The 70s called, they want their dance moves back

We're always looking for an excuse to party. Even though our apartment is small (to put it kindly) we still like to gather our friends together for some fun, food, and entertainment. Case in point, Crowdtap sent me an ABBA Dance Party game for the Wii. I didn't really grow up with ABBA, being an 80s girl myself, but I was familiar with their music and love Wii dance games, although I will readily admit I'm not a dancing pro. Not by a long shot.

We went for a 70s look in the house. My budget was minimal at best, but I think our house looked pretty radical and gnarly for our guests. I found a little disco light at Party City which didn't do a whole lot of anything, it's retired itself to the boys room where they play with it when they are "exercising"...don't ask.

I got some groovy plastic rings with flowers and smiley faces on them, sadly they didn't fit most of the guys fingers, but they made cute pinky rings for the girls and the kids took over the rest. A disco tablecloth covered our kitchen table, which was decorated with "Peace, Love, Happiness" cupcakes (sorry, they weren't laced with anything 70s-style...it wasn't that kind of party) and Swedish pancakes - ABBA is from Sweden, and we rarely need an excuse for our favorite pancakes. Everyone brought over a filling for the pancakes, including Nutella, strawberries, bananas, and blackberries.

Jeremiah figured that if we were going to have a 70s party that he was going to go all out. Apparently his boss/friend Josh had the same idea. And yes, the clothes are straight from the thrift store. Far out, right? No? Creepy? Maybe. I made Jeremiah shave after the party.

We finally got down to the dancing. The game was a lot of fun, and I was awful! I thought I had an ally in Tai, who swore she was an awful dancer too, but somehow she managed to win the dance off. Me? I came in second to last place. But I was totally okay with that. My expectations weren't that high.



For some reason, unknown to me, Jeremiah and Josh chose to dance to a duet song, usually meant for boy and girl. Not boy and boy. It was awkward and hilarious and I'm still slightly sad I didn't get any of it on video. Let's just say it brought their friendship to a whole new level.

I included this picture mostly because it's the only photo I can find with Josh's bright blue fake alligator-skin shoes. From the thrift store. I think Jeremiah was mildly jealous.

Awkward? Yup.



Part of the dance off was Tai vs. Farrah Fawcett...I mean Rachel. I only dreamed of getting my hair like that, but it wasn't meant to be. Rachel rocked it, though. She was also the most versed in ABBA songs of the group and sang along to most of them. And Tai with her head scarf? Groovy!

Zach had a wardrobe malfunction with his thrift store shirt, so he added a well-worn (aka falling apart) tie to a polo and drew on some long sideburns. And those dance moves? They are so 70s!

Don't look now, but I think Farrah Fawcett came to my party! Oh wait, sorry. That's just Rachel again.

Josh and Dana. She had a wicked jacket and boots, all from the thrift store. Josh? He sort of looked like a mafia person with his blue alligator-skin shoes and his fur lined jacket...not to mention the handlebar moustache.



Tai and Zach. I loved her vest, I was looking for something similar, with of course no luck. I never have luck at thrift stores...not that I go to them that often, but I certainly didn't find what I was looking for.



The kids even got into it when the adults took a break to eat. Hayden and his friend Logan (Tai and Zach's little boy) had a great time dancing, Hayden certainly didn't get skills from me. In fact, I think he even scored higher than me. And he's only 7.

Always one to impress the ladies, he even had a little dance off with Logan's sister, Railynn. Very macho. Sweet. Radical. Groovy...any words I'm missing?

Aubrey and her friend Jocylain pretending to dance along to the game. It's always cute when they don't realize their remotes have no batteries but they were still trying so hard.

We had a groovy time at our 70s party. We were able to invite friends we'd just met to our house for a great time and got to know everyone better. The cupcakes were delicious, the Swedish pancakes were a hit, and the dancing had everyone laughing. Most of us looked ridiculous (at least I did, maybe others did to, but I'll admit I sure did) and others let their inner dancing queen out.

We can always go out to dinner, see a movie, but we had just as much fun and made some fabulous memories in our own home, without spending a fortune. Thanks to Crowdtap and Ubisoft, we were able to create our home into a 70s house (minus the shag carpet) and get our ABBA on with good friends. What more could we ask for?



My camera is my phone

So I finally sat down and figured out how to send photos from my cell phone to my email account, therefore putting them on the blog. It took all of two whole minutes, but I realized there were a lot of important photos that I felt needed to be shared. So this is a mix of photos from September until November-ish.

Hayden loves to wrestle. So does Roman. Well, really any Hjelm cousin loves to wrestle, and I promise they have all heard, "Stop wrestling before someone gets hurt" at least a million times, but it took someone actually getting hurt before they really believed us. That "someone" was Hayden. Jack landed in some WWE fashion on Hayden's wrist and fractured it. And because we're great parents, we didn't realize it was fractured until 3 weeks later when he was still complaining about it. I think it was our lack of insurance that kept us hoping it was just a sprain.

Hayden picked a bright blue cast and was, at first, thinking he was pretty cool. That is, until the doctor said that he couldn't get it wet for 3 weeks, which Hayden realized awfully quick that he couldn't go swimming. We were literally leaving that day for our drive to New Mexico and Hayden had been looking forward to the swimming pool at the hotel and at our apartment complex. Poor kid was so crushed!

Hayden showing off his cast.

I also found the boys' first day of school photo. They go to school at Petroglyph Elementary and it's not my favorite, but they like it. Roman's teacher is amazing and works really well with Roman. He's reading at a 1st grade level and loves to talk about school. Hayden's teacher is very, uh, old-school and doesn't quite know how to handle his ADHD. But she's a good teacher and he's learning a lot. He's reading at a 4th grade level although we still haven't figured out how to get him to enjoy reading.

Aubrey's birthday was on October 10th but she got a few presents early (the Belle and horse) and late (the My Little Pony R/C car). The Belle and horse was from my parents, who sent her money specifically for this gift, and I took Aubrey with me hoping she wouldn't notice but of course she did. She loves it. Belle is a princess just like Aubrey! Then, Josette sent Aubrey money but I didn't take her out until a few days later. Thanks to a sale and a coupon, she got the remote control car for $10. She LOVES it and I can't wait until it warms up again so she can play with it outside where there's more space for it to move.

My friend, Sarah, just started a new Etsy shop with her sister, and they have the cutest things! I won a Halloween giveaway they had and Aubrey wore it to church the day before Halloween. Seriously, if you have little ones, check out the site. 

So we live close to a Target store (yippee for me!) and while it's only a 2 minute drive to the store, Aubrey and I can walk there in 20 minutes. When the weather is nice and we're looking for something to do, we will either walk to Costco (literally neighboring us) for a churro or to Target to check out clearance sales. Aubrey found these dog chew toys and insisted she do "exercise". She got a lot of chuckles from other shoppers.

 Every October, Albuquerque holds a balloon festival with hundreds of balloons. I already posted about this but I found these pictures on my phone so you can see literally how many balloons were up in the air. It's so beautiful to watch!

For those on Facebook, you've already seen this photo. As part of "N" week, Roman had to draw pictures of things that were nasty. I was thinking bugs, moldy food, Mountain Dew...but Roman had more "boyish" ideas. From left to right, garbage can, toilet, bum, and penis. Yes, I said penis on my blog. Proud mama.

Back toward the beginning of November we had some friends over to play the Kinect. The kids were so excited to have a houseful of little ones (7 kids in our tiny place!) and they were cuh-razy! They were jumping off the bunk beds and wrestling, but it wasn't until Roman fell over his own feet that he got hurt. Seriously, of all the wild movements going on, Roman hurt his elbow from tripping. He was in a lot of pain so I took him to the ER (luckily only 3-4 minute drive away) where x-rays showed he'd fractured his elbow. The top picture is him in the ER, resting after finally getting some Motrin. The bottom photo is his cast. Blue with white-glow-in-the-dark stripes. He gets his cast off tomorrow (Dec 14). I can't wait. It's a pain to bathe him and get him dressed and his handwriting is awful because he swears he can't write with his casted hand so he's using his right hand (yes, he's a leftie).

Speaking of that night he broke his elbow, after we walked in the door from the ER, around 10:30pm, someone knocked on our door. No one knocks on our door that late. But I'm so glad I answered it. Mom and Dad were there, surprising us with a visit! Apparently they'd stalked us at the ER and into our apartment and followed me to our door. I'm really sad because I didn't take any pictures while they were here. We went to church, had dinner with the missionaries, they took us to dinner at a place called "The Range" because they ate there when they visited Albuquerque in the summertime, and we drove around looking for a new car for Jeremiah and me. They were here and gone way too fast but the kids were so excited to see them and they loved the extra attention they received. I can't wait for another surprise visit from them...or from anyone who wants to come see us!

During Black Friday we got a keyboard. Hayden is going to start piano lessons in January and we wanted him to be able to practice, and although it isn't an upright or grand piano like I prefer, I love having a piano to play when I feel the need. We are ordering a damper pedal online so I can actually play some hymns on Sundays. Aubrey loves to "play" and sing songs she makes up, usually about Dora and princesses and Mommy.

Finally, I love watching my kids education take affect. Hayden is an amazing speller, although he does try to end every word in an "e", something we are working on. He's a great reader, whether he likes it or not, and he is really good at math. Roman loves school, and I'm so happy he does. Because he's reading he's starting to understand how to phonetically spell words. This was the first one I caught him doing. Can you figure it out?

Well?

What is it?

Okay, I'll tell you. He spelled out "quarters". Cute, right?

A Smurftastic Party

I grew up on cartoons. I wouldn't say we were couch potatoes, because I certainly remember a lot of days spent outside in the backyard and bike rides down the street - you know, back when people were naive and kids were allowed to leave the confines of their own homes without supervision. Sort of off the subject, but I remember one time waking up and being so excited to go play outside that it wasn't until I was playing on the merry-go-round that my dad built that I realized I didn't have any pants on! Luckily, those were the days before cell phone cameras so there are no dirty blackmail pictures of that. Besides, I was like 6.

My favorite cartoons were He-Man and She-Ra, Gem and the Rockstars, Care Bears, My Little Ponies, Thundercats, and, well...these guys:

I honestly don't remember this guy...Gutsy. But now that we've been properly introduced he just might be my favorite. He's funny, brave, and, well...gutsy!

We had Groupons for the movie theaters that expired a week after we moved to Albuquerque, so for our very first Albuquerque outing, we took the kiddos to see The Smurfs. I was secretly excited to see it because I'd grown up watching them and was curious if the movie was the beginning of a new Smurfs era or just a bad idea.

I have to say, I really liked it. So did the kids. Hayden and Roman sat in their chairs the whole times, transfixed by the little men in blue. They'd watched a few Smurfs cartoons on Comcast's On Demand, but this was their first realy fascination with the characters. We spoiled them with treats and soda, and towards the end of the movie, Roman threw up. All. Over. The. Place. Jeremiah with his weak stomach was breathing through his shirt but we weren't ready to pull Roman out of the theaters and miss the last 10 minutes of the super cute movie. Luckily the theater wasn't that packed and I'm 60% sure no one else noticed that we ignored our vomiting child.

Aubrey also really liked it, although she couldn't quite decide if she wanted to sit with Jeremiah or me or by herself. She still talks about them and sometimes chooses to go to bed with her McDonald's Smurfette toy.

Well, it was no surprise that when the movie came out on Blu-Ray that we bought it. We even got the special edition that contained the Smurf's Christmas cartoon.

So...then it just so happens that Crowdtap asked me to host a Smurfs party to help our friends get into the Smurf spirit. Would I do it? Of course! My kids love parties and I love planning for them. This gave us a great excuse to invite some friends over to watch the new Smurfs movie and eat blue food.

This is my version of a Smurf village. I carved radishes into little mushroom houses and served it with blue Ranch dressing. Sadly, my husband demolished the village, but he has a love for radishes no matter what shape, so we forgave him.

Smurfette (yes, the same one that Aubrey enjoys taking to bed) guarded some blue raspberry taffies. I say "guarded" because if left unattended, the kiddos would beaten each other up in an effort to get the last one. There needed to be some order here.

This was my dollar store super find. I went for decorations and found these as I was checking out. Smurfberry candy canes - or at least that's what we called them. I'm sure they were boring blue raspberry :)

For the life of me I can't remember why I didn't dye the cupcakes blue. Oh yeah, because my cake mix was yellow, and I'm pretty sure my education in kindergarten taught me that yellow + blue = green. At least the frosting, cupcake liners, and sprinkles are blue.

Roman, Logan, and Hayden watching "The Smurfs". Logan is the boys' "best friend" and they bring out the crazy in each other. They are always asking when they can see Logan again!

Here's Aubrey with one of her besties, Railynn. Her other bestie, Jocylain, is here too. I have proof, you can see her elbow :)

Aubrey's the kind of girl who will attend a party based on food alone. She's a foodaholic.

Roman had a blue moustache after this. And, in the Smurf spirit, he was sporting a blue and white cast. Or maybe he was just slowing turning into a Smurf.

The website "Smurf Happens" had a lot of activities for the kids to do, including making their own Smurf hats and Smurf coloring pages. This gave the kids something to do after their movie was over.

We had a great time with our Smurfs party. The kids got to know their new friends a little better and their friends got to enjoy some Smurftastic food and a movie. My kids don't always get to do "fun" things, sometimes their Saturdays are spent grocery shopping, cleaning their room, or running errands with us. But when possible, we like to give them a good time with their friends, memories that will last a lifetime. We may not have the means to spend every kid away with a Smurfs goodie bag or big, fun, fancy decorations, but the kids had the time of their lives and that's what is important.