Book Character Day

To celebrate Dr. Suess' birthday, my oldest girls got to dress up like their favorite book characters for the day.  They of course dressed up like Hogwarts students.

I just can't get over how beautiful my girls are.  I love them so much.

Craiger's 4th Birthday Dinner & Family Party

For Craiger's special birthday dinner he chose grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, & apple slices.  All the kids were excited about this one.  Grilled cheese is always a favorite at the Potter house.

He was very happy with his dinner.

After his party on Saturday we let him open all his gifts from family.

Mimi & Baba got him Monsters University.

Nancy got him a few new outfits & some new
shoes!

Uncle Justin & Auntie Cari got him a fun shape
picture maker toy.  I LOVE THIS.

Cadence spent her allowance money & got him
a pirate playset.

Opa & Oma sent him a firefighter dress up & some
dinosaur books.

Taya, Bladen, & Canyon got him a Jake Telescope.

And Lorien got him a pirate play set with
a pop up treasure chest.

I forgot to take a picture, but Trek & I got Craiger the new Imaginext Pirate Ship.  (The two sets the girls got him went with that set so it worked out great.)  He loves it.

Happy birthday to my big boy.  We love you.

Craiger's 4th Birthday Breakfast

Craiger was SO excited when it was his birthday.  He told me the night before how excited he was for his birthday breakfast.

He had his favorite things:

Dinosaur Egg Oatmeal

Bananas

& Ding Dongs

Wake up birthday boy!!!

I can't believe Craiger is already 4 years old.  Happy Birthday to my big boy!!!

Craiger's 4th Birthday Party - Jake & the Neverland Pirates

I can't believe my little Craiger man is 4 years old already.  It seems like yesterday I was living in Monterrey, CA waiting for him to arrive.

This year Craiger begged me for a Jake & the Neverland Pirates party.  This is the 3rd pirate party I've done for my kids over the years (Lorien's 4th birthday & Bladen's 3rd birthday), but we got to add Jake to the mix this time to make it a little different.

And words can't even describe the feelings I felt when I heard the words, 

"Mom, can I have cupcakes for my birthday?"

"ABSOLUTELY!!!"

After that 8.5 hour cake for Lorien's birthday exactly one week before, cupcakes were welcomed with open arms.  He wanted them to be Jake colors so we did blue & red frosting with multicolored sprinkles & lots of Gold Doubloons.  I even found some pirate flags that I had used for Bladen's pirate birthday & put them on there too.  Craiger LOVED them.

Since it was Jake, I had all the setup stuff for Jake.  There were lots of reds, yellows, & blues to match Jake's outfit.

Craiger dressed up like a pirate for the occasion.

He was SO excited, if you couldn't tell.

We had Jake goody bags,

A Jake piñata, 

a Jake place the doubloon in the treasure chest game, 

Jake Spot It,

& a create a pirate ship scene with stickers.

When the guests arrived we watched an episode of Jake & the Neverland Pirates & colored some Jake coloring pages.  Then I turned the time over to Lorien to do the first game.  My girls are getting old enough that they want to help with my parties which makes it really fun for me.  She did the whole Gold Doubloon game.

Next, Taya passed out the sticker scenes & let the kiddos make pirate scenes with stickers.  They really had fun with that one.  (Most of the guests were 3 so I tried to gear things to their age levels.)

Craiger's favorite game in the world is Spot It.  It's the perfect game for this age group.  They make all sorts of versions of the game so I wound up getting the Jake version for his party.  This version focused on shapes, colors, & numbers.  So not only were the kids having fun, but they were learning too.  They literally did NOT want to stop playing this game.  They were upset when I made them move on to something else.

After Spot It, we got out the piñata & played a little bit.  I had to get a pull string piñata this time because we were still in the middle of Snowmageddon & we couldn't go outside.  The kids didn't mind.  They all got a turn pulling a string. . . & the last kid to pull it was the string that let loose the trap door of candy.  It worked out perfectly.

Finally, it was Cadence's turn.  She wrote 6 little clues (rhymes) & led the kids on a treasure hunt around our house.  The clues were easy enough for them to know where to go next, & they were hidden in plain sight.  I think this was the kids' favorite thing.  I was proud of Cadence for putting it all together all by herself.  What a sweet sister.

Finally, it was time for cake & ice cream.  The kids couldn't wait to get their hands on the chocolate Doubloons!

Craiger has some great little friends in this neighborhood.  I love the people who live around us.  They brought him the neatest gifts.

Blaise & Isaac gave him a planes shirt.

Lilleigh gave him some action figures.

Zori gave him a bunch of monster trucks.

Katherine got him a Jake book & some pirate playdoh.

And Claire gave him some word puzzles which was great
because Craiger has started reading already & these are the
types of words he can read.  He loves this.

Overall, we had a great time.  Happy birthday to my Monster!!!!  Mommy loves you.

I Love To See The Temple

With Cadence being officially 12 years old now, she is old enough to do baptisms for the dead in the temple.  I've been waiting to take my kids into the temple with me for 12 years now.  This was such an exciting day.

Cadence did her own genealogy work & found 5 names of women in our family who needed their temple work done.  She printed them off herself & was baptized for them on Valentine's Day.

I was SO blessed to get to be there with her.  Trek stayed in the car with the kiddos while I went inside the Washington DC temple with her.  We hugged, we cried, we hugged some more.  Every mother needs to have a spiritually uplifting moment with their daughter at least once in their lives.  It filled my spiritual tank & made me want to go out & serve those around me.

I'm proud of you baby girl.

Lo's Lunch

I love going to lunch with my kids.  I know that's corny, but I really do.  I love being with them, I love being involved in what they do, & I just enjoy being a mom.

And as long as my kids will let me, I will go eat lunch with them & their friends because I know eventually they won't want me to anymore.

Since it was Lorien's birthday, I had lunch with her & met some of her school friends.

We always have a good time.  Love ya darlin!