Lucky Week 6 - Ok, there's nothing more or less lucky about it then the other weeks...

The summer fun continues...

On Monday we got Sam's school bus pass in the mail.  He was SOOOO excited!  He was even acting out how he'd grab his pass, walk to the stop and board the bus.  Oh jeeze, Mom's kindergarten panic is kicking it up a notch. 

We had another day at Calaway Park with our good friends Tat and Jack.  These two cool dudes cruising the waters!

Oh my love!

Quick pit stop to play Stinky Feet!

Sam and Tat played this water spraying game.  Jack and I wanted nothing to do with it.  It was definitely the highlight of this trip to Calaway for Sam.  Oh Tat - how I love you, let me count the ways!!!  Tat is a ball of energy and ALWAYS up for a good time.  She says what's on her mind and keeps everyone laughing.  She is unconditionally persistent in her  love and support as a mom.  She gives Jack the world and never hesitates to get in there and play with the kids.  I adore her honesty, good heart, inappropriateness, hard work, CRAZY amount of organization and love for life.

We had some insane weather in Airdrie this week.  I've never seen anything like it.  This is the cloud I watched roll over my home.  Though many houses were rampaged and many vehicles destroyed by the intense weather, we never saw a bit of damage.  I guess that is a very lucky thing to happen on week 7!

Sam did swimming lessons this week.  Each day he became more and more brave.  No tears and tons of giant smiles.  He passed and is on the last level of this portion of swimming lessons.  One proud mommy!

The Joy of Love - day 11 AKA SAM's Bday Bash

11 dreams

Dreams... I think Shaun and I were successful in creating (with help from my friend Stacey) the birthday party of Sam's dreams.  It was a Sesame Street theme (Sam's a big fan) and I think it was a hit.  Sam spent most the party wondering around in a daze.  Maybe it was because there were 14 other toddlers in his house or maybe it was because he couldn't believe how awesome it was!  I think it was probably a combination of the two, but all in all it was a CRAZY fun time.
Once again, I have to give kudos to Stacey.  She did many of the small finishing touches that made it extra special.  The ideas Stacey DREAMs up are amazing... seriously I think you should start making money off your talents, Stac!
We had friends travel from a long way to spend the day with us and never in my DREAMs did I think all the people I invited would be able to make it.  My sister and her little baby even came to take in some of the fun.  I think Brielle will DREAM beautiful DREAMs of her peaceful baby girl after seeing so many wild little boys!
Shaun gave me a hard time putting up so many of the birthday party photos... I narrowed it from 150 to my favorite 52 and then down to these ones.  Less is not more in this case, MORE is MORE.  Not sure, but there might be more added... :)

The party favors.

Birthday cake... definitely did not turn out exactly like we had hoped, but Shaun and I had fun making them.  Tip: If you want BOLD colours, go with gel dye vs dye drops.

One of the 5 stations: BIG BIRD'S BOOKS (complete with elmo beanbag chair and Sesame Street books).  We also had a ME LOVES COOKIES! station that was a very simple pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey style game; ERNIE'S RUBBER DUCKY TUB (pictures of this station are in this blog); ELMO LOVES HIS CRAYON AND PLAYDOH TOO (colouring sheets that I printed off the Sesame Street website which is amazing if your kids are into SS); and finally OSCAR'S TRASH TOSS (also with pictures below).

Party brought to you by the letter S and the number 2!

More kid treat bags, so cute.

Kids get to work colouring!

P trying to use her beauty to get that balloon away from Sam... 

Nate and Matty chillin' wondering where their brother is...

Oh hey Luc!  There you are!

Mac loving a game of balloon toss.

Parker goes for the jello jiggler.

Sam a little skeptical of his jello S... didn't take long before he was loving them!

So much like brother... Sam gets distracted and Smith snags the good stuff off his plate.  Swiper!  No swiping!  Oh wait, this is a Sesame Street birthday, not Dora!

Blowing out his candle.  CAKE TIME!

Jack went for it! 

Smith takes an aggressive stance on cake consumption!

Parker being dainty.

Lincoln not too sure about this cake...

Logan LOVES cake.  

Gavin dives it!

Bennett thinks the icing is the best part.

Sam takes his time.

Too cool!

Best idea!  Created a Oscar trash can out of a large tupperware bin and tinfoil.  All the gift wrap was thrown in the 'trash' after each gift.  Fun and helpful!

Party goes under the table.  Payton, Parker, Smith, Jack and Sam played under this table for at least 15 minutes.  FYI - my super handy husband built this table and it was perfect.  Perfect height and size for the kiddos to colour, play playdoh, eat and play under.  Perfect.

This is Ernie's Tub.  I envisioned kids taking turns with the little net fishing out rubber ducks and playing with bubbles.  My vision was WAY off.  It got CRAZY!

Back in the kitchen, sweet Baby S continues to sleep.  All day.  Seriously, alllllll day.  The loudest and craziest party in my tiny house and she slept through it.  Such a good little girl.

Ok, the tub was a hit.  It got way too intense for the little girls.  Water everywhere!  Soaking wet kids.  Smith even dunked his whole head in.  These guys take their ducky fishing seriously!

Parker returns with the net to try to show them how to do it right... thanks for trying P.

Couple photos out of place... its very hard to add things if you've forgotten them on this blog.  A couple more shots of Sam's buddies!

Logan stops for a water break!

I could take pictures of Avery all day.  Pretty little face.

Jack found the perfect seat.

Sam and Payton playing playdoh.  BFFs.

An attempt at a group shot... not only were the Alexander triplets missing, but Lincoln and Logan escaped and Jack HATES the idea of a group shot.  Meh, there's always next year!

Good bye friends... thank you soooo much for all the fun.  We sure do love you guys.

And as I crawl into bed tonight, I'll think about how two years ago I couldn't have DREAMed what Sam's second birthday would be like.  It's even more wonderful than I could have imagined.

Teddy Bear's Tea Party

A wonderful play date at Sam's friend Parker's house.  A teddy bear tea party... it's days like today that make us grateful that we have have amazing, thoughtful, fun mommies in our life to plan parties for the kidlets!  

"When are our friends going to get here, Parker?"

Tea-partying!

The youngest tea party baby (besides the one baby belly!)

My handsome boy enjoying Parker's cool toys!

Chillin' with Baby A

This necklace was a big hit... I ended up wearing it for a long time forgetting that Sam had put it on me.  Sam and Jack liked the same toys, at the same time... the EXACT same time.  Needless to say, sharing is a very very hard thing to teach.

Another big hit was this baby bouncy chair... pretty sure Sam was WAY over the weight and size recommendation!  He LOVED it though.  Big baby in a little chair! 

Our beautiful mother-daughter hostess team (just missing their partner in crime Auntie Cori!)

Six little monkeys jumping on the couch!

For some reason I remember these group shots being much much much easier to take a year ago...

Princess P makes Sam wait his turn.

Thanks for the wonderful day Kaysi, Parker and Cori... soooooo much fun.  Maybe we could make it a tradition!?!?! :)