Kayda's sixth birthday party

Kayda decided that she wanted her birthday at Chuck E Cheese this year.  She's only been there two times before.  We decided it was probably easier than having a party at home so that's what we did.  

 While Kayda was playing the games on the computer Vivian and Dillon were having a grand time with the tv camera.

 There she goes!

 Carson and Andy!

 Their favorite thing is this race horse.  Carson loved it too and would lunge for it whenever he saw it!

 You can't tell from his face that he loved it.... but he did!

Time for the actual party part!  And then my camera died.... rats.  They had pizza and Chuck E Cheese came and visited, they sang happy birthday, had cake and Kayda got to go in the "Ticket Buster", she grabbed several "100 ticket" slips... came out pretty good!  The kids loved it, now Dillon wants his birthday there too...

Kayda's Sixth Birthday!

Kayda says her birthday was "The best birthday ever!"  The day started out with a surprise, Grandma and Papa G were home!  Grandma G woke Kayda up by singing happy birthday to her.  I drove Kayda to school, she wanted to give Mrs. T her holiday gift and bring in her treats for the class.  When I picked her up from the bus she told me all about how SO many people told her happy birthday!  She got to wear a crown and be the class VIP for the week!  She was the first VIP of the school year!

For her birthday she wanted to have tacos so we had both sets of grandparents over for tacos and cupcakes.  She chose how to set up the dining room and assigned everyone seats.  

 She blew all the candles out at once!

 She had this kind of reaction for most of her gifts!  It was great fun to watch!

 After Dillon gave her the present from him he said "It's from me!  Hug!"  And then gave her a hug whether she was ready for it or not!

 The new outfit!  She loves girly things, she's been asking for the dress for over a month!

 Notice the braid in her hair... she braided it with Grandma G, she's been wanting to learn to braid so we got her yarn. She was actually pretty happy about it.  If only it were all that easy.

Happy birthday my beautiful, smart, tender hearted, loving, funny little girl!

Catching up on school art!

I don't like to keep school art around, it clutters really fast and I accumulate enough of that on my own!  So here are the pictures so the kids can still see what they made!  I got a little behind so some are from last school year!

 Kayda's preschool art from last year

 Kayda's kindergarten art from this year

 Dillon's preschool art from last year

Dillon's preschool art from this year

Gingerbread House!

We made a gingerbread house for family home evening on Monday.  The kids have NEVER made a gingerbread house before, we cheated a little and bought the prebuilt one so we were really just decorating a gingerbread house.  It was fun!  The kids had as much fun eating the candy at they had putting it on the tree.  Carson was a challenge, he wanted to be in the middle of everything but usually ended up destroying something.  He eventually figured out how to help put the candy on the Christmas tree like ornaments.  

I think they did pretty well!  Daddy had a little too much fun with the icing but the kids had fun!  I think it's lovely.

Thanksgiving and Christmas Prep

We had a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving.  This year was our year to be with Grandma and Papa G but they decided to continue enjoying Papa G's retirement and went back to California to spend it with Great Grandma and Great Aunt Mary.  We could have gone to Grandma and Papa H's Thanksgiving celebration but we decided that this year it was best for our family to do it on our own.  We woke up to a house without power but that wasn't going to stop us, if needs be Grandma and Papa G have a barbecue that works like an oven so I could've cooked the turkey there and there is a gas stove in the basement.  We were gonna be fine.  The kids all got snuggled up in their zipper jamas and we set about straightening up the dining room and living room.  We rearranged furniture too.  When we were done we decided to get out of the powerless house for a little while, we took the kids to McD's to play and eat an early lunch.  Turns out it wasn't such an awesome idea, it was colder there than at home!!!  The kids had fun anyway.  When we got back home about 12:30 the power was on!  So we set up the Christmas tree and decorated it.  After that we pulled out the Christmas train.  Then I finally started cooking dinner.  We bought rolls, we bought pies, but our family made everything else.  It was a remarkable day!  I have NEVER had such a relaxing holiday since we had kids.  We had our own schedule, there was no organizing to be done, it was whatever WE wanted to do at the time we wanted to do it.  We even all got dressed up fancy for dinner in the dining room with Grandma G's good china!

Museum of Flight

For Veteran's day we decided to go to the Museum of Flight.  The kids have never been there and Daddy and I haven't been there for a LONG time.  The day didn't start off great, Daddy woke up with a migraine, then when we got there we tried pumping up the tires on the stroller but the pump broke and one of the tires ended up flatter than when it started.  But we were determined.  The kids were really excited.  Carson had been all set and ready to go in the stroller (he loves that thing) but we also happy to walk.  

 There were several planes we could go up and walk through.  

 Dillon saw this engine of a 747 and said "Wow that's huge!"  Then he walked up to it to see it better.

 When I called him to join us he comes running yelling "That engine is so huge!!!"

 We couldn't go in this plane but Kayda wanted a picture with it anyway.  It's initials are TCA and she saw the T and the C and said "That's part of CTR!  Choose the right!"  So she HAD to have a picture with it!

 This is one of the reasons I love to go do these things with the kids.  I love that "WOW" face when they find something they think is amazing!

 Like Father like son.  Check out that facial expression!

 Kayda said this was her favorite part of the whole thing!  Kayda and Dillon have both been much more interested in Carson lately.  I guess he's finally getting old enough that he's fun to play with!

And to finish off a fun trip, the car was dead when we got done!  Fortunately some of the people who work there were willing to come out and give us a jump.  While we waited the kids finished their lunches.