The Darth Vader Party

Happy Birthday to the sweetest, bestest, 5 year old boy: Johnny Michael Allison. John's 5th birthday party was Sunday, November 7, 2010. It was great fun with lots of friends and family.
John's obsession for now is Star Wars. Especially Anakin Skywalker a.k.a. Darth Vader. Hence, the Darth Vader Theme.
There are some down-sides to having a November 2nd birthday--fall rainy weather, football games taking priority over your party, everyone seems busy this time of year, flu season, your Grammy can't make it to your party :( However, one of the best things about having a November 2nd birthday for John Allison is that it comes right after Halloween. This means that for a boy who LOVES to dress up in costumes, his awesome mom can get them on clearance for birthday gifts. I imagine as he grows older, he'll be the coolest kid in school having the most awesome Halloween/Birthday bashes. Basement style...if we have a basement. You know what I mean, a really cool party with the best decorations, music, food, and kids :)!!

In Attendance:
Megan, Reese, Tate, Elizabeth, Emma, Will, Ava, Stephanie, Noah, Jonah, Linda, Dan, Kyle, Laurie, Janell, Chad, Carson, Hudson, Uncle Dave, Dad, Mom, John, Jake (Jake was so sick with bronchitis, he missed 1/2 the party): Mary Ellen, AND GRAMPA! Grampa showed up unexpected! What a treat!

The Table...minus the food and kids. Cups with Fun Dips and glow necklaces and bracelets. Darth Vader/Yoda plates, cups, napkins, table cover, red confetti, and of course the amazing Darth Vader cake.

On the wall--"happy birthday" sign and "Save the Galaxy Game" --sort of like pin the tail on the donkey but Star Wars Style.

The Party Favors-Star Wars themed fruit snacks, whistles, kaleidoscopes, slinkies, activity sheets, trading cards, gum, and lots of candies.

Enter

That's the Tie Fighter--Learn it.

La Piñata del barrio
GO REESE!

The One-Handed Swing--he's famous for that.

To save a little money on a pinata, I filled a brown bag with lots of candy and wrapped it in Star Wars paper.(La Piñata del barrio or Ghetto Pinata) The kids beat the you-know-what out of it and it still wouldn't open. So I tore it open and shook out the candy. But, whoops...the candy dumped right on poor Johnny's head and he was SO mad at me.

You can see Carson rubbing his head--I guess the candy hit his noggin too. Whoops:(

NOAH

HUDSON

WILL

CARSON

Darth Vader Cake! Made by the fabulous Lisa Cook

Plates

3-D Decorations

New Poster- Empire Strikes Back

Me and My Sweet Emma

Carson and John-- Light Saber Duels



Watch out for Jonah!

Will, Noah, John, Carson

Me, Grampa, Birthday Boy

Tatey

Emma and Reese-My Girls

Princess Leia-- I mean Ava

Lil Jedi

All the boys playing with their party favors

Darth Vader showed up--with bare arms.

For a split second--John was convinced.

Tie Fighter

Jakey

"I'm sick."

It was a great party! Happy 5th Birthday, John! Mommy loves you like no other. You are the light of my life. My sweet tender-hearted Darth Vader.

Padme Amidala Skywalker Pepper Potts Allison

The newest member of Team Allison is Miss Padme Amidala Skywalker Pepper Potts. She's our 3rd adopted (or as I like to say, "rescued") Kitty. We adopted her October 18th. We didn't have plans to adopt a new kitty, but when I saw her sweet face I knew she was coming home with us.
She is so kind and sweet and loving and affectionate. She loves her tummy rubbed. She loves her new boys and cuddles them all day and night.

My Fall Beauty Faves

Here's some of my favorites for this season. I would love to hear yours...gimme ideas!!

I love Chanel, O.P.I., and Essie Nail Laquers-- my new favorite is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure. Love the shades for fall, love the brush shape, love the finish.

Right now I'm wearing Fairy Teal for the toes, and Wet Clay for the fingers.

I LOVE NAIL POLISH!!!

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure. Love it.

Other shades I love... for me, they gotta be flat and shiny: Pat on The Black, Navy Baby, Commander in Chic, Plum's The Word, Thinking of Blue, Steel Gray, We'll Always Have Paris (OPI), You Don't Know Jaques(OPI) --Just to name a few:)

I LOVE TAUPE.

My New Favorite Foundation is Bare Minerals Matte. I have to cover my Rosacea which means I have to cake-on the foundation. With the non-Matte I can sometimes look to "glowy." Practically sweaty.Eww.

MAC Studio Fix Pressed Powder works wonders. If you know me, you know I love my MAC. However, I like to switch it up now and then. Plus my skin is dry in the cold months so Bare Minerals feels good. Lovin' the Matte!

Drum-roll please.....Here's my new favorite Blush!!!
The name of this blush is NARS "Orgasm" LOL. It's peachy pink and has gold flakes in it. GORG.

Sick Babies

I can tell Fall is really here because of all the trips to the doctor already.

October 09-10th, 2010...

It was Dad's 40th Birthday on Friday the 8th (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE!!!!); we celebrated as a family on Saturday. Our good friends gave us a gift card for Red Robin and we decided to go for it with the kids because it's been awhile since the last Allison Family restaurant dinner...

Rewind<<
Last week Jake got another horrible ear infection. He cries because his ear hurts and within the hour it's draining disgusting puss. By morning it looks like something out of an alien movie with ooze and stank coming out by the gallon. Sicko. He was prescribed Amoxicillin by the doctor.

>>Fast Forward 1 week (Oct 9th, Saturday night)>>
Red Robin dinner was great. Boys loved their balloons and color crayons and burgers and fries. John was so sweet practicing writing his name and Jake was happy to scribble.

After Dinner, friends came over to the house for drinks and that's when John started to complain of his ear--he told me it hurt earlier in the evening but he was ok for a little while--the pain came on strong and fast. I knew it would be a long night for all of us.

By 1am John was still crying and tossing and turning and yelling at me. "My ear! My ear! It hurts so bad! I can't believe you did this to me! Stop touching me! Stop talking to me! My ear!" John cried forever....then Jake started crying.

Jake could not stop itching and crying. By 3ish we were still not sleeping. Jake was itching and scratching. I gave him benedryl and tylenol. He seemed to get worse. Next hour I spread cortizone on him and that's when I noticed all the hives. Big, huge, red hard hives. Everywhere. So after another hour of all that cream and medicine not working, he peed in the bed. So we went to the couch for a little TV therapy...thank goodness for Charlie and Lola and Little Einsteins. After 3 shows, Jake fell asleep. I moved us back to the bed with lots of towels laid down on the pee-sheets. It seemed I just closed my eyes when John came in to wake me, as he had been sleeping with Mike in the boys' room. We went out to the living room to watch TV.

When Jake woke around 930am his hives and redness was horrible. He look diseased. My boys have had Fifths Disease, Hand Foot and Mouth Disease, allergic reactions rashes, and this was by far the worst rash I'd seen. It was everywhere: his ears were puffed up and swollen, his knuckles and ankles were swollen, he had red and purple splots on his face, body, and every crevass. He was so itchy and miserable. John was still crying over his painful ear infection.

So off to Urgent Care, for the second Sunday in a row...

Turns out, Jake is allergic to amoxicillin, just like John and me. So now he's on Zyrtec and Prednizone. John is taking medicine for his ear.

As we are leaving the pharmacy I said, "Happy Birthday, Dad!" Daddy got to spend his birthday money on medicine for the kids. He laughed and said that's probably how it'd always be and we might as well get used to it.

As we got home Jake said, "I wish I could be with my Grammy."