Luke's "Robot Reboot"

Luke's 5th Birthday party had a "Robot Reboot" theme.

 

I am not sure that any of us know where the obsession with robots stems from.  Nonetheless, Luke just loves them.  It seemed to start when he asked Santa repeatedly last Christmas to bring him a robot.  Santa was a bit stumped as to what Luke's expectations were for a robot, but he delivered on his promise to bring gifts to all the good little boys and girls.  Luke received a robot that walks, talks, and dances.  He seemed happy...

 

It was around this same time that I was planning Mia's birthday party and Luke informed me that he would have a robot party for his 5th birthday.  I assumed that his mind would change, given that he would have 7 months to come up with a bunch of other ideas.  He didn't ...

 

We even "sort of" tried to talk him out of the whole robot thing.  You see, you can't just go to Party City and purchase a robot party kit and be done.  No, because party stores don't just carry a robot line.  So I knew it would be a lot of work.  A lot of do-it-yourself.  A lot of crafting.  It was....

 

We told him how much fun it would be to have a "Pancakes and Pajamas" party since he is such a breakfast lover.  He also happens to request to stay in his pajamas just about every day.  When you ask him on the weekend (or even on a special day, like his birthday for instance) what he would like to do, he will tell you that he would like to stay in his pjs all day long.  Luke loved the breakfast party with guests in pajamas idea.  He loved it so much that he informed me that he would like to do it ... along with robots.  Hmmm?

 

So, after quite a lot of brainstorming, and a good deal of internet research (nope, no one else that I can find has ever done a pajama/breakfast/robot party), I came up with the theme "Robot Reboot."  Sort of silly, but it works.

 

The sign welcoming Luke's guests to his party



I did mention that there was quite a lot of crafting projects, didn't I?  Here is one of Daddy's contributions - a tabletop robot, complete with green glasses :)

The treat table and Luke's magnificent cake (NOT made by me!)

I wish I had got a few more pictures of outside - these aren't great, but they give an idea.  I ended up running a few minutes behind, which cut into my photography

As usual, I took no pictures of the food.  Guess it goes to show you what my least favorite part of party planning is!  We served egg casserole, french toast casserole, donuts, fruit kabobs, yogurt and granola, cereal, chocolate milks, and juice boxes.  The adults had much more exciting beverages than the kids:  mimosas and bloody marys ... oh, and coffee.

 

 Outside was set up with a few different craft and activity stations.  One table had glitter play-doh, another robot puzzles, and the final (and most popular) one was a design-your-own robot station.

 I adored Luke's cake.  It was made by Roxy, the aunt of one of Luke's friends.  She's amazingly talented.  I could tell that Luke loved his cake.  I almost hated to cut it because it was so cute.

 

 

 

Kids enjoying the robot cake (it was delicious; marble cake with s'mores filling!)

 Luke received so many perfect gifts.  It was officially the year of legos and robots.  He is building legos daily now ... and is also now outfitted for school with a robot backpack, lunchbag, pencil case, and even a robot ice pack for his lunchbox!

Finally, party guests went home with their own original robot t-shirt (yes, add that to the list of craft projects!) and their own little robot made out of slinkies, candy, and crayons (thank you, Pinterest!).

 

 

 

 

When all was said and done, Luke still managed to have a LOT of energy, so he put on a dance and song performance for us utilizing his radio robot (constructed, again, by Daddy).  This one stayed outside and had Luke's radio/CD player set up behind it to play through its "speaker."  I think it might have been the highlight of the party for Luke.

 

Weary-looking, pajama-wearing parents after a full day of partying robot-style

 

 Happy 5th Birthday to our big boy!  It was a great party ... and I have to admit, as I often do when it comes to Luke and his ideas, he was right.  It was an awesome theme :)!



Other July Happenings

It was a busy month.  Just a couple of other things that we did...

A visit to the Oakland Zoo with Aidan and Bailey.  It was a really fun day (although colder than I anticipated!)

Care Bare mania is still in full effect!

Lunch and sprinkler play in the backyard

 

Making breakfast

A beautiful bridal shower hosted at my parents house for our lovely soon-to-be sister-in-law / soon-to-be official Auntie Chelle

The Birthday Boy

How have 5 years passed since Luke was born.  It seems as though this is a huge milestone - he is no longer a baby, no longer a toddler, and no longer even a preschooler.  Now he's a boy.  A kid.  A kindergartener.  A 5 year old.  Hard to believe.

I have so much to say about Luke at 5 years old, but will save that for another post.  This one will be dedicated to his birthday, and the next to his party. 
He awoke to balloons covering the floor of his room.

He spent the majority of the day in his pjs ... his request!  In the afternoon, he had some time to play with Day while Mommy went to work.

We went out to dinner to celebrate.  Luke's restaurant requirements?  That they serve grilled cheese and dessert!

Then home for some present opening

I love this series of photos.  He has just opened the certificate that shows him what he will be getting in a few weeks from Day, Paw, Mommy, & Daddy

A lofted bed is on it's way for our boy who will soon need a desk to do homework at and who already could use some additional floor space of his own for playing.

Happy 5th Birthday to our amazing little boy!  Next up.... a robot party this weekend!!!

Centennial Celebration

The SJCC had it's centennial celebration. It was a fun night of food and music on the golf course.

There "may" have been ginormous chocolate chip cookies involved...

...and a dance concert by Luke, who "may" have had at least one of said cookies....
***note:  this is the same kid who refuses to sing in his preschool performances.  Maybe we just need to give him a cookie ahead of performance time?

...and even after Luke's entire "show," Mia remained in the same place, eating her cookie.
***note: Kay in the background applauding for Luke :)

All in all, it was a fabulous evening

The highlight was the amazing fireworks display at the end of the night. The kids were amazed ... so were we! The best, closest fireworks I've ever seen. This gives you an idea of how close we were - they were right over our heads!

Happy Independence Day!

We had one of the best 4th of July celebrations that I can remember this year.  We spent the day swimming at the SJCC pool and then attended the San Jose Giants baseball game in the evening, which concluded with a spectacular fireworks display.

Clearly our childrens' affinity for sporting events is directly correlated to the number of treats available for purchase.  This was Mia's first cotton candy ... and if you follow this blog or know my son, it was most certainly not his first!

A family picture that includes me!  Yay!

Mia and Paw eating popcorn together.  She had a bit of a belly ache following this game after Paw indulged all of her treat desires all night long.  Mia's first baseball game consumption included:  frozen yogurt with chocolate sauce and whipped cream, a churro, cotton candy, and popcorn.  I'm sure she will happily return to any ballpark at any time.

Happy July 4th, Luke and Day!

With Gigante (Mia's not so sure)

I didn't take any photos of the fireworks, but they were impressive.  The kids LOVED them.  We may be making this our annual 4th of July tradition.

Warm summer nights

Made even sweeter by an afternoon filled with swimming and bubble guns from Paw

Saying Goodbye to the Crib

Mia has been able to get into and out of her crib since before she was one year old.  We promptly got a crib tent and have been good to go ever since.

Recently, though, Mia started leaping out of pack-n-plays when not sleeping at home.  She would help herself out of bed when sleeping at my parents' house, and then also recently when we were in Tahoe.  Add to that that she is now potty trained (still wearing a diaper at nap and night) and will often call to us from bed that she needs to potty.  Given these developments, we thought it best to transition her crib to a toddler bed and start to teach her that she needs to stay in bed when it's time to sleep.

So, this weekend Mia got a "big girl bed."  She proudly marches anyone who visits up to her room to view her new sleeping arrangement, yet when we are alone and rocking before putting her down to sleep she has asked me repeatedly to tell Daddy to bring her crib back.  I feel badly, like we took away her safe place, but I know that it is something that has to happen eventually anyways.

The good news:  other than some trouble on the first day/night, she has done really well and given us almost no trouble at all staying in her bed.  SUCH a difference from our experience with Luke.

I am hoping that we'll start to work on getting her a real big girl (twin) bed soon!

Summer School

Both Luke and Mia are attending the 6-week summer school session at Mandala this summer. It will mark a very important milestone:  the first time in nearly 5 years that I have been child-free for a few hours without getting a babysitter!  Yes, this is very exciting :)

It also marks another important first:  Mia's first taste of preschool!

For Luke, it is a bit anti-climactic.  I mean, we did just make this huge deal about "graduating" from preschool, and now we are sending him right back.  Ha!  Despite that, he's happy to be going back for a few weeks.  He loves Mandala school.

I wanted to take a few pictures of Mia on her first day, but Luke really wasn't understanding this and wanted to be in the pictures also.  On top of that, despite that fact that this is summer school and we live in California, both kids were complaining about how "freezing" they were.

Oh, well, I tried....

I was pretty concerned about how Mia would react to being left at school.  I had tried leaving her in the classroom a month or so ago while I attended a meeting at the preschool, and it had ended in disaster.  She screamed and cried so much that eventually they brought her back to me.  Thankfully, we had a week of Vacation Bible Camp's daycare under our belts this time around (Mia attended all 5 days while Luke went to camp and I led a group).  It seems that her time in the VBC daycare really paid off because she took to preschool at Mandala today without any trouble.  She first acted as though she might cry, but then when I took her to show her the bathroom and she saw that they had small toilets close to the ground, low sinks, and paper towels within her reach and that she could "do it all herself," she was sold!  It also helped that Miss Sharada was there to encourage her.  After she tried out the bathroom, she happily said goodbye to me and had a great day.    Woo hoo! 

Now, what to do with my 3 hours of time twice a week?  Hmm, maybe I'll go grocery shopping and to the dentist alone.  How exciting!