A Superhero Party

This is way over due since it’s been a month after his birthday but life has been way too busy lately.

Josh was really excited for his birthday this year. Usually after Julia’s party he starts telling me everything he wants for his birthday party.

This year his choice was to have a superman party. He is really into superhero stuff right now thanks to Megamind and the Incredibles.

I usually get into the mood of planning his party after I make his invitation, so here you have it.

 He was so excited the morning of his birthday that he woke up at 6 am. Then daddy made him some pancakes and by 7:30 he was opening presents.

What else do you give a kid who is obsessed with trains no other than more trains. He also wanted a big boy’s scooter not the one with 3 wheels anymore because those are for babies and he is a big boy now.
 

This year Josh decided he wanted to go to Boondocks for his birthday so after some quick preparations around the house we were on our way.

Julia and Andrew were thrilled that they got to come along. We did bowling, miniature golf, their kiddie cove and of course we played some games.

I really had fun thinking about this cake. I spent a couple of nights trying to figure it out what to do and then it suddenly hit me all I had to do was to change the S on superman for a J and then accessorize the rest and Voila there you have it.

                     

                             

Here are some pictures of the decorations from that day.  I really love putting up decorations the night before so that the kids can start feeling special from the moment they wake up.

We played a couple of games with the cousins. I made some masks for the kids and they had to wear them as they guessed some items that I had put inside a “LEAD BOX”.  Even grandpa joined in the fun for this game

                                     

Our last game was to jump over buildings. I colored a cup and the kids had to go into the trampoline and jump over it as high as they could. All the kids had a blast on it.

                                      

   

Our last activity for the day was to break open the piñata. I really wasn’t going to have one but one of the few things that Josh requested for his birthday was a piñata so naturally y had to make one.

                                

We opened presents and had some dinner and we blow up candles after that.

Josh had a great time thanks to all of you who came to celebrate this special day with him.

FiRsT Cafeteria LuNcH

April 26th



This was Julia’s and mine first cafeteria lunch. They wanted to introduce the kindergarteners to the lunch process before actually starting first grade. The teacher made the mistake to invite the parents to have lunch over with the kids and of course I signed up for it and brought my camera with me. Josh and Andrew got to come along too.

After listening to the horrible stories that Spencer was telling me about his lunches I was imagining something slobbery falling into my plate which would give me enough motivation to prepare lunch for this girl for next year but I was happy to see that Spencer was wrong.
Her cafeteria was serving that day 3 types of vegetables, 3 types of fruit 2 types of dessert, chocolate milk and the main entrée for the day was whole grain pepperoni pizza with roasted veggies on the side. Can you believe it, that’s better than the lunches I prepare for her now!

Joshua had his plate full of vegetables and fruit, Andrew made it for the desserts which were raisins and Jell-O. He soon discovered that he doesn’t like Jell-o, after he took one bite his whole body shivered and that was the end of that.
Julia realized that she needed to learn how to eat her food faster. She was not even half way done by the time lunch time was over. Poor girl kept asking me to take her food home with me.

Big Boy Bed

My little baby is growing up. The first big change for this little guy. Andrew got to sleep in his big boy bed for the first time on April 19th. It was a though decision because Andrew really loved his crib, but having Daniel join our family in only 3 months I felt it necessary that Andrew be moved and adjusted to his new bed by then.
                                

Thankfully I had bought a quilt for him when I was buying Josh’s 2 years ago.
Before I could do anything we had to get Josh a new mattress so that Andrew could inherit his old one and we had to get Daniel’s room ready as well which unfortunately implied taking down pink butterfly wall paper since this was Julia’s old bedroom.

Thankfully Spencer’s mom came to the rescue and between the two of us we made that room look precious in 1 week.

Andrew was not very happy about the change. He would climb on the side of his old crib and look into it like reminiscing about good times (sad) It almost made cry, but he has been a good boy.

         

                               

Every night we read our stories and sing songs and he falls right to sleep. So far he stays asleep all night long. Let’s hope it stays that way.

                                                      

First Day Of Swimming Lessons

April 23rd

It is that time of the year again and with me being 6 months pregnant I decided I’d better put Josh in swimming lessons before I can’t move anymore.

Joshua is in preschool aquatics level 2 this year. He loves the water!. He can jump from the side of the pool into it, can float and do his kicks really well. It is funny trying to see him do some leg-arm coordinated movements though; let’s just say he needs some practice on that one.

I am so proud of this boy. He tries his hardest every time. Julia gets so frustrated when he watches him though. I heard her complaining about his brother not going all the way under the water like she does and had to remind her that he was still learning.

Andrew has been dying to go in the water, that first day, little by little he got closer to the water until he managed to get one of his feet in it. I might have to do a mommy and me class with him he might just love it.

Easter

What a beautiful Sunday morning we had that day. We went to church and were reminded of the real meaning of Easter. How grateful I am to know that my Savior died for us so that me and my family could live together forever. Every time I look at my husband and my kids I become more and more grateful for this knowledge, they are truly the greatest blessing in my life.

After church we watch a movie about the resurrection of Jesus and then the kids decided to give me a couple of seconds to take their picture, hence I only got 1 picture of Andrew on his Sunday cloths.

 

                  

The kids were so nervous about the Easter Bunny not showing up. While they were downstairs that silly rabbit came and hoped all over our house to the backyard where he left the kids a couple of surprises. They were thrilled to hear him and were even more thrilled about the bunny leaving the treats outside this year instead of our front room.

       

After our little hunt we went to spend our afternoon with grandma and grandpa Smith and the rest of our family.Grandma prepared this cute little walk for the kids to go through that had all this pictures about Jesus. Julia really enjoyed reading the quotes above each picture and Josh and Andrew just enjoyed gazing at all the beautiful pictures of the Savior.

After that they discovered that the Easter bunny had found his way to grandma’s house as well so we had one last hunt. We had a lovely time just playing games, shooting the basketball and chatting with each other .

Easter's Eve

What a busy Saturday we had that day. It was packed full of fun things.

Our first stop for the day was at the Syracuse Annual Easter egg hunt. Last year we tried it for the first time but we couldn’t make it on time. This year we made sure we were at the park 10 minutes before the even started.
They had eggs scattered everywhere in the park and they had section for different age groups. Andrew was in the 0-2 years group so I had to stay with him and help him. Josh and Julia thankfully were in the same group. I was so proud of them. They got eggs all on their own and for what I heard Julia was a great motivator for Josh. I was afraid that he wasn’t going to get enough eggs but they did well on their own.
Some of the eggs had prizes on them and Josh actually got 3 prizes on his eggs; a bunny that he gave to Julia and two big pieces of candy which he shared with Andrew. It was perfect!

We ended up our morning having our picture taken with the Easter Bunny. Let’s just say Andrew didn’t trust that bunny until he offered him some candy, then and only then Andrew decided to give the bunny a hi-5

 
After lunch that day we headed over to Ogden to the Dinosaur Park. I’ve been meaning to take the kids to this Park for the longest time and everything just happened to fall into place that day not to mention that the park was having an Easter egg hunt as well.


The kids had a blast collecting eggs again and Andrew actually seemed to be getting the hang of it except after 5 eggs he wanted to open the eggs and get the candy out of them
 

After the Hunt we walked around the Park and saw the Dinosaurs. I didn’t realize how into dinosaurs they all were. Andrew wanted me to take pictures of him with every dinosaur, Josh and Julia asked me to read the entire dinosaur’s name that we saw and got really excited whenever they recognized a dinosaur from their show Dinosaur train. I was amazed to see how many dinosaurs’ names they already knew.
 

                                

We spent 3 hours at the park. Just the kids and I and it we had a terrific time. I don’t know how I managed to keep everyone on sight, especially when they decided to play at their playground but we did it. We will definitely make this a yearly thing.

After the Park we had a date with grandma to color eggs. The kids had great fun, they are experts now! Andrew was really impress to see his egg change colors can you tell?