Owen's 6th Birthday Party

I mentioned in my previous post that Owen is a Lego maniac. We celebrated his sixth birthday by throwing him a Lego themed party and for the first time inviting just his friends and his boy cousins.

I got my décor, treats and game ideas from Pinterest and from games I played at parties as a child. We played Lego bingo (using the different Lego figures for the bingo cards), Pin the Head on the Lego Man, and Lego toss (like Skeet ball at the arcade but with the big Legos called Duplos).

With all the extra birthday preparations, I was so thankful to have my friend Malinda, who has experience using fondant, to make the cakes. We came up with the idea of making Lego man face cupcakes, using circles cutout from yellow-dyed fondant and black food marker to draw on their faces. 

Following our family tradition, Owen got his own mini cake. Malinda used my mini bread loaf pan and some mini marshmellows to make him a Lego brick cake. She covered it entirely with blue-dyed fondant since Owen's favorite color is blue.

Overall I think the boys really loved the party. The Lego bingo was a big success. We played long enough to nearly fill their whole playing card! 

The boys had some good laughs while playing "Pin the Head on the Lego Man." Most of them didn't want to use the bandanna so at least a couple of those tried to put the head on somewhere silly instead of cheating. Malinda drew the  faces on the Lego heads. Some had whiskers, mustaches, or beards and some were sad, mad, happy, etc. The boys really liked that.

The boys were more than ready for cupcakes and ice cream by the time we played the Lego toss so we only played one round. I've learned from my experience being a Sunday School teacher and Cub Scouts leader to always plan more than you'll be able to do.

The Lego man face cupcakes were also a big hit. Malinda drew lots of different faces just like she did for the "Pin the Head" game. The boys really loved picking out from all those different faces!

Owen's friends gave him a couple Lego sets; a bubble maker; a remote control car; a remote control Evil Dr. Porkchop; bounce balls, finger laser lights; a Angry Birds Star Wars t-shirt, folder, pencil, and figures; and a Lego batman t-shirt.

Barry and I gave him a new bike and I redecorated his room in a Lego theme (pictures to come). Grandma & Grandpa took him to Toys R Us to pick out a Lego set and then to Target where he picked out a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles t-shirt, an Angry Bird pajama set, and cargo pants.

Happy Birthday Owen!! We love you!

Owen is Six!

Another year has gone by in Owens life. He turned 6 about 5 weeks ago. I had to do a little reminiscing. Simply bittersweet seeing how much my baby boy has grown!


Now


Then


As hard as he can be to handle, I love him so much! We waited so long and prayed tirelessly to bring him to our home. Even though at the time I thought I knew better than God, I needed to wait until I was ready. I find solace in knowing Heavenly Father knew I'd needed to start developing patience (still working on it) so in the future I would be patient with myself and with Owen. As I watch other parents, I see how easy we, including myself, find our children can be a burden as we try to accomplish as much as we can in a day. We also lose patience with them too quickly. I needed that excruciating experience of waiting for my babies as a constant reminder to never to take my children for granted.

Not but not least, I can't end this post without acknowledging Owen's birthmother, birthfather, and birth family. Daily I am reminded of their sacrifice of placing Owen into our family. This act was the ultimate expression of love, selflessness, and courage. It was heart wrenching to watch the pain and struggles they faced. We were all grieving yet I cannot say I knew how they felt; they were losing a child while as we had lost our hopes and dreams. Simply said, Barry and I are eternally indebted to them.

Easter 2013

We have a tradition in our family that started with Owen's 1st Easter. He was only 6 weeks old at the time but it was still fun getting him an Easter suit that came from Aunt Mandy. Easter Sunday Owen and Emma woke up to their Easter surprises. Owen got a sweater vest, a Lego mining set, and some Crunch bar eggs. Owen is the true definition of a Lego maniac. I am really amazed at his imagination and talent for building things. He'll come show me what he's built and I can actually tell what he's made.

Emma got a fancy dress, a talking Elmo, a Leap Frog play phone, and Gerber Baby Cheetos.  Her Elmo talks and sings about the shapes/colors when you push on his shirt. She has trouble getting make him talk/sing so she brings him to me to make him go. She loves to give him mushes (aka kisses) and to feeds him with one of her baby doll bottles.



Here is Emma and Owen in their new Sunday outfits. I love having them match! You can see Emma is holding her new phone. I really tried to get on that looked a lot like my iPhone and that was interactive. It has complete key pad, a button to play songs, and another button to call Scout the puppy. Whenever she finds mine I ask "Where is Emma's phone?" and she'll shrug her arms and shoulders. We'll go looking for it and after we've found it she'll bring it to her ear and pretends she's talking to Grandma. Other times and she'll say, "Hello. Who's this?" just like Scout the puppy does when she calls him. Too cute!!

After church we headed to Barry's grandparents for their annual Easter egg hunt. This is the 3rd year I've forgotten to bring baskets so hence the ice cream bucket and grocery bag. I was so excited that Emma was walking by Easter. She simply loved picking up the eggs and putting them in her bucket.