A Lego party fit for a 5 year old!

The last of the "Ashton turns 5" series - his birthday party! I haven't really thrown a big party for him since he turned 1 and 5 seemed like an worthy milestone age to go for it again. It was pretty easy to settle on a Lego theme - he loves them and the decorations were simple (squares and circles and primary colors). Or so I thought! I admit, I probably did too much work and spent too much money on this party :-/ But I had so many ideas and such fun doing it that I got carried away.

I found the invitations on Etsy (naturally):

And everything else was either directly copied or adapted from Pinterest (naturally!). My piece de resistance was a giant "Lego wall" I constructed on the fence. It was made from plastic tablecloths and plates! 

It took forever, I'll be honest. Folding all the tablecloths to different sizes and getting the color pattern evenly dispersed, gluing the plates on, etc. The good news is I have since posted it on the local facebook yardsale site (for free) and someone came to get it for their preschool!

Other decorations/details, in no particular order, were: 

* the banner on the screened in porch where the food was

* the name train made out of Duplos

* The tables: we had green and blue linens, I made giant legos by wrapping boxes and gluing spraypainted foam circles on top:

 And filled glass vases with some megablocks for the centerpieces.

* We had big printouts of Lego guys that we mounted on cardboard - here is Alex with the whole army before they went out:

* We cut out Emmett's face for a photo op:

And used the other guys for signs, like at the coloring and building stations and the bounce house.

* Lego guy head lemonade

* Lego guy head snacks, surrounded by tiny lego heads which were baby food jars that I spraypainted:

* The favor bags all lined up on the fence

Ashton had helped me punch the circles and stick them on the bags with glue dots. The actual favors varied depending on the age of the child - everyone got things like fruit snacks, glow sticks, and a Lego lollipop, but the younger kids got a "Build a Magnet" kit, which was a Lego plate that I glued a magnet to and filled the bag with loose legos so they could assemble it themselves, and for the older kids that could follow instructions, a little kit that made a car or vehicle. By the end, kids had failed to notice that they had a bag specifically for them and were just grabbing them, so who knows who actually got what. Sigh. Oh also, every kid got a cute little Lego party bracelet when they arrived (also Etsy, duh ;) )

* Had enough? I even put Legos in the hand sanitizer!

The most important thing to me was that the kids have fun. The bigger kids could bounce and slide or build at the Lego table, and the younger kids could color or play in the sandbox. The party was a hit I think! If I could do it over, I would have made sure everyone knew we had ordered food for the grownups as well. It was all delicious (from the Linden Store in Wellesley) and the cake was made by my neighbor Ariane (Kayleigh's mom). It was egg-free and chocolate and also amazing!! After we sang to Ashton and he got a piece, he kept saying "I just LOVE cake Mommy!" He was so happy. The whole thing wrapped up around 7 pm, he opened some presents after everyone left (well Poppy, Mema, Grandma, Aunt Lizzie and Cousin Owen were still there!) and that was the end! General action pics:

All I wanted was one nice family picture but it was the most hectic 2 hours and this is all I got at the end:

Maybe I'll get that when it's finally time for MY birthday ;) 

Our favorite new 5 year old

All about Ashton at age 5! Where to even begin??

Mainly Ashton is all about the questions these days. The questions are constant, the likes of which were fully illustrated not long ago in my tooth fairy post. (The latest doozy: "Where does the sun go when it sets?" Nothing is ever an easy answer!) But it's really fun and funny (sometimes) because his questions/comments of course reveal how he thinks about the world. For example, our main shtick with dinnertime is that if he eats his chicken/pasta/whatever, he will be a member of the "Clean Plate Club" and he will be big and strong and able to touch the ceiling like Daddy. This idea seems to be very appealing to a five year old (and a two year old actually). Now after every meal they reach their hands in the air to see how much closer they are. Really, they do. It's cute and heartbreaking. But the other day, after a playdate:

"_______ must not eat their dinner because every time I see them they are small."

"Well that might not be the reason. Everyone is different right?"

"Yep I guess. Some are big and some are small. And they have different eyeballs, different chairs, different houses and different hearts. But they better start eating if they don't want to be small." 

Speaking of eating, Ashton really only takes issue with peas. He doesn't willingly eat a lot of things so there's still some prodding, but he'll try things when I ask and generally I don't worry about him subsisting on air and crackers, which is the phase I'm in with Alex. I truly never thought I'd see the day where Ashton not only eats all his broccoli, he eats it first! 

Five years old has brought a lot more independence with things besides food but not in a bad way. He's just his own little person now! Let's dive in...

5 year old pedi appointment:  He did NOT want to go to the doctor, he was very worried about shots. He really kept fretting over it and I said, "How about we don't go to the doctor, how about we go to the... pediatrician?" "What's the pedia-matrician?" "Kind of like a doctor, but they tell you good news about how big you've gotten from eating all your dinner and give you a sticker AND maybe even a lollipop." 
"Oh. What if they tell me I'm too big?"
I'm telling you, this kid and his doozies! We walked in and he said "Is this where I was born? No? How was I born then?"

Height: 46.25 inches (97th percentile)
Weight: 46.6 pounds (84th percentile)
Shots: None
Vision test: Pass
Hearing test: Pass
Family jewels: 2

Shoe size: 12
Clothes size: 5

Other goodies:
Favorite toys: Legos (Lego birthday party post is next) and his remote control ("remote co-no-trol") monster truck for the backyard. 

Biggest obsession: his wallet, which is filled with expired gift cards and Chuck E. Cheese tokens. He carries it everywhere.

Favorite movie: Kung Fu Panda

Hero: Jason (obviously)

Little brother: "OW-wex"

Speech: As you can see by Alex's name, not perfect when it comes to pronunciation and he lisps on certain sounds. But he chatters away, knows a zillion words and has full on conversations easily so it's really just about the sounds, which I'm told are all still within the normal range for his age.

Allergies: He passed his peanut challenge this past winter and this fall we have almond, pistachio and hazelnut scheduled. Egg and sesame = still there.

What I love most about him: how, when he gets really excited/thrilled (like discovering something is eating our garden tomatoes and coming to tell me) or is waiting for something to happen (like to see if his monster truck will flip or watching me finish up a lego set) he jumps up and down a little. He just can't contain the exhilaration.

First (and on-going) crush: Kayleigh, our 9 year old neighbor. He regularly hugs her and tells her he loves her, and even invited her to sleep over. When she asked "But where would I sleep?" he looked at her like the answer was so obvious: "With me, in my bed!"

Things that make him cry: not a lot. If he works particularly hard on something and Alex wrecks it, or if he really gets hurt, but even then I have him walking it off after a good hug. He's generally very tough. He did cry when I told him we needed to go to the doctor to get the infected splinter out of his foot. I couldn't get it and he looked at me and said "It is going to hurt?" and I told him honestly: "Yes." And he cried. That was a hard truth to tell :(

Recent skills: learning to swim! He can sputter and splash his way from one end of the pool to the other without a floatie. It's not pretty, but he does it! More importantly to me, he's not scared to try. He really does everything - he bodysurfed and let the waves crash over him in the ocean for a solid week during vacation (still need to post on that!), he picks up bugs, traverses the monkey bars, jumps off things that are higher than I would prefer, scooters and rides his bike over roots, rocks and steps to see what will knock him off, and even tried salmon. 

Would rather do anything than: make Santa mad

Stops everything when he hears: Shut Up and Dance with Me, Sugar, or Uptown Funk. 

To describe Ashton in one word (by me): Explorer
To describe Ashton in one word (by Jason): Active
To further describe Ashton in more words (by me, because one never cuts it): An optimistic, kind little boy with lots of friends and a general sense of what's right and important and what's not. He's adventurous but also gentle and his teachers and anyone who watches him say he's just so good.  I'm really, really proud of him.

Biggest challenge: getting a decent picture of this amazing, nearly 4 foot tall human being. Seriously it's impossible.

Up next: TK with Mrs. Cooney starting Sept 7! No kindergarten just yet- the cut off date is August 31 so he will be the youngest or almost-youngest in his class. In Natick they go from 8:30-2:41 pm with one short recess. While I know Ashton could keep up academically, in my heart I'm just not ready to send him to school 5 days a week to sit at a desk for 8 hours. I've yet to hear any stories where a child being held back was detrimental so we've decided to do just that. If things drastically change, we can send him straight to first grade after this year as kindergarten isn't mandatory in MA.

What he did on his birthday, August 3rd: 8/3 was kind of a lead up day to his big party on 8/5. They had slushies at camp, but Jason had to work so we didn't really have a special dinner and we didn't sing Happy Birthday. The kids (Ashton, Alex and Kayleigh, who is over a lot) had hot dogs outside per Ashton's request, then popsicles and then opened a couple of presents.

Nothing compared to that whoopee cushion, which I picked up at the last minute. I mean, they all laughed so hard for so long.

Potty humor is always a hit.

Alex had a difficult time in that it wasn't his birthday ("Me! I...TWO! MY bir-day, ME!") and cried a lot when Ashton had presents and he didn't. Ashton got annoyed and I overheard him say "OW-wex! Stop it! You only get two birthdays a year and this one isn't one of yours! It's one of mine!"

I object to two birthdays a year only because they are already growing up too fast. Five year picture attempts in all their glory!

We love you Ashton!!

Before and After: Downstairs Bathroom

So let's see. We have one full bathroom on the main floor of our house. It is quite small but nonetheless I am very happy to have it! It works really well for guests (the guest bedroom is on the main floor also) and I like that it is located kind of out of the way/in a private spot. When we moved in, it looked like this.

Very plain, VERY white. The floor tile also left a little to be desired and the grout was a dingy tan.

Because this space is pretty small, I thought it would be nice to have a glass shower, one that would open things up a bit because there are no windows. Realistically, something like this:

I also thought, if we are taking out the tub and making the shower space smaller, we could squeeze in some built-in storage on one side:

And add a pocket door, since the current swings into the bathroom and makes it feel even tighter.

I set about getting some quotes for the remodel. Most of the contractors didn't call me back; I think they are used to people assuming they can do this type of project for $5k and when they learn the actual cost, they fall dead of a heart attack and then the contractor has a funeral to go to. Contractors are too busy for funerals plus no one wants an accidental death on their hands. Despite the risk, I had three of them willing to take the chance on me and I received the following estimates: $15,000, not including ANY materials, $22,500, and $29,550. $29,550. I could feel my chest tightening! 

I might add, that did not include my storage or my pocket door - I was told no by all three on both of those things. I said to Jason, "This guy wants almost thirty thousand dollars and at the end, we will have a still-small-and-only-moderately-nicer bathroom??" [Choke] [More tightening, but not life threatening, as it turned out]. Phew. 

So you guessed it...we did it ourselves! 

Side note: you know how they say, if you want a fire lit under you to get a project done at your house, throw a party? Ashton's big 5th birthday was coming up and we wanted to get this bathroom all ship shape and shiny! So we had our "need by" date clearly set and hit "Start!" (What actually ended up happening was a combination of this eventual deadline plus Jason taking the sink off himself to do the beadboard and the minor plumbing emergency that ensued. Want to know what speeds up a DIY project and significantly at that? A leak that continues to drip even though the water is shut off.)

This is not exactly in order but more or less what to do if you want to follow in our footsteps. 

Step 1. Go to Lowe's, pick out a nice new toilet and a nice new sink, and have a plumber switch them out. This was probably our most expensive step, like around...$1,200? Somewhere in there. But these two things made it instantly better. 

Step 2. Paint. I chose Benjamin Moore Rhine River totally off the cuff and it was perfect!

Step 3. Install crown molding, beadboard and chair rail. Caulk it all.

Jason and I have lived first in a condo, then in a house in Watertown, and now in Natick, and we have had a bathroom in all three places that is this style. Beadboard is a nice upgrade for how easy it is to install (easy for Jason I mean. NOT me. Can you imagine?? I have zero interest in learning how to use tools. Or the grill.)

Step 4. This step actually was me though. Gulp. The tile floor. We knew we were not going to pull the tiles up and were told we could not reglaze them. We briefly considered going right over it with new tile but the toilet had already been replaced and it was too complicated. I bought a Miracle Grout Pen thingy at Lowe's and started painting.

There weren't many color options for the pen so I went with a bright white. It worked surprisingly well! The white paint went on pretty smoothly over the old grout but it did take a couple of coats to fully cover. It was a LOT of lines and I made sure to complain how long it was taking. 

Step 5. Have the tub reglazed. This was another biggie - $425. The original cast iron tub was just flat and depressed. There were some stains and in general it wasn't the nicest place to get clean. It worked out great actually, the guy came while we were on vacation so we could avoid the fumes. It is sparkling! So shiny and white, I couldn't wait to get home to see it (yes, I know how that sounds, but these things are what excite me now lol). It's very hard to tell in the pictures but:

Before

After

Trust me. This was in important step to get everything feeling new.

Step 6. Hang up shower curtain and decor, take pictures, do a blog post! Ta-da! Overall, we spent maybe...$2,500? A far cry from $30,000 that's for sure. And it's perfect. Not fancy, but fresh and happy, which is all I wanted :)

The original before:

And the new after!

The floor before:

After:

Sink corner before:

After:

Darn Jason for not turning on the lights for that picture. 

Before: 

After:

 Thanks for the memories little downstairs bathroom! Those new colors sure look good on you! :)

Ashton is FIVE!

This is just a quick little happy birthday shoutout to my first born...Ashton, you are FIVE today! And you love everything in the whole world except peas. Peas are very distressing for you. Other than that, you are the most excitable, curious, energetic, wondrous little boy and we love you so much!!

I'm behind on blogging because we've been on vacation (forthcoming post on that), we have spent a lot of time re-doing our downstairs bathroom (forthcoming post on that too) in time for Ashton's big 5th birthday party, two days from now (forthcoming post on that too (too)).

Another quick one...HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHTON!! Be back soon!