An aDORAble 3 1/2 birthday!

Well, in true summer spirit, we just celebrated Small's 3 1/2 birthday.  It was a super fun day and the sun even peeked through the clouds to check out the excitement!

What would a Dora party be without a Dora cake??

and some explorer stars!  I even made a couple with glasses...you know, all about inclusion :)

I made up a map and created a little adventure for the kids.  Swyper swiped the birthday candles so they had to go to three separate locations in order to get the candles back.  At dinosaur cove, they used magnifying glasses to find dinosaurs.  At Jelly Bean Junction, they did a blind taste test of jelly beans to see if they could identify the flavors.  And at Puzzle Place, they put together a puzzle.  That part bombed big time!!  But the rest was awesome :)

Every kid got a backpack.  This picture kinda sucks but I actually cracked open the sewing machine and made them all. All the things they needed for the adventure were found in their backpacks.  Plus a few extra treats :)

The night before, Small was crying before bed.  I finally calmed him down by telling him there would be balloons at his party tomorrow.  He said, "Swyper balloons??"  Ugh!  So there I was at 9:30 at night on the eve of the party, printing off Dora pictures for the balloons!  I hope he knows I love him :)

He told me his favorite part of his birthday was his Dora cake.  I kinda think it was awesome as well :)

Fun times!!!

We also had a bouncy castle and a water park and a playground to entertain the kids.  It was a lot of work to put together but it was totally fun and I think the kids had a great time!  It was Small's first official birthday of his own with his own friends and I think it was a hit :)

Love you, little man!

Are you smarter than a 5 year old???

I started buying my kids books before I even had kids.  I know, it's ridiculous!  But, you can never have too many books, right??

Ugh...yeah, you can!  You should see my closets!!

So I started putting new books into this bucket and when I was desperate to get the kids to listen to me or if I thought the kids deserved a treat, I'd let them pull a new book out of the bucket.  They ate it up!  They beg me constantly for books out of the bucket!  I only let them take a new one every few weeks or so....you've gotta keep it special :)

But it started getting expensive!  Buying all those books to keep that bucket full!!

So I got smart....

I started pulling the books from the bottom of their book piles in their rooms...you know, the one's they haven't looked at or read in ages...and I put those in the bucket!  Recycling at it's best, my friends!!

So far, they haven't once mentioned that they recognize that book or have heard this story before!!

They also haven't questioned why sometimes it takes us 5 minutes to drive home from the park and other days it takes us an hour (the days I'm trying to get Small to fall asleep in the car :)

Just gotta stay one step ahead of the smartest kid.....

Summer lovin'....

I hate to jinx it this early in the summer but so far, my summer is rocking!!  I created this bucket list of things to do over the summer.  After I completely overdid it the first week with the kids trying to cross things off left, right and center, I decided I needed to stick to one big trip a week.  There's no chance I'll finish the bucket list but it gives us some ideas when we're stuck trying to think of things to do in the morning.

Anyhow, that's not the point of this post.  The point of this post is to give a shout out to my awesome little boys.  They drove me freaking mental for a good part of the year.  They fought like cats and dogs and at least every 30 seconds I was breaking up some fight or mediating an argument or some stupid disaster between them.  To say it drove me bat@(* crazy, is an understatement!

But somehow, now that the sun is out and we don't have many deadlines to meet, the kids are happy to sit and play with each other....for hours!!  Like 3 hours at a time sometimes!  I know, right???  I mean, I literally don't need to intervene for LIKE THREE WHOLE HOURS!!!!!!

That's a far cry from the 30 seconds a few months ago!

I think a major part of it is that Small has stopped growing.  My kids grow, they turn into monsters.  Add in the inability to control his emotions and Small is unbearable!  But, he must have grown up a little the last month or so.  He doesn't turn into a crying mess when I turn off the TV anymore.  In fact, he turns it off for me!!  He has figured out the value of sharing his toys with his brother and playing nicely.

It's a little slice of heaven in my world :)  Just to see the boys playing happily together and enjoying each other's company makes that disaster of a second pregnancy so worth it :)

Small's sure going to miss his brother in Sept when he's in Kindergarten!!  Although, I'm sure I'll miss him, too:)

5 1/2 already?? Where does the time go??

By now, if you've been following my blog at all, you know that we celebrate half birthdays in this house.  Mainly it's so that Big can have a fun party with his friends without the hustle and bustle of Christmas time.  It works out great for us, too, because it means we don't need to host oodles of kids in our house!  We always have outside parties for the kids half birthdays in the summer and so far we've been very lucky with the weather!

This summer, Big wanted to combine pretty much every. single. thing he loves into one giant party.  We invited 14 of his closest friends and had a Lego/Star Wars/Ninjago party at the bike track.  Most of the kids hadn't been to the track before so I was a little nervous.  But luckily, just about all of the kids loved it!!  We've even recruited a few of them to race night :)

Here's some pictures of the extravaganza:

Green Ninja Cookies

Lego Rice Krispie Squares

Green Ninja cake

Storm Trooper sandwiches (Seriously!!)

This is a ridiculous storm trooper cheese ball!

Light sabers!  These were a total pain in the rear to make but the kids loved them!  I was surprised!

I just think he's cute :)

Lego drink boxes

Ninja water bottles (I got the printouts off the internet...can't remember which site)

Ninja balloons (all of which popped or floated away before the end of the party...oops!)

Lego pizza

I spy the Lego guy game :)

Dog tags for each kid.  I got these off the internet.  Again, can't remember the site.  But I printed them and laminated them.  I also got stickers from the same website that say "Property of".  I thought they'd be good for the kids going to school/daycare.  

The candles kept blowing out in the wind :)

There were a few other things I put together for the party but these are all I took pictures of.  I made little lego head plates that I thought were totally fun but when i asked Big after if he liked the plates, he said "What plates?"  He totally didn't notice.  My friend asked him today what his favorite part of the party was and he said, "biking on the track!"  When she asked him if he liked the cookies and the cakes and all the other stuff I made for his party, he said, "no, I just liked the biking part!"

<sigh>  The good thing is, I like doing that kind of stuff :)  And one day, he'll look back on all these parties I gave him and think, "Wow!  My mom's awesome!"  

He will think that one day, right??? :)