The Cazuela That The Farm Maiden Stirred

After a lunch at home, Lon and I were off to another fun event!  A book launch event! We have been to book signings, but not a launch event.  This was really fun! It was in a large hall. The hall filled up fairly quickly.   The book is wonderful, in Spanish and English. One of the shorter reviews : A wonderful read-aloud, filled with merriment and conviviality.  And it is written by our friend, Samantha Vamos!  Get it. Get two. The illustrations are very fun! Lon likes it. Alot.

Not many people, yet.

Signing her wonderful book!  (Really, I need to go get that photo editor)

Oversized chocolate cupcakes! I am not sure that Lon saw the vanilla ones.

Yummy Yummy Yummy

Some of the artwork from the book. I tried to get it to rotate, but it would not. arg!
The artwork is so much fun. It is wonderfully colorful and a joy to look at.

A Balloon Man! OH JOY! We stood in line and waited our turn. Lon was very excited and liked watching him make all the balloon animals, hearts and other things

Lon and the Balloon Man talking about what very important balloon he is going to make for Lon.

Lon got a sword, a lot of little boys got swords. It was all out pandemonium with balloons!  It was a ton of fun for all the boys

We left a little while later, there were more events that were coming up but we needed to get going. It was really fun.  Congratulations to Samantha on her wonderful book!   Lon likes it. He wants to make rice pudding now.

Ty is FIVE!

This morning we went to Jump Planet in Bothell. If you have not been there and you have young ones you are missing some serious fun! We LOVE it there.  Best Inflatable Party Place EVER!  I can go on and on about how wonderful the place is, but seriously, just go and see how wonderful it is for yourself!
 This morning, Ty had half the inflatable universe for his birthday party!

Lon ready to launch himself down the slide

Ty and Lon sliding into Daddy filming it all!

This is SO much fun!

Hi mom!

WEEEEEEEEEE

King Q

The snacks after playing! Everyone got one Vader cookies, an orange, cucumbers, cheesey poofs and a string cheese. Seconds were encouraged. Apple juice to drink. And a cool prize pack!  (pencils, papers, Japanese eraser, playdough and two dinosaurs!!)

The cake. They had alot of fun making this. It is a cupcake cake that actually looks good.

I so have to get photo editor software! This needs cropped, but I like the picture!

Lon and Ty goofing in the chair

Waiting on the cake.

Here it is!  So cool! So big! So yummy!

the battle rages on

Sharing a secret while waiting  to watch the presents being opened

LEGOS! Legos are the coolest. And they are Star Wars legos! 
Ty had fun opening his gifts. The little ones kept getting closer and closer, we kept moving them back. They are better this year than they were last year.

A little bit more running around in the play area, not the bouncy houses. Then it was back home.
We hope Ty had a good as time as we did! Thanks Ty and Welcome to FIVE!

Our First Batch of Random Legos

Today we decided to visit the flea market in the Totem Lake Mall--aka the dead mall. It has two stores left. A mattress store and a Christian book store. The rest is dark and very very quiet.  But in one of the former department stores they have set up a flea market. It was interesting. We bought Lego shaped soaps for Lon. Then we spied a bag of random legos. It is on our list to get a bunch of them for Lon's party. It turns out it was 11 pounds! A good start.

What 11 pounds of random legos looks like

Lon is having a great time sorting them and figuring out what is there

All sorts of great parts!

Lon played with these for hours and hours. We are going to put them back in the bag they came from and save them for his party. It is not as many as I want for his party table, but it is a good start!

AWESOME LEGO PARTY

Drew had his birthday party today. It was at City Bricks, Freight House Square in Tacoma. The place ROCKED.  We left a little early to get some food and what we had at the food court was pretty good. Mark ordered the two fish fish and chips and they gave him three. He liked it.
When we first walked in, we saw a table full of random bits of legos. Mark and I both thought, hmmm. Well, we should not have even blinked an eye. There were 12 boys and two girls,  and they were all playing around the table, almost silently. Each working on his own bit, there was no fighting, no tugging over parts. It was a wonder! And we can't wait to repeat it at Lon's party!

The table with Legos. All around the room are bins with the legos they use to build custom Lego creations.   They are working on several for clients in Seattle. The one of the Synagogue in Seattle is going to be beautiful when it is done. The stained glass work was impressive.

The Lego engineer (certified even) answering questions and helping the boys and two girls with design problems The kids you don't see at this table are looking at the other things around the studio or across the hall

Birthday Boy!

Sharing

Lon is building his creation. It is a spaceship called Peanut One

The Roman Legion

The Star Wars Table.

Across the hall, there was another studio. There were 4 trains, working. Around a beautifully built city.

The Space Needle.  Out of Legos. How cool is that?

Drew, hard at work

Getting some advice on how to proceed on Peanut One

Star Wars cookies. Made by me.

Showing off the coolest things built out of Legos. Imperial Star Cruisers.  Lon is fascinated. If he wanted to be a lego engineer before, this has cemented it.  He still wants to be a US Navy Blue Angels Pilot, but when he is not flying he wants to design and build lego creations

Cool little things made from little bits of legos. One of the little ships only had thirty legos!

Blowing out the candles. There was yummy pizza too. It was a great time. Lon did not want to leave.
This party was the coolest party ever. I think I heard that about 34 times on the way home!

Snowflakes

Lon and I are reading a book called Snowflake Bentley, written by Jaqueline Briggs Martin and Illustrated by Mary Azarian.  Lon is fascinated by the book. That someone actually figured out how to take snowflake pictures.  Lon also  like the fact that even though no one believed him or they thought he was nuts, he kept going after what he wanted, what he believed. 
After school today, since we did not have homework, we made snowflakes out of paper!

Lon working hard to cut the paper. It was really tough and I helped him make the cuts

Still trying to do it by himself!

The best part was opening them up to see what we made

This is going to be so cool!

The snowflakes. we made 10, 5 diamonds and 5 circles. Lon thought it was so cool I could turn a square into a circle.
Now we are just hoping for real snow. I know they are getting too much snow on the East Coast.We would just like a little!

Vader Breakfast

This morning I made pancakes for Lon.  He wanted a Darth Vader pancake, so of course I made him one

Lon wanted Vader to have blueberries AND chocolate chips.  A pancake is not a pancake without mini chocolate chips for Lon.
Yes, we even have the Vader pancake turner.

On the flip side

He did clean his plate this morning.
He wants me to find Star Wars Fleece so I can make him footie Star Wars jammies. 

Goofing Off at Party for Less

I have all my photos back! I thought they were gone, I thought the sd card automatically erased. It did not! I have all my photos! Yay! (and Mom, just know I have my photos restored)
A few days ago we went to Safeway. Lon really wanted to go see if Miss Caroline came back to Party for Less. (she has not)
We did have some fun playing with the Mardi Gras party supplies

Lon with his new haircut!

What a little hat. He is not so sure about the hat.

I love these glasses! I think we are going back to get these glasses

I am so pleased to have my photos back
I do need editing software, but for now I think it is better with photos

I know, I know

I still have not gone out and got the new photo editing software. I will get some photos up soon!

Bentos

Last night, since I was so caught up in the new computer and forgot to make dinner, we went out to Bentos. A little Japanese place near here.  Lon has always gotten the fried fish.  Lon may have been the only one who got fish sticks. They no longer carried it on the menu. Lon said the chicken katsu would be okay.  He ate the entire chicken piece and tried the katsu sauce. I was so impressed with him trying new things again! It was only a short phase where he would not try anything else!

New Computer!

We will be having new posts with new photos very soon! My new computer arrived today. It is a beautiful blue on the outside and a gun metal color on the inside. and shiny. I like shiny.
I have it almost all set up, looking into new photo editing software! Lon likes the new computer too!
He wanted to listen to Godzilla again.

Staying up late

Last night, I put Lon to bed, gave him a kiss and left him to sleep. A little while later we hear a huge THUMP! I ran upstairs to see if he fell out of bed.  It was not him, it was his book and flash light. He was trying to read with the flash light in bed!   I say trying since he is still sounding out most words.   I wonder what age I started doing that? I still read in bed with a flash light. Just when you are a grownup they call them book lights

We are having technical difficulties, again

I was lucky enough to get Mark's laptop. The one Rockin' Uncle Chong fixed for him, after he got a new one.  Well, sadly, it only lasted a few months and it went to the great laptop ranch in the sky.  It was sudden and it went quickly, leaving only me to feel the pain.  I am now back to using the old slow tower. Which does not blog photos well. 
I am lucky enough that Mark ordered me a NEW NEW computer. Not just new to me, but NEW!  And it will be here in two weeks. Until that time, I will try to post word only blogs about the wonderful things Lon is doing.
Lon went back to school and is doing great. He enjoys school, he is making friends and learning new things.  For Christmas, Lon got Legos. Legos now rule the household. He has decided that he still wants to be a Navy Blue Angels Pilot when he grows up, but when he is not flying, he will use his downtime to be a Lego engineer.  Everyday we play with Legos. He has also started using his Leapster two more and more. He is playing Star Wars Jedi Math and Jedi Reading. He enjoys Jedi Math more than Cars Reading, Jedi Reading and even Scooby Math.   It is nice to have that little learning game with us, he can amuse himself when we have to wait for something.
Lon has grown over two inches since his birthday. Mostly in the last month. His Lego Star Wars footie jammies no longer fit lengthwise. He put holes in the toe.  He is still ridiculously skinny.