Super Tate

For his fourth birthday, Tate insisted on a super hero party. I wasn't really planning a party for him, actually. I was kind of thinking our trip to Great Wolf Lodge in a few weeks would suffice and I didn't think he would really think about a party ahead of time, but he surprised me by telling me all about his plans for a superhero party. An orange cake with some green on it. Lots of friends--mostly boys. Superhero games. I figured I might as well go with it. So I started planning. With 16 children coming over, I knew I needed a plan and my first was to split the kids into two groups. One downstairs doing quiet activities (coloring, tattoo station, puzzles) and one upstairs doing the superhero training academy--retrieving kryptonite from the batcave (finding a glowstick in a makeshift cave of blankets) then locking it in a lead box, stomping out the villains (popping balloons), leaping over tall buildings in a single bound (jumping over a dollhouse), rescuing the baby from the burning building, etc. Once they graduated from the training academy, each child earned a superhero cape which was a big hit.

It was a great time celebrating with my little guy and his friends.

For an amazing post about a super-hero party (and virtually all of my inspiration for this one), go to http://emilys-little-world.blogspot.com/2011/12/superhero-party.html

Critter Barn

I took advantage of a relatively sunny day and took the kids to the Critter Barn. It had been a while since we'd been there and the last time we went was a beautiful sunny day, so I had kind of forgotten the "indoor" animals--mainly the cats and rabbits. My kids had a great time (until they got way too cold). My allergies did not have a great time.

Old School

Do you remember doing this when you were a kid? Not sure what made me think of it, but I decided to teach the kids how to climb up a doorway today. Tate is a little too small to make it work, but Rowan can make it up and thinks she's pretty amazing.

Nap Time Serenade

Tate is finally starting to give up his nap. So, instead of sleeping during rest time, he often plays with blocks or Legos, looks at books or sings songs--quite loudly. This is what I'm listening to right now:

"Jingle Bells, rottenest elfs, Robin laid and egg

Batmobile lost its wheel and Joker goed to ballet"

Occasionally he'll say "Joker got away. Oh, no. That's not what I want it to say. Joker goed to ballet."

This has been going on for a good 20 minutes. Love how this kid can entertain himself!

Yee Haw!

The one committee I'm on at church is organizing the Daddy-daughter dinner. In years past, it's been a formal affair--girls dress in their finest, eat a nice meal, do some dancing. It's a bit prim and proper and, while fun, we decided to switch it up a bit this year and do a hoe down. The girls (and dads) dressed in western apparel. We had a miniature horse come for pictures. We hired a square dance caller (who was great with our group of lots of little ones). We had silly stick-on mustaches and cowboy hats lying around for everyone to wear. It was high energy and lots of fun. As you can see, Rowan and Lance had a great time together!

Groundhog Day!

We're finally out of recovery mode from a stomach bug this week and seem to have some sort of respiratory/cold issues now, but that didn't stop us from having a little Groundhog Day fun!

I made the kids an indulgent (but still kind of healthy) snack of cookie dough dip (made from garbanzo beans) topped with chia seed "dirt" and groundhog graham crackers. Then we made groundhog sock puppets. Tate named his Sweet Pie and Rowan named hers Sydney Pinkie Pie Pellow. And Lance did not disappoint by bringing home fun orange tulips to brighten up the house! This morning, the groundhog didn't see a shadow (spring is right around the corner) and this afternoon, it did. Which meant it was sunny out and we played outside with neighbors on this rather beautiful February day. If winter stays like this, I guess I'll take 6 more weeks.

What a Morning

This morning I woke up to a sweet little boy crawling into my bed to cuddle, showering me with kisses and saying "Mommy. I'm never going to marry anyone because I want to be with you forever." This was followed by a sleepy little girl crawling into bed to cuddle as well. And it was just after 8am. It can't get much better than that.

Later in the morning, Rowan got out her brand new Twinkle Toes light-up shoes and tied them herself! She was so proud of herself, she said "Don't you think we should call Grandma?"

Then we did some playing outside at the Winter Carnival at church--a treasure hunt on the trail complete with finding a real fox den and wagon rides behind a 4-wheeler because there isn't enough snow for snowmobiling (Did I mention we rode bikes yesterday? It's JANUARY, people!)

Lance is, of course, working, but will be home soon and I'm guessing we'll have an evening of going out to eat and playing games and reading in front of the fire.

That plus a great adult dinner with friends last night makes me a happy girl!