Birthday Boy!

My little mister is 4! Gosh that makes me feel older. He couldn’t be happier! It dawned on me the other day that I have two kids. I’m a mom. I’m probably not cool anymore, like I ever really was. I know I should have realized this sooner. It’s not that I didn’t know, but the other day it just hit me like a earthquake, well maybe a tremor. But I love it. I love them.

So, this little guy had a little party over the weekend. We went with the Spiderman theme, even though he changed his mind a million and one times. He loves Spiderman.

 

  

  

In my effort to coordinate all things in life… we played drop the spider in the jar, musical webs, throw the spiders in the web, and run through the spiderman obstacle course. We made our own pizzas, and drank green goblin punch. The kids didn’t actually wear their masks for more than 2 seconds, but it was something they could take home for dress up later!

I think Darin took pictures of the presents and all the kids playing, but I think everyone had a blast.  He loved every present, but the tractors were the favorites of all the party guests. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!

Side story: Luke was hanging out with Grandpa a few weeks back and he was inspecting Grandpa’s mower, it’s a Husqavarna. He turns to my dad and says matter-o-factly, “We looked at one of these. But it wasn’t good enough. We got a John Deere.” No offense Grandpa, but his Daddy grew up with  John Deere and he has passed on its superior-ness to his son! Thus Grandpa wanted to get him a John Deere tractor for his birthday and it was a great idea.

 

Last night, Anatoliy surprised him with a chocolate bear! And today he got to open a few presents from Mom and Dad…a monster truck shirt and a monster truck crash ramp, and a monster truck trailer. Did I mention he loves monster trucks too? I guess we could have done that for the theme of the party. There’s always next year! He opened his birthday cards too, and boy is he rich now! He says he can’t wait to spend his birthday money, but the boy is so indecisive it will probably take until his next birthday to decide what he wants. haha!

He got to go to lunch at McDonald’s and play with his friend Athena, who brought him a birthday surprise… a monster truck!

Luke, we love you. You are are handsome, smart, explorative, creative, sweet, and funny. You recently added some cool glasses to your look, making you look a bit older. Natalie has caught up with you in shoe size, but not quite in height. This morning you looked at your hands and you said they hadn’t grown any bigger, so you weren’t sure you were four, but don’t worry you’ll keep growing, perhaps no as tall as Daddy, but definitely taller than Mommy!

You know letters, and numbers, rhymes, and songs. You solve mysteries and make everything make sense. You love fire, dirt, and water. You give sweet kisses, and hate when the surprise in my hand is just a tickle bug. Your sweet tooth is just as strong as your mom’s, and so is your will!

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY!

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Stone Door

We’ve been blessed with a lot of great fall weather.  Today it was in the high 70s… its November… CrAzY. Last Friday we for a little hike with the kiddos. It couldn’t have been a better day.

Stone Door is a popular place to visit, but we had it all to ourselves on the way there. Here the chiclets are posing by the start of the 1 mile trip.  About 50 steps away from this sign, the whining began…”I can’t walk anymore.” “Hold me.” “I forgot to tell you my legs are tired.” So we took a little break…

Once they were thoroughly rested and totally distracted by cool bugs and trees and things we headed off.

They pretty much walked the rest of the mile, across 5 bridges, through soft sand, and over many tree roots. Nat only tripped 5 or 6 times (then I started holding her up) and then she hopped quite a bit. Did I mention how much energy she has?

WE MADE IT! Darin tried to get me to look over the edge, but I wasn’t falling for it. haha… Scared me to death though letting Luke look over.

  

Heading down the steps through Stone Door.

We had some lunch and threw rocks as far as we could.

 

Time to go. The kids had a great time and we did too!

oh, except Luke got stuck in a tree and we had to call the ranger to get him out.

just kidding.

finally talking!

My littlest chiclet has finally added words to her vocabulary, which is growing everyday.

a few I want to remember:

i-pon (iphone) also says ipad

doe eggo doe (go diego go, her favorite “show”)

mo baby app-o juice peas Mommy

s-opping Mommy, doe. bye bye (what girl doesn’t love shopping)

a lil photo opt…

tricks and lots of treats!

we celebrated big this year, of course, so big I forgot to take pics.

Here are the some I got off facebook from some guests at our party.

Darin shaved some wicked chops for his golfer costume. I was Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.

So we had a house full (30+) Saturday night for yummy food, thanks everyone for being treats to share, and lots of fun games… bobbing for apples, donuts on a string (quite a hit!), pin the wart on the witch, ghosts in the graveyard, Hal O’Ween in the coffin, pumpkin patch match, and basketball. We had great costumes, but the Whoopie Cushion won out as the favorite.  Luke was voted as the scariest costume, being a lil ghost.  His friend Abe from church came and he was ecstatic. He showed him everything he could think of, even took him outside to see the lawnmower!  Everyone loved the trick or treat pinatas too. I wish I would have taken pictures of everyone as the arrived like I had planned, but the camera sat by the door all night as I ran around this and that and whatever! Mom was an awesome pirate and Marissa surprised us as a way too sexy black cat. I’ll try and get a pic to add here.

 

Anatoliy came trick or treating with us Monday night. I really appreciated the extra hands!

Luke and Natalie just LOVED it. After every house, Luke would whisper to me, let’s go to another one! and every time we got back n the car, Natalie begged, “mo houses, mo houses.”

Here’s my lil spook and the princess (she only wore her crown half the time). They went trick or treating on Main Street, at the ward trick or treat, and around several neighborhoods, but in the end our neighborhood was our favorite.

THE HAUL!!!