Gigi’s First Lake Trip

I can’t believe I’m posting a picture of myself in a swimsuit for the world to see. But for the first time in forever, I’ve found a swimsuit that I actually like! Modest AND cute.

Baby #7--Eight Weeks

I think I’m going to document my pregnancy progress on my health/fitness blog The Way of the Warrior Woman, although I may post some belly pics here as well. I am working on my black belt, and although first trimester nausea/dizziness/fatigue has slowed me down a bit, I do not plan on stopping!

For those people who are saying “What? Another baby?!”, here ya go…responses to all your questions and comments.  You can just go ahead and assume that the irritated/sarcastic responses are going be the ones that will pop out of my mouth this time around.

Mother’s Day

Celebrating the wonderful woman who raised her son to be an affectionate, loving husband and father. I could not have wished for a better mother-in-law.

My gifts from my children. They bought me this necklace and earrings set with their own money.

Caveman’s First Holy Communion

And My Baby Is All Grown Up

Date Night!

Celebrating the birth of my knight and hero.

Sunshine’s Senior Prom

Happy Birthday, Caveman!

A day of fishing with Daddy and his best buddy was the birthday boy’s request this year.

Our Low-Budget Star Trek Party

Mojo requested a Star Trek themed party for her 11th birthday. A google search for “Star Trek party” turned up party supplies and favors from the new movie, but the original series is Mojo’s current obsession. MamaBear had to get creative, while staying within an impossible party budget, while throwing it all together quickly. Y’all know I love a challenge.

The first thing I did was print invitations from my printer. Printer ink, paper, a laminator, and laminating sheets are homeschool supplies I’m never without. (Click on these to enlarge them.)

Communicator badges were also easy to make from the printer and laminator. I found a set of adhesive-backed pins from Wal-mart for $2.

 
My artist, Sunshine, created a poster for “Pin the Communicator Badge On Spock”.

Do any of you parents out there wonder if your children’s stuffed animals breed at night while you sleep, and you donate a couple bags of toys to charity every other month? Yeah, us, too. I just happened to have a couple bags of toys sitting in the back of my van. I gave the teddy bears the option of going to the resale shop or going on “Extreme Makeover Start Trek Edition” and a couple of them volunteered to be made over as Tribbles.  We then used a round red tablecloth and some pie pans to make a transporter pad. And we tossed the Tribbles onto the transporter pad.


We made a game of matching alien pictures with the names of their races.
 

We never got around to playing “Naked Time Tag”, but that was on the list. I know, that sounds just wrong. But remember the episode “The Naked Time”, where the crew picked up a virus from a planet, and it made them all act crazy, and they passed it to each other through touch? Yeah, something like that.
(Originally, one of my internet friends gave me the idea for “Borg tag”, where the children “assimilate” each other with clothes pins. But Mojo informed me, “Mama, there were no Borg in the original series.” Oh. Right.)

For food, we had a small intergalactic buffet. We included Earth favorites like hot dogs, hamburgers, and pretzels. We also included Vulcan veggies (you know, because Vulcans are vegetarians), Klingon bloodwine and gagh, and Romulan Ale. (I even practiced saying "You are eating serpent worms" in Klingon. hehe)

The cake turned out pretty cool. I’m not a cake decorator, nor do I play one on tv. But Mojo really liked it, and that’s what matters!

 

We found plates, napkins, and balloons in red, yellow-gold, and blue shades similar to the Enterprise crew's shirts. We were all amused that, for no apparent reason, the red balloons kept popping.