star wars birthday bash

Lance decided awhile ago he wanted a Star Wars birthday party this year.   Thanks to Pinterest I got a lot of great ideas and was able to have a party without spending a lot of money and needing an inflatable or another form of paid entertainment.  I had a great time and look forward to more party planning in the future.

the invitation, I was so thankful I found a Jedi font that made everything easy

We made light sabers out of pool noodles, Jedi robes from fabric on sale, and Jeff dressed up as Darth for the final battle at the party

 So the week before the party I was very busy sewing robes and taping up light sabers for the kids.

Lance was my pattern

Since I had to make 13 robes, I needed something quick and easy so I did not use a standard pattern.  I measured Lance from shoulder to feet, doubled the measurement, cut the fabric folded it so the fold was at the top and then folded again to make a mirror image so when I cut it out the sides would be the same.  I cut a straight line from his hand to his armpit and then at an angle from the armpit to the corner (I also cut along the crease to it was a robe and not a tunic.  I then sewed up the sides and hemmed all edges (yeah I am a perfectionist).  I then cut out a rectangle and made a hood, attaching the hood was the most difficult part and unfortunately hoods 9-13 were much better looking then hoods 1-4.  I kind of used the instructions from here as a guide. 
The light sabers were a lot easier to make and so cheap, I found light sabers from the dollar store, cut them in half with a bread knife and then wrapped duct and electrical tape around one end and I had a light saber that was better than the inflatable ones you can purchase at Target and soft enough to not hurt anyone to badly.
I also made a black Darth Vader robe for Jeff, but actually it was more of a long vest since I didn't make sleeves because the fabric wasn't wide enough, if I had more time I would have put in more effort, but it worked so I wasn't disappointed.

the girls had white Princess Leia robes, the boys Jedi robes

My goal for the party was to keep the kids busy.  We had four activities other than food and cake to keep them busy.  These activities made up the "Jedi training."  The first activity was an obstacle course.  The kids had to show their agility and speed by throwing bean bags through a circle (bicycle tire), jump over hot lava, walk across a balance beam to avoid the hot lava, crawl through a tunnel, cross the monkey bars, down the slide of the swing set, and duck under the hot lava hanging from the top of the swing set (hot lava was red tablecloths).  When they had completed the obstacle course they "earned" their Jedi robe.   I unfortunately did not get a picture of the obstacle course, I was really thrown off by the weather that day and was setting up the course a few minutes before the party started and never got around to taking pictures. 

Lance practicing part of the obstacle course

After earning their robes, they came inside and used the "force" while blindfolded to place a blaster on a spaceship (pin the tail on the donkey).  After demonstrating their ability to use the force aka peek through the blindfold they earned their light saber.    The next activity was to work on saber skills and this was the favorite activity of the party. It was also amazing to see 10 boys who went from screaming, running, and fighting to concentrating and quiet.  Each child was given a balloon and was told to keep their balloon in the air because if it hit the ground it would pop.  The kids had a blast and took this game VERY SERIOUSLY! 

Lily trying to keep her pink balloon in the air

After the light saber skills the kids were ready for the ultimate Jedi training test, battling Darth Vader.

getting ready to battle Darth

Jeff was a great sport and let all the kids surround me and whack the heck out of him. 

battling Darth

The kids also got to battle Darth separately and they did a great job sitting and waiting for their turn.

trying to keep a balloon in the air

The original plan was to have a picnic outside but unfortunately the weather did not cooperate.  The sunny, 10% chance of rain, and high of 63 was really: cool, wet and 49, it was quite chilly so we ate inside which was quite crazy.

the cupcakes

After pizza, light saver pretzel rods, carrot sticks, and grapes on a light saber it was time for cake.

the cupcake toppers from Williams-Sonoma

The kids liked being able to pick out their favorite figure.

cake time

So despite the weather and trying to squeeze 13 kids in my living room, the party was in the words of Lance "AWESOME."   I wish I had taken more pictures, but I was so busy enjoying the party and corralling kids I didn't get many.  I am kicking myself that I didn't get a group shot with everyone with their robes and light sabers.  Oh well, they had fun and that is all that mattered. 

Proud mama

Tonight was Evening of the Arts at Lance's school and part of the evening was the Kindergarten play. 

Lance is the pink pig

Lance was a pig and the pigs did a dance and Lance was center stage and did such a great job.  He has come along way, in preschool, during sing-a-longs, he would just stand like a statue and stare. I was a bit worried tonight he would see all the people and freeze, but he danced and he sang and he was great!

The pig dance, Lance is the pig in the middle

  I can't get over how much he has grown this past year and not in size but in confidence and independence as well as academically.    He isn't my little baby anymore, he is growing up too fast. 
This afternoon and this evening I helped get the kids ready, I was in charge of painting noses and applying blush.  It was very cute how excited the kids were to get makeup on, especially the boys, they all wanted pink blush cheeks.  It was so much fun talking to all the different kids and seeing how excited they were to perform for everyone. 
Kindergarten is such a fun and magical year, I am sad the year is almost over with.   I hope 1st grade won't be too much work and will still be fun and that he will love school as much as he does now.  Time is moving too fast and tonight was a great reminder of what is important and how to make sure my priorities are in the right place, especially with Spring Break next week, I have a week of no school, even though I have school I hope I can enjoy the time and not stress over the unimportant things like having a clean and neat house.

a long bus ride

I feel like a terrible parent because Lance is going to ride the bus home from school.  I feel terrible because it is a 30 minutes bus ride though it is only a 5-8 minute car ride.
I feel like a terrible parent, but then I feel terrible picking him up to.
Pros for riding the bus
-lily can take a long of a nap as she wants, i won't have to wake her up to go pick up lance and since she will have a long day at preschool this will be crucial for the rest of the afternoon
-it save my gas and time, I don't have to make an extra trip and wait in the carpool line, it is a 30 minute bus ride, it is 20 minutes of my time to drive over, wait in line, and drive home
-isn't it better for the environment, the bus is already going so why use my car
-it is better for my mental health, I am a bit fed up with parents behaving badly in carpool line, cutting in line, parking their car and holding up the line, etc.

Cons for riding the bus
-his bus is one of the last ones to arrive at school
-it is a 20-30 minute bus ride, we usually get home 15-20 minutes before the bus gets to our house
-he's my innocent sweet baby and there might be mean 5th graders and I am not there to protect him from mean children or from feeling afraid, this will be his first bus ride
-did i mention it was a long bus ride

Really the pros out weigh the cons especially since I will be picking Lily up from preschool between 1 and 1:30 which puts her down for nap around 2 which may not be enough time for rest if I have to get her up at 3:20 to go get Lance.

The thing I don't understand is why I feel so horrible about having him ride the bus.  He might actually like it.  Why do I feel like a bad mother?  Well we are going to try it tomorrow, I hope that he likes it, it would make life a bit easier some days, especially Wednesdays.

Mr. Cautious

This is Mr. Cautious:

I know he doesn't look like a cautious person:
but he is a bit timid, especially when it comes to riding his bike without training wheels.
We have been working on it on and off all summer and it has been a struggle.
A struggle that I am not cut out for because I get easily frustrated when he will not even try. He finally figured out how to balance and pedal and ride without training wheels after a week of trying, but getting him back on the bike was difficult. Getting him to ride without running along side of him was tricky too, but we got that down. He was doing so good the only thing was, he hadn't had a big crash yet, and we knew it was going to happen, we were just worried he would not get back on the bicycle afterwards. Well yesterday we had a playdate at playground that has a small paved loop beside it, a perfect opportunity to ride our bikes. Lance got on and took off, it was great:

until he got a bit ahead of me and encountered a slight decline in elevation and started going faster and faster and faster. I realized that Lance was going faster than he felt comfortable with so I started yelling for him to brake and was running to try and catch up to him. "Brake! Brake!" I kept yelling, I couldn't figure out why he wasn't doing the very thing that he was so good before. When we were first teaching him how to ride minus training wheels, Lance would put on the brakes the first instant he realized that we were not holding onto him or the first time he was balancing on his own, and now he is riding and needs to use the brakes and he wasn't. I can't win with this child! At the bottom of this slight decline is a slight left hand curve and it was here that Lance crashed. Thank goodness it was on the left because the right had some erosion control plastic up and trees that could have broken something on impact. I ran to him as he was sitting up and I wish I would have gotten his picture because he had a large blade of grass stuck to his forehead and dirt all over his face, he ate it and he ate it good. I immediately brushed him off, told him it was a good crash and tried to get him back on the bicycle. Fortunately, I think due to peer pressure, when he stopped crying, he climbed back on and we went back the way we came to avoid future downhills and did two loops on the trail.


He did great! I did not have to stay right beside him or hold on and he was able to stop twice without me. Now he just needs to get started on his own. So I think we have got bicycle riding without training wheels down! I never thought we would be here, not after all the crying fits and refusals to try that occurred back in May. We have come a long way so to celebrate we had a treat:

frozen yogurt! It was delicious! So our summer mission to get Lance to ride his bike, accomplished, all that is left is trying to get her:

potty trained, we have been working on it for months, but we keep having setbacks and she just doesn't care if she pees all over herself which makes potty training very difficult.

kindergarten

I never would have thought I would lose sleep and worry over Kindergarten.
The decision really in the grand scheme of things is small, but it seems to be of Goliath proportion and everyone has an opinion and like so many things when it comes to motherhood, there is no right answer.
To send Lance to Kindergarten or not to, that is the question of the year!
I have been flipping and flopping over what to do for months and with preschool applications this week it has been driving me crazy.
After teaching public school for four years I swore I would never send my kid to public school, I thought I would homeschool, but then I realized that Lance and I don't do well together when it comes to academics, we butt heads, and he won't try, perform, or whatever for me.
He also is a very SOCIAL kid and would hate being home schooled, he needs more socialization. Yes, home schoolers get socialization, but Lance wants DAILY socialization and that is only going to happen in a day long school setting. So despite my desire to shelter and teach my children, I can see that it is not best for Lance, especially since he possibly has a learning disability and I do not have the skills to help him.
So then there is the wait a year or send him.
The preschool teacher recommended waiting and sending him to the 5 day half-day 5 year old class, but would 2 hours and 45 minutes of preschool really be beneficial for him? He doesn't need to mature socially or emotionally, he needs to mature academically which I would think would happen in a Kindergarten classroom. I do fear that he could get overwhelmed in Kindergarten, but even if we wait a year he could get overwhelmed if a learning disability is hindering his learning.
Here's the other thing, if he was in the public preschool there would be no decision, he would automatically be sent to Kindergarten, they don't offer a Pre-K program for 5 year olds. Also, if Lance did not go to preschool at all then I would probably just enroll him in school and not even think twice, basically ignorance is bliss.
Then there is the me to consider. If Lance goes to Kindergarten and Lily preschool, that would allow me to have more time to work on my part-time job from home or work a few mornings out of the house which would help us our financially which would be wonderful for our family. I hate stressing about money, but it is has been the number one stress in our life for the last couple of years and I am honestly tired of treading water, I want to have money in savings and be debt-free and that is only going to happen with me working.
Also, I want desperately for Lance to be normal. He just started really talking this past summer and there may be other problems lurking beside a speech delay and I just want him to be normal. Fortunately, going into Kindergarten he has an IEP, a speech therapist and a special ed teacher so he will receive help hopefully before he is in over his head. Then all this worry makes me feel like I am making Lance out to be incapable of learning, and that isn't true.
I just want what is best for Lance, but also for all of us, and unfortunately there is no right answer. Several people have told me how they waited a year to send there kids to Kindergarten and it was the best decision, but how do they really know? You can't have one child go through both scenarios.
I need to stop questioning everything and just stick with my decision to send Lance to Kindergarten. I am just afraid that I am being selfish or stubborn and oblivious to the writing on the wall.
So the Kindergarten decision, I wish it wasn't so difficult and I wish I could stop questioning myself, it is just so hard when it is 8 months down the road yet you have to figure out what you are doing NOW!
I knew motherhood was going to be tough, I just didn't know how tough the little things can seem to be.

endings

this week has been full of endings.
the end of LOST.
but much more importantly, the end of Lance's first year of preschool.
This year has been an incredible year for Lance.
He increased his vocabulary hundredfold.

He developed his social skills.

He learned about shapes, colors, numbers, letters, nursery rhymes and that is just the stuff I could figure out from his limited vocabulary.

He made a best friend.

He became even more independent.

He made all kinds of art, I now have quite a collection.
He just loved school
and I am so happy for him, but a little sad because he is growing up way too fast.
Can he just stay in preschool forever? you know it is fun, he learns things and there aren't the pressures of tests and the class size is small, it is the perfect learning environment.
What is the Noggin saying about "why can't everyday be like preschool?" it is so true.

a weekend of celebration

trains, trains and even more trains

this past weekend we celebrated Lance's 4th birthday and the theme of course was Trains

On Thursday Lance celebrated his birthday at school with a special train shaped treat and the birthday crown

Then Saturday six of his friends came over for a birthday party, the weather was a little less then ideal, cloudy and chilly the kids still had fun playing out in the yard

The kids really liked the look of the train cake, but didn't really eat much of it, not enough icing for most 3/4 year olds

Lance had a great time with all his friends

and all his new toys, especially the nerf dart gun, not my favorite, but he is being so good about not aiming it at other people, I hope he will continue to obey that rule

Sunday evening was a party with the family and he got his big present, he came over to help Gigee get the presents out of the van

and he was shocked to discover there was a PowerWheel inside for him

it took him a second to realize it really was for him, very cute

and his birthday wishes all came true

It was a jam packed weekend, but we were able to stop and enjoy ourselves.  I am a little sad my little baby boy is such a big boy, time flies and I can't believe how much he has grown and changed.  I am so thankful for him and had a great time celebrating 4 years of Lance.

there are worse things

I know there are worse things then your child not measuring up to their peers and being label special ed, but it still is a little upsetting.
Lance has been receiving speech therapy through the city school system for a year and a half now and his progress has been slow especially at preschool.  Lance's speech therapist wanted him evaluated to make sure there wasn't any other problems other than a speech delay so after a visit to the developmental pediatrician, a battery of intelligence tests, several observations, and telephone interviews we had an eligibility meeting for Lance and he was found eligible for additional special education services.  So now in addition to weekly speech therapy, he will have weekly sessions with the occupational therapist (to develop his fine motor skills especially the correct way to hold a pencil) and help in the preschool classroom with a special education teacher (hopefully to improve his language skills with his peers as well as adaptive classroom skills).  Lance will be 4 next week, but his expressive language is that of a 2.5 year old.  This delay in expressive language is starting to impact his social and classroom skills which is concerning.  I hope that his current struggles are not a indication of his learning abilities in the future because we have a whole lot of school ahead of us.  So though it could be worse, I am still upset at the struggles Lance faces and that he isn't the normal practically 4 year old boy.  School is difficult especially for boys and starting out behind everyone doesn't make things any easier especially with No Child Left Behind or in other words: No Child Shall Be Left Untested.

Snapshots of our Easter Weekend

Friends came to visit

and came to play

 eggs were colored

 though it was a bit crazy with Lil' wanting to help

many were broken, but there were some to show off afterwards

Easter dinner and dessert were prepared and eaten

eggs were found hidden around

candy eaten

and baskets with a few goodies discovered

Lance even got to try out snowboarding on a real hill instead of the backyard

and he did awesome!

we even got to do a little tubing while we were there

we had a great weekend!

so this is normal

Lance has a speech delay.  He has made lots of progress this past year, but he still is not as verbal as a normal almost 4 year old.  We had concerns about his speech when he was 18 months old, but since we had no comparison to what normal was we weren't overly worried, we figured he would talk when he was ready.  With Lily, we had low expectations on her talking, especially since second and third children are normally late talkers, though this isn't the case for her.  Or then again, maybe it is, but since Lance is so delayed her speech seems normal or advanced to us.  Everyday she is saying a new word and though a lot of words sound pretty close the same she is doing something that Lance never did and tries to say new words.  Now with Lily's speech developing so quickly I realize how slow Lance's has been.  I am blown away at her vocabulary at 18 months:
Lily's words:
treat, socks, shoes, booby, nanna (banana), juice, cat, dog, goat, uh-oh, choo-choo, Gigee (name for grandma), Ella (a friend), hi, bye-bye and of course dadda and momma, but she prefers mamma to dadda
I know I am leaving out a few, she is blowing me away with all her words.
At this age Lance could finally say momma, and he said dadda, uh-oh, all gone, bye-bye, what's that, and maybe one or two other words.
Fortunately thanks to speech and preschool Lance's vocabulary has increased to more than 50 words everyday he too has a new word and he is putting more and more words together.  He still has a long way to go, but he is making so much progress.  Hopefully Lily will continue to help Lance with his language development and every day I am blown away by how quickly and Lily says words.  So this is what normal looks like, I had no idea.

when I need a laugh

or just a little giggle, I watch this, it starts off a little slow, but it gets good, I promise

my son, the bully

This morning when I dropped Lance off at preschool his teacher stopped me and told me that she was having problems with Lance being aggressive towards the other children.  She thinks that he gets frustrated that he can't communicate verbally with them and so he lashes out.  I am so embarrassed that my kid is the bad one.  It is bad enough he has such a limited vocabulary, but then to add aggressive makes me sad.  He can be pretty mean to his sister, but I had hoped that he wasn't like that at school, but apparently his aggression is coming out at school too.  As if I don't already have enough stress in my life.  Can just 1 thing be easy, why does everything have to be so darn difficult?
Also, on the Lance front, we have been having potty training problems.  I thought we were good to go, then he got constipated and didn't want to go and now he keeps going in his pants and not even trying to make it to the bathroom, very frustrating and gross.So like everything in my life, it is two steps forward, one step back.

our fish has 9 lives

We have a little fish, his name is moe-moe and I do believe he is related to cats and has 9 lives.
He doesn't always get fed everyday and I am pretty slack about keeping his water clean, and despite less the perfect living conditions he can survive almost anything Lance does in the name of love.
On numerous occasions Lance has given him crumbs of his snack such as cheerios and cracker crumbs, which doesn't make for clean water and might bother the fish's digestive system, as well as his gills. Also, he has survived numerous taps on the glass from fingers as well as trains, utensils, and anything else that little hands can grab.
Yesterday he survived, or at least so far he has survived the worst attack/attempt at love yet. I was fixing dinner and Lance was watching moe-moe who lives in the dining room. Lance came into the kitchen and told me that moe-moe smelled like poop. I said I know that I needed to clean his bowl and that is just what fish are like. Well being the slacker mom that I am some days had left the kitchen spray cleaner on the china cabinet after last cleaning off the dining room table and in reach of Lance. Lance, I guess didn't like moe-moe's dirty water and smell so he wanted to help clean it up in the way that he knew how. Lance sprayed cleaner into the bowl. I fortunately heard the sound of the spray bottle and immediately scooped out moe-moe with a cup and cleaned out his bowl right away hoping that the cleaning spray hadn't done any damage to the poor guy. So the next day, moe-moe seems to have survived his clash with spray cleaner and has a nice clean bowl to swim in. Then again, maybe there is something natural and not as harsh to the green works cleaners which saved moe-moe from instant chemical death. So at least one life down, who knows how many more are left.

crazy busy

Life has been crazy busy and it is just going to get crazier.
Lance and I are about to start new chapters of our lives, he is over-the-moon excited, I am terrified.
We are both starting school.
Next week Lance is starting preschool. I am so excited for him and he is super excited, every morning he wants to go out with the kids to ride the school bus. I have been explaining to him that he isn't going to ride the school bus, but he is still going to school, in which he exclaims, "ye-haw!" I hope that he will enjoy preschool and that school will help him develop his extremely limited vocabulary and become more verbal, having two non-verbal children is HARD and at times frustrating.
And I start school as well, graduate school. This week I start my first class, Research Methods and Application, doesn't sound that exciting, but it is a required class and I might as well get it over with so then I can take Emerging Infectious Diseases and Applied Genetics. I am afraid though, I just don't know if this brain of mine works in a student-learning way anymore, it feels pretty fried from lack of sleep through the years. I also worry about finding the time to work on school work and everything else in our busy schedule. I know that worrying isn't going to do any good, so I am trying not to think about it, but there are still butterflies in my stomach every time I think about class, fortunately it is only once a week, I can handle once a week.

cooking with lance

I use to just find recipes that were easy to make because I usually have a grumpy child that wants to be held when it is time to cook dinner, but now I try and find recipes that can involve Lance. He loves to be a helper in the kitchen so finding recipes that he can help with are important. Cooking together also is a great way for us to spend some quality time together. So two weeks ago we cooked dinner together and it was a lot of fun, easy to make, and for the most part pretty stress-free, which is rare when in the kitchen with Lance, he usually is getting into everything. Here is what we made:

Foil Pack Taco Chicken from kraft foods:

Cut up red potatoes in thin slices and place on foil (we use the non-stick kind and place potatoes in a single close layer together)

Sprinkle taco seasoning on potatoes
Place a chicken breast on the potatoes
Sprinkle taco seasoning on chicken
Pour some salsa over top of the chicken
Sprinkle with cheese, we use the fiesta cheese
then it is time to wrap up the foil into packs
bring two sides together, roll down, then roll up opposite sides leaving a bit of space at the top for cooking (not wrapped up super tight against the chicken
Bake for 45 minutes to an hour in 375 degree oven, then enjoy with sour cream on the side!