5 Year Old Fireman

 This boy is 5 years old.  And it scares me just how quick he got there.  My oldest went fast but this kid I swear I am supposed to have an extra year or two before he hits these milestones.  This means he is now old enough to attend Kindergarten.  And like his big sister I still remember all the details of his birth like it was yesterday.  He is my child that has taught me all that I have yet to learn about being a parent.  He is loving and sweet, boisterous and loud, and yet so meek in his need to feel loved and accepted by those he loves deeply.  You know when this kid loves you.  It radiates from his eyes and is expressed in his actions.  Sometimes he loves a little too much.  He is Passionate and smart.  He is a mama's boy.  And I love him so very much.  This year he wanted to have a party with his friends and wanted red, strawberry everything, and fireman everything.  I asked him what he wanted to take to school for a treat for his birthday and tried to convince him to do chocolate or white cake but no he wanted strawberry cake with strawberry frosting.  I even tried to get him to let me put chocolate frosting on his cupcakes but he said "no", because Quote"I don't want people to think I like chocolate".  Funny thing is he likes chocolate but for some reason he doesn't want anyone to think he does.  He cracks me up.  So I made lots of cupcakes and froze half of them for his party.  Actually much easier than his sister who wants something different each time.  Some people might think I am crazy to be willing to do that but we don't do gifts for birthdays.  This is our gift to them.  As well as let them pick what they want for dinner and spend the day with them as well as going out to lunch with them unless their birthday is a Sunday.  Then we do it another day and they get to celebrate a couple days. 

 So for his party he wanted red licorice, strawberries, pretzels, ring pops, red kool-aid squeeze bottles, and cheese balls.   Oh and the Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting.  We originally planned to do the party outside but it was a windy day so we did most of it inside.

 

When everyone first arrived we let everyone color Fireman Sam Coloring Pages. We had 5 different characters to chose from.

 

We sang to him and let him blow out a candle.  The cupcakes had Fireman Sam toothpicks stuck in them.

 We did a bean bag toss to try and put out the fire.

 While they threw the bean bags they enjoyed the treats and made their goody bags.  They got to pick a thing of bubbles, a bouncy ball and, a water gun.  The water guns were originally going to be for a game where the boys were going to shoot water at little cups with a fire on them.  But due to the wind that didn't happen.

 Then we came in a played Pin the Hat on Officer Steele. 

 Then we opened presents where he got a few firetrucks, gum with money, remote control truck, and a large coloring book with a pincher thing.

 Then we had some time left.  With my daughter we ran out of time for her party.  For my son we had extra time.  I planned the same amount of activities but either it is their age or gender or both or my fear of running out of time that threw things off.  But luckily boys like to run around and play tag.  So they did that until their parents came and picked them up.

  For his real birthday cake he wanted Surprise a Strawberry cake.  But he also wanted a fire engine cake so we didn't do the strawberry frosting and went with plain cream cheese frosting.  Thank you Betty Crocker for having great directions online.  However we couldn't find licorice wheels for the hose so I improvised and rolled out Tootsie rolls till they were a long rope and rolled it up into a hose.  Funny thing though the Tootsie rolls melt when exposed to the moisture from the cake over night.  Who knew.  For dinner he was very specific about what he wanted and would except no variation.  He wanted Hot dogs, Vanilla coated Strawberries(white chocolate), and Cheetos.  I tried to convince him to let me add more fruit but he would have none of it.  So that is what he had.  I figure it is his birthday and for one night a year I know he will eat everything on the table it is good.  Grandma and Grandpa came for dinner and brought him a gift.  They were so tired after their trip they came home from the night before.  It was very sweet of them to come still.  It made my son's day.  They gave him a kid shaving kit with a fake razor and a bubble blowing machine.  He loved them.

 Saying thank you.

March

 March was a good month.  Also busy.  At the beginning of the month we took advantage of the warm weather and I with our 2 youngest to youngest met up with daddy at the park halfway between our house and work during his lunch break.  It is nice for the kids and to see their daddy during the day and get to play with him.  We miss him coming home for lunch since his office moved and sometimes we need some daddy time.  My youngest was being a stinker and I couldn't get her to look at the camera.  But they are fun pictures anyways.  My son is older and very adventurous.

 

 

 

 Then our oldest was in the school play this year.  She got to be one of the bitty crows that help Jim Crow torment the Scarecrow.  This was a very emotionally and physically exhausting experience.  I am not sure that I will let her do another play for a couple years.  I had a couple issues with the director where I did not feel she handled things as well as she could have.  This was her last year and so I will see what happens over the next few years and see if other parents feel that things improve.  I don't have any video since we were told we were not allowed to video tape due to copy right laws.  I think that is silly with a school play.  We did order the DVD they made but are still waiting to get it.  I think I will have my husband call since he is nicer and better able to work with people and get things done.  Our oldest did awesome.  I am her mom and completely biased but I was proud of her commitment and dedication.  She knew her lines and got every one of them as long as the other kids got out of her way and let her say them.  But even when another kid said her line instead of letting her get to the microphone she handled it well and still had fun.  They had two casts and so we have one picture with her and her counterpart in the other cast.  They are cute.  She also played an extra monkey and a gold dancer.

The cast getting together before the play getting a pep talk and some instructions.

 On stage as a crow.

 Monkey make up and Gold dancer costume.

 My son made his bed and this is how he had his Fireman Sam and fire monkey cuddle.  I went in to his room after he went to school and thought it was adorable.

Picture of me and our youngest.

 My husbands birthday and his cake.  He wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate and peanut butter frosting.  I was happy with how yummy it was.  He loved it which made it worth it.

 I love this guy.  He makes me smile and loves me in so many ways.  I am so lucky to have him in my life.  He is the Best Dad to our kids and an Incredible Husband. Our youngest adores him and when he comes home gives him a big smile stops whatever she is doing and gives him a big hug and then follows him everywhere.  He is a great example to our son of how a man should be and our oldest loves to spend time with him because he is so much fun.  I hope to share many more birthdays with him.

7 years old! SERIOUSLY??????

 This Princess is 7 Years Old.  I still don't know how this happened.  Sure logically you would say well she was born and lived 7 years.  However, it doesn't seem like 7 years ago this beautiful girl was born and placed in my arms.  I still remember holding her and refusing to send her to the nursery.  I just fell in love with her right then and there she was perfect in every way.  I waited 4 years for her.  I had a miscarriage and did infertility treatments and cried each Mother's Day till she came and made me a Mom.  She is the best big sister to her siblings and the best oldest child.  She is smart and talented.  She is kind and loyal.  I am lucky to be her Mom.

 For her birthday this year she wanted to have a party with all her girl friends from school and of coarse her best friend from next door.  She wanted to have a Frozen theme.  Some of the activities we did was make a bracelet with ice colored beads.  We made snow with cornstarch, oil and glitter.  We made Olaf with Graham Crackers, icing, pretzels, and candy.  We planned to play Pin the nose on Olaf.  But we ran out of time.  Funny thing last time she had a party 2 years ago I didn't plan enough and this time I planned too much.  We had white cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and little candy snowflakes on top.  Which we did at the last minute and sent a cupcake home with the girls.  Like I said I planned too much this time.  But it seemed like they had fun.  We decorated with Snowflakes and printed out pictures from Frozen and put them up on the wall.  We took all the Christmas stuff down except the tree and the white lights and anything icicle related.  She woke up to a winter wonderland and loved it.

 Some pictures after the party with her best friend next door.

 

 On her birthday we left the decorations up and had Grandma and Grandpa come for dinner.  She had a chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting. She took some pictures with her brother.

 

 Grandma and Grandpa gave her a outfit for her American girl doll they gave her for Christmas.

 At the end of the night they climbed on daddy and he tried to give them piggy back rides.

 This little girl grabbed the babies she got at Christmas and a play cup and pretended to drink from it while also giving her babies a drink from it as well.  I thought it was cute.  One baby was from us and the other was from Grandma and Grandpa.

1 year birthday party

This is so 6 months ago but I had to document it so we are going to try and play catch up.  I just wanted to post about our baby turning 1.  She is so full of energy and extremely curious.  She is full of spunk and has a great sense of humor.  We all love and adore her and can't imagine one day with out her.  We had a Party for her at Chuck e Cheeses because sometimes it is easier to go somewhere else and let someone else take care of the mess.  She loved the singing and dancing Characters made out of plastic.  It was nice to have family come to celebrate this special day with us.  We tried something different and ordered sandwiches as well as pizza but we were surprised by how small the sandwiches were.  All in all though it was a fun day and a great memory.

 Here is her cake.  I did cupcakes and we had 3 different flavors.  There was chocolate with chocolate cream cheese frosting, banana with plain cream cheese frosting, and white with raspberry cream cheese frosting. 

 Great family and socializing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Eating her cake

 Opening presents

 Cute cousin drew this picture for her.

 Saying Thank you

 Some pictures of this cutie!