all things superhero

will decided he would have a superhero party to celebrate his big 5. will is detail oriented, involved, all in, complicated. so i'm not sure why i thought for even one second he would pick 1 superhero to share his party with. no. he picks 3. of course he does. and who i am to deny him that. anyone who knows me, knows i go all in too...hhmmm...interesting.

so, superman, batman, and spiderman, here we come. i get to work. found decorations at party city for batman and spiderman. anyone tried to do a superman party lately? not so easy. ebay and random, random party stores online, that's where you find superman. although it was a lot of time and quite a bit of work, it was kind of fun. plates, cups, confetti, streamers, balloons. definitely had fun doing the favors. everything was related to one of the superhero's. i don't do generic party favors (nothing wrong with them if you do) because i find that they are broken, lost or not cared about...pretty much immediately. so we had batman socks, spiderman bracelets and mini coloring books, silly bandz, superman easter eggs filled with tattoos, batman pails to hold it all. and of course, simple, cute spiderman balls for the little guys.

oh and will, always thinking of everyone, decided because there would be girls at his party, we had to do wonder woman too. thank you target for wonder woman silly bandz, and ebay for rings and tattoos.

yes, will was the star of the party. but lets be honest. the cake. for some reason, i was all about the cake this year. and it was amazing. anyone interested, look no where else: Hey there, Cupcake! make sure you click on her gallery, it's truly unbelievable. she actually has "home sweet home" cupcakes that have little toasters (with toast popping out!) and towels on top. super cute. and her hands created that!

backyard party pretty...

ready for it...will's cake.

so super cool. 

gets even cooler.
the back is draped with superman's cape.
awesome. 

birthday boy waking up from nap.
he loved the transformation of the house into superhero world. 

party thanks for will's buddies. 

superhero mask making.

my very own superhero.





at every birthday party for the kiddo's, i have a picture from their newborn days and they're current birthday pics. this is will at 5 and will at 3 weeks. (and of course the real will peeking at me.)

all of our yummy food.

 i. love. party. food.

actually remembered to get pictures of me and my birthday boy.

love this pic of me and will.

he's been called to save the world!

batman is about to get quite the beating.
don't mess with kids who want candy.
(it was fricken' scary, not sure i will do a pinata again, it was fun. but it was nutso.) 

he blew up.

molly. mask doesn't quite fit.

this is the face of a boy high on sugar. 

batman is done for the night. 

grandma and will. grandma is so cool.
she made her own supergrandma shirt. i think she had secret weapons too. 

molly gets a snuggle.

yay, more sugar. realized later, should have used 5 stick candles.
my 5 year old suddenly became a 55 year old.

present madness. absolute madness. 

happy happy 5, will! until next year....

hop, hop, hop.

when you live away from family and all the friends you've known for ages, holidays are tough. yeah, yeah, yeah. start your own traditions, do what you like without feeling obligated, blah, blah, blah. none of that matters. until you've done it, you won't know what it's like. you know that moving your family to this place is right, you know it's where you're supposed to be. but holidays are hard. but, this past easter, we hop, hop, hopped on over to indio (near palm springs) and spent the afternoon with my dad and karen. it was perfect, it was amazing. there was nothing super, fabulously out of the ordinary, it was just amazingly perfect family time. when karen told me they didn't have plans elsewhere and we could join them for easter, i was so, so, so happy. the easter bunny surprised the kiddo's with easter basket treats and an egg hunt, there was swimming, and there was a fantastic easter dinner.

of course it was fantastic, karen was in charge of it.

anything she does is fantastic.

before we headed out to see papa bill and grandma karen, we had a little egg hunt at home.

coming down the stairs for easter bunny treats. look at will's eyes, already scoping out where the eggs are hidden.

easter basket's found.

this was done all on her own. no prompting.

bye bye bunny ears.

always the first to go.


will and molly are true opposites and this is just another example. will goes for the toys in the basket and could care less about the candy. molly will overdose on candy if we let her and could care less about the toys.

all set for the drive over the mountains to grandma and papa's house we go.

so sad.

just kidding. glued.

glued to his leapster.

the next set of pics are of my adorably silly kiddo's.

really? look at that face. love it, molly. love it.

(oh and yours too, will. the "hurry up mom, i have toys to play with" face.)

a rare moment.

you will rarely, very rarely see pics of me on the blog. but it's easter, so...

dad put up "the walls" (it was super windy that day) and the kids suddenly saw eggs hidden everywhere.

 it was so fun.

this picture absolutely cracks me up. i laugh every time i see it.

it is so my dad.

his expression. it was purely by accident, but it is so right. "whew. i think i have a headache. when is this over. when are the kids leaving. i'm tired. 

already." 

oh, i'm just giving him a hard time. dad loves the kid's, loves them. 

love the true laughter in that smile. look at jeremy's hands.

easter dinner. big girl! look at that fancy place setting.

(it's plastic.)

this picture needs to be framed.

birthday present from grandma and papa.

will told karen he wanted a remote controlled star wars fighter. seemed impossible to find. i should of known. he did tell grandma karen.

who was i kidding.

and last but not least, the real reason we come...right?

And, that folks, is a day in the life of rancho casablanca.