Party Outtakes

After looking through all of the pictures from Miles' party, I couldn't resist a few funny pictures.

What is Darrin's problem here???

Whatever it is, I'm onto it now...

The many looks of my friends...

 

  

Erica is clearly not as amused as I am...

At least Carrie thinks it's funny...

And, you just can't beat a good silly picture...

Sunroom Before & After

During our staycation in July, we worked on several projects around the house.  Even though we've been in our house for over a year, I haven't done much decorating.  I like to keep things simple & clean, so I don't overly decorate anyway.  I finally got tired of not having anything on the walls and a few rooms feeling like they've never been touched.  I think I've been waiting for the perfect design ideas to hit me & also for a windfall of cash, so I can order everything from Pottery Barn and call it a day.  Finally realizing that is never going to happen, I decided to use what I had, buy a few things, and try to do as much as I could with a modest budget. 

One room that I really wanted to change was the sun room.  When we bought the house it seemed like the perfect playroom for Miles.  It is right off the living room and we didn't have any furniture for it anyway.  However, Miles really didn't use it that much and I decided I wanted to reclaim it.  My mom has a sun room that we use every time I'm there.  She has part of it for Miles' play area and the rest is a sitting area.  That seemed like the perfect use of space for my sun room too.  Plus, Miles has his closet for a playroom.

Since the sun room is right off the living room, and that room is scheduled for a remodel down the road, I needed something that would hopefully work with the color scheme & design later.  It's a little bit of a gamble, but hopefully it will work.  I narrowed my two design choices down to leaving the wall color brown, adding white curtains & a light blue couch, or painting the walls blue, adding white curtains, and a neutral couch. 

Here is the sun room before.  Have you ever seen a darker sun room?

We had to borrow a friend's truck to drive to Jackson to get the couch.  Darrin had driven home from a recruiting trip in St. Louis that morning and then we immediately piled in a small truck, on a hot day, to spend a few hours retrieving the couch.  I feel ya, Miles.

I love the finished look.  Obviously I went with painting the room and getting a neutral couch instead of the opposite. I'm so glad I did.  I think the new paint color totally changes the look of the room.  I'm far from a design expert, but I wanted a light airy room and I think we accomplished that.

Miles & I are spending a lot of time coloring in the new sunroom.  So, we went from no one using the room to both of us using it a lot.  Miles has found the key to me playing more...do something I like to do, which is color, not play with his Batman cave.

We've also been reading a lot of books.  I've been checking out ten at a time from the library and we go through them in no time. Sometimes, all in one night. 

Unfortunately the room is not heated or cooled, so we need to find a solution for winter. Surprisingly, the summer is not an issue at all.  Probably b/c we have so many trees that shade our house.  Last winter, we had to close the French doors to the sun room for several months.  We tried a heater, but it didn't work.  We are going to explore some other options b/c I don't want to do without this room all winter long again.

The Rest of the Story

In my haste to blog last night, b/c I really was not in the mood, I left out a chunk of Miles' birthday.  In a weak moment, I agreed to take Miles to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I had been holding out b/c it is rated PG 13.  I heard from a ton of people that it wasn't bad, but then why was it rated PG 13? 

I regretted it within the first five minutes.  I'm sure he'll be just fine, and I know Darrin thinks I'm completely overprotective in this regard.  I just know that in a month or so Miles will say something about a part in the movie that lets me know he's been thinking about it.  It was too violent for little minds.  I'll never think otherwise.

Having said all that, Miles LOVED it. He thought parts were hilarious and the violence really didn't seem to bother him at all.  After the movie, we went to Walmart to spend one of his birthday gift cards to get the Ninja Turtles shell. 

Ok, so I really think I included everything this time.  We also read some books before bed, but I'll blog about our new book reading trend when I show you our redecorated sun room.

Party All Week Long

I feel like last week was a continual birthday party...which is fine by me.  I love birthdays.  On the morning of Miles' birthday, we woke him up with two presents before it was time to go to work & school. 

He has been wanting a Snackeez forever.  His dream finally came true.  I love how genuinely excited he is here...

He also got a light up Zombie Nerf Gun.  Every little boy's dream...

He gets to take treats to school on the day of his birthday.  He chose individual ice cream cups.  He was very specific about them being chocolate & vanilla, no birthday party swirl for him.  I kind of wanted to make something more fun for his birthday (like last year), but I fought the urge to create something else to do.

We picked him up early and came home to celebrate some more.  I remembered that last year he really liked pulling the sheet off of his four wheeler as a surprise, so we blindfolded him this year since we couldn't wrap his big present.

Darrin & our friend, Travis, installed his gift the night before at 9pm after Miles went to bed.

When he finally pulled his blindfold off, he didn't know what to think of the new fire pole on his tree house...

 

He was too scared to do by himself at first.  In his defense, it is pretty far away from the tree house.

After some coaching...

He finally did it...

He really liked it after he got the hang of it.  

The final treat was an individual serving of ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, b/c we don't need a whole ice cream cake around here.

Birthdays are a big deal around here and I think Miles' 5th birthday was definitely celebrated in a big way.  Happy 5th Birthday, Miles Cooper!!

Happy Birthday, Miles!

1...

 2...

 3...

4...(it was raining outside)...

5...

Happy Birthday, Miles!!!!

Ninja Turtle Birthday Party

We had a great time at Miles' party on Saturday.  What a crowd.  Between daycare & school, it's very hard to narrow the list at all.  We had just over 50 kids & adults.  On Saturday morning, it was a little cloudy.  I started getting nervous.  There was only a 30% chance of rain, but what were we going to do with everyone if it rained??  Thankfully it didn't.  It was hot, but not as bad as it could have been.

Our good friend, Travis, took my camera over about 30 minutes into the party.  I had so many pictures that it was hard to decide between them.  I think this is the most pics I've ever had on one post.

It was hard to get Miles to be still for a few birthday pics before the party, but we managed...

With that out of the way, it was time for the party to start.  His friends started arriving...

Travis & Rachel are SUCH good friends.  How great is this?? When they showed up, they looked puzzled and said, "What? This wasn't a dress up party?"  Kidding, of course.

It was a major hit with the kids...

  

Everyone ate pizza...

...and sang Happy Birthday...

 

Miles loves the spotlight on his birthday.  Every year, the pics from his party have pure joy written all over them.

After eating, it was time for some serious jumping...

 

Some of the kids played in the tree house too...

Helping Miles open presents every year completely stresses me out.  I feel like we don't adequately thank everyone b/c he just tears them open one after another. Plus, all the kids are excited and want to "help" and get everything out of their packages.  He had more presents than I've ever seen at a party.  It was crazy.  I was sweating by the time we got through all of them.  He loved every minute of it.

Aunt Crystal, Uncle Steve, Olivia, and Ava got him the Octopod.  He's been wanting it so badly. His reaction was priceless.  The next day he randomly said, "I can't believe Aunt Crystal got me the Octopod."

Opening the Batman jail from Marmee...

 

He couldn't wait to tear into this big bag from Granny & Pa...

A baseball bat, glove, ball & tee makes for one happy little boy...

Several of the volleyball girls came to wish him a happy birthday.

One of the girls & her family got him a Chicago Bears jersey.  Thank you???  Totally kidding, he loved it and that's probably all it took to make him Bears fan. Darrin & I aren't that easy, just so you know.  It's going to take some Garrett's popcorn or something.

This gun was a hit.  Uncle Steve helped put it together...

It looks like I'm in a stand off with a bunch of 5 year olds...

If you are opposed to kids playing with guns, our house is probably not the place for you.  The kids loved the jumpy, but next year, I think I'll just throw a bunch of weapons out in the yard and call it a party...

 

I think the adults had fun hanging out too...as much fun as you can have a 5 year old's birthday party...

 

After everyone went home, we were playing with some of his new toys and Miles said, "Thank you for my awesome birthday party." And...that's why we do it.