My little man turns 5

My little man turned 5. I'm not sure how that happened. One minute he's a baby. The next he's 5. Well buddy..... you sure keep us on our toes around here. We never know what's next. Thanks for being your sweet, loving, high spirited self. Our family would never be the same without you! We love you and all your craziness that comes with you. Here's how we celebrated the all important 5th birthday in true Dylan style.

First we woke up and dug into the presents. We've never been a patient bunch around here so of course we would open presents as soon as possible. Dylan was VERY specific in birthday wishes this year. It was not easy to find the exact Lego castle he was desperately wanting (since the whole world seemed to be sold out... of course!) we finally managed to find one and have it shipped. It got here hours before the big day. (Whew!) It was all worth it. To see his little face when he opened it made me forget the hassle.

It took the 4 of us the next two hours (Avery was kind of working against us) to get it put together. He loved it and has been playing with it every minute since.

We had this whole Jedi training themed party planned and all he wanted to do was play with his castle and other birthday presents. Finally we coaxed him out and he had a blast. First we dressed all the kids in some Jedi robes. They looked so CUTE! We trained like true Jedi's. With blow up light sabers.

We saved princess Leia from the "bad guys" by popping all the balloons until we found her picture that has been "locked" in prison (the balloon).

Then they had an obstacle course they had to complete.

Now they were ready for the HUGE light saber fight to prove what they learned. FUN!!! FUN!!! They all had blow up light sabers and passed the training course. Somehow it ended up being all the kids against me. Don't worry I can take em' .....Good times .

Then there was cake, ice cream and presents. What more could you ask for?

Once the cake and presents were done, and the kids were sent home we cleaned up and got ready for the next party. As many of you know the big game was on. We had a little get together to watch and cheer on BYU. Unfortunately all our our cheering didn't help! Oh well. We had a fun day anyway. On to the next party. Let's see we have Thanksgiving (at my house this year!), Haley's birthday, and Christmas. At least I won't be bored right?

The Dreaded Picture Day

Does anyone else dread family picture day? No....? I bet all of you have perfectly behaving, happy, smiling kids. Well, I don't.... so every year I dread getting their pictures taken. They always turn out SOOOOoo cute you would never believe it took an hour and a half of screaming, wiggling kids to get 3 decent pictures. Last year I had my amazing and ever so talented neighbor take my pictures, but I didn't want to take advantage two years in a row.... so we head off to the mall to the standard place of torture. This year did not disappoint. They all cried and wiggled and ran around making WAY too much noise.The only thing different about this year was I was all alone? I always have another adult with me to help wrangle they "little darlings". Today I clearly wasn't thinking when I decided they would be perfect little angles, and therefore could totally handle it by myself. I was wrong. Oh well..... I did get some really cute photos. I am way too lazy to scan them in and show them off since they are already in the frames on the wall. Maybe later! (Plus I'm sure I'd be breaking some sort of copyright law or something) Well, at least I'm done for another whole year. : )

It's all the Same

So the other day Haley comes up to me and says "it's all the same!" Just completely out of the blue. I asked her what she meant. She proceeds to tell me. Everyday....

I get up...

Eat breakfast....

Go to school...

Come home ....

Do Homework...

Eat dinner...

(play a little)....

Go to bed and do it all over again....

She has been doing so much better in school this year. I was somewhat surprised by all of this. She hasn't complained even once about school this year. (Compared to last year.... this is saying a lot) I told her this is what happens when you get older. There are things that you just have to do everyday. Even when they're not fun. I didn't realize that we were in such dire need of something exciting. I guess we better plan something fun and exciting this weekend. After all I would hate for it all to be the Same!

P.S. for all you doubters out there. I really did turn my pumpkins into puree. I have pictures but at the moment I am way too lazy to put them on the computer. It was pretty easy but time consuming. It turned out to be a lot of work for the same exact taste as canned pumpkin. Just in case any of you were wondering. (oh well, I guess I can say I did it!)

Pie Pumpkin.... What's a Pie Pumpkin?

So I had a hard time finding little pumpkins for the party last week ( ones that were small enough for "little hands" When I finally did find them I was WAY excited (the fact that they were 29 cents a lb was even better) So I loaded my cart up with 20 of them and headed to the check stand. It was then that the cashier told me these were "pie pumpkins" not regular pumpkins. (apparently.... these are "special" and cost more! WHATEVER!) I had to have them .... so off I went! Now that the party is over and about 1/3 of the kids forgot there pumpkins I am stuck with all of these extras. Haley has been begging for me to make a pie with her. Okay..... I think I may have made like..... 1 pie in my whole life and that was under close supervision of someone else. I am feeling guilty that I have all of these pumpkins laying around waiting to be turned into a delicious pie, and the only thing holding them back is my complete and total lack of skills. Does anybody out there know how to do this with a real pumpkin. Not just the can stuff? Don't worry I have lots to practice with ...so I might end up with a decent product. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Happy Halloween.... A couple of Days Late

Well, I was pretty busy around Halloween Time, and then I was recovering for the next couple of days, so I'm a little late putting up my pictures. They were too cute to just "forget" about so here ya go. Happy Belated Halloween. Here's a run down of the troop. Haley was a pirate. This is the first year she wasn't a princess of some sort.(Yea! no princess!) Dylan was Batman.... ever the superhero. Avery was the cutest cow I've ever seen, and loved every minute of it.

This year for Halloween we had a little party for the kids and their friends. They had so much fun. At times I thought I must be crazy for inviting 20 kids over and feeding them sweets and junk food. Luckily the party was short and we weren't around for the sugar crash. (sorry moms)

By far the biggest hit of the party was the bobbing for apples. The kids were a little hesitant at first but then they got into the swing of things and we had some serious competition going on. We painted pumpkins and played the doughnut on a string game (along with a few others)

Then after the party we had Halloween parades and class parties. I helped out with both the kids parties in their classes and watched both parades. Avery was my little buddy through all of this except one party. She did really great. At Dylan's party she fit right in with the preschoolers. She is so ready for it to be her turn.

Then we had the actually trick-or-treating to attend to. I took the kids out with the bike trailer. Haley was on her bike and I thought that Dylan and Avery would both ride in the back, but Dylan was so excited he ran to and from all the houses and told me to quit asking if he wanted a ride.

Avery was so funny. She walked about the first 10 houses doing her "own" trick-or-treating. After that she would just stick her little bucket out of the bike trailer and say "Haley, take me bucket." Haley would the run off with two buckets and bring it back for Avery to inspect. Yep, that's my way of trick-or-treating too! As you can see they were pretty happy campers.