Bladen's Kindergarten Field Trip - The Children's Museum

 The Kindergartners at Bladen's school got to go on a field trip right before school ended to the Children's Museum in Portsmouth. 

My kids LOVE that museum & couldn't wait to go once again.

All the exhibits are kid friendly & my kids LOVE to touch everything.  Canyon was in heaven because he was allowed to touch things.  He didn't have mommy saying "no" at every moment of the adventure.

Bladen's favorite part of the museum is the fishing boat.  Canyon kept watch at the ship's wheel while Craiger & Bladen fished off the side of the boat.  It's so cute.  The fishing poles have magnets at the end, as do the fish.  Once you "catch" a fish, you put it in your "net" (which has a slide that leads back out to "sea.")  It was so cute.

Craiger's favorite part of the museum is always the bubbles.  He loves standing in the middle with the big bubbles around him.

All three boys enjoyed the train exhibit & had fun crawling through the tunnel system under the trains.

Canyon's favorite place was the vet station.  He got attached to this little pug & wanted to make sure he was taken care of.  He put on the vet uniform & just loved that little puppy like it was his own.  It was so stinkin cute.

All the boys got a kick out of the human body room.  They brushed teeth, saw snot, put together a human body puzzle, played doctor, & looked at an eardrum.

Then we made our way to the farm where we collected eggs & milked the cow.  They got to weed the garden & pick veggies.  Finally we got to shop at the little kid grocery store.  SO MUCH FUN.

At the bank, Bladen wrote me a check for $100.00.

I've always really enjoyed the upstairs of the museum.  There's a ton of physics & other mechanical & scientific things up there.  Here they learned about levers & even helped lift an elephant.

Bladen had fun trying to get a beach ball through hoops in the air using only a large blowdryer.

And all 3 boys loved learning about electricity.

In the end we were all worn out so we took some time to rest in the giant rocking chair before leaving.

It was a lot of fun.  I still can't believe the school year is over.  My Kindergartner is almost a 1st grader already.  Where does the time go?

Cadence's Band Concert

It was SO exciting to watch Cadence perform in her 6th grade band concert.  Not only was she the only oboe player, but her band teacher actually wrote the school song this year & made sure it had an oboe solo for her.  She was SO nervous & excited at the same time.

Being a music teacher myself, I was SO very proud watching my little girl walk up on that stage with her oboe.  I'm very proud of how much hard work & dedicated practices Cadence had with her oboe this year.  She has grown leaps & bounds.

I could tell she was really nervous about her solo, but I knew she'd do great.

The band played two songs:

"It Came from Outer Space"

&

"Westside Elementary March."

Cadence did fantastic on both songs.  They both sounded really good.

Cadence even got to stand up & take a bow for her little solo in the Westside March.  She did such an amazing job.  I was SO proud of her.

Mr. Syrell has been a great band teacher for her this year.  She is going to miss him when she moves on to the middle school next year.  Luckily, Lorien will have him next year in 5th grade band.  She's looking forward to it.

It was a great music year for Cadence this year.  We are very proud of her.

Canyon's 2nd Birthday Party - Mickey Mouse

So Canyon was feeling much better by the weekend.  He was excited to FINALLY celebrate his birthday with his family.

Mickey Mouse is Canyon's favorite thing in the world right now so I made him his very own Mickey Mouse Ears cake.  He loved that oreos were the ears since he LOVES oreos.

We decorated the table in all of my Mickey Mouse things. . . because we all know how much I LOVE Mickey Mouse.

I also made mini versions of his Mickey cake for each member of the family.  Everyone was SO excited to get their very own cake.

Canyon wasn't too thrilled about the Mickey party hats I bought.

But he was SUPER excited about his cake.

Daddy had to help him blow out his candles.

And of course the oreos were the first things eaten.

After eating yummy cake & ice cream, we went into the living room to open presents.  Canyon got all sorts of fun things for his birthday.

Nancy sent Canyon all sorts of new clothes
& shoes.  He really was happy about it, even
if he was crying the entire time.  ha ha ha

The kids got their brother a set of crabs with alphabet letters
on them.  He can play with them in the bathtub & he
loves his letters right now so it was a perfect gift.

Grandma Kinsfather sent Canyon $10 to spend
on whatever he wants.

Lorien used her allowance money to buy Canyon
a Mickey Mouse boat for the bathtub.

And Cadence bought him a Mickey Mouse
puzzle.

Trek & I got him a stuffed Mickey that sings
the Hot Dog song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
He sleeps with it every night.  SO CUTE.

Auntie Cari & Uncle Justin & his cousins got him a fun
cash register toy.  He loves this thing.

And Mamoo ended up getting him his new favorite
toy: a box of magnetic letters.  HE LOVES THESE.

Mimi & Baba got him a fun book & some pull back cars.
He loves pushing them around the floor.

He absolutely LOVES playing with his magnetic letters.  He sits for hours at a time pointing & saying each letter.  They are his new favorite toy.

I totally forgot to take a picture of his super cute Mickey Mouse chair & desk that Opa & Oma got him.  He loves that thing SO much too.

For his birthday dinner I made homemade chick-fil-a recipe chicken nuggets, cheetos, & bananas.  He was a very happy boy.

Happy birthday to my little Canyon.  You're getting to be so big.  I can't believe my baby is 2.  You bring SO much joy to our home.  We love you SO much.

Canyon's Birthday Breakfast

It's hard to believe that my baby is now 2 years old.  I never thought I'd ever see the day when I had a 2 year old & not another newborn at the same time.  It's crazy.

But I'm so happy we have our little Canyon!  He's getting so big so fast.  Out of all 6 of my kids, he's the only one that could name every uppercase & lowercase letter of the alphabet before he was 2 - thanks to his big brother Bladen.  He's smart as a whip, curious as a monkey, & devilish as Godzilla.  We love him so much.

For his birthday breakfast I made Canyon his favorites:

Scrambled Eggs, grapes, & the birthday ding dong of course.

When we woke him up, I knew instantly that he wasn't feeling well.  This poor kid has been sick for every birthday.  I felt so bad for him.  But he still did his best to smile & have fun with his family for his special day.

He loves his brothers & sisters so much.

After such a sad morning of obvious sickness, we decided to postpone the rest of his birthday for the weekend in hopes that he'd feel better by then & truly be able to enjoy his birthday.  Luckily, he threw up a few times on his birthday & then the sickness was gone.  Of course the 24 hour flu would hit ON his birthday.  ha ha ha.

The rest of his celebrations were WONDERFUL.