Ahoy Matey!

Kaden's 6th birthday party was Saturday. He decided he wanted to have a pirate party this year. Me being the crafty person I try to be was all gung ho on this idea.. Pirates.. oh there are lots of fun pirate crafts and games and decorations I could find .. this was perfect. Though later realizing that I may have been a little over ambitious with the pirate shenanigans.



After several jammed printer problems , and burned fingers from burning the edge of the paper the invitations were sent in the mail . Only to my surprise when I got to our mail box the next morning what do I find but a stack of nice pirate invitations! Now I don't know about you but when I send something in the mail I expect my trusty mail carriers to deliver my mail to the recipients, NOT back to the sender. I guess the nice postal service thought my envelopes where to lumpy or puffy to be sent with a normal stamp..so with a little more stampage they were finally sent out again.
Then instead of spending the extra 20-30 dollars on a cake I had a great idea to make cup cakes with some kind of pirate theme.... Well if you know me at all, you know that I do NOT bake. I cook but not bake. You can ask anyone who has eaten my famous Reese's cheesecake , and they will tell you the same thing.. You girls know who you are.. letting me believe that cheesecake tasted wonderful.. shame on you!..Some day when the pain has healed I will blog about the cheesecake story. Anyway I decided to turn the cupcakes into gold coins and then put the coins in a treasure box , which would be the chocolate cupcakes.. They actually turned out ok until two different people came up to me and said I had made a nice pirate ship out of cupcakes. Yep, my great treasure box looked like a pirate ship... How that happened I am still not sure but I do know they tasted good and it was a pirate theme whether it was a ship or treasure box.. Though officially I bake no more...

Here is some of the treasure boxes I had painted for the kids to decorate for a pirate craft. They actually turned out really cute. The kids used sequins and glitter to make some really nice pirate treasure boxes.


Kaden showing me his best pirate look.

Torin walked around all day yelling" aarrrrgggggg"


This is Pirate Captain Owen who led us pirates on a treasure hunt to find the missing gold.


Pirate Sage sweet and innocent but the sneakiest pirate of all... If you were wondering where all the loot from the treasure went you may want to check her treasure box. Pirate Sage loved when the other pirates were off hunting gold that's when she would make her move to the other treasure boxes....(seriously she had stashes of candy from who knows where crammed in her box)

The kids loved decorating the boxes and then later they were able to fill them with the loot from the treasure hunt.



I had set up seven clues around the room and Owen led all the pirates on a treasure hunt in search of the missing treasure. The kids were so good at figuring out the clues that it didn't take them long to find the loot.




Lauren enjoying some Pirate grub.

Kaitlyn looking cute in her pirate clothes and guzzling a little to much pirate drink....

The pirates waiting in line for their turn to fish for a clue in the fishing hole. I had made 4 fishing poles that the kids would use to fish out a bag of gold fish crackers where they would then find a bag with a clue to the hunt .

All I have to say is that 22 4,5,and 6, year olds have so much more energy than any one person should ever have:) It was a fun 6th birthday for Kaden and the pirates all seemed to really enjoy themselves . Though I think turning 30 has given me new perspective and has shown me that I may not be cut out for this much fun and excitement in any 24 hour period of time anymore. whoooooo I am tired!!

Happy Happy BIRTHDAY!

It's here! The day I have been dreading for months....*sigh*sniffle* I turned 30 today. I am actually handling it better than I thought I would maybe it's because I have tried my darnest to not think about it. Through out the day I have been giving myself pep talks which has eased the pain... I''m O.K. I am not that old really. I mean I only have a few grey hairs....I still have time to go to school. I can still play volleyball. I have a beautiful family. I have lots of friends who are older than me and they seem fine. People made a big deal about 30 several years ago but now it's like the new 20... right?...I'll be fine....

Sunday Owen took me up to Cleveland to Playhouse Square to see 'I Love You Because'. We both usually enjoy going to the different plays and have seen quite a few. Though I really enjoy the experience of live theatre being my artsy self, this one was stretching it a bit. It kind of gave the feel of a high school play with only consisting of a total of 6 actors. Since we were in the Cleveland area we stopped at the hospital to visit some friends who were burned in a fire a couple of weeks ago then we went out for a nice dinner. It was a very nice and relaxing day.

St.Patty's Day!
Today I woke up to three children shoving wrapped presents in my face. To say the least they were very excited for my birthday! I opened the first wrapped gift.. 4 chocolate chips... I opened the second gift... Kaden's lucky marble! All I have to say is how did they know exactly what I would need today? It was wonderful:) There is nothing better than chocolate and a lucky marble to ease the pain of turning 30:)
I actually got a lot accomplished today on my 3..0...birthday. I painted our mud room since the carpet will be in this week. I finished making Kaden's Treasure Map birthday invitations to send out, straightened up the house and was able to fit in a shower before my parents came over with dinner and cake. (thanks mom and dad it was delicious)It was so great to see the sun out and 63 degrees outside! The kids and I also went out and enjoyed a little time outside while Owen picked up some leaves in the yard.

By the end of the day I can honestly say 30 is not so bad. I think it was just the anticipation of it.. Like pulling a band-aid off.... Happy St.Patricks Day!!

Girls just wanna to have fun!

The count down has come.. In about 15 mins I will officially become the big 3..0...! Friday my sister threw me a birthday party with a few friends at her house. We ate dinner together under candle light and roses. Then around 8pm a dance instructor arrived to teach us girls the sexy Latin dance called the Salsa.

I am not sure who the instructor thought he was coming to teach but he encountered 5 women who were very eager to get their groove on and learn the sexy Salsa. First things first.. you must learn the "pee pee" dance, known in salsa to get your hips a movin. With most of us all having more than one child we were masters at the pee pee dance! Next we needed partners. This is where it was necessary to bring out the BOYS.... No , she did not have a stash of men hiding in the closet ...shame on you .. we are married women!


Tall , dark and handsome and certainly able enough to help us accomplish the goal of learning the Salsa. 7 glorious men ready to "pee pee" dance.

Realizing later that the men were just not cutting it, we partnered up with each other . The instructor then would dance with each of us , making sure we were grasping the dance steps.

The big question now is , "can I dance the Salsa with my head up?" I am so entranced in the music and steps that I don't realize I have not looked up once until I start to topple over onto my partner and girls next to me. And yes this is probably why I have never mastered the art of dance .

My friend Tami and I partnered up for a bit but after a few trips and knee knocking we separated to our imaginary partners. It was just safer for everyone involved.

Holy double chin! I guess when you hit the big 3...0... everything starts to droop and double ...






I had and awesome time with all my crazy friends.( even though a couple skipped the salsa lesson..you know who you are:) We were even able to learn the Boot Scootin Boogie thanks to Margaurite. Thanks girls for a great 30th Birthday party!

It's gone!

This morning around 8:00am Kaden lost his first tooth. After a long night of everyone trying their hand at yanking it out yesterday at my mom and dad's house, I think we loosened it up and the first thing I woke up to this morning was Kaden yelling at us in excitement that his tooth had come out!!.. It has all been a very exciting time for us in the Gaines home today:)

It went something like this:

So last night we were all over at my parents house and after Owen and I tugged for a while Grandpa decided to take matters into his own hands...

He got out the medical latex gloves......
Kaden's reaction as you can see was a little freaked out ....Loosing a tooth is a very important time in a kids life and I don't think I would have reacted any differently if my grandpa came at me wearing medical gloves and telling me he was going to pull out my tooth.. oh yeah! I think I would have definitely felt an anxiety attack coming....

I think out of curiosity Kaden sat down and waited to see what would happen.... But it didn't last long, at the first pinch of pain he was up out of the chair.

He then thought it was funny because grandpa couldn't catch him to pull it out.

This is the results from all the tugging and pulling and this is what he went to sleep with... uughhh.. looks pretty uncomfortable to me. It looks like you could just tug it right out but that tooth just wasn't ready to throw in the towel yet.... It was holding out till the last moment of it's life.....

And this is what we had at 8:00am this morning.....

Now we are anxiously awaiting the tooth fairy.. I have never seen a kid go to sleep so quick.... maybe that tooth fairy should come every night....