Happy Birthday Ben!!!!!

We had such a fun super hero party. Really an easy party to plan. It is pretty easy to make three and four year old boys happy. The weather was really windy so we had to do everything inside but we found enough activities to entertain them. At the end of the party they got on their coats and ran outside to save the animals that had been taken by the villan. I am glad that we did the party in the morning. Ben was asking when all his guests were coming at 9 in the morning.


The super heroes are off!!!!! I love how my kids are all blocking everyone out. The best $5 investment was spray paint to paint cereal/Costco boxes. We stacked them up and used them as the brick wall to break through. The kids thought they were so strong! Opening some fun presents.

The super hero squad. The cupcakes had bright blue frosting so all the super heroes had bright blue tongues and faces for the rest of the party. They thought this was very funny.

Testing their super hero skills. Can they pass the obstacle course? Ben breaking through the brick wall.

Siena shooting the villan.

Calvin shooting the villan

Dmitry crawling through the web ready to go through the tunnel.

pass the kryptonite. I brought out this game and I asked the kids what I had and they said Playdough. They hadn't heard of kryptonite but they were quick to pass the rock around when they heard that it took their super powers away.

Dave teaching them how to fly... and getting a great workout.

Dmitry

Ben

Jacob with great flying form.

All I wanted was a cute picture of all my super hero kids together. I guess that was too much to ask. Someday we will get a cute picture of all the kids together.

My happy super heroes

The morning gifts. Ben and I went shopping the other day for all his food on his birthday. He decided that he wanted hot dogs and hamburgers. So Dave got to grill in February. Ben and Siena woke us up at normal time and were excited to go down and get the donuts. We all went down and Ben was clueless that there were gifts in the family room. Siena finally had to tell him and show him.


more cars for his wall track.

A spider man shirt, spider puzzle and spider man soccer ball from Nana and Papa.

We got him a super hero water bottle a big kite and the bike and optimus prime helmet.

He was just as happy playing with all the balloons.

a great find on craigslist. I responded to an add on craigslist and got a reply that it was my friend Crystal selling it. It was perfect for Ben. Luckilly he was asleep in the car when I went and picked it up.

We ended the day with a birthday BBQ with Aunt Karin and Uncle Steve. He loves seeing them.
Happy Birthday Ben. We love him so much. It always makes me a little sad that my kids are getting bigger. Thank goodness he's a good helper and not just a little terror. (Ok. sometimes he is just a terror) He loves Claire so much and helps me with her all day. He misses Siena when she is away at school and is so excited when he will go to school. He is such an accomadating brother. He tries to play super heroes with me all morning and then when Siena comes home he does pretty good at playing what she wants. Usually it is drawing and coloring. I think he will be excited when Claire can do a little more with him during the day.

I can definately see the difference between boys and girls. Ben seems to always be on his own time schedule. I don't know how I will ever get him out the door to school. Usually he goes to drop Siena off half dressed. A couple Saturdays ago we told the kids to go and get dressed. Dave and I were downstairs watching a t.v. show and kind of forgot about the kids getting dressed. Siena gets dressed and goes and plays. Ben is upstairs still. We get through the whole 30 minute show and Ben finally comes down the stairs dressed. He comes down all excited and announces how fast he was. Buddy, it took you a half hour to put pants and a shirt on and he thinks he is fast! so silly. Atleast he is cute and he doesn't come up with crazy outfits like Siena still does.

He is such a snacker. He doesn't really eat meals and it is very frustrating. He will eat a little bit of a meal and then say he isn't hungry till the next meal. 45 minutes later he come and asks for something to eat. He is a pretty good eater if we can just get him to try it.

He loves his soccer class. I think he may have a crush on his soccer teacher. He asked if we could invite her to his birthday party. He was asking because he wanted to play soccer at his party. I told him she had kids and had to be home with them. He gave up pretty easily on the idea, but it was cute that he wanted to invite her.

Since the weather has been so nice we have been playing a lot of basketball out front. Whenever I play with him I am the girl Jimmer team and he is the boy Jimmer team. It is so cute. I love that we are already forcing BYU stuff down his throat. Jimmer does share his birthday with him.

We are so lucky to have him in our family. He makes me so happy.

Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day! We had fun. You would think it was Christmas at our house. We woke up to the kids opening their mailboxes in Sienas room. They were so excited and were patiently taking turns opening each letter. Just like Christmas they were taking turns. It was sad that I had to hurry them along so Siena wouldn't be late for school. I was glad that I had taken some time the previous night to make Siena some cards. Everyones mailbox is so stuffed by the time V-day comes around except Siena because she is the giver of all the letters. My cute Ben and Claire got dressed up for the occasion. Siena wore this outfit her first valentines day.

I had some red melting chocolate that I piped into words. Ben thought this was so cool.

Enjoying our heart cookies.

The day before V-day Siena asked what she was going to wear in her hair for the day. I realized we didn't have any cute heart bows. We had a red ribbon and we made a heart stamp. She stamped a heart ribbon to match her outfit for V-day. I didn't get a picture that morning because we were running late. She loved it and looked cute.
I guess I didn't get any pictures of Siena's valentines but she made hearts out of old crayon shaving to give her friends at school. The process took a lot longer than I hoped but it as cute. Thankfully, she didn't come home with too much candy that day.

Claire has learned a new trick. She finally pulls herself up but doesn't know what to do after that so she just screams until you come and get her and put her back in the crawling position. Soon she will catch on and learn to cruise.

On to Birthday festivities at our house!!!!!!!!!

never ending paper

Siena is obsessed with crafts and books and anything that she can draw. Her teacher says that the art station is the only station she will go to. She brings home tons of pictures for us each day. Then I find her locked away in the craft room at home making things. She has been working hard on our valentine cards. She brought these books up she made the other day. One for Ben and one for her.
She drew windows and then put Princess stickers in the window. so funny.
Once upon a time a princess was looking out the window it was Belle.

I love it.

Then one for Ben

the two outside stickers are bad guys. again spider man is inside the house

Once upon a time Spider man caught a bad guys.
the picture on the left is a web that spider man spun with the bad guys he caught.

These are so funny. I love it.

my handsome boy. He is getting so big and he is being such a good helper around the house. I can't believe he is almost four. It makes me so sad.
Siena, the Post master. In Kindergarten they are learning their address and phone number and about the Mail system. Siena is so excited when she gets to be the post master and distribute letters. She came home yesterday with letters for everyone.
I don't know where she learned this pose from.

Tents and the Super Bowl

The babies enjoying the super bowl food. Zachary (on the left) was born the exact same day as Claire, just different hospitals. Tyler was born a week before the two. They are going to be best buds. It took us almost 11 months to get a picture of all of them together. Too cute.
Claire finally crawling on her knees. After 2 days of us holding her tummy up while she crawled she finally caught on. She can crawl now on her hands and knees like you should. She is fast too.

While we were cleaning house for the Super Bowl we found these cool tents that we had put away. We realized that we could hook them together and make one long tunnel, then put the ottoman at the end and a blanket over that makes the tunnel even longer. I ran up to get the camera just as Claire finished going through it so I didn't get any pictures of her in it. The kids said she went all the way through. So much fun. I totally remember spending Sundays making tons of forts.

funny stuff

Second quarter just ended for Siena and they sent home this 'portfolio' of Sienas artwork over the last quarter. Fun stuff. I love her spelling. She is pretty good but she doesn't know her vowels yet. I think it is funny they don't teach them the vowels until 1st grade.

We have been talking a lot about Walt Disney world lately. I having been telling my short little kids that they need to eat their vegetables and meat so they will grow big and strong so they can ride the big rides there. I don't know if they will be brave enough, but it seems to be working. Today in the car Ben asks if we can have those long straight beans for dinner. I was in shock. Did he just ask for vegetables? He said he needed them so he could grow big and strong for DisneyWorld. I don't know what we are going to do after DisneyWorld to convince our kids that they need to eat their vegetables but we have atleast 3 more months of eating vegetables in this house. Maybe by then they will learn that they are actually tasty.

Great Wolf Lodge

Siena had school off  Monday and Tuesday and Dave could finally take some time off. He didn't take hardly any time off for Christmas so we needed some family time. We went down to Williamsburg on Monday to the Great Wolf Lodge. It was so much fun. There were a lot of people there. I guess that is the thing to do when school is out for a couple days. We got the fun room with the Kid camp bunk beds in them. The kids loved them. I thought the kids would fall asleep so quickly because they were so exhausted Monday night but they were so excited for the bunk beds they stayed up and played and were still up at 7:30 ready to go again. They had their own little room and a t.v. There are tons of things to do here. We spent most of our time at the waterpark. Monday night we went to go to the art and craft room (Siena's favorite part) and it was closed so we ended up at the arcade instead. Tuesday morning we were waiting at the door of the art and craft room when it opened. Siena painted a flower pot picture frame and Ben painted an alligator puzzle. I think Siena could have stayed there all day. It was such a fun time just as a little family. We had wrist bands that we could buy all our food and snacks. It was very convenient. We never had to leave the lodge. We did go out for dinner and went to Walmart to get some food for breakfast. We tried everything we could think of to get Siena to go on the big slides. That girl is stubborn. I don't even think she was that scared she just didn't want to. I think she would have loved them if she did but maybe next time. We did have great progress as she and Ben posed with the wolf mascot! Both kids have always been terrified of mascots or dressed up characters. We are going to Disneyworld in May and we are preparing them all for the characters there. So now I have hope that we may get some pictures with the princesses and characters there. So exciting! Monday night they have a little show down in the lodge and a story time. The kids all dress in their pajamas. It was really fun but crowded. We had a fabulous time and now I know what to do for a fun blah January weekend.

 waiting for storytime.

 story time.

 Whylie the wolf.

 violet the wolf.

 watching t.v. in his room while having breakfast.