Birthday Boy...

It's time to celebrate my favorite guy.



I've made lists in the past of all his wonderful traits and I could easily make another list. But instead, I'm going to help you get to know him just a little more.

He loves sweets and he loves chocolate. We were recently at an ice cream place and I was ordering for the family while Steve was with the kids. I looked at the menu and knew immediately what he would choose. Double chocolate fudge with brownie chunks. It's not a treat in his mind if it's not chocolate!

He's still driving his first car - He bought it the year before we met. Never in a million years did I think it would last this long. It's moved from one extreme climate to another and back again and it's still running like a dream.

He also still uses the same alarm clock he had as a kid. I've tried convincing him to upgrade. Perhaps one with a usb cable to charge his phone, or one that is a smart clock and goes back to the right time after being unplugged. He refuses. He likes his old comfortable alarm clock.

He isn't big into gadgets, specifically technology gadgets. (completely opposite of me) I try to keep him current by purchasing things for birthdays and such. Sometimes he returns them, other times he takes a chance and keeps them!

He is a fish out of water. He was a pretty big deal back in his city swim meet days and he often relives the glory days in our pool showing our kids his skills.

Most may not realize this, but he's a pretty big deal.

At least he is in our house. And we're happy to celebrate him any chance we can get.

Happy Birthday Steve.

Birthday celebrations...

Last week we celebrated Bennett's birthday. He took doughnuts to his preschool class which made him everybody's best friend. He loved the attention. He wore a birthday crown and they sang to him. Who doesn't love going to school on their birthday at that age? I actually wouldn't know...my birthday is over Christmas vacation and I didn't have the luxury of celebrating in class or having my name read over the announcements...not that I would have liked that type of attention anyway! ;)

Bennett chose a birthday lunch at Old McDonald's. Earlier that morning, I was in our bedroom and I could hear Steve trying to negotiate a better eating location for lunch.

S: "Buddy, where do you want to go for lunch."
B: "Old McDonalds"
S: "Think about it - you can go anywhere you want"
B: "Old Mcdonalds"
S: "What about Chick fil a, or anywhere else?"
B: "I want to go to Old McDonalds"

I gave Steve a hard time for trying to persuade him in any direction but the golden arches. His efforts were fruitless.



That evening he opened gifts. He's been asking for Legos nonstop. We've got buckets full of Legos, but he wanted his own Legos. Ones that Hunter can't take away from him when he's angry. So we bought him a bucket. Of course they'll all get mixed up and no one will be able to tell them apart. But at least now Hunter can't claim them all as his own!



We celebrated with cake this weekend with the family. His older cousin has a birthday just around the corner so we sang to the both of them.

I love this photo of Paxton covering Bennett's mouth as he tries to blow out the candles. This is their relationship. Silly and playful and totally awesome.

They're buddies.

Happy Birthday...

I've yet to meet a kid as excited for a birthday as this boy. He started counting down almost four months ago. We've heard for months what he wants - and his list changes daily. He's talked about his birthday lunch over and over again. There is no way the actual day of his birthday will live up to the hype he's created for so long.

Tonight he was angry for one reason or another and when we told him it was time to go to bed he exclaimed that he wouldn't sleep. He might go to his room, but he was going to be defiant and refuse sleep. I told him if he doesn't go to sleep he won't turn five. He has to sleep in order for tomorrow to come. He bought it hook, line and sinker and begrudgingly marched up the stairs. These are typical conversations for him!








Here's a couple things about Mr. B:
He's a strong willed child and it's exhausting at times.

He talks about things over and over and over again - we often have to tell him we're not going to talk about it anymore.

He's funny. He's got a great sense of humor and he has an animated face to go with it.

He loves to ride his bike.

He is very protective of his alone time with Steve or myself. If you ask him to go with you to get pizza, he wants it to be just him, no other kids. And he can never get enough of that special time.

He plays really well with Cannon. He includes him on the puzzles, cars, pirates - one minute they're best friends and the next they're hitting and screaming at each other!

He's a kid who likes routine. If it's noon - he wants to know why he's not eating lunch. If it's Friday night he's expecting pizza and a movie - rarely is he okay with any substitutions.

He's very friendly. He makes friends wherever he goes.

He's an early riser. We've had to work hard at training him to stay in his room until it's an acceptable hour to get up.

He wants to be a fireman when he grows up.

He brings an energy to our family that is unrivaled. The trick is trying to keep up with him!

Happy birthday buddy!

"All that glitters" party...

Hallie was up for a birthday party this year and she was ready. Her birthday fell right before Halloween and my mom's visit so we pushed it off just a little bit. As we talked about different ideas for her party I quickly realized she's still young and she's our only girl so it only made sense to make everything glitter.










We made glitter playdough that we used to play sculpterades (from the game Cranium) as teams - and then the girls just enjoyed playing with it.



They decorated sparkly cookies.

And sparkly letters! I bought a paper mache letter for every girl at Hobby Lobby that they were able to decorate with glitter, sparkles, washi tape and other decorations. There was glitter everywhere!




In the end, they spent time giving each other manicures with nothing less than...glitter polish.



And they went home with little goodie bags that sparkled. Plain white bags from Joanns that I made polka dot with glue and added glitter.


They sparkled from their heads to their toes by the time they were finished. I'm just glad that the party was outside because even then - I'm still finding glitter throughout the house!

Navy Tablecloths - Amazon
Table runner - Target holiday line
Plates and Napkins - Target
Scrap garland - made from 1" fabric strips from Joanns
Drinking jars - dollar section Target (tied with glitter tulle)
Paper Mache Letters - Hobby Lobby
Glitter Playdough - made from this website

Growing...

Hallie was disappointed when we did her annual height chart marking and she realized she grew more from 8 to 9 years old than she did 9 to 10 years old. The only way I judge height is by how short her pants are. All of her pants are too short this fall which just goes to show she's growing plenty! It's a good thing cropped pants are in and we live in Arizona where our ankles rarely get cold.


Why do they have to grow-up?

Birthday girl...

This sweet girl is another year older and she's more excited about it than I am.

I couldn't ask for a more helpful and nurturing oldest child. We tease her that she's too nice to her brothers at times - she is always sacrificing for one of them to be happy.

She is very aware of people's feelings and can sense when situations are tense. She is quick to serve people when she sees them in need; I've been the recipient of her unsolicited help more than a few times.



I love that she's independent. She's happy to be with friends and cousins but she's also very content on her own.

She's a fun shopping partner. She's started running errands with me on Saturdays and I enjoy that time with her.

She's come to grips with the fact that she will be the only girl in the family and is embracing it.

She loves Panda Express, spicy enchiladas, the soundtrack to Wicked, leggings, curly hair and tennis.

We've got some fun years ahead of us with this one and we're just keeping our fingers crossed that she remains low-maintenance and drama-free. We can hope right?!

Happy birthday to our favorite daughter!

Our Birthday Boy...

My love for birthday parties is well known but I have a birthday party system and I stick to it. When it's not a "party" year we are as laid back as they come. Cannon turned two and besides singing him happy birthday 20 times throughout the day there was little fanfare! He got his morning birthday bucket with cereal and a book and that alone was enough to make him happy.

We splurged on two more gifts - a leap frog phone and a Big Hero 6 figurine and his excitement was through the roof. Children really do have the lowest expectations and it's usually the parents that feel the need for more and more.



Cannon adores my friend Julie and they happen to have birthdays just one day apart so they joined with us to sing Happy Birthday to the both of them. I'm not sure if he was more excited that Julie was at our house and he was sitting on her lap or that he was blowing out candles and getting a treat!


He had learned not too long ago to tell people how old he was - we're now having to retrain him to say two and hold up another finger!


We now get to move on to Hallie's birthday this week which happens to be a party year for her. We're keeping the birthday bucket within reach! Three birthdays in four weeks keeps us busy.

Happy Birthday...

It's hard to believe that two years ago this little guy joined our family and we were trying to tame his crazy mane. Seriously - check out that hair.


We're still trying to tame his hair - the cowlick in the front of his hair is going to always be a struggle!

Cannon is fun. He's happy and a charmer. And he is adored by his siblings. Hallie claimed she's okay with having another brother as long as her new brother is like Cannon and not like Hunter and Bennett!

He smiles with his eyes and it's one of my favorite things about him.

He has learned the art of tantrums and high pitch screams which only happens when he's being bothered by siblings.

He's a talker and copies most everything we say. His new favorite thing is to ask who I'm talking to every time I get off the phone.

He loves his Aden and Anais blankets and chews on the tag end - they're stained and ruined and yet I can't pry those things away from him.

He's a great sleeper but he loves to wake up early - like every other kid in the family.

He loves Big Hero 6 and Daniel Tiger's neighborhood.

His favorite toy: Books. All day long he's playing/looking at books. More so than any of our children at his stage.








He's well loved and adored and he'll make a fun older brother in four months!

Wicked...

We surprised Hallie with an early birthday present with tickets to Wicked. We let her open the tickets just the night before the production and she was so excited. But she had no idea what the story was about and only recognized a few of the songs that she had heard played around the house. So we gave her a brief synopsis and played the songs for the next 24 hours straight.


This was her first time at the theater and I'm pretty sure she loved every minute. From the minute we hopped in the car, with Wicked blaring, she was all smiles. Both Steve and I had seen it before and we realized, you kind of forget the magic behind the whole thing. Hallie reminded us of that magic. Every set change, every new song, every funny thing Glinda said, she would look our way and smile or laugh.

It didn't hurt that we enjoyed the play with some family members - its always fun to share memories with cousins.

We were nervous giving her an "experience" birthday gift as opposed to something tangible - but I think we nailed it. Lets just hope she remembers those feelings in three weeks when her actual birthday rolls around!

Birthday Celebrations...

The birthday bucket was in full force this weekend - complete with his favorite cereal (Lucky Charms), pop-tarts, gum and star wars fruit snacks. Although I thought Lucky Charms would be the first thing he ate for breakfast, he held out for his dad's pancakes. Which turned out to be a one-eared Mickey Mouse pancake, smothered in peanut butter topped with fruit snacks. Only on a birthday do you get a delight of that magnitude!



He opened presents in the afternoon - he asked for Legos, more Legos and money for Legos. But really how many Legos does any kid need? We have so many sets and pieces and although they are well loved and played with - we have more than enough. And yet every birthday/holiday he gets another set because that's really all he wants.


But this birthday we branched out just a bit and I think he was just as excited as I was. I suggested Steve's parents give him a Vex Robotic kit (made by the same company that does the Hex Bugs). I'd never seen one in action but it seemed to build on his love for legos. And although it's great for building - the instructions are awful. They should take a lesson from Lego. He got it put together, but there were a couple steps that I sat analyzing the directions picture and had to interpret what they meant. Still a great building toy.

The other new toy we introduced to him was the Snap Circuit Discovery Kit. It has a 5 star rating of almost 2000 reviews on Amazon. That's unheard of. I bought with confidence and I can tell already it's going to spark things in that little mind of his (and on his fingertips as he's already been shocked working with it!)

We read through all of the directions/warnings together and went through each piece and then he started going to work. There are two booklets that come with it describing how to create different projects. They aren't hard/complicated projects. The first couple included a simple switch that turns on a light or create a sound. But it helps a kid to see why something works. Why a light switch in their room turns on the light. Why does something create a sound? It's a great toy for the kids that tinker and discover and already he's had a great time playing with it.

Although it was difficult prying him away from his new toys - Steve took him to the ASU game that night with his brother and son. It would have been nice to see a win but instead they watched USC play a great game!



He came home late and went to bed a happy birthday boy. It's just a bummer he has to wait 365 days to do it again.