Rebecca's Birthday!

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful wife and mom in the world!

The kiddos made their long-traditional banner for mom to find when she came home from work this morning. Olivia, however, stole the show with her very thoughtful gift.

That pretty much says it all. She's definitely a trophy wife!

Happy 6th Birthday, Irene!

Look who's 6!

 It's hard to believe this little one is 6 years old! She's growing so fast! 

While she's still the baby of the family, she's starting to really make her mark on the world. She is an amazing combination of sweetness, mischief, and explosive energy that keeps us guessing! As has become our tradition, Rebecca took her to Party City to pick out a big balloon, but she also got to pick something special this year!

 She came home as a beautiful rainbow pony! A prefect complement to her personality.

Happy Birthday, little one!

Happy 9th Birthday, Ezra!

Ezra turned 9!

 Mama took him for his traditional balloon and let him pick out something else...

He came home dressed up as Spider-Man! 

This kid is nothing short of amazing. He is so sweet! He always wants to help out and asks if there's something he can do. He has a strong sense of right and wrong. He gets really frustrated and anxious when he isn't capable of doing something and sometimes his anger gets the better of him, but he always tries his best and will work hard to get it right. We love seeing what a thoughtful, kind, and conscientious person he's becoming and can't wait to see what the next year has in store for him!

Happy Birthday Irene and Ezra!

My goodness time flies! 

Ezra turned 8 this year. This kid is something else... He's active, outgoing, adventurous and passionate. Sometimes that passion, though, can go the other way. He gets so worked up when things don't work or if he fails at something. Usually, with some gentle coaxing, we can get him to calm down and try again or fix what went wrong the first time. He has a huge sense of right and wrong and gets very upset when he thinks something isn't fair. He's gotten to where he's a little taller than Gabe ("Only an inch!!" Gabe would shout), so they still wear the same clothes. They very much like twins, with Gabe being a more bookish boy while Ezra is the athletic one.

Not to be outdone in the energy department, Irene turned 5! This kid is bot the light as well as the bane of my day. She is so sweet and funny, but also so mischievous that if I'm not careful, she'll drink a full bottle of maple syrup while I'm not looking. (That's not an exaggeration. She really did drink almost a hole bottle of maple syrup...) She climbs the cabinets and counters looking for sweets, steals Emma's toys, and stays up all hours of the night gigging and laughing when she's supposed to be asleep. At the same time, she loves to snuggle and be with Mama every chance she gets.

In the past, I've been the one to make elaborate (at least for me) cakes for the various birthdays based on the whims of the child, but this year, Olivia wanted to put her cake decorating skills to the test and make cupcakes for each of them, Irene chose flowers and Ezra chose spider webs like from  Spiderman.

Speaking of Spiderman, Ezra wanted to get a Spiderman comic book, so I took him to Acme Comics and picked up the Epic Collection that had the first 18 Spiderman comics all in one. I'm thinking this is going to be the new tradition for the boys for the next few years.

Surprises for the boys!

Usually, we wait until their actual birthdays to do something fun or get them something we know they'd love, but this year, a couple of shows rolled through Greensboro that we thought the boys would love to see, so we got tickets for them and told them it was their early birthday gifts.

The first was the Monster Jam monster truck show. Rebecca's been bugging me for years to take the boys, but I've resisted because I didn't relish the idea of an enclosed space with tons of people and extremely loud trucks and fumes. I finally gave in and I was pleasantly surprised. It was definitely loud and the place was packed but there wasn't a hint of fumes (whether that's because of the fuel they use or that there was plenty of ventilation, i don't know) and earplugs were enough to keep the noise level in a comfortable range. I did feel like I missed a memo about the dress code for an event like this, but since I don't own anything camouflage, it wouldn't have mattered anyway... ;)

I didn't tell them what we were coming to see... Once they figured out what we were there for, they were super excited.

 They loved seeing all the different trucks, dirt cars and 4-wheelers. There was a shark truck, a zombie truck and even a Wonder Woman truck!

While they loved the trucks, they both said their favorite part was the 4-wheeler races because they moved so fast!

The second event was the Marvel Universe Live! show. Once again, I didn't tell them what we were coming to see.

 And once again, they were very excited when they found out what it was. :)

 The show was a lot of fun, with all kinds of characters from the Marvel movies and shows.

There were all kinds of acrobatic tricks, lasers, explosions and even motorcycle tricks. They absolutely loved the show!

They even got to meet Spiderman on the way out!

All-in-all, they were super happy to go to the shows, though they have expressed a little sadness that their birthdays are over so soon. While they won't be getting the usual gifts, we'll still manage to make their respective days special when the times come. :)

Happy Birthday, Emma!

Our sweet girl Emma turned 6! 

With everything we have on our plates, we didn't plan a party for her this time, but all she asked for was a colorful cake. :) She originally said a tie-dye cake, but I wasn't sure I could make it work. Instead, Rebecca sent me a link to a YouTube video that showed how to make a watercolor cake.

 Turns out that wasn't so hard. :) She loved it, for which I'm very happy. 

 Her highlight of the day was getting to walk through Party City and pick out a big balloon. We did have an eye doctor's appointment that morning which we told her was just for her special day, but she didn't think that was really a party, even though it's quite an event for all of us to take over the doctor's office for an hour. :)

The thing she's most excited about is that she now gets to go to the "big kids'" class at church, which is for 6-10 year olds. 

We're proud of our little girl and can't wait to see what the next year has in store for her (and us!)

Gabe's Birthday Surprise!

For Gabe's 9th birthday, we surprised them all by foregoing the usual birthday party for a night at the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord. We'd been to a GWL before in Williamsburg, but that was way back in 2012, when Emma was the only Little, though Irene was on her way. :) One of the nice things about the GWL is that you can get into the pool at 1pm on the day you check in and then can stay in the pool until they close on the day you check out. So even though we only stayed one night, they got a full day and a half in the pool. 

The kids were all super excited when we arrived because we didn't tell them ahead of time that we were doing this. We checked in and Rebecca took them all straight to the pool while I unloaded in the room and decorated it.

If you recall, Gabe had asked for a Minion birthday theme, so we obliged him further on this trip with balloons, a banner, confetti and a bunch of Minion themed snacks.

I even made a trail mix with blue and yellow M&Ms (yes, I had to pick them out of a huge bag!) Chex Mix, pretzel sticks and candy eyes.

While I was setting up the room, The kids were getting into action. The best part about the GWL is that the older 3 are all old enough to run off on their own and do whatever slides they want. I think there were only two slides that Gabe and Ezra were supposed to need an adult for, but we certainly didn't mind going with them. 

 The Littles weren't exactly hard to watch, tho. They loved the wave pool! It came on and off at 5 minute intervals, so they'd bang around in the waves for a few minutes and then when it stopped, they'd want to go over to the huge fort with two slides that they could ride on their own.

 They also liked the splash area around the fort, but they weren't big fans of the huge, 500-gallon bucket that dumped every 10 minutes or so.

We engaged in a few races on the track slides, which was fun. I went a couple of times and beat everyone else, but I think it's just because gravity pulls harder on me. ;) I didn't get a picture of him, but during the second day, Ezra and Gabe made a friend who spend most of that day riding the slides with us wherever we went.  

As a  treat on the second day, we got a massive bucket of ice cream that came with all manner of stuff in it like cookie bites, brownie chunks, whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

They made short work of it, tho. (Rebecca and I may have helped a little...)

At the end of the trip, we were all waterlogged and exhausted, but super happy that we had come. Of course, they all want to do it again as soon as possible and I certainly don't disagree!

Olivia and Ezra's Shared Birthday!

Because both Olivia and Ezra wanted the same kind of party, we decided to combine them both and have a big one at Skateland. They each got to invite 7 friends for cake and almost 3 hours of skating.

Ezra turned 7 this year. He's become such an expressive young man. It's hard for him to contain his emotions and his energy most of the time and so he's very passionate about things. He gets upset easily when things don't go the way he thought they would, but he's quick to find something else to be happy about.

Olivia is 12 (going on 15...) and is turning into quite a young woman. She's very smart, loves to laugh and goes back and forth between wanting her space from the other kids and being very helpful with them.

For Ezra, I made him a chocolate cake with a turtle on it. He's recently become fascinated by turtles, so he was really happy when he saw it. Olivia requested a "funfetti" cake that had sprinkles in it and I decorated it with a roller skate.

The bigs had each gotten a set of skates last Hanukkah, so they were able to put them to good use.

We rented Emma some skates and she bravely ventured out, too.

Even Rebecca and I tried our hands at it.

 I realized that it had been 30 years since I'd been on skates! And it showed... it's a wonder I didn't hurt myself. :)

Fortunately, we had Olivia there to help us along and stay upright for most of the night. It was a ton of fun and hopefully, we can go again soon.