PIRATE PARTY

I started imagining this party some time in January. It was sort of a celebration of finally having a house that I could have people over in, using Joachim as my inspiration. That's my acknowledgment that his Birthday party was for me as much as for Joachim.
I think if I'd been really in tune with him, I'd have planned a dinosaur party, but I didn't realize that until I was too caught up in the pirate theme. I think he had fun anyway, but next year I might have to put aside my visions of a tee pee and little headdresses for a volcano and claws.
I was lucky to have a gorgeous day and the boys spent a lot of time outside playing on the "ship". I hadn't anticipated the possibility of nice weather, but the week of the party we had a break in the freezing temperatures so Joachim and I "built" this ship.

We used the pallets from when the fencing was delivered and some of the sections of fence left by the previous owners. It was one of the things we did together that actually worked out really well because he got to do a lot of drilling and hammering.

Two nights before the party I started to panic at the prospect of having 7 pre-schoolers in our little house. I worried Joachim might be overwhelmed or the boys might not get along or nobody would want to wear the accessories I made.

As it turned out there was a born leader who came in costume. He headed up all the expeditions, made it really cool to dress up and to my knowledge there was only one attempt at mutiny which was was peacefully silenced by the captain.
Burying treasure boxes in our abundantly fine dirt.
Here they are decorating their treasure boxes with buttons, gems, and my many crafting things that I've been saving for way too long for I don't know what.

PIRATE PARTY CONTINUED

They had macaroni and cheese and root beer (and salad for the moms).
We played pin the patch on the pirate. I made this about a week before the party and he hung creepily larger than life on our wall, just staring at us for days. He was the first thing to go after the party, but Joachim got a big kick out of practicing.
Here's the picto-treasure hunt. This was one of the things that Joachim and I did not work so well together on, but the treasure hunt itself went well, I think, I sort of missed it because I was trying to help get a woofle ball off of one little pirate's finger.
I liked the mob bunching from one clue to find the next.The cake, this cake could have an entry all to itself. I was completely ready for the party ahead of time and only had to make the cake the day before. We baked one from a box, which I've learned not to do again. This is my second box cake that absolutely crumbled. I think it has to do with our altitude because we're right at the cut off. I've asked around about this and no one else seems to know what I'm talking about. I think that's because they don't know any differently. I've noticed at church most of the cakes crumble while being served. My dad said that he's not successfully made Bisquick waffles since moving to Colorado (and he used to make them every Sunday for years, he's given up now).

So, we made the cake and I started to shape it into the ship I'd been envisioning and it was not going well. I had to stop to put Anna to sleep and when I came back out Joachim had sifted his fingers through what was left of what I'd cut and turned it into a little hill of crumbs. I was frustrated, but it didn't really matter because the cake wasn't working anyway.

Anna woke up so I left him to wash his hands while I patted her back to sleep. She wasn't settling back in and a little voice told me I should check on Joachim (who's usually very responsible when left to himself). The first thing I noticed when I entered the kitchen was the river of water running out from the sink cabinet. I very quickly realized he'd discovered that the faucet ran perfectly down the hole where the water filter was supposed to go... and it had been running the whole time I was trying to put Anna back down. Joachim had no idea it was coming out the bottom because he was standing on a chair.

Well, you can imagine the scene of Anna crying on the floor, Joachim crying in time out and me emptying the cabinet. I poured what was left of the dish soap in the soup pot, I had to spread out our garbage bags because they are compostable and will dissolve and all of our onions, potatoes and other miscellaneous cabinet stuff. I sopped up the water with all of our available bath towels and then picked up Anna and went in to talk to Joachim.

So, I recovered knowing this happens to everyone and we made the cake over again with brownie mix and Joachim decorated it. It was the richest, densest 4 year old birthday cake ever, I'm sure, but it served it's purpose and with a little dressing up, our handless lego people got a taste of pirate life.

In an effort to be prepared for the unexpected I have an extra of all of the pirate accessories except for the treasure box. I made the felt hats using the old newspaper hat pattern and there are belts from my scrap fabric. I have a sword, compass, treasure (assorted buttons and chocolate coins), a bandanna and some dinosaur tattoos. Since we've had internet I've discovered more blogs and I've been introduced to this giveaway concept.

I'm offering a giveway to my friends with kids or readers who know kids that might be interested (I think there are only a handful of you so the odds are better than on most blogs, although the giveaway is much humbler than on most blogs). All you have to do is leave a comment, send an email or write a letter to tell me you're interested. Joachim will draw the name on March 30th.

And, if you think this was a lot of pictures, just know that there we ten times this many and they were all cute and funny to me. Especially the ones outside in the yard. Kids at play are amazing, they set up the tee ball on the ship to use as a cannon!

more birthday

As if the pirate party was not enough we still had to have a family party which he shared with one of his cousins
You see... earrings!
This one Joachim opened the play do confetti maker he'd always been wanting a Wally world. It has turned out to be a good cheap buy. Anytime I need him occupied I just ask if he wants to make play-do confetti. I actually get up to an hour out of this activity. Here he is the next morning confetti making.
This is the shirt I made for him, although I lifted the design from an image on-line, so I can't take any credit for it.
Below is one of my very first freezer paper works, I made it for Grandma almost 4 years ago. It was an apron then, and I was pleased to discover it has taken on another life in the sewing room to hold notions and what not. You see, it's all of the grandkids at the time, Katia is riding on grandma's shoulders with the funny little fountain ponytail and Joachim is the little baby bringing up the rear.

scoot 'n zoom

Recently, a friend in Russia posted a video of her son cruising around in a walker, it was the old-school kind with six wheels that pivot all directions. I looked and looked for one of those here, but with American safety codes, all they allow on the market are four-wheeled ones where the rear wheels don't turn at all (you see, in Russia you are still responsible for your own safety). On the plus side, they're designed to high-center if a child tries to go down stairs, on the downside, they greatly limit mobility.

We retired ours because she only used it as a battering ram to get our attention. Then my mom got her this nifty scoot 'n zoom that pivots every direction and is as dangerous as can be... and we're loving it. Joachim drew a picture of her riding her scoot 'n zoom.

more anna

Anna is the houdini who manages to get out of her high chair strap and tray on it's tightest setting. The first time she did it, Joachim came and told me in the shower, "Come see Mama, Anna is standing on her tray." My first thought was, "Why would Ben leave the tray on the ground" (he'd left for work) and my second thought was, "Maybe I should get out and see this." Needless to say, I never leave her in the high chair unattended.

a little creativity

Joachim has been very busy drawing so I thought I'd document some of my favorites. Here we have the Stegasaurus he drew in November. I really like the little face with eyelashes, all the dots between the lines are his many knees.
Here's Grandma in her cave/kitchen, I'm not sure which, love the fingers and fingernails, all those rectangles are her appliances.
And this is the gumball machine a friend gave him. What's better than buying a gumball when you pay the city bill? Having a whole gumball machine that's your very own! He mailed this to her as a thank you.
Well, with internet I poked around on blogger and found a new design (obviously) and I finally signed up on ravelry, don't bother checking though, I haven't posted any projects. I like the idea that I can catalog things I make, but I'm a little intimidated by all the details I'm supposed to fill in, the yarns I use are always the cheapest ones I can get.

So, on ravelry I'm knitsoflife, I'd thought about using "purls of life", because knits sound like tiny insects. Ben didn't know what a purl was, and he pointed out my blog isn't about knitting anyway. True, but I liked the idea of a life knit together so I'm going to try it on for a while. I don't think it really matters.

Above are the socks that took me 3 years to knit for Ben. They mostly live in the drawer, but they are special in their own way.

snow day

Now that it's nearly spring I'm posting our winter pics.
Well, there's still frost on the cars in the morning and there won't be leaves budding 'til May, but by lunch time it's tee-shirt weather, what can I say? it's Colorado.




And then we came in for hot cocoa, classic style, thank you Joanna for reminding me about melting chocolate bars in milk.