2015 Week Ten | March 2 - March 8

This week brought the last of the birthday celebrations.  The first was February 7 when Ian had friends over for a party. That following weekend was Ian's actual birthday and parties for both kids (the art party) with Darrin's family and our friends.  Then there was Annaliese's actual birthday a few weeks later, which then leads to this weekend and my family's opportunity to come out to celebrate with both kids.  Tis the season for birthdays :)

As soon as Ian and I got home from school on Friday (Darrin and Grandpa had picked up Annaliese earlier), the kids were allowed to break into their presents.  

One present didn't need to be opened, though, and that was his air hockey table.  I think his expression says it all. It has gotten lots of playtime already. 

Great Billie gave the kids bat and ball sets, which they put into action immediately. They both connected with the ball immediately, and shouts of, "HOME RUN!" rang out with each hit.  

Noah, Marlena, and the boy came up Friday night to celebrate again.  Ian had been playing checkers with Grandpa and next it was on to teaching Marlena how to play chess. 

Best thing about birthday parties to me is the cake. All baked out from the other parties, Ian and I stopped by Dairy Queen and picked up the best type of cake- ice cream cake.  Being the awesome brother he is, he picked a pink and purple cake because he knew Annaliese would love it. 

Cousin fun- Oliver taught Annaliese how to flip off the couch.  

Normally Ian and Oliver are joined at the hip and Annaliese is outside looking in.  Ian was obsessed with reading his Percy Jackson series book this weekend, though, ignoring pretty much all to finish all 500+ pages that weekend.  That left Annaliese and Oliver as playmates, and it was much fun watching the Barbies and princesses play with the firefighters and construction workers.  

Monday she celebrated her birthday at preschool, where she got her birthday crown... 

And posed for pictures in her crown and favorite dress.  

2015 Week Nine | February 23 - March 1

Things returned to a bit of normal here.  The kids and I went to work all five days, and Darrin worked from home a bit, but mostly spent his time resting and recuperating.

This girl turned FIVE this week. She took donuts to Sunday school, and when we gave her a choice of a leftover donut or a cupcake for her birthday candles, she chose a donut.  That would have been my choice, too :)

With a promise of her Red Robin birthday meal when Darrin was more mobile, we went to her favorite fast food place, Runza, where she loves to get the mini corn dogs and applesauce.  

After complaining he was bored and rejecting all my options, he finally took me up on rebuilding one of his Lego sets that had long ago fallen apart and we sorted piece for over winter break.  Our method for sorting (by type of brick, not color), worked well and he was able to put the TMNT sewer back together. 

Towards the end of the week, Darrin was moving a bit more out of his chair, joining us for meals at the table, and playing some chess with Ian. Ian's able to put up a fight in the beginning, but still hasn't been able to beat Darrin.  Annaliese made a pattern with the checkers pieces while the boys were playing. 

Thankful it wasn't this cold last week with all the running to the hospital we did and how much we were outside.  Jealous Darrin didn't have to go outside this week and was able to stay under a quilt all day. 

He might like reading a little too much... he didn't even make it up to his room to read, instead made himself at home on the stairs, staying there to read until the book was finished.  

2015 Week Seven | February 9-15

It has been a bit since I've posted.  Life got really busy for us at the end of week seven, and has stayed pretty busy until now.  When you get to the bottom of this post, you'll see why.  Aside from that, technology failed me and I had to get a new computer.  Adjusting to a new operating system and programs has been a slight learning curve. But hopefully this is the first of many posts to come in the near future, as I'm on spring break right now with big goals of getting caught up.

Forget Valentine's day. Around here, when it gets close to the 14th, we celebrate birthdays (Ian's birthday is in February and Annaliese's in March).  Family and friends came over on the 14th to celebrate, and thanks to Grandma Diane, we had cupcakes (my attempt at the cake I was planning was a fail... knew I should have gone with parchment paper). 

Before everyone traveling in from out of town got here, though, we headed to Red Robin, our traditional place to celebrate birthdays because they have the best birthday dessert.  Ian was willing to share his with his sister. 

Saturday was the day of the party. We went with a rainbow art theme for the party.  Starving artist sandwiches were the main thing, and I tell you what, I want to buy special bread, lots of meat, and have bacon for my everyday sandwiches I take to work. These tasted so much better. 

So I mentioned the cake snafu.  I made a tie-dye cake since it was a rainbow art themed party, but the cake didn't come out of the pan cleanly so I could create the tiers.  I turned the cake in to cake balls instead.  

Tie Dye cake does not look very neat when it's all crumbled together, and we ended up calling them carpet padding balls.

After lunch it was present time. Ian got Minecraft Legos and the book "Beanboy" from Marlena and Noah.   

Annaliese got a skirt and shirt that had to be changed into and twirled in immediately after opening. 

And a Barbie book which Noah was lucky enough to read her.  (No idea why she has that expression, but I'd love to know).

Ian got a skateboard from Grandma and Grandpa, so while I was setting up the art activities, he tried it out in our basement. 

Annaliese tried out her birthday roller skates from them as well down there.  

Then it was time to get creative. The kids painted with colored shaving cream, and also did shaving cream marble paintings.  We made our own star shaped crayons from the big fat crayons my kids don't use anymore, and also painted canvases to be hung. 

I wish I would have thought of a drying rack, but our floor worked just as well.  

After that, things wound down and people went home. We ate supper and the kids asked to go play with their presents in the basement again, so we all headed down.  Darrin and I, having never had skateboards when we were young, tried out Ian's.  The kids who ride them always make them look so easy, but they are definitely not.  Not sure how it happened, but Darrin fell while riding Ian's skateboard and broke his femur in three places.

Needless to say, things were about to get crazy Saturday night.  First time I've ever called 911 in my life. Hopefully the last time, too.  Luckily family was in town, so the kids were in good hands and able to stay home. 

They ended up taking him to the hospital in our small town, but all they could do for him there was give him pain meds.  Two hours after the fall, he was on his way to the big city, with me following in my car.  Around 1:00 am Sunday, we knew the plan was to have surgery at 8:00 am that day, which was a relief because both the nurse and surgeon seemed to think Monday was more of a possibility.

Apparently not a lot of surgeries are scheduled on Sundays. I was the only person in the waiting room for three out of the four hours I was there.  They have boards that show the status of where they are at in the surgery, and he was also the only one listed as in surgery for most of my time there.  

He wasn't allowed to wear his wedding ring during surgery, so I did.  Found myself twirling it around my finger a lot to pass
the time.  

The story doesn't end there, but I didn't want to share the pictures.  And more will be coming during week eight.  His parents got to see him after surgery before they headed home, and the kids spent the night with my best friend (teacher inservice on Monday), so I dropped them off there.  I called my boss to let him know I wouldn't be at said inservice, checked on Darrin, who just wanted to sleep, and drove myself home to get a good night's sleep and pick up some things to take him on Monday.  That was the longest 24 hours of my life. 

Ninjago Birthday Party

Ian turned EIGHT this month (how did THAT happen?!) and  he had a few friends over to celebrate. This year was all about Ninjago (though after presents, it was all about Minecraft).  Most of the ideas from the party came from here (or from a blog she links to).  I did have another game I totally forgot about- using chopsticks to carry marshmallows in a type of relay race.

Frosted brownie for his birthday cake. 

Some of Ian's Ninjago Legos and the take home boxes (fruit ninja fruit snacks,candy sushi, and a rubber throwing star). 

The game that was played over and over- throwing rubber ninja throwing stars (from here) at a bulls-eye. To make the bulls-eye, I bought a circle foam from Michael's, traced a bowl for the center circle, plate for the middle circle, and then painted it.  

You should see this bulls-eye now. It's more white than colored there are so many chunks out of it.  Totally worth it, though.  

In the story of Ninjago, the ninjas develop the power of spinjitzu.  Here the boys are playing with Ian's spinner set.

I'm a sucker for pin-the-_____ games (love watching how far astray they go).  Darrin drew the white ninja for us, I printed out some eyes, and they pinned away.  This will probably be the last year for this game, the kids were feeling for the eyes instead of just the paper to know how close they were for the correct placement. 

The kids used their ninja strength to break a balsa wood board.  

Using ninja skills to navigate a laser maze.  

It was the year for Minecraft Legos.  

Both sets were assembled by the time the party ended. 

Blowing out the candles on his brownie cake. 

Assembling, then eating, the candy sushi (rice krispie bar with a Swedish fish on top and wrapped in some fruit-by-the-foot). 

This is how they were when the party ended- either watching or playing Minecraft.  

2015 Week One | December 29 - January 4

Wow. October 19.  Really?! I knew it had been awhile since I posted, but really?! Ten days shy of three months. Crazy.  My sister asked  me when home for Christmas if I ever planned on blogging again.  Always start the year with the best of intentions, so here we go.

In my paper version of project life, I'm using these digital files from Paislee Press for the title card of each spread.  This week's contains a picture of the winners of our first-ever Yahtzee game.  Annaliese rolled and Darrin played the strategy for their team.  

They won even with Ian praying against them as they rolled.  the second picture is his yell of "NO!" as Annaliese had the winning  roll.  

This week was the second week of winter break, and because of that, we were all home all week.  That meant some time to play with presents.  Ian, with some help from Darrin, put together his first project from Tinker Crate.  It was a small motor that used batteries and a magnet to keep a medallion spinning.  

Ian and I tackled a big project over break- sorting  his Legos.  He had them all in one big bucket. I figured he only played with the figures instead of built things because he couldn't find the pieces he needed. So we fixed that and got them all sorted by type of block.  

And when we weren't sorting Legos, he was building one of the seven different sets he got for Christmas.  The good guys and bad guys are preparing for an "epic battle" (his words) on his dresser.  

New Years Eve we spent having dinner with others at our church in support of Table Grace Cafe. They are a restaurant in Omaha that has no set prices or a cash register.  If you walk in the door and want to eat, they will feed you.  You donate as  payment- either with money or by volunteering your time in the restaurant.  This is the second year they've done a dinner for us on New Years and I've loved it both years. We learned from last year to bring things for the kids to do while we're there. Next year we may need to bring PBJ as Annaliese was not a big fan of most of the meal.  

This guy celebrated a birthday this week, and as always, didn't want anything.  So I made him chocolate cinnamon rolls because that's what I wanted to make.  

We met friends at the children's museum this week, though didn't get many pictures of the kids actually together.  Ian and Annaliese had the run of the play grocery store while  we were there.  

The  special exhibit was about farming.  Annaliese is moving the corn (ball) in to the corn bin. Ian took a turn at being a meteorologist and forecasting the weather for the week.    

There was also a new part of the museum that had an interactive projection floor.  Annaliese and Ian both had a blast playing on it.  There was a game where you destroyed bubbles, and then it morphed in to a piano.  I typed my journaling for this week's project life spread on the photo (which I just noticed a typo in...).