Gavin's Birthday!

Okay, so Gavin's 3rd birthday was 2 months ago, but give me a break! :D These were too fun to not post, even so terribly late. We met up with grandma and grandpa at ChuckECheese's (a LeGrand family tradition!) and then headed home for presents, pizza and cake. I guess I didn't take pictures at ChuckECheese, oh well! But here's the presents.

Scary red eyes! But isn't he adorable?

All my kids get this intense look on their faces when they open presents. It's hilarious, not only 'cause it looks funny, but they do it exactly the same!

Opening presents!

Tongue hanging out, he liked this one I guess!

Oooh, Cars ice cream cake!

Make a wish!

YUMMY!

You don't have to wear pants on your birthday, didn't you know?

Happy 3 year old!

This is his mean face....too funny to not share!

Okay, so that was his actual birthday, but this year I decided that he needed a BIG birthday party as well. With R & K so close together in bdays, they almost always get a big birthday (only one year we haven't so far), and Gavin hasn't had a big one yet, so it was HIS turn! He wanted a Wall-e party, which then evolved into a space themed party. (I have a hard time swallowing character themes, but I am loosening up a little.....) It was a lot of fun to plan and he LOVED it! Here are the pictures!

Since we were expecting about 25 kids, we decided to have the party mostly in the basement. It has since been "renovated" so here are so before pictures for when I get around to posting the after pictures. Anyway.....kids playing with "Moon Sand", a la space theme party!

Bad picture, but here are the glow sticks they got as prizes.....

I covered all the windows with tin foil to make the basement dark, and to make it look spaceship-ish (probably not a real word!) and hung planets from the ceiling, and we had black lights on as well, to make it look eerie and make stuff glow in the dark. Looked pretty cool if you ask me. Unfortunately, you lose that effect with the camera flash, and you can't see anything without the flash!

After playing the comet game! They threw comets at the sun and planets to win!

Auntie Maggie and her blonde buddy, Gavin.

This was the robot building station - Legos!

Aaron's only assignment for the party - the rocket launch!

The crowd begins to gather in anticipation.....

The birthday boy pushes the launch button....

Hmmmm.....nothing seems to be happening!

Aaron does some troubleshooting....

Gavin is disappointed....

After a little assistance.....

We're ready to try again! 3.....2......1.......

BLASTOFF!

Can you see it? It's there!

Present time!

Awesome! A telescope!

Oh no!

Birthday party meltdown!

Blowing out the candles on the ice cream moon!
And on the rocket!
Yes, I made them both! Not perfect, but I was very pleased!
Back outside for some more rocket launching!
Pretty nifty!

One last activity, the rocket pinanta!

Some intense kids....
Morgan trying to break it open!
And the kids go wild!
Lots of fun for everyone!

And that was the party! It was a LOT of fun for everyone! Gavin is still talking about it, too! Sorry there are sooo many pictures, there's about 200 I didn't post though!

I've been tagged!

Okay, so thanks to Marie, I am supposed to blog about 6 quirks that I have. I am terrible at these self-assesment things, but here goes....

1. Like Marie, my elbows are double jointed and bend back further than they should. My ribs also jut out abnormally. I'll stop there with my physical quirks! Not that there aren't any more!

2. We have this old plastic set of red and blue plates and bowels. When I stack them in my cupboard, I have to alternate the colors. i.e. one red plate, then a blue plate, then red, then blue, and so on. We've lost one of the red plates and it bothers me everytime I stack stuff that the pattern has been broken. I'm like that with my other dishes too, things have to be even, matching, or follow a pattern. I have purposefully not been following the patterns lately to try and "break myself" of this quirk, but everytime I open the cupboard it still bothers me!

3. When I got nervous, I used to just stay quiet, but I have now become a nervous talker. You know those people that just kind of ramble on and on so pathetically that you almost would feel sorry for them if you weren't so annoyed and desperate to make your escape? Ummm, yeah, that is me!

4. When I do laundry at my house, everyone's socks, underwear, jammies, etc, get place neatly in their drawers, but mine, I just throw it in all jumbled and call it good!

5. I over-analyze EVERYTHING! I think it's because I'm plagued by insecurity sometimes, and I overthink my interactions with other people. For example, I bumped into a girl and her toddler, that used to be in my ward as I was leaving the post office yesterday, and I said, "hey, I know you!" and gave her a big smile, she just kinda ignored me and looked away, so I got in my car and proceeded to wonder about whether or not she remembered me, maybe she just didn't like me, maybe she thought I didn't remember her name, (I do!) and on and on worrying about whether or not this girl thought I was a stuck up brat, or had some misconceptions about me, and on and on.......

6. Okay, last one.... I am a DIY-er. A Do It Yourself-er for those unfamiliar with the acronym. I don't consider myself an extremely creative person, but I am a really good copier! I like to come up with my own solutions for decorating, crafting, home organization, etc. and then do them! Today on the docket is, figuring out how to turn old, unused picture frames into pretty, inexpensive jewelry displays for my shows! Also, I need to find new fabric to recover some throw pillows and an ottoman. AND.....I despise buying Halloween costumes, I like my kids to be homemade and handmade, so that is on the agenda for the next few weeks as well!

So, I don't think that there are six people that actually read my blog, and even the people I tag might not even read my blog....but I'll tag Becky, Daryllyn, Alicia, Katie..... And anyone else, if you read my blog, consider yourself tagged! Let me know too, so I can read your quirks!

I am terrible at this!

When Raegan was a baby, some of you might remember the adorable website I had for our family, filled with pictures. I spent hours on it. Those days are long gone, I can no longer seem to find the time to update regularly on this blog. So you know what? I don't care anymore, I will blog when I have a chance and quit feeling guilty about it!

And right now the boys are fighting so this could be shorter than I wanted!

So, what have we been up to? Well, Raegan and Keaton are back in school, Raegan is in 2nd and Keaton is in afternoon K. They are both doing well! Keaton still needs some extra assistance, but his issues are mainly social. He is a smarty pants, the boy is writing in complete sentences and reads very well for a 5 year old. They're taking the bus and doing great!

I am enjoying feeling like a person after driving back and forth to school the last two years, last year being particularly bad, with one all-day kid, one half-day, and two different schools, 25 minutes away. The first few weeks I just enjoyed it, then I got busy doing projects that needed to be done around the house. I moved the playroom to the kid's basement, painted down there, organized, built an art center for them, then in the old playroom, we repainted (no more clouds! But there are clouds and grass and a tree in the basement) and built a desk for the kids schoolwork and computer, put up a new light fixture, etc. I'm still not done, but getting close! I'll take pictures when I'm all done, and maybe one day, I'll post them up here! But it has been a lot of work, which I wouldn't have been able to get done if we hadn't switched schools.

I also had about a month off of jewelry shows, which wasn't planned, per se, but I was glad so that we could adjust to school and I could get this stuff done! I start up again this Friday, woo hoo! I'm hoping to have a busy fall season, and earn all of our Christmas spending money.

Aaron has been busy at work. He had an interview in AZ whenever my last post was. He was actually really wanting it, and me a little less so, we got all mentally prepared.....and it didn't work out. figures. Oh well, it's fine, we like Colorado, Aaron loves it, although, I must admit I was wanting to avoid another Colorado winter.

Okay, I am going to end this post and go find pictures to share of what we've been doing! I'll add the kid's first day of school pictures here!

Change is in the air...

So things are getting interesting around here.... I'm not supposed to say anything yet, because things might not end up how we hope.... But there are definitely some big changes in the air. I'll post more about that when I'm "allowed". :D In the meantime, we are all alive, well, and incredibly busy!

I had to delete my post and repost it, which means the comments are gone...sorry. I didn't want our home address available to the world, which means you got it right, AB! :D