Happy Birthday Netta!

Netta turned 6 on May 9th. I was still recovering from making King's cupcakes so I asked her what she wanted to do for treats that wasn't cake related. She opted for chocolate and sprinkle dipped cones. We got to spend some quality time in the kitchen working on them.

We had a fun night at home celebrating, although she was quite jealous that Grandma and Grandpa were here for King's birthday and not her's.

For her friend birthday she opted for a Hello Kitty theme. We have done this theme once before and I wouldn't be surprised if it is repeated multiple times. I tried to find a place to have her and EZ's birthday parties, but I quickly learned that there are very few places to have parties here and they fill up way in advance, so a home party it was. She had a few of her friends from church and school come over and they spent almost the whole party giggling and telling stories. It was awesome. They also got to color, break a pinata, get hair tattoos and get their nails done. It was very girly, which is fine by me if it means they are not running all over my house like crazy people.

 For her cupcakes she was dead set on having the little Hello Kitty candies you can buy at the store. Done and done. The only problem was that the candies wouldn't come off the paper very well, so each cupcake may have had some added fiber. I did however make the cupcakes and frosting from scratch and I love them a little bit too much. I sent a bunch home with each of the girls so I wouldn't stuff them all in my own face. May is not a good month for my waistline.

I love my boys, but I am so grateful that Heavenly Father blessed me with Netta to be my best girl friend!

Happy Birthday King

King turned 4 on May 4th. This first picture of him is not actually from his birthday, but it does sum up a bit of personality at this point. They had a special day at preschool where all the parents could come and watch the kids be in a marching band parade. King is not a fan of attention, big groups and lots of noise, so he was not too keen on this whole event. He refused to play his instrument and no amount of coaxing could get him to smile. On the other hand, Conrad was there with me and was desperately trying to join the parade. King may be a stinker, but he really is just a sensitive sweetheart. 

King was lucky enough to have my parents in town for his birthday and it happened to be the Blossom Time Parade as well. I guess Blossom Time is like Homecoming in the spring and everyone celebrates the fact that he heinously long winter has ended. King and Netta were both lucky enough to get shoulder rides during the parade.

Conrad basically pushed his stroller around the whole time. We put one of the breaks on so it just kept going around and around in a circle and that did not bother him one bit.

Poor EZ has now outgrown his ability to get a shoulder ride from anyone. He also got really bored and in his defense it was the most poorly timed parade I have ever seen. There were humongous gaps between floats and we ended up leaving early because we just couldn't stand it anymore.

After the parade we wandered down to the famous carousal. It was nice to finally check it out and at it the list of perks of living here. My Grandpa E was obsessed with carousals and I have to think that he probably road this one at some point in his life.

My mom and I, with some help from Netta, spent a painstaking amount of time in the kitchen working on King's cake and cupcakes. We ended up making 26 Skylander sheep (some are for him to take to preschool) and plus a hill for a figure to stand on. The whole thing turned out really cute, but my gosh my entire body hurt after it was all said and done. And my mom may never be willing to help me with one of my projects again ;)

Again EZ is benefiting from King's love of Skylanders. King was so excited about his new figure that he insisted he have his picture taken with it.

More April Fun

It's embarrassing to admit how much we eat at McDonald's. King is obsessed with it and there is really nothing else here, especially with a playscape. I really thought that since this place is frozen half the year, that they would have more indoor places for kids to play. If I had the money I would open a Chick fil-A in a heart beat. I am going through serious withdrawal. Lucky for King McDonald's is everywhere no matter how small. He loves this place so much that he requested I take his picture with the man himself.

He is also obsessed with the playground across the street from his preschool. He refers to it as the "new playground" and wants to go there everyday after school. He is especially happy when his friend Hannah comes. She goes to church with us and is in his preschool class. For some reason he refers to her as his sister. I wish he was as excited when his actual sister is there to play with him ;)

We have been really impressed with the kids school so far. When we came for orientation we learned that we could have free access to Rosetta Stone at home so that the kids could practice Spanish. Obviously it's not the same as immersion, but at least hopefully this way we can try and maintain most of what they have learned. They also have amazing activities and are actually good about communicating to parents about them, which was something our school in Texas was not so hot at. And again since it's a smaller school, when they do have fun activities they aren't crowded and you can actually fully participate in them without waiting in huge lines or losing kids in the crowd. The kids were really excited about crazy hair day. That morning I realized that I am seriously lacking in hair supplies and don't even have hair spray, so we had to get creative. For both kids hair we used my mini-crimper and for EZ we helped spike it up with mascara. 

Netta of course finished hers off with a lot of teasing and some hair clips.

Easter Fun

One of the perks of living in a small town is that when they have city events, like an egg hunt, you can actually go and it isn't crazy crowded and they don't run out of the free stuff. Here they have an "egg hunt" in the downtown area and all the businesses hand out eggs. So, you aren't actually hunting, but they also hand out samples and coupons and it was good way for us to discover what all St. Joe has to offer. You could get your picture taken with the Easter Bunny and all day long King kept saying how much he wanted a picture with him, but the minute we actually saw the bunny costume he wigged out and wanted nothing to do with him. Conrad also freaked out and EZ made it clear that he was too cool, so Netta was the only one to get a picture with him.

It's been awhile since we have had a chilly Easter, but at least it was sunny and actually kind of enjoyable to be outside.

Of course we dyed Easter eggs, but we opted to do it while Conrad was napping so he wouldn't spill and or drink any of the dye.

Easter morning meant baskets of course. Netta can never have too much makeup so she got more with a Hello Kitty theme of course. As a complete side note, Netta does not actually like Justin Bieber, but one day EZ was at the Y and some girl kept chasing him and saying she was going to kiss him because he was pretending to be "Justin Beaver." Netta and EZ of course thought it was hilarious, so when I saw these jammies on clearance I had to get them.

My favorite part of Conrad getting a basket was watching him eat the Sour Patch Bunnies. He kept smacking his lips and making a sour face, but he kept on eating them.

Kingston is obsessed with Skylanders, even though it is actually EZ's game and he can't really play. EZ wins big time since King only wanted a Skylander for Easter, which of course EZ can now also play with in addition to the one he himself got.

As we were exploring downtown at the egg hunt we discovered a bakery with this awesome multi-colored bread, which makes for some awesome Easter french toast. I think there may be a new tradition at the Brown house.

At Easter I am reminded of how blessed I am to have this family and to have a Savior who made it possible to be with these crazy kids forever!

Spring Break

Being closer to my parents meant a spring break trip to good old Moon Township. John had to work so I got to take my first solo road trip with the kids. It is about a 6 hour drive and while the kids weren't exactly perfect it was definitely better than flying with all 4 kids by myself. I got a lot of "Wow you have your hands full" comments at the rest stop. We had to eat as quickly as possible because Conrad kept trying to escape. Luckily, we didn't lose anyone. (Oh and my kids look homeless since we haven't found a hair lady yet, but luckily my mom's hair lady, Linda, was nice enough to fit my kids in.)

Back in January I was supposed to visit my friend Elly in Rhode Island, but that ended up being when we went house hunting, so my parents graciously offered to watch the kids for me so I could spend three days with her. I was especially excited for this trip, because she and her husband Jay just had their first baby in October. Timothy is such a cutie and somehow I managed to get a picture of him, but none of me and Elly. It was fun to be the one without a child to worry about for a change and I ended up sleeping 10 hours each night. I have years of not enough sleep to make up for and it was amazing. We also ate at a ton of AMAZING restaurants. I am seriously deprived of those in St. Joe, so I was in heaven.

The kids were great for my parents and everything went smoothly while I was gone. It wasn't quite Easter yet, but my parents decided to through an Easter egg hunt for mine and Rachel's kids' while we were there. I loved going to my grandma and grandpa's house in Rochester growing up and doing these, so I am really excited to be close enough to home to have them for my kids. My mom did a great job of getting prizes and treats for everyone.

Going to Rhode Island meant I wasn't actually home as long, but that's ok because we already have multiple trips planned for the summer!

March Madness

We closed on our house on Feb 28th, but we didn't actually take possession till March 3rd. So here is the one picture I have from inside the rental house. John and Conrad just chilling watching some TV. Like father, like son. We actually watched a lot of TV in that house and Netflix was our savior. 

To celebrate my birthday John got me these beautiful flowers to put in our beautiful kitchen. I never thought I would be so excited about a kitchen. Sadly, it only looked this clean for a day and then all of our stuff was delivered and it's like a bomb went off. This unpacking process is going to take quite some time. 

We are slowly discovering more and more about St. Joe that we love. March was Lego month with Lego themed activities all over town. They had a special Lego architecture class at the art museum. Certain designs were chosen to be displayed around town. Shh don't tell EZ, but Netta's was the only one chosen. Poor boy he tried so hard, but I have a feeling that being a girl played in Netta's favor this time.

 We also discovered that there is a rockin' children's museum here. We immediately bought passes and I am sure with this weather that we will be spending a lot of time here. One of the coolest things is that they have a whole face painting section. The kids went crazy with this. Kingston is supposed to be a Skylander. 

EZ is a Creeper from Minecraft.

And Netta is just kind of scary.

EZ really got into the building area, but it was hard to take him seriously in that get up with his face painted.

We discovered The South Bend Chocolate Company, which has awesome hot chocolate. We happened to go on St. Patrick's Day and they were giving out all this free green stuff. Netta of course had to go back multiple times to grab free stuff and make sure everyone in the family was outfitted. That's my girl.

Netta brought home this drawing, which I assumed was of an animal on the beach and maybe some jellyfish. Then she informed me that the animal above ground was a sphinx and that the things below ground were all skeletons. She scares me sometimes.

March became extra exciting when EZ decided to fracture his elbow. Since we didn't have basements in Texas, I was so excited to move into a house with one, so I could put all the toys downstairs and send the kids there when I need a break. Well we weren't even here 3 weeks and EZ hurt himself playing under the mini trampoline. We tried to avoid the doctor but after a weekend of it hurting I finally took him in. Of course I did it during the day and had King and Conrad with me. They were fine at the doctors office, but then they were hellions at the xray place. So, the next day when it came time to take him in to get the cast John came home from work to take him. And then snapped this picture of EZ enjoying some gourmet hot chocolate while I was stuck at home eating who knows what with the kids. While I appreciated not having to take all the kids to the doctor again, I think I got the short end of the stick on this deal. Luckily, EZ was excited to have his friends sign the cast and he only had to have it for 3 weeks.