Lincoln's 5th- A Shark Party

When Lincoln chose a shark theme for his 5th birthday party I was thinking getting all of the supplies would be a cinch. Nothing is ever a cinch. I could not believe how difficult it was to find shark themed things. Not pirate things. Shark things. Anyway...we had to be creative. And this beauty of a watermelon I must say Jason and our goo friend Mike Forsyth were extremely creative. They put Swedish fish (I only bought red....dumb) in the mouth and sacrificed a unwilling barbie to the shark's mouth as well. This thing was a hit!

Now I don't want to bore with too many details but I had stayed up very late the night before the party making Link's shark cake which I have since deleted the picture off of computer because of the disdain I had for it. Anywho...to make a long story short...I was in the middle of putting teeth made out of airheads into the shark's mouth when the mouth collapsed. It was supposed to be open. I said some naughty words in my head and my eyes welled up with tears. Lincoln has specifically chosen this cake. And to add insult to injury I was running out of time to do the other things for the party because my efforts were so concentrated on making the dang cake (it always takes waaaaay longer than I think). So...I ended up doing plan B which was to make cupcakes with a shark gummy. Boring. Oh well. No one noticed. In fact Lincoln was so consumed by Jason's watermelon he didn't even care and thought the watermelon was his cake.

These were little jell-o aquariums complete with a shark inside that I made for each kid.

And then there was the shark pinata which Jason was more obsessed with than anyone. He really wanted to see how hard he could hit it. Not allowed of course. Hayden was the one who actually busted that thing wide open. But check out this action shot my friend Michelle got of Link swinging.

"The best babysitter in the world" according to Lincoln. Kailey helped out TONZ the entire weekend and kept Q out of my hair as much as she could while the party extravaganza was going on.

Overall it was a successsful party and Lincoln was thrilled. He got some sweet new presents that are already missing pieces.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!! This was taken at Sunday dinner where we honored all the fathers. The kids could not have a better daddy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CUTE LITTLE LINCOLN!

Just thought I'd throw those pics in. Just enjoying popsicles on a hot hot Sunday.

Lincoln's 5th birthday was today....what a big boy. When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday breakfast he said pancakes with a strawberry uncutted. :) Done. Anything for my little Lincoln. Jason and I decorated his room (which he is sharing with Ella b/c both of them are too scared to sleep by themselves) while the two kidlets were sleeping. I said to Jason, "Why don't we just decorate the kitchen so Link doesn't wake up super early excited about all this and in the process wake up everyone else". He shook his head. Prophesy fulfilled. 6:30 and I hear joyful screaming and yelling.

These next pics are at Chuck E. Cheese's. Lincoln's other birthday request. It seriously is a kids' dream. I remember going there as a kid and LOVING it. I remember adoring those ridiculous Chuck E. Cheese shows. There was a sign saying "Live Chuck E. Cheese show every half hour". I got kind of excited thinking about reminiscing and thinking about my kids having the same memories. LIARS! They showed a live Chuck E Cheese show from somewhere else on a tiny screen. That's really taken CEC down a notch in my book. But all in all the kids had the time of their life. And I wouldn't be lying if I said Jason did too.

RIGHT after teaching ZUMBA. I look disgusting but this is our birthday pic for Link's 5th.

Link's water squirter. So thrilled with my dollar tree purchase.

This is a card that Ella made on her own, without any prodding or even reminding on my part. Sweet, sweet thoughtful girl. I need to give her more credit for those things. She is sooo good at doing sweet things for people. It said "The sun is yellow. Lincoln you are sweet. I love you.". How precious.

After Lincoln exclaimed, "Dad, this is the best day EVER!".

Spain- Volume 4

Estepona, Malaga, Spain

Finally- Home sweet home! I cannot tell you how grateful we all were to come to this "home" away from home with all of our needy American-style comforts. Such as, beds that two people could sleep in, a kitchen with an oven, microwave and fridge, wi-fi, washer and dryer, hair dryer, TV, pool, hot tub, concierge to help us every question we could possibly have (there were a lot)....the list goes on.

Our awesome Marriott suite equipped with two master suites with their own bathroom. What a luxury! We had shared a bathroom with one too many weary travelers.

First order of business- to completely defile the sabbath day and go to a bull fight. Just kidding of course. Sundays are the only days they are offered...so, we seized the day. It was one of the most memorable things we did. We went to this bull ring in Marbella, a town about 10 minutes from our resort.

Packed house, right? No wonder they charged us $75 each to go. Someones gotta rent out the ring.... and pay the matadors and musicians (see below).

The live band. The ring must've been low on the budget. They sounded way better than they looked. It was fun to have a live band there to play the traditional Spanish music.

This guy was the BMOC. He definitely the star matador. Four bulls were tortured and killed (I don't know of another way to describe it....its gruesome). If my memory serves me right this stud killed two or three of them. If a matador gives a good performance and severs the spinal cord with one clean shot the audience goes wild indicating they approve of the matador's performance. At the very top of the ring is special seating with a big banner that says "El Presidente". Of what? Not sure. Anyway, if he approves he gives a nod of the head and the matador is allowed to cut off the bull's ear and keep it as a token of pride and glory. Thus, the ear. The place where the matadors sever the spinal cord is about the size of a quarter and before the matador goes in for the kill, he stares the bull in the face and then the matador charges the bull with the sword.
Most of the bulls were carried out of the rink by an ole' hitch on a car and a chain. But, if there is a good performance a horse decked out in flowers comes and takes the bull away. This matador's performance was rewarded by that as well.

Like I said, very gruesome. The matador has several assistants which help in distracting and tiring out the bull. They stab the bull with about four spears (look at pic) getting the bull good and angry and then in turn exhausted 20 minutes later. Then, he is prime for the matador to come in and do his job.

Spain- Volume 3

We stopped at the next not-to-miss town -Sevilla. Definitely one of the most popular towns in Spain to visit. This pic was taken at the old cigarette factory. Spain was a huge exporter of cigarettes back in the day. This was the nicest factory I have ever seen. These people were rolling cigs in style!

Here's the front entrance of the cig factory.

Inside the courtyard of the factory. This man has some huge endorsements for Cigarettes all around the world. We'll call him Marlboro Man. :)

Next we stopped by the Plaza of Spain.One of the most spectacular buildings I have ever seen. It was shaped in a semi-circle with a gorgeous fountain and tile work and carvings to make one stare. This building has been used for administrative offices for the city today and in the past.

There were these huge tile tapestries all around op different cities throughout Spain. I think this one depicted the city of Cadiz.

Mr. Matador and his hot sexy flamenco dancing, booty shaking senorita. Yes, we paid two euro along with every other tourist to get this pic taken. Don't you love this hat on J? HOT!!!

One of the most famous cahtedrals in all of Spain. Very beautiful but closed for the day.

Again, the cathedral.

A tower in Sevilla. Don't know anyting more than that. The tourist map said we should see it. :) Check.

One of the oldest bull rings in Spain. It looked like it had been painted only about 100 times.

The canal that divides the city.

Another night of scouring the city for a hostal. Again it took hours. This was definitely the dumpiest one. Called "Pension La Gloria" we had to share a bathroom with an entire floor (yuk!-we were desperate!) and I am not sure but I think the bed had exactly 264 springs in it. I felt every one. The best part were again the beautiful romantic balcony doors that opened up to the city where an accordion player serenaded us (or more than likely the people at the restaurant below) until about 1 am. Billy took this from his balcony.

The nest morning enjoying the balcony.

The top the the hostal we stayed at had a patio/terrace where we captured a quick pic of the surroundings houses and buildings.