Pirate Party

I love to plan parties.  I think in my next life I will be a party planner!  It is so fun to come up with a theme and then follow it through.  My husband thinks that I go overboard and frankly.....I do.  I just can't help myself.  This time it almost killed me.  I picked the wrong week to have a big party!  My husband was out of town the whole week before.  Not his regular out of town, but his big annual confrence where he is almost unreachable from 6 am to 11 pm.  Then the water main started leaking into the basement.  Think lots of towels and eventually learning how to turn off the water to our house at the street (picture me out in the front yard on my belly with a flashlight in my mouth praying that I don't drop the wrench down the 5 foot hole while using all my might to turn off the water- multiple times).  Dealing with insurance, trying to figure out what to do.  Do we rip out the porch which was causing the problem.....who does the work.....is insurance going to cover this?  Did I mention I was doing this BY MYSELF!  It is also the last week of school which entails teacher gifts, picnics, etc (some of which I am in charge of as the room parent for Tanner's class) (all while on the phone with insurance, contractors and trying to get a hold of hubby) all while trying to get ready for the pirate party.  Then Tanner got hurt on the tramp on Thursday night and we took a trip to the urgent care only to find that he had a miraculous healing (of course after I paid my co-pay).

Saturday was a swim meet-starting at 6 am (which I had to leave in the middle to take Tanner to urgent care for a case of strep throat.  Then our gas line was mismarked and the contractor hit the gas line.  Thankfully I wasn't there, as I was at my parents getting ready for a pirate party.  Chris starts to tell me this and all I can think is "how much is this going to cost" and then my husband says "the kids were all sleeping in the house, but don't worry, I got them out really fast".  I felt like a terrible mother.  I didn't even think about the house exploding with my kids inside.  That put things back in perspective. 

Finally it was time for the party, and it was a huge hit.  The kids had a great time and everything came together to make an awesome party.

Things are finally starting to slow down and the gas line and water line are all better!  I am still trying to catch up from a week of no water (think mounds of laundry) and lots of coming and going (think piles of things all over the house).

However, it made me thankful for the little things like running water in my house and that my kids are safe and sound and we can have a fun time together with friends and family celebrating.

Here are the highlights from the party.  As usual, I got carried away and took WAY too many pictures, so it may take you awhile to scroll through the highlights!

I convinced my dad to make a plank.  Such dedication!

Licking the bowl for his cake.  Barely ever happens because I have to make a special dairy free, egg free cake

Drinks anyone?

The finished plank

Table decor

Food labels

For the treasure hunt.  A map and spy glasses

Pirate Marshmallow pops

X marks the spot cupcakes

Pirate boats

Time for a treasure hunt

See my map?

First stop on the treasure hunt: t-shirts for all!

Second stop: Pirate do-rags

JJ and his two best friends Corbin and Gage

Third stop: eye patches and mustaches

Girl pirates!

Avery and Gage

Adah's turn to lead the way!

Fourth stop: swords!

Fifth stop: candy!

Final stop: X marks the spot for buried treasure!

Pirate rings, necklaces and gold!

Now it is time to walk the plank!

They LOVED the plank!  Thanks Bapa!

Pin the X on the map

Blowing out the candles

Happy Birthday Captain Jameson!

Next up.....a Lego party in July.  Hopefully the week before the party will be a little less eventful!

The End of an Era

It has been brought to my attention that I have not yet blogged in 2012.  Oops!  Things have been a little crazy around the Lord household.

The last few weeks have been the ending of an era in our house.  For the last 8 1/2 years we have had a baby sleeping in the nursery at our house.  It has been repainted twice for 2 of the 3 kids (sorry middle child, you never get anything new).  The first nursery started with Buzz Lightyear blue on the bottom and then a cream color on the top with a chair rail seperating them.  Chris was going to draw a mural bears doing different things throughout the room.  Best intentions, but terrible follow through.  The bears were never drawn.

When it came time for #3, I was ready for a change.  I was tired of looking at a boring two toned room.  So, I re-did the room.  *Disclaimer- Chris Lord does not paint or participate in room overhauls.  HE HATES TO PAINT.  Lucky for him, I don't mind it (even if I was pregnant both times I painted the room).    So Jameson got a freshly redecorated room (thanks to his mom and brothers).

Look how little they are!

It was a periwinkle blue and green color.  One of the walls was striped with 12 inch stripes of blue and green.  I know I have a picture of the finished room somewhere, but I think it is on another computer (sorry), but here is quilt that came with the bedding set that JJ used and a picture of his name banner (see the striped wall behind).

But the time is done for having a baby in that room (yahoo!).  It is the end of an era.  There is a small (teeny, tiny) part of me that is sad that there will be no more Lord babies, but I am mostly excited about this new chapter in our lives.  NO MORE POTTY TRAINING......EVER!!!!  Can you tell I am pretty excited about that part.  I will miss the sweet middle of the night cuddles and having a baby told hold, but guess what?  I am a newborn photographer!  Therefore, I get my baby fix through the babies I get to photograph.  Sweet deal, hu?   Makai has been asking for his own room for awhile and we decided it would be a fun Christmas gift.  So this is what Makai opened on Christmas morning.  He had to assemble it in the right order to find out what his gift was.  Being a huge Lego lover, he had no trouble putting it together.

He was pretty excited!  The rest of the morning, he opened gifts that would go in his in Lego room.  Mimi got him a new mattress (she thought it was a lame gift, but Makai said it was his favorite gift- other than his room).  He also loved his new clock (thanks Fillharts!), radio (thanks Nana) and stuffed animal.

So, a few days after Christmas we headed out to find some things to redecorate the room and we went to the only place that would have everything we needed.....IKEA!  We had a great time getting mini rugs (oops forgot to take a picture), light fixtures, cork board and a shelf to make into a desk.  Then we headed to Walmart, JoAnn Fabrics and Home Depot to get paint, sheets, bed skirt, curtains (black sheets made into curtains), and fabric for a new bed spread.  Now do you understand why I haven't been blogging.  I have been shopping, sewing, painting, sewing, painting, reorganizing, and so forth.  This was a huge undertaking!  Now I am done (mostly)!  I still need to make tie backs for the curtains, glue lego duplos to the dresser for handles and finish a little paint touch up on the chalkboard paint border.  Not much right?  Here is the finished product.

Sorry, hard to get a good pic with the window light (South wall)

East wall

West wall

The best part about this room....the light!  Have I mentioned that I love IKEA?  They have this really cool light that has plastic around it so that you can fill it up with whatever you want.  So we filled it with, you guessed it, LEGOS!  I have to give a big shout out to my dad who came over and spent the day rewiring this room.  In our high quality house (did you catch the sarcasm), there are no in room light fixtures.  They just wire one of the outlets to the switch so that you have to plug something into the wall in order to have a light in the room.  Luckily, the attic access is in this room so he was able to climb into the attic and wire a box into the ceiling so that I could hang this super cool light.  He also installed the shelf so that Makai can have a desk for homework.  THANKS DAD!!!!  The light was worth it....right?

From the bottom looking up into the light

We finished off the room with a few Lego posters (that have seen better days, but what are you going to do) and a hand made quilt and Viola! a lego room.  This was really fun to put together and Makai loves his new room.  He did tell me that he misses sleeping with Tanner, but he does love staying up a little later than his brothers and reading in his new room!

So next time you are in the neighborhood, come on over and see the new room!