Locks of Love

July 1st marks the date of the big chop -- I had a 10" long pony tail cut off to donate to Locks of Love (an organization that makes wigs for kids).

Before....

 After.....

When I came home I went around to the backyard where the kids were playing in the sandbox. Luke told me to "put my ponytail back on" and when I told him I couldn't put it back on, he said "go inside". Evidently he was pretty upset that Mommy cut her hair. But they eventually got used to it and now they think pictures of me with longer hair don't look like Mommy. Funny how that works....

More than 4 months have passed and my cute, angled hair cut is in need of a refresher. Time to find a stylist to work her magic (the gal who cut my hair closed her salon as she took a job as a dispatcher).

Jacob's 7th Birthday

This was the first year Jacob had a friend birthday party. Most years we are traveling and we celebrate with family. This year we were home from our vacation and Jacob thought it would be fun to have friends join him to celebrate. We thought if he invited 8-10 friends maybe half would come and we'd have a nice small group of kids to celebrate Jacob's birthday. Well it turned out that he invited 15 kids and most of them were able to attend and several came with their families and younger siblings. So we had over 30 people at his party!!

Our sports fanatic wanted a football party. Daddy planned the games (a football toss and football kick, etc) and I planned the foods, prizes, cake, etc. We found a football shaped pinata at Target and sports prizes (ball-shaped whistles, little squishy footballs, soccer balls, basketballs and baseballs).
The day of the party there was a big storm brewing. We hosted Jacob's party at the public park to accommodate all the guests he wanted to invite. As we arrived at the pavilion, dark clouds were forming to the west. The wind was picking up and the storm was heading right towards our party. We started some games as the guests arrived. But soon we had to take cover as it was thundering and lightening and things were blowing everywhere. We rode out the storm in our cars for a 1/2 hour and then resumed the party. Several of Jacob's friends had to leave in the midst of the storm. But there was still a good bunch of kids left after the storm passed. Pat started grilling and we were still able to do the pinata and the water balloons in the rain under the shelter of the pavilion.The kids got muddy and wet but everyone had a good time!
Especially Sophia - who found a mud puddle to stomp in and sit down in...
I made a football field cake. It turned out pretty cute! It was so windy that we couldn't keep the candles lit. As soon as the candles were lit, Jacob blew them out. So I didn't get a picture of him blowing his candles out.
Jacob received 5 footballs! He loves playing with all of them! He also got a lot of football/sports cards. He has so much fun memorizing the facts on all the players! Maybe someday he'll be a quarterback or a sports statistician?!

I was so glad to have the help of friends to keep things from blowing away, help serve food and clean up! I never would have managed a party of this size on my own. Next year we'll scale things down a bit....

Happy Birthday, Jacob!
We love you!!

Luke's Dinosaur Birthday

We had the next door neighbors over for Luke's 3rd birthday (July 10). He requested a dinosaur cake. I found a cool book at the library and attempted to make a 3-D brontosaurus cake. The cake was too moist to hold together. So we improvised. Pat helped me design a T-Rex cake. It took 5 batches of homemade frosting to cover it -- mostly. There was still a bare spot on his back but I was tired of mixing up frosting to finish it. It still turned out cute despite the lack of frosting.

It took us 2 weeks to finish the cake! It was HUGE! (fork in bottom left corner for scale)
Luke had fun with his siblings and his friends and was a tired little boy at the end of the day.

Happy Birthday, sweet boy!
We love you Luker!