Perfect Princess Party

Greetings friends and family,

I know nothing is truly perfect, but Layla's birthday party was as close as we could get.  the house was transformed overnight into a castle / play area / dining hall fit for a princess.  The picture that captures the party best is this one taken at the end of the day by our neighborhood park.  Look who's charging ahead...  little miss leader Layla, of course.

As her friends arrived there was a wardrobe change straight away into princess outfits.  Joya was the oldest of the crew, but Layla really looks up to her and considers her as a good friend.

Next was Lulu, her classmate from pre-k.  Layla hasn't seen Lulu in a few months so when I asked her who she was most excited to see, Lulu was the one.

Peyton is Lulu's older sister who is missing front teeth.  Easton had a crush on her a year ago at their 4th birthday party.

Kayla is a fairly new friend for Layla, but these two get along so well together.  She would have a play date once per week with Kayla if we let her.

And last, but not least, Emma.  She is another one of Layla's pre-k friends who she hasn't seen in a few months.  Emma was Layla's favorite playmate in school for a full year and she made a great impression on Layla for her to choose her as a top 6 girl to attend the party.

And we didn't want to get left out of the royal line up so here's the Kodak moment for us that day.

Easton spent the afternoon with Joya's brother and their family at the park.  I can count on one hand the number of families I feel comfortable enough to allow Easton to be on his own with.  They are a class-act and an answer to prayer for us to have family friends.  family friends means the kids get along, mothers enjoy each other's company, and I like the Dad.

We also got a picture of the full cast of characters.  I'll print this one out and give it to Layla as a memento she can hang in her room.

The decorations and setup of the party was a combination of Kendra's imagination, Target, and Pinterest.  It turned out really well and she received compliments from the mom's, princesses, and most importantly Layla.

She is such a strong leader that she dominated the conversations and took full advantage of the "it's all about me" concept.  At other people's birthday parties she does well to make it about the birthday girl (or boy) so I'm not worried about her behavior.  Kendra and I want these celebrations to be as meaningful and gregarious as we can afford.  I believe it is vital to a child's confidence and growth to mark these rights of passage with fanfare.  Occasions worth celebrating are worth making it memorable for them.

part of the princess party was a spa / makeup area where each girl had her fingernails painted and a little makeup applied.  Nothing crazy, just enough to make her feel special.  Ruth helped Kendra make the party a success.

Layla was more than happy to let her friends go first while she watched.

The girls who were not getting their nails done danced in the den to all of Layla's favorite songs including "I like to move it" and "party rock anthem".

Layla requested yellow and on alternating fingers.  The yellow polish is what Layla and I picked out at the store during our last Daddy date.  :)

Kylie arrived a little late so we didn't get her in the photo shoot, but she fit right in the rest of the princesses.  She was excited to dress up in the exact costume as the Rapunzel doll she was playing with.  We can't get more real than that unless we had a tower and an evil step mother.

The rest of these pics below were taken by Ruth and I'm so glad she was willing and talented enough to capture the highlights of the party.  I'm too tired to comment on each of the pictures, but Ouma requested I post every possible picture so she can enjoy Layla's birthday vicariously since she wasn't able to be here in person.  Yes, I did wear one of the princess crowns and decorate a cupcake with the princesses.  That's just how we do things around here in the Webb house.  If I can get involved in what interests Layla, then I will at all costs even if my pride is collateral damage.

My favorite picture of the lot is when Layla is looking at me as I sing Happy Birthday to her.

See you soon!

We like to party

Greetings friends and family,

We are in the midst of a record breaking week of partying.  We hosted 4 parties in 3 days.  Could we have planned better to avoid this?  Yes, but hind sight is always 20/20.  We ponied up and took the challenge head on.  Our teamwork was top-notch because we had no choice. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you commit to doing something.  So here we are doing everything in excellence and to the best of our ability knowing that Monday is a holiday and we will certainly rest!

Party #1: The Valentines Gala event for the Young Adults.  The truth is that Valentines Day sucks for singles.  There is no way around this.  We are the young (single) adult leaders so I decided to plan for and host a Valentines Day Gala event.  I only take credit where it is due.  Believe me, I'm taking every bit of credit for pulling this off.  It took about two weeks of planning, phone calls, trips to the store, and an army of guys.  We (the guys) did 100% of the work with a single purpose in mind.  We wanted the ladies to be treated to a night of being loved the way God loves them.  I worked with the guys all week long and it took several discussions for them to really get it.  We helped the ladies feel WELL:  Welcomed, Enjoyed, Loved, and Led.  A completely self-LESS night of giving our best.  These is the team of well-dressed guys:

 and here are the lovely ladies we honored:

Two men were outside waiting for them to arrive.  They escorted each lady via the rose petal-covered walkway and entrance to the house.  We cooked and served a meal consisting of three different entrées and dessert.  Each lady had a (very expensive) rose she raised when she needed something.  The team of guys performed like a well-oiled machine and the ladies were incredibly impressed.  Here is the table.

The men made sure the ladies did absolutely no work, but instead just enjoyed their time together.  Kendra helped quite a bit before hand because when you stick 6 guys in an unfamiliar kitchen (or any kitchen for that matter) it is difficult to know where things are.  Everything worked out well and I was extremely happy with the results of our efforts.  I asked Kendra if she had any feedback or heard anything from the ladies that we could have done better.  Nothing!  whew...  that was worth it.

Everyone left around 10:00 PM and we started cleaning and preparing for Easton's birthday party scheduled for the next morning.  We stayed up late then hit the ground running to get everything ready.  Before Layla left to hang out with her friend I took a picture of the two of them in front of the TMNT themed backdrop, which Kendra made.

The table was set up with cupcakes for the friends and a big turtle faced cake for Easton.

The banner with his name and some TMNT pictures from Etsy were hung on the wall with care.

His good friend, Zander, was first through the doors.  Easton had enough masks and weapons for each of the four friends to join in the costume fun.

Kendra made Sewer punch from lime sherbet and ginger ale.  The boys got a real kick out of drinking sewer punch.  go figure....

 Lunch time went well as the boys were introduced to each other.  As expected, they could care less about the decorations and didn't consider the amount of effort Kendra went through.

We didn't wait 30 minutes after eating lunch before getting into the water.  We didn't even wait five minutes...  straight to the hot tub for turtle time.  

I asked the boys to give me their toughest turtle impression and this is what I got. Makes me laugh every time I see this picture.

Easton blew out his candles and dove face first into the delicious cake.  I had to drag it away from him half way through the enormous piece because of his eagerness in devouring the whole thing.

Easton is a big fan of opening presents in front of the guests.  We let him and I'm very proud of his responses and level of excitement for the gifts he received.  Here is his friend Will telling him how to play the Angry Birds game he just received.  

The party was wildly successful.  Easton was happy and all of his friends said they had a great time.  Kendra was right to guess that boys just want to play star wars and TMNT all over the house.  I'm happy we didn't go to Chuck E Cheese or a bounce house.   We may do that next year, but at age five the simplicity of just creating an atmosphere of playing is all Easton wanted.

Next up:  Layla's princess party!  and my mentoring group dinner (party #4).

See you soon!

The Gift of Photography

Greetings friends and family,

A basic premise I've come to accept is that you can't be anything you want.  You can only be more of who you already are.  With that in mind, I'll apply the same concept to my photography skills.  If I spend my life trying to improve my skills from a 2 to a 3 (out of 10) then I'm wasting my time working on all of the areas I lack just so I can be almost average.  I'm not being hard on myself, it's just a realist view of my strengths and talents.  I take about 5,000 pictures per year because I need enough shots to get a few good ones for the blog.  I don't think anyone would visit here if were just my written words.  I don't wield the English like a sword in the way my friend Ryan does so I do a combination of taking enough pictures to display the glory of the twins and add in commentary so it's not a slide show.  Hey, whatever works right!

Every now and then one of our friends who has the shutterbug talent comes along and gives a treasure trove of good pics.  One such occasion is when Kendra and the twins went with their friend Kayla and her mom Betty.  Since I was working during this adventure (somebody has to, right?) I don't have any comments for the pictures.  Here's a slide show of Easton and Layla's trip to the zoo!