Mad As A Hatter

Laney turned 6 on October 14th. To say that I am late posting this would be an understatement of epic proportions.

I do have an excuse though. 

Her party wasn't until this last Saturday.

But we did celebrate on her actual birthday with balloons...

made to look like Mickey Mouse ears.

Laney also requested homemade donuts.

We made the classic cinnamon and sugar. 

Then we stepped it up a little, and made maple ones too. 

The maple were a hit.

Her birthday was on Sunday so we didn't open presents until later in the day.

And she was obviously super stoked about her pencils, crayons, and markers that she got.

Then on Monday she got to have her birthday cereal. 

Plain ole Cheerios. 

That's what she picked.

Then this last Saturday is when the real fun began.

We decided on an Alice in Wonderland theme and she got to have a Mad Hatters tea party. 

Laney picked out all the teacups and saucers by herself.

I also made little Alice aprons for all of the girls.

I think they were all feeling very fancy with their hot chocolate in tea cups. 

I also let them decorate their own cookies.

Some people...Canon...decorated their cookie with careless abandon.

Some others...Laney...were meticulous. 

Making sure their sprinkles were placed in such a way to make them into flowers.

Then I had the brilliant idea to let the kids play croquet.

I thought they would enjoy it.

It was an epic fail. It lasted all of 5 minutes.

It could have been the fact that the mallets were the same size as them, or that their hand eye coordination is not quite up to snuff. 

So...we painted fingernails instead and then opened presents.

She loved them all. 

Especially the make-up...cringe...that she got.

Then we had the cake. 

The kids were mostly interested in eating the little tea cups on the top. By the time that I had cut the cake the kids took two bites and were done. 

Not that I hold that against them. After all they had just consumed: hot chocolate, marshmallows  sprinkles, frosting, more sprinkles and some fondant tea cups.

For their parting gift they got the teacups that they had used with some candy and nail polish inside.

Now we just have to get rid of the rest of the Cheshire cat cake that is sitting on our counter smiling at us. Any takers?

Adults Only Party

 For the last two years we have done an Adults Only party. 

No kids just our friends all hanging out.
Because we are torturous friends, we make people dress in a theme. This year the theme was to dress as a "Team."
You could choose how far out you wanted to go with it.
I do love a little Halloween in July.
We had:
Team Lacrosse

Team Packaging

Team Poo.
(toilet paper and poo that is. Not marshmallows and chocolate.)

and Team Hawaii

See.
You could go as casual or as extreme as you wanted. 
However, hard core is always appreciated.
Introducing,
Team Luchador.

They won best costume, so I am sure it was worth it.
Blake and I were dressed as referees and we also had another couple that was dressed as Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. (not sure how we missed a picture of them)
We played some Minute to Win It games.

Hip thrusting is always entertaining.

So is chocolate all over someones forehead.

Who knew that ding dongs were going to make such a fun game?

We also did a white elephant gift exchange. 
Mostly because they are always funny. 
The best "gift" of the night?

Everyone laughed for a good hour about this poor ladies portrait. 
Mostly because the shading makes her look like she has a black eye and a goatee but the scrunchy in her hair and the fact that she was nude up'd the funny factor.
The fact that she was bought at a second hand store for $7 was mostly just sad.
Another treasure from the party?

Evidently a cow cookie jar is what we have been missing all of our lives.

For two days this cow, loving referred to as Lamb, had been carried around.

That is, until Canon got a hold of it.

R.I.P Lamb.

Wowser

Somewhere along the lines my baby turned into a seven year old.

While I know that this happens to most, as a general rule I have informed my children that they are to remain young forever. Gavin is forcing my hand by turning 7, I may have to stand him in time out.

Having your first baby is always such a trip. They are little, they don't sleep at the appropriate times, they cry and eat, and they are yours all yours.

While my labor with Gavin was not ideal he came out just as perfect as can be. He was a blond haired newborn in a hospital full of baldies and brown hair. And his blue eyes...oh his blue eyes. Somehow while I was not paying attention my little boy grew up into a 7 year old who wanted nothing for his birthday but an Ipod and a party. His blue eyes talked me into both.

Now when the party is over and the dust settles you figure that some balloons on his actual birthday would do the trick but alas Penny seemed to be the only one that cared about them this year.

The other kids were to busy plotting out how to get Selena Gomez on Gavin's new Ipod nano, with only a break for some breakfast cereal. It looks like Gavin's seventh year of life is now going to have a soundtrack.