Isaac's Ninjago Party

I always feel a little bad for Isaac that his birthday is Christmas Eve.  I never feel like planning a birthday party for him and I also feel like no one really has the time during the busy season to have to take their kid one more place.  So this year I promised Isaac a party (he'd been drooling for months over pinterest posts) but didn't get around to doing it until the middle of January.  That turned out to be fine with him- he actually really loved counting down to his "birthday" and talking about it all the time.  He is currently obsessed with legos and the Ninjago ones specifically so when I saw pinterest posts on Ninjago parties, the theme was cemented.

He helped me get everything ready including our party favor to-go boxes.  So cute!

And he gave me specifications for his cake- no fondant, and he wanted his lego men on top fighting the snake guys.

So in the end I frosted the cake with just regular icing and let him (mostly) do the rest.  Mostly because he'd have spent the rest of the day having his guys fight on top of and around the cake so I let him place them and then made him leave them.

And we had to have cupcakes since there was extra batter.

I promise I'm really not that creative- I just find fabulously creative people and totally copy all their ideas.  So this other lady made this cute banner and I copied it.

And the Ninjago angry eyes of course had to be everywhere including the water bottles and balloons.

And I made all the boys karate headbands with their names- again super easy and stolen from a lady on Pinterest.  I started the boys all out with a quiet coloring activity while we waited for everyone to arrive- much better than them just running around and being crazy.

Then it was time for Sensei Wu to teach the boys how to defend themselves.  Technically it was Sensei Taylor but the Sensei in the show is named Sensei Wu and since Isaac was called E-sock Woo in Spanish school (long story) Taylor declared himself Sensei Woo.  Taylor took karate lessons as a child and was excited (okay he agreed after a little coaxing from me :) to lead the instruction.

Much kicking practice.

And some punches.

And Taylor's genius idea was to add a move called "ninja vanish" otherwise known as hide and seek.  The boys thought this was hilarious.  And Taylor enjoyed the bits of quiet.

He also let them practice jumping through hoops...

diving through hoops.

And then they got to practice their moves on the balloons which was a much better idea than practicing moves on each other.

And then they had to bow to their fabulous sensei.

Then it was time for singing and blowing out candles and eating.

I love Isla in the back watching the whole thing.

It is so nice to have family around.  Taylor's dad, sister, brother-in-law, and another sister-in-law all ran over from work to join the party.

Couldn't resist more pictures of Isla.  I gave her a celery stick to gnaw on and a cupcake minus it's frosting.  Bizarrely she preferred the celery.

Sometimes these parties are crazy and I feel like just curling up for a nap afterwards but this little group was great.  They were quiet and well behaved and really a joy to have.  It helps that all but 1 of them are in Isaac's sunbeam class and know each other really well from neighborhood sports teams and playgroups and Sundays.

Miles was so excited to be a part of the big boy party.

Isaac's big request was that we have strawberries.  Done!  I'm happy to add a little nutrition to the party.

Then there was much ripping and jumping up and down.

Isla especially enjoyed her turn at the wrapping paper.

And I love that she's turned her karate headband into a fashion statement all on her own- with her crazy hair to go along with it.

We played bingo and then I was planning to let the kids watch a Ninjago show but they just wanted to break out the toys and play.  Fine by me!!!

Once the party was over and I was cleaning up, I'd walked through the streamers several times carrying Isla and finally noticed that she was freaking out each time I did.  Not screaming, but she'd put her arm in front of her face and hide her face in my shoulder even if I just started to head that way.

Apparently streamers are scary.  I took a quick picture and then stopped torturing her.

The rest of the afternoon my boys enjoyed chasing each other around with the cool new disc shooters Isaac got.  A successful party and a happy 5 year old boy.

The Long, cold winter

Winters in Utah aren't usually that bad.  We get a few good snowstorms each month but they thaw pretty quickly in the valley and mostly we stay in the high 30's or low forties.  The worst of course is the cloud inversion which makes it gloomy and dark and the air really unsafe to breathe much.  This year though, the weather from Canada decided to come south and we spent 2 straight months in the low teens and got walloped with storm after storm that never melted and never really cleared out the inversion air.  It truly was a long, cold 2 months.  

For the first time ever I had a kid with an ear infection.  So sad!

And we may have tuckered our kids out on one too many late adventures.

See the snow on my roof?  It's just getting higher and higher.  Truly breathtaking- and beautiful, if you can stay inside with hot chocolate and a book.

Wolf Den Bowling

My cute little scouts have worked really hard this past few months and all 6 of them have earned their Bobcat badge and now their wolf badge.  So to celebrate their hard work, we decided to earn our bowling belt loop.  This entailed learning the rules of etiquette and play for Bowling as well as learning and demonstrating how to pick out the correct ball.  And of course we had to go play an actual game.  So off we went.

And thankfully I had 2 other great moms come along to help with driving and crowd control.

Isla enjoyed the show from the cheap seats.

Bryce and Joseph were cute waiting.

And I let Isaac and Miles come along too since most Wednesdays they get sent to play quietly by themselves and don't get to be with the 5 other scouts like they'd really like to.  Isaac had more of a shot put throw which way interesting and quite loud.

Jonah was a 2 hander.

Ethan's throw was more like a bird in flight.  Seriously not sure where he got that but he was consistent with it and very entertaining to watch.

Bryce was very pleased with his score.

And the scouts were really cute to watch playing together and comparing scores.

And here they all are.  Good job my wolf scouts!

Isla's on the move

Have I mentioned I really love it that Isla has been a sedentary child for so long?  It's really nice to put a baby down and know they'll be there when you come back... in the same spot... away from tiny legos and other little boy toys.  Well it was nice but no more.  Isla is officially all over the place.  I can't say crawling because she doesn't go forward, but she goes backwards, sideways and gets anywhere she wants- just not forwards.

Even the old standby of tempting with her with a cell phone has not gotten her to go forward.

One night I set Isla on the floor while I helped the boys get their pajamas on.  I got distracted momentarily by my ringing phone and kept hearing hysterical laughter while I was talking.  

And returned to find this- a popcorn bucket on Isla's head.  Poor girl wasn't even fussing at all, just pushing up on her arms and then falling back down trying to figure out how to get out.  Sadly there are years ahead of being tortured by her big brothers.

Taylor is so funny with Isla.  He loved coming home from work or school and holding the boys or playing with them, but with Isla it's something entirely different.  He just can't get enough of her.  A favorite is finding her on the floor and rolling around and tickling her.  And she's really ticklish so it's very entertaining.

Yep, I know, I'm interrupting your fun.

Here comes the tickle hand.  You don't even have to touch her, just Taylor's hand in the air coming at her is enough to make her laugh and wiggle.

Miles wants in on the fun but Isla's pretty good at scooting backwards aways from him.

Unfortunately she frequently forgets that her hands are holding her up and lets them drop and of course then faceplants into the carpet.

But she's quick to pop back up.

And even sit herself up.  This is my favorite part.  Isla is my first to be able to sit before she can actually crawl.  I was always envious of moms at church who could just sit a child on a blanket on the floor and they'd stay put.  I'm loving it!  Plus she's pretty cute sitting up.

But then she forgets she's sitting up... and falls over.

But there's plenty of toys spread all around the floor so she's pretty happy on her back too.