Transformer Birthday Party

Since we were in Greer on Ben's birthday, we had his birthday party a week later. This is the first real birthday party I have thrown for him and I think it was a HUGE success. He chose transformer theme (well, I kind of encouraged that theme since I had obtained all the decoration and plates etc on clearance:) ). We had 4 kids show up and it was the perfect number - any more and it would have been chaos!

When the kids arrived they were greeted by a large Optimus Prime Truck. I had built it out of cardboard boxes and table cloths, with Ben (and Mae's) assistance. I was sure the party would destroy it but it turned out to be super sturdy and is STILL sitting in my front room 1 week later. Not sure what I am going to do with it as it's too cool to throw out!
We also had a table set up with a bunch of Ben's transformer toys for the kids to play with.
After everyone had arrived, our 1st activity was making our own transformer pictures. I had precut all different shapes and colors of construction paper and gave each child a glue stick and blank paper to create their transformer on. This activity was completed in about 4 minutes :)Next we did the obstacle course. Benjamin helped me with setting this up and coming up with some of the ideas for it. 1st, you had to change into flying robot mode and fly over to the 'launcher'.
There you climbed on up it and had it launch you into super speed (go down the slide), then you flew over into the large boulder (ran over to the covered back section of the climber) and shot through the black hole (the tunnels).
After you emerged from the tunnels you had to fly through the asteroid belt (hanging streamers & punching balloons) and then you landed on earth. Once there you had to hide the energon cubes (blue square jello) from the decepticons (carried it across the patio on a spoon. Once at the other side of the patio it was eaten since the best hiding spot is your stomach).
After depositing the energon carrier (the spoon), you picked up an autobot bomb (red bouncy ball with the autobot symbols all over it) to defeat the decepticons (had to knock over the cans with the decepticon pictures I had stacked up on the table).
They then received their prize for defeating the decepticons which they had to hold on to until everyone had completed the obstacle course. The prize was a can of silly string which they used to attack each other. I think THAT was the biggest hit of the party :)
After the obstacle course it was time for the birthday cake.
The kids then played some more in Optimus and once their energy started ratcheting up we headed back to the backyard for the autobot vs decepticon battle. Everyone had balloons tied around their ankles and the adults were designated the decepticons. The teams had to defeat each other by popping the other teams balloons - of course the autobots won :)
Benjamin then opened his gifts and we ended the party with a scavenger hunt for the various items in the kids loot bags. The last item they found was a little transformer for them to take home.
And Mae is not in any of these pictures - as she slept through 75% of the party :) Something Benjamin would NEVER have done at that age!

Greer

Every year we take Benjamin up into the mountains to experience snow for a day. This year was extra fun as we spent just over 24hrs there and got to spend it with good friends of ours. The 1st night we enjoyed making smores:
Nathan is reading Ben their bedtime story. The boys got to share a pull out couch for bedtime and were just ecstatic - and surprisingly didn't take THAT long to fall asleep!All ready to go sledding!
We had to drive just a little outside of Greer for the great sled hill. However, thanks to the kids getting up nice & early we were there by 9am when it was completely empty! 2hrs later there were so many people we had to wait in line to go down the various 'runs' but that was fine as we were all pretty wiped by then and didn't want to do the climb back up!


Ben is sitting in front for this next video


After spending the morning tubing we returned to the cabin for lunch and then we spent the afternoon going down the tiny hill behind the cabin (perfect size for the kids as they didn't need any adult assistance) , having snow ball fights and building snowmen.
The trip occurred right on Ben's birthday so we brought a cake and a couple gifts and celebrated it there with him. Nathan made it extra special as he kept letting Benjamin go first (down the hill in the back, saying prayer at mealtime) since it was his birthday. We had a very happy birthday boy ALL day!After a day of sledding outside in the cold, the boys ended the day with sledding inside on the stairs.
Mae is not in any of these pictures as she stayed back in warm Gilbert with Grandma :)

Grandma and Ben

This picture is just for my family. Ben's an awesome influence on Grandma!

Mae - 15 months

Mae's non stop eating has finally shown up in her weight :) My constantly hungry little girl has gained 4lbs in 3 months (although she was weighed with all her clothes and shoes on) and weighed 22lbs (25-50% ) at her 15month checkup. She measured 31.5" tall (75%). She also has all her teeth in -except for her 2year molars.
Mae is still very happy & BUSY. She is constantly on the go and climbs onto everything. She will push her toys to the wall under the window to attempt to climb onto the window ledge; we have to keep her tray on her high chair at all times as otherwise we keep turning around to find her sitting up in her chair asking for more food; we have to always keep her brothers door shut as she keeps trying to climb the ladder up to his loft bed; and her favorite spot is climbing up on the kitchen chairs to either sit and ask for more food OR if she sees something within reach on the table- to climb up onto the table.
She is also learning her words and has mastered UP (she loves to be carried, which makes me extremely grateful for my slings & ergo!), da (dog - still adores maully and just wants to be by her at all times), mama, dada, ba (ben or ball, you have to see where she's looking when she says it), rama (grandma - we've heard her calling this in the middle of the night as she knows mommy won't be coming), baba (bye - she hates to stay home. If she sees anyone headed for the garage she starts saying baba and running to leave too), and ma (more, while clapping. This 1 we hear lots if she ever spots food!).

Christmas

We stayed in AZ for Christmas this year and had a wonderful, low-key family Christmas. We ended up missing the Christmas Eve service at church as it was too full so we were turned away. (This was the 3rd year in a row our church has been packed out so if any of our LOCAL friends want to recommend their church for next year we would love to join you there!). We returned home to hot chocolate, christmas carols, reading the nativty story - and letting the kids open 1 gift each.

We never set any ground rules for Christmas morning for Ben as we figured we would just see what played out. Well he nicely slept till 7 (his usual time), and then headed out to his stockings. We were in the kitchen and when he didn't come say good morning I went to locate him - and discovered him sitting by his stockings opening them up :) Luckily he had only opened 1 item and was happy to be redirectd to the kitchen for breakfast before opening anything else. He was like that all Christmas day - happy and amazed at every single thing he got. After each item he opened he would sit there and play with it for 5-10 minutes. It made for a very slow morning but since we had no plans we let him set the pace (and luckily we had decided not to give a ton of gifts, or this may have stretched into days...). Mae didn't care much for her gifts and just preferred to go take his :) I think it was 1 of our favorite Christmas's here in AZ. When the gifts were done we spent the day playing together as a family and it made for some very happy children and parents!

Holiday Playdates

On 1 of Benjamin's days home over the holidays, we did a playdate with Pierce and met his new baby sister (a future playmate for Mae!). Benjamin had a wonderful time driving Pierce's car with him in the backyard. Mae just happily followed the boys around.

We also did a biking playdate with Jonathan. Both boys have stopped using training wheels so we let them bike to the park with us Moms (and younger siblings) trailing far behind them! I have to say I love this Arizona Christmas weather for all these playdates!

Benjamin's PreK Christmas Show

Once again I am extremely behind on the blog :) Before Christmas Ben's PreK class put on a wonderful Christmas Pageant and Benjamin had a major role!! Of course we had NO idea that he had such a big part until we saw him in it. I'm thinking this is just a sign of things to come in future years at school. He did wonderful and I'm hoping this posting of the video works - as the pictures don't do justice to his performance!


Below is Benjamin with his teacher Ms. Tina.

Batman

It was finally cold enough for Ben to wear his batman jacket. And that has resulted in lots of lots of photo sessions outside - per Ben's request.

More Mae

This next picture is the reason I can't have the dishwasher open for even a minute if Mae is around. And I definitely can't turn my back on it when it is!!