Jayden's first Slumberparty

For a couple of months now, Jayden and his best-est buddy Lillie have been talking about having a sleepover.  So for Lillie's birthday, we gave a her own Buzz Light Year sleeping bag (she is a Toy Story fanatic) and a coupon for a slumber-party at the Marriott house.

Lillie redeemed the coupon yesterday and we all had a blast!  We built hospitals, visited a petting farm, went dancing, and yes, there was some fighting, but once a truce was called we went for dinner at one of our favorite Italian restaurants - you know, one of those mom and pop's kind of place.  After that, we got our PJ party started and went to visit a Fort.  There, we watched a drive-in movie before turning into bed.  Did we mention that we did all this, without leaving the comforts of the Marriott house ; )

Fun with Legos (hospital is in the background)

 Look, a non-princess car

We were Buddy-sitting this weekend (the Scraba's furry child)

(and yes, this was considered the "petting farm")

 

 our kids loved the Budster

dueling:

 how disagreements are settled at the Marriott house

 Lillie-Joan of Arc

 Don't mess with me!

Dinner time at a cozy, family run Italian restaurant:

(this place serves up the best homemade grilled pizzas)

 

 Jayden ordering for Lillie

 Chris's impromptu Italiano lessons.

(Although I'm not sure how Italian or politically correct this is... )

"I'ma gonna tell you a story abouta corksoaker..."

 Looking at the dessert menu

Can I have the Sundae on a Saturday?

Getting ready for bed:

 

Welcome to Fort Bedsheets!

 The spectacular lights show

 

Judging by the kids' huge glo-in-the-dark smiles, 

I think they were having fun : )

 

After we watched a short movie (projected on Jay's wall), the kids declared they were completely wiped out.  Chris and I were initially concerned as whether our little guest could fulfill the "sleep" part of a sleepover, especially since she mentioned at bedtime how she missed her mommy.  We called her family to say goodnight and within a few minutes of being tucked in, both kids were sound asleep.  They made it all the way until early this morning, when we had to wake up the sleepyheads for 4:00am hockey.

Here is a picture of Lillie this morning, 

celebrating her rite of passage with a bowl of cheerios and milk before hockey practice.

Good job Lillie - we are so proud of you and love you very much : )

All Hallow's Eve

Halloween has finally arrived!  Off to celebrate with the Edmonds Family : ) 

 Allowing the kids to play with bats seems harmless enough

(moments before Jayden smashes Kari's trash can to bits and pieces)

Filling up on Pizza

(don't worry, still left room for 1/2 lb of candy)

Ready to go 

 

 Group Pose

  

 Here we come!

A stop before trick or treating back in our own neighboorhood: 

The house on Forbes Street in Santa Clara

Greeted by the undead

Cemetary in the front yard

and haunted study on the porch 

(with chandeliers, spooky black & white pictures, and a possessed Ouija Board on an old writing desk)

Added a few additions to Bumble Bee's outfit:

working headlights!

 My boys : )

 As you can see, we had such a spook-tacular day!

Transformers...more than meets the eye

I now realize that under-eye bags,glue gun burns, and painted skin the weekend before Halloween are tell-tale signs of a good father!  This year Chris volunteered to head up Jayden's costume (as I exhaled a big sigh of relief...the homemade dragon costume I sewed last year was still fresh in my mind).  After much family discussion (and Jayden's constantly changing mind), we finally decided that he would be Bumble Bee from Transformers. 

 Conception:  here was our inspiration...
mama starts sketching the plans

Trial Fitting

a little sculpting/painting/mod-podge magic

Ta-da!

Bumblebee on his way to Imagination Day @ school

The auto-bot reading his story at the publishing party

(his hand-made transformer shirt was mama's contribution)

Let the festivities begin...

Jayden volunteered to be wrapped in toilet paper up like a mummy

Within the first 5 seconds and 2 rolls of TP

Garfield and Dragon wrapping at warp speeds

Buddies Nadia & Griffin standing proudly next to a very mummified Jayden

Look, there still some yellow showing, grab some more toilet paper

After the first 10 minutes: the smiling eye

The next 10 minutes: his eyes started to glaze over

I think it's time to call it quits

(Chris and I were starting to getting concerned of O2 levels...)

Although it was not a competition, we have a good idea who would have won : D 

The Transformer's motto of "more than meets the eye" definitely rings true to my husby.  Who knew that the combination of foam camping mats, sharp knives, lots of glue, a heating element (our stove), paint, mod-podge, and a toy construction hat combined with overly ambitious costume endeavors, 3 weeks of going to bed at 2am, backaches, a few band-aids, a couple of Motrin's, some sick days from work, a whole lot of caffeine, and even more cursing (but always with a smile) would yield this result?  I guess I should have factored in "a father's love that knows no bounds".  

Chris, you are the most wonderful father and husband!  

We love you all the way into outer space, through a black hole into another galaxy (as Jayden would put it).

goodnight ohbeedoh

Every night before we go to bed, Chris will wake Jayden up for a trip to the bathroom.  Then he tucks a very sleepy Jayden back into bed, always ending with saying goodnight & love you to both Jayden and his favorite stuffed animal Billy Goat.  

It usually goes something like this:

Chris:  Goodnight Jayden, love you

Jayden:  Goodnight, love you too

Chris:  Goodnight Old Billy, love you

Billy Goat (Jayden in his high pitched Billy voice): Goodnight, love you too

Here's what happened two nights ago:

Chris:  Goodnight Jayden, love you

Jayden:  Goodnight, love you too

Chris:  Goodnight Old Billy, love you

Billy Goat: (silence)

Chris:  I said Goodnight Billy...

Billy Goat: (still silent)

Chris:  Billy?  I said Goodnight...

Jayden (in a groggy voice):  Old Billy is already asleep

sing it J!

Something about a six year old, sitting in the back seat belting out the lyrics to his favorite Usher tune, "I'm a hustler baby..." that puts a big smile on my face.

So dance, dance, dance like it's the last
Last night of your life, life
Gonna get you right
'Cause baby tonight
The DJ got us falling in love again

Two down, eighteen more to go!

Another one bites the dust...another tooth for Jayden that is.  This is the second tooth lost but the first tooth collected by the Tooth Fairy (the first tooth was gifted to us from Jay as a keepsakes)!

 It's happened again!

 Extreme Mouth Close-up

 I know what to do!

 Goodnight Ice-Bat, say hello to the tooth fairy

 (J.J.'s fang)

 Sweet Dreams J

The next morning Jayden awoke to a wonderful surprise!  The tooth was gone and in exchange the tooth fairy left some money (both American and Canadian), a bag of polished geodes (fancy word for rocks), and a lovely letter from the tooth fairy herself:   

Thank you for visiting us tooth fairy, you made my little boy very happy 

(you must love him very much)!

Our Trip to Anywhere

Night driving during the warm summer evenings had me reminiscing about our more spontaneous care-free days B.C. (before child) where we would jet off on a vacation at the drop of a hat.  But were we still the free-spirited Chris and Judy from the yester-years?  I wanted to believe that we still were.  This summer I started to get "the itch" (not that kind...). 

There is something about the warm evening air, the glow of the speedometer, and one of my favorites tunes - Journey, "Don't Stop Believin'" echoing throughout the Prius that breaks out my impulsive side.  "Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world.  She took the midnight train goin' anywhere.  Just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit.  He took the midnight train goin' anywhere..."

I look over to my husband, "let's do it, let's go somewhere/anywhere, just keep driving" I challenge.  Up to this point, Chris had always been my voice of reason, reminding me of hockey practices, birthday parties, and errands to run.  On this night, I would not have expected anything different.  So once I saw the flicker in his eyes and his slight mischievous grin, I knew I was in trouble - he was calling my bluff.  He gave me one hour to go home and pack.  "Fantastic!" - although I was no longer sure it was.  The time was already 9:30pm, that would mean that we would not be on the road until 10:30pm.  Plus other vital questions dawned on me; Where were we going?  Where would we stay? What were we going to do?  How did we do this before?  Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.  Perhaps we should plan ahead, etc.  Ironically, it was because of child (my free spirited 6 year old) that we could no longer back out of our impromptu trip to anywhere and we were able to reconnect to our spontaneity.

Long story short, we ended up 5.5 hours south maneuvering the endless sand dunes of Pismo Beach on our rented 3 seater red dune buggy.

Welcome to Anywhere - we've arrived

Driving on the beach

My boys checking out the equipment

We watched an instructional video on how to navigate the dunes.  Step 1: Slow down and drive parallel to the hill you want to travel down.  Step 2:  Stop to check the steepness of the slope and ensure that the path is clear of obstacles.  Step 3:  Proceed down the hill with caution.  My husband, however, decides that he can distill this down to a single step.  Chris's Step 1:  See steep steep hill, floor it!  

First hill in sight.  Chris floors it.  Of course, I am screaming "Chris!!!  STOP! STOP! Step 1!!!".  So he does...a little too late, we stall the vehicle high centered on the hill:

Right before the drop

High centered - notice the steepness?

Jay and I decide to sit this one out

No where to go but down, down, down...

 

 


 The journey home was happy and triumphant.  We have all found our inner child again (not that much of a reach for some...).  I had the most wonderful weekend with my best friends, my family.  Love you guys!