Ahhhhhh.....Texas

Ok, it's been forever again since I've posted anything. This "getting my act together" thing is not working out so well. But, I'll keep dreaming...

Anyway, we had the best vacation a couple of weeks ago. I didn't take as many pictures of events as I wish I had, but it was a beautiful trip. I got to spend some real quality time with all the people I adore and the kids were in heaven.

We took a trip to Moody Gardens in Galveston. They still need some time to fix the place up from the hurricane, but they did have a pretty awesome bug exhibit that we all really liked. Then we headed into the rainforest which was actually hotter and more humid than Galveston itself. I wonder how often that happens....

Yes, early May is a perfect time to visit Houston. As much as the summer heat sucks, it's pretty awesome to be able to go swimming outside in a real pool at this time of the year. Luckily, my friend Stephanie has one in her backyard!

This is Stephanie's son Riley. I love Riley, he's crazy! And ridiculously cute. As you can see, Isabella came over without a bathing suit, but that didn't stop her.

We spent the next day with our friends from Dallas, who did the unthinkable and drove to Houston for the day!! I didn't have my camera but you can read about it and see pictures here.

The next day was my 40th birthday. I don't have too much to say about that, except how did that happen? Anyway, the kids helped Grand Ma Ma make me a cake (lemon curd and coconut - incredibly delicious)....

Again, Houston at this time of the year is pretty awesome. Especially when your little brother has the coolest boat ever. And he's willing to take you and your kids out for a joyride. (And he even finds little life jackets to fit them!)

This tube/boat/float thing was a total blast. I took Bastien first, then Isabella, then all three of us went. Wow, it was so much fun!

And my brother isn't too far removed from childhood to remember how cool it is to steer the boat by yourself.

The rest of the week was full of wedding activities for our friend Geoff Bay. I think I'll have to do another little post for that one...It was really, really lovely.

Robot Party!!!!

Invitation to the party. Drawings by Bastien...
The robots! Maude and I made it our art night project to get these guys together. She had a lot of crazy junk lying around that she contributed and I saved toilet paper rolls and bottle caps and whatever else I could think might help for the month leading up to this...

Maude did these two guys. I love the star eyes and the silver guy's hat...
These were more of a collaboration...

Maude did this guy's face. I love all the little gears and gadjets....
This party was sort of a goodbye to the retro future room Bastien has had for the past 5 years. (He's transitioning to monsters right now... which is funny since that was the theme of his 3rd birthday party.) Anyway, I pulled out all the robots from his room to decorate the garage. I also brought out his robot bedsheets and he had some cool robot magnets for the fridge in the garage. I got busy doing who-knows-what-else, so Maude and KB and Zurico and Jason did all the decorating. They did a fabulous job as you can see. Thanks guys!


These awesome photos (as well as the other ones that look really great) were taken by our friend Garrett Hauenstein. It sure is helpful having talented friends, yes? I would recommend hiring him to cover any event you want to capture if you fear you won't be able to do it yourself. Well, let's just face it, a host never has time to take photos and they wouldn't look like this anyway, so keep him in mind.

I found this fab robot wrapping paper a long time ago at Target, along with the plates and napkins and robot candles (on sale, whoo hoo!)
Maude got a MDF board and cut this shape out. Then she painted it with chalkboard paint and a few white details...Voila!
These were our little make-your-own robots. We bought some magnetic tape and adhered it to all the little doodads. That way, the kids could make up their own designs.
Trying on the robots...


You may have noticed the green in the background. It's an actual digital green screen, like they use for visual effects. We had intended to have the kids dress up in the robots and dance in front of the screen so I could try to play with it in editing. However, it's hard to direct kids and that many kids?! Well... Instead we just went straight to our Robot Freeze Dance!
This was supposed to be a contest. I bought some robot-themed prizes to give away. I didn't anticipate how difficult it would be to judge little kids. Man! I tried to pawn the judging off on some other unsuspecting parent, but alas... Our first round winner was Zooey! (kid in red) He won robot Shrinky Dinks. Remember those?
Next up, our all girls round. The winner was Shelly (girl in the middle). She was awesome!

However, that meant the other girls were losers.

Note to self: study up on early childhood development before planning future birthday parties. It seems this is not a good age for competitive games and it put a damper on the festivities. Since the boys were reluctant to have their own round, despite this awesome prize I found on sale at my favorite shop in Chinatown
I decided we would award the prize to the best parent.

Congratulations Strummer's dad! You were really rocking those 80's Raybans.

Our little robot guys took a beating...

Before...
...and After.
But they served their purpose, which was to have a good time.

The kids drew some pretty cool stuff on the driveway with chalk....
and Bastien said his favorite part of the birthday was the pinata.

(I love this picture, Garrett)

Then, it was time for cake...

Can you believe what an awesome job Maude did of putting these together?! All I did was cook a ridiculous amount of Betty Crocker cake. (That was when I thought I was going to try to do the cakes and I wanted to make sure I had enough for mistakes. )

Here you can see the cute little robot candles...
We asked him why he had his head in his hands and he said he was just covering his eyes for the surprise.

What surprise? He'd already seen the cakes.

I hope he wasn't too disappointed when he took his hands away and it was still just cake?

Finally, I would like to share with you the two robots his friends made for him...
This one was from Eve.
This one was from Shelly.

How much do you just love these?!!!

Bastien said maybe Isabella can have a robot party when she turns five.

I'd be down with that.

If you'd like to view the full album of pictures Garrett took at the party, here's the link.