Warrior Princess Party

Well we are deep into our advent celebrations but this years birthday shindig for Miss A. required WAY to much time and energy for it not to receive a shout out.  It was a day of peaks and valleys but in the end you see the smile on her face and you believe in your heart that it was worth it.  She may never get another birthday party again but it was worth it.

Here she is in all her pink ninja glory.  It definitely took some creativity to throw a girly warrior party but I think we pulled it off.

She was a pink and black blur for an hour straight.

Ian was a little cautious at first but Grampa helped him find his bearings.

I LOVE Ava's friends!

Ok, let's talk about the cake.  I spent about half an hour decorating the cutest pink triangles surrounding the sides.  As we were driving to Sky High Ben took one corner and the top of the cake flew off the bottom and landed in my hands.  There was a look of fear in Ben's eyes as I was holding the cake and no one knew what to do.  Of course it was obvious to me that this was the perfect moment for a complete emotional breakdown.  So I took about fifteen minutes to simultaneously sob and laugh all while Ava kept saying, "It's ok mommy.  It's still really pretty.  Mommy I don't understand if you're crying or laughing.  It's ok, mommy, it's going to be ok."  And there it is.  It tasted great and I suppose that's all that matters.

Everyone had to go incognito with a samurai code name.

Karuka loved it.

Ben freehanded this pin the belt on the power ranger poster and designed all twelve belt buckles.  You can't tell in the picture but it was amazing in person.  I think he missed his calling as a graphic designer.

Anne helped me make these adorable trinket keepers for the goody bags.  They were a pain in the you know what but I loved how they turned out.  Don't they look like little glasses cases from JCrew?

The whole gang having some pizza

I have to say thank you to Tia for again bearing with all my shades of crazy and for filling in the mom gaps.

Of course I slave away for months and Ben goes out the night before to pick up a gift and comes home with these.  Stilts.  How is he so good at this?  I couldn't have thought up a better gift for our circus clown.  Turns out she's a stilts prodigy.  Why knew?

Next year were going out for dinner and cake with just the family.  Please hold me to it, for the sake of everyone and everything that is good and right in the world.

Ten for Tuesday

Well my blog told me I was out of space and Ben took me on a technological journey that I would rather forget, in order for me to post pictures.  But, alas I have prevailed and am bringing you a few snapshots from November.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from my Black Friday break from reality in which I busted out a twelve hour middle-of-the-night shopping spree which will forever go down in the annals of Hsieh lore.  Or from our trip to Safeway in which Ian dumped a carton of TWO dozen eggs all over our cart full of Thanksgiving groceries, breaking every single one, while we were standing in a crowded line full of people buying their last minute turkeys.  Yes, things have been crazy around these parts.  I knew our family was going in the wrong direction when I was excited to find out I had strep throat just so I could stay in bed for two days to rest.  Sigh....this adventure has many layers but I am determined to charter a new course (come one week from now after my last paper is due) for advent.  It's not going to be easy but this Mama's got a few tricks up her sleeve.  And back to the lineup.

Ms. A showing off her love of stripes.  This girl has mad coordinating skills which I am trying to embrace.

Little man is my chocolate Lover.  Don't you want to kiss those lips?

Fancy Nancy

We know how to start our mornings right with Pandora's Christmas

New Thanksgiving traditions....hot chocolate

and a lazy morning hike

this is why I don't answer the phone while I'm cooking

Some days we are best friends

Cutting down the Christmas tree

Making friends with orange bellied salamanders....aaaaannnnd then accidentally killing them by drowning them in the river.  We will miss you Sally.

Happy Tuesday!

Halloween Happenings

I wish I could say that I was the mom who, come Halloween night, said to her kiddos, "Go to the dress-up box and let's get creative!"  Hopefully there will come a time when that will be the case but for now we are on full Halloween watch for about 364 days leading up to the big night.  My kids L-O-V-E Halloween.  They talk about what they are going to wear at least once a week for the whole year.  I don't know if it's the candy or the chance to go full out incognito but whatever it is they are in it hook line and sinker.  This year Ava went power ranger on us and Ian decided to support his love for Jake and The Pirates.  It was pretty cute if I do say so myself.

"Punkin Patakes"

 "Yummy!"

 Ian and Willa cuteness

 The Gang

 Our first stop of the night.  Ian wasn't too sure about the scary mask but the kit kat convinced him otherwise.

 He insisted on carrying his "tandy bag" with his hook the entire night.  Which meant the two of us went to one house for every five of the others.  

 Oh, I love this little man.

 "Rangers together!  Samurai's forever!"

Happy Halloween!

stirring desperation into a double shot mocha

Well we are currently on day five of our annual reactive airway disease conference and mama's about two sleep deprived nights away from throwing in the towel.  Our keynote speaker has demonstrated mad skills in uncontrollable coughing fits, germ distribution, and how to maintain a fever for an entire week.  She's become such an expert that all the blood vessels in her cheeks burst, causing her to fake a case of the chicken pox.  I'm pretty sure we hit rock bottom this morning as they were both sitting six inches from the tv watching their third hour of the Disney Channel and eating Lucky Charms from the box.  

The icing on this mucus filled cake is that Ben leaves for his guys weekend to southern california for a full four days.  I had a dream that all of his college friends were giving me a pedicure and asking me if I wanted them to book me a massage at the spa in Palm Springs.  Is that weird?  

But in honor of this month of thanksgiving, I would like to say that I am thankful for my parents, who always allow me to show up on their doorstep with a tear stained face and a giant suitcase.  

this girl of mine

It's a big week around these parts as Ms. A is leaving five behind in the dust.  Now she pretty much wrote the book on tomboy chic.  At any given moment you can find her up in a tree with a pair of sparkly flats.  And you don't even want to see the level of drama this girl can throw out when I suggest she wear pants to school.  

She runs at two speeds:  rodeo clown and emotional teenager. 

 But lately we've got a new character in the story.  Ninja girl.  I just about choked at dinner when she said she wanted to be a power ranger for Halloween.  I tried to remain calm and then I suggested Supergirl.  

But after a few minutes of pouting I decided there are worse things she could want to be.  At least it's empowering, right?  So I forked over eighteen bucks at toys r us for one of the ugliest costumes I have ever seen.  

And then she said she wanted a power ranger birthday party.  I'll admit that I had to take some deep breaths.  But we're a few weeks into the party planning and through some very creative compromises we've come up with what might be the girliest ninja party ever thrown. 

 Here's the invite:

 No one will even suspect that they're walking into a samurai smackdown.

 So far she feels her greatest accomplishment in life is learning how to go cross eyed.  Daddy gave her a step by step tutorial.  You have to start with the finger six inches out.

 And then move it closer to your nose.

 Focus

 Closer

 Almost there

 Got it!

 She lives every single moment to it's fullest this one.  She licks every speck of frosting off the top.

Tonight at bedtime I prayed with her in my arms and asked that God would bless all the many gifts that he's given her and help her to use them for his glory.  Afterwards, she asked if that meant God was going to give her presents for her birthday.  After using every ounce of self control not to laugh, I explained that God has blessed her with being good at a lot of things and that she can praise him by using those gifts.  Then she said she's thinking of giving God the poem Five Little Scarecrows as a gift. I decided we'd work more on it later.

 When she wakes up in the morning she climbs into bed with me, brushes my hair away from my face and kisses my cheek.  She'll paint a picture for me and then leave it next to my pillow for when I wake up.  She's a firecracker on the trapeze and rocked circus camp.  She's the queen of compliments and a Class A snuggler.  I am so proud to be her mama and even though I can tell that six will have it's own set of challenges as she breaks into a new layer of skin, I'll hold fast to the One who designed all of who Ava is meant to be.

 Ok, maybe it's not so bad.  She kind of looks like the captain of starship Enterprise.

 Ninja Mom Out

lil' pirate preview

Talented and gifted

Sometimes it's important to celebrate your children's unique gifts and abilities.