Star Wars 7th Birthday Extravaganza

This party has been in planning for months.  No kidding.  Thanks to a certain Shannon Hofmeister and her talented hubby Todd there was not a single detail missed.  Shannon is pretty lucky Todd puts up with her party planning neurosis.  It was so much fun planning this Birthday Extravaganza with these two.   Late nights, pinterest and a lot of wine was required for the making of this party.
 The bar has been set sky high for years to come.

Venue: The Grand Illusion Theater

Who knew you could rent a movie theater for a birthday party!

Attendees:  27 1st Grade boys (Yes, I am pretty sure I swore I would never do this again last year.).  One 3rd Grade girl.  And one very happy little four year old boy.


Goofballs


When they arrived we quickly confined them to the theater and called them out a few at a time to collect their movie snacks in their party bags.



Tyler was amazed by the spread.


The Menu:
Melted Hoth Water


Darth VaderAde


Princess Leia's Popcorn
(Most of which decorated the theater floor)
 

Edible Ewoks, Chocolate Asteroids and Boba Fett's Bounty.  These were a hit.


Lightsaber Pretzels


Star Wars Cookies


And Droid Chips


The movie was a success for most.  Although we did learn that you will never make EVERYONE happy.  Boys were boys and flying popcorn quickly made the perfect annoyance for those trying to actually watch the movie.  The commentary during the entire movie was... um... interesting, shall we say.


After the movie we fed the 29 sugar loaded kids some pizza, gave them a cupcake and sent them home with a light up lightsaber.
Ahhhhh!

These cupcake toppers were made by an amazingly talented 15 year old.  Little does she know she made two seven year old boys' day!











Lucky for us Seattle showed us some mercy and we were able to eat lunch outside.






27- 7 year old boys confined in a room for 2 hours while fed absurd amounts of sugar them some more and then handed plastic sticks...
probably not our best idea.




The Birthday Boys







We definitely could not have done all this without a lot of help.  Thank you so much to Grandma B and Kelly for staying up late, assembling light saber napkins, getting up early and toting kids around, being at costume and display when the doors opened and entertaining 3 little ones!  We so appreciate you!





Two of the party planner Extrodinaire's.
And yes, I am wearing Tyler's shirt.



Ahhh!  Success!
Now to start the planning for next years party.

Shannon had the crazy idea to offer this party as a auction item next year.
The insane part of me thinks it would be so fun to do this all again now that all the hard work is done.

{nine} months

This sweet pea is nine whole months old.
Well, now he is nine months and two weeks, but who's counting.

Graham,
There are no words to describe you.  No, actually there are a lot.
You are my baby, my snuggler, my Graham Cracker.
You are simply wonderful, albeit a little fussy this month.  But who can blame you?  You have been plagued by ear infections.  One after another.  We are currently on our third round of Amoxicillin.
Despite the yuckies, you have managed to explode developmentally.  You are on the go!
See...

I love that it's not just a crawl but rather half crawl, half scoot.  You always keep your left leg tucked under so you can quickly push up to a sit and survey your surroundings.  Then you are off again.  You are always on the look out for the dog's water bowl.  Once you find it you are in heaven.
You are BUSY.  When awake there is rarely a calm moment.  You are happy as long as all the attention is on you.  Taking your nine month photos was no easy feat.  The backdrop turned into a great game of hide and seek.

You are indecisive.  Hmm, I wonder where you get that from?  You love to be held and toted around one moment then down and on the loose the next.  You hate to be confined.  Jumparoo, exersaucer,
pack 'n' play... pa-sha.  Those are for babies.  You have discovered the kitchen drawers and cupboards.  Oh yipee!  A favorite is the plastic bag drawer.  Guess what mommy is doing this weekend?
Another favorite of yours... food.  Nursing is still numero uno, but solids are a close second.  Mangos
(prepared by mommy) are a new love of yours.  But, really, there's not a whole lot that you don't like.  You are still nursing like a champ 5-6 times a day.
Sleep... ugh.  Most day you take 2 good naps.  One morning and one afternoon.  That's great.  What's not so great?  You still get up at night.  Usually it's just once, you nurse and go back to sleep.  No biggie.
  Some nights though, you wake up later in the night, 4-5am, and think you are up for the day.  Not so fun.  That's usually when I stick you in the swing and I go back to bed.  Every once in a while you do tease mommy by sleeping through the night.  Your newest trick, like last night new... is pulling up to standing in your crib.  It made bedtime a little tougher last night.  But eventually you gave up and laid down and went to sleep.  This morning you greeted me standing, with a big old smile when I opened the door.
You are still a momma's boy.  My most favorite thing in the whole world is when I get home from work and you hear me.  Last night I hadn't even walked into the room, but you heard my voice and started fussing until I picked you up.  ♥
I love your snuggles!
Your personality is growing.  You know what you want and if it's up to you, you will get it.  You are babbling up a storm these days.  "MaMaMa", "DaDaDa" and "NaNaNa" are frequently heard amongst these parts.  You have this goofy new grin that you do when you think you are being funny.  You scrunch up your little nose, squint your eyes and show you big toothy smile.  I have yet to catch it on camera... but I will!
Each and every day you, and your brothers, remind me of why I love being a mother.  You boys test every ounce of my patience, yet melt my heart in ways that nothing else could.
I count my blessings every day that I have you boys in my life.


9 month Stats:
20 pounds 8 ounces (50%)
28 inches long (50%)

Bro's

I love the way they love eachother.
♥♥♥

Cats

This cat, he is so deprived, he will take any attention he can get.
Graham seems to be his new favorite person.  Every time we put G down Mac comes from no where and plops down right in front of him.  Pathetic, I tell you.  Graham tugs, claws and hits Mac, all the while he is purring as if he is getting a professional massage.
Graham, well, he's happy to oblige.

Zoo fun

Day 67 brought us to the Point Defiance Zoo with the Torrone's and Kahue's.  And what a day it was.  The monkeys were yelling, the lions were roaring, goats were eating, the kids were wild and Jess was about to pop!

3 hours later we had covered that zoo and little Naomi was staying put, much to Jess's dismay.

 




Graham was inthralled with the piranha's

Baby Naomi is one lucky little sister!



By the end, us momma's were about ready to check these animals in for the night.

Where's Waldo

The Hope building is getting there.  It has been fun to watch the progression from a condo complex to hospital.  In order to involve patients in the process they have been hiding a Waldo on the construction site since day one. 

This was my view from work on day 66.

Do you see Waldo?