Random Saturday

One Saturday last month we decided to head out to a local farm to pick up some seed packets.  The plan was to drive the 10-15 minutes to the farm, grab the seed packets to round out our planned vegetable garden and head home.  Many hours later we had fed chickens, driven to North Carolina for no reason and played at a huge local park we didn't know existed until that afternoon.

We had so much more fun this day than originally planned!  No housework or yard work on this Saturday!

Angry Birds Party

When asked what theme he would like for this year's birthday party, Nathan selected Angry Birds.  Odd considering he had never played the game.  I honestly have no idea where his obsession originated.  Fortunately, Ryan is quite the Angry Birds expert and was able to answer all my questions as the planning and decorating occurred.

 

Hope you're ready for lots of pictures!

Ideally, I make all the decorations myself.  Well, with the master bathroom remodel underway the two weeks leading up to the party that just wasn't possible this time.  Party City saved the day with their cheap plastic signs.

 



A friend pointed me in the direction of THESE awesome balloon templates.  I reduced them to 55%, cut them out and glued them to plain paper bags.  Voila!  Cute goodie bags for the kids to take home along with their mini bird houses to paint.

 

Here are the BALLOON TEMPLATES mentioned above.  So cute!  We had decorated balloons all over the downstairs.

 

 



Thank you Michaels for selling these cute unfinished bird houses on stands for only $1.99.  I painted a few and set up displays using grapevine wreaths as nests and Nathan's plush toys he received as gifts.

 



 

 

The boys have three Angry Birds games like the one below.  We set these up on one of our coffee tables for the kids to play with during the party.

 

I found THESE templates online and thought they would be perfect for this inexpensive game.  I painted empty cans, cut out the pig faces and glued them onto the cans.  It doesn't get easier than that.  I found this Angry Bird playground ball at Toys R Us.

 Themed food is always fun.  I am still disappointed by the many, many ideas I had but didn't have the time to complete.  That and Nathan is currently on a gluten free diet which made planning the menu a bit tricky.  He loves raw veggies though so a tree with a bird (toy) only made sense.

 

 

Gluten free angry bird pizza!  Thank you Trader Joe's for selling a frozen gluten free cheese pizza.  Thank you Ryan for decorating it.  Ryan also made a huge angry bird pizza by altering a Papa Murphy's pepperoni pizza, but the picture didn't turn out well.

 



Bird fruit salad, of course.

 

My FAVORITE decoration!!!  I told Ryan to get some 2 X 4's and made some sort of display for me that will hold the cupcakes.  Look at this!  He made this in what seemed like just a few minutes the morning of the party.  I love it and plan to hang it in Nathan's room.

 

Can't forget to include a picture of the birthday boy!  He loved his party and I vowed never to host another party at the house...wonder if I'll stick to that.

 

And here are the "pop the pig" balloons we forgot about during the party.  Whoops!  Ryan painstakingly added candy to each balloon and blew them all up the night before.  We put them upstairs so the kids didn't get into them before we were ready and in the chaos of the party we forgot about this activity entirely.  I have a funny video of the boys popping two balloons that I will try to add soon.

 

Seven!

Our (sometimes) sweet Nathan turned seven this week.  How is this possible?  It seems like just yesterday we were overwhelmed and slightly terrified as we drove home from the hospital with our newborn and 10.5 month-old boys.  We still laugh at that trip home.  We stopped at Dairy Queen because I was starving and Ryan never turns down ice cream.  As we sat in the parking lot one baby began crying and then the other one began crying...Ryan and I looked at each other and laughed.  Welcome to our new, increasingly noisy normal.  Seven years later and they cry a lot less, but the noise ceases only when both boys are asleep.

Happy birthday, crazy kid.  May you celebrate 100 more birthdays!

Give A Kid A Phone

...and you get all kinds of crazy photos.  Next time I'll let Ian take my phone to see what pictures he takes.

Nathan's handy work:

Dance Party

Dance party Peck Family style:

 

 

I am sure the boys will be THRILLED that I have posted this in the future.  We just wanted to share the craziness with everyone.  Normally we listen to punk music around the house, much to Ryan's dismay, but this particular evening we had Ryan's running Pandora station playing.  We were lucky enough to witness some new dance moves.  Enjoy!

Holiday Highlights

As promised, some holiday photos!  At least I managed to get these posted in January (barely).

 

With both boys in school full time this year we did not spend nearly as much time crafting this holiday season as we did years past.  Maybe that was because mommy was in school too.  No, let's just blame their school schedule.

 

We did manage to make these super simple ornaments one evening before dinner.  Both boys love Perler bead crafts so we have TONS of beads on hand.  I let them choose a holiday cookie cutter and told them to fill the space however they liked.  Nathan wanted precise placement of the eyes and buttons on his gingerbread man and was a tad frustrated when they melted out of place.  Ian, on the other hand, just tossed in a bunch of colors and was done with the project in 30 seconds.  He moved on to making four regular Perler shapes with the various peg boards I mistakenly brought downstairs.

 

Bake the beads and cookie cutters in the oven on 250 (or whatever temperature finally gets all the colors to melt) for about 5-10 minutes.  I know I had to bump up the temp a couple of times, but I didn't pay attention to the final temperature that worked for us.  Once they've cooled just pop them out of the cutters and add a string somewhere.  Easiest craft ever.

 

We have too many ornaments for just one Christmas tree so this year I thought it was a good idea to set up the small tree in the dining room for the boys to decorate.  We gave them all the "toy" ornaments and all of their handmade ornaments plus plastic bulbs.  They thought this was great and we still were not able to display all of their ornaments.  Ian is pointing out below that he added a gold bulb as the star for the top of the tree.

 

 

I am happy to report that I did not burst into tears this Christmas morning.  Success!  Every year the frustration of blurry pictures taken without my camera flash makes me cry.  Not this year.  I had every light I could find in the room (because it was a dreary morning outside) and begged the boys to occasionally pose.  They are old enough that they were happy to oblige.  Pictures still aren't perfect, but they are good enough.

 

Nathan loves Sponge Bob.  Loves.  We tolerate Sponge Bob.  I hate the Wii.  Now Nathan has a Wii Sponge Bob game.  Clearly, he was thrilled.

 

 

Ian reads books faster than we can afford to buy them or find time to check them out from the library.  He was pretty happy to receive the next Magic Tree House book and a bunch of others.

Ian was not as excited to receive pajamas and a matching robe.  I couldn't resist buying each boy a set of these.  The old man robes were just too darn adorable.  They both wear these every weekend now and we often have to yell at Nathan to put on "real" clothes.  Guess receiving clothes for Christmas isn't so weird, huh, Ian?

Nathan in the bag from Amazon.  While he loved, loved, loved the Power Rangers dress up set, he more immediately found use for the bag in which it was wrapped.  Kids are weird.

The moment when opening gifts came to a halt...the receipt of the Pokemon Essential Handbook!  To say Nathan is obsessed with Pokemon is an understatement.  He has never properly played the card game since we don't buy the cards for him yet, however this does not seem to matter.  I am pretty sure he has memorized every single Pokemon character and all of their individual statistics.  Ryan and I keep saying we need to figure out a way to market useful information (biology, chemistry, math, etc.) in a Pokemon way.  When I come up with it we will be rich and I will share.  In the meantime we will continue to beg the boys to not tell us about every single Pokemon character every single time we are in the car, or when I am cooking, or when there is a lull in normal conversation for two seconds.

Sorry for all the words.  I know you all only visit to see pictures of the boys.  :)

Snow!!!

What's this?  Two posts in two days?!?!  What is really crazy is that these pictures are from today!  In fact, the boys are still out back playing in the snow.

 

What is a little boy to do when it is snowing?  Try to eat the snow, of course.

 

 

 

What else might a little boy do in the snow?  Pose in as many crazy ways as possible.  I have many, many more like the one below.

 

Ryan, naturally, grabbed Toby to force him into the snow.  This seems to have become a bit of a tradition.  Toby LOVES the snow.  Not really.

 

 

Toby did not freak out and try to climb onto Ryan's shoulder this year so I am going to pretend like he had a great time.  Emma, on the other hand, cried at the back door and would not come outside to play.