Jack's 5th Birthday Party

As is the norm in our family, I let the kids pick the "theme" of their birthday party and we usually do this quite a bit in advance (it gives us time to plan and work on decorating projects long before the big event).  I know that my years are limited with the girls still wanting themed parties, so I hope to continue this as long as I can.

Jack chose "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" for his birthday party and I loved being able to incorporate some left-over green items from Sam's Rainforest Party last Fall.  We began a countdown in the kitchen about a month before the big day where he glued a turtle on every night before bed.  He took his role seriously ... and if we somehow forgot to do it before heading to his bed, he would come upstairs later and remind us.

Stuffing the pinata the day before the party.  He requested one for his party and it turned out to be a fun thing ...

His birthday treat for his friends at school ...

I kept the decorations pretty simple, but stuck with the usual decorative banner, hanging piece and a few items on the tables.

Jack helped me make the hanging turtles out of chinese lanterns :

And he loves them so much that they are now hanging in our garage (and make for a great talking piece whenever anyone stops over to visit).

He also assisted in the construction of the banner using paper plates and cardstock.

Fresh-picked lilacs from our bush with the special birthday boy's new number stick inside.

The infamous cake table ...

It's no secret that Ninja Turtles LOVE pizza -- it's their favorite food!  So, I turned the cakes into pizza cakes.  And I used pizza boxes from Old Chicago (I just asked the waitress for a couple of boxes when we went there to eat on Jack's actual birthday).

Jack was so pleased and couldn't wait to dive into one of them!

His turtle shirt was leftover from last year, but made a great ensemble ... especially when paired with a turtle handkerchief (stolen from one of the table centerpieces).

We grilled burgers and brats for the party and then settled into the living room so that Jack could open his gifts.  How perfect was his card from Papa and Grammy?!

And the moment that Jack had been waiting for all day -- blowing out his candle and having a piece of pizza cake!

Actually, I take that back ... He was equally as excited about his pinata and all of the candy inside.  We had it set up in the garage and the kids had a blast hitting it and scoring big with all of the goodies inside.

Jack's 5-year-old stats:

44" tall (71st  percentile; he grew 3.25" in the last year)
46.8 lbs (83rd percentile; he's solid muscle)

Mother's Day 2018

Steve asked me what my requests were for Mother's Day this year and they were pretty simple: I wanted to get a picture of the kids and me (as usual), go out for lunch and then make a trip with the girls to the local greenhouse.  

Anything else that worked out would be a bonus.  We started our day with pancakes at home for breakfast and then headed out onto the deck for the picture.  The tree was in bloom (and smelled AMAZING) and we were able to capture a photo of everyone looking at the camera.  Yes!  I also received a bottle of my favorite wine and a photo album with pictures that Steve had secretly taken off the computer and printed.  (The girls were in charge of arranging them in the album).

I tidied up the house inside while the boys worked outside with Steve and then we headed to lunch at Relli's.  This has been my choice for three years now, but I have decided that we will go somewhere different next year.  They recently added a Sunday buffet and it was overly-packed and understaffed and somewhat disappointing.  (This has been my Mother's Day "go to" because it is usually not crowded, it's casual and the Sunday meal specials for the kids cannot be ignored).  I have a whole year to decide what my restaurant choice will be now.

For Mother's Day, Jack worked on this questionnaire and I laughed the whole ride home from his school.  It's HIM that is a big fan of pizza ... and the last question was definitely my favorite.

I decided to go ahead and ask the girls the same questions to see if they knew me any better.  Their answers are as follows:

Samantha:
  
How does mommy make you laugh?  She tickles me

How old is mommy?  37

What was mommy like as a little kid?  the oldest

What is mommy's favorite food?  spaghetti

What is mommy really good at?  everything

What do you and mommy do together?  do chalk

How do you know mommy loves you?  because she says so

Your mommy is smart because she knows ...  a lot

What does your mommy always say?  "Great Jehosaphat!"

If your mommy could go anywhere, where would she go?  the library


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Sophia:
  
How does mommy make you laugh?  She tickles me

How old is mommy?  38

What was mommy like as a little kid?  cute!

What is mommy's favorite food?  spaghetti

What is mommy really good at?  drawing

What do you and mommy do together?  make dinner together

How do you know mommy loves you?  she's nice to me

Your mommy is smart because she knows ...  math

What does your mommy always say?  "I love you"

If your mommy could go anywhere, where would she go?  Florida

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My thoughts on their answers: I am actually 38, but I like Sam's answer the best.  My favorite food is spaghetti, but I think that Jack chose tacos because I make those often.  All of the kids like tacos, which is why it is in the rotation for family meals.  I don't play in the sandbox very often (Jack's answer), but the girls were spot-on; I do quite a bit of chalk drawings with them and Sophia often cooks dinner with me.  As far as where I would go if I could choose anywhere, I would like to go to Nashville one day, but Samantha's answer was pretty good ... the library is a favorite of mine.

Weekend Randoms

I realized that there are several random pictures from the last few months that never made it here; life has been moving fast lately and the kids are growing quicker than I would like.  Just looking back over the last couple of months, I can see changes in them already.  Samantha is getting taller by the second (where did those long legs come from?); Sophia's hair is getting longer and longer; Jack is becoming both leaner and more muscular; and Jimmy is a complete toddler now.

Jimmy gets bathed every night.  He loves his baths, but now he takes a shower too.  Sometimes it is quicker to have both boys shower together and they love it.  And Jimmy's blue eyes just slay me.  I love them.

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St. Patrick's Day and a random picture of Steve and me together.  I am usually behind the lens, but asked my mom (who was in town) to take a quick picture of us together.

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Sophia was invited to a friend's birthday party where they were able to go to an art studio and paint a clay figurine.  She chose a unicorn (of course!) and she came home from school with it a couple of weeks later.  It's a bank and is up on the highest shelf in her room (because ... Jimmy!) and she loves it.  The design fits her personality perfectly.  I mean, honestly, it almost matches her outfit that day.

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Steve started to cut down a tree in our back woods one afternoon and it brought another one down with it.  It hit the playscape in our back yard and narrowly missed our back deck.  I shook my head in disbelief ... and then the kids ended up spending weeks playing on that tree.

It has been getting cut up slowly but surely, but at any given time, I can find the kids and their friends out there playing on it.

Enjoying a moment of sunshine:

Art time while sitting on the tree:

Jack, in all of his camouflaged glory:

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Jimmy received these Spiderman shoes for his birthday and has already logged many miles on them.  My boys are HARD on their shoes.

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Samantha had a friend over one afternoon and I always like to do a little craft project whenever I can.  I had these plastic containers in my craft closet and the girls used glue and white sparkles and a few other odds and ends to turn them into bunny candy containers.  I even had candy on hand for the kids to add to them.

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They boys eat lunch at home every day with me and I surprised them one afternoon by bringing this table and chairs in from the garage.  Somehow, lunch tastes better when you get to sit at a private table.  And yes, these days Jimmy likes to have two sippy cups with him -- one with milk and the other with water.

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Jack has learned so much in his second year of preschool this year.  He is more than ready for kindergarten this Fall, but I plan to make sure that he continues practicing and learning this summer.  His favorite activity right now is "dot-to-dot" books.

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Don't let his precious and innocent smile fool you ... this boy challenges me every single day but I try to stay at least a half-step ahead of him.  Sometimes I manage to do that and other days, I clean up more messes than I care to.  At the end of day, this smile still melts me.

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We had a little "Cinco de Mayo" party to attend in the neighborhood and I decorated some cupcakes to take with us.  They were a hit!

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Working on a Mother's Day card for Grammy.  Eventually, all of the kids made cards (and they turned out so adorable), but I broke them up into groups.  It's easier to work on them a little at a time, rather than all at once.  Sophia's hair was disheveled after playing hard outside, but she never turns down a chance to craft with me.  I love that about her.

The boys got the biggest kick out of painting the bottoms of their feet and the girls chose things that they love right now (penguins for Sophia and flamingos for Sam).

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The Downtown Park

I had a couple of errands to run downtown this week and the boys were itching to get out of the house.  The weather was beautiful and the thought of taking a walk in the subdivision was tempting, but ... right now, the boys want to take walks with me so that they can go down to the park at the end of our road.  And that means that they want to play in the sand ... and go in the lake ... and this momma is not ready to do that yet.  The water is still a bit chilly and their whining and crying (because they don't understand) just isn't worth it.  We'll have lots of days this summer to do that.

So, I suggested that we could go to the downtown park.  There are slides and swings and lots of things to climb on, and James is now at the perfect age to begin exercising his independence. 

They both raced to the top of this double slide and I snapped a quick picture just as they were getting ready to go down.  You can tell that Jimmy is a tad hesitant here, but he loved every second of it.

I sent some pictures to Steve and he commented back that Jack was wearing his "uniform."  Yes, his beloved Michigan State shirt, ripped jeans with a chainsaw patch on the knee and tennis shoes.

Jack went down every single slide there.  Multiple times. 

James did not care for the twisty slide though.  It is encased and they bothers him.  He went down the other two slides, both with Jack and by himself quite a bit though.

I'm pretty sure that Jack was born with muscles.  He has the strength of a giant and could hang for hours.

Jimmy never stopped smiling the whole time that we were there.

And this boy too.  They were both living their best life that morning.

Brothers forever and friends for life.

I was done taking pictures for a while (and was just observing from the bench) when Jack called out to me and begged me to take his picture.  How can I resist that?!

Rock-climbing!

And look at this little man go!

And the highlight for me?  As we were walking back to the van, Jack stopped to pick me an entire bouquet of dandelions.  He's going to make a great husband some day ...

Dance Recital - 2018

The girls had their dance recital last weekend ... and it went perfectly.  Maybe it's because we have been doing this for quite some time now; maybe it's because they are much older/more independent/know what to do/have more friends there.  Whatever the reason, I can't imagine that it could have gone more smoothly.

The rehearsal was on Friday night, and I had everything all set out and ready to go by the time that they arrived home from school.  My mom was in town and she went with me and the girls (and their best friend next door) to get their dance pictures taken and to watch the rehearsal.  Steve stayed home with the boys.  Then, on Saturday afternoon, my mom stayed home with the boys and Steve went with me to the recital.

I tried to take some pictures on Friday night, but it's never very easy.  It's dark in the auditorium, the girls are constantly moving on the stage and I use my long-range lens for a better shot.  Regardless, my girls looked gorgeous on the stage and I can't wait to get back their professional photos.

The theme of the recital this year was "School Days" and most of the dances centered around activities/classes/field trips, etc. during the school year.  Each of the girls were in three classes this year and their costumes were incredible.

Samantha's acro class performed as the "Marching Band" ... lots of tumbling and acrobatics, hence the bare feet.  This was her favorite costume.

A semi-decent picture because they were all sitting still:

Sophia's acro class did a "Pajama Day" routine complete with pillows.  It was certainly fun to watch and the girls got to keep their pillows after the show.

The girls were in one routine together for tap.  Their theme was "Christmas Party" and they danced to Jingle Bells.  They heard the song so many times throughout the dance year that I am convinced that they may never want to hear it again.  Ha!

Sophia's ballet routine was beautiful ... breathtaking ... and emotional.  The theme was "Music Class" and she danced with just one other girl.  They performed four songs together, including America the Beautiful" and she just blew me away.  I hope that she never stops learning and dancing ballet.

Samantha's ballet class performed a special routine to "True Colors" as the "Art Class."  This was so fitting because she loves art.  In this picture, she was waiting her turn to pull the ribbons from the guest dancer's dress in the middle of the stage.  As they pulled the ribbons, they danced around and it was impacting, to say the least.

This summer, the girls will each do a dance camp in July (this is the first year that they are not doing it together -- they are separated because of their age now) and I'm excited for that.  They are too.  And then we'll make plans in August and decide which classes they want to sign up for again.  It's never easy to try and work out a schedule, but it's worth it in the end after we see how much they enjoy it.