Surprise!

So it's no secret that I love to celebrate. Birthdays, holidays, Fridays, Tyler writing his name perfectly, a clean house, running on the treadmill without passing out-or falling off-, completing 7 loads of laundry(which includes folding and putting away) in one day, staying alive-and happy-through yet another Logan winter, getting crayon off the wall-and windows, making a new blog post, showering before 9 am, feeding my kids 3 balanced meals in one day, etc. I can pretty much think of an excuse for everything that happens in my life as an opportunity to celebrate. :) I mean seriously, can you have too many bowls of ice-cream or pairs of shoes?? Thank you ladies.

So you might imagine that Bobby and I sort of hit a rough spot when he chooses not to celebrate many of things I like to, such as...birthdays, or anniversary's, or my clean kitchen sink. Over the last 6 1/2 years of our journey of love I've come to understand that this is just who he is and so no longer get my hopes up for anything more than a Napoleon dynamite card with ONE 1 dollar bill inside for any gift giving occasion. No, he didn't! you say. Yes he did. He seriously did that for my birthday the year that I was DOG DOG sick while pregnant with Tyler. Needless to say my sense of humor has greatly improved over the last 7 years. But for all the gift-giving handicaps he has he greatly makes up for it when he does things like this:
"Surprise! I just thought you might like a new purse." he says. Uh might?!


We had gone to the mall so I could buy some jeans for Kylee, so he took the kids over to the play place so I could shop without having to refold the entire kids spring collection line and pick up 37 bottles of nail polish off the floor while praying that none of them are broken. (are my kids the only ones that are strangable in a store?!?) When I walked back to the play place the kids handed me a huge bag and said, "Surprise!" I haven't hinted, talked about or asked for a new purse since the one he got me 2 Valentines ago (where I picked it out). I love that it's not a purse I would typically buy myself (it's a soft charcoal grey with dark purple lining-which are my 2 favorite colors right now) and that I had no clue!


He said, "When we were walking past the purses I thought, Angela might really like a new purse since her's is melted on one corner-dont ask- and is starting to fray around the edges. So when you left I took the kids back and gave them 3 to choose from and that's the one they chose." I think I've decided that surprise gifts are greatly better than birthday, anniversary or expected holiday gifts. Not that it would hurt to be remembered then too :). It's so much fun to be surprised on a random day, at a random time and it literally made my week!

If there are any guys reading this right now, go buy your wife flowers! Right now! She deserves them becaues she did the dishes today, or picked up your dirty laundry (which includes towels) off the floor, or gave birth to your children, or made you dinner, or broke up more fights than you had conversations today, or if nothing else...because she said yes when you asked her to marry you and you love her. Just because are the two most perfect words in the English language and I promise...you won't be disappointed if you use them.

A Mercado A Mercado

Google translate tells me this means "To Market To Market" in Spanish (I would've asked bobby if this was right but he's at work.) which is the name of the BOOK Bobby reads to the kids every night before bed. Every night for 6 weeks to be exact. Which is sorta a problem since it's a library book and we've re-checked it out twice now. How many times do they let you re-check out books?? Guess we'll find out because the kids LOVE this book. Bobby reads it to them once in spanish and then once in english and they think it is HIGH-LAR-E-OUS when he reads it in Spanish. I love when Kylee tells him, "NO dad in Spaaaanishhhh now!" It's awesome because they're picking up a few spanish words (he's not home enough to actually teach them spanish-which I would love- and my 8th grade spanish vocabulary is muy limitado...yep had to google translate that too...so for now it's just reading books.) this is only bad on nights that Bobby's not home and Kylee has a meltdown because I can't read it to her in Spanish.

*These pics are from Jan. before the obsession with To Market To Market. Then it was Clifford's Big Tricks


Our usual nightly routine used to consist of family scriptures, prayer and brushing teeth together and then I would read each of the kids a book in their own room, sing them some songs and then put them to bed. This turned our bedtimes into a 30-45 min process which was frustrating for me because by the time it's bedtime I am ready for them to be IN bed! After a year of doing it this way and me being...well me, Bobby jumped in to help out by reading them a story together after brushing teeth so now I just have to sing to each of them after. Seriously cuts our bedtime routine in half! Hallelujah for a helpful husband! And honestly I love our night family time where we all pile up on Tyler's bed with the kids on my lap and Bobby reading to them. I think there's something especially sweet about a dad reading to his kids. (shhh...don't tell Bobby)

And I'm usually right there between those two smiling faces!


Okay dads go read to your kids!

The Naughty Spot

This would be the appropriate emotion one would feel when they've been sent to time out...


Not so sure Kylee gets the point...

A Spiderific day!

Since Spiderman decorations and party supplies are ridiculously expensive I wanted to make pretty much everything for Tyler's party myself. I attempted to make the NYC skyline-using my cricut to cut out shapes to make the buildings-that I then glued on a poster-board and hung on the wall.


I just printed off a couple spiderman images I found through google and put them on the poster and a few throughout the front room.










Made a couple words on poster-board to fill in some white space.


The only thing I bought-this spiderman poster-that Tyler is currently obsessed with! One of the best 5 bucks I've ever spent. :)


I hung up a spiderweb made from crepe paper and put up a few of the ping-pong spiders I made at Halloween.


Outside I was hoping to put up some signs (similar to the dinosaur ones we had up for his party last year) that said, "No Villans allowed", etc. and make a big spiderweb that stretched between the 2 pillars, BUT it snowed LOTS every day for days before his party and we weren't sure what the weather would be the day of the party so I opted not to make anything to go outside (except for a few red, black and blue balloons). It turned out that it didn't snow the day of but this is the pile we had in our yard. (which was later turned into a snow cave!)




I made the party favor bags which said, "Thanks for swinging on over to my party." Inside there was spiderman fruit snacks, pop rocks, a spiderman 'magic' towel, a silly straw and a party popper (those things where you pull the string and it makes a bang and confetti explodes-which by the way-Bobby popped one right behind me and I screamed fairly high pitchedly while jumping so high I think I pulled something when I landed. It was the highlight of Bobby's day. Ugh.).


The party was in the middle of the afternoon so we just did Cake and Green Goblin punch-Lemon lime soda and lime sorbet.


Bobby was super busy with school the week before so I did everything except for the cake. I gave him full responsibility for designing it, baking it and creating it.


I think he did a pretty awesome job! And Kylee had 3 pieces-which if you know Kylee is A LOT.


Tyler was STOKED when we surprised him with a spiderman costume to wear to his party the morning of. (Thanks to our friend Lindsey for letting us borrow it!!!)


We started out by having the kids make superhero masks while we waited for everyone to arrive. (PS I cant wait till we can get a full size table so we can do stuff like this on a table instead of the floor! ha ha)


Cute Macey and Mindy




The first game we played was the Web walk. Like a cake walk, but I made webs for the kids to walk on during the game and numbered each one 1, 2, or 3. When the music stopped I would call one of the numbers and whoever was standing on that number would get a prize.


Everybody walking and silly Macey just dancing in the middle. Her and Kylee didn't quite get the hang of the game. :)


They loved the webslinger that was their first prize. (strips of yarn hot glued to the tips of each finger on a glove. They put their hand in the glove and then ball up the yarn in their palm and then sling their web!)




The next game was the Spiderman Super Powers test. First we tested their spidey vision...


...using pictures like this:


and this:


and this...

I took pictures of 15 random objects throughout my house upclose and had them guess what they were and then would reveal the actual object. The ones above were some of the harder ones. Can you guess them?

Next we tested their spidey hearing by playing short clips of different sounds (train, helicopter, brushing teeth, etc.) and had them guess what they were.


I was also going to test their spidey taste (blindfold them and have them taste different foods) but the party was only an hour and half so I decided to cut this one due to time.

The last game we played was pin the spider on the web. Lindsey blindfolded them, Bobby handed them their spiders...


...and I led them to the web.


Some of them got it SO close to the center of the web! I was seriously impressed! The prize for the winner was a spiderman book.


I had also planned on doing the game: Web wrap (put them in teams of 3 or 4 and give each team a roll of toilet paper. The team chooses one child to wrap in TP and the first team done wins) but ran out of time so it didn't happen, but I think the boys really would have liked this!

Next was cake...


Which, as previously mentioned, Kylee loved.


And then on to presents!






Such a fun group of kids! L-R
Seth, Logan, Luke (Tyler's BF), McKensie, Paul, Kate, Jake, Tyler, Emma, Macey, Finlee (Kylee was getting cleaned up from cake)


I think I'm starting to get the hang of this boy thing. I see many more "hero" parties in our future!


P.S. answers to the above pictures :) :
#1-eggs
#2-carrot
#3-balloon

Remembering...

...that there was a time you were oh so small.


And learning to face the fact that-as you constantly remind me-"I just have to keep growin' up mom!"


I don't know why I love the 'first moment you wake up birthday picture' but I do. Especially cause I would die if there was ever one posted of me.


It was a rushed morning of frozen waffles and milk and off to take Bobby to work (he has to be there by 8) and then home to put clothes on (like real clothes v. pajamas...come on ppl don't be silly) and then off to take Tyler to pre-school. Then Kylee and I went to pick up some Balloons and some very last minute birthday things (I've been so concentrated on his party-which isn't till next weekend-that I sort of forgot I should probably do something the day OF his bday-being that he's 4 and doesn't really grasp the concept of what a week is.) Anyhow we were a little last minute on thur. but threw together a nice little day I think!

I left the balloons and big bouncy ball in his car seat so when we picked him up from pre-school he would get them and he was SO excited. Something about balloons makes this kids heart beat 1000 times faster. Then it was home for a bday lunch of pb&j balloon sandwiches (I know...I got skills) and a nap for Kylee. Tyler didn't have to have his quiet time that day and got to watch a movie on the computer instead (which he about died and went to heaven when I told him that he didn't have to have a rest that day. ha ha). I had told him for awhile that I would take him and Kylee to see a movie on his bday and I was hoping that Tangled would be in the dollar theater by then, but no such luck so we went and saw Megamind instead (which he's seen before and thinks is hilarious).

It was nice to have the whole theater to ourselves though!


After the movie, we picked Bobby up from work and headed to the good ole' McD's where Mindy, Royce and Macey met up with us for some birthday dinner-Tyler's choice. Lucky friends we have huh? Then we all came back to our house to eat some cake and open presents from the fam.


I made 2 mistakes that day. 1-Buying confetti to spread all over the table and 2-passing out those annoying noise-maker blow things kids love. Tyler learned from a certain adult member in attendance that he could use his noise-maker to blow the confetti Every. Where. And it may or may not have gotten all over the cake. I'm just sayin...choose your friends wisely. :)


Then we sang a little Happy Birthday...


Blew out a candle...


And he was Officially FOUR!


Right as we were opening presents some neighbor kids from down the street came over to bring Tyler a gift which was really sweet and Tyler has been using his new bat all throughout the house. Wonderful. Needless to say we are eagerly searching for a TBall team!


Knowing his grandma gives him the BEST gifts he was so excited to see what was inside!


A talking Woody of course! (He's had Buzz for awhile and ever since Toy Story 3 came out he's been wanting woody, bullseye and Jessie too)


Dad got him a nerf gun. There are dart bullet things (ammo? whatev.) all over my house. The first thing in the morning Tyler comes running in shooting his gun everywhere. Fun.


I got him Bullseye.


And Kylee gave him a 2 sided dinosaur puzzle.

He is SOOOO into puzzles right now. He has over 10 puzzles and can do them all in a heartbeat, so I'm constantly trying to find new ones that will challenge him!

The Ellets brought him a cool spiderman figure riding a motorcycle(his other passion right now-spiderman. That's what his party is going to be) but I didn't get a picture cause I was answering the door when he opened it, but trust me he was E.X.C.I.T.E.D.


The winner of the night? Woody. He played with him all night and has not let him out of his sight for the past 2 days.




Happy Birthday little boy, I'm so excited to watch all your dreams come true.


Oh P.S. I edit my pics in PICNIK. Super easy, free and so so fun.