Calling All Super Heroes

For Preston's 5th birthday party he wanted a super hero themed celebration. He actually has been asking for a super hero party for many years, but I deterred him because I wasn't quite sure what all we should do. After much research and planning, Darren and I came up with a perfect solution- super hero training!

The invitations asked his friends to come dressed as their favorite character to help save the day. I loved seeing everyone arrive. We had several hero favorites represented and some very creative costumes as well.

Here we have Spiderman (Elic), Batman (Preston) and Super Brooke (Brooke).

Super woman was a favorite. I wish they made that costume in my size!

And we can't leave out Super Aaron- his super power is sleeping through a party of 4 and 5 year olds.

Yes, that's Venom (Trenton) the dark Spiderman. Although this guy uses all his powers for good!

Super ballerina made a special appearance.

Once everyone arrived the fun began. As I was welcoming the group, Dr. Doom appeared and said he was going to ruin Preston's party. He then dropped bombs on the ground and ran away. We had to think fast and defuse the bombs. (F.Y.I. if you're wanting kids to pop balloons, you should test one out and make sure it is pop-able). We had the hardest time getting them to pop. You can see in some of the pictures below that we would have two or three people stepping on one balloon and it still wouldn't pop.





Once all the "bombs" were defused, we decided that we weren't going to let Dr. Doom ruin Preston's party. So we began our Super Hero Training. I wish I had put someone in charge of taking pictures, because I had a hard time directing the training and getting pictures at the same time. Here are the stations before any super heroes arrived.

This was Wonder Woman's Lasso Throw. The goal was to lasso the hula hoop over the Spiderman balloon. The rest of the stations are pretty self explanatory.










Darren did bring in a long board for the heroes to balance across. This picture was taken before he had put the board in place.


Superman can leap tall buildings like this one, right?


Here the heroes had to stretch and jump like Elasti-girl from the Incredibles.




Everyone went through all the stations to help improve their super hero strength. I think the Hulk Smash was everyone's favorite. Again, I wish I had someone else taking pictures, because I didn't get all the stations once kids were going through them. I also wish I had stepped back and taken a picture of the whole room once it filled up- it was pretty crazy. Here are a few of the highlights:



Look at that adorable Spidergirl! I tried to match her up with my little Spiderman but had no luck.

Bad guys better watch out for this Batgirl!


Although they were deep in training, these super heroes were nice enough to stop for a paparazzi pose.







Once everyone completed the training they all received their Super Hero capes. Preston and Elic's capes were a little different from the rest. Theirs are actually reversible.

Preston can be Batman or Superman.

And Elic can be Spiderman or Robin.

Our Super Hero friends were awarded a cape with their name on it.

They were called out one by one to receive their prize.


But then Dr. Doom appeared again! This time he said he knew how to hurt Super Heroes and then he threw down kryptonite! We had to act fast and put on our special gloves that would help protect us from the kryptonite. We made an assembly line and passed the rocks down to the Hazardous Material chest.




Luckily, no one was hurt by the kryptonite. For their bravery, the heroes received their special Super Hero masks!


Dr. Doom appeared again! This time we were ready with our web-blasters (a.k.a. Silly String) and were able to capture him and save Preston's party!


We took a break from all the training and bad guy catching to refuel with Doc Oct Dogs, Spider Crackers and Hulk Punch.



A few members of Preston's super family.

I think we've done a cookie cake for Preston's birthday since he was two years old. He doesn't really like cake and cupcakes, but enjoys the giant cookie with icing.



Aaron can't wait to have his very own cape. He wants to be Jack-Jack from the Incredibles.

We had one last activity planned. We played "pass the kryptonite" (glow stick). If the music stopped while you were holding the kryptonite, then you got to keep it plus you won your very own Super Hero kite.



I will say that it seemed like everyone had a great time. I was so busy directing everything that I didn't really get a chance to mingle and get feedback. I do think it would have been wise to have used our "web-blasters" outside. It took over an hour to clean up all the Silly String from the Fellowship Hall. My poor Papaw started the vacuuming and then declared that he believes that room is bigger than his whole house. We let Preston open the family gifts once his friends had left and then we headed home. Everyone, including me and Darren, took naps that afternoon.

Later that evening we did finish opening all the presents.

We have been rationing out the gifts for Preston to play with since everyone was so generous! I can't believe that he is 5!!! Preston, I hope you enjoyed your party. You will always be my little hero!

Baby Moos

I love Springtime. I know the season of spring doesn't officially start until March 20th, but as soon as we have a few days of beautiful weather I get spring fever. One of our favorite activities for springtime is feeding the baby calves on our farm. Darren was working CareNow one Saturday, so we picked up Nana, Papaw, and my niece Samantha and headed out east. We ate lunch in the car on the way down and most of the boys napped while we drove. We couldn't have picked a better day- sunshine and clear skies.
After visiting with Grandmother for a while we headed outside.


Of course the first thing the boys found were some good sticks. It's just in their blood to have those while out in the country.

And playing on the tractor is a must! (Notice the stick being very close to poking an eye- but no accidents this trip.)

Sarah and Stacy drove down to get us and we were off to see the baby calves.

Boy, all the cows know the feed truck. These are the first year heifers (they haven't had babies yet).

Look at those cute little calves! Preston kept saying he wanted to bring one home with us. I had to break the news that they wouldn't stay that small for much longer and we definitley don't have room for a big cow at our house.

There were two special cows, Lou and Charlotte, in this herd that are so friendly they will let you hand feed them. The boys wanted to try but couldn't handle all the slober, so they just threw cubes of food out to the cows.




The calves were very afraid of us and they had good reason to be. The boys were hurling food at them (not to them but really trying to hit the cows with the food) and we were very loud from all the excitement.

If you look close on the picture above you can see this new born calves umbilical cord still attached. It's a new, new born- so cute!!!


Papaw entertained us all with stories of the "Brushy Creek Monster" as we drove back to Grandmother's house.

Here are my two big boys. Holden rode in the cab of the truck with Nana and Grandmother and even fell asleep. Must have been that good ol' country air.

I can't believe how big all the girls are getting. Now, if only they lived closer and could babysit for us.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing in the dirt (imagine that). It's hard to say no when Papaw's even joining in the fun.

Holden is such a content baby- he just goes along with us and smiles all the time.



The day ended with Grandmother's famous poppyseed chicken dish- yummy! After much needed baths, we put on pjs and loaded up for the drive back. We had so much fun that we're already planning our next visit to the farm. Enjoy the video of the boys feeding the cows.

I

The Park in Pictures

A few weeks ago the weather was so beautiful that I decided we needed to go to the park. We picked up Trenton and headed over to Celebration Park in Allen. It was so nice- there were only four other kids running around when we first got there. The boys had a great time. All they did was run, slide, and climb all morning. It was very windy so I borrowed Preston's hoodie sweater to cover up Holden's ears, but no one else seemed to mind. We had a picnic lunch and then headed home because a school bus carrying a BUNCH of big kids had arrived and made it a little crazy.










I know this is blurry, but I wanted to show you how crazy it had become when the school bus let all those kids out to play. This park also has a neat spray pad that we can't wait to play on when the summer heat returns.

Great gifts from God

I was coming out of Walmart in the POURING rain when I saw this gorgeous rainbow. I called Darren and he took the boys outside and tried to get some pictures. These really don't do it justice. It was a full arch. Imagine putting the next two pictures together and then you can kinda see how big and beautiful it was. It seemed as though the colors got brighter the longer the rainbow was in the air.



If you look real close you can see that it's a double rainbow! I was so amazed. What a beautiful gift from the Lord. Just to know that this is a sign of his covenant with us makes my heart swell.


It's comforting to know that even the rain in your life can make something beautiful.