Back to School Party

the fall is sort of a party drought season for me. birthdays in our family are in may, june, & november. so by august i was itching to throw a party. plus, my sister & her kids were in town from florida & it was almost time to head back to school. so a back-to-school party it was...

just for fun, we kind of set it up like a school day. owen took the kids outside for "recess". they played tag & football. then inside for "art class" where they decorated pencil pouches with puff paint & stickers. 

                                     

then it was time for lunch. on the menu was chicken fries, individual bagged chips (my kids think those are soooo great), cheesestick, & applesauce. 

                                               

                                 

                            

and for dessert-- pencil cupcakes!

first day of first grade

he was so nervous! it was rainy so we had to wait until after school to take our annual picture by the front door. wyatt was still asleep (8 o'clock is early!) so jay stayed home with him while kate & i took owen to school. and we forgot his teacher's gift in the car! i didn't get a picture but it was a little metal bucket that said "wishing you a colorful year!" with all colors of new sharpies inside. (he took it on day 2 instead.)

he was almost teary eyed when we walked in and i was afraid he was going to lose it! (kinda like he did just 2 months ago when i dropped him off for the first day of vbs.) between the chatty little girl next to him & the playdoh on his desk (he was to supposed to make something that he did this summer. he made a basketball since bball camp was the highlight of his year!) he shook off the teary eyes.

when i picked him up from school and he said it was "awesome". by day 2 he was already chasing girls at recess. uh oh!!

end of year teacher gift

this year i combined a couple of ideas to come up with a teacher gift for owen's kindergarten teacher.

this

plus

this

 

our version...

what will miss brush do this summer? tote bag

i gathered supplies from walmart & target....

owen wrote some tags in his cutest kinder handwriting...

tied all together & stuffed it in the bag. 

she loved it!

on to first grade!

owen had a great year in kindergarten with miss brush as his teacher. he loved going half days, getting out at 11:05 & coming home to lunch, homework, & legos. he can't wait for full days in first grade!

getting his diploma

 we love miss brush!

owen & his best buddy evan 

oh, cinderella....

"owen, i'm allowed to sit on the toy box and drink water."

happy halloween!

it's not on my list of favorite holidays but i have a little bit of fun on halloween making these kids as cute as can be.

lego ninjago kai, a cowgirl, and a panda

owen's gran made his panda costume 6 years ago for his first halloween. kate & wyatt have spent their first halloween's as a panda bear, too :)

owen's first day

it wasn't that long ago, on his first day (ever) of moms-day-out, that he didn't even want me to let go of his hand to take his picture.

august 2008

then, over the years, we both let go a little more...

first day of moms-day-out, sept 2009

 

first day of preschool, sept 2010

first day of preK, august 2011

he has been waiting sooo long for this:

his first day of kindergarten! August 15, 2012

he said, "get a picture of my backpack, too, please"

that seems like such a big school for my little guy.

 sissy kate would have l.o.v.e.d. to stay at school with him!

 all of the kids chose a bin for their supplies. owen is the only one with green :)

on the front table is our gift to miss brush, a vase made of colored pencils & filled with fresh flowers. owen is at the back table in the maroon shirt.

   

if you ask him what he thinks about kindergarten he will tell you it is "awesome". can't get much better than that :)

 

gender neutral alphabet wall nursery

we went these nine months without knowing if baby was a boy or a girl. that was hard! i really wanted to have the nursery ready when baby arrived so opted for a gender neutral room. i already had the room decorated with a colorful valance and lots of lime green pillows & accessories so decided i would keep that going with the baby bedding. (here is what the room looked like before.)

the valance fabric

i couldn't find bedding that i liked but decided on a white bumper & some cute fabric to make a crib skirt.

 i loved some of the alphabet walls i have seen on pinterest... 

via pinterest

via pinterest

i spent many months collecting & creating letters. i used scrapbook paper, yarn, glitter, fabric, maps, buttons, & paint to make each one awesome :). here is the nursery created especially for little wyatt:

baby wyatt has this thing about only sleeping if someone is holding him & hasn't slept a wink in his crib yet. but when he does i think he's gonna love it in there. :)

and baby makes five.

i don't know what i'm going to do about the name of this blog! we are not just loving owen & kate around here anymore. sweet little wyatt grey is part of our family now too. he is a sweetheart & we are loving him like crazy. 

lego "everything" party

owen is 6! and he is quite the LEGO fanatic. he likes it all- lego star wars, lego ninjago, lego batman- and couldn't pick just one lego theme for his party. so, he decided he wanted a "LEGO everything" party :)

ninjago pinata made from a gift bag- spray painted black, yellow paper eyes, filled with candy and stapled shut. the easiest pinata ever! the backdrop is a $2.50 pack of wrapping paper from the LEGO store along with a homemade birthday banner.

since the party was in the backyard, instead of having everyone come through the house, my sister made this sign for the front door to let them know where to go. 

the "lego brick road" was just construction paper legos in a path to the back gate.

lego star wars light sabers- cut pool noodles in half & covered one end with shiny silver duck tape. the boys loved these! each party guest took one home as part of their party favors.

i only planned one game which worked out great because the kids really just wanted to play with the light sabers! for this game, "mr. freeze" froze batman & robin in ice. the boys had to use water guns to melt the ice away and free the toys. there were 2 blocks of ice, one with batman & one with robin frozen inside. we had 2 waterguns & 2 teams relaying to try to free their toy the fastest.

pinata time! they took one whack at the pinata with their light saber then the next time around they used a real pinata stick. we knew that light saber wasn't going to do the trick but this way ensured everyone at least one turn!

the favor bags doubled as sacks for the pinata candy. favors were the pinata candy, the light saber, a lego club magazine (free at our lego store) and chocolate lego brick candy.

cake time! owen told me what he wanted his cake to look like. it's a little hard to tell from the pictures but lego minifigures are holding the happy birthday candles. and luke skywalker, his favorite, got to hold the important # 6 :)

the cupcakes were decorated with chocolate lego pieces that i made from a candy mold.

mmm... cake! levi & logan approve!

SIX!!

 happy birthday sweet boy!