Over the 4th of July week / weekend, we did a really fun photo shoot with Brian’s family. Here are some of my favorites:

   

I’m cleaning off my phone and the camera card today. Just came across this close-up of Logan’s face. Love.

What?! Aiden is 7? I know – how did I let this happen? The biggest question is how did I get hooked into throwing a party? I had told the boys no big parties this year. For his 5th birthday, Brady and 2 of his buddies had a morning out at Chuck E Cheese. To celebrate turning 8, Brian took Logan and his friend Will to a Chicago Fire soccer game in March. Aiden said he wanted a sleep over with 2 of his kindergarten friends. However, his birthday was the night before Brian and I left for a week-long adult vacation with our friends so a sleep over didn’t sound so great (that was the excuse I used anyway). I told him he could have 3 friends over for a playdate. One of those friends happens to have 2 brothers roughly Logan and Brady’s ages so they asked if they could come as well…of course we wanted to invite cousin Jack…so it ended up as a 9-boy party. So there it was…9 boys coming over. Clearly activities are needed when that many small men invade a home (read: ways to not have your house completely destroyed). Aiden wanted a Mine Craft theme. I did my best to keep it under control: no invites, no major decorating, only 1 box of cake mix needed…

But then… I thought it would be fun to have the boys all get their own bows and arrows like the ones Brian recently made for Logan, Aiden and Brady out of PVC pipe. Brian was a doll as always and was totally willing to help. I then spent about 2 days figuring out actual Mine Craft “recipes” of elements and converted those to candy and other things like feathers, string and rocks. I hid all of the stuff around the house and had the boys craft everything from their lunch (make your own pita pizzas) to cake and then finally, bows and arrows. Like Brian always says, I make my own trouble!

 

My new go-to decorations, balloons on strings.

goody bags were “chests” for all the stuff they “mined”  

The AWESOME bows and arrows…as you can see from the Mine Craft sign of…bow and arrow! Arrows are made from wooden dowels and pieces of pool noodle.

Boys ready for fun! Moms driving away hastily!

No Creepers!!

How do you start a Mine Craft party… ???

by playing Mine Craft!!!

Logan and Austin ran my “crafting table”

 

for some unknown reason, the boys all beat the crud out of their pitas before we dressed them for baking (Brian says this sort of behavior is attributed to some sort of “boy chip” hard-wired into the brains of the male species. I apparently only have the “excessive shoe-buying chip”)

Bow and arrow time!!

 

Yeah Presents! Aiden got mostly Target gift cards which he used to purchase a brand new 20” blue and green AWESOME bike! He also got a baby beta fish from his favorite babysitter Peyton and a fishing pole (which he’s used at least 6 times already) from Memaw and Grandpa.

Phew – it’s the 21st of July and I finally have time to do some posts! Our 4th of July weekend was filled with lots of fun. Brian’s brother Peter and his family came from California for a much-needed visit. Peter, Sara, Charlie and Ellie came to our neighborhood parade the morning of the 4th then everyone came to our house for tons of Brian-cooked food (ribs, chicken and steak). We ended the night watching fireworks with all of our friends and the whole family from a pond in our neighborhood.

“Charlie! Can you even see where you’re going?” ;)

Aiden: bike decorated and ready to rock!

Brady and his new fancy bike (by the way, after the parade, we decided that both Aiden and Logan are sorely in need of new bikes…which, on the 21st of July, they both now have)

Logan is ready!

I think I have this exact picture of me on this exact bike and in this exact shirt from last year :)

These are pictures I’ve taken lately on my phone.

Anyone happen to hear that the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley cup this year? Well…it’s true. I didn’t let the boys stay up to watch the final game (mostly because they were being too noisy for me to watch…Brian was out of town that night). Logan made me promise to wake him up if they won. The final 2 minutes of the game were absolutely amazing so when the game was over, I rewound (that word looks so weird by the way – rewound)…anyway, I went back and paused, went up and told Logan to come watch the Blackhawks win. We watched the final 2 goals together…then we jumped around. To celebrate, I made “hockey puck pancakes” in the morning. They look remarkably similar to mini pancakes…but to us – HOCKEY PUCKS! I sent this picture to Brian.

My facebook status on June 26th

Problem: Nerf gun with broken pull-back piece. Solution: mom with a hack saw, part of a pink flamingo leg (from a joke we played on the neighbors one time) and a bunch of duct tape.

Logan and his friend Sam are on different baseball teams. They get randomly assigned numbers based on the tee shirt the coach throws at them. Sam is on the left, Logan on the right in Blue.

We went to Raging Waves water park on Friday, June 28th with some friends. After enjoying a few of the slides and the lazy river, we had a picnic lunch in some grass off of the parking lot. All of our husbands were away that weekend for some boy’s fun so I sent Brian this picture from my phone.

On Saturday, June 29th, we met our friends the Iwinskis at a movie theater about 1/2 an hour away to see Monsters University. The movie started right before 5 and I wasn’t keen on spending $40 for movie-theater dinners. So…I emptied out these yogurt containers that have fruit on one side and yogurt on the other to mix together. I cooked some popcorn chicken and put dipping sauces in the “fruit” sections for everyone to eat in the car on the way. Logan was like WAY impressed with my idea so I sent a picture to Brian :)

We always tell Brady that his future sports number should be 5 since his birthday is on the 5th. He (again randomly) is #5 for baseball this season. After Monsters University, he asked me to take his picture with this giant Turbo in the lobby of the theater.

Brian’s little brother and his family came for a visit over the 4th of July week/weekend. This is baby Ellie. The boys and I have not met her yet…and she’s already 9 months old! Logan wanted to hold her…

…and so did Aiden (that’s me in the background doing the “real” holding just in case).

During our visit with Ellie and big brother Charlie, I looked outside and saw Logan teaching Charlie baseball. So stinking cute, I had to film it with my phone!