Charlotte is 5!

If you think this post looks awfully familiar, you are right. In our family, we have a big friend party every other year. So this is the family party year... Charlotte wanted to celebrate with the fam (Heidi included, since they may as well be twins) at the most magical place on earth -- CHUCK E CHEESE! And yes, this same celebration happened April 2009:


Wait... In my search for the post about the 2009 party, I realized I never did write about it! Probably because Trevor was 2 weeks old at the time. Anyway...

The theme of the night was all Rapunzel. It was SO convenient Tangled was just released on DVD a couple of days before the party! Charlotte and Heidi were in heaven with pizza, Rapunzel cake and a cup full of tokens. Happy birthday, my girl!

Pink and Purple Princess Party

The party week continued and Charlotte had her first friend birthday party on Friday! It was a long week for her, waiting for the main event. And since she doesn't quite get the meaning of "tomorrow" or the days of the week, saying the party was on Friday meant absolutely nothing to her. But the big day FINALLY arrived!

Charlotte's 3 friends, Heidi, Courtney and Claire all arrived and were greeted with the most awesome pink/purple reversible sparkly tutus you have ever seen! Thanks, Grandma! Then the girls did a little project where they each painted a wooden frame, then decorated them with princess stickers. We have done this little craft a few times and it is cheap, adorable and super easy - even for little kids. So each girl went home with a cute frame, and when we send out thank you notes, I'll include the picture of the girls together to put in it. Aren't I creative? It doesn't happen often, so I have to make a big deal about when it does...

Can you tell Charlotte is a little excited to be 4 years old now?





(Melanie, sorry Charlotte saved her weirdest smile for this picture. She really does love the princess jewel fishing game!)

My 4-year-old Princess

Yes, it was Easter Sunday, but today was also Charlotte's birthday! She was very excited this morning that she could now say she is 4 YEARS OLD! Since we were lucky to have 13168 Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Michael here this weekend, we had her family party tonight. Of course it was all princess...

Everyone choose their favorite princess to eat on the cake. Charlotte chose Princess and the Frog (she never uses the real name). The only ones left over were Mulan, Belle and Cinderella. It is probably a good thing I didn't use this cake for her friend party this week because I could easily see 3 and 4-year-old girl tantrums over not getting the right princess.




And here she is with her exciting gifts! Now that I am done with this post I will go take her helmet off...

Trevor is ONE

My baby is one... How did that happen? Seriously. His official birthday was last Thursday, but we waited to have the 1st Birthday Rager on Saturday. We did the traditional cupcake, and just like his big brother, he just kinda looked at it, poked at it a bit, and decided he wasn't too interested.

So a few updates on Trevor's current tricks:

• He is pretty darn close to walking. Every time he takes a few steps and I pull the camera out, he's done.
  
  
• We have stalled out on 7 teeth.
  
  
• Ever since we got home from Christmas in St. George he has been a sleep champ. We can put him in his crib, close the door and with few or no objections, he can fall asleep on his own. I was going CRAZY in December because he was constantly waking up like a newborn, but a couple of nights of letting him scream did the trick. It may have been cruel, but it saved my sanity.
  
  
• He LOVES throwing balls. Can't get enough on balls of any size. And he does a pretty good job playing catch, which is of course adorable.
  
  
• He has the BEST curly hair! I will be very sad when we have to cut the curls off.
  
  
• The kid is into EVERYTHING! We never put cabinet locks on when Charlotte was a baby because she was only mildly interested in getting into stuff. That is not the case with Trevor. He is SO busy -- speed crawling everywhere, opening anything he possibly can, screaming when he can't get something he wants.
  
  
• He is a great eater. I'm determined with my 3rd child to feed him whatever we are eating for dinner. No more making 4 different dinners each night... So far, seems like he is allergy-free, so that goal may not be impossible to accomplish.
  
  
• He absolutely loves playing with Scott and Charlotte. A few times he has wrestled with Scott, which was hilarious. Scott better live it up while Trevor is smaller, because I have a feeling Trevor will eventually pass him up in size.

We have his check up at the doctor on Thursday, so I'll update this post with height and weight. I would guess now he is about average for both. It seems like just this week all of the sudden his 6-12 month clothes are too small and we are ready to move on to bigger sizes.

Here are a few pics from the party. And once I learn more about iMovie, I'll get some video on the blog:

Let the birthday season begin!

In our family, Scott kicks off the birthday season with his big day on February 26th. Then it is Trevor's turn on March 18th and Charlotte follows on April 4th. Can you tell that I really didn't want to be pregnant during the hot summer? That, and I really enjoyed watching college basketball games while preparing for and recovering from my c-sections... Anyway, our birthday celebration plan is that we will do big parties with friends on the even years, and family parties on the odd years. Scott has been debating for MONTHS what he should do for his party: BounceU, Chuck E Cheese, John's Incredible Pizza... But after I showed Scott all the Super Mario Brothers party accessories that were available online, his mind was TOTALLY made up. He would have a Mario party with the main entertainment being playing Wii games. How easy was that to organize? Thanks, LH, for the idea!

I'll give you my synopsis of the evening, but first here are the highlights as written by Scott:

My Birthday by Scott

It was February 26^th and

It was my birthday.

With balloon’s wii and

I got noise putty and new super Mario Bros. Wii

Super Mario Bros. super show showdown in Brooklyn

And carnival game’s mini golf

And boom blox bash party.

And 7 kid’s and 5 adult’s=12 people.

And there you have it...

To prepare for the party, Scott and I had fun searching the internet for cool Mario things. We ordered a Happy Birthday banner, balloons, plates, cups, wall stickers, invitations -- all sorts of great stuff! But I think my favorite discovery of all was this edible cake topper. I bought it on eBay for about $8, including customization. It came as a flat sheet and we just had to peel it off and lay it on fresh frosting. After a little while, the image melted into the frosting and it looked SO cool! The boys all wanted a piece of the fireball, because -- who wouldn't? Scott requested yellow cake, so Aunt Holly took care of that. She found a couple fantastic recipes for both the cake and the frosting, and it was super yummy. BTW, if you are interested, click here to go to the site where I got the cake topper. They have just about every theme you can imagine.

The boys all arrived about 5pm, and we had 2 Wiis set up and ready to play. We managed to pull them away from the Wii for pizza, cake, and presents, but it was pretty obvious the boys were all in heaven... And most importantly, Scott thought it was the BEST birthday ever! What else could a 6-year-old want?

So spoiled

My birthday was a month ago, so this post is LONG overdue... We got back from Arizona, and waiting for me on my answering machine were about 13 messages from friends calling to wish me a happy birthday! And then I got on my computer and I couldn't believe all the email and Facebook messages from TONS of people also remembering my birthday. And if that wasn't enough to make me feel loved, my dear Friday lunch friends gave me a Cocoa Latte machine with super yummy hot chocolate!



Today was cold and rainy so it was the perfect time to break out the Cocoa Latte and enjoy candy cane hot chocolate... There was a tiny moment today when I wished it was snowing outside while I was inside enjoying my fabulous birthday gift. So THANK YOU to all my wonderful friends for making my birthday special!

Scott is 5 years old!

My little boy is now 5! We have been counting down the days to February 26th for an awfully long time... Actually, over 3 months ago Scott wrote a birthday invitation and gave it to Zach without me knowing about it. But thanks to Annette's RSVP back in November, I learned that Scott's party was to be at Strikes bowling alley and would go from 4:50 to 5:25pm. Good to know...


We may be cruel parents, but we are going with the plan of alternating friend parties and family parties every year. So this year was a family party, but we let him include 2 friends, Tanner and Zach. We had some minor drama when we discovered Strikes was booked for bowling leagues on the 26th, so we would have to celebrate on the 25th. Took a while, but he got over that and the party was everything I think he hoped for! He did win the bowling game with a score of 90, which I thought was not too shabby:



Then we headed back to our house for presents and the long-awaited Lightning McQueen cake from Baskin Robbins. And of course he was wearing the infamous Lightning McQueen sticker t-shirt, along with a new hat and watch. Funny thing... Jeff (my brother) at the same age was just as obsessed with the Dukes of Hazzard. I am glad that this generation of boys has a new car to revere.



So even though we had the main event on the 25th, I still think Scott was happy! I just can't believe my little guy is now 5. But I have already used his new age quite frequently with him now, like when I say, "You are now 5 years old. 5-year-olds don't whine like that."

Happy Birthday, 2919 Grandma!

Who needs cake when you can eat MEAT!

Little Charlotte turned 2 last month. Don't you love the balloons, necklace and drool? With Charlotte's allergy to milk, eggs and wheat, birthday cake was not a possibility. But don't feel too sorry for her... This girl can put away as much beef as an adult. Her favorite is brisket. So her exciting birthday dinner was brisket, with lime daquari ice from Baskin Robbins. She was in heaven!

And big brother Scott picked this special pink ball to give to her... Like the 1,000 balls in our house are not enough:

Scott Turns 4!

Wow! What a fun day! This is the first birthday that Scott has REALLY been excited for and completely understood what a special day it would be... We have been counting down for weeks until TODAY - February 26th!

The big event was his first real friends birthday party at one of our favorite places called BounceU. BounceU is just a fun place with lots of giant inflatable bounce houses and slides. This is pretty much what all 12 cute kids, plus a brave baby (Go Heidi!) did for an hour:

Here are a few of the photos from the bounce time:

Getting ready to BOUNCE!

Scott and 14 month old daredevil, Heidi

After bouncing, we went into the party room where all the normal kids ate pizza, and the pickiest child on the planet (Scott) ate goldfish crackers and root beer.

Then next came the cupcakes with blue frosting and candles and Happy Birthday song... I'm pretty sure not a single kid ate the cupcake part, but this was a common site:

Next came the presents... The kids started observing politely from a distance, but we started like this:

And ended like this:

Then after Bounce U, we drove home to find a few more presents from 13168 Grandma and Grandpa and Mommy and Daddy. And here was the grand finale:

And as soon as he got on the bike (before knew about the helmet) he said, "I need a helmet so I can be safe!" Thanks, Dora...