Hey Ferb! I Know What We're Gonna Do Today!

I promised to come back with pics from the Phineas and Ferb Party, so here I am.  I think it turned out rather well, for a theme that was incredibly hard to find party supplies for.  I went to our local bakery, our local cake maker's supply store, Party City, Michael' and no one had any Phineas and Ferb themed supplies.  I finally found the plates/napkins/table covers at Affordable Treasures, which is why I'm going there first from now on.  I paired orange & blue streamers (Phineas) and purple & yellow (Ferb) and bought a bazillion ballons in the same colors for decorations.  But I was still left without a plan for a cake.  I was going to attempt to make a Perry the Platypus cake myself, but the day before, my friend Charlie offered to help.  Charlie is an amazing cake artist.  So the night before I baked a sheet cake, then the morning of the party, Charlie transformed it into a teal platypus.

Pretty cool, eh?  I planned three activities for the kids, based on the show.  The first was "The Shrink-inator" in honor of Dr. Doofenschmirtz, the bumbling evil scientist who is the nemesis of Agent P, AKA Perry the Platypus.  I bought sheets of Shrinky Dink plastic, traced multiples of the main characters and cut them out in circle shapes.  Then I left out permanent ink markers and let the kids color them and then we shrunk them in the oven.

 I made sure to use a hole punch before I baked them, so the kids can make neckalces out of them, or use them as ornaments.  The next game was "Where's Perry?" a question asked at the beginning of every show by Phineas.  I printed out a couple different pictures of Perry the Platypus as a secret agent, cut them out, laminated them and put them on tongue depressor sticks.  Then I taped a prize on the back of each.  We "hid" them all over the back yard, some more hidden than others.  They got to keep the Perry puppets and the prize and put them in their bag.

 

The last game was the most fun, at least from the perspective of a person viewing the chaos.  That last game was "You're Busted!" in honor of Candace, the big sister who is always trying to bust her brothers. I inserted different small sticker sheets into balloons before inflating them, and I had these balloons kept aside until it was time for the game.  I cleaned out the playroom of any decorative balloons, then dumped the game balloons all over the floor.  The object was to pop the balloons by sitting on them.  The key to the fun was underinflating the balloons.  So the kids mostly bounced on the balloons, as they didn't pop right away, and some needed the extra weight of an adult foot.

Lastly, here is a picture of the birthday boy, opening presents and wearing his Phineas hat.  He also got a Ferb hat, which is just as awesome.  Both hats were made by my girlfriend Jen, who happens to be married to Charlie, the cake artist.  Yeah, Mr. and Mrs. Martha Stewart.  Only nicer.  =)

 

If you are looking for unique and fun hats, she has started a business and you can find her on Facebook.  Her page is called Pineapples N' Coconuts.  She is also an amazing professional photographer, if anyone in the area is looking for one.  You can find her page on Facebook as well, Jen Webster Photography.  Check out the newborn photos.  If I weren't so old, I'd have another baby just so I can have her do the baby pictures.

So another birthday party under my belt. On to Valentine's Day! 

Heartbroken

Today is Elijah's birthday, and he is turning 6!  I am so happy for my little boy who is growing up so fast.  He is such a sweet little man.  We had a little celebration for him at school, then I came home, where Gabriel and I baked a cake that is now in the oven.  Presents are wrapped and we are going to have a great day.

But I have been fighting tears all morning.  Actually got to cry on Hunny's shoulder a bit, but apparently not enough, because tears are flowing again as I write this.  Why, one may ask, would a mom be sad on the occasion of her son's birthday?  Well, yesterday at his birthday party, (an event for which I'll post pics later!), I was confronted with a reality I have always known was coming, and was nonetheless utterly unprepared for.  While confirming an upcoming playdate, one of Elijah's friends rejected his brother.  He very clearly expressed his desire that Gabe not be included.  He didn't do it maliciously, he wasn't trying to be mean, and if Gabe had heard, he wouldn't have realized it.  But I did.  And it hurts.  Enough that I'm crying the day after.

One of the hardest parts of choosing to homeschool, and sticking with it, is knowing that he doesn't get the daily bonding and friendship-building that comes with traditional school.  Yeah, we have him involved in other activities so he gets socialization.  But it's not the same as going to school everyday and seeing the same friends everyday.  I guess I was secretly hoping that as Elijah started school, and his classmates were exposed to Gabriel, that, somehow, they would become Gabriel's friends, too. Maybe they will.  But the sting of that first real rejection really stings.  And I'm left questioning the wisdom of my choices.  Is the academic advantages of homeschooling worth the cost of relationships?  I'm not so sure today.  I look into his beautiful face and wonder "What is the right thing to do?"

He just finished his writing assignment, and crawled onto my lap and is cuddling me as I type.  God I love this boy!  I guess he is telling me it's ok. Really, how can I look into this face and not know everything is going to be ok:

  So, I'll leave this here and go take the cake out of the oven and celebrate my youngest, and save the tears for the next time. 

And to those who would say I'm whining about my choices, all I can say "eff you."  Sometimes having kids with special needs is extremely hard, and sometimes it hurts deeply.  It's okay for me to say so.  If you don't get that, then the problem is with you.

Happy 2012. Here Are My Resolutions. More or Less.

This year I resolve to:
 Read more, watch less. Play more, worry less. Be more silly, less serious. Spend more time cuddling and less time online (no offense to my Facebook friends). Experiment more, fear less. Cry more happy tears, fewer sad ones. Have more patience and less anger. Paint more, scrapbook more, create more. Critique less (myself in particular). Write more, stress less.  Hug and kiss more, yell less. Move more, sit less.  Give more, take less.  Love more.