Star Wars Surprise 40th

Truth be told: my husband is a true Star Wars Geek. Totally and completely in love with everything Star Wars. I think I won him over when one of our very first conversations was about the movies. I like Star Wars as well, but I am not nearly the "Fan Boy" he is.

This brings me to his 40th birthday. I wanted it to be special. I wanted it to be unique. I wanted it to be a surprise. But above all, I knew I wanted it to be Star Wars themed. I did a lot of research for this party. Spent a lot of very late nights searching, gathering, and creating the perfect party. Let's just say I started this in January and his party was just last weekend.

This was definitely a labor of love. I absolutely love my husband and so he became my muse. The first thing I decided on was the food. I saw other Star Wars themed parties in my internet searches and loved the idea of naming all the food "something Star Wars." I also liked the idea of having it all laid out on a table with signs that told you what everything was. Pics are below, but please don't mind my cheesy, horrible set-up!

The cookies were a hit! Yup, "Wookiee Cookies They're Chewie" was number two on my list of favorite food from the party. I found the recipe HERE if interested on making them yourself. I will say they do take some time, but all worth it in the end. Best part, they are so delicious!

My number one favorite food from this party was the birthday cake. Yes, the Sarlacc Pit and Boba Fett make an appearance and boy did it pack a punch! I found the "How To" video HERE. I made my own yellow cake from scratch and I used ground Nilla Wafers instead of ginger snaps. This cake not only looked bad-ass, it tasted yummy, too.

The food makes the party, in my opinion. It's the highlight. But it wasn't the only thing that caught guest's eyes...

Backside and Front

The invitation was my second creation for this party. These were handmade by myself and really took some time to do, but I loved every second of it. I had seen similar handmade invitations on the internet and wanted to improve on it. I wanted to make them a little more grown up looking. Mind you, pretty much everything I found on Star Wars themed parties were for kids. So I created my lightsaber and then my wording - in the voice of Yoda.  It was then time to print, cut, paste, and insert for the perfect lightsaber invitation.

Next came the stamp. I designed the stamp so guests would know right away that it was a surprise and that it had to do with Star Wars. The envelope is the very first impression and I wanted it to stand out. I addressed all the guests by some kind of Star Wars name, whether it was a family: "clan" (The Gorman Clan), or individuals: "Jedi Master Joe" "Princess Judy" "Weapon Master K.C." "Jedi Diplomat Richard" and so on, and so on, and so on.

The extras came in the way of posters. The one at the very beginning of this post and the one here. I created the wording to try to get our guests pumped about really making this the best birthday surprise Dan has ever had. I included his very first picture (from the hospital) which his hand was in the most perfect position to hold a lightsaber. I also included a pic of him now...his head anyway! I put his head on Luke Skywalker, his favorite character. Then I made his lightsaber blue to stay consistent with the baby pic and the invitation.

Now, every party must have party games and what better for a 40th Birthday than some fun old school games with a twist? I'm talking about Pin the Tail On The...Tauntaun? Yup! Pin the Tail on the Tauntaun. Awesome! I found the pic online, removed the tail in photoshop, made it black and white (cheaper for printing), and went to Staples to print it 18"x24". I printed the tails at home.

Next I made lightsabers out of pool noodles. I swear I was getting high off the fumes of the sharpie marker. I figured we could all battle it out and no one would get hurt.

Then came the Jedi Training Quizzes. Yes, a quiz of seven questions for each Star Wars movie. You can find the quiz HERE. I gave away Star Wars Pez dispensers as the prizes.

I was going to make a Darth Vader pinata so our guests could have a lightsaber battle with him but I ran out of time. Very disappointed, although it did rain all day, so that made me feel a little better about it. I mean, I wouldn't have done the pinata inside, so I guess it all worked out.

My mom thought I was crazy for doing "kiddie" games, but isn't that what you want for your 40th? You want to be reminded of the simple times in your life before responsibilities, before work, before marriage, before kids. You want to know that you still can be fun and have fun playing games that once made you jump for joy if you ever went to a party where these games were played. Nostalgia. Plain and simple!

Star Wars cereal... Cool!

Such a comfy Jedi robe

Ok, so this isn't Star Wars, but it is Star Trek and that's just a good.

Nice wrapping paper! LOL

Oh boy! Anyone who has seen our backyard will know this was the perfect gift

A great big "Thank you!" to my parents and my in-laws for helping me pull this surprise off. Without your help, the party would not have been. 

"Thanks a bunch!" to Dan's close friend, Kevin, for getting him out of the house so I could set up. You really are a true friend. 

Lastly, "Thank you!" to all those who actually replied to this invitation and for the one's who were able to make it. Hope you all had a good time eating, drinking, playing, and just catching up.

So that was that. The party came and went and now I wonder what I'm going to do with all the extra time I have now that I don't have to plan anymore. Oh, yeah... take care of my three little ones and get more sleep!

A Look Back 6/19 - 6/25

• Saturday, 6/20: Lily and I were looking at a picture of me when I was pregnant with Killian and Piper...

Lily- "When Lily big girl, me have Piper in my belly."

Me- "Well, you can have your own baby inside your belly."

Lily- "NO! ME HAVE PIPER IN MY BELLY!!"

Me- "OK. Calm down."

Lily- "Can Lily have Piper and killian in my belly?"

Me- "Sure, Lily. You can maybe have twins, too."

• Sunday, 6/21: Father's Day. It was a lovely day that consisted of breakfast in the morning, just the five of us. Lily gave Daddy her gift... Matching Mickey Mouse shirts. 
  

Then I took a pic of all of them...

Then I got the best father's Day gift of all... yeah, you heard that right. Dan took the kids to his parent's house and I got to spend some much needed alone time to get a few things done. After I danced and sang my heart out to a very loud mix of my favorite 90's girl bands, I cleaned a bit. It was a good time!

• Monday, 6/22: Lily is too funny...

Lily- "Piper is a brother."

Me- "No. Piper is a sister. Killian is a brother." 

Lily- "Killian is a son and Daddy is a son."

Me- "That's right! And what are you?"

Lily- "Lily a moon."

•  Also Monday, 6/22: This happened-

• Killian got his 2nd tooth this week. Now he has both bottom fronts. Piper already has four teeth. Is it wrong for me to tell Killian he's losing to his sister in the milestone department. Maybe I should stop that since, 1: it really isn't a competition. And 2: I really don't want them to feel like everything is a competition with the other.

Co-sleeping: A Love/Hate Relationship

My husband and I have, on and off, been co-sleeping with our three year old daughter for all of her life.  She was and is a great sleeper, but sometimes she just wanted or needed to be close to us while she slept. It was never an every night thing until I got pregnant with our twins. Now, she goes down in her room about eight o'clock and wakes up around midnight to come into bed with me and her daddy. I thought it might stop after the twins arrived, thinking it was because she was concerned about me or maybe feeling like she needed a little more attention, but it didn't.

I love the fact that my daughter loves me so much she wants to cuddle with me all night. That she wants to have her head on my shoulder, chest, or stomach while she sleeps. I love it, but I can't stand it at the same time. I am constantly smothered while I try to sleep. She moves around so much I inevitably end up almost falling off the bed. Don't even get me started on the covers. She likes to sleep above the covers, which would be fine, but she decides to kick and jerk her whole body out from under them the moment I am almost asleep. Then I have to quickly grab the covers that are over me so they don't get pulled off and pinned down by her legs.

I curse a bit in my head at this point. Why do I keep letting her into our bed? Why do I put up with the smothering? I got head butted in the nose the other night, so hard I thought my nose was broken. Why don't I just put my foot down and be stern about staying in her own bed? Why? Because as much as I hate it when I'm in that moment, I love it even more. She is my rainbow baby. My first born. She is almost three and a half. I'm going to blink and another three years will pass, then another. How many more years do I have where she loves me so much she wants to be that close to me? How many more years do I have where she whispers, "I love you, Mommy. I love you so much" in my ear right before we fall asleep?

One day, she will turn on me. She will say that she hates me. She will not want me to hold her anymore because she will think she is too big for that. She will no longer want to hold my hand while we fall asleep. She will no longer need me like that and it makes me sad. I hope I can keep our mother/daughter relationship close and loving. I will always tell her everyday that I love her and I hope that she will always tell me. I am hopeful, but I know how I was with my mom. I hear stories of other mothers and daughters. The majority of tweens and teens turn on their mothers. I really don't want that for me and any of my children. So I will continue to co-sleep for as long as she wants. Because it makes her feel safe. Because it makes her feel loved. Because it makes her feel comforted. Because it makes me feel needed. Because it makes me feel loved. Because it makes me still have my baby girl.

A Look Back 6/12 - 6/18

• Killian and Piper turned 8 months old on Saturday, 6/13. 
• Took some great shots of the kids...

• Visited the Nassau County Museum of Art on Sunday, 6/14, where Dan and I were married back in September of 2009. After giving Killian and Piper lunch, we packed everybody in the van, picked up lunch for Dan, myself, and Lily, and headed to the museum to have lunch in the formal gardens at the very spot we said our I do's. Lily kept asking where the "real" park was and when we were going there. We told her that not all parks have slides and swings, but being three years old, she just didn't get it.

• On Tuesday, 6/16, it rained on and off. I let Lily put her bathing suit on and we went outside to feel the rain on us. It wasn't thundering or lightning out, so why not? It's natures sprinkler! Anyway, I decided to do some weeding in the rain. I should always do the weeding in the rain. It felt nice not having the hot sun beating down on me while working outside and the added bonus of the cool raindrops made it even better.
• Wednesday, 6/17, was Lily very last day of an early educational school we've been going to since she was 8 months old. We started out doing Mommy and Me classes then I started dropping Lily off there for a two hour session each week for the past year and a half or so. It's a bittersweet ending to this stage in her life. Come September, she will start pre-K and I will no longer be able to call Lily a toddler, she will be a pre-schooler. 

                         
                                                      Ms. Rhona                                                                           Ms. Denise

• On Thursday, 6/18, Lily said the strangest thing to me. It was one of those "kids say the darndest things" moments, but I thought about it too much and now I'm feeling weird, like she knows something I don't. Here's how it went down: We were going through a picture book of 100 first words and Lily was naming everything in the book. Something I was very proud of because of her speech issues she had last year. Anyway, there was a parrot in the book and she said she wanted one. Then I said I like birds and maybe one day we could get one. Then she looked over at a toy parrot she has and said...

"Mommy, Lily already has a parrot."

"OK, Lily. Maybe we can get a real one someday."

"Mommy, when you are a little girl again, like me, you can have one." 

Hmm? A little girl again? So, does she think we get reincarnated? Maybe she thinks I'm like Benjamin Button? Or, most likely, she's three years old and has no clue what she just said! 

An Old Thought

I was reading through some old posts on a previous blog I had (click HERE to view if interested) to see if I could do some comparing between my twins and my three year old when she was their age. Then I got sad. I was reading through all the little moments I had, all the pictures, all the things that I would not remember if I hadn't written them down. Then I thought to myself that I need to do that again. I need to keep track of things that happen each week or they will be lost in time forever. So, I have decided that each Friday I will post a list of things that I feel were significant in the lives of my three kids. Stay tuned for that.

The Invisible Disability Dilemma

I know there are a lot of mothers and fathers who have medical issues and are just trying to do their best everyday not to let it stop them from doing all they can with their children. I am one of those mothers. I have many medical conditions (listed below). Some will prevent me from doing certain things and others will only limit me. Most of the time, I'm not all that affected by these things. I always have some sort of pain, but I've lived with it for so long that complaining is not an option. No one wants to here me say that my legs hurt, or my neck hurts, or that I'm cold. So I reserve the complaining for when the pain is really out of control. 

Taken from www.disabled-world.com

I guess that's the dilemma of people who have medical conditions you can't always see. The dilemma of people thinking you are just a complainer. If they can't see you're sick, then you're not. Most of my medical conditions are not visible, at least not to the average person, and when I see a doctor and go down my list of medical conditions, I always get a look from them like I'm crazy. Then they want to run all these tests to, what? Make sure I'm not lying? Uh, I know I have all of these things because I've had all different kinds of tests done. I'm not making this stuff up!

A while back, my mom gave me the courage to ask my lymphedema therapist to fill out the paperwork to receive a NYS handicap parking permit. I was working at the time, before I had kids, and the parking lot at my job was so big by the time I got into the building I was in pain and my legs swollen. So I now have my "handy" which I like to call it. It is very handy. Especially on those days I am in pain and don't or can't walk for too long. Sometimes, people can be really rude though. They think because I don't use a walker or a wheelchair and because I am usually toting around three kids, I am lying about needing a handicap parking permit. I get looks all the time and it makes me feel like I need to "act" more disabled. The sad part is that if I didn't have my "handy" and had to walk across a long parking lot, I would be walking like I was more visibly disabled. So, I just ignore and thank my mom for pushing me to be not embarrassed by asking my doctor for the referral. If there wasn't a need for me to have one, she would've said no and the state would've denied me. So f*ck the snide remarks and rude ass people!

Anyway...

Let's go down my list:

• Primary Lymphedema (Meige disease, lymphedema praecox) is not understood as a disability - people just think I have cankles or fat legs. It affects both my legs from hips to toes. The swelling and pain is very real. It took many doctors and about seventeen years to diagnose. It started showing it's ugly head when I was around thirteen but didn't think too much about it until a doctor said I had swelling and couldn't understand why at my age. Even though doctors knew I shouldn't have swelling, none of them took the time to actually figure out why. Then I started feeling pain with it and I took it upon myself to find a doctor who could possibly tell me the reason. A rheumatoid doctor actually told me it might have to do with my lymphatic system and gave me the number to Lymphedema Therapy in Woodbury, NY, the place I have been going to since 2007 for treatment. This is a hereditary disease so there is a 50% chance I have passed it down to one or more of my children. I hope not, but if they do have it, I will know what to look for so they will not face years and years of being in the dark about it like I was. It's worse not knowing what is wrong than having an answer - even if that answer is a non-curable one.

• Raynaud's Disease. My fingers and feet turn purple, red, white, and are very cold. The cold literally hurts me. I get odd looks or laughter from that, but it is NOT funny. It actually is painful. When there is a cold breeze or wind, it actually feels like sharp needles and knives are scratching against my skin. This is the reason why I almost always dress in layers and sit with my hands tucked closely to my body. Even with the warmest socks and boots on, my feet never get warm.

• Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) syndrome. My jaw dislocates and locks up. It is extremely painful. After it unlocks, the soreness can last days. I usually always have symptoms whenever I'm stressed or under pressure. With three kids, I'm surprised I don't get it more often!

• I have neck issues such as degenerative disk disease, compression fractures, bulging disks, herniated disks, cervical kyphosis, a hemangioma on my spine by my neck, and a nodule on my thyroid. For most of these things I blame a bad car accident I was in about sixteen years ago. Sometimes my neck hurts so much I can't move it. I always feel some kind of pain in my neck and upper shoulders.

• Chondromalacia Patella (or patellofemoral pain syndrome). I have this in both knees and when I sit for too long, or walk for too long, or go up and down stairs, it gets to be painful. I won't even be able to ride a bicycle w/ my kids b/c my knees lock up & pop & then I can't walk. That makes me sad :(

• Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). I haven't had an episode in about two years, although I sometimes feel like I will have one every once in a while, especially when I get a cold. When I feel like I'm getting dizzy, I have to remain very still then move very slowly to make sure I don't get full on vertigo. If I continue to move at regular pace, I know I would get it. It's a horrible feeling. I can't do anything when I get it and it lasts for days. It lasted over a week once and I thought it would never go away! I've had MRI's done to figure out why I get it. The doctor's think it might be caused by the car accident I had about sixteen years ago, and all my neck issues. In office treatment (head maneuvers) didn't work for me so I take a medication called meclizine when I have an episode. It helps a little until the symptoms go away completely.

• Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). I have irregular menstrual cycles and get cysts in my ovaries. This was one of the causes for my two miscarriages and all my fertility issues. Luckily, with todays advancements in reproductive medicine, I had an amazing doctor who treated me so I was able to get pregnant with Lily (through Intrauterine Insemination - IUI) and our twins, Killian and Piper (through In Vitro Fertilization - IVF). Unfortunately, there is a 50% chance I passed on the PCOS gene to Lily and/or Piper. I pray they don't have similar infertility issues as I did/do. Hopefully they don't have PCOS.

• Fibromyalgia. If everything else wasn't enough on it's own, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia back in 2011. It's hard to diagnose, but with all my other medical issues and them checking tender points on my body, the doctors were confident in their findings.

So, is that enough for one person or what? It's enough for me. I know there are people who have worse things wrong, like my youngest sister who has Crohn's Disease and Behcet's Disease, PCOS, a benign cyst on her brain, and an unruptured brain aneurysm. Like me, she may not "look" sick, but when she's in and out of the hospital, there's no denying she's not making anything up!

Now, the next time you see someone who may look completely healthy, just remember, they may not be. Don't ever judge someone by the way they appear to be in public because when they are alone, they may be hurting.