Girl Time

On Thursday I turned 28. My birthday was pretty calm and uneventful which is exactly what I wanted. I am not huge on having a big bash where all eyes are on me while I blow out candles and open presents- although I'm not gonna lie, I do like presents :) That morning, I walked Steven (& only Steven) to school which was nice. Tyler watched the other 2. Then I met Karen and Ashley for a yummy breakfast. After that I spent lots of time just chilling at home with the kids. Later I had dinner at Texas Roadhouse with my family and then Tyler showered me with gifts (as always). Just a perfectly, perfect day.

Friday is when I did the "real" partying. I went on a girl's getaway to the AZ Grand Resort in Phoenix. I went with a few women from the ward (Karen, Kristen, MaChel), with my sister-in-law Rebecca and with a few ladies from another ward (Ashley, Breanna, Kyla). We checked in and then had dinner at Claim Jumper (of course I'm the only one who can't keep her eyes open):

At dinner me and 2 other girls that had birthdays that week got a free red velvet cupcake, along with a "happy birthday" song. I loved that I got to share the moment and all eyes weren't on me. 

After dinner we hung out in the hot tub/pool where an awkward teenage boy seemed to enjoy sitting (hovering) near us a little too much- he later became known as "The Creeper." Then we stayed up late playing some fun games- one of which I almost won and one of which I lost horribly. As the loser I was supposed to go jump in the fountain in front of the hotel, some of the women even offered to hoist me up there- but you know that was not really going to happen with lame ol' me ;)

The next day I slept in until 9am (unlike the girls in the other room who woke up at 6am). After getting ready Rebekka & I went and had some Jamba Juice, then we went back to the resort where we hung out in the Lazy River with everyone--- and once again we came in contact with "The Creeper." He was several tubes behind us but I was sure he was going to pop up like a fish at any moment in a nearby tube.

After getting our fill of the Lazy River, Rebecca and I parted ways with the rest of them and did some major shopping at Az Mills Malls. I LOVE shopping without kids and Rebecca was a good shopping buddy. About dinner time we headed home, back to our responsibilities :( But at least are responsibilities are super cute ;)

And Sunday Tyler insisted we do the birthday cake thing at his parent's house--- although he didn't tell anyone about it and he didn't make me my much desired "Despicable Me" Minion cake. So...it was pretty lame, which is ok I suppose. However, he did almost set the house on fire by insisting on lighting all 28 candles. Man my cakes are getting bright! And we did discover that Lucy is going to have fun when she turns one- that girl kept trying to smash into that cake. 

And that concludes the celebrating of me :)

Tyler Turns 30

Oh my husband is all grown up & 30 now! It's so nice to be the younger one, I still have 2 more years in my 20's- ha! 

Anyhow, I had high ambitions for his birthday week but due to my previously discussed sickness and a really awful backache that came to pass this week, they were sort of ruined. Forest fires didn't help my plans either. We were going to go camping & shooting- sans kids- Friday night through Saturday night. But it didn't happen. Instead we got to hang out at our house - sans kids- and actually it was still pretty great.

Friday we went to dinner at the Gecko Grill (not bad but I don't think it was quite as great as everyone claims it to be...) and then we went and saw "World War Z" ( a VERY intense zombie movie- these zombies were the fastest ones I've ever seen!). Saturday morning we slept in until 9am- beautiful!- and then lazed around. We finally made it out to breakfast at The Farmhouse around 11am. The waffles there were delicious and they drown their cinnamon rolls in frosting. 

After that Tyler went gun shopping, he is saving up his plumbing funds to get himself a 1911 hand gun. Oh boys and there toys. He didn't buy one but a friend in the business is going to keep his eyes out for what Tyler wants. Then we ended our time together by renting and watching (at long last) "The Dark Night Rises."

The next day was Sunday and his official birthday. Tyler got to open his awesome gifts I got him-- a "power" tie (a tie that has the power symbol all over it), a mug I made him with his favorite Tommy Boy quote "You know a lot of people go to college for 7 years" "I know, they're called doctors," lots of shirts and parts for the helicopter he is building...

That night I threw him a family party at his parent's house. I didn't take a picture of the cereal bar but it was awesome- 5 kinds of cereals nestled inside cute little sand pails- it was every child's dream. I also served steak and eggs and a fruit salad as an attempt to counteract all the junk food cereal. The best part though was the Lego contest. I told everyone to construct something out of Lego's that represented Tyler. Here were the 3 winners:

Keshia & Scott (like those crossed eyes?) made a math equation, that even stumped Tyler ;)

Tara made Tyler on a "throne" (aka potty)

 And because Tyler feared for his life he gave my cousin Fred third place for the gallows he made

 After all the Lego fun, we sang "happy birthday" to Tyler. I know my cakes are never as great as his but at least I kept with the cereal theme.

Then Tyler got to open some more gifts (more helicopter parts), a squirt gun & a restaurant gift card.

Parties always stress me off so I must admit I am grateful it is over. But I am also thankful that it turned out well. However, I really need to work on my over planning. I bought like 5 boxes of cereal too many, and 2 gallons of milk too much and some cereal toppings that nobody used plus I had too much ice cream and cake left over.... I always say it's better safe than sorry but I think sometimes I should just aim for the sorry because that is probably still more than safe...

Ben's Birthday Date

For Ben's actual birthday I took him on a date to Build-A-Bear. I was hoping that some one-on-one time with Ben might get him to open up with me a bit (lately he's mostly just chatty with Steven) but, he was still my sweet, quiet, shy child (thankfully the "Told you!" attitude of last week has faded).

When we got there he was all grins. They asked him if he wanted a pair of bunny ears and more grinning so on the ears went. Then when I asked which animal he wanted, more grins. I would point to one and he would just smile. The 2 that he reacted to with a smile AND a "yes"- a pink bear and a penguin. So penguin it was!

Then it was time to stuff the penguin. I love how the worker was so friendly with him and kept asking him questions and all he did was stare at her with a smile as though he was some mute child. Also when the worker asked him to kiss the heart before they put it in the penguin he took it from her and put where the heart should go. And then kissed it. He seemed very surprised when she then took it from him and stuck it in the penguin's back. That's not where hearts go!

After stuffing the penguin and giving it a "bath" it was time to pick an accessory for the penguin. I told him he could have one thing but he kept just walking around with a smile and giving me no response to anything I showed him. A worker tried to steer him towards some things for a bit too but his quiet grinning finally frightened her off too. SO I was about to call it quits and just go buy the penguin when he grabbed a Fedora hat! Absolutely the PERFECT accessory for a penguin that already has a bow tie- excellent job Ben!

Once the penguin was made we met daddy over at Red Robin's for a birthday lunch. Bad idea. Apparently everyone who was on holiday for Good Friday was there and it was packed! We waited 20 minutes to sit down and at least 30 minutes to get our food. By the time we got the food, it was nap time for Ben and he was very sleepy. Not fussy sleepy, just tired sleepy- 

so tired he didn't even want to eat his pizza! Poor kid! 

In the picture below, I asked him to show me how old he is now. I can't believe I have a 10 year old!

He filled up some of the wait time by taking pictures of daddy- pretty good job for a 3 year old!

I love my Benny boy and was so glad I got to spend some one-on-one time with him for his third birthday, even if it didn't go exactly as planned.

Ben's Pirate Bird Party

This Sunday we celebrated Ben's birthday with the family. His birthday isn't until Friday but it'll be Easter weekend so this Sunday just worked out better.

Ben wanted a Pirate birthday so of course all the boys (and even Lucy) had to get their pirate tattoo's on. I love that his cousin Bryson insisted on getting his right on the middle of his forehead.

Tyler got back into cake making this birthday and made Ben's pirate boat cake. SO much better than anything I could ever make!!!

Little Ben loved his cake

Once again we had issues during the singing of "Happy Birthday." For some reason Ben seemed to think that when the song ended that meant it was time to go. So instead of blowing out the candle he left his seat and his cousin Miles blew it out for him.

So we had to relight the candle and do a redo:

We had more drama when Tyler decided to set down his very heavy present...right on Ben's fingers. It was so sad! But by the time he opened the gift, he was recovered, happy and ready for more presents!

And after opening gifts, Ben got to cut and pig out on cake. I love that even though he didn't get a fork right away, he didn't let that stop him from eating the cake- nope- he just put his face in the cake and chowed down. I wish I had gotten a picture of that!

A Spooky Birthday

Here's my little thumb sucking, blanket baby on his 5th birthday with his brother & dad. We told Ben to suck his thumb too- pretty great that he did it ;). Steven got to spend 3 hours of his birthday at church but he was super happy about it because he got sung to, and was given a lollipop. His sweet Sunday school teacher also brought over a ridiculously large cupcake- lucky kid!

So Tyler was supposed to make Steven's graveyard cake, he is the cake making genius of the family, but he is a busy guy so I ended up making it. I am NOT the cake making genius of the family but it turned out ok. The ghosts were bananas that I covered with frosting which sounded easy in theory but was ridiculously hard to do. In front there are Sour Patch Kids candy which Steven put there because he said they were zombies.

Steven was SO excited to blow out his candle but at the last minute (mid- birthday song) his cousin blew it out for him!! Lucky for him, his Aunt Melissa saved the day and it was lit again before the song ended- phew!

His gifts from me & his dad were a Penguin Dream Lite, a remote control car & a space shuttle Mater. He was a happy, (and spoiled) little boy.

Lucy looked super cute at his party but my usually happy girl didn't want to smile for the camera.

And Steven was so glad this cute family could attend his party- he absolutely adores his cousin Oliver!

Steven's Sleepover & Bounce-U Extravaganza

For Steven's 5th Birthday I didn't feel like doing a big party with all his friends and family. That would involve too much prepping and stress. Back in December he had really had fun on the bouncy obstacle course so I looked into pricing at Bounce-U thinking he could just go with a few friends and call that his "party". I found out they had an early morning open bounce on Saturdays for only $5 a kid. Since it started at 8am & since the friends he picked were his 2 cousins, Bryson & Miles, and his best friend Colin, I decided it would be easier if they just slept over the night before. Colin declined on the sleepover which is totally understandable but his cousins were in and all Friday Steven anxiously awaited there arrival. He kept making comments about how it was looking dark outside.

When night time came and his cousin Miles arrived (Bryson was late)  they made ghost pizzas (Steven wanted a spooky party). They looked like ghost before they went into the oven, not so much after:

After they ate their pizza Bryson came & they enjoyed some ghost poop (aka marshmallows) while they watched some of "The Nightmare Before Christmas." (the only spooky kid movie he could find on Netflix) They didn't like it to too much so they ended up playing upstairs & running away from Benny monster. 

Then they came back downstairs and had some ice cream. After that the boys all stripped down and took a bath together. It was pretty funny to see all 4 boys (Ben jumped in too) in our little bath tub. It's also pretty funny, how much fun they can have in a bathtub playing with toys at this age. After the bath, they played the Wii & then it was bed time. They were cute all cuddled together on the Queen bed in our guest/play room. Surprisingly they were all asleep by 9:30.

The next day they were up EARLY and ready to go to Bounce-U! Colin met us there and the boys (Tyler included) had SO much fun. And everyone got super sweaty! We will have to go again sometime for sure...

After all the bouncing fun, Tyler got them all slushies at QT and then it was home to wait for parents. While he waited, Steven got to open up the presents his friends got him. Such a spoiled boy!

Tomorrow he gets to take off the final chain and celebrate his birthday with cake & ice cream at Grandma & Grandpa Hatch's home. And he will get to open our presents to him. Lucky boy get's 3 days of birthday fun!