Kyle's 5th Birthday!

A few weekend's ago we celebrated Kyle's birthday with a pirate themed birthday party!  Taking in consideration, I put this party together very late and I failed to remember that everyone (including us) was on a holiday schedule it all came together very nicely!  (Just a few stressed out days for me!)
Kyle has been in love with pirates and Jack Sparrow since we came back from Disney World in October.  So as soon as we asked him what he wanted for his birthday, it was imediately "I want a pirate party".
Luckily we found Pirate Jenny (aka known as Silly Dilly - who I would highly recommend!) to come out.  She painted all of the kids faces. 

After the kids had there face painted they came over and stood at the pirate cut out Ben made for Kyle's birthday party.  Isn't it cute?!?!  Yes, this is Ben demonstrating and yes, he will probably get me for putting this picture on here! . :-)

Pirate Jenny made balloon swords and animals for everyone.  I think this was Kyle's favorite part! :-)

The kids played more and then Kyle blew out his candles. I was unsure of how many we would have so I ordered a very small cake.  I could not believe we ran completely out!  Luckily I bought a dozen cupcakes to have as extras so we did not completely run out of cake.

Then after cake, icecream and opening presents someone said "is it time for the pinata?"  I had completely forgotten about this pirate pinata that we had stuffed full of candy!  This was alot of fun and I believe most kids got two turns at hitting the pirate before Kyle busted it open.

Kyle's pirate party was success and I hope all of his friends had a lot of fun!  Thank you to everyone who came and held celebrate Kyle's special day.  A special thank you to Uncle Jonathan for taking almost 400 pictures at the party! They all turned out great!

Thankfully we are on birthday hiatus in our family for a little bit....next for us will be lil' bit's 2nd birthday bash!   

My Birthday

Tonight we went out to the Mexican restaurant for my birthday.  Ben told me he was going to get them to sing to Kyle just like they did last year and I thought that was a good idea.  Little did I know, that he told them that it was my birthday also.  I had no idea until they plopped this huge black hat on my head! I was a little embarrassed but the boys (all 3 of them) were so excited that they got one over on me that I just sat back and enjoyed it!

(Sorry for the blurry, grainy picture...this was taken with Ben's cell phone.  Also I have NO IDEA why it looks like I have a gold tooth!)

 

New Years Resolutions

I do not typically make New Years Resolutions.  I always know what I would like to do.  I always have a list a mile and a half long that some how typically never gets done. 

But this year I decided to make a few resolutions.  Mine are not the typical "lose 20 pounds", "workout 3 times a week" however those are both things I need to do.  I made more practical resolutions.

1.  Spend more quality time with my family.  My boys are growing up so fast that some days I feel they have changed in just the 9 hours earlier that I dropped them off.  Being a full time working mama and being spread so incredibly thin with all of the demands I am faced with on a daily basis, I am not sure how I am going to accomplish this but I am darn sure going to try to figure it out!

2.  Get back into my old habits of sending birthday and anniversary cards.  I absolutely love receiving cards and I really used to enjoy sending them however since the boys I have really gotten out of the habit of sending them. Or I would buy them, sign them, and lay them on the window seal and they would not get put in the mail box.  Half the time I would see them three weeks later, be embarrassed that I yet again "forgot" to mail another card and throw it away.   

3.  Get more into couponing.  I plan to keep a cost savings journal for all of my shopping trips.  Ben often asks me how much did you save and I can tell you how much I saved on one trip or how much over that weekend, but I can't tell you how much I saved in a month.  Well I am going to start keeping track of all of it....I might even post it. :-)

4.  Post on this blog more often.  I started this blog so my friends and family could see all the fun things the boys are doing.  With the craziness of my days, I had really gotten out of it.  In 2011, I didn't post often and I am sure that many have quit even checking it, but that is my pledge to the one or two readers that still may be out there.  I will post often (with pictures)!

So....I guess it is official I have four New Years Resolutions....Now I just hope I can stick to them all! :-)

Visit with Santa

On Saturday, we visited Santa at Bass Pro.  The boys did much better this time, especially Evan, since the first time we visited Santa this year he wouldn't pay much attention to him let alone slow down long enough to sit with him for a good picture.   

Kyle only told Santa two gifts he wanted.  He told Santa that he didn't want any thing else because if he got too many toys -"Mama will make me clean the playroom!" :-)

What in the world am I going to do with these boys!?!?!

Who needs toys.....

 

 ....... when you have a laundry basket and a Daddy that will pull you all over the living room in it!! :-)