The Amazing William's 4th Birthday

THE AMAZING WILLIAM TURNS 4!

 

Here is a photo tribute to the great SPIDERMAN birthday party we had for our special little boy!

 

I am very proud of this party as I had to be creative as I had a strict budget for the party and was not able to splurge like I usually like to do.

 

The invitations I hand made, with help from my large stack of scrapbooking supplies (that never get used) and my handy dandy printer.

(SORRY CANT FIGURE OUT HOW TO FLIP THE PICTURE)

As many of you may have noticed I tend to run with a theme and go big when it comes to birthday decorations.  This year the budget made me have to be more creative, and instead of buying high priced spiderman theme decorations I decided to use the colors RED, YELLOW and BLUE to harness my INNER SPIDERMAN.  Why Red, Yellow and Blue you ask... I was going for RETRO Spiderman instead of the newer movie Spiderman (which in my opinion is way too advanced for William, a boy who cries during Charlie Brown).

 

 

As you can see Ballons and streamers!  I also found these 'sticks' for the balloons so I didn't have to purchase helium filled balloons this year at $1.50/balloon.  My hubby who has become more accepting of my anal-retentive decorating ways even designed a great spider-web in the living room out of streamers!  It looked really neat!

 

Two days of birthday celebrations again this year.  A 'kids' party on saturday and the family party sunday. 

For the kids party we had acouple different activities lined up.  A craft (for the girls... as my boy tends to lack the attention span for sit-still activities).  The kids used paper plates and black yarn to design there own spiderwebs.  (Supplies found around the house so cost was minimal!)  Then I made a 'Spiderman Villian Hunt' where the kids each got a "Web-slinger" (dollar store gun toys) and got to hunt Villians! 

As you can see I printed pictures of different Marvel Villians off and hung them from the ceiling on balloons.  It was pretty fun, the kids liked it and even Aunty Anna was in on the 'web-slinging' fun!  Unfortunetly the guns I bought at the dollar store broke after a few uses.  But FUN while they LASTED!

And what birthday party doesnt have a Pinata?  Well ours was not lacking this essential piece of Birthday fun!  Clay and I made it out of a balloon and paper-mache.  A messy little project but let us reminse of our childhoods!

The Pinata survived until sunday too, as we used ribbon pulls to open it on saturday.  Here you see William and Cash trying to beat it open.  I only put 2 layers of paper Mache on it, but boy it was sturdy!  We finially had to get William to jump on it to break it!

Now the Food.  Simplicity for this year, Hotdogs and chips for the kids birthday!  With some other sweets and goodys mixed in.  and of course the cake!

Designed and made with love and some foul words by me! :)

 

William was spoiled by his friends,  he got some amazing gifts!  And he got to visit and play with some great Friends who travelled from Whitecourt!  It was a great day!

 

 





 



(PHOTO BOOTH... My NEW FAV THING!)

I used $1.00 plastic table cloths from the dollar store, and printed some "Spiderman" related signs then raided the dress up box!

 

On to DAY TWO, Sunday, Family Birthday Celebrations!

 

As we dont have many little kids in the family (yet... WINK WINK to clay's siblings!)  Sunday was a busy day of food and visiting!  A build your own sandwich bar with salads, fruit, veggies and chips filled our guests belly's.  And William of course entertained!

Once again he got totally spoiled with gifts.  This is him opening up his favorite new thing, MARIO KART FOR WII, courtesy of his aunties and uncles.  He asks to play it every single day... and a strict time limit has now been implemented!  (a Quick shout to all the Aunties and Uncles... your time is coming... Im a 'cool' auntie too...just wait to see what I get your kids!)

 

And Cake for this day too!

 

Once again we had a great turn out and so many of our family made the trekk up to see us!  Thanks for everything!

(MY FAVORIATE PIC FROM THE WEEKEND, LOL  MIKE FLIPPING OFF MY SON!  Thank god for taking pictures when no one is ready!)

 



 

 



 

WHAT A GREAT YEAR! Cant wait for next year... WAIT, Nope I can wait... William is growing up too FAST!

 

 

2012 Wrap up

Well its time to wrap up 2012!

 

Our last few Elf on the Shelf.   Sweet Home Alabama made it to Baba's house!  And according to Santa's Note on Christmas day he also made it back to the North Pole!  I'm guessing he's taking a nice vacation until he has to get ready for next year. 

 

 

 

Santa Photo this year.  He wouldn't sit on Santa's lap but the picture turned out GREAT anyway :)

 

 

 

My New favorite Thing to do on Christmas eve.  Ice sculptures

The Dogs

 

 

Cam and Jess's Christmas party... Clayton's New friend

 

Christmas Morning... Spider man visited

 

The Gift William chose for his Daddy :)  For those who don't know Clay's colors are usually blue, white and orange!

 

 

 

 

The Russell's have had a busy year of changes.  With the move to Lacombe, job changes, a little boy starting pre-school and a bunch of other challenges that have helped our little family grow, learn and strengthen our relationships.

 

We are excited for 2013.  Its going to be a big year for us!  Clay and I get to turn 30 ( YIKES!).  William turns the BIG number 4, and gets to continue to grow and learn and experience new things.  We will continue to build relationships and a life for ourselves in Lacombe.  And we have several exciting trips and other plans for the upcoming year!

 

As we do every year we have reflected on last year and have came up with some goals and a Family Motto that will help guide us in the upcoming year.   I don't know if I have posted about this tradition that we have done the past few years.  Its kinda like making New Years Resolutions, but we do it as a family and choose a MOTTO that we print out and post in our home so we can refer to it during the year to help focus our energy on what is really important. 

One year the Motto was "Enjoy the Journey"  last year it was "Building a Better Life".  This year it is "Live, Laugh, Love: Today".  They may not be the most original motto's but they mean something to us and are related to our goals (resolutions) for the year.

 

We did a new thing this year as well.  A reflection of 2012. 

 

I found it on Pintrest (http://moneysavingmom.com/2011/12/free-new-years-eve-printables.html  the link will go to the updated free printable for 2013).  I think it will be a fun thing to do each year as kind of like a time capsule thing, to see how much we changed over the years.  We all used the 'kid' one because I liked how it talked about favorite things and Highlights of 2012.  I'm going to keep them in our Command Central book (a binder of important things).

 

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO EVERYONE!!!  ALL the Best in 2013!

 

 



HOLIDAY HUSTLE

What is December with out our annual cold!  Yep William and I have been under the weather again this December (3rd year in a row).  Causing me to be down and out for about a week, and a little more behind on my holiday preparations then normal, which as you guessed makes me just a little anxious! 

Thankfully this week has given me some opportunities to catch up on my shopping, planning and organizing.  Which has also helped me get in to the Christmas season.  Its hard not to around here with a very excited 3 year old who only talks about EXTENSION CORDS that light up the blow up decorations and Christmas lights.  If any of you ever have any questions about exterior or interior illumination, extension cord efficiency and/or electricity feel free to consult WILLIAM ALAN RUSSELL (our resident expert).  

For those of you who follow me on Facebook you will have noticed that we have started a new tradition around these parts.  Its called ELF ON THE SHELF.  And although it seems a little creepy at times and there was some resistance to the idea initially from William, it has been come a fun way to start each day as we search for our elf, who is named "SWEET HOME ALABAMA".  (not even kidding... William named him...).  For those of you not familiar with this "tradition"  we have an elf (named Sweet Home Alabama) and he hangs out and watches the kids during the day and flies home (to the north pole) each night to report to the big man (Santa) about the NAUGHTY and NICE status of the kids (William in this case).  When the elf returns from his North pole trip he "hides" in a different spot and the kids are to seek him out in the morning.  Initially this lovely (slightly creepy) Elf was not received with a warm reception.  Although William was excited to open the package he came in on Dec 1, he was quick to express his desire for the elf to go back to the north pole right away!  (BACK STORY-- About 2 months ago after an exceptionally difficult few weeks with William, A letter was sent to William from the NAUGHTY AND NICE DEPARTMENT at the north pole, stating that if he didn't smarten up he would be on the Naughty list.  This letter was also not received overly well by the little person in the house.  However attitude and behaviour from that same little person was slightly improved after the letter.   So the initial reception of our dear ELF ON THE SHELF was perhaps due to this incident.  oops... Hind sight is 20/20)

Anyway a couple days later William named our elf and now he wakes each morning and seeks out Sweet Home Alabama's new hiding spot.

Day one-  Un-named elf, feeling a little homesick, tissues and a NORTH POLE sign... I guess the inital welcome wasnt what he expected!

Day 2- and Sweet Home Alabama is born!

3- Hanging in the new basement

4- Enjoying our tree

5-Hanging with the NutCrackers

6-Reading Christmas Cards

7-Advent Calender

8-Peek a Boo!

9- Cozy stocking

10-Hanging in there!

 

 

11-No picture-- Hanging off the light in the Kitchen

12- This Elf loves Christmas Decorations!

Other then that Christmas season has been warm and cozy in our new basement (livable but not 100% complete).  Clayton did a great job with the help of some very nice little helpers :)

The RUSSELL FAMILY would like to send everyone WARM WISHES and SEASON GREETINGS over this joyous month!

Love
Lyndsay, Clayton and William (and Sweet Home Alabama)

PS- Williams Christmas List this year...

(The Picture he made me draw is suppose to be the "Rocket with a pump launcher"...  Obviously Im not an artist... and yes it does look unintentially phallic.  No idea where he seen this incredibly difficult to find toy!)