SUPER Party!

We celebrated Preston's fourth birthday in style this weekend. What could be more perfect for him than a superhero training party?? I did a little research online, stole some ideas, tweaked a few, and came up with this. First, I sent out the invitations below about a month ago, complete with Super Hero pictures. (Sorry, I can't get the spacing right on this part.)

Calling All Superheroes!!

Mark this date on your Super Calendars:

June 8th from 6:30-8:00 PM

Preston needs your help! We must unite to defeat the forces of evil! Please meet at headquarters (The Main Shelter at Antioch Park by the playground equipment) to prepare for the invasion. We must defend our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of cake. If you can join us to defeat our enemy — and eat cake — please respond as soon as possible with the following top secret information.

No special equipment will be needed, just wear clothing that is appropriate for outdoor superhero training. Your participation is vital to the success of this mission!

RSVP to SuperMom at marie_hooker@yahoo.com or put the info below in Preston’s cubby.

**Do not feel obligated to bring a gift for Preston, but you can bring a small toy for us to donate to Children’s Mercy Hospital — Superheroes love to do nice things for others!

___________________________________________________________________________________

Yes, you can count on me! ___ Maybe-I'll see if my cape is back from the cleaners ___ No, I have to help others that day! ___

My secret identity:

My superhero name:

Total number of superheroes and superparents coming:

The day of the party, the kids arrived at the park to see these banners, and I had some super music playing on the Ipod to set the mood.  

Clint helped me create these signs for the training stations.

 There were 6 stations they had to complete in order to receive their training completion certificate at the end. The Little Supers received a sticker on their shirt/costume/cape as they completed each task. 1)Fast as Flash-run as fas as Flash does- duh. 2) Web Master- climb across a big web on the playground equipment. 3) Capture the Kryptonite- as the kids were getting their instructions from me, a Bad Guy appeared, dropped some Kryptonite, yelled something about ruining the party, and then disappeared. (I missed this part on the video, but did manage to capture the kids' reaction- priceless.) Kids had to put the Kryptonite into the "Hazardous Waste" container using a teaspoon (you can't touch it with your bare hands!) 4) Magnificent Minds- guess how many pieces of candy are in the jar. The closest guess gets to take the jar home. 5) Leap Buildings in a Single Bound- use teamwork to create a building out of blocks and then take turns jumping over it. 6) Mighty Muscles- lift a VERY heavy weight over your head (pictures from this are going to be our thank you cards).

Super Friends ready for action.

Little Supers awaiting instructions for the training stations.



Too small for training, but still a cute little hero!



Fierce and ready to train.



Mighty Muscles



More Mighty Muscles



Mighty Muscles again.

Leaping buildings in a single bound.

Getting stickers after proving they are as Fast as Flash.

Capturing the Kryptonite.

Training complete! The Little Supers got their certificate (signed by Supernom) and super bubbles...just in case the Bad Guy returned.



Attacking the Bad Guy- he returned just as we were preparing to go eat cake. He said he wanted to steal the cake and spoil all of the birthday fun! Luckily he was ONLY afraid of bubbles. Good thing we had some! 

Best part of the party- Clint came to help haul the Bad Guy to jail, and the kids squeaked, "OFF TO JAIL! OFF TO JAIL!" while following behind them. This is my favorite part in the video. Seriously cute.

Bravo, Little Supers. Bravo.

They deserved this cake after all of that hard work defending it!



What a SUPER day for this little guy!

 

The Little Supers agreed to allow the Bad Guy to come to the party...as long as he didn't try to steal the cake again. Thank you, Jason, for being the perfect Bad Guy! I'm sure the random people at the park were a little leery of the creepy man wearing a costume hiding in the parking lot awaiting his signal to crash the party.

Video footage...we never could have pulled this off without the help of friends and family!

Saturday morning we took the toys to Children's Mercy Hospital. Preston really got a kick out of it. He received a toy there during his stay last summer, so it was only fitting to pay it forward.



Phew! Next year we will be having a small party at home with only a few friends and family. I swear.  

FOUR

 Doesn't seem possible that this sweet boy could be that old already.

Preston continues to amaze us every day. He's a spitfire, that's for sure. And has a memory like a steel trap. Seriously- tonight at bath time, I fished out an old cheap watergun for him to play with. He hadn't seen it since last summer. He took one look at it and said, "Mommy! You gave that to me last year when we went to Natalie and Julia's pool!" And he was right. It took me a minute to remember, but I did indeed give him (and the girls) the toy guns that day. Wow.

Current likes:

• Anything and everything SUPER hero related. Party to come next week.
• Candy.
• Playing games on my phone (Ninja Chicken is the most popular at the moment).
• Making Callie laugh.
• Riding his new bike.
• Talking to Carl in the bathtub with Daddy (Carl lives in the drain and talks to them).
• Dancing to "Intergalactic" by The Beastie Boys (see video below).
• Playing games- Uno, Go Fish, Guess Who, Memory, Trouble...
• Going to the park.
• Carrying around his handy dandy notebook to write down important things.
• Making 'directions' every.single.day at school (He scribbles on paper, folds it up JUST SO, unfolds it, and reads it to me in the car). OCD? I think so.
• Pretending to talk, text, take pictures, and record videos on his toy phone.

Current dislikes:

• Vegetables
• Nap time
• Bedtime
• Sharing toys with Callie...or anyone else
• Hearing the word NO

I couldn't imagine my life without this little booger- Happy Birthday, Preston!

 

And some silliness. Watch out for the screams. I shouldn't have encouraged it, but it made me giggle to watch Callie's face. And who knew she'd like The Beastie Boys so much? I think she's got my dance moves. Awesome.

SOMEone has a birthday this week...



Could anything be better than seeing the BATMOBILE to start off your birthday week?
I think not.

I AM BATMAN

Assisting KC's finest

Keeping the city safe.

 Some video fun, with four parts. You have to suffer through longer videos when I slack off and don't post very often. Sorry!
1.) Callie torturing MC. She LOVES to "pet" her, and for some reason MC keeps coming back for more. I guess this shows you how starved the cats are for attention. They welcome a beating from a one year old.
2.) SHOES! It only took over a year, but Callie (finally) wore some shoes this weekend for more than two minutes. It is a miracle! I think I could listen to her little feet clomping around all day. (clomp, clomp, clomp) Seriously. And I love that she walks like she's had a few too many tequilas.
3.) Preston visiting the Batmobile today. What a lucky kid! Some people from the local paper took his pic as well as people from the Tumbler Tour, so he's pretty famous now. Obvioulsy he has some experience with having his picture taken. Wonder why? Hopefully they'll keep his secret identity safe.
4.) Soccer hilights from today. He says he doesn't like it, but I think he's coming around. The boy needs an energy burn, so I hope we can find something he likes---soon!
Enjoy!





Baby Steps

Stats from her one year check-up:

Weight- 19lb 11oz- 25%ile

Head- 17.5in- 50%ile

Height- 30in- 75%ile

On Top of Spaghetti

A neat freak's worst nightmare for a meal.

Easter 2012

Egg Monsters. According to Preston's direction with decor, they are as follows. Daddy, Preston, Callie, and Mommy. Pretty accurate portrayals??

This is one seriously cute (bald) chick!

Please do not judge my parenting skills (or lack thereof) in these videos. How many jelly beans does Preston eat throughout the egg hunts? Why was I telling him not to open the eggs? He's three. He's holding a plastic egg full of candy. He HAS to open every.single.one. I think there is a rule about that written somewhere. Duh, Mom! (And the videos are both LONG. Don't feel obligated to watch unless you are a grandparent, though there are some pretty cute moments scattered in there. These are for you, Mimi, Mima, and Papas!)

I'll end this Easter post with a little nugget from Preston today at church. As the collection plate came around, we put some money in it. Preston said, "God can put it in his piggy bank!"

And one from dinner tonight while playing I Spy. Preston said, "I spy wiff my widdle eye something that has cwanky pants all the time. CALLIE!" (She's had an ear infection and we think-hope-is working on some more teeth. CRANKY PANTS!)

From the mouths of babes...

Partay

We celebrated lots of birthdays at our house this weekend. Mine (March 3), Mima's (March 22), Callie's (March 28), and Julia's (April 1). It was chaos and mayhem at its finest, but we managed to pull it off without any major problems.  The climax was cake time when Preston was throwing a tantrum, Callie was screaming, and someone else was crying, too. No, not me, though I thought about it. I think it was Eli?

But I digress. In tradition with what we did for Preston's first birthday, I made sure we had the big banner picture, clothes line full of her monthly photos, and photo albums from her first year. Party favors were seeds to plant in a month or so.  I thought it was appropriate for our Callie ROSE to give out flowers! (Patting myself on the back.)  Here are some snapshots of the day and a video to show the madness.  

We are so blessed to have two incredible children!   

 

 

After previewing this video, I realize I made the movie out of order. I'm too lazy to fix it, so just pretend not to notice.