Happy, Happy Birthday Kai Dear.....

Kai's birthday was March 19th.

He turned 4!!!

The morning of, he was pulled out of the RV early so we could give him..... not breakfast in bed, but breakfast in the living room. Same thing, right? If breakfast is Hostess Chocolate covered donuts -- he doesn't care where he eats them. Of course, being who I am, I cut up some banana rings and arranged them around the donuts, hoping to get something healthy in him as well.

I ended up throwing all those banana slices away. Big surprise.

Kai opened a few gifts that morning, but we saved a few for the party we had a few days later.

Monday night, was Kai's party. I had asked him a few times, "What kind of party do you want?" Some of the responses I got were: Lion, Lizard, Ninja Turtle, Dragon.

So I went with ROBOT.

Ha ha!!

Robots had been mentioned once or twice and with all the suggestions he was giving me, I knew Kai wouldn't be able to make up his mind.

Robot was fun and the ideas came easy.

The cake.

I found SO MANY different options for robot cakes!! The cutest little cupcakes too.

I went with this cake:

I'd never worked with fondant before, but have always wanted to.

I made some homemade marshmallow fondant the night before then a big part of Monday afternoon was used for assembly.

Katie helped me A TON and I think it turned out pretty good for our first fondant experience.

Definitely not professional quality, but I wasn't getting paid for it anyway!!

Okay, scratch that. I DID get paid.......with smiles. Aww!

I love Kai and I have the same expression in this next photo.

I didn't get very detailed shots of the decor, but here's one image I found. You can't really see it in the picture, but I had a Slinky for each guest hanging all around the room. I thought they looked like robot parts and I needed some more decor ideas... so there you go.

I like to have something for the kids to make and take home with them.

Robot Party -- make robots!!

Katie helped me again with this task. We had made the above examples the night before as well and I forgot to take a picture before Treyson defaced Katie's robot. Sorry Katie.

Each guest was given a mini cereal box wrapped in foil then sent to the craft table:

Then of course, everyone's favorite part....(whether it's their birthday or not)....PRESENTS.

I love how Griffin hand is ready for the second Kai drops the gift to move on and open the next one.

I wish we could have had time for my musical robot game. I had downloaded three robotic sounding dance songs and was planning on playing them while kids walked in a circle. Three metalic hula hoops were going to be placed in random spots around the circle. When the music stopped, whoever remained in the hoop would have to show us their best robot dance once I turned the music back on. Don't you think that would have been sooo cute!?
Next time.


Kai, Kai, Kai.
What to say about Kai. He's definitely a character.
I love how he plays with Trey.
I love how he will let me do "shark hair" (fauhawk)
Kai will do almost anything to make you laugh.
I love his singing voice.
I DO NOT love his screaming voice -- which we are working on.
I love his laugh.
I love how he will read books to Treyson.
I love how-- the day before his party, he made us push "buttons" on his chest and back before he completed any task we gave him.
Cute, cute Kai.

Lehi Days

I haven't gone since ....forever, but we decided to take the boys to Lehi Days this past weekend. Mostly because I heard there would be a petting zoo and free pony rides.
And that's basically all there was. Okay, there was a rodeo going on too, but the bleachers were full and the day was warmer than it's been in a while.

It ended up being one of those activities I thought would be more fun. The line for the horses was SO LONG!! I had Jeff take the boys to see the animals while I waited.

The pony rides were WAY too short. All the boys loved sitting on their very own real horse!!

Science Fair

Johnson Elementary Montessori Science Fair

March 5th

The Kindergartners displayed "Observations". Each chose an animal or habitat or the planets to mold. Griff picked gorillas and did a fabulous job!

The shirt he's wearing below is Griffin's new favorite. It has a fuzzy lightning bolt with the word "disorder" under that. I love how in the picture his pose and clothes completely live up to the shirt statement..... but in reality "disorder" is such an oxymoron to the true Griff.

Although it is frustrating certain times, most of the time I love how Griffin likes things to be in order. Nicely combed hair everyday, sorting out rocks, lining up dinosaur toys, teeth brushed-flossed-rinsed, making sure his Kevin (large bird from "UP") art is colored exactly as it's portrayed in the movie.... which is NOT easy.

GRIFFINDISORDER

The VERY LONG weekend

The Ragnar Del Sol Relay 2010 is finished.
An experience. To say the least.
SO much fun with "The Cheetah Girls" !....... SO much running!

My first leg of 6.6 miles went pretty well. Ugly incline, yes, but my legs were fresh.

I didn't start my second leg until 10:30pm.... maybe later. 8.7 miles felt like nothing and I couldn't believe how fast they went by! Maybe I was sleep running. ??

As soon as the rest of my van (pictured below)....

....finished their second legs, the entire race was stopped. There had been an accident up ahead. Some of you may have heard about it. A runner had gotten out of the van to cross the highway and give water or other support to a teammate. From what I've heard, he misjudged the speed of the oncoming car and was hit. The accident was Friday night and we just recently heard that he had passed away in the hospital. So sad.

Back to the race. The event coordinators decided to close those next six legs of the race. So our second van did not get to run their second legs. Instead, they were sent further down the road to complete OUR third legs and we would switch and finish the race running THEIR third legs -- make sense?

Well I ended up running a leg I hadn't been prepared for. An 8.4 mile stretch along the B-line highway from Fountain Hills to Gilbert Road. HOLY COW!! I was spent!!! That was hard. I was okay until mile 6 or so, but my legs and ankles started to feel weak and ...... done. I saw the "One more mile" sign and told myself -- dont' walk, don't walk, you can do it -- but I couldn't. I ended up letting my legs recover and walked a quarter mile or so. That helped a ton and I was able to start running again and finish my part. Here's the hand-off:

And below is a dramatic picture of how I felt knowing I was done!

The entire team met up at the end and crossed the finish line together.

I was not a fan of the "Cheetah Girl" name at first, but it fit our team very well. It was fun finding cheetah print stuff and making sure we lived up to our name!

By the end, my voice was gone and my body was finished. Ragnar is a crazy race and it stretched and tested my body. I'm still recovering. But would I do it again? Am I THAT crazy?

Probably.