"Mom! These Are The Coolest Things EVER!"

Those were Ben's exact words upon discovering the purpose of the sweet surprises given to us tonight by my friend Julie.

A short while ago Julie wrote a "First Five" post on her blog, promising to make something for the first five responders to the post in the comment section. I believed I was number six, but still posted my lamentations to that fact. But a short while later Julie emailed me asking for the boys' favorite colors as she was beginning work on our "First Five" items! Hooray! I had no idea what she was making, but sent on the boys' responses to the color question.

Tonight her daughter knocked on our door and handed us a box of colorful PVC pipes. Hmmm.... "What are these Jordan?" She replied, "Marshmallow shooters." OH.MY.COOLNESS. We are each now the proud owners of our very own marshmallow shooter. And not only that, but each of our shooters had been painted to our favorite color specification. She even included little puffy pom pom balls to use as ammo, since, as Julie said, they will attract fewer bugs than marshmallows would. What did the boys think? Well, let's just say that "jubilation" is not a strong enough word. I could barely get the boys to sit down for dinner; they were too eager to continue shooting pom poms at one another!

When Josh was asked what his favorite color was he said, "Rainbow." So Julie made his rainbow! :)

Luke's and Tommy's were a smaller size for easier shooting, and while Tommy is not quite ready to enter a family pom pom ball battle, Luke has got it down. He also loves the sound it makes when he hums into it.

Julie painted mine with the piranha plants from the Super Mario game because a) The shooters look like the tubes the plants come out of in the game and b) Let's not mince words here: I am a Mario Super Star. Isn't my shooter great?! Love it!

Julie also included this beaded wire bookmark for me, and since I always have one (or more) book going it is going to come in VERY handy.

And that wasn't all! There were three of these adorable monkey fabric burp cloths for Tommy! She said, "Tommy will know how to use them." And she was right, seconds after this photo was taken this particular cloth did its job!

Thanks Julie...soooooooooooo awesome! We are feeling quite spoiled now!