January 2013

Early in January we enjoyed a fun trip to see the Zoo Lights with really good friends of ours.

 

This above giraffe is a 'fake' giraffe that with a real person that hides behind a fence and talks to the children. It is a huge hit. MY son however decided to argue with it and kept shouting out it wasn't real (no, he doesn't believe in santa clause, easter bunny or tooth fairy. He is a very black & white child and needs to see it to believe it). After we had a talk with him about not wrecking it for others just because you know something isn't real. He explained to us that he HAD to keep telling the giraffe that as the giraffe thought it was real!

 

 

 

Benjamin now has a partner who loves to dress up too and jump/fly around all over the house.  

 

 

January 2013 - Benjamin turns 6

Once again it's blog catch up time. I do this blog to keep my far away family up to date, and as a way for me to keep track of what my kids have been up to over the years. But sometimes I wonder how much longer I will keep trying to update this as it is getting harder & harder to find time!! Benjamin keeps us very busy and I'm sure once Mae is older her activities will increase too. Right now Ben goes to walk-jog-run club after school on Mondays, Tuesday it's swim lessons (for him and Mae), Wednesdays it's Awanas, Thursdays it's gymnastics, Friday we have OFF then Saturday AM it's soccer and Sundays church! And after all those weekday activities we also get to squish in homework! Luckily he is excelling at school in term of academics so homework doesn't take too long. He is already reading chapter books (with pictures), is doing double & triple digit addition and some multiplication. The reading is awesome as he reads to his sis in the car for us when we go places and now if he wants to play any video games on the weekend or watch a show - he has to read the equivalent minutes first! Anyways, this post is to be about his long ago birthday party.

This years theme was a spy party. Benjamin and I discuss his themes and what he thinks would be fun to do. It makes my planning a little easier having such a creative child and it's a lot of fun getting him involved with the idea planning.

When the children showed up, they were instantly given their disguises (mustache) and were fingerprinted for their ID cards - with their spy names. Benjamin created these names and also made sure to tell each spy what his power was :) Some names were obvious (Super smash, invisible man, super speed), others required more thinking (Speed Head could take his head off and throw it at his targets, I don't remember what Rip Ripper could do).

 

 

Once all had arrived, I sat them down and informed them that we would be going through spy training. Once they were adequately trained, they would be given their mission and the items required to complete this mission.

Training session #1: Learning to pass secret messages. We all sat in a circle and whispered a 'message' around the circle. Took them about 3 times to master this.

Training session #2: Learning to freeze like a spy. This is also known as freeze dance with spy music :)

 

 Training session #3: Locate objects. They were given a grid of 9 items and they had to find each of these ...by digging through a large container of jello. Once their sheet was filled, they brought it to me where I gave them a piece of paper with a #  and 1 or 2 words.

Training session #4: Solve secret messages. The boys had to work together and put all of their pieces of paper in numerical order which then gave them a clue "Mission: Stop the the bombs (pop the balloons)". They ran through the house finding all of our black decoration balloons and proceeded to pop them. Some of them had another paper with words and a # on it. So at the end of that....they again put their words together which gave them a clue and ended up leading them to the laundry room where they found their spy gear needed for their final mission.

 

 Each child was given a manilla "Top Secret" envelope which contained a PVC marshmallow shooter, a bag of marshmallows, fake spy glasses and other items I am completely blanking on right now (this is what happens when the blog is written 3months late!). We had stickers for them to decorate their shooters with then they were sent into the backyard to shoot the bad guys (each other).

Finally it was lunch, cake time (cake pops I made as little bombs), gifts and then pinata time (I had made a black bomb pinata with the word BOOM on it).

 

 As you can guess - Benjamin loved his party once again!

Christmas 2012

We finally succeeded in attending a Christmas Eve Service at our church! We just had to attend it 2 days before Christmas (Sunday), in the morning :)  Here is Mae all ready to go:

  Opening up a couple gifts Christmas Eve:

Grandma made the kids their own 'letters' books filled with pictures of them and all our extended family. The kids loved them!!

 

 Christmas Morning opening stockings:

 Ben wasn't so sure about the socks above but he definitely loved the sklyanders!!

Skylanders were his only request for Christmas and he almost didn't get them as he kept calling them battlemodes and we had no idea what they were! Once we discovered what he was talking about it was getting too close to Christmas and all the deals were done and there was no way I was paying full price when I had seen how cheap I could purchase them :) He was told to prepare himself as he wasn't going to be getting them but he refused to believe us. Luckily for him - a week before I found the game at 50% off.

Mae found Christmas a little stressful. She enjoyed her gifts but after opening a couple she didn't want to touch anymore and just wanted to play with her baby - and steal her brothers stuff :)

 Mae LOVED her gift from her brother. He gave her 1 of his pet shop toys he used to treasure.

December 2012

Mae is no longer allowed to feed herself yogurt, which does disappoint Maully:

The color around her mouth is the result of her eating her new bathtub crayons.

 

 

When we grew up Saturday mornings equaled cartoons. For our kids they want to play our electronics :)

 

Playdate over the holidays:

 

 Christmas baking time! Mae didn't last too long as once she realized she could eat what we were 'painting' she had to be removed before she ate all our cookies.

November 2012

Kids helping me go through the fliers for black friday shopping. Benjamin was having a wonderful time circling his wish list.

Mae being Mae.

October 2012

Yes there are more pictures of Mae than Benjamin in this post. That is not because we are showing favorites - it is because Benjamin is constantly refusing to have his picture taken!

 

Benjamin loves his puzzles! When we were in California for the summer, we would wake up to find him already in the kitchen 1/2 way done 1 of the 100 piece puzzles we brought for him.

 

The above is for crazy hair day at Awanas. I have discovered the perfect way to dye his hair is to mix koolaid in gel, then place into his hair. He is loving going to Awanas this year. And i can't get over all the memory verses he easily crams into that head of his - for sunday school and awanas!

 

 

 

 

A classic shot of our potty training days:

 

That is 1 of my PJ shirts Mae has put herself into below. I am constantly finding her wanting to put on my clothing.

 Notice the toothbrush below - similar to our August post. Mae still gets into the bathroom to steal toothbrushes to chew on (or eat the toothpaste).

Yup, our girl is quite styling.

We really have an amazing dog. She never ever snaps at our children - and they put her through a lot. Mae just adores sitting on her (and often bouncing as sitting). Maully will grunt, and yelp with the bouncing so we know to come running and get Mae off her, and that is it. Now that Benjamin is older she is even starting to listen to his commands for doing her tricks.

  

Yes our kids are wearing the exact same outfit as last year for Halloween. Mae it was not by choice :) Benjamin has a ton of dressup outfits but it's the pirate he constantly wants for halloween!