February: I Love....

My boys and cookies, can't get any better than that!

I am joining Kerry and others in an I Love...series.

My Heros

The boys got matching pjs for Christmas from Grandma and Bucko.  They love wearing them and whenever Noah wears his he always asks if we can put Levi in his too!  Fun times!

Noah Turns 5!

I couldn't believe it.  It has been so hard to think about Noah being 5.  It really doesn't change anything in our day to day but there are now big things to come and mostly what I think about it Kindergarten in the Fall.  It is so hard for me to think that we will have a kindergartener....yikes, but we will cross that bridge when we get there for now let's talk about THE PARTY!!

Noah requested a STAR WARS LEGO party, we pretty much all saw that coming but we have already done two Lego parties in the past and I wanted to come up with something different than what we have already done.  And thanks to Pinterest that wasn't too difficult.  What was hard was keeping it simple and not getting carried away with all those Pinterest finds.  We don't get to crazy with parties just a few friends of Noah's and family, this year only Grandparents were able to come.

FOOD:
Our big thing was the food, and Noah had fun deciding the menu:
Dagobah Dogs (pigs in a blanket)
Cheesabers (cheetos)
Endor Edibles (veggie tray)
Death Star Dip (ranch dip)
Hoth Balls (powdered sugar donut holes)
Yoda Soda (lime sherbet and sprite)
Bantha Milk (milk)

I made some simple tags for the buffet, you could get really creative with your tags.  I did simple solid colors to match the legos.

DECOR:
Simple, Noah, David and I spent the week before the movie assembling all of Noah and David's Star Wars Lego sets: Tie Fighter, Millennium Falcon, some pod racers.  We also collected and assembled all the minifigures, lightsabers and costumes we had.

GAMES:
At this age the kiddos still just want to play in the playroom.  But Noah did request a Star Wars Bingo and I set up a solid colored back drop to take pics of anyone in costume.

STAR WARS BINGO - Noah assembled his Star Wars Lego minifigures and let him and Grandma take pics of each one on a solid backdrop.  My wonderful and patient husband threw together some bingo cards which I then printed for each kiddo.  I put the minifigures in a bowl and that is what I used to draw and the kids used lego bricks as markers.  I found gummy Star Wars candy at Halloween to give as prizes.

PARTY FAVORS:  Mini Lightsabers
I purchased a tub of glow bracelets at Michael's for a $1 each (15 bracelets in each tub) and labeled them with stickers saying: "Jedi Noah May the Force Be With You" or "Jedi Aiden The Force is Strong With This One".

Here are some pics from our little family celebrating Noah on his actual birthday!

Super Hero's Halloween

A couple month have passed and a LOT has happened: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Noah's 5th Birthday and the list goes on and on....so I am starting off the new year looking back so I can hopefully move forward! :-)

 Noah of course wanted to be a superhero for Halloween, Iron Man to be specific.  I actually think we went to the store looking for Captain America and came out with Iron Man.  I planned on not buying Levi a costume hoping he could wear Noah's Spinderman from last year but it was too big and I couldn't pass up the little Hulk costume once I saw it!

 Oh! and I dressed up too for one of the party.  In case you didn't know I am Wasp from the Avengers.

  I don't feel to horrible spending the money we got lots of wear out of them: a playdate Halloween party, a family Halloween party, trick or treating in the dorms, our church's Trunk or Treat night, Halloween night of course and just everyday dress up so all in all a good investment!  And listing all that kind of makes me feel like this:

Leaves, Leaves We Have So Many Leaves!

But we are putting them to good use!

 So happy that Levi didn't decide to jump off the chair like big brother.

Happy Birthday (Great) Grandpa

We celebrated my Grandpa's 94th birthday last weekend.  Not all of us (children, grandchildren and great grandchildren) got to be there but we partied anyway.  First of all can you imagine how much a person has seen in 94 years of life?  It boggles my mind...I mean I've seen a lot change and I am just 29!

We had beautiful weather and great food and of course a few presents.  It was so much fun to hear Grandpa talk about farming and when he bought his first car and what type of tractor he used in 195(whenever) and it also makes me feel very blessed to be in a family that is so close and that I grew up knowing my 'extended' family.  Occasionally David makes fun of me for calling my cousins 'cousins', because when I say cousins I am talking my mom's first cousin's children, etc!  But I love it and I loved it growing up and I hope that our boys will feel the same way about it and appreciate family even if they may or may not be 'blood' related.

 Some of the GREAT Grandchildren helping blow out candles.

Our Levi with his Great Grandpa!

A Case of the Sniffles

Okay it has been a bit more than sniffles but that is how it all started.  After a weekend of fevers, runny noses and hacking coughs I feel like I can say that we are on the mend.  The little boys have not been feeling well so we laid low all weekend with a few movies, and just plain ol' being lazy.  A few peeks at our weekend.

 Hanging out in pjs and the laundry baskets!

 Noah passing on the art of Oreo dunking.

 This is pretty much what I want to do when I feel sick is cover up my head and go to sleep!

As you can tell they are feeling a little better and 'helped' mom organize the kitchen.