Jethro and Hazel

So I saw a picture on pinterest and suddenly I had to do a photoshoot with Jethro and Hazel.  And I had to get glasses for Hazel, and a vest for Jethro--which my sewer-extraordinaire sister Kami made, and I had to get a blue background (I found a curtain for 3 francs at the second-hand store that was perfect) and bribed Jethro and Hazel, and I waited for the perfect day to do it.  All because of seeing one picture on pinterest.  But I love how it finally turned out--and really, why not have a photoshoot with my oldest two?  It was fun!

However, after all the prep, I got a little too impatient and I decided to take the pictures on their lunch break (I am not kidding when I say that when it is not rainy and gray around here you have to seize the moment!), which I KNEW would not make for good pictures because of the lighting, but I thought if I took them to a good shady spot it would work out, but then it just did not turn out the way I had pictured, and obviously I HAD a picture in my head.  Also, getting the white balance right against the blue backdrop was nigh-on impossible, which killed some of my pictures (and why sometimes the skin tone is green and sometimes it's pink...grrr).  So then we had to try again in a different time and location, and it worked out better (though still far from perfect).  Here they are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

I had searched through a bunch of jokes and typed out the best ones, and this is when I told one that was quite funny.  Where does the president keep his armies?  In his sleevies.  I love these pictures.

This is when Hazel punched Jethro.  It was funny.

 

Hee hee.

Then I tried to take some pictures of just Jethro (he has a hard time smiling naturally and says his face starts hurting ;)  ), so Hazel stole his mp3 player.

And then we went home.

Talmage's Spy Party

Spy Party

I ordered this really cool invitation off of Etsy and filled in the blanks with German info (with the help of Jethro).  We gave it to the friends that Talmage wanted invited, and... no one could come, because everyone was gone on vacation.  Well, like one person could come, but we decided to hold off until school was back in session, so we printed more invitations with a different date, and Talmage distributed them at Kindergarten.

I began too late making a piñata, so I was trying to dry it with a blow dryer, which made the balloon expand and break the piñata.  So then I made it out of a cardboard box.  Then Brett got excited and wired some fancy gadgets and wires and solanoids and electromagnets all together to make the coolest wire-cutting explosive game any kids ever played!

In the morning I taped up a laser course in the basement (after I got all my neighbor's permission of course).  I thought it was pretty awesome, and Orrin was down there with me going through it back and forth, but then the bigger kids came home and tested it out and told me it was too hard.  But compared to Orrin, Jethro's a giant.

Jethro and Hazel were recruited as my helpers because - many German-speaking six-year-old boys.  They dressed up as spy ...um, head honchos, and met all the guests in the landing to get their badges ready with their fingerprints and code names.  There were also mustaches to disguise themselves with, but most of them declined and seemed highly suspicious.  :)

Jethro even went and got his book about spies to read while waiting.  Appropriate.  (p.s. I SOOOO wished for a black fedora for Jethro!)

We did some laser evasion.

Then we played Pass the Dynamite.

They kind of loved this more than I expected.  We turned on a timer on the computer that actually looks like dynamite and explodes when the time is up (here it is), so whoever was holding the dynamite at that time was out.  They started doing big death acts.

  

Then we did some shooting.  We let other kids be the target, because that was more fun than just shooting the little target on the window.  More death scenes ensued.

 

Then it was time for Brett's master apparatus.  He rigged it up so that a strong magnet would hold up the box/pinata, and then we carefully cut some wires to try to diffuse the bomb.   But if/when the right wires were cut, the bomb FELL!

It was awesome, but went a little long for the kids' attention spans.  And then we took it and hooked it to the end of a broom--which I held, putting my life at risk--and then they took turns whacking it.  Just as I had predicted, the whacking was a huge hit (ha)  and it was awesome that it took a long time and everyone could have several turns of hard-core whacking.

Then cake time!

I am usually annoyed at birthday parties because most kids seem to waste the cake, but this time everyone loved the cake and asked for seconds.

It was a pretty awesome party.