The Extreme Science Birthday Party

The fun started downstairs with some fun balloon wars while
we waited for Radical Rick to set up. Here are all but one of the crazy boys who invaded our house for a few hours...CRAZY?!

Mason, Riley, Kyler, Hayden, Brayden,
Conor, Mason, Alex, Eli and Tanner (Grady not pictured)

Radical Rick was AMAZING!!!! He kept these rowdy boys quiet and happy for an entire hour. We had fire, dry ice, soap, explosions, pops, bubbles and slime...what more can a boy ask for?

Headless Riley

Here are all the boys making their own slime to take home and enjoy.

Blowing out the candles on the requested mint chocolate chip ice cream cupcakes. Tasty and easy to hand out and enjoy.

Presents and some more attempted games. The boys were so wild that any game we attempted to play that wasn't run around crazy was quickly vetoed by run around crazy. We were very glad when parents started arriving. Happy early Birthday Conor, and a big thank you to Radical Rick and his extreme science fabulousness!

This is where Lincoln sat for the entire party. We didn't want him getting in the way and trampled on so he ate cookie after cookie and 2 or 3 lollipops.

Look who is 35

Man we are getting so old. Kevin had another birthday, which means I am about to have one as well. Bummer. We didn't do anything too exciting for Kevin's birthday this year, but we did make his favorite eclair cake, made him his favorite dinner of homemade BBQ pizza and he even had a present to open that he won't take back (miracles)...2 boxes of Samoa girl scout cookies. I am such a great wife I know.

Everyone had a turn at blowing out these candles, even Lincoln. We decided to see how Lincoln felt about the candles since he wanted nothing to do with them on his birthday. We were pleasantly surprised that he liked them and even did a pretty decent job of blowing them out.

This is one of the 9 cards Josie made for Daddy. She was really cute about reading them to him and amazingly enough they always said the same thing, even from when she created them hours before to giving them to Dad. Maybe she can read something in those zig-zags I can't.

The yummy cookies

Now, the pictures below are of Kevin's Christmas and birthday present for the next 2 years. Kevin ordered this beauty months and months ago and it finally arrived about mid January. This is "THEEE" bike to have. Anyone who knows anything about bikes will look at this baby with envy. I present to you the Ibis-MOJO SL-R

Lincon milestones

I forgot to post these pictures a while back. About the middle of January we actually got a little snow so I decided to bundle Lincoln up and see what he thought of the fun white stuff. He was still pretty new at walking, so add crazy boots, padded pants, and slippery snow and down he went over and over. He finally started crawling around the drive way and then decided to just sit and watch. He would tip over and cry because he was stuck because of all the snow gear.

Lincoln has recently developed a love for cars. He can often be found with one in each hand and lately that is all that can get us through an hour of sacrament meeting. He likes to run them along the back of the pew and at home down the railing on the stairs. The one pictured is a special favorite that he runs around the kitchen over and over again.

This is the face of a cute 18 month old hamming it up for the camera

We made it to nursery! Lincoln's 1st official day of nursery was March 25th. YAY and double Yay! He wasn't as excited as his Mom and Dad, but he did OK. He finally let Kevin leave as long as the nursery leader held him with a fleece blanket close to his face and showed him some books. They actually brought him to me when church was over and we had to pry his little fingers off the blanket. He is my only kid who has a true love for his blanket and any fleece substitute.

Josie fun

Josie was invited to a birthday party last month. The party was at the carousel downtown and she got to ride it as many times as she wanted. She was in heaven. Here are a few pictures.

And here is a picture of Josie helping me out in the kitchen. I sure love having her home with me to keep me company and keep me laughing a bit. She will help with the cooking or color or paint or work on her letters or blocks. She is really quite good at entertaining herself...yay!

A little road rash

I just had to post a picture of this. It looks much worse then it is. It was a pretty day so we took a walk and then I let Lincoln wander a bit. He got a little farther ahead of me then I wanted and so I told Josie to stop him and she grabbed him by the hood of his jacket and down he went. Because she pulled his arms back with the hood, he couldn't use his hands to catch his fall and this was the result. Good think he is still short and the ground is pretty close. Once we washed away the mud he only had a few little scrapes, just trying to toughen him up.

1st Pinewood Derby

We survived our 1st pinewood derby. I am still wondering if this is for the boys or the Dad's??? Kevin and Conor decided to create a tank for their body style. Unfortunately the timing on this event couldn't be worse. We missed getting the car because we were out of town so then we were a week behind and other things came up and Conor had a large project at school due the same day that required a lot of help from Dad so the plate was full. Needless to say, Kevin was busy being a great Dad and in the interest of time pretty much ended up taking over the projects instead of letting Conor try it and make mistakes and redo it etc... Conor helped as much as he could, and now looking back we should and would have done it differently, but who has time? There is always next year. His car did great, always made it down to the end of the track and even won a few. We did find that all the cars did better on a certain track, so we will remember that for next time as well.

Conor, Mason and Grady

Setting up

The line up before the race

Proof we did come home-kid fun

I haven't blogged in so long that I bet you all thought we didn't actually come home from Hawaii. We did get on the plane and returned to the craziness of living with 3 busy children. I have been forcing myself to finish my blurb book for my 2011 blog before I continued on current posts. Finished and ordered! Here are some pictures of what has been going on around me as I sat at my computer.

Look what a few hours to kill on a Sunday afternoon created. Conor can dig deep and pull out a creative side if we force him to turn off all electronics. It can be painful sometimes, but look how cool this dragon is. The eyes even glow and the mouth had a flashlight underneath that made it look really neat. Having 9:00 clock church is heaven...naps and extra time for everyone.
Lincoln got his first haircut. 17 months. I didn't cut off much, just cleaned up the back and a little off the top. He wasn't all that cooperative but it will work for a few months.
Snow, cold and more cold is what we have been experiencing. We are ready for spring for sure, but have yet to see it.
Lincoln riding the push scooter. He circles the island and has really used it. He gets mad when the other kids try to take a spin, very possessive.
Bath time...Yes Josie is squirting Lincoln in the face and he doesn't really care. What a great kid.
Our gigantic mickey mouse pancake. The kids love to have pancakes for breakfast and Conor can almost make them all by himself.
Josie and her block tower...another moment of no electronic success
Lincoln is insisting he can feed himself. Not so good at it yet, but coming along. He is such a big eater it is crazy. He still loves pancakes and his new favorite is lasagna...he can out eat all the kids when it comes to those foods. Ritz crackers are his all time favorite.
Lincoln pulls this wagon around and then I caught him sitting in it. No one gave him a ride so that was short lived.