One more Fiesta thing...

Saturday was the Fiesta Flambeau parade - similar to the Torchlight Parade during the Aquatennial. Tickets were sold out long before we thought to get some so we went to the Alamodome for the kids carnival. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had lots of fun.

Fiesta at KDO

On Wednesday, Lucas' preschool celebrated Fiesta. They started with a parade of each class.



Lucas with Miss Annette.



The classes sat on the steps and sang some songs.



Then each class rode their decorated bikes, trikes, and scooters in a parade.

Fiesta at KDO cont.

After the parade, there was a carnival. Lucas and Dryden got to shoot hoops.



Eat a blue snowcone.



Play on the bounce house obstacle course.



And get their faces painted.



On Thursday, Ethan celebrated Fiesta at his school too. The Kinders made Fiesta floats out of shoeboxes and wore hand painted Mexican vests. They paraded around the school to the cheers of all the other grades.

Not Opposed to Bribery

As a mother, I am not opposed to bribery. Eat your dinner if you want dessert. Behave if you want to go to the party. Go potty on the potty if you want a new toy...

The problem with bribery is you have to make sure what you're offering as a bribe is desirable. And after many, many, MANY attempts at encouraging Lucas to use the potty, I flat out said "I will buy you ANY TOY you want if you go potty on the potty today." And you know what he said?

"Mommy, we have enough toys." This is when I fainted.

When I awoke I learned that Daddy (spurred by the knowledge that Lucas was the only one in his class not potty trained) had spent the weekend cleaning up accidents, doing lots of extra laundry, enjoyed some success and had figured out a suitable reward. A new Cars trike.




Could it be ... after TEN YEARS of carrying a diaper bag ... that we are finally free?!?!

Ethan's Birthday Party

Ethan wanted a LEGO party for his birthday, so we invited his classmates and friends over to the house. I had dumped about 2,000 LEGOs in the center of the table and I think the kids would have stayed in that exact spot, building like crazy, for the whole two-hour party if I had let them.





Eventually, I had each child build their own LEGO car. Mark built a track, Pinewood Derby style, and the kids raced their cars for prizes.



Jacob and his friend Zac built a LEGO Mario display for Ethan's cake. It was too heavy to place on the cake so I just set it in front. The cake itself was made to look like LEGO blocks. In hindsight, I should have used fondant to get those bright colors and smooth edges of LEGO blocks. But - with only a couple hours to the party, I didn't have any time to change my mind and shop for more supplies.



Happy birthday Babers!

Random Funny

The song lyrics are printed on the strips of paper below the picture. Lol!

Mike's Birthday

My friend Tonya's husband turned 40 recently and we had a surprise party/card night over the weekend. Mike did his undergrad work at U of I and his master's at UT. And he loves basketball. So this is what I came up with.




The cake was marble with rum buttercream frosting and a WHOLE LOT of fondant. The orange fondant was scored with a straw a million times to get a bumpy texture. My black and blue "icing writers" totally sucked and basically bled all over the cake. Will never use those again!

Here's the birthday boy...acting his age, of course. We all learned how to play Euchre and look forward to more card nights in the future!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

"Babers" is 6 today! Daddy brought McDonald's for a special lunch. I brought Krispy Kremes for an afternoon treat. Two of his classmates have their birthday parties tomorrow, so we will have Ethan's next weekend. He wants to have it at the house. I am less excited about that with each passing day. He is the social butterfly after all and I'm not sure our house can hold all his friends!



Harder and harder to believe these kids are getting that old! They'll always be babies in my head and heart.