Birthday Boy

Evan turned 6 on Wednesday! Mark and I have a party planned for him in a few weeks, but we had a small celebration at home on his birthday. Evan was king for the day & picked out where we went for lunch (McDonald's), where we spent the morning (at the park), got new golf clubs (and M&M's) from Dick's Sporting Goods, and had cupcakes before dinner. He received some lovely gifts from us and his grandparents, and spent the whole day smiling. I took a ton of photos, but they are on our external server and my MacBook has decided not to communicate with the server this evening. My personal IT guy is sleeping so I'm out of luck. Hopefully I can get access to them tomorrow after Evan's soccer game. I do have a few photos I took with my phone, though. Definitely not as good as my DSLR photos, but they will have to do:

Last year I made a "Jack" banner when he turned 2. Evan made a comment that he wanted one for his next birthday. Of course he didn't forget about the banner and asked me about it on Tuesday. I had planned on making one anyway, so I happily whipped one up using some Papertrey Ink dies & cardstock. It turned out really well, so I made a card to match. And because the banner and card matched, I picked up balloons, sprinkles for the cupcakes, and wrapping paper in the same color scheme. I was very surprised (and pleased) when Evan noticed all the color coordination and said it looked "cool". Why, thank you! :-)

Evan's birthday present from my parents was a new set of golf clubs. He *loves* playing golf in the yard and was getting frustrated with Mark's clubs because they are so big. Now Ev has a set that is perfect for him, and should come in handy this summer when he goes to golf camp at our local golf course.

The boys also had their new beds delivered on Thursday and are so happy with them. Evan likes having a little cubby and has filled it with his "favorite things", like his Angry Birds game, t-ball trophy, new Transformers toy, and his favorite book. We are going to have to work with Jack on staying in his bed, though. His first night in his big boy bed was a rough one. He was up until 9:30pm, then woke up at 5:30am this morning. He went down for his nap fine, but woke up after and hour and 45 minutes... he usually sleeps at least 2.5 hours in the afternoon. He was very tired today & super cranky, so I was tired and cranky. Hopefully he sleeps well tonight & doesn't wake up at the crack of dawn. I need to get some sleep!

Have a great weekend!

Little Pirates

The kids are really into projects right now. They want to sit down at the kitchen table with me and make something really, really cool. I should be better at whipping up a super awesome art project for us to complete, but the truth is I'm not the best at coming up with something unique or clever. So we color or paint, and 10 minutes later the kids are bored and I have a giant mess to clean up.

Until I found Kiwi Crate.

Kiwi Crate delivers a complete art kit to our door each month with 2 projects, instructions, and adhesive. All I have to do is open the kit, sit down with the boys, and make something! We received our first kit last month and it was pirate themed. We made a treasure chest and map one day, and last week we pulled out the kit to make pirate hats, an eye patch, and parrot hand puppets.

After the boys created their projects I tried to take a few pictures, but they were bouncing around like bunnies and I ended up with more goofy photos than anything. Jack was trying to tell Evan all about his parrot, and Evan wanted to show me his hat... they were not very cooperative subjects!

Jack kept saying "Ahoy Matey!" and "Arrrrrgh!"... I think he picked that up from Jake and the Neverland Pirates on Disney. He loves his pirate hat. And Evan used the included stencils and spent a lot of time coloring his hat & eye patch. It was a really great experience and the kids are already looking forward to getting this month's kit.

(I was not paid or compensated to write about Kiwi Crate. We just really like the product!).

Today Is My Favorite

In August Jack will be going off to pre-school and I will have two days a week that are child-free for a few hours. That realization is sinking in and I'm trying to savor every moment with this little guy before he goes to school. I have been a stay-at-home-mom for almost 6 years, and this will be the first time that I won't have a kid-o at home full time... and I'm not sure how I'll adjust to that. I will probably fill my time by volunteering in their classrooms. :-)

I'm off to check on the boys and give an extra hug to each of them. Goodnight!

Love

I am working on week 10 for Project Life, and I came across this photo on my memory card. I forgot I took it early last week... a quick shot of both boys & Rocket. All happy and smiling on Evan's (unmade) bed.

And I adore them. :-)

Catching Up

I can't believe we are already a week into March. February was full of family visits, a trip to Orlando (and the Nickelodeon Hotel), Mark was away on business for a week, a trip to the beach, two trips to the zoo, homework, the start of spring baseball and soccer, doctor's appointments, physical therapy, and so much more. I love being busy. But I also love our down time, and last month was a crazy mix of both.

Mark was in California on Valentine's Day, but he did send me this beautiful bouquet of flowers. Thanks babe. :-)

I have been playing catch-up as I sift through hundreds of photos from the last few weeks. I am almost caught up with Project Life and printing photos. Almost.

My Uncle visited us in February for almost a week. Evan really wanted to take him to the zoo so they could Kayak together, and the boys also played in the water for a bit, too. Jack was not happy to leave the water, but he reluctantly agreed as long as we could go see the new dinosaur exhibit.

And today is my Uncle's Birthday. Happy Birthday Uncle Tom! We love you. :-)

Have a wonderful week!