Excitement! Getting to know Neighbors!

So!  Earlier this week, we had a wee bit of excitement.  No fewer than SEVEN firetrucks in our neighborhood.  You would've thought it was a block party, there were so many people hanging out, milling around, chatting.  No one had any clue what was going on, but we were all chatting away anyway.  After about an hour, all the trucks left (waving at our little guy and making him sooooo happy).  Another hour later, I hopped on facebook to check the fire dept's fan page- and sure enough, they posted the event.  Thanks to an alert neighbor spotting smoke and calling 911... the FD had to bust in a door because no one answered... and it turned out to be a small kitchen fire and the chef asleep in the next room.  Excitement for the day!

That's not the only way we meet neighbors around here.  Besides the normal "hi" when we pass each other on the sidewalk, we sometimes have someone stopping by when I'm watering the garden.  It's a patio one, and they're all in boxes- more on that for another post- so it looks "interesting".  The best part is there's actually herbs FLOURISHING, so they get attention, and our watermelon vines are going *all over* now.  Here's a pic of our smallest one, less than 1/2 inch long.  The largest is probably a 5 inch diameter- I think they were sugar babies, so it probably wont' get any bigger.  There's another 3-4 in different sizes growing.  Much fun, and a good discussion piece!

Random Fun

I don't think any of these photos happened *recently*... but they did happen in 2013.  So there.  We took advantage of having free weekends (wha?) and did some touring.

 Like to a pretzel factory in Lititz! Fairly neat place, even if it was a historical factory and not really used (much) anymore.  Way cool to see the ovens and huge paddles used to bake the tasty treats.  Not cool at all to have to work there, back in the day!

Of course, there's Hershey and Chocolate World, which we may or may not visit too often.  It depends on who you ask.

I didn't think this would ever happen, since the kid has not voluntarily fell asleep since he was about 3 months old.  But sure enough, I sent him to read a book on his bed... and ta-da! or wa-la! whichever.

 And then there's Superfireman Guy.  He's like a fireman, only a superhero too.  Because he can fly, and water shoots out his hands, like spiderman, only it's water not webs.  What, you didn't know that?

And these last two?  Well, I just love my kid.  I'm pretty sure he's hiding under the table, waiting for us to notice him.  He may or may not be fully clothed.  My guess is not.  It's apparently a lot of fun to run away and hide instead of putting on PJs and going to bed.  Just an observation, I haven't tried it myself.  Just clarifying, for you weirdo types.

Birthdays- it's a Wrap (mostly)!

Well, we survived the July celebrations!  Kaden had a blast on his big day.  We had out of town company, 2 sets, one family and one-like-family, visit that week, so it made for quite a big party!  My exhaustion and lack of planning kept things pretty simple.

I just noticed the baby in the pic above, checking out the ice cream :)  Also note the great cake. The funny thing is that Kaden told JimDad and I that he didn't want any cake, just a 'big ice cream sundae in a fancy cup'.   Then when Grandma asked him, did he want her to make him a cake?  He said, "yes please" and went on to describe it...

Also, the red marks on his cheek/arm aren't wounds- just flash tattoos.

Here's some pics of our visiting friends.  Only two photos, but they capture the crazy fun pretty well, I think.

There's no photos from Jim's fortieth day, but I think it was pretty good.  He and I got out in the am for a nice walk through the woods at a local park, then a VBS program, lunch with the parentals, and he headed off to golf.  Kaden and I had a lot of small surprises for him, but no big gift.

We're not really in a position to celebrate properly, so instead we hatched a great plan:  40-2-40 !

We've got about 15 months until I turn forty, so Jim and I decided to stretch out both our celebrations in the year between.  We're coming up with 40 different ways to celebrate, big and small.  Almost like a mid-life bucket list.  If we're lucky, we'll come up with the cash to do some of them (white water rafting!) and if not, we'll still have some creative things to remember (state park trips!).  

Birthday Blues

July is a busy place around here.  We've made it through America's bday, and Nana's bday - though it probably wasn't the best day she had, since we were on the road for 11 hours and 2 people were sick.  Next up- the boys (bdays, not sickness).

The entire 23 person crew!

Kaden has been trying to claim his birthday since the day after Nana's.  We keep putting him off, and then this week I realized his actual day is next week- and I had nothing.  Nothing.  Well, besides a full ideas board on Pinterest, but we know how often that translates to reality (I think the precise ratio is 78 pin ideas = 1 real life activity).  Then tonight, I realized we have 6 days, or maybe 5 depending on when we celebrate, but I work 3 of those days, and family's coming into town, and... well.  It was time to plan over dinner.

Kaden working up the courage to jump!

And what does the boy have his heart on?  A pinata.  Like last year.  Last year, dear friends, I planned ahead by about 2 months, and Uncle Steve spent *weeks* creating two themed pinatas.  (And after a quick search, I realized that I never posted about EITHER of his birthday parties last year.  Sigh. Luckily, Google keeps my photos accessible!

First, take a look at "The Black Bamboo."  Steve looked up plans for a model of the ship Black Pearl from the newer Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  Then, using his CAD skillz, tweaked the scale and print out actual blueprints... then with his fiance, constructed this beauty out of cardboard and bamboo and sisal.

And mailed it to us in FL, where we had a fun filled Pirate Party, that included a treasure hunt where kids found their goodie bags, a 'walk the plank' game that involved water guns, an amazingly cute Publix cake, and the pinata of course!  It was so fun, for the kids and the parents and the teens who came to help!

Then we traveled to PA, for a superhero party. It involved homemade costumes, and pin-the-mask-on-the-superhero, and a SECOND pinata that Uncle Steve made and mailed to PA.

So at dinner tonite, when I told Kaden that this year's party would be more low key, he asked if he could please just have a pinata.  "I think I can do that, buddy, but it won't be as good as Uncle Steve's."  He was okay with that... "but you can make it a Robin superhero pinata, right"  Um, no.

Part  of the issue is that he has requested a "lego batman and robin" party- but the lego b&r stuff is super expensive.  ALSO not very popular, like Superman (on clearance at Target!).  Off to Pinterest I went. There are a lot of cool examples, but I have two problems... 1) no time and 2) I don't want to encourage kids to bash in a cute head like this:



or to beat up on a superhero, like this:

 .  And then there was a nifty TNT version, but I don't want to glorify bombs, either!  I know, I'm making this too complicated.  Yes, I know Target sells Pinatas for $12 or so.  But that *almost* feels like cheating to me.  But if you see me in the store the night before the party, you'll know.

In the meantime, JimDad turns 40 at the end of this month, and I got no ideas for that either.  Birthday blues, indeed.