Glad in the Yuck.

Eli had one sick day for kindergarten. And it was only a four-hour Wednesday night sickness. That's amazing! He finished school Friday! FIRST grade next fall!

And we had a weekend with the Lipperts and my parents in Fargo. We had family photos taken Sunday morning (on Grammy's birthday, a pretty great gift I think!). We arrived home Monday afternoon.

Tuesday morning Eli threw up and Annalee followed suit and all day today much misery from them, poor kiddos. But how awesome that it happened 1. after school is done 2. after our family weekend 3. in the morning instead of the middle of the night!!!

And so far just those two. Whew! Not the best way to start summer but it really is the "ideal" time to be sick.

I have hopes to create a summer bucket list for us. We had a fun kick off in Fargo... but our kids do not love travelling. Eli on drive whining "my brain isn't thinking what I want it to think" - what?!

Evan is clinging to mommy and daddy very much so. Separation anxiety more than the big siblings ever had. He is hard to understand and keeps us guessing but he's sure precious. Excited for his birthday coming up!

Glad he's healthy today!

Evan Bevin Eleven.

I've taken his photo every day on the 14th, amazingily so! Mother's Day around 6pm I realized it was his day! Thankfully I got 'er done! Only one more on his actual birthday and I can put this all down as a mom win. And he's gosh darn cute, this boy! 11 months of him with us and part of our lives.

He's been a bit fuss fussy this last week. Not sure what's up. A great sleeper, he is not. Yet. He loves to feed himself food (crackers, cheese, cereal, bread, avocados, etc). He puts so many things in his mouth that he shouldn't, thankfully he has only swallowed paper and we've been able to fish other items out. Uffda. He's got four teeth up top and three below, his left lateral incisor is being slow to the party. He is crawling super fast and pulling up, but not standing solo or attempting walking solo yet. He enjoys smooshing his face into his blanket whenever he can. He enjoys dancing to music and he has a sweet giggle that can melt even the hardest of hearts.

Love him! Planning his first birthday to happen in less than a month!

-Evan's Mom

Songs.

Not sure if I've recorded this or not but each of us has a song or two. Made up by us, we all have a tune, a jingle, a diddly to our name.

Greg's is stinkin' awesome. "DADDY!! Daddy is a rockstar!" followed by a hardcore little doo-da. Mine is much less so. "mommm. mommmm." in a low, monotone drowl followed by random rhyming. Really quite depressing. The kids made up our songs. Eli's is from his baby outfit that Greg sang to "Eli the elephant loves to play, and munch on peanuts everyday.... doo doo do do do do do doo do do do do do do do." Annalee has two "A N N A L E E spells An-na-lee!" and "Annalee, An-na-lee-hehe, you are such, such a cute cutie, Annalee An-na-lee-hehe, you are such a cute cutie. Taco Johns!" "Evan, Evan debevin, Evan, Evan debevin" (he needs a new one).

Yesterday I overheard Annalee singing "Daddy drums! Mommy cleans! Annalee plays! Eli plays! Evan plays!" and versions of those same word combos. I'd like to think that my kids recognize my lack of musical talent but choose something I am good at to sing about. ;)

-Mommmmmmmm

May the Fourth...

BE WITH YOU.

Man alive, I was not a Star Wars fan before Greg. I knew nothing. Nothing except probably the logo and that it was about space. Now... now I know some stuff. No expert but I did plan a hellagood party for my six year old last week!

And so how fitting to post some of the details on Star Wars Day!

Here I go all OVER THE TOP AGAIN. In my defense, I have no job to use my creative juices, SW is all the rage now, and we own an insane amount of Star Wars stuff! Decor cost was almost nothing. Plus since I didn't choose any colors, pretty much anything went with one of the movies and/or characters. We had a few star balloons out front, and a Chewie mask on the front door and a few odds and ends around along with some of this excessive decorating:

We (or Grandma) owns all this stuff! CUPCAKE fail here... all my good red food coloring dried out so I was stuck with using the "red" that's really just pink. Too late to change. Blue vs Redish light sabers. They were still yummy. Buttercream is the best.

Didn't want the kids playing with the plastic ones so used them for decor (borrowed half from Grandma).

EVERYTHING SW: soap and Kleenex, even Mac-n-Cheese!
Our box of prizes for all the games... so much SW

Eli wanted this theme and his invite turned out crazy cute (and I got to break out some Photoshop skills, but really this only took me an hour start to finish):

No room for the other Far without creating a new line. Whatevs, Uncle Chris.

We invited all the boys from his class along with two girls he is close with. Sorry to the rest of the ladies! Add in a handful of other friends and family and we were a full house.

We had tacos because that's what Eli requested. Again. His favorite food he'd have everyday if he could. I had to up the theme with other snacks, of course.

TACOS! Luke Skywater, Jedi Juice, Trooper Scoopers, Dark Side Chips, and Obi-Wan Kabobies!

Admiral Ackbar Snackbar!

Hans Rolos, Wookie Cookies/Chewie Cookies, Edible Ewoks, Tie Fighters (my fave), Yoda ears, R2D2 Popcorn (puffcorn plus almond bark and sprinkles), Light Sabers, Cheeze-it and Honey Maids already done for me! SW baggies

YES. Silver forks in a clearanced Easter Yoda basket. SW napkins from Target.

Some kids dressed up, others didn't and I WILL BE FOREVER BUMMED I DIDN'T GET A GROUP PHOTO!! Bollocks!

Lilli was the BEST Rey!

Pool Noodle Light Sabers - duct tape and electrical tape! I know there are no white light sabers, btw. Their favors included a SW Phonics book (or bubbles for the ones that don't like SW), SW fruit snacks, light saber pencil, and an Easter egg shaped like a SW guy with SW candy in it (90% off Target win). 

MC as Han and Amy sporting crazy cool Darth socks. 

BUBBLES!

Chewie and a Jedi and an R2D2 bubble maker. 

Freeing Han

Chewie and baby!

Awesome grandparents! And SW magnets on my microwave. Seriously had SW guys all over the place. 

I had made Leia buns but SHE's NOT WEARING THEM IN ANY OF THE PHOTOS. Plus she got tacos all over the white later and so I don't know if I'll ever get THE photo I'm looking for.

This is after all the balloons mooshed together but they were quite cool before. I drew stormtroopers on some of them. The kids were alllll about wacking these. A good portion of the party here! You can't see the SW sheets I hung for an awesome photo backdrop (that I didn't use, arg) that also covered my pantry!

CRAZY fun! Why you have unfinished basements, y'all! WAIT! I see the Leia buns! FTW!

I made a DEATH STAR pinata out of layers of toys/snacks and tin foil. AND I FORGOT ABOUT IT until 5 minutes before the party ended and many kids were gone! Oh shucks. We were outside by then bc the weather was awesome!
We also had SW bingo but it was a little too detailed for our crew...

What Jedi arrived??

Yoda hat onto it's third baby! And daddy's SW blanket from when he was a boy.
And what a sweet birthday boy, Eli is six years old!!

You're welcome, son, for this fun and detailedness. I love you!

 -party planning mama extraordinaire