Butterfly extravaganza! Activities, décor & *magical guests*

I love our Eleanor’s zeal for a party! She had been so looking forward to her butterfly birthday bash that we started prepping the activities and decorations a few weeks in advance so as to best involve her in the pre-party fun. Then we kept the decorations up for a belated get-together with friends who couldn’t make the party date. As a result our home looked like butterfly central for a full month, and now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t keep a few things up to incorporate into our Easter décor?

There were butterflies, of course, to greet our friends on the porch.

Eleanor picked out the butterfly fabric for the craft station table cloth and we paired it with lanterns from last year’s bday.

A fancy butterfly table set for brunch. Erik and I made the butterfly garland using a butterfly punch, pretty papers, and ribbon. We cut the giant #3 out of cardboard and covered it in polka dot duct tape.

Another table view to show off the colorful linens, flowers, and a big cardstock butterfly at each place as a name card.

But more than the decorations, I deliberated over the party activity line-up, trying to come up with the best options for our mix of kiddos and ages. First up was butterfly wand painting. Erik had sanded dowel tips and wood-glued butterfly cut-outs on them, forming paint-ready butterfly wands.

The kids colored them with crayons, painted them with watercolors (for a resist effect with the crayon), and finally chose a few ribbons to finish them off. When paired with some wings, they make for the perfect butterfly photo-op!

Then we did the classic tulle in a clothespin butterfly craft. The kids colored the clothespins with markers and picked their tulle colors. They were cute and easy, and while some kids were finishing Erik vaulted them through the air with some sort of elastic band launcher for extra pizzazz.

Then we headed into the playroom for a butterfly hunt! Eleanor says this was her favorite part. Pre-party, I punched butterflies out of various papers and half-hid them throughout the room. Then we sent in the kids with party bags to collect them easter-egg style.

After that we trooped outside to make butterfly nectar. I told the kids that some extra-specially beautiful butterflies come through ABQ once a year, and today was the day that they should be passing through! So we mixed up some nectar with food coloring, water, sprinkles, and glitter to leave out in hopes of providing a special treat for the butterflies’ long journey. Here the kids are mixing,

And then pouring it into nectar pans!

Next, I read a story (Ella the Elegant Elephant) while the kids did butterfly scratch art around the playroom table and Erik whipped up brunch. Then the kids donned their flower hair bands (which doubled as dainty napkin rings in the table setting) and feasted on french toast.

As they finished up eating I checked on the butterfly nectar pans and what do you know?!? They were covered with the magical once-a-year butterflies!

I called for the kids and told them that we’d have to be quiet and not get too close so as not to scare the thirsty butterfly friends. They were spellbound! (And this was Luke’s favorite party happening.)

Then we brought the kids back inside for cake – a carrot cake with sprinkle butterfly stencils on top.

 

Eleanor approved.

Then we went back outside to check on the magical butterflies. They were gone, but they kindly left some sparkly butterfly charms for the kids to gather. They must have really liked that nectar they made.  

Then the kids jumped, climbed and slid on a little butterfly gymnastics course on the patio.

We finished off with presents and hugs for the lucky birthday girl.

I do think our girlie-pie was pleased with her day and it was such a joy to see all the kids have fun together! We love you Ellabelle, or Ella-turtle as you like to be called these days! You fill our hearts with joy with your silly, spunky, sweetest ways. 

{More pics here.}

Feast with friends

Thanksgiving morning, our kitchen fell prey to a shocking predicament. We were ready too early! The turkey package instructed cooking for 5 hours, and we loaded our lady bird into the oven a touch early to be sure. But then at just 10:15 a tasty turkey aroma enveloped our home. I tried to believe that she couldn’t possibly be done, but when we checked her at 10:45, she was already 15 degrees above the target temp! Ay caramba! Fortunately the internet came to our rescue with a ‘turkey emergency’ website. We quadruple-foil-wrapped our birdie and kept her warm until the meal, and she only dried out a little.

What a fun feast it was, followed by a lovely walk around our neighborhood to see the sun set and luminarias light up rooftops. {I’m quite taken with the southwestern Christmas tradition of luminarias -- candles in paper bags lining walkways or rooftops -- and am hoping to get a set now that we have a stucco home.}

We spent the rest of the weekend with a few more casual get-togethers, some little projects, and lots of relaxed family time. A perfect holiday!

Birthday blast-off

Last weekend Luke was thrilled to attend a birthday party for his sweet friend, M. Luke’s been to a couple other birthday parties, but this was the first time he really understood the concept of a party and couldn’t wait to participate in the festivities. The party was Toy Story themed, so that morning we watched some clips on YouTube with our movie-deprived child. Honestly, he’s so easily spooked by evil characters that I think it will be a long time until I want him to watch it for fear of never getting to sleep in my own bed again! But anyway, back to the party… look at these cutie-pie hats and favors!

Here’s M chasing Luke. Our boy LOVES a good game of chase!

Then there was pin the badge on Buzz,

a little piñata candy chaos {video here},

and lunch from “Pizza Planet” plus adorable Martian cupcakes! The fabulous time has me inspired to throw a party for Luke’s third bday, which is coming up fast. Regretfully, I have yet to host a single birthday bash for Luke or Eleanor. We’ve always been busy on their birthdays and I’ve never quite gotten my party act together in time. We have plans for Luke’s actual birthday this year too, but I’m thinking we’ll just have his party a few weeks later. I love the idea of a book theme and quickly gravitated to Luke’s long-standing favorite, Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go. It’s sweet that this book was a childhood favorite of Erik’s too. A quick web search yielded a wealth of party inspiration. Like this pic from here:

We’ll see what Lukebug and I manage to put together!

East Coast road trip, Part 2

I’m finally finishing our Christmas travel recap! I wrote here about Christmas in NC, here about Eleanor’s bday in NC, and here about our first road trip stop in NJ. On New Year’s Eve, after a fond farewell to my NJ relatives, we headed south for an afternoon at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden with Andrea and Erik and their precious little boys.

In this pic, Luke and I are silhouetted against a big tank. Faintly, you can make out the hulking mass of….

A hippo!! They were so agile and huge, just exhilarating to watch.

But most amazing were the numerous touch tanks. So exciting! (Especially when I had to moderate Luke’s not-always-gentle-enough touching) When we visited our aquarium last week, I enjoyed reminding Luke that we’d touched many of the animals before.

Below, Luke and C happily munch apples with an obliging turtle statue. What a great time we all had. If only we could join them for aquarium trips more often!

Then we drove up to Princeton, headed to a lovely New Year’s party. We usually spend New Year’s with family, and so I don’t think I’ve gone out to a New Year’s party since college! I’m not sure this officially counts, since we did leave with our sleepy pair before 10 pm, but seeing old friends, meeting little Miss Eliana, and Aime and Greg’s warm hospitality made it a perfect evening even with our early departure.

We were blessed to be back at Westerly Road Church the next morning. How things have changed since the Sunday mornings when I would run out of my dorm to catch the vans from the U-Store! Now there are baby bags to carry and two little people to drop off! It was wonderful to worship there once again and hear a terrific message from Pastor John about God’s calling for parents to raise children for the Lord, not just for ourselves (Luke 2:41-52).

Then we spent a relaxing afternoon with John, Lucy, and little Miss Anna. It was so much fun to catch up with them, see all the work they’ve done on their lovely home, and have other dear friends stop by!

We finished Sunday with a fabulous dinner with Hilary and Steven and little Mr. Philip. The spread easily topped every other breakfast-dinner I have ever been served, and the conversation was wonderful as always. Plus (when Luke finally fell asleep) we played a few rounds of Dominion, a board game we’ve all come to enjoy recently. Luke appreciated his and Phil’s shared toy preferences – anything with wheels! (:

We were so warmly welcomed – despite our last-minute plans and over-tired, vacation-worn children! What a blessing to get to catch up with so many wonderful friends in one place.

You might think that we’d be wise enough to stop there and fly home after so much schedule-disruption for Luke and Ellabelle. We considered it, but we couldn’t miss out on another visit with Auntie C! So Monday morning we drove down for a little more Auntie bonding, this time at the Air and Space Museum. Colleen surprised us by bringing her nice friend Ryan along, who was a hit with Luke and Eleanor. Luke also loved being surrounded by air and space craft

and was especially thrilled by the ones you can walk onto.

But the even bigger thrill was the vehicle you can walk onto that also moves fast – the metro of course! Luke was awestruck by the gust of wind as it zoomed by, the automatic doors, and the jolting ride. Here’s our crew, waiting on the platform (minus Erik, the cameraman).

After dinner and a sad farewell (“Luke want stay at Auntie C’s place!”  was the refrain for our car ride’s first hour) we drove back down to my parents’ house. What a wonderful whirlwind of visits to start off 2012!

East Coast road trip

After celebrating Christmas and Eleanor’s birthday in North Carolina, we loaded into my parents’ car and drove up to New Jersey. On the way we got a little reminder of how light the traffic is in New Mexico. And Uncle Jack got a little window into the complications of kiddos (he drove up with us). But all things considered, the drive went very smoothly. Our first stop was Millburn, NJ for a Christmas gathering with my extended family.

Luke and Eleanor adored playing with their cool older cousins! How sweet H, G, and J were to them. They had so much fun playing with toys and at the park.

Later that day, the whole clan arrived for a lovely get-together.

Complete with games,

music,

presents,

and guns?

What a wonderful visit, especially having everyone meet Eleanor for the first time and catching up with relatives that we haven’t seen for a while. The previous photo displays Grandma’s fun side but this is a better one, showing how caring and thoughtful she is!

Pilgrims ahoy!

Two wee pilgrims came ashore for our Thanksgiving celebration this year. How prim and proper they look!

Until they heard that food supplies are dwindling aboard the Mayflower... don't worry though, we have plenty of leftovers here!

The littlest one is getting awfully close to walking. She constantly stands up from the floor and sits herself down with great control. Much more than Luke had when he started walking just younger than her age. But Ellabelle still prefers the security of crawling, especially with a wild pilgrim boy child on the loose!

We photographed Luke the pilgrim just after his nap. Pre-nap, his hat had starred in skype conversations with both sets of grandparents. But the costume may have caused a little holiday confusion since he wished them "Happy Halloween" just as often as "Happy Thanksgiving"!

Here are a few links if you’re wanting a quaint bonnet or hat yourself. They're so easy that I made a bunch to bring to a lovely Thanksgiving dinner we shared with new and old friends here in Albuquerque. What a blessing of hospitality to be warmly welcomed by the family of friends. And they had two 20-lb. turkeys and a kid-friendly home too! You could tell that they had some background in campus ministry. (:

Can you believe how adorable these little pilgrims were after the dinner? What angel faces!

There's just a three-month age span between the three of them. They love to watch each other and interact a little now. I'm hoping they grow to be sweet friends!

We are so thankful for our little pilgrim pair and for the Lord’s amazing grace in our lives. I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

{More photos here.}

Luke’s first sleepover!

After our lake adventures, we traveled south to visit Erin’s family in North Carolina. There Luke’s water fun continued poolside and he made fast friends with the family dogs, Penny and Easter. He also had a terrific time exploring his uncles’ old toys with Papi

and getting special treats from Big Mama! The phrase ‘special treat’ is now a frequent one in Luke’s vocabulary. He likes to go into our kitchen, point at the snack shelf and say ‘special treat?’

Once Luke had been traveling for a week and a half and had become fully off-kilter from his regular sleeping routine and a little overwhelmed with the nonstop excitement of vacation, Erik and I took off for a few nights and left Luke with my parents! It was the first time that we’d both left him overnight, but he did wonderfully and my parents and brothers did a terrific job taking care of him. My brothers earned their uncle badges once again when Luke got carsick all over them during their drive up to NJ – he was very sorry about that guys!

Meanwhile Erik and I flew north to visit friends in Princeton and attend a dear friend’s wedding in Philadelphia. We had a wonderful time, it was amazing how many more people we were able to see in our brief time in Princeton without a little one’s schedule to accommodate. And we caught up with so many college friends at the beautiful wedding, including some that we hadn’t seen since our nuptials five years ago! But don’t think that our baby expertise was entirely neglected – here you see me holding little Titus while his father hastily made his way to the mic to bless the meal. (photo from Christina Keddie) 

Finally, our trip wasn’t complete without a little Craig’s List shopping. My dream double stroller was listed for a good price on the triangle area CL, so we traveled home with an extra-large baby gear item on top of all our other luggage! We were quite a sight making our way through the Albuquerque airport. I think that the luggage assistant was stifling a chuckle when we confidently replied “no, we’re fine!” when asked if we needed any help. Two strollers, one car seat, two huge suitcases, three or four smaller bags, one toddler…. check!