Summer is Underway!

We started June off with Isabella losing another tooth! Exactly one month from the date of her last tooth! Again another front bottom tooth.

We definitely know it is summer when we start Ms. Jennifer's swim school! Jackson was started in level one this year (he was just in the parent/child class last time) & he did really great. He wasn't crazy about the stuff they had to do (like put their faces in the water) but Jennifer has a way with the kids and by the second week he was doing it without any fuss. I only took video of Isabella, so no pictures of her to post... except the one with Jennifer's next door neighbor's Emu. 

We had a MOMS Club bottle rocket activity at the park (bottom picture) & after that we ran a few errands. At one of the stores, the kids had fun trying on all these lovely hats. :) Of course Jackson liked the green one (Incredible Hulk's color). 

A Busy Start to Summer...

This is a bowl full of strawberries from our garden... just in one picking! Our (Mike's) strawberries did really well this spring/early summer.

Isabella lost her first tooth in May 2nd... just 3 months shy of 6 years old. She wasn't scared at all! I had been wiggling it every night when I brushed her teeth and tonight it seemed even more lose. She made the noise for me to stop wiggling so I did and told her I thought it could come out pretty easily if she pulled. So she pulled and out it popped onto the floor! Then it was a scramble/panic on her part to locate it, which we did quickly. She was so excited to have pulled it out and then super excited to share with everyone. She wanted to send out cards to everyone, to announce her lost tooth. :) 

Co-op classes ended and we had to say goodbye to our friends for the summer. Here is a picture of Jackson's class that I taught and assisted in all day... he is a bit grumpy. ;o)

For mother's day, the kids and Mike took me out to a newer restaurant in Norman called Local. They use nearly all local ingredients so of course I had been wanting to try it out! I was super excited to go for brunch. Isabella is into taking silly pictures these days. :)

Another milestone that has occurred this month is related to Jackson's sleeping arrangements. He has gone from this...

To this (as I scramble to put his new bed together with Mike working because we sold his crib faster than expected).

And then to this (a bed he can sleep in). He did end up spending the night with Bella since I didn't get it done in time and we needed a twin mattress (oops). 

And then I made some curtains out of a shower curtain I found at the store. And now he has a little playing area underneath. 

Unfortunately it wasn't all lovely this month... Jackson mysteriously came down with hand foot mouth disease. His throat was super sore, his feet were a bit sore, and we I had to take him into the ER on a Saturday morning (and miss the Ostrich egg breakfast at the zoo) to get a diagnosis. Unfortunately there isn't anything they can really do to treat this but the doctor did give a Rx for a solution of numbing meds for him to gargle to help his throat so he could eat. Not too long after, Mike came down with a minor case. Thankfully Isabella and I were spared. This pic was taken after he was feeling better.. but this is what his feet looked like!!

Aren't these hydrangeas lovely? I've had the bush in my front garden for a couple years now but this is the first year I've brought some inside to enjoy. I'm sure glad I did!! The are so nice to have around to look at. And it actually helps the bush outside look better because it gets so saggy with the heavy flowers. Win win. 

We did the classic volcano experiment in our homeschool activities one day. It erupted fast!

The kids gymnastics year came to an end and they had their end of the year olympics show. Here is Jackson hanging off the bars.

And Isabella turing to look. Gymnastics has been super fun and next year Jackson will be in a class by himself (instead of one with a parent). Isabella is saying that she wants to go back to dance again. 

Jackson turns 3: A Star Wars Party!

Due to a busy travel month in April, I had to do a lot of Jackson's planning in advance. I'm a pretty good last minute prepper (although that is a bit stressful) but this had to be different. I only had Monday-Friday the week of his party after getting back from Vegas (and Costa Rica right before that). So I did a majority of the things before Costa Rica. We even made our favors (cookies) a few weeks in advance and froze them.

Jackson has been a big Star Wars fan, ever since we bought my nephew Cameron a little Star Wars figurine and it sat on my counter for a week or so before the party. This was back in July so that would make Jackson just 2 years and 2.5 months! He wanted to look at that figurine every time he came into the kitchen. He would ask about it, the name, what was it from. So then after that, he had a radar for all things Star Wars and would zoom into SW things at the store, on the TV, etc.

A Star Wars party was a natural choice and it was Jackson's choice. There are tons of ideas online but I wasn't crazy about most of them... it just was too theme-y. Yeah, I know, it is a theme party. But I just don't like all the matchy matchy cups, napkins, paper decorations, etc. But thanks to pinterest and some helpful suggestions by friends/family, I came up with enough ideas to make it fun for me to plan and fun for Jackson to party. :)

Invites (made with the silhouette cameo):

I had gotten a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine shortly before I began working on his party stuff (thanks to my sweet hubby) and it was really great to use it for a lot of the party prep. I used it for the invite, the door sign (above), the labels on his pictures, the favor labels.... I think that might be it. Oh and the Happy Birthday sign above the fireplace & other misc. circle cut outs that I hung up or made a banner with. Really fun machine, in spite of it's few downfalls. :)

My picture wall in the entry that is usually my holiday decorating area became Jackson's yearly photo wall. I added in some pictures of each of the 6 Star Wars episodes (which you can't see very well in this picture) that are silhouette depictions of a scene from each movie.

As far as party activities go, we had galactic playdough set up at a table where they worked glitter into playdough and then cut out stars, star wars figures, etc. Another table was coloring and Star Wars tattoos.

Decorations were the paper lanterns in red and black (meant to be like planets), the circles on the photo wall (also somewhat like planets), and circle banners (again, planets).

We played pin the lightsaber on the jedi... Isabella actually pinned it in the exact location it should have gone (not sure if her vision was truly impaired by the bandana or not... but everyone got a prize for effort!). Then we played with the pool noodle lightsabers I made (just cut in 1/2 the dollar store pool noodles and then used duct tape, black and silver, on the ends to make them look like light sabers) either hitting each other or attempting to keep a balloon from landing on the ground. Then the last "game" was the pull string piñata with lots of fun gadgets and (healthier) candy. 

We had lots of snack foods which had fun names like Vader Veggies, Sarlaac pit dip, Padme Popcorn, and Yoda Ears. My mom made a super yummy and really great Chewbacca cake. Favors were green (colored with green matcha tea powder, a recipe I found online!) yoda cookies with a yoda label.

Jackson arranging his bugs from the Piñata.

Jackson got heaps of great Star Wars gifts and truly enjoyed his day. He was super busy the whole time, running around crazily from activity to activity. He loved having so many friends to light saber with and also loved getting lots of play bugs/lizards from the piñata.