Elggren Halloween Party

The whole gang (at least the ones dressed up) My favorite was Amber and Gary who dressed as Mrs. McFeeLee and Ed McMann who just won the Publisher's Clearing house. It was great!
Ben, my cute little Stinker! I'm so glad I got to use this costume again!
Jack as bumblebee, the transformer. For all of you out there worried that I was allowing my 5 year old son to be a bumblebee. It is a Transformer! We had so much fun jumping in the enormous pile of leaves that grandpa made for us and just playing with the cousins.

Serious Rib Thingy!

Jack losing his first real tooth a few months ago. One other has fallen out since. He is so cute with a big hole in his smile.
The other day we were at Walmart looking for some t-shirts for YW when we found ourselves in the bra section. Jack turned around and saw a white bra and said, "What's that...Oh.... that's a rib thingy." As I was trying quickly to get us out of there we went around the corner and right in Jack's face, right at his level was a huge black lace bra. It kind of took him by surprise and he had to step back a little, then he said, "OHHHH that's a SERIOUS RIB THINGY!"

Birthdays!

We took the boys to Kangaroo Zoo for their birthday. Jack had such a blast.
Ben had a lot of fun too. He loved to go down the slides until he flipped over. We took Jack to a place like this last year and I wasn't able to play at all. I was having Ben the next day. We all had fun, and it wore the boys right out.
Jack opening his presents from us. I love Ben's morning face in this one!
Ben with his new toy table that he loves. It plays the cutest music and he always bounces and dances to it. (I love those jammies!)
Ben was super cute with his cake. He tore into it. He was throwing it and stuffing tons into his mouth at one time. It was really fun to watch. Too bad that when we did it with the whole family he would barely even touch it. We had a great birthday week!

Cake, I did it!

When Jack turned 2 I thought, "Well sure, I can make a Lightening McQueen cake. How hard can it really be?" I was sooooooooooooooooooooo wrong. This was the result and I cried and laughed really hard that day. Kirsten helped me. (Don't think I'm not going to give you some credit for the above picture) I had no idea what I was doing and the only thing that let you know it was a car were the tires on the side. We just kept dumping more and more of that awful red frosting on there to hopefully cover it up. I will never forget Jack's face when he saw it. It was kind of a "What the Heck is that" look! He finally figured out it was a car, but lets just say that nobody was very thrilled with it.
This year I did my homework! (Homework: watching Ace of Cakes, or Amazing Wedding Cakes.) I can't believe that I even tried again after the 2 year fiasco, but I did and I am so proud of the result. If you can't tell it looks identical to Jack's Optimus Prime toy. He knew exactly what it was and so did everyone else! He was so proud of it, and of his mom. Yes, Kirsten did help me again! Thanks Kirst! I was a little bit worried because Jack had watched some of the cake shows with me and he knew what he wanted. The most amazing thing was the Marshmallow fondant that I researched myself and it turned out amazing.
It really looked cool. I don't think the pictures do it justice. I had to make it twice, once for his friend party and once for the family party. When my nephew saw it he asked where I ordered the cake from. When I told him I made it he just stared at me with his mouth open. As you can tell I'm pretty proud of it (even though I know it's not as great as I think it is), but let me just be proud for a minute. I think I have made an amazing improvement!

Jack's Birthday Party

Jack had a fantastic 5 year birthday party. Sorry if your little one wasn't invited. With our street alone there was like a million! Seriously, there were about 26 kids invited, but I had the perfect activity!
This is Paul Brewer and he is the most amazing magician I have ever seen for kids and families! Luckily he is married to my cousin so I knew where to find him. He has a live rabbit and a bird. And all his tricks were amazing. The kids were completely entertained the whole time.
Ben didn't budge for most of it. This is him watching the show.
He did such a wonderful job making Jack feel special and also making sure all the kids enjoyed it. If you are looking for someone to do a party for any size or age He is the one to call. We had a great time and I think it was a party that Jack will not soon forget.