Birthday Boy

My baby boy turned 7! For the longest time Benjamin has requested all of his parties to be John Deere themed. Out of the blue he asked for a Mario Kart party. I was excited about a whole new theme to work with because I am just a little burnt out on tractors.

The kids did a "coin battle" in the backyard competing on who could find the most gold coins. Afterwards, they broke up into two teams and had a Mario Kart tournament complete with hats and moustaches. We had pizza of course and "Mega Mushroom" cupcakes. It was a lot of fun doing something different.

Easter

Easter week was so busy. It was my brother's year to host, we alternate, so at least I didn't have to do the crazy clean the house from top to bottom. Nonetheless, I still squeezed in lots of baking and of course sugar cookies. And since it was Easter, I did carrot shaped for the Easter bunny. They are so fun to eat because the kids joke they are eating their veggies. I was also able to bake some Challah bread and I decided to try a six braid which was insane. I had to watch a YouTube video simultaneously to get the braid sequence right.

If you have been around my family for Easter you know that shish kabob (and grits) is on the menu. My brother Paul did a fantastic job and I think it was one of his best. Check out the photo, doesn't it look yummy!

I didn't get a good photo of Grace in her Easter dress since we were a little hurried getting to church. The one I have of all three kids is a little squinty, they hate for the sun to be in their face for photos, oh well. They looked really cute though.

The baskets were a big hit and the kids had a nutritious breakfast that morning...chocolate bunnies of course. Later that day for the egg hunt, which was our largest yet. Lot's of cousins and extended family this year. Benjamin built his basket out of Rokenbok parts, he is unbelievable in the things he can build. Grace had a great time finding eggs and wanted to open each one as she found them. Josh didn't mess around and was smart to follow behind Grace to pick up all the eggs that would fall out of her basket each time she bent down to pick up a new egg. It was a fun day and the kids were able to finish it off with a Gator ride with Uncle Paul.

Mickey's house

Just one more post to catch up and then I can get to Easter.

We had been trying to take the kids to Disney all winter and either illness, weather or work managed to interfere. Our chance finally came at the end of March, Larry and I decided to make it a surprise and didn't tell the kids where we were going that day. After a leisurely breakfast at "The Barrel", that's code for Cracker Barrel at our house, off we went. We knew going in that Josh would be very excited at every sight he saw and was. Benjamin would take some convincing. If we lived close to Lego land this would not be an issue. But for some reason my oldest son thinks that unless tractors or some type of construction equipment is involved, it's boring. I am so glad the monorail was his first encounter otherwise it would have been downhill from there. We sat up front with the driver and "the magic" began.

I was expecting to do the "cheerio dance" with Grace all day. You know whipping out snacks and toys to distract her. Instead she was so content to be in her stroller all day and watch everything around her. She even took a long nap! It was endearing going on the rides with my kids that I had enjoyed at their age, definitely a full circle moment.

Class trip

Benjamin had his class trip to the zoo and I went along to chaperon. I got to sit next to the cutest boy (Benjamin) on the bus! We held hands and he told me stories and we had the best time just the two of us. Our group teamed up with Benjamin's best friend Steven and his mom's group. The kids had a great time and we saw an alligator who came when called. One of the zoo staff called out to the gator in the enclosure "hey gator!, gator come here". After a few minutes, I think he had to wake up, the gator turned and swam over to where the guy had called from. The kids were amazed to see this creature so up close. The purpose of calling him over was so that the sculptor who was working on this beautiful piece at the zoo entrance could see the detail in the gator's face.

Howdy ya'll!

Josh's friend Laine had her 5th birthday party and it was a teddy bear party. All the guest brought their bears and Laine's mom made some really cute bear cupcakes that were yummy. The big surprise was pony rides in the park. The kids were excited, except for Grace who did not want any where near the ponies, there were two. Josh had a great time.

North Carolina

A while back we took a long weekend to North Carolina with our friends Cyndi and George and their two children who are close in age to Benjamin and Josh. It is really rare for us to travel by plane so the kids were excited to be flying with their friends. This was shortly after the Hudson river landing so planning for our trip included lots of conversations with Benjamin about bird strikes. He was so engrossed with this so much that at the airport gift shop he picked out a toy plane, but not any plane. He purposefully picked the US Air plane because that's what Capt. Sully flies.

Our hopes were to have a very snowy weekend but unfortunately it wasn't to be. Our solution was to hit Tube World for some man made snow tubing. The kids were excited to play in the snow and barrel down the hill on their inner tubes.

My parents have been working on an addition to their mountain home and it was so nice to be able to put four kids in the bunkroom and it gave us a lot more space without tripping over Rokenbok or Lego's. Trust me this was a big deal.

During the day we took walks and did bonfires and roasted marshmallows at night. Despite the lack of snow it was a fun time and many lasting memories.

Tractor Pull

Ok, I know I have a lot of catching up to do so here it goes.

We made this a total surprise and didn't tell Benjamin and Josh where we were going that night. The look on their faces was awsome when they saw all the tractors. Larry and I knew the night would be a big hit despite the chilly weather. If you asked the boys what was their favorite thing they saw they said, "all the smoke coming out of the tractors" and they loved it when they "popped wheelies" at the end of the pull. There was even a kiddie tractor pull for the kids where they got to peddle a tractor hooked up to a sled just like the big guys. This was good practice for them. When we head to Ohio this summer there is a "Thresher mans Show", more on this later, which has a really large well organized kiddie pull that we are looking forward to. It was the perfect boys night out.