Behold the before and after

Tada!

Biscuit's room is almost done. When I asked him what kind of decorations he wanted, he said, "I think I'd like firefighters, cowboys, ninja turtles and superheroes."

No problem!

All the big stuff is done. All that's left is details. And although I've always heard that the devil is in the details, we WILL get this done! (And I say that just as much to hold myself to it as to share the thought).

Anyway, not much to say except that here's what we did:

1. Cleaned out and rearranged the attic to accommodate a piece of furniture that we were moving out of Biscuit's new room.
2. Moved out the old furniture, including a cedar chest (the piece for the attic) and an entertainment center.
3. Cleaned the daylights out of the whole room, including window sills and baseboards and dusting the walls with a swiffer mop.
4. Painted the walls.
5. Painted the dresser and bought and installed new knobs.
6. Installed new switch and plug-in plates.
7. Tracked down, bought and hung posters of the boy's favorite things (I figured posters would be an easy thing to swap out as Biscuit's tastes and interests change.).
8. Assembled a set of shelves with cubby holes.
9. Hung a picture taken by one of the photographers at the paper (Soon, there will be a small shelf under the photo that will hold a firetruck.).
10. Moved everything from Biscuit's old room to his new room, including sorting through all his clothes and deciding what goes where, since his new dresser is horizontal, and old dresser was vertical.
11. Created a pretty hefty haul for the donation store.

Projects still in the works:

1. Swapping out of the closets. (My wedding dress, some of mine and Jeff's out-of-season clothes and other items are in the closets - count 'em, TWO - in Biscuit's new room.
2. Painting the nightstand (It does need one more coat, so you won't see it in the pictures below. And it will have a new drawer pull.).
3. Printing pictures of family to put in frames.
4. Waiting for a cowboy print and a U.S. map to arrive in the mail. (When Biscuit saw his mostly completed room, he said, "Mom, this is really cool. Now all we need is the cowboy poster." And crazy me thought I was almost done!)
5. Getting rid of the entertainment center (It's a nice solid wood piece that I bought unfinished. But it's made for old-style square TVs. One of my friends thinks she might be able to turn it into a bookcase, though.)
6. And the most dreaded of all, finding new homes for all the stuff we cleared out of the room to get it ready for Biscuit.

Here are some before and after photos, as well as some details shots. The lighting in the room doesn't make for great photos, but you can get the idea.

The nightstand (which is painted the same red
as the dresser) will be where that TV table is.

The room has one big, long closet with two sets of doors.
When we did a walk-through before we bought the house, I
opened the left doors, Jeff opened the right doors, and he walked
through his side to my side and scared me half to death.

Biscuit seemed to like having
his table in front of the window.

The dresser doesn't look very long from
this angle, but it's actually 48 inches wide.

Pinto and Puppy seem to be adapting well to the move.

When I first found this piece of furniture, I thought about getting the
bigger version that is five cubbyholes high and five cubbyholes wide.
But the more I looked at it, the more overwhelming its size was. I
think the four-by-four is just big enough. I'm sure the contents
will get rearranged and swapped around, but there it is for now.

I wasn't sure if Biscuit's name train was too baby-fied or
not, but I figured I'd put it in and wait to see if he said
anything. He hasn't mentioned it yet, so for now, it stays.

This photo was taken by one of our photographers at the paper. It's
not staged. It's a photo that ran in the paper. I did some editing for
some of the photographer's work, and he wanted to do something for
me in return. I told him no, but he brought in this print for Biscuit. How
could I say no? Plus, we work with some of the best photojournalists in
the country, so I was really pleased to have this photo in Biscuit's room.

These are some of the Little Golden Books from
Jeff's childhood. Biscuit has enjoyed reading them.

The boot is a heavy piece of pottery that I painted. I figured it would fit
the cowboy part of the theme. And since Biscuit loves musical
instruments, I added in some flutes and whistles and things I had.

And speaking of musical instruments, that is a den-den daiko,
or a Japanese pellet drum. You hold the handle between your
hands and roll it back and forth. The little balls on the strings strike
the drum head and make a fun percussion sound. The shells are
ones we've picked up on trips to the beach with Biscuit.

Some things I did for my own amusement ... like putting
a pan flute on the same shelf as a Peter Pan book.

Here are the requested superheroes.

I thought these porcelain knobs were just too cute to pass up. They had three
of them, and that's how many small drawers are on the top of Biscuit's dresser.

Biscuit has all his necessities on the makeshift 
nightstand - a lamp, tissues, a coaster for his water and
a flashlight (which we found under his pillow this
morning, after his first night in his new bedroom).

I don't know those people in the small picture frames on the dresser.
Pretty soon, though, there will be faces of people Biscuit knows and loves.

Making progress

I have so much to write about and no time to write it. I have little notepads lying around my house with reminders of things to share. Hopefully, I'll get to everything eventually!

Jeff and I took this week off work. Our original plan was to take a trip to the beach. We love to go there in October, and with Biscuit starting school next year, this would have been the last October beach trip for, oh, about 13 years! 

But we've done so much traveling this year. And we've spent so much money (new roof, remodeled bathroom, new tires for my car, several trips, plus all the regular stuff), we just decided we'd stay home.

Once we made that decision, we started thinking about all the things we could get done. Our list kept growing and growing and growing. But finally, I told Jeff, "Listen, we need to pick one big project and get it done. Period. If we try to accomplish too much, we'll get overwhelmed and not get anything finished."

Jeff is not a good multi-tasker. He does one thing at a time, and he does it very well. Then he moves on to the next thing. Knowing this about him, I knew that we needed to focus on one thing.

We decided to tackle Biscuit's big-boy room.

When Jeff and I bought our house in 2003, we didn't plan to have kids. We weren't anti-kids, we just hadn't really planned on that as a part of our life together.

Then my brother and his wife had kids. It's all their fault! The more time I spent with them, the more I thought, "Hey, having a child might be fun."

And three years of fertility treatments later, we got Biscuit.

We decided to use the smallest bedroom for the nursery. We figured it would be a cozy space. It was already painted a nice green color that could be gender-neutral (even though I was convinced we were having a boy from about two weeks after I found out I was pregnant).

It's been a nice room for Biscuit. He went from his crib to his toddler bed in that room, and he's had many nice naps and good nights of sleep in there. But I had planned all along that at some point, he would move to the bigger room down the hall.

The stairs go up into a loft area that Jeff commandeered as his movie room. Biscuit's current room is off that loft area. On the opposite side of the loft area, there's a hallway that has a bathroom, the attic access door and the guest bedroom. That's the room that Biscuit will be moving in to. The room is about twice the size of his current room. It has two big closets. And it's closer to the bathroom.

We asked Biscuit about moving in there, and he said it would be fine with him. So that's what Jeff and I have spent our week doing -- decorating Biscuit's big-boy room.

Of course I'll post pictures as soon as we're done, but when Biscuit walked in this evening and saw our progress, he said, "Mom, can I sleep in here tonight?"

I was shocked. I figured there might be some drama about moving to a different bed in a different room. But he seemed really excited about it.

Even though we're not done with the room, we made sure that all his creature comforts were there -- a table by the bed with his lamp, tissues, a coaster for his water and his books. Oh, and of course, Puppy!

He crawled up in that bed like it was any other night, and he's up there right now, just snoozing away. I don't think I've mentioned that the bed is a queen size. That little boy looks lost in it. When I tucked him in, I took two bed pillows, turned them vertically and made a nest for him in the middle.

Here's Biscuit in his big-boy bed. This picture makes me sad and happy, all at the same time. Sad because he's growing up so fast, and happy because he's so adventurous that instead of Jeff and me trying to help him adjust to his new room, he made the first move.

Entertaining Grandmama and Papa

Grandmama and Papa came for a visit, and we were busy, busy, busy.

Mama had back surgery in June for spinal stenosis, and she's finally starting to get some of her energy back. She and I were able to do some shopping. That's something we haven't been able to do for a long time.

We also took a fun pontoon boat ride at a local park. It was supposed to be a fall leaf tour, but we're a couple of weeks behind normal for the leaves changing colors. The boat ride was fun anyway. A nature preserve director led the tour and told us a lot about the lake, the animals that live near there and lots of other nature-related facts.

More about our visit with Grandmama and Papa later, but for now, here are some pictures of our boat ride.

Biscuit got to play on the playground
while we waited for time for our boat ride.

On the boat and ready to go.

Biscuit didn't seem to excited at first, but he
enjoyed the trip after we got underway.

I thought the 5 p.m. tour would be good because
the sun would cast nice light on the trees and
water. Turns out, the sun just tried to blind us!

I thought this spiderweb was really pretty, then I thought about how the web
was directly in front of me, and I couldn't see a spider in the web, which of
course meant that he could've blown back on me as the boat started
out onto the lake! I never saw him, but I looked around a good bit.

We saw several blue herons on the shore. I didn't have my long camera
 lens, so I couldn't zoom in very far. These birds can stand about 4 feet tall.

The sun was so bright, Grandmama loaned her sunglasses
to Biscuit. Can you see my reflection in the lenses?

That shrubby-looking tree is a black willow tree. The bark of the
tree contains salicylic acid, a chemical compound similar to aspirin.
Indians used it to ease headaches and toothaches.

See that rock wall? That's the foundation of a grist mill that was built in
the mid-1700s. The area around the lake would've been mostly
agricultural at the time. The grist mill would've been the beginning of
commerce for the area. Grist mills lead to textiles manufacturing.
That leads to industrial work and that leads to banking. 

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a fan of water.
I'm generally okay on pontoon boats because I've never
heard of one sinking (and if you have, don't tell me about it!).
But toward the end of our tour, we took on a little bit of water.
Good thing I had that stockpile of life jackets in front of me!

A line in the sand

Biscuit and I had to run errands yesterday evening, including having his birthday invitations printed.

We got to the print shop, and there was a woman in line in front of us. She wasn't very computer savvy, so it was taking a little time for the store employee to explain her options. Biscuit was getting antsy, so he started dancing around and twirling and jumping. 

"Hey," I said to get his attention. "Stop jumping around like that. People are trying to walk through here, and you're getting in their way."

That lasted less than a minute, and he started jumping around again.

I made my voice a littler more stern and said, "Stop. Now." And I pulled him by the arm back closer to the counter.

Again, it lasted for less than a minute, and he was at it again. I understand that he was excited about seeing his invitations, and that's it's hard to be patient while you're standing in line, but I had told him twice. And my own patience was wearing thin.

He started dancing around again and as this man came around the corner, he and Biscuit came really close to a nasty collision. The man almost fell trying to avoid Biscuit.

I pulled Biscuit over to where I was, bent down to look in his eyes and said, "No toy department at the store."

At our favorite store, one of the things Biscuit loves to do is cruise through the toy department. Even when I remind him that we're only looking, not buying, he still gets excited about just seeing what's there. So to tell him that he wasn't going to get to go through the toys was equivalent to slapping his face off.

"But ... but ... but, Mom," Biscuit said. "I'm so sorry. I'm really sorry, Mom."

"I appreciate you saying you're sorry, but I'm not changing my mind about the toy department," I said. "Remember how we talked about making choices? Well, your choice was to keep jumping around even though I said to stop. So the result of your choice is that you don't get to see the toys."

I was very surprised that he didn't cry. His eyes welled up with tears, but there were several people standing around, and I think he didn't want them to see him cry.

Biscuit has been struggling with listening and doing what he's told lately. And quite frankly, it's been very odd for us. He's always been so easy, that when he hits a rough patch, it's hard on all three of us.

A couple of weeks ago, I picked Biscuit up from day care and asked him how his day went.

"Well, Mom," he said, "it wasn't so great. I got in trouble."

"What for?" I asked him.

"I wasn't a good listener," he said with his head hanging down.

"What happened?" I asked him.

"The teacher said for us to write our names and our letters and our numbers, but I didn't want to do it," he said, "so I just drew on my paper."

I talked to him about listening better and doing what his teacher told him to do.

Then the very next day, he struggled again. And the next day, too.

His teacher seemed a little bothered by the whole thing because it's uncharacteristic.

"I don't understand it," she said. "He's always loved doing work like that, but he just hasn't wanted to do it lately."

That evening was our first talk about choices and how bad choices result in bad things happening, i.e. you don't listen, you don't get to watch cartoons.

It's been hard to make good on our threats because the boy really enjoys watching cartoons between his bath and bedtime. But as hard as it is, Jeff and I both agree that consistency is key. And because his cartoons are so important, it's extra incentive to make better choices.

So there's no good-cop/bad-cop. It's been both of us as bad cops!

Things have gotten better, but as yesterday evening proved, he's still trying to find how far he can push those boundaries.

Goldilocks in the flesh

"Do you know that older girl that was in the office as we were leaving day care?" I asked Biscuit this evening.

"You mean the girl with the golden hair?" Biscuit asked.

I had a hard time not laughing at "golden hair."

"Yes," I said. "Her. Do you know her name?"

He said he did, and he told me what it was.

"What's she like?" I asked Biscuit. "Do you like her?"

The reason I asked, and of course I would never tell Biscuit this, is that the girl with the golden hair has a mother who has never been particularly nice to me. I smile and speak to all the other parents. I figure we're all in the same boat, and some days, you just need someone to recognize you as a person and not as Sally or John's Mom. I don't think this woman's attitude is reserved just for me. I've seen her be like that with other parents, too.

Anyway, Biscuit's teacher was in the office, and I stopped to chat with her about how Biscuit has been doing. He's had a bit of a gumption problem at day care for the past month, and we're finally getting a handle on it (more on that later).

So the golden-haired girl's mom came in and completely interrupted the conversation Biscuit's teacher and I were having.

"I hope you know she has better clothes than this," the mom said, gesturing toward her daughter.

"She looks fine," Biscuit's teacher said.

"Did her father dress her?" I said laughing, thinking about some of the combinations of clothing Jeff has put on our boy.

Without even looking in my direction, she said, "Her father graduated from an art school as a fashion designer. There's no excuse for this." And again, she motioned to her daughter.

Rude to me. Condescending to the teacher. Critical of her daughter. Based on that encounter, I've decided that I do not like this woman.

I wonder how her comments made her daughter feel.

But let's get back to Biscuit.

I had asked Biscuit if he liked the golden-haired girl.

"Mom, she can be nice, but sometimes I think she's frustrated by me," Biscuit said.

Again, I tried not to laugh.

"Well, everybody has a bad day every once in a while," I said.

It was a completely lame response on my part, but I had no idea what else to say. Biscuit is truly one of the few people who can leave me speechless.

Cleaning machine

Our weekends have been so booked up that I've neglected some cleaning chores that have been on my list for a while.

But this weekend, our schedule was a little lighter, and I got to work. Sadly, it's all that stuff that, if you walked into my house, you'd never know I did.

Things like cleaning out and rearranging the pantry and my closet. Or sending my kitchen tools and the crock they're stored in through the dishwasher. Or doing some more rearranging of the attic in preparation for Biscuit's big-boy room.

I've been trying to purge some items from our house - my stuff, Jeff's stuff, Biscuit's stuff and house stuff. Luckily, we've been able to find new homes for everything (which is way better than stuff adding to the landfill). Some things we're giving away to specific people. Some things are going to charities we support. The rest will go to one of the donation stores.

Our store of give-away items is in the garage right now, and Biscuit happened to walk out there. He saw some of the toys and clothes we have packed up, and he asked about them.

"Mom, are you throwing away all my toys?" he asked in a very concerned tone.

"No, definitely not," I assured him. "Everything we're getting rid of is either something that you're too big to wear or too big to play with."

"But Mom, I love that truck," he said, pointing to a small dumptruck in one of the bags.

"I know you USED to love it, but you haven't played with it for over a year," I told him. "So we're going to send it to another little boy who can love it as much as you did. Okay?"

"Okay," Biscuit said, but he didn't sound convinced.

I'm sure it's hard for him to see his stuff go away, even if it's something he doesn't wear or play with anymore. But I do want to instill a sense of giving in him if I can. But I also want him to feel sure that if he goes to day care, he won't come home with no toys to play with. I think it's a balancing act.

One thing Biscuit IS excited about is his big-boy room. Jeff and I are off next week, so we're planning to paint his room.

Biscuit picked out the color. It's a nice pale blue, and it just happens to have our last name as part of the color name.

Here's a picture of Biscuit as he and Puppy drive through the home improvement store.

Happy birthday, Jeff!

Today is Jeff's birthday. And we had no plans to celebrate it in the usual way.

The reason is that we thought he was working this evening. He had an assignment to attend a meeting and write a story from what he heard there. But when his boss woke up this morning and saw on Facebook that it was Jeff's birthday, he sent him a text message saying to forget the evening assignment.

The funny thing is that I baked for a co-worker's birthday earlier this week, but I didn't bake for my own husband. I didn't think Jeff would even be in the office today, so Biscuit and I had already planned to bake for him this weekend. 

Just to suck up, I stopped by a doughnut shop on the way in to work and brought in some assorted pastries. And I got good-natured grief from my co-workers about not baking him.

Biscuit and I met Jeff at the store to pick up a few things. And look at the toys. And look at the DVDs. And look at the Halloween decorations. And look at the costumes.

Here's what we found in the Halloween section:

Trying on crazy hats will work up quite an appetite.

Biscuit and I let Jeff choose the restaurant tonight, and as predicted, he wanted a steak.

Jeff got some nice cards, several phone calls and some fun presents, including the complete series of "Underdog." I think he had a good day.

Super lesson

There are some facts of cartoons that Biscuit hasn't quite learned yet.

Everybody knows that on superhero cartoons, the heroes always win.

Well, everybody except Biscuit.

I worked late this evening, so Jeff get Biscuit's dinner taken care of, then he waited until I got home so we could eat together.

Biscuit was watching superhero cartoons in the living room. Jeff and I were eating and talking when we heard this little voice.

"Dad, can you come sit with me?" Biscuit said.

"What's wrong, boy?" Jeff said.

"I'm a little bit scared about this part," Biscuit said. "I think the bad guys might win."

Jeff went in and sat with him for a few minutes until the outcome, as we all can guess, did not come out the way Biscuit thought it would.

I wish I could tell Biscuit that the good guys always win - in cartoons AND real life. But at least for now, we'll try to hold his hand until the superheroes do their jobs.

Words come back to haunt you

Every once in a while, Biscuit will say something to me that renders me speechless. 

Sometimes, it's because I'm thinking, "Where in the world did he hear that?!" And sometimes, it's because he's repeated something that I've said to him, especially when I'm scolding him.

This morning, I was making some cinnamon muffins for a work friend's birthday, and Biscuit came into the kitchen?

"Can I help?" he asked.

"I'm almost done, but you can help me finish up," I told him.

"What should I do?" he asked.

"First, you can help me stir the batter," I told him. And he did. "Now you can put up the ingredients I'm done with."

I handed him the vegetable oil, and he said, "I know where this goes." He opened the pantry door and set the oil down. "He goes right here between his friends the goldfish and spaghetti sauce."

"Yep, that's where he goes," I said. I was using an ice cream scoop to put the batter in the muffin tin.

"Mom, those are for me, right?" Biscuit asked.

"No," I said. "These are for my work friend's birthday."

"But Mom, I thought you said they were muffins," Biscuit said.

"They ARE muffins," I said.

"But Mom, you can't have muffins for your birthday, just cake or cupcakes," Biscuit said.

"Well, my friend has a wife and a daughter, so I'm guessing they'll probably make him a cake or some cupcakes. So I decided to make muffins instead."

Biscuit stood there for a few second staring at me. Then he shrugged and held his hands out to his side. 

And you know what he said then? He said, "Well, if that's what you want to do."

Really? If that's what I want to do? I was speechless. And before I could say anything, he just turned around and walked away.

I've been trying to recall if I've ever used that phrase with him before, but I don't remember saying it. But one thing is clear. I need to work on my comebacks!

Out of the mouth of my babe

A few things Biscuit has said recently: 

Glued to my chair: I worked pretty much nonstop over the weekend.

Jeff and Biscuit went to the car show Saturday, and when they got home, I was sitting in the same spot as when they left.

"Mom, have you even moved?" Biscuit asked.

"I did go to the bathroom earlier," I told him. Then I went back to work.

Biscuit took a nap, and when he got up, guess where I was.

"Mom, you STILL haven't moved?" Biscuit asked.

"Nope," I said. "I've been right here the whole time."

Poor Biscuit must've thought I had super-glued myself to my rocking chair.


Mr. Strong: Jeff and I was loading groceries into the car the other evening, and Biscuit asked if he could help.

We told him yes, and he hefted up a gallon of milk and handed it to me.

"Boy! How did you get so strong?" Jeff asked.

"I eat lots of protein, Dad," Biscuit said.


Little bitty babies: Jeff and Biscuit were looking through a photo book I made when Biscuit was really little. 

"Dad, why do babies have such little hands?" Biscuit asked

"Babies are small, so they have little everything," Jeff told him.

"So they have little feet?" Griffin said.

"Yes," Jeff said.

"And they have little ears?" Griffin said.

"They have little everything," Jeff said.

"Okay," Biscuit said.

They say the average 4-year-old asks about 437 questions a day. I think our boy has that beat by about 314!

Boys' day out

I'm working on a work project that is taking up most of my weekend, so to give me some quiet time to work, Jeff took Biscuit out.

The started by hopping into the Barracuda and heading through the drive-though for breakfast biscuits. Then they went to a car show.

One of the big-box home improvement stores had a fall festival and car show this morning. When they arrived, Jeff walked up to the table to register his car.

"Dad, who are those Army soldiers?" Biscuit asked.

"Those aren't Army soldiers, boy," Jeff told him. "They are in a special group called the Marines. 

(Nobody told me there would be Marines in full dress uniform, or I might've shirked some of my work!)

Instead of an entry fee, the Marines were accepting nonperishable food items and Toys for Tots. I forgot to tell Jeff that before he and Griffin left, but luckily, they had a donation box, too.

Biscuit got an apron with his name written on it and got to use real-live tools to make a ring toss game. He was pretty excited to show me his creation.

The Barracuda won one of five Best in Show awards. Jeff doesn't get overly excited about too much, but Biscuit was thrilled with the big trophy.

They left the show and went to get haircuts. Jeff took Biscuit to his own barber, and Biscuit didn't just get a haircut, he got a HAIRCUT! It's a little too short for my taste, but hey, Jeff took care of getting it done, so I'm not going to complain.

They got some lunch and ran a couple of errands, then they headed home.

I took a little break to hear about Biscuit's adventures and got back to work.

I'm jealous of their afternoon outing, but I'm glad they could spend some time together.

Out of the mouth of my babe

A few things Biscuit has said recently:

Not his cup of tea: Sometimes I share with Biscuit songs or poems or other fun things I learned as a kid. He usually really likes to hear them. But one I sang the other day didn't fare very well.

"Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts," I sang.

But before I could even finish the song, Biscuit scrunched up his face and said, "Mom, you're not funny because that's just gross."

"Dude! That hurts my feelings," I told him.

"I'm sorry it hurt your feelings, Mom," he said. "But it's still nasty."


Which sandwich? "Dad, what's that bread you like?" Biscuit asked.

"I like lots of bread," Jeff said. "Can you give me a hint?"

"I think it's called 'pumperdickel,'" Biscuit said.

"Oh, yeah, pumperdickel," Jeff said. "It's really good for sandwiches."


Clever combos: Biscuit is pretty good at drawing comparisons. He comes up with some pretty funny responses. Like the other day.

Biscuit and Jeff were in the backyard playing baseball, and the temperature was in the high 80s. 

Biscuit and Jeff were both sweating as they walked in the back door.

"Mom! I'm as hot as coffee," Biscuit said.


Spooky stuff: With Halloween coming up, we've been talking about ghosts and witches and spooky critters of all kinds. We keep it light, and we reassure Biscuit that none of those creatures is real.

We went to the grocery store after work yesterday evening, and it was past dinnertime when we got home. I put the perishables in the fridge, put the other stuff on the counter and just left the empty bags on the floor.

There was a plastic produce bag on top of the bigger bags, and it suddenly started moving.

"Hey! I think there's a ghost in the house," I said.

"Why?" Biscuit asked.

"Because that bag is moving by itself. Look!" I said.

Biscuit looked over at the bag and watched it move for a few seconds.

"Mom," he said, clearly exasperated, "There isn't a ghost. The ceiling fan is moving the bag. If there was really a ghost, it would make a noise like, 'Ooooooooooo!'"

Happy anniversary

The reason for our trip to Jeff's parents' house was to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

We planned a party that started in our little heads as a small cookout with a few family members. Next thing you know, we had rented a hall and told the caterers to plan for 150 people!

Jeff's Dad is one of 10 kids in his family, and Jeff's Mom is one of six. Because they're all scattered out across the country, we didn't figure most of them would be able to come. But I think everyone saw it as a chance for a family reunion, and people started booking flights and hotels.

I'll share more family stuff later, but for now, here are a few pictures from the party:

Favors made by my sister-in-law.

It doesn't take much of a detective to figure out that the
boy had chocolate cake washed down with red punch!

My niece and nephew made this sign for the back of my in-laws' car.