Thad's Lego Party

I said I wasn't going to do anything big for birthdays this year, but I couldn't resist. These boys are just too cute and this is the first year I feel like Thad really cared and was excited about his birthday and the prospect of having friends over. I was a little nervous and thought we might not be able to have it on his actual birthday as planned because of the blizzard, but luckily all the roads were clear and it was a perfect opportunity for the boys to get out of the house after being snowed in!

Thad knew it was his birthday when he woke up and hurried down for hugs and kisses. I let him eat what he wanted and do whatever he wanted because, hey, it was his birthday! That is exactly what I want for my birthday. :) After running some last minute errands, setting up and getting the food ready, the boys came at noon and it was PARTY TIME!

Enjoy the view!

 Having all these boys over was so much fun!

This picture doesn't even give their energy justice. They loved being able to be together and run around like super heroes. 

After they all arrived and got some energy out, it was time for some games.

First up: Find the Lego Man

 There were 4 of these bad boys hanging out, but I only managed to picture three of them.

It went quick and their was no incentive to find them, but they loved it anyways.

Next up: Lego, Lego, Who's Got the Lego?

Not many of these cuties were familiar with the game, but as soon as I explained it...

 They all wanted a chance to be "it" and guess who was holding the Lego.

I was impressed with most of them trying to fool the person who was "it" by clasping their hands even if they didn't have the Lego. I don't think I give 4 year olds enough credit sometimes. 

They each got a turn to guess and hold the Lego and they loved it!

 Wes had to get in on the action too...No complaints here!

Everyone was famished after those two games, so we headed to the table for some grub!

 I know this picture isn't fabulous, but I'm actually pretty impressed that I could get a semi-decent picture of eight 3-4 year olds. Woo hoo!

The food for Thad's party was a lot less stressful than Wes'! Four year olds don't really care what you have, as long as it's simple and yummy. 

PB&Js it is!

After lunch it was one thing after the next!

Pin the Circle on the Lego

And Pierce was the only one to NOT wear a blindfold:

 hmmm...  ;-)

I have to admit that I like the results!

Presents

James had his present ready to give Thad right away. He wanted to be first! His mom didn't tell him what they got for Thad, so he was just as anxious as Thad...maybe even more so!

And as you can see, for good reason!

This is Green Lantern's home and it was a huge hit...still is around here!

As you can see in several of the pictures, I could barely get Thad to tear his eyes away from the gift for a picture...I'll have to take what I can get!

 I really loved that Wes had to be in the thick of things. The kids and Sara kept trying to edge him out of the circle a little bit (mostly for his own safety), but he just wouldn't have it! I loved it.

As you can see, Thad's friends know him really well and he got plenty of things that he loved so much. We have the best friends ever.

Our final activity before cookies was the PINATA! 

I think I was more excited about this than the kids. That puppy cost me about 6 hours of my life, but it was definitely worth every minute. It added the perfect touch!

Since the party was indoors there was no way I was letting a bunch of boys swing at a pinata in my house, so we put a trap door with some string so everyone could partake in the pinata's glory!

We counted to four, of course, and then the goods were everywhere... 

The best part about this was that I told them they could only have one piece and then have to put the rest in the treat bag to take home...Well, that's all they cared about!

They all grabbed one piece (minus James who has 4 older siblings and knows what's up) and were immediately asking for it to be unwrapped. It was hilarious! We had to force them to pick the rest of them up. They were acting like it was clean up time in nursery or something. ;-)

Cookies Instead of Cake

It was finally time to gather round for cookies.

I didn't do a cake because I don't really like making them, am not good at it, and Thad was pumped about having cookies that looked like Legos instead. 

Win-win.

He doesn't really look like it here, but he loved being sung to by everyone! 

By the time they were done with cookies, these boys were ready for some free time to play with all of the new stuff! 

 It was nice because this also meant Sara, Colleen and I could sit back and take a little break.

Speaking of...

This party wouldn't have gone smoothly at all without the help of these beautiful ladies!

Colleen (left) is my awesome friend/visiting teacher/Pierce's mom and seriously one of the most fun people I know. She sure knows how to throw one heck of a party, so I figured she would be the perfect person to stick around. 

Sara is Thad's Sunbeam teacher with no kids of her own (expecting in September, though), so I naturally asked her to help out too. 

It was perfect. Only two adults would not have been enough, four would have been too many. It was seriously perfect!

Sara helped out with Wes so much and it was so great so that I could focus on Thad a bit more than usual.

Thad loves Sunbeams and she is a huge reason why.

How have we been so blessed to be surrounded by so many AMAZING people?!

 I know I'm blessed to have these boys too.

I love them to pieces and am so glad we could party hard together!

 

James.Alex.Jared.Will.Peyton.Thad.Eli

Wes.Pierce

 I can say with confidence that this boy loved every minute of his fourth birthday party.

SUCCESS!!

I got most of my Lego party ideas from this awesome blog: http://www.deliacreates.com/2011/01/lego-birthday-party.html

First of February

The months are just passing too quickly and it's hard to keep up with this crazy, fun family of mine, but here is what our first of February had to offer.

We started the month of Love off with an FHE where we wrote down a reason why we love each family member. It was a lot of fun! We sure do love each other and it's good to put it all out in the open when we don't say it often enough. 

 This was also the extent of Valentine decorating/celebrating as we just came off Wes' birthday and were prepping for this big guy's day.

Luckily, as you can tell, it was enough. Kids are so easy, as long as you just do SOMETHING.

We got some decent weather, so we pulled out the scooter and stroller.

These cute boys make just about anything fun.

Again, so easy to please. Just go to the nearest empty parking lot and let them ride to their heart's content!

Back and forth, back and forth...

So easy.

Not exactly sure how this boy felt about the whole thing...

No smiling, no crying. He just went along for the ride.
I'll take it!

Thad also wanted to play on the stairs, so I obliged.

That kid has so many cute faces in the matter of seconds! Love him.

To end our parking lot/scooter outing, we played with some old snow. While forming snowballs, Thad said, "This is fun making snowballs, mom! I've never made snowballs before."

I felt sad that he had never had this experience...but not for long, because I knew he would have plenty of opportunity come the weekend. 

We were right in the path for the Blizzard of 2013, aka Winter Storm Nemo.

It has been kinda crazy the amount of extreme weather we have experienced in our short 2.5 years here on the east coast! We've had three "epic" record breaking storms. Not totally sure how I feel about this, but it has definitely heightened my awareness of Emergency Preparedness and hopefully I can put action to those lessons.

I kind of didn't believe it was going to be as crazy as they were all saying it was going to be, so I ventured to the grocery store the morning it began:

I was one of the few brave souls to do so! I don't think the I-95 has ever been so empty on a weekday at 9:30a.m.

The Utah girl inside of me really go me through this! 

 By the afternoon, this was our front yard, and by midnight, it looked like this:

 Yeah, I was too nervous to venture out into this!

This was our view in the morning.

The wind was still blowing crazy hard, so nobody started shoveling/clearing snow until about 1pm.

Luckily we have the best neighbors ever and they cleared our walks and car all on their own because Brian was out of town and not able to help.

Yeah, I'm a brave girl to handle a storm like this on my own! 

By the afternoon we had a beautiful, winter day.

I wanted to take Thad out in the snow, but with Brian gone and Thad not asking, I almost didn't bring myself to do it.

Wes decided to go down for a nap, so I pulled the snow stuff out at 5pm and we were just going to go out for a few minutes, because as you can see by his gloves that we don't have the best snow gear around...

But Christina decided after staying in all day that she wanted to play outside too!

It was so perfect and Thad LOVED playing in the snow with her.

 

He definitely got some of that snowball practice that he has been missing out on!

 Emmy hooked Thad up with some of Christina's old mittens, so he was able to stay out until dark!

They are seriously the funnest people and built snow mans and had snow ball fights with the kids while I took care of Wes. Really great people! 

Wes and I joined at the end of the outing, but couldn't stay long because of that lack of snow gear I mentioned earlier. He didn't mind.

This was his excited face when we got to come back inside!

Dad made it home that night, and we had a wonderful weekend taking it easy and being somewhat snowed in. 

February faces and fun:

Can you guess what Dad forgot to do after changing his diaper?

Wes is cool, though, he can roll with it.

Strawberries have a been a great price and Brian and Thad have been DOWNING PB&Js like no tomorrow, so homemade jam was a must. It has been so worth it!

Thad has been getting so much better pretending and playing on his own.

He hasn't had the best teacher to help him along with his imagination, but I think he is fairing just fine.

Side note: He is the sweetest big brother. He put this box of toys up to play on the table because we have told him to be careful with the tiny toys around Wes, and he doesn't want him to get hurt. It seriously melted my heart when he told me that. I love him so much. Wes is one lucky boy to have Thad as his big brother.

Thad has also picked up his interest in photography again lately. 

I hope you enjoy his talent as much as we do!

And this is one day when I didn't want to wake up.

Like I said, he is getting very good at entertaining himself!