Benjamin's 5th Birthday

This guy with his squirrel cheeks and sweet smile turned 5 on Sunday! He is my emotional guy. He is quick to cry but he is also quick to smile. He is definitely the quickest to laugh in this family (especially at movies) and he loves to make others laugh. He thinks that he is SO "hilarious" (his word- not mine). One of his favorite things to do is play with his siblings, he says that Steven is his best friend. He is such a good brother and he is probably the best at sharing in this family. He loves drawing and sometimes gets upset when we have to run errands because he doesn't want to stop making his pictures. He is also a huge fan of Minecraft I love this kid and as excited as I am for him to start Kindergarten in the Fall, it also makes me sad because he has been my little buddy for SO long! 

Ben requested to see a movie for his birthday so we went and saw the movie "Home" Friday night. I took both Ben and Steven. I loved hearing Ben's little giggle throughout the movie. The boys favorite part was when the alien says, "My hands are in the air like I just do not care"- they are still laughing over that one. I have to say that I really enjoyed the movie too. It was a sweet movie about family, and friendship. Here's some horrible quality pictures I took while we were waiting for the movie to start: 

Saturday morning we were going to go on Easter Egg Hunt at a nearby park (another request of Benny's) but Tyler and I both woke up with headaches and it was super cold outside and were just not wanting to go. So instead we convinced the boys that going to an indoor play place would be way more fun. They were easily convinced (especially since Ben had just asked the day before if we could go there). The kids had lots of fun, they especially loved the costumes. 

We spent Saturday afternoon in the kitchen, Tyler decorating Ben's cake and me making treats for a Primary Teacher Training. By dinner time we had finished our kitchen chores and it was off to Chili's for Ben's birthday dinner. The food was yummy and the kids actually all behaved perfectly. The only negative thing was that they told us they no longer sing for birthdays which is lame since that is the fun part about going out to dinner for your birthday. But anyways, here's a cute picture of the birthday boy and his daddy:

After dinner, we came home and partook of Tyler's cake masterpiece. Once again he did an AWESOME job:

Ben had a hard time blowing out the candles- he was way too far away and didn't realize he needed to be closer to get them out. It took him about 4 tries before he finally blew them all out. After he got them all out it was present time. He got Minecraft "guys" from the Hatch Grandparents, a Minecraft Lego set from the Brady Grandparents and a small indoor trampoline from us (a way to get the energy out when it's FREEZING outside):

I'm glad that we were able to have lots of fun celebrating his birthday Friday and Saturday since his real birthday, Sunday, was pretty busy with church stuff and pretty lame for him. Happy Birthday Benny Boy!

March Happenings

I forgot to mention last week that this is happening:

We have definitely outgrown our little round table now that Penelope is "eating"(aka playing with food). So I am super ready for this table to be built so we can all have a little more space at the table. And maybe *gasp* we can even have people come over and eat with us!

This also happened last week:

Miss Lucy got stuck trying to get out of the boy's bunk bed. Me being the wonderful mom that I am, had to snap a picture before saving her.

In other news.... 

The kids got a box full of awesome things from Grams and Poppy Brady:

They especially loved the LEGO shaped soap and refuse to actually use it. They are not to keen on the idea of the soap "melting" in water. 

PS: While we're looking at Lucy's cute face, one of my favorite things she says as of late is, "WHY YOU DOING THAT!?" The other day I asked her if she wanted me to kiss her owie and she said, "No kiss!" So of course I did anyways. Then she shouted at me "WHY YOU DOING THAT!?"

And still on the subject of Lucy, Benny was trying on Steven's old dress shirts and, of course, she had to try one on too(the Jamaican hat is just an added bonus): 

The next day Ben decided to pull a Lucy and when she wore one of her dress up skirts, he had to wear one too. I was going to take a picture but he got self conscious and pulled it off before I could snap it. So then, of course, Lucy took off hers too. But somehow, in the end, I still got this super sweet picture: 

And while you're looking at Ben's sweet face, his favorite new word (as of this week) is "hilarious." It's quite "hilarious" when he tells you that you are "hilarious." And I am pretty excited that he finally has a favorite new word that is not a potty word. Hip, hip hooray! 

And lastly, this girl:

She is my little cuddle bug who still refuses to sleep through the night. It really is my own fault. I think all my will power was used up on the other children and I can no longer stand to hear a child cry at night. So no cry it out method has been used yet, not really. Unless letting her cry for 15 minutes every once in awhile counts? But...regardless, I am tired. Oh I am always soooo tired. And I have lost all willpower to be productive in the afternoons because that's when the tired really hits. BUT she is 98% likely my last baby and I know that someday she will sleep through the night. So for now, I just try to think about that and I will just try to enjoy the late night snuggles because someday they will end. And that, my friends, is a really bittersweet fact.

PS: Some more rambling thoughts here, but as of late, I'm really starting to feel homey here in Michigan. Why you ask? Well me and my neighbor have decided we'll go walking every Monday night after the kids are in bed and that is really nice. Tyler and I had a fun game night with some couples in the ward and good times were had (we played a game that is like telephone with drawings, "termites" turned into "fart of death" turned into "murderer"). I love our babysitter, she's all teenagery but in a cool way (did I tell you about the time she gave me money back because she said that I was paying her too much). I am currently making a new friend in the Ward who is totally weird like me. And... I don't know. The trees, the squirrels, the yummy bakery shop, all of Steven's friends who live in our neighborhood...All these things seem good because they are good. And maybe, just maybe we could buy a house here. Maybe...As long as I can forget about Winter, and the mice, and being far away from family and well, Winter...

Sweet Things

My kids fight. Oh boy can they fight! But sometimes they do things that are just so sweet that I feel like I deserve some sort of medal for being such an awesome mother to raise such wonderful kids. We had a couple of those moments this month.

First Moment: Last week Steven's school had a Book Fair. He asked me for some money to buy some books but I didn't have any cash so he decided to bring some of his own money instead. Then **USING HIS OWN MONEY** he bought Benny a Minecraft Book- just 'cause he's nice like that:

Second Moment: After a long Primary Meeting we came home and it was nap time for Lucy. Benny and Lucy headed upstairs before me and when I got up there, Benny told me that he was going to read to Lucy. Of course, he can't really read but it was still pretty cute. He even walked her over to the bed and then helped me sing her a song:

And while we are talking about sweet things. On Monday the weather was in the 60's. Of course the next day we had some seriously cold wind and were back in the 20's and 30's but that is just life here in Michigan. I was just happy for the blessedly warm Monday that we got and that the kids and I were able to go outside without winter coats, be weirdos and play in mud:

Tuesday was St.Patrick's Day. We started our day with our traditional Lucky Charms and green milk, then made some green Rice Krispie Treats in the afternoon and ended our day by making a rainbow with skittles:

And we'll end this post with a super unflattering picture of Penelope and her vampire fang that she is growing:

The Great Wolf Lodge

On Monday morning we drove up to Traverse City where we spent the night at The Great Wolf Lodge. There was no holiday, no breaks from school then- there was just me wanting to get away for a bit and spend some time as a family. It was a good choice on my part. The Great Wolf Lodge is so perfect for little kids and the water park there helped me pretend like it was summer for a bit.

When we first arrived, they gave the kids wolf ears so, of course, I had to take pictures to document how cute they looked with them on:

After picture taking, we immediately headed to the water park. Lucy loved the toddler area and so I spent most of my time with her and Penny there. She even got brave and went on the little water slides they had in that area- they were super fast slides! 

Eventually Penny had too much fun in the water and passed out:

While I spent most of my time with the girls, Tyler spent his time chasing around the boys. They went in the big pool, played in a splash fort, floated (around the lazy river, crossed a pool on lily pads, and went on some big kids slides. And by "they" I really mean "Steven." Ben got freaked out by the deep water and the big slides and pretty much everything and ended up just following Steven around- so lame. Yet somehow Ben still had a blast and wanted to go back the next morning....

After our water fun, we had some dinner at Camp Critter Bar & Grille. It had a fun forest like atmosphere (talking animals and twinkling stars included) and the food was delicious, I especially liked the Fruit & Fruit Dip appetizer.

Penny liked the fruit too (she ate some strawberries in her mesh thingy) but I think she especially liked the frog feet she had first:

After dinner the kids got into their jammies which led to another wolf ear photo opt...

...And then they went to see the Clock Show (which had some songs that Lucy enjoyed shaking her fist too) and then it was Story Time (where a book that did not really hold there attention was shared). They were joined after Story Time by Rachel Raccoon, whom Lucy was totally enthralled by. She immediately wanted to give this Raccoon hugs and couldn't stop looking at her, not even for a picture (however she felt completely opposite towards Wiley Wolf who showed up the next morning- she DID NOT want to hug him):

The next morning the kids were up at their usual early time but the water park didn't open until 10 so we decided to buy a wand and play Magiquest. I am not a fan of Magiquest but the boys seemed to like it. It involves a handful of quests, each quest requires certain items- you collect these items by finding them and then waving your wand at them. These items can move and/or talk  when you wave your want at them. Really fun in theory and honestly, probably fun for the kids but I wasn't a fan of all the back and forth walking and all the waiting for elevators (since Penny was in a stroller we couldn't just take the stairs and there were only 2 elevators in the hotel).

After doing Magiquest for an hour it was time to hit up the water park again:

After getting their fill of the water park we had lunch and then stopped by Bear Paw Sweets for dessert. I LOVE Lucy's chocolaty teeth in the first picture:

Next we did some bowling at Ten Paw Alley. It had shorter lanes, small bowling balls and was overall the best bowling alley for little kids ever. They had too much fun:

We ended our stay by doing some more Magiquests (yeah.) and then headed back into the cold to go home....

March

The days are much quieter without Grams here. We sure are missing her! On Monday the weather turned warm (and by warm I mean in the 20's with no windchill) so we walked to the bakery where I got an orange muffin that I am totally addicted to and Benny and Lucy shared a snowman cookie. On Tuesday the weather returned to cold and awful and we got more snow. I decided to brave driving in the snow and took the kids to the library. Not the best decision I've ever made. Even though the library is just down the street, I swear it took a million years and lots of life threatening situations to get there. Once we got there, we were then greeted by freezing rain which is akin to being pelted by little rocks. Super fun. Have I mentioned how over winter I am?

On Wednesday I attempted to feed Penelope big people food since she doesn't seem interested in the blended stuff:

She seemed to enjoy eating the banana that was inside the mesh thingy but really only for Wednesday. After Wednesday she seemed to act like she was SO over bananas. I've also tried apple slices and carrots which she gnaws on with her two bottom teeth but they get to slippery and she gets tired of picking them up. Teething biscuits seemed like a hit at first as well but then she decided to start gagging and choking on them so they are now off the table. So, what DOES she like to eat still? French fries and pizza crust- that's my girl!

On Thursday Ben decided to give me a break from coloring on the walls and instead colored some angry eyebrows on himself:

He also managed to stick gum all over one of his new pairs of pants this week. This boy is such trouble. I can't wait for him to start Kindergarten- only 6 more months!

Thursday night (and pretty much every night that Penelope takes a bath) Lucy jumped into the baby tub with her sister. I love the Penny just puts up with her in there. I hope these 2 will be besties:

And Friday night Steven went over to a friend's house. This friend is in his class and lives just 2 houses down. I'm embarrassed to say that after a year of living here, this was the first time we officially met this friend. But I am glad the whole "ice breaker" part is finally over and he now has yet another friend to play with in this neighborhood. That makes a grand total of 3 people on our street that are in his classroom- and those are just the ones we know of! We were so blessed to be led to this home where we are surrounded by lots of great friends!