tired.

Good to know I'm doing something right. 

this week.

My parenting and wife-ing have been less than stellar this week. 

Probably my teacher-ing, too. (Don't all good teachers make up words??) I guess I could just say "teaching," huh? =)

The kids have had way too much TV and computer time this week. Bad mommy.

I've given them cereal and hard boiled eggs for supper twice this week. Awesome. 

I've promised Corey that I will get back on my game and do better next week. (Like maybe just have cereal once...) =)

I'm not sure what my deal has been...
Feeling a little yucky... crazy 1st graders... fighting 7 and 9 year olds... the weather... who knows?
But I'm going to get my craft on with some friends this weekend.
(Although I have no idea what I'm actually going to be crafting...)
Surely that will help, though, right? =)

a few more.

The only picture of all 5 of us... see me in the window? (Love the teeth, Lawson...)

easter morning.

easter.

 The tent was a BIG hit! 

By the time Gretchie woke up, the other two had been camped out in the tent for awhile...

Somebody LOVES her little whistle...

 Yep, he's mid-fall. Slid right under the bench. Luckily he just laughed. =)

Gretchen would get super excited every time she opened an egg with candy, but she wouldn't eat it. Her favorite was the "moneys." (dimes) She loved putting them all in her little ladybug bank...

He has Risen!

LEGO party.

This party was so much fun to plan. I had been writing ideas in my little green notebook for awhile now and put it all together the week before. I haven't decided if Pinterest makes party planning easier or more difficult. There are TONS of ideas but at times it's a bit overwhelming! That's where nearly all these ideas came from, though.

Thank you, Gina, for agreeing to stay and help me with the party! Somehow handling 7 first graders at a birthday party is way harder than handling 20 first graders during the day. You made it fun and manageable! =) 

We included some index cards stapled together with all the important party information in the bag with the invite. I figured it would be easier for parents to keep track of than a dozen loose Lego pieces.

I saw this idea on AshleyAnn's blog and knew Lawson would love it! I ordered the Lego mold off of Amazon and followed Ashley's directions for the salt dough. They were super easy and it made a TON of them!

I also ordered this candy from Amazon to put in goody bags. The boys loved it! They had lots of fun building with it (they link together really well!) and it tastes yummy, too!

These were fun, too! Just marshmallows dipped in yellow candy melts (from Michaels) with an M&M on top. I used the food writer markers from Sophie's party to draw on the faces. I have one set I ordered from Amazon and another set of 5 colors that I just got at Wal-Mart. 

Some of the boys were more into the painting than others. Lawson and two others would have spent more time here, I'm sure. We sent some of the extras home with one of the boys I knew would have painted more.

Then we kicked them all outside for a few minutes while I put a coat of clear sealant on them. They ran around like wild zoo animals.

Gina and I blew up a few balloons and stuck a piece of the Lego candy inside each one. Just to make them more bouncy. I was trying like crazy to burn some energy in a few of these boys.

Then we came back inside for a little contest. I gave them 5 minutes to see who could build the tallest tower.

While the lovely Miss Gina went to pick up a couple $5 pizzas from Little Caesar's... I took the crew outside for a little team contest. We used Gretchie's Duplo blocks to see how long of a road we could build before Miss Gina got back.

Measurement just might be something we're studying in 1st grade right now. Sneaky, huh? =)

After pizza (and Sprite... no way was I giving some of these boys caffeine), they each got a giant cookie covered in fondant and the food writer markers. (recipe here... it is super easy to work with and tastes yummy, too!) Lawson had requested doing these instead of cake. I was a little surprised the difference between the boys at his party and the girls at Sophie's party. The girls really drew on their cookies. A few of the boys drew faces, but 4 of the 7 just scribbled or smashed the markers into the fondant. Probably won't be doing these at a boy party again. =)

Corey and I made these cookies for Lawson's family party the next day. (Recipe here)

Then there were fun presents to open!

This book was a definite favorite... 

The boys built with their Lego candy and drew details on their Lego men with Sharpies for the last few minutes.

 

This ended up being one of my favorite details! We borrowed this giant Lego head container from Lawson's friend, Simon. It worked perfectly for individual pictures that we are going to include in Lawson's thank you notes!

 Happy, happy birthday 

to my favorite Lego-loving little guy!