One-year-olds are fun

I love my one-year-old.  He is so funny and busy and cute.  I wish I could freeze time and keep him this way for a little while longer.  I could just eat him up!

Legend of Zelda Birthday Party

Last weekend we hosted Izzy's 5th birthday party.  We had a Legend of Zelda theme, which ended up being a super fun party idea.  Since there wasn't any Zelda party supplies at the store, we made our own decorations and birthday banner...

I went online and bought these adorable cupcakes toppers from Etsy...

In the video game, Link's life is represented by how many hearts he has left.  We were in luck, because the dollar store had heart shaped balloons...

When the kids arrived, we decorated our own shields.  Very fun...

Next, we went on a rupee hunt (rupees are little jewels that are the currency in the game).  I found little wooden treasure chests at the craft store for $1.  I also found the fake jewels there too...

 

 After finding all the jewels, the kids used their rupees to purchase swords...

Next the kids went on a scavenger hunt to rescue Princess Zelda.  I hung these clues all over our house and yard.  The kids had a blast finding them...

As a reward, Zelda lead the children to a treasure chest pinata (I didn't get any pictures of the kids breaking open the pinata at the actual party)...

After all of that activity, we came inside for pizza and cake...

And finally, the birthday boy got to open his presents...

The party was super fun.  Izzy loved all of the activities, which was my goal.  I still can't believe my little guy is FIVE! 

FIVE!

My little guy is five today!  He is such an amazing kid.  So strong and smart and helpful.  We are lucky to have him.  Happy birthday Izzy!

Hi!

Oh my aching fingers.  The weird peely skin on my right hand has gone from bad to worse over the last few weeks.  Four of my fingers are currently cracked and bleeding.  They are so sensitive.  I can barely type.  It is painful.
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I finally went back to the dentist to have my crappy looking crown redone.  I tried to live with it, but I just hated the color and shape of that tooth.  It was driving me INSANE.  They removed the crown, which was very time consuming.  I was there for almost 2 hours!  I currently have a temporary crown, which looks even worse than the original.  Fun times.
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I talked my husband into renting a hotel room when we go back to KY for Christmas.  The thought of our family of five staying with anyone, gave me a panic attack.  There just isn't room in anyone's house to comfortably accommodate 5 house-guests. And the hotel has a pool, which the kids are going to LOVE.  I am really looking forward to it!
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The city is repaving our street, which is basically the most annoying thing EVER.  They are so darn noisy with their big trucks and loud tools.  Not to mention that I can't park in my own driveway.  If we want to leave the house at some point during the day, I have to park around the block.  I am constantly worried that someone is going to a) break into my van, or b) side swipe my van on the narrow ass little street I am forced to park on. 
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We are having Izzy's 5th birthday party this weekend.  He is having a Legend of Zelda party, which was surprisingly hard to plan for.  Apparently no other 5 year old in the world loves Link the way my son does.  But despite the lack of resources on the web, I think I have developed some pretty cute party games.  I can't wait to see how everything goes!
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I am done Christmas shopping for the kids, but I haven't even started on buying gifts for family members.  Ugh.  I have a pretty good idea of what I want to buy everyone, but finding the time to get to all these stores is overwhelming.  I am thinking about just ordering everything on Amazon and calling it done. 

My little ducks

Porgie - 1 year 6 months

Izzy - 11 months

 

Guppy - 1 year 2 months

I've really gotten my money's worth out of this ducky costume!  

Trick or treating - FINALLY

Due to the hurricane Sandy clean-up effort, our town postponed trick-or-treating until Friday.  When the big day finally rolled around, I learned that the governor had declared that trick-or-treating would take place on Monday.  I checked our town's website, and sure enough, they had decided to go with the governor's recommendation.  Porgie and Izzy were devastated. 

Although it was frustrating to have the holiday pushed back two times, the good news is that over the weekend I bought 2 Tranformers costumes for 50% off at Target.  AWESOME!  I love a good deal.

Today we finally got a chance to go trick-or-treating.  The kids were so excited.

Growing up is hard to do

I just realized that I forgot to tell you guys about my amazing little Guppy.  He is walking.  For the longest time, he was such a docile little baby.  His hobbies included sitting on my lap, while giving lots of hugs and kisses.  It was wonderful.  All the other babies his age were walking around, getting hurt every two seconds, and crying a lot.  I was happy that my baby was so good and quiet and cuddly.  But now?  Holy crap, the child never stops walking and falling and crying.  He is a toddler, and there is no stopping him now. 

He thinks he is 5 years old, and doesn't understand why I am always trying to confine him to a stroller in public places.  He screams bloody murder whenever I strap him into his carseat.  He tries to stomp his feet whenever I tell him 'NO!'. 

Little stinkpot.  Good thing he is so darn cute...

In which I complain, but try to be grateful

Just to ease your minds, we all made it through the hurricane.  We live almost an hour from the ocean, and for that I am VERY thankful.  In our area, there was lots of rain and strong winds, but we didn't even lose our electricity.  We are lucky people.

Life has been busy over here.  We were thinking about selling our house.  Now, I am not so sure.  We had a realtor come over and tell us how much he thinks our house is worth in the current market.  He basically wants us to give our house away.  The number he suggested was so low that I almost kicked him out of my house on the spot.  By the time the guy left, I hated him.  Of course, it isn't his fault that the market sucks.  But I wanted him out of my house anyways.

The whole thing makes me feel hopeless.  We are going to be stuck in this tiny house forever.

But then I remember that I have three healthy children and a roof over my head.  I need to be thankful for all that I have, without whining constantly about wanting more.  If we can't move, we'll just have to make the most of what we have.  Now I just need to stop looking at houses on the internet, because it is depressing me.

How have you been?