Happy Birthday EZ

EZ turned 7 on May 26th. Two days before his actual birthday, he took donuts to school to celebrate and then that night we had his party. His party had a Ben 10 theme and it was supposed to be outside at a park so it would be nice and easy, but of course it decided to thunderstorm and so I was stuck with a ton of screaming boys running allover my house. And then John got stuck at work and so he missed most of the party and wasn't there to help. Luckily, some other parents stuck around to help out. Here he is with his friend MJ. I got pictures of him with all his friends, but this shot of MJ falling off the couch is by far the best. 

Here are his Ben 10 cupcakes that are supposed to look the the design on the special watch Ben 10 wears. As you can tell I was getting less and less hands on with each round of cupcakes.

EZ and his friends battled each other wearing Ben 10 masks, which of course would have been ideal had we been outside, but we made it work. This is the only picture I could find that shows the masks. I also completely failed to get a picture of the pinata. This time it was because it broke after about the 2nd kid hit it. Should have known the boys would beat the crap out of it. 

The best part about black cupcakes is what it does to everybody's mouths. Oh and everybody's bowl movements. ;)

EZ got a snorkle and it was quickly stolen by king. Conveniently enough, EZ then got another one so everyone is happy. 

He also got this dinosaur excavation kit and early the next morning we were awoken by the sound of someone hammering. We thought it was a neighbor, but it was just EZ working on his present. 

 His actual birthday was on a Sunday and so we just our family celebration that day. I still can't get over the fact that he is 7. It just doesn't seem right that he can be that old. 

King also stole EZ's new angry bird game and is convinced that it is his. He was very happy to show it off to the camera. 

EZ and his friend Ethan are into these "ology" books. There are ones like "Mosterology" and "Pirateology", but we of course got EZ the "Egyptology" book. 

We had just enough cupcakes left from the party to celebrate one more time. Happy Birthday EZ!

Happy Birthday Netta

Netta was second in line to have a birthday. She turned 5 on May 9th. For some reason that I can't remember, we went out to dinner the night before her birthday. She picked Freddy's basically for the fries. She started this new habit of holding things in front of her face when I take her picture. We will see this again later. 

The morning of her birthday I came downstairs to find her crying, because I hadn't decorated the whole house for her birthday. I don't know who she thinks her mom is, but that isn't typically how birthdays go here. She quickly perked up when I told her I would take her picture and put it on facebook. 

She got to celebrate her birthday that day at preschool and brought big lollipops to share with her friends. Here is another picture of her holding something in front of her face. 

Here she is on the playgroup with 2 of her little friends Avery and Ava. They are all modeling their toys. Oh girls. 

That day Sarah also come over and told Netta she would take her somewhere to pick out a present. Netta requested Old Navy and made a beeline right for these Hello Kitty press-on nails. I don't know why they sell them there, but they do and apparently Netta really wanted them. 

That night we celebrated as a family and Netta basically went crazy over every single present, but she really went nuts for the movie Rise of the Guardians. 

I "encouraged" Netta to have just ice cream for her family celebration. I can't handle all the cupcakes this month!

A couple of days later we had her friend party. Netta wanted a rock star party. So the kids played "Just Dance Kids" on the Kinect and I gave everyone glitter tattoos. We also had a pinata that for some reason we have no pictures of. Not quite sure what happened with that, but I promise it was there. 

Netta of course loved all the attention and she is already busy at work planning her parties for the next couple of years. 

Happy Birthday King!

King turned 3 on May 4th and since he is somewhat obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba, we had to have a Yo Gabba Gabba party. Since he is still young and doesn't exactly play well with other kids his age, we just had some family friends over. I found this idea for Yo Gabba Gabba cupcakes online and with the assistance of Sam's Club and their variety of frosting colors, I was able to put it together. So they were semi-homemade. 

We played pin the eye on Muno. 

And had a pinata. I learned a good trick about pinatas. Hobby Lobby sells the same brand of pinatas that Party City sells, but they start out at $13 instead of $19 and you can always use a 40% off coupon. They don't have as much selection, but if they have something you like you can save a ton. 

King got all things Yo Gabba Gabba, including a new bedding set and this awesome car seat cover. When I bought Netta her car seat, I got a little carried away with the girly theme and now I have just boys after her, so I had to find someway to cover it and this ended up being perfect!

Sarah and Casey got him a Yo Gabba Gabba outfit that he changed into before blowing out the candles. I think he wore the outfit 3 days straight. Like I said he is somewhat obsessed and hey that just meant one less kid to get ready in the morning!

All and all it was a great party and I was happy to only have to celebrate his birthday once, unlike Netta and EZ who had to have family celebrations, school celebrations and then friend parties. These May birthdays are exhausting, but so worth it!

April Happenings

April was filled with a bunch of random happenings. First, we found this cute little field mouse in the church one day during my exercise group. I felt so bad for the guy. He was probably in there overnight all by himself. So naturally we had to take him home and do our best to care for him. I am pretty sure the other ladies would have just thrown him outside and let him fend for himself. Unfortunately, he only survived a couple of hours, but during those hours, Netta was crazy excited about her first "pet."

We also got to see EZ perform in the 1st grade musical called "Hats." He did a great job learning all the songs and delivering his line. Seriously, we couldn't understand what half the kids said, but EZ did a got job of speaking clearly and slowly. It's amazing how proud you can feel about your child and their one line. 

Netta got to go to her friend Avery's birthday party and she was in girly heaven. They got all dolled up and got to walk the runway. Some of the girls were shy about it, but not my Netta. She will take any chance she can get to be the center of attention. I am still trying to reconcile this girly girl with the one who talks about poop all the time. 

Living in Texas means that April also kicks of the swimming season. EZ's dual language program had an end of year party that the kids got to swim at. Now, the water wasn't exactly warm, but that didn't stop the kids. We had to drag Netta and her blue lips out of there. 

We also did some swimming at the Y, which is nice, because it is indoors and heated. Conrad absolutely loves the water and he was smiling the whole time. He is so cute I can hardly stand it!

Ever since Netta and John went to the daddy daughter dance, EZ and I have been itching for a mother son date and we finally got one. We went to Austin Park and Pizza for their unlimited mini-golf and pizza buffet. The buffet just about made me sick, but EZ loved it and I loved getting to spend the day with him. 

Finally, I won passes to a free screening of Iron Man 3 in 3D. I wanted to get a picture of John and I, but we had to leave our phones in the car. There were tons of people who broke that rule, but we are sticklers I guess. The crazy part was that they gave our way way more passes than seats and John and I were literally numbers 297 and 298 out of 300 that they let in. I think I would have lost it if we hadn't made it in after having John get there an hour and a half early and paying for a babysitter. But hooray we made it and the movie was awesome!

Happy Easter!

One day at Target we discovered these awesome Easter egg glasses and we had to have them. What would we do without the dollar bins?

The Saturday before Easter, we had 2 Easter eggs hunts. The first one was at Netta's preschool. It started out a wee bit chilly, but that wouldn't stop us. Mainly because I was on the Egg Hunt Committee and had to help set up. 

Netta was so excited to be there with all her friends and everyone had a blast until we started driving to the church for our ward's egg hunt. While driving to the church she started crying and saying her head her and then when we pulled into the parking lot she threw up in her lap. So John took her home and I stayed with the other 3. 

King is obsessed with the color blue and would only pick up blue eggs. I wanted to get pictures of EZ hunting at the church as well, but King passed up so many eggs and took so long that by the time I got over to the section for the older kids EZ was done. 

When we got home EZ insisted on categorizing his candy and then making a graph. That's my boy!

By the time we got home Netta had thrown up multiple times and confessed that she had hit her head on the picnic bench during the first hunt. She also had a bruise forming on her forehead so we decided that it was time to head to the emergency room. She continued to throw up there, but luckily the CAT scan showed no major damaged and it was ruled a minor concussion and they gave her some meds to help stop the vomiting. We took it easy that rest of the day and then that night we dyed Easter eggs. I love dying eggs with the kids, but it can be a wee bit stressful trying to keep them from spilling the dye and from drinking it. King learned that lesson the hard way. 

For some reason Netta became obsessed with the word "poop" and wrote it on every single one of her eggs. Luckily, she can't spell. 

The next morning the kids got their baskets of course. Everyone was so excited, except for poor King who got sick with some feverish cold thing over night. 

Since King was sick and Netta was still recovering, Conrad was the only child who made it to church. It's a good thing I spent weeks trying to find coordinating outfits for the kids :( He actually only got to go, because I had to be there to sing with the choir and he had to be with me to nurse. 

I went to the first meeting and then came home and switched places with John so that he could go to church and fulfill his calling in the nursery. So it wasn't the Easter Sunday we had in mind, but that is life with little kids. 

Luckily, later that day everyone seemed to be feeling well enough to complete our final Easter tradition of breaking confetti filled eggs allover each other. Thank you Texas for this awesomesness.