Birthday Party Time!

Last week was a big week around here with the kids having Valentine's Day celebrations at their schools, celebrating Logan and Aiden's birthdays along with the big birthday party at our house. Luckily everyone stayed healthy enough to not miss out on anything - I was worried since Brendan had come down with Aiden's cold, but it wasn't as bad for him.

Logan turned 3 last Sunday so we had cupcakes and some presents after dinner on Tuesday. The kids thought it was awesome and Logan loved the cupcake and opening his gifts from us.

Everybody loves cupcakes.

Wednesday was Aiden's real birthday as well as his Valentine's Day at preschool so a busy and fun day for him. They decorated cookies at preschool and he picked apple slices and cheese cubes for his birthday snack to share so we didn't get the kids too sugared up! At home we had donuts with sprinkles for the treat before he opened his presents from us.
Loving his brother and the gift his brother gave him!
The big box goes last.
Playing with the new crane.
He loves his sweatshirt - great job grandma and grandpa!
Only a matter of time before the robotic arms gets into trouble ;)
Jag loves wrapping paper and plastic - just like Christmas for him.

Saturday afternoon we had his highly anticipated Ben 10 birthday party. Our first game of pin the Omnitrix on Ben 10 went over great with the kids. Aiden actually ran into the wall with his head... we were more careful after that!
Yeah, he missed by just a bit ;) Me looking fairly relaxed at the start of the party.
The bean bag toss to defeat Ben 10s enemies and help save the universe went over awesome. It truly seemed like a lame idea since it was just three villains printed out on card stock and then attached to picture frame backings with painters tape and set up one on the floor, one on the couch and one on the back of the couch. The kids loved it! Especially when Wellyn went behind the couch to help retrieve bean bags and then stayed there and pretended to get his sometimes. The laughter was incredible!


Filling the bowls with 'alien rocks'...


And then it was time for cake! Getting ready to blow out 4 candles...



Gift opening was basically pure chaos with everyone wanting to see, have Aiden open their gift next and help him open everything... but it was sure fun.

The day after the party Aiden decided to put on a few more of the leftover tattoos... and ran around with just his underwear on so everyone could see them ;)

Brendan and Wellyn built a rocket and a truck to bring the astronauts to the rocket before launch. Always fun to build!

Some of our party decorations!
We had the frame from an old picture that had gotten ripped so we just put it around the poster and it's a regular piece of art!
Aiden's favorite character from the show Humungusour!

February Fun

A few weeks ago Aiden had a pizza party and magic show at preschool. It's an annual event and hugely popular with kids and parents alike. The day starts off with some music, songs and dancing followed by a craft project, a short movie, pizza and then the magic show. I have seen the magician several times over the past few years and he is just perfect for this age of kids. He is so dramatic, involves the kids, able to roll with the crazy things they say and has an abundance of that 'stupid humor' they just love at this age.

Making the photo frame craft... big decisions which decorations to pick! Hanging with some of the boys from his class:
Watching the magician:
His best buddy Ryan was picked to help for one of the tricks - EVERY kid wants to get picked.
Aiden didn't get picked, but he did get some paper confetti afterwards; and the magician said to put it under his pillow and it would 'magically' turn into a quarter ;)


We had Brendan's first grade conferences recently and he is doing very well. He seems to know how to stay out of trouble at school ;) and is very diligent about learning and getting his homework done. Every parent's dream! February is Love to Read Month at his school and the goal for his classroom is for the kids to read 1,000 books collectively. He is taking the challenge very seriously - wanting to read 5-7 books a night! We are trying to accommodate his as much as possible and still make it to bed at a decent hour :)

Wellyn and I have been trying to encourage each other to exercise more and are tracking our exercise hours and weight as a motivator (some days it's more motivating than others!). Here is Wellyn pumping some iron - I mean kids!

Taking a break after all that work!(check out the cool Ben 10 poster in the background)
Logan is pretty light compared to our kids so not much of a workout for Wellyn.

Saturday Aiden and I headed to Pump It Up for a birthday party for a preschool classmate. We give her rides to and from preschool and ironically her birthday is the same day as Aiden's! He adores her and she is just a sweet little girl. The kids burned tons of energy on all the inflatables and then loaded up on pizza and cake - every kids dream morning!

We took the boys sledding this past Sunday for our first real trip this winter. Beautiful day to go although the breeze at the top of the hill was brisk and we were glad we threw some scarves in the car. They had a blast flying down the hill at breakneck speed - as I was at the top holding my breath... especially when Brendan kept going down the part of the hill with a huge bump at the end and flying through the air. I accidentally aimed Aiden and I down that part once and it was incredibly painful - the jolting of my bones alone was a rude awakening; add that to having my elbow caught between the sled and the ground and poor Aiden's head making contact with my knee - just no fun! He had a rough go of it since Wellyn had took him over it once too and he flew right off the sled and Wellyn and the sled proceeded to run over him... We made sure to stay away from that section of the hill for the rest of his rides! We're beginning to know a lot more people in the area through the kids going to school and all the after school activities so it was fun to run into two other families on the hill we knew. They had all sorts of 'trains' going down the hill with up to 6 sleds going together. Great time and great exercise.

Wellyn and Aiden before the crash at the bottom: Brendan going down, headed straight for the bump and Wellyn and Aiden at the bottom. Making the walk back up (mom offers to pull him up the hill on the sled ;)
Me and Aiden safely aimed at the gentle, sloping part of the hill - we learned our lesson!
Aiden all bundled up complete with ski goggles borrowed from a friend we met on the hill:
The current focus of our household is Aiden's upcoming birthday party. He picked a Ben 10 theme and we're getting everything ready for it this Saturday. That kid, and his brother, could not be more excited about having the decorations up, the kids over and having cake! Actually I'm pretty excited about the cake too - I ordered it with butter cream frosting! I'll have to put up an actual post just about the party and the preparations later to help out other parents trying to play this theme - it is impossible to find in the party stores and I dislike ordering everything online.

Tomorrow is his 'real' birthday so he is bringing in a special treat for preschool. In addition it is their class Valentine's Day party so it will be an extra fun day. After his special birthday dinner (mini corn dogs and Spiderman Mac 'n Cheese - yuk!) he'll open the presents from us and blow out the candles on his birthday donuts (the cake is for Saturday). My next update will be post-birthday celebrations!