Cancer Sucks....

My mom used to wear a pin that said, "Cancer Sucks" and it does for sure.  On Sunday, my mom has been gone a year.  It's hard not to think about all that she is missing and all that I am missing by not having her here.  A mother's love is unique and irreplaceable.  The only thing to be angry at is a thing I have never seen but in my mind has a persona of malice and destruction.  Cancer.  Gage isn't the only poet in the family...although his poems rythme.  A fact that in the eyes of a second grader, and a lot of adults, makes his poems infinitely better than mine.    

Cancer

So fertile it grows, ignorant of the wish to be barren.    

A boorish visitor who refuses to leave.  

Stalks like a cruel shadow at midnight,

a relentless and invisible companion.   

Obstinate, callous, brutal, and mean. 

Worse than thief and more than unwelcome. 

Concealed are the motives, secret its plans,

an insatiable appetite and greedy are its deeds. 

For all of its strength, never will it be,

as strong as the will nor as timeless as the soul.     

    

Luke is 5

Late last month my Luke turned 5.  That is a whole hand.  Despite all my efforts to stop it, his birthdays continue to come.  Thankfully, I don't have to face Kindergarten for 9 more months.  I plan to enjoy every last moment that he belongs to me and only me before I have to turn him over to the public school system. 

Luke had his first friend birthday party this year and it was a hoot.  The party had an identity crisis from the beginning.  First he said he wanted a spy party.  But he meant car spies like in Cars 2.  As I'm sure you can imagine there isn't a lot out there for Car Spies.  So I opted for a straight forward spy party.  About a week before the party I heard him telling a friend that we were going to fight pirates and search for treasure at his party.  I really panicked then because how do melt pirates, cars, and spies?  You don't I guess.  At least I didn't.   Thankfully my sister Rachel was visiting from Portland and she helped me with the party.  Rach is like the pied piper when it comes to small children and her over the top antics never fail to disappoint.  We spent a lot of time talking into our wrists.


First the invite....    

When the boys arrived they made their secret badge.  We put their finger prints in the little box...



Then the boys did some target practice with nerf guns.  Boys love nerf guns!  They especially love shooting Aunt Rach in the back with nerf guns. 



After the nerf war we played Spy, Spy, Bad Guy.  You may know this game's cousin...Duck, Duck, Goose.

 



After the game we diffused bombs.  The bombs were black balloons tied to their legs that they had to step on and break.  I spent at least an hour stuffing little toys inside the balloons so they would find something when they diffused the bomb.  Luke faithfully helped me stuff in the toys and he said that it took FOREVER!  I don't have a picture of this activity because the popping balloons scared some of the boys.  My arms were full at this station. 

When the boys arrived I had Gage take their presents and secretly hide them in Luke's room.  I told the boys that they had a secret mission to get back Luke's presents.  I had an obstacle course of tunnels and chairs to climb over and I used red yarn to make "security lasers in the hall."  Gage, being the Thespian he is, LOVED hiding in their room and playing the bad guy. 



After that all that was left was to open the gifts and have some cake.  I made cupcakes and frosting from scratch.  These were premium cupcakes that were apparently wasted on 5 year olds because Luke wouldn't touch them and the other boys opted for ice cream only. 

They did make cute bombs.  The candles even sparked.....



The goodie bags that we sent home with the kids were, you guessed it, bombs......



Inside was popcorn....they explode in the microwave.  Get it?  Black gum balls.  A little notepad and a small pencil that I painstakingly cut with a hack saw so they would be small. 

After it was all over I was exhausted but this kid sure was happy....



I sure do you love this boy!

I've Been Making Stuff

Since I was called to be Primary President I've been making stuff.  My house looks like CTR exploded everywhere.  If you don't know, CTR stands for Choose the Right and the acronym is used as a symbol to remind the children in our church that it is important to make good choices.  The 2012 theme for primary is Choose the Right.  The scripture comes from Joshua, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord."  It is one of my favorite scriptures and the Junior and Senior Primary are working on memorizing it.  It's a fun theme...hence all the CTR stuff. 

For the kid's birthday's they get a CTR pencil and I made this can to hold them....

Then for the kids getting baptized this year I appliqued CTR on a white towel to be used on their baptism day.  Pink for the girls and green for the boys.  Thankfully I only had to make 7 this year...next year I'll need to make 12!  Even if they were labor intensive I think they turned out really cute.....

For the girls that are turning 12 and leaving Primary I made these little blocks to put in their rooms.  I only have girls this year, but next year I'll have a few boys and so I'm painting those blocks black with green letters.  Do you think boys will like that? 

I don' t have a picture but my second counselor is an artist and she painted the most amazing mural for our bulletin board.  She painted a scripture scene with all the different characters from the Bible and Book of Mormon and the top of the board says "I Can Choose the Right Too!"  Each month we spotlight a different scripture character and talk about how they chose the right. 

Ok, so I know I've gone all Utah County on this stuff , but I'm really having a lot of fun!