::pinata::

In my family, we always broke a pinata on my birthday--that was the only time we ever did it, and let me tell you what, it was awesome. Our friends the Williams always came over and we sometimes made the thing by hand and it was impossible to break. Joel (the oldest kid) always hit it way too hard and broke it off the string or sent something flying somewhere, and since my birthday is in the middle of winter, we were always inside trying not to break something.

Anyway, awesome memories inspired by a recent pinata experience--one more report on when the Wildes visited.

When we were buying the chiles we went into the little latin market there. And there (along with cokes from Mexico) were a bunch of great big pinatas, all different sizes and colors and characters.
So Kris and Blake chose Woody to bring home and beat the heck out of. I guess it was just too fun to resist.


I love the above pictures with the dads preparing the pinata. They look so serious and earnest. The funniest part is that I had to step in and redo all of the packing in the end because they didn't pull all the newspaper out of Woody's insides, so there wasn't a lot of candy getting stuck in there.

So anyway, the kids waited very impatiently.


We BBQ'd some hamburgers too--though I can't remember if it was before or after. Sandy is amazed and perplexed by all the crazy kid action going on all around him.


Of course, as usual we had to use some bizarre thing to hit at the pinata with. This time it was the gross stinky machete that Kris brought back from his dental mission to Nicaragua forever ago. Sheathed of course--it's not very sharp anyway.


Sandy thought it was all very interesting and fun until people started whacking Woody in earnest. Then he didn't like it at all and screamed!

Annie didn't ever make the baby scream though, she's way too gentle!


I took a bunch of fun video and then sadly I deleted it in getting to know my new camera. Don't tell Max, he'll be much too bummed. But anyway, Max sliced off Woody's body and released all the candy and then the dads took turns going at the rest of him.
And that's all the fun for now. We had a blast with the Wildes and the kids had so much fun playing together. Wish they could come every weekend!

::max's party part 2::

Our last party activity was a little photo shoot. A STAR WARS photo shoot!!

And the finished product follows:

Fierce!!!
Max:

Parker:

Jennifer:

Derek:

Jennifer & Derek:

Scooter:

Watch the fingers on that left hand little padawan!!
Charlotte & Max:


I couldn't get KC to pose for me. I must've been yelling too loud and scared him. I almost lost my voice directing little kids where to stand.
And finally, the group:

I thought these turned out hilarious. When Max first saw one of the photos with the glowing light saber he was so shocked he jumped and gasped. It was very satisfying.

It was a fun party, thanks for coming everybody, and we missed you Kelly, Lechelle and Murphy!!!

::more party::

We had some pretty great costumes at the party this year.
Kris:

As you've already seen, Kris made a pretty convincing Spock. Would you be surprised to know we threw the costume together an hour before the party? Good thing we found the ears at savers.
Me:

Max:

the residents: (at least the ones that made it to the party)

It was so fun that everybody dressed up. The kids all looked so cute. Like Natalie as Tinkerbell:

And Zac as Yoda:

I didn't get a photo of everybody, unfortunately, but that's at least a taste for you.

Our party activities mainly consisted of eating yummy food, watching the wonderful Halloween movie and playing doughnuts on a string. Everybody's played that at some point, right?
We just did it for the kids this time. It was pretty hilarious, and messy. We had to do it inside because it was freezing outside.






It's a serious deal for these little guys. Danny ended up eating his off the floor dog-style after it fell off of the string. Impressive dedication, right?



Then after we sugared them all up they went home. I'm sure it took a while for them to go to sleep. But who can complain with kids this cute?::::

I have to say, we have dang cute kiddies in the program this year. I think St. Joe's must have cute kids as a requirement. Like Grant and Porter. You can't go wrong!

Oh, and proof that Dash is fast.

Oh yeah, he's fast.

::spooky food::

We had some great food for the party.
I made some delicious homemade oreos. Mmmmm. Using Erica's recipe. I made them last year and loved them. They're killer straight out of the fridge.

My friend Yonah brought an awesome death by chocolate. And I'm a big death by chocolate fan. It's the best. The worms took it over the top I think.

Jess made spider cupcakes. They're pretty spooky. And the kids loved them. They were all running around the house with black mouths lips and teeth.

::new halloween movie::

This past weekend we hosted a halloween party for the Kris's fellow residents. We did it last year too and it was so fun. Last year we made a halloween movie with Max at the last minute to screen at the party, just for fun. It turned out ok, but we thought we'd try it again this year, and this time it turned out fabulous!
We got the families who were coming to the party involved in the movie, which was really fun. I think it's our best movie production so far. Definitely check it out.

I'll have more to report on the party later too, it was quite fun.

::max's partay::

Max loves fish. That's all there is to it really. So naturally, when trying to work up some sort of theme for his birthday party (besides just kid birthday party) I thought of something fishy.
I made a bunch of fish and such to hang from the ceiling for decor, and we also hung blue balloons, hoping they would look like bubbles. So it could feel like we were all hanging out under the sea with the fish.

The green crepe paper is a stand in for seaweed.

The fish cake and Grandma Kathy's fishy quilt fit in quite nicely too.
A quick pre-party photo with the grandparents:

I think it was really fun for Max to get to spend his birthday in UT among all the family. It's so special for him to be there anyway, then to add his birthday into the mix it was just super exciting.
Instead of birthday spankings we thought we'd make sure he got some upside down birthday tickles. Much more exciting.

Max was just so excited to see Kris, he flew in just an hour or so before the party started.

We had lots of fun family at the party.

It was so nice of everybody to be there. And Max got a few fun presents too. Kari got him the stuff so we could get him a fish. A little tank, and all the necessaries.
Grandma and Grandpa got him a remote control car (that proceeded to break pretty quickly) which he loved so much. And he got other fun stuff from the rest of the fam (including us).
We played some fun fish games. Hot and cold with the hidden mama fish. Except the closer the kid got to her the "wetter" they were, the farther away the drier. That was pretty fun, though Derek just couldn't figure out why we were all yelling at him all the time.

We also played pin the fishy in it's home. Pretty plain, but functional. The kids liked it.



The highlight of the evening for Max though I think was blowing out the candles. He felt so cool. And the cake was so adorable. Since we made the cake the day before it was a little like torture for him to have to wait so long, but he did a good job.





He's very proud of himself.
What a fun night. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful family members on both sides that love and support us. Thanks so much for making Max (and us) feel loved and special, and happy birthday to my sweet five year old!!