Birthday boy

This boy turned three a week from last Monday:

Which gives me the inevitable pitt in my stomach that reminds me that kids really do grow up and mine are no exception.

But I'll stop it with all the "mom-sap" because we had a BLAST!

Hallie has taken it upon herself to decorate the chair of every birthday boy or girl in our family.  

She's sweet like that.

She even made him that cute placemat and set up the mysterious star wars figures that her dad pulled out that she still has no idea where he gets ;)

And I think it's safe to say that Chan was happy as a clam to wake up to it all.

We all clapped and cheered the moment he walked into the living room that morning and Hallie bent down and gave him the sweetest hug and kiss on the cheek.

We got him four presents that were absolute Chandler necessities.

1.  Light Saber.  This was from Hallie who picked it out weeks ago and was nothing but eager beaver to see the look on his face when she took it out from behind her back.

2.  Boots! ....ever since he lost his own rain boots about five months ago, he's been stomping around in Hallie's old pink and brown winter boots, and I can't tell you just how good it feels to put them back into storage where they belong!

I know this picture is blurry but it captures just how happy Chan was to see those.

3.  Helmet.

Can you believe it's taken this poor kid's parents three whole years to get him what he's always wanted his whole entire life?

And it didn't take long before he had that thing securely snapped and in place.

4.  Luke Skywalker costume.

Need I say more?

All the bases were covered.  The only other thing that I really really reeeeeaaally wanted him to have was a Captain America mask that I saw at TJ Maxx, but successfully used every fiber of my being to leave there.

Which is why I was absolutely elated when he opened it up at my mom and Jim's a week later!

They also gave him this super cute dinosaur shirt that he's wanted to wear pretty much every day since.

His Firmage grandparents gave him some fun and newer star wars toys that he loves, and a fun magnetic Noah's ark set.  I'd say he made out pretty well.

I just can't believe this boy is three.

With all of his natural silliness still intact thank heavens. 

He is pure sweetness.

I mean just look at this face:

I don't think there is any part of it that has gone un-kissed by his hopelessly devoted mother.

Did you know that every time I open him up a pouch of fruit snacks he reaches in and gives me the first one?  "Here mom."  

He even broke off a piece of his chocolate chip cookie today at lunch and handed it to me.  He said, "here, you wanna share mom?"

And it turns my heart to complete mush when he'll randomly say, "I really love you mom."

Oh how I love him too.

Happy Birthday Chan.  Thank you so very much for adding an abundance of joy to all of our lives!

Star Wars 101

Hallie and Chandler possess a magnetic pull toward these books right here:

They're from Elon's childhood, and I can still remember the day he put them on the shelf for our kids to enjoy someday.


And sure enough, Chandler found them first at a young two, and became a huge fan of Darth Vader.  Then, he started having nightmares about him and so I took them and hid them way up high.


And it was a mere few months before Chan's "magnetic pull" pulled him swiftly to their new location.  And down they have stayed.


I, however am not a Star Wars fan, and know very little about it.  Which is why I was so grateful for this page right here that shows who and what these creatures/humans/droids are:

In fact I hesitate to use the word "repulsed" here, so I'll simply say that I'm wired differently.  That George Lucas and I are not from the same mama.  I mean don't get me wrong, I totally respect and am in awe by his work, but there's just something about an intricately designed piece of metal spacecraft moving slowly through a black starry "sky", that sends my attention soaring to far away places....


...like what I'm going to do the next day.


Or what shade of gray to paint the living room as I notice the swatch still securely pinned to the wall by a picture frame.


All of these thoughts are quickly laid to rest as my eyelids get heavy  and eventually slam shut.


Happens every time.


So poor Elon, being the huge Star Wars fan that he is, only gets to watch them when I'm out of town, along with other sets of series that have the same effect on me.  Like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc. (I'm a ton of fun I promise!)


See, when you marry somebody who is the polar opposite of you, you run the chance of having children who are the polar opposite of you too.


Which is why my darling little girl is just about the biggest up and coming Star Wars fan on the planet.  In fact she's the bigger fan at this point.


So after being pelted with nonstop Star Wars questions by my two obsessed fans, and being tired of never knowing the answers, I decided to take it upon myself to give this sci-fi series the time of day.  I started actually reading the heavily texted pages to my two year old who inevitably interrupted me at every fifth word to the point where we just needed to talk about the pictures, or I'd go nuts.


After learning who and what the characters were, and reading snip-its here and there, I actually became a little curious as to what the movie was like (#4 that is), though I'm sure I've seen it before (through shut eyelids).


And I'm sure I sent Elon straight to the twilight zone when I asked him if we had, and could I watch, the very first Star Wars movie that he (and everybody else) had seen in the theater all those years ago...


...because when I came down the stairs that very evening after saying goodnight to the kids, he had the whole thing rigged up and ready to hit play.


And I think there may have been a newfound glisten in his eye.


Unfortunately, this night wasn't much different from other Star Wars nights we experienced early in our marriage.  And fast asleep I did fall ;) - (Yoda)


But I did glean a little more than before. 


Hey I get points for trying right??


I've learned that you can't make something there that isn't....and I just don't have it.  Absolutely NO sic-fi absorbers reside in me.


But, I do love supporting the interests of my family, so I'm still going to indulge my kids in their need to be Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker/Darth Vader. 


Hallie doesn't go many places without her "buns" securely intact,  and her white on white attire.


And I love it.

She seriously goes everywhere with them.

She likes to sport the braid-across-the-head look too.

Here's "Luke":

With his "shovel-esque" light saber.

And here they are together as Darth Vader and Princess Leia.


Can't you tell?

Then Elon went up above our garage and found some of his old Star Wars figures, which we knew these guys would LOVE.


We set them all up on the table, and I stood with camera ready before we called them into the kitchen.

And I was super bummed that my camera wasn't on the right setting to capture that first natural reaction.


Here we go, much better but "first-moment" lost.

I could just see those wheels turning in their little heads.

And we were right, they did love them.


That was until they fought like cats and dogs over them in the hours that followed.


But lets just relish in the love.

As you can see I didn't get very far in the "dressing-of-Chandler" that morning.


It's so fun to find these "guys" laying around the house.  I'd love to know what was going on in Chan's little mind when he put the "snow-suit" Leia in this measuring cup.

And I was crouched with my camera ready to capture these guys on the stool when my little Bat Man zoomed in at precisely the same moment my finger hit the shutter.

That pretty much made my day :)


Somewhere in all of this new Star Wars birth at our house, Hallie chose her dad to read the books aloud before bed.  


And they read every night.

After night...

...after night.

And I'm just as happy about that...I mean look up there at all that text!


He is just the man to do it because I would have no-doubt butchered the name of every planet in there.


Hallie loved the day she found all the dvd's in our dvd chest so she could only dream of watching all of them someday.  She searched the back of every one to see what it was rated.


Here she is doing just that.

And here she is "presenting" one:

We ended up letting her watch #4 and she loved it.  She kept saying, "today's the day, I just can't believe it, I'm actually going to watch STAR WARS!".  I think Chan could handle it just fine too, but we'll see.


Then there's this luscious little girl...

...who somewhere in those glassy greenish, blueish, brownish eyes of hers, is a future Princess Leia wanna-be, just waiting to emerge.
  
And I'll be ready with my camera. :)


Oh, and I love my handsome polar opposite and my darling polar opposite children very much!

Flower Power

After every baby, I develop a new obsession.


This time it involves making flowers out of fabric.


I made these:

It all started when my dear friend JaNeal came over for a play date and taught me how to make a super cute headband made out of fabric. We love that my Chan, and her Sonny love to play together, which gives us the perfect excuse to "play" too. :)  


Here it is.

Then, after much complementation over it, I taught my sister in law Anne how to make them, and we had so much fun one afternoon a couple weeks ago.


And can I just say that I love this picture with all my heart.

I made a fourth of July one for Hallie too, but hers accidentally ended up with only one flower.

See, I never considered myself crafty with anything having to do with fabric, especially when it comes to making flowers of all things.  But as I kept making them, they just kept getting prettier and prettier, and I got giddier and giddier with each completed one!


Sooooooo, here are some close-ups of some of my creations:
(And the blurred creations in the background are partly mine too!)


Here's a flat pancake one that is super easy to make:

I Love the added dirt in this one. He really wanted to hold up a flower too. (keeping it real :/ )

So then I used the multitasking DNA of which I am made up, to go online where I began to drool over some of the most darling flowers I've ever seen.....all while nursing my sweet baby ;)


And then during some very rare and precious "alone" time while parts of my family were either gone or napping, I found myself at my kitchen table with a big piece of red "not-quite" satin (?) left over from my wedding, and I put one of my drooled-over online tutorials to practice.


And voila!

I plucked a black button out of the sea of buttons I have sitting in a pretty little container on my dresser where I toss all the included extras that have come with every "button-clad" shirt I own.


And I'm happy to say that this flower cost me absolutely nothing to make.  Not even quality time with my family! (this time:/)


Then I glued it onto a stretchy little headband and put it on the cutest baby I could find.

And I think it's safe to say that she makes it.

Isn't she getting big?


I'm just having fun, and thought I'd share it.  I have this tutorial securely pinned in my pintrest if you want to try it out.


All of these flowers are super easy to make, it just takes a little practice, but I'm confident that if I can make them, anybody really can.  And it's not like there's any one way to have them turn out.  Just like snowflakes, no two flowers are exactly the same, and imperfections only add interest and character.  

And I'm not by any means comparing my handiwork to that of deity, but the fact that there is some visual resemblance, makes me want to jump to my feet and dance like nobody's watching! ;)