Birthday Season

Christmas is not the only big season in our house, we also have birthday season. With all three kids celebrating within 10 days we are partied out by mid April. Not too mention my sister, our nephew, some close family friends, and my own birthday are all within the same couple of weeks. It is a fun time, but I am already "caked out".

On Saturday we had a birthday party for the three kiddos. Ethan picked a Jurassic theme this year and it was a lot of fun. We decided to have the birthday party at home this year and it was great. I know this is not for everyone, but we have decided birthday parties are getting a little out of hand... and so we decided to do a throw back birthday party. For us this meant close friends, at the house, order pizza, mom decorates the house and makes the cake, play some party games, and rip open presents too fast to tell who they were from! Ethan's dinosaur theme was a big hit. Everyone loved the t-rex tracks that were found all over the house (pictured above).

Ethan insisted on party hats and kazoo like things.

Here is the cake. I am pretty proud of how it turned out. If you can't tell - it's a volcano (with real smoke (thanks to dry ice)) and a dinosaur scene. I think it tasted pretty good too.

Enjoying some lunch with good friends. Nothing like some pepperoni pizza and some 4 and 5 year old chatter.

The babes enjoyed themselves. Can you believe they are nearly two!!

My grandparents, and therefore the kiddos GREAT grandparents were able to come (from Ohio) which was a real treat.

Probably the favorite activity of the day was painting dinosaur eggs. All the big kids got really into it. Above Samuel and River are straight serious about their eggs.

Kieran and Gavin get into painting.

Ethan showed us all a new technique on his miniature egg.

Another fun game was the dinosaur toss. Pretty straight forward... throw the dinosaurs into the "volcano". Only a few people were hit by flying dinosaurs. No, really... only a few.

They showed the dinosaurs who was king now.

The final game was Pin the Horn on the Triceratops. A big hit. And, the poster did not turn out too bad, if I do say so myself!!

A dizzy Ethan gives it a try.

Dizzy Samuel.

Thanks to all our friends and family who made the day so great for the kids!

St. Patrick's Day: a comparison

St. Patrick's Day 2008 St. Patrick's Day 2009

Sorry, this is nearly a week late. Hope everyone had a good St. Patrick's Day. We spent last week being sick and then going out of town. Blogging was low on the list of priorities. You get it, I know. Anyway... I wanted you all to see how much the babies have changed in a year!! I cannot believe how chubby and bald they were - just one year ago.

Check out the St. Patrick's Day hairbow.

Captain Ethan

Our local MOPS group recently had a Pirate and Princess Party. I am usually pretty down on the whole pirate thing, but for the party I let Ethan get dressed up. He was pretty excited. He said... "Mom I can't believe you are going to let me be a pirate!" and "Don't worry mom, I will be a nice pirate... I will be Captain Crunch!". He came up with that all on his own- I don't remember ever even discussing that Captain Crunch is a pirate. But, after thinking about it he decided, "I changed my mind Mom, I am just going to be Captain Ethan, because I already know how to be him".

(Hopefully) the Last Blast of Winter

This morning we woke up to this beautiful winter wonderland. Ethan eagerly woke us up at 6: 30 with shouts of joy that it had snowed so much. I inwardly groaned because of cancelled school and because it is March and this is the south!!

All the kids enjoyed the snow.

Isaac was the most amazed and curious about the whole thing.



Livy was not sure what to think.


Ethan enjoyed it for about 20 minutes and hen started to ask why it was so cold and said he didn't like snow if it was cold outside. (My thoughts exactly, son!)

Wrestling in the snow.

Olivia has had enough. "Give me hot chocolate or you will be sorry!"



Our resident meteorologist surveying the snow and determining our total accumulation.

The Baby Swing

Last week when we met Robyn and Spence (near) Ikea one of the main reasons was to pick up a baby swing for my friend Sarah. (Did you follow that). The swing was in our house about a week and the twins were obsessed with it. They both liked to climb up in it and swing themselves. Isaac was his sweet self and would push Olivia. However, if Isaac was in it, Olivia was her sassy self and would try to attack Isaac saying "NO... MINE"!!! Below you can see her winding up to hit him. Hard to believe they were ever little enough for this swing!

A Knight to Remember

Ethan is attending a birthday party tomorrow and he has to dress up like a person of royalty- he chose to be a knight. Although, swords are not my favorite I gave in this time. But, of course we have some rules about "sword usage"!

Here is our brave knight- fierce... loyal.. handsome... chivalrous... he is really the complete package.
Ethan and Isaac having a sword fight (don't worry I was right there making sure no one fell off).


If you look int he background here - Livy was int he background clapping for the boys (without prompting). She wanted no part of the fighting (thank God for a girl) but was happy watching and cheering!