Star Wars Birthday Extravaganza!!!

On Saturday we finally had a formal birthday party for Tyler.  He was so patient knowing that his birthday was 3 weeks ago.  He had quite a few friends come, but some were on vacation, so I may have to consider doing it the week before school gets out, to make sure all his best friends can come next year.  I also need to take a leaf from my cousin Summer's book of party planning, by starting about 3 months early.  He only had 10 kids come, and I started a week early and was still scrambling on Friday!  I did get it all done in time, however, only one family came to the party at the designated time.  The next guest to arrive was about an hour late.  I didn't take that very well, so I suppose I'll bite the bullet and send out a physical piece of paper invitation next year, so people can't say they 'didn't know what time the party was at'.  When everyone got there it was a fun party with only minimal fighting over Star Wars characters. And now for the handful of pictures Robert took.

Here is the party table.  Robby forgot to take picks of the tissue paper Star Wars pom poms I made, but the coast wind all but destroyed them within minutes anyway.

Here is the 'Death Star' pinata made from a punch balloon and light sabers made from pool noodles and duct tape :)  

The boys loved their light sabers.  No one would care but me, but Tyler's is modeled after Yoda's and Chris is modeled after Darth Vader, though he wanted a blue instead of red.

Posing for mom.

R2D2 cake made from 2 sheet cakes and 2 round cakes.  Ty wanted chocolate, strawberry and 'funfetti', so it was neapolitan inside! :D

I downloaded the masks from the Star Wars website, and got them printed at Staples.  I made the little R2D2's out of toilet paper rolls, plastic Easter eggs, and Pediasure lids. A little craft paper and markers really transformed these guys.  They were supposed to have legs and everything....I just ran out of time.  :(

Close up of the little R2's the day before they were done. 

The bottle cap necklaces were a big hit.  I bought a bag of 144 bottle caps for $3 from the brew supply store, since no craft stores around here had any.  I think they worked just as well and were probably a fraction the cost of craft store bottle caps. I downloaded the images for free cut 'em and glued em in the bottle caps. Threw some mod podge on and they were good to go. My only hiccup is there were a couple extra little girls who came unexpectedly and I didn't have enough Princess Leah or Amidala necklaces or masks.  It all got worked out in the end.

   

Here we are singing. Please forgive my farmer's tan and terrible posture.

Tyler checking out his loot.

 He loved this little piggy bank.

Next day had a beach fire with friends.  One of the nicest days in years. 

Kids sliding down the dune. :D And telling secrets.

That's all I know folks.  Thanks to everyone who came and thanks for celebrating Tyler's 6th Birthday with us!

Cardiology Appt.

Hi everyone.  Christopher had a cardiology appointment on Friday so I thought I'd update (hey look it's only been 2 months since my last update!).  Apparently Dr. Chang is very pleased with the way Christopher's heart is pumping and squeezing.  He sees no need to rush a stent or his Fontan procedure.  He mentioned talking to Dr. Kyzer (he preformed the angioplasty) to make sure they are on the same page.  So we are back on track with surgery being sometime in 2014.  Not sure about the timing of the stent really.  We won't be back until November, when they'll take another gander at everything and check his pacemaker battery.  It feels strange that we haven't had a pacemaker check since November and now we won't have an ultrasound until November too.  

Chang also stopped one of his meds permanently.   He had us stop his blood pressure med to try to figure out why he's coughing so much, though I think it could be allergies or asthma.  So right now he's only on baby aspirin. It's really odd only giving him half an aspirin in the am.  We are used to 3 meds am and 2 pm.  When he was first home from the hospital it was 6 am 2 afternoon 4 pm.  He's so happy he doesn't have to take the yucky ones.  He'll have to get back on blood pressure meds in a week or so.  But right now it's a strange but nice change.  

That's all I know.  And here's a pic from the appt.  Love to all!

                                                  Chris is too cool in mom's sunglasses!

World's worst blogger.

Hi all.  I was sitting here reading some other people's blog updates, and realized I haven't posted for months!!!  And I NEVER neglect my blog so I had to put a stop to it! ;)

I wanted to update everyone on Chris's follow up cardiology appointment.  I guess it was kind of a wash.  It wasn't really good, but it wasn't really too bad.  His angioplasty wasn't successful, meaning on his next cath he will have a stent placed. Also, because of that particular trouble spot, combined with his slowly decreasing O2 sats, they have moved his OHS from 2014 to 2013.  That's right. He will have his stent placed sometime this summer and his next OHS late summer/early fall.  Can we all say bittersweet?  I am so ready to have this hurdle cleared, but I am definitely not anticipating having my 3 yr old on bypass for half a day.  :[ 

In case anyone is wondering why he is having a stent, when a few months later he'll be opened up, this is my understanding:  The aorta is the main blood supplier to the body.  Since this is the area that needs to be wider, the Dr's want any issues with it hammered out before surgery.  That way the heart can focus on repairs that they will do during his surgery, not on the aorta.   

Here's animated explanation of  the surgery he will have later this year.  It is the Fontan, and is the final step of a 3 series OH surgery he will have. 



 It will likely not be his LAST heart surgery.  There are often valve replacements and other things like congestive heart failure that would require additional surgeries.  I am hopeful that he wont encounter these problems.  However, he will have repeated cardiac catheterizations for the rest of his life.

Little Chris also celebrated his 3rd birthday February 18th!  We did not have a party because we were out of town for Robert's cousin's memorial service.  But we did have pie with relatives, and he did get a lot of attention and was spoiled. :]

Birthday boy swimming at the hotel we stayed at for the services the following day.

Don't mind my messy bathroom, but here we have Chris in his new towel from Aunt Fancy Pants Nancy. And Tyler showering, unaware he's in the pic.  :]

Chris ran up to this dinosaur at the park and said 'take my picture!'  I may have had him do this once before ;)

Chris being a ham.  I forget what was going on.  Looks like socks to me.

Against our better judgement we got a 4 month old Shiba Inu pup.  His name is Indo.  We love him. 

 Yes a puppy.  You heard me.  Expect there to be more pics of him on here.  I repeat, we love   him!!

That's all I know for now.  I'm sure I forgot something.  God Bless!