Fun Times

I thought I should post a few pics of the kiddos BEFORE Canyon made his appearance.  They all grow up way too fast.  I don't want to miss a single moment of it.

Craiger's favorite part of the day is bus stop time.  He loves walking with me & Lorien to the bus stop so he can meet his friends.  For some reason, we can't go without him coming home covered in dirt, mud, bugs, & smells.  I don't know what he does because he stays by me for the most part, but for some reason mud magnetizes to him.  But he sure is cute.

Another thing I'm learning about having boys is that EVERYTHING is a gun.  (even Barbies)  They find anything they can get their hands on & magically transform them into guns.  They love the curtain pull-backs. . . the newest guns in their collections.

The weekend before Canyon was born, I took my 3 little ones to the mall for some shopping & playing fun.  It was our last weekend before the craziness of a newborn hit & we had a blast together.  I bought all three of them some COOL sunglasses & I bought the boys some hats for the summer.  Because they are so incredibly blonde, I constantly have to keep hats on them to keep them from frying in the sunshine.  They looked SO COOL.

I LOVE the fedora look on Bladen.  He is just
the cutest little stud ever.

Our neighbors gave Bladen & Craiger their old Lightning McQueen power wheels toy since their son had grown out of it.  Bladen thinks it is the best thing that ever happened to him.  I can't believe how amazing he is at driving that thing.  He can reverse, go forward, turn around, avoid obstacles, etc.  He's going to be a fantastic driver someday like his dad.  And I love how adorable he looks in it, especially with his fedora on.

I sure do love these kids of mine.

Bladen's 4th Family Birthday Party

After church we opened all of Bladen's presents from family.  He was SO excited.

He loved his Star Wars card from Nancy

Nancy sent lots of clothes & shoes.

The girls all put their money together & got Bladen a dinosaur
transformer.  He LOVES this thing.

Auntie Cari & Uncle Justin got him a Star Wars toy.

Mamoo got him a transformer helicopter named
BLADES.
Bladen loves that they have the same name.

Auntie Char & Uncle Jay got him a Star Wars
ship.

Mimi & Baba got him Bumblebee & Optimus
Prime transformers.  It amazes me how easily
Bladen can figure these things out.

Both boys were in HEAVEN all afternoon playing with all
the new toys.

Close your eyes, Blade.  Mom & Dad have
a surprise for you.

We got him a Bumblebee bike.  It's time he learns how to
ride a REAL BIG BOY BIKE.

For his birthday dinner he wanted pizza & french fries.

It was a great day.  We had a blast.  Happy Birthday Birthday Boy.

Bladen's 4th Birthday Breakfast

Happy Happy Birthday Bladen Dear!

I can't believe my baby boy is 4 years old already.  It seems like just yesterday we were speeding across the German forests praying that we'd make it to Bitburg hospital in time.  I almost broke Trek's hand because I was squeezing it so hard with the contractions & although Blade's head was already almost out by the time we reached the hospital, I was still able to hobble my way into the front door & onto the nearest hospital bed where he shot out of me in 2 seconds flat.  Wow, time flies.

For his special birthday breakfast this year he wanted scrambled eggs with bacon & cheese, bananas, a ding dong, & some yummy orange juice.

Bladen was all smiles when he woke up Sunday morning.  He knew it was his special day & he couldn't wait.

His favorite part has always been blowing out the candles.

I'm FOUR YEARS OLD

Happy Birthday Buddy Boy.

We love you.

Carrollton Elementary Art Show

Lorien was SO excited to have some of her artwork selected for the Carrollton Elementary Art Show this year.  She loves art (especially painting) & was thrilled to get to take the whole family to the show.  

The theme was

"Once Upon A Time"

so we all got to dress up as our favorite story book characters as we walked the halls & admired the artwork.

Lorien's camouflage owl made it to the county art
show as well.  She was VERY proud of it.

We all had a blast dressing up.  Taya was Snow White, Cadence was a pioneer American Girl, Blade was Iron Man (of course), Lo was Rapunzel, & Craiger was Captain America.

We had a blast.  Good job Lo!  Love you.

Bladen's 4th Birthday Party - STAR WARS

I can't believe it's already April.  Bladen's birthday isn't until the 28th, but with me being SO pregnant & the baby coming SO soon, I didn't want to risk ruining Bladen's birthday by going into labor instead of throwing him the Star Wars birthday bash he deserved.  So we did it a few weeks early.  He didn't know any different.

We've been planning this Star Wars party for almost a year now.  He chose this theme right after his pirate birthday last year so I've been watching the sales & collecting fun things & ideas all year long.  It worked out perfectly.

First, we had to have a Star Wars cake right?  I made him a Darth Vader cake.  I totally thought it would be a "piece of cake" because it was only one color, but I soon learned that making it just one color made it very very difficult.  I woke up at the crack of dawn to put it together & in the end it turned out alright.  Bladen loved it & that's what really mattered.

I also made each of the guests little light sabers out of pool noodles.  They are SUPER easy to make & they don't hurt when you get hit with one.  PERFECT for little boys.  Just cut those $1.00 pool noodles in half with a saw, then wrap the bottoms with duct tape & electrical tape to make a handle.

Star Wars goody bags

Darth Vader masks for the guests.

The table decor

The plates, cups, & napkins were 3-D so we added 3-D glasses
to the table so the boys could marvel in the 3-D awesomeness.

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Light Sabers

I had fun decorating our little hole-in-the-wall
in our front entryway.

I had a table set up with Star Wars coloring pages to keep the boys entertained until all the guests arrived.  We also had Star Wars Clone Wars playing on the TV.

Bladen could hardly wait for all his friends to show up.  He carried around this green light saber all morning because he wanted to make sure it was HIS.

 We got him a Darth Vader costume for his birthday so he wore it proudly to his party.  I also let him practice his Jedi Knight skills on the storm trooper balloons out on the deck.  I think that was his favorite part of the entire party.  He had a blast hitting them with his light saber.

I also set up a laser beam obstacle course for
my Jedi Training camp.

When our friends started arriving, we let them color.  Of course the boys all just wanted to watch Clone Wars on TV & all the girls LOVED the coloring.

Bladen & his best friend Grant couldn't keep their eyes off
of the action on the TV screen.

The first part of our Jedi Training was to create our own light sabers.  Every Jedi has to make their own.  The boys LOVED it.  They used electrical tape to make lines & buttons & then drew fun things with sharpies all over their handles.

It was a little crazy at first because we had several of the boys invited playing soccer games for the 1st half of the party.  We only had 2 boys for about 45 minutes, then the rest of the group got there.

Next I taught them how to use the force to maneuver through the tractor beams / lasers during battle.  The boys did this one over & over & over & over again.  They thought it was great trying to jump, climb, & crawl through the lasers.

Next I taught them about the force & how to use the force to make objects move.  We played a game where they had to throw little discs into the Yoda/Darth Vader/Storm Trooper box.

Finally we got to move out to the deck & fight our Storm Troopers.  This was the favorite part of the party for everyone.  Those boys had a BLAST hitting those balloons.  In fact, they hit them so hard that all 8 storm troopers eventually made it into the sky from power hits.  I'm glad they liked it so much.

After hitting Storm Troopers, the boys just begged me to let them go fight in the backyard.  I thought it was funny so I let them.  The pool noodles are soft so nobody got hurt or anything.  But they fought for a good 30 minutes before I made them stop.  They were having a BLAST.

Once all the other kids started showing up, the final part of our Jedi Training was to defeat Darth Vader himself.  I found a Darth Vader piñata & filled it with candy.  Then Trek rigged it up to our deck so the kids could hit it.  We found our old flag pole from our last house that we were going to throw away & ended up painting it to look like a light saber.  You can't defeat Darth Vader with an every day bat right?  Only a light saber can defeat the Dark Lord of the Sith.

Craiger got his few pieces of candy & just sat down
on the grass & ate ALL OF IT.  Stinker.

After enjoying piñata fun it was time for cake & ice cream.  Bladen was excited to show off his Darth Vader cake. 

The boys LOVED the 3-D glasses

Craiger enjoyed his cake a little too much.

After some yummy cake & ice cream, it was finally time to open presents.  Bladen had been waiting for that part the entire party.

Jack gave Bladen 4 little Avengers action figures.

Nathan & Sarah gave him some Star Wars toys.

Grant gave him a shark water gun & a Yoda kite

Owen & Tessa gave him a kite & 3 books

And the other Nathan gave him an Iron Man & Batman action figure

Bladen was in complete heaven.  I was SO thrilled he got so many action figures as gifts.  He didn't have many before & he loves them.  He really needed some more to play what he wants to play on a daily basis.   He loved every second of his special day.  The force was truly with him.

Happy Birthday Buddy Blade.  We love you SO much.