darn

So I just found out that I am out of space for putting pictures on my blog. Now what? It's $5 a year for 10 GB and I used about 1 GB in the three to four years I've had this blog. I don't really feel like starting a new blog.
Are there other websites that offer unlimited space for pics?
It's probably that I put pics here at full resolution lately and that took up too much space.
So darn.Maybe it's a sign I need to take a break from blogging and maybe do other things like reading books more and playing with my kids more. Except I blog when they are asleep and it's my way to just put some of my thoughts on 'paper'.

Today was a fun day. I went to my friend's baby shower. I won one of the games and got some awesome chocolate for it. I had a good time there and can't wait to hold the new baby. I need a baby fix.
After that we took the kids out to the park since today was nice and they say tomorrow it will be yucky and rainy again. It was cold but nice out. Lavinia made three little friends at the park and they really hit it off so much so that a few minutes later these four little girls were all holding hands and starting singing "ring around the roses" and then proceeded to take off form the park all the while holding hands. I so wish I took a picture of this. They were so adorable.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Pirate Party and lots of fun

I wrote this post the same day of the party but didn't get around to adding pics until now. I have been really enjoying looking at the pictures and this way living the party a bit because we all know that during the party moms are anything but enjoying themselves having to run all over the place and being pulled in every direction. Still I think the party was a success.

Oh my, wasn't this one cool and awesome party? I am EXHAUSTED though. I stressed and worked and planned for a while and with the party today and the clean up I am just plain pooped. But my boy is so worth it. It was also fun doing a themed party and coming up with ideas to make it fun and unique.
We rented my mom and dad's cabana where they live in order to have more space.

For a decoration I wanted to make a boat out of cardboard. I went to a few stores last week and grabbed a bunch of big flattened out boxes and then went right to work. Mom and I started the boat, made the windows and dad came after his nap to help us finish it. It took him a while because he's a perfectionist but it looks beautiful. I had fun painting it. It was a combined effort and I was imagining it would be a great photo op place on top of it being a cool decoration. But the pictures haven't turned out quite like I was imagining. Too dark, or too light and when do five year olds really pose nicely as a group? But who cares, I still have a few cute ones and the memory of this party will stay with me forever and hopefully with Dacian too.

We had Shark's Blood (fruit punch), Fruit Swords (kebabs), little boats made out of peppers and cottage cheese inside with a cheddar cheese piece on a skewer as a sail and Octopuses (hot dogs cut up in fours and microwaved so the legs curled up).
In our rush we didn't really take any pictures of the food.
Of course cake at the end; a pirate ship. (I forgot my black olives which were going to be cannon balls.)
Mom and I made the cake last night but it was starting to fall apart and mom of course came to the rescue  and fixed it and it looked beautiful.

For games we did: pop the cannon aka sit on the balloon till it pops, throw the ball through the window of the boat, musical chairs with cool pirate music going on, and lastly a treasure hunt. (Again I forgot to play pin the eye patch on the skeleton) I gave the kids each a bag to put all their prizes and the treasure finds in there and they took these home as a favor gift.
I really had fun with the treasure hunt we did. I made the clues at the last minute. I loved seeing Dacian and the other kids so excited going from clue to clue.
We ended with opening the presents and then cake.

After that it was free play which the kids seem to enjoy the most. I was gifted these Playhut houses that fold up small for storage from a friend from work and I am glad I brought them here. They're too big for our house but here they were great. I am planning to take them camping this summer.

Present from maie and taie. See the pirates on his bath robe? He's so excited about that. And of course my parents couldn't help themselves and got Lavi a robe as well. She wore it for two days straight.


We got Dacian a Bumblebee Transformer guy-He was over the moon. I love how Lavinia is so curious and is looking so cute there next to Dacian.




Craft table where kids were coloring parrots while waiting for everyone to arrive. My wish was for the kids to color the parrot and for me to tape it to their shirts. (idea from family fun.com and parrot template from there too) Well, most kids didn't really care to color and Dacian who did like it put so much glue on this thing to add colorful feathers that the parrot was a mess by the end and wouldn't stand up straight on his shirt. 
Of course, I also was hoping that the kids would wear their pirate hats (for boys) and pink bandanas (for girls) plus their eye patches. For the most part I got my wish but by the end when I wanted to do the photo op with all the kids at the boat the kids were done with that. They are all still so little and it's to be expected. Adults (ahem..., me) always have different expectations for kids. But now I know to do the photos first thing. If only I could clone myself, one for taking pictures, one for welcoming everyone and tell them what to do, etc. :)


Table decorations
See that parrot? He was supposed to stand up straight. Hahah


Grandpa the master boat maker

Mom, cake master and room decorator and cute piratess

From behind the boat
 
Friends at the party

Pop the cannon. This game was hilarious. I loved how determined the kids were to get those balloons popped. 
Playing musical chairs and other games
Going outside to look for one of the clues for our treasure hunt
Dacian finds the box.
The kids had a lot of fun with the treasure hunt.  They put all their loot and doubloons in red paper bags I gave them. 
Zeke, Dacian's youngest cousin really loved the treasure box.


Gifts came next

With best friend Jared and his brother Zach. The other pics are blurry but I tried to take one with each little guest.

Then cake, should have done cake first but oh well...




 Mom said she could barely move and light the candles the kids were so excited and were all crowding next to her. How fun!



 After cake and presents we opened up our fun tents and let the kids play. This was a huge hit and free play is always good too and thankfully we had plenty of space.

Best friends, D and Jared
Taie and grandson
 We moved the boat outside to get some decent pictures. The rain held out for us. Yipee!
  
After the kids left I hurried out for some pictures outside of the dark cabana.


 Pirate with daddy
 I love his outfit. Mom made the shirt and pants and bought the cute colorful socks.  We made the sword out of newspaper and that was yet another craft all kids were going to do but we ran out of time.


Friday, April 1, 2011

Dacian is 5!

Today. My big boy (sniff, sniff) woke us up proclaiming to the world that he is 5. "Mom, dad, I am 5!" This boy has been waiting so long to be five. I think he has a lot of friends at preschool who are older than him so he just couldn't wait for this day. He was happy all day long and saying over and over that he's now five. So adorable. He's so innocent still and sweet. I love and adore this boy.
He's such a good boy and a sweetie and handsome and of course the best. He's my child, right?
We have had a very fun though very wet spring break. Shane had a few days off starting with Wednesday and he got a hotel downtown Seattle using his awesome Priceline skills and got us a beautiful hotel room for a very cheap price smack dab near Pike Market. We never get to really enjoy Seattle since we live so close and basically don't always do and see all that probably tourists see. We rarely find a spot for parking longer than 2 hours so we took our time for once and had a lot of fun downtown. We found a very delicious Sushi place and had a great meal with the kids. At Pike Market where the employees "fly" the fish from one person to the other across the counter we saw the coach of our Seattle Seahawks and he was so nice to even take a picture with Shane and the kids. I will add pictures soon.
We also found a gum wall. So very gross but kind of fun to photograph. We ended the day with playing games at Gameworks. Dacian was in pure heaven there and luckily Lavinia slept in the stroller the whole time and I could play a lot too. I am not a super huge fan of video games but I liked playing this pirate game and a few other ones.

Thurday we checked out early but left our luggage at the hotel and went and had a very yummy breakfast at a place that was recommended to us by the bell boy. It was great and also very cheap. I like cheap. Eggs benedict are my friends. I was good and stayed away from the potatoes though. I have been doing well eating like a diabetic lately and hope with this new diet and hopefully more exercise I can lose some weight.
After breakfast we hurried and took the bus to the Seattle Pacific Science Center where we met with Scott, Lily and Zeke and saw the Star Wars exhibit and then just pretty much stayed the day at the science center. Dacian was obsessed with the Shadow room and Lavi with the water. Of course D loved all the Star Wars stuff.
We had a fun few days and I hope Dacian will remember that this adventure was a lot for him. We called it his birthday adventure.

Today we opened presents and he was busy all day playing with everything he got. I was busy shopping and planning for his birthday party tomorrow. We are doing a bigger party for his five years party. I decided I will do a bigger party for most major milestones. I was thinking 10 would be the next bigger party but maybe 8 when he gets baptized. I know I'll probably still have a little party with a few friends but nothing this detailed.
We have been working and organizing and planning this for a while now.
Arrrrg!

Can't wait for tomorrow and to post some of the pictures.
I am exhausted after today though. We rented the cabana where my parents live and stayed late to decorate and finish everything tonight, worked on the cake and tomorrow we are doing the final touches.
I just hope we get his friends to come since I totally forgot it's Conference tomorrow.



And now it's time for bed now. Big, busy day tomorrow.

Us at the Star Wars Exhibit
Playing with water
 Pike Place Market-Posing with the famous pig. I have no idea why the concerned face for Lavinia.
 Catching the fish
 Opa! Coach Pete Caroll in back looking right at us.
Here's Pete with Shane and the kids. He was just so sweet to want to take the picture. There were all these people there trying to get him to sign autographs and get pictures with him and he seemed to be nice to all of them. He's a cool coach. 
 Eating yummy gyros and shawormas at Sabra. I love my boys. They just make me happy.
 And a shot with mommy and son. Too bad the picture is yellow. Dacian ate his gyro and then wanted my food as well. Hungry boy.
 At the gum wall. People stick their chewed gum all over the place.
 Gum wall

 Birthday boy
Dacian walked right on the pig prints the whole time.
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