Cap'n Dylan Turns 3!

I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and make Dylan's birthday party theme be pirates.  I really tried to keep it simple but, of course, I went overboard.  I was having way too much fun.  The burned message-in-a-bottle invitations (address and phone number redacted):

Autrey was more than happy to help drink all the root beer:

I found instructions to make this pirate ship cake on Pinterest and I thought it didn't look too difficult.  It was a comedy of errors.  The cake was too moist and kept falling apart, despite kabob skewers, and the crumbs made it difficult to frost (since I didn't freeze it).  We reinforced the entire exterior with graham crackers (which made it so I couldn't use the 3 Pirouette sticks as cannons coming out the side with the candles coming out the end for Dylan to blow out) and plastered it with way too much frosting, but after 2 hours it looked alright with the sails, little pirate figures, and fish...

 ...until 2:30am, when disaster struck.  I watched as the graham crackers gave away and we had ourselves a shipwreck.  I was deliriously tired, so I laughed instead of freaking out.  I ended up putting an Oreo on it and telling the kids that pirates attacked the ship with a massive cannonball.  Little boys don't care either way.  And though the moist cake was structurally unsound, it tasted awesome. 

 And the pirate feast:

 Pirate ship sandwiches and apple snacks,

 shark tooth Doritos, Swedish Fish and Goldfish,

 peg leg pretzels and carrots, cannonball grapes and meatballs, Treasure Island pineapple, and ocean water punch.

 I started out with a game, "Teasure, Treasure, Who Has the Treasure?" Even though some of the kids play Button, Button at the library each week during storytime it went way over the kids' heads.  Oops.  Then we went on a Treasure Hunt.  They -

1. Went to the front yard to walk the plank to earn a bandana

2. Went to the green recliner to learn to talk like a pirate to earn an eye patch

3. Climbed up the backyard playhouse to throw a cannonball off the 'ship' (argh, I forgot to take a picture of the huge "Happy Birthday Cap'n Dylan" sail my mom made) to earn a treasure necklace

4. Went to the kitchen to choose a tattoo and have it put on

5. Sat down on the rug while I read the cute book "How I Became a Pirate" (because the pirates end up burying treasure in the boy's backyard) to earn a compass ring

6. Went to the Pirate Ghosts in the front yard to sword fight with a pirate (read: Autrey) to earn their treasure bag, as shown here:

  7. Went to the garden and dug for buried treasure (coins and toys)

Pirate friends: Tommy and Tyler Duke, Rock Anderson, Koen Blue, Luke Jackman, Brayden Connelly, Calvin Nordstrom, Max Neal, Joshua West, and Matthew Brandenburgh 

 

 We sang and ate some cake:

 Opened presents and played:

It was a fun party, but I learned a valuable lesson: THEY'RE 3, WITH SHORT ATTENTION SPANS.  LESS IS MORE.  I tried way too hard and wore myself out attempting to make it super fun when they would have been just as happy dressing up doing their own thing.  I hope I remember this next year.  3 years has flown by.  I sure love my big boy!  Happy birthday, Dylan!



Halloween Visit from G-ma and G-pa

Pardon my tardiess.  List of excuses: G-ma and G-pa were here, my computer crashed, Halloween, election let-down, pirate birthday party, sick kiddos, and Thanksgiving in Disneyland.  *whew*  Since many of you have been patiently waiting for me to get caught up, here is the 1st installment...

 

Autrey mowed the lawn the day before my parents flew in.  Most people would have listened to their iPod, but Autrey let Dylan sit on his shoulders and sing "Life is a Highway" over and over again.  I guess it was more entertaining:

Video of Autrey and Colton that night:

 

After church in Dylan's new suit.  Colton weaseled out of this picture by having a major blowout on his cute outfit.  Got everything dirty except his tie and little shoes:

G-ma and G-pa were there for Colton's 1st time eating rice cereal.  Loves it:

 Video of the feeding:

Halloween spider and Halloween jammies:



G-pa and G-ma with Colton:

(Mom in one of her Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan campaign shirts, before the election, of course.  She put in a lot of time and effort, knocking on over 1,144 doors in PA, which is why I think her shirt should have said, "We've got great knockers."  Words cannot express how disappointed/physically sick we were that Obama got re-elected.  That's all I'm going to say about that so I don't get all worked up.)  

 

G-pa and G-ma brought us all pirate outfits.  They got to see them in action at our ward Trunk or Treat while they were here:

At the church party:

 

The owl cupakes I made for the cupcake walk:

Dylan fell asleep in his costume on the way home and looked so cute in his bed.  (Thanks for the pillowcase, Aunt Elaine!):

I am so excited to finally have my own set of ghosts for the yard like mom's.  Dylan loved them and they looked amazing with the spotlight on at night.  Thanks for bringing the supplies and putting them together, mom!



Silly skeletons:

G-ma helped Dylan carve pumpkins for the 1st time:

A spider and a jack-o-lantern with a BOO mouth:

It was so fun to have my parents come visit and have fun getting ready for Halloween with us, even though dad had to work most of the time, both day and night.  He is one of the hardest workers I know.  You can even hear him on a conference call in the background of this video asking his coworkers if they can hear mom and Colton chatting and making silly sounds:

  Mom and dad left before Halloween, but here we are with Brindee Blue,

Koen, and baby Beckham at the library for a spooky story time: 

For dinner we made jack-o-lantern pizzas.  My sous chef kept trying to eat all the toppings as fast as I was putting them on:

Yes, I know the ham 'pumpkin' looks more like a baby's bum:

Trick or Treating with Alice Kellar, Maiya, Derek, and Sylvie.  I am really sad they are moving next month:

While dad was here he helped Autrey get started on building us (read: me) a closet that used the space better.  Autrey was able to finish it after they left.  I love it! 

Before:

After:

From other angle:



I also made a big ruler-looking growth chart for the boys:

You can't tell here, but I used blue for Dylan and green for Colton.  So far they are on a similar growth pattern, but we'll see if that lasts. 

For fun I added G-pa, Autrey, me, and mom (in height order).  I didn't realize I had shrunk 1/2 inch.  I have always been 5'10", but not anymore.  Autrey wasn't thrilled about not being 6' like he claims to be.  Now we just need to add Mimi and Papa the next time they come since I forgot to do it when they were here for Dylan's party: 

 Aren't these Itsy Bitsy Spider handprints cute?  The little spider was very wriggly and tricky to do:

 We had a fun Halloween and loved dressing up as pirates.  We got a lot of use out of the costumes, as you will see in Dylan's pirate party post, coming up next...