LDOY Party Celebration of the Sun

It has been a tradition for about as long as I can remember for our family to celebrate the LDOY (as it has become to be known) Longest Day of the Year. This is another Helen-ism. She hates winter and complains all winter long about missing the sun so in June when the sun shines the longest we celebrate it in Helen style with Food and playing till the sun goes down. Some years like this one we go to a perk and some years we have done other things like go to the drive in or an outdoor pageant. (too bad the drive-in's by us are all closed) So here are some pictures of the fun!

Celebrating Sun and Summer!
LDOY 2008
Hey any excuse to get together and eat and play is a good one right?

This family comes in 3's here are the 3 11yr olds with the 3 babies that will as of Oct. all be 2 yr olds. Only a few of the sets of 3's we have.

3 of the little cousins trying to "catch a baby duck" I told them if they would hold still they might get one. Truth is I just wanted a picture. HAHAHA Tricky huh?

Will swinging with no hands and when I said "Hey, look at Will, with no hands" he pulled his little hands up to his face then pushed them out to me so I could see them and said "I have hands" LOL Now isn't that sweet? He says the cutest things some days. Should I feel bad I made him think his hands had gone missing?

One of my favorite pics of the day. My SIL and her cutie boy!

And since we are talking about the Sun this is Samantha still trying to recover from her sun burn from the cabin last weekend. She was a stinker and ran off to the pool with the cousins and forgot (more like didn't bother to take the time) to put on sunscreen. A mistake I don't think she will be making again soon. This is the worst sunburn my kids have ever had. She had blisters on her face and a huge huge blister on her shoulder. Freaked her out. Freaked me out too. I hope she doesn't have any bad permanent damage from this. OUCH! poor little fair skinned girl. And then you have my Garyn that has never had a sun burn even though he is out side all the time. People look at them and wonder if they are biological brother and sister. They are, they all are but they don't look it.

And just before leaving the park to come home I snapped a picture of Jesse's new commuter car. He is loving it. Well actually he says he like the way the van drives better but he is loving saving money at the pump and I am loving having my van back. Oh and just so you know why he needed a commuter car. It had 11 miles on it when we drove it off the lot Tuesday night. It now has 430 miles on it as of Saturday night. Yea, really! Do you think he drives too far for work? Me too.

Pictures from the Last Night of School Party

So, the Last Day of School Luau Party was a blast! And I am finally getting the pictures posted.

School got out at noon and the 1st Samantha wanted to do when she got home was to decorate. She has been so excited about the decorations she found at the party store. Bless her heart, she is such a girl. But I told her she was going to have to help clean 1st. Not her most favorite answer but she helped and so did Jaden until he got called for a last minute party at a friends. I was sad about loosing my party slave but also so happy that he was going out for a fun night after all. He was happy to be getting away from spending the night helping me entertain a bunch of 9 yr. old girls. LOL Picture of the front of the house all decked out in Samantha's version or Hawaiian decor.

And a close up of the front door. I helped he with the Porch Banner and lights. Once again thank goodness for the Cricut Machine I love that thing!

As each girl arrived we have candy leis. My friend from work Simalu came down and showed me how to make these. She and Yvette IM'ed me all week with great ideas for the party. Thank goodness to because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. This picture totally sucks but these were really fun and the girls loved them. They looked kinda like this one click here, only mine were made with cling wrap and curling ribbon around the candy. Cheap and Easy. Then as each girl would get done I sent them up to the upstairs family room/playroom to do Karaoke and a Hula Hoop contest, while I was making the garlic bread and Jesse was put picking up the pizza. Since I didn't have my party slave and there was no officiator for the planned games up there they decided it was boring and almost committed a mutiny. Thank goodness Jesse returned just in time with the Pizza so we could feed the mutinous bunch.

I had one mom that volunteered to do my drinks so we had her lemon aid and Pizza and Garlic Bread. I know, you just can't believe how I went all out on the cooking. LOL Hey cheap and easy was the theme here, remember?

So then we made Hydro Bracelets. FABULOUS! These were so much fun and you can get the instructions on Family Fun. I did. These were so fun and totally cute. Here is a picture of some of the girls making them and of the glitter mess. (And I learned that my central vac totally does a great job sucking up glitter. Jesse is going to get a sparkly surprise when he dumbs the tank next time. LOL) Notice the home-made paper funnels? I couldn't find my funnel besides 1 funnel was not going to handle the glitter of 12 little girls so I improvised and it worked out great.

And then when we were sufficiently glittered and bedazzled from head to toe, we took every one's picture. Samantha had decorated a little backdrop in the upstairs but it was up to high for the pictures to get much more than just a flew flowers. LOL So here is Samantha in front of the backdrop that you can't see and one of her friends in front of the door. Later towards the end after the pictures were printed they each got a little key chain and they put their pictured in them and took them home with an aloha bracelet. Very Cute!

And while I was taking the pictures and Jesse was getting a fire ready they resorted to frog catching in the field. Only the seasoned and professional frog catcher Samantha was able to catch one that of course had to go home with one of the girls in a jar. Should have heard it croaking in there. I echoed and was kinda creepy that a little 1 1/2 inch frog could be so loud. They girls are so funny and to be honest I think the frog catching was the highlight of the night. So much for planning things to do. LOL

And then we pulled out the fire pit and did s'mores. One of the other moms sent all the s'more making supplies. Nice eh? Yup my 2 helper moms rock! You can see it was chillie and windy out there. Why in the heck is the weather so nasty these days? Jesse had a killer head ache but being the total awesome dad he is he did the s'mores and the pictures and go the pizza and all anyway cuz he ROCKS even more than helper moms. I am so lucky to have him. Poor man has to participate in all my parties and live in my ADHD messy totally fly by the pants compulsive lifestyle and he loves me anyway. And little Miss Mantha too. Awwww aren't we special? Can you see Samantha doing a Sasquatch impression in the background? You can't? Well then here is a close up:

LOL Oh yes the party throwing girly princess that she is. LOL She forgot to shave before the party. Oops! Hahahaha isn't she so scary here? I wouldn't let them tell scary stories because I didn't want calls from the moms about me sending the kids home scared out of their wits. But when they were upstairs waiting for the mom's to come pick them up they did anyway. Little Muffins!

And because Samantha says that i have to post the little lanterns that were on the ceiling on the upstairs. Like I said she loved the decorating. It was pretty fun. What a great way to kick off summer.

I love having parties for the kids.

Do you do kid parties?

Do you do themes?

Do you plan lots of activities or just let them run and play?

Am I totally crazy?

Is this why I feel like a walking tornado?

OH and this other little funny. Jaden came home just at the end of the s'mores and for the next few days s'mores what the snack of choice for all the kids. I showed them how to use the microwave so that they would stop asking me to light a fire. They ate ever last gram cracker they could find in the house. The next morning when I dragged my butt out of bed I came down to find Jaden having a bowl or melted marshmallows for breakfast. And he even stuck in a few chocolate chips just for fun. He didn't think I was too cool when I told him that wasn't a marvelous breakfast choice. Admit that I took a bite though. LOL Wouldn't you?