Henry's Birthday - Part 3

Last Saturday, we hosted a birthday party for a few of Henry's friends from school.  For the first time, we had it at our house... now, a bunch of kids in my house is not exactly MY idea of fun, so I really  worried how to make this party fun for them.  Then believe it or not, I came up with the idea of doing a pirate party & a treasure hunt in our yard.  Honestly, I can't believe I thought of it because I'm about the least creative person I know.

So I got each kid a pirate hat and had two crafts for them - color your own pirate bandana and then make your own pirate medallion.  I wish I took a picture of the dining room before the kids got in there - it was decorated really well if I do say so myself!!  Here are a few pics of the kids coloring.

Two minutes into it, one little boy said, "I'll finish this at home... what's next?"  So we moved on to the medallions and then went outside for the treasure hunt.

Brad actually thought up 6 or 7 clues, all of which rhymed, and he used coffee to stain the paper & then dried them with a blow dryer, which made the clues look old and weathered.  Very cool... he is VERY creative!  The treasure they were hunting were the goodie bags, which were well stocked I might add... some of which was chocolate candy that melted in the heat, but I digress!

I've mentioned that Henry is a HUGE fan of chocolate and frosting right???  I do wonder where the boy gets that from?!?!?!

I think the kids really did have fun, even if they spent the last half hour upstairs playing Wii!!

These next few pictures I took on Sunday morning - mostly because Kyra was being rather silly but insanely cute!!!

Henry's Birthday - Part 2

On Saturday, we had Brad's parents and sister over for some tasty BBQ and to celebrate Henry's birthday (again). 

Notice his cake... now, if you are paying close attention you will notice it is EXACTLY the same cake as the one we celebrated with on Friday.

Here is the thing on the cake - Brad didn't want to serve a 1/2 eaten cake on Saturday and Harris Teeter sells these cookie cakes for $8.99!!  You do the math!

Henry's FAVORITE gift and I mean FAVORITE gift was from Ammy and Paw Paw...

25 Junie B. Jones books (you gotta love the Scholastic book orders)!!!  Henry just LOVES Junie B.  I must admit, she is a funny girl, but likes to say "stupid" and "dumb" quite a bit... Henry knows he can only say those words while reading Junie B.  He told my in-laws that his dreams had come true because this is exactly what he wanted and that this was his best birthday since his 5th birthday!

Henry's Birthday - Part 1

As if not finding time to post about Easter wasn't bad enough, I haven't found the time to post about one of the most special days in my life!  Super Bad Mommy!!

Last week Henry turned 6 years old.  I can not believe that my first born child is SIX!!  I still get weepy when I think about his birth and I can still remember every minute of that day!!  Henry was SO excited for his birthday.  He reminded not only me & Brad, but his teachers and classmates, all week long that his birthday was on Friday.  It was all he could talk about.

Sadly, my main man came down with yet another bout of strep throat on the day before his birthday!!!  So he could not go to school on Friday.  As bummed as he was about that, he was equally happy to spend the day at home with me, watching Scooby Doo and playing Wii!  My mother flew in for the weekend too, which always makes my kids happy!

Henry was SO EXCITED to get the Connect Four game... he loves this game.  So I played with him - I played about 5 games with him and that stinker won 4 of the 5.  Brad played 3 games with him & they tied one, and each won one.  My mom played a few games with him and lost every game to him.  He is REALLY good at this game... I don't know how he does it because I'm older, one would think I'm smarter and I should win!!!  I think I'll challenge him to a rematch tonight!  Honestly, I have no idea where the kid gets his competitiveness from!   

Easter (A Little Late)

Bad Mommy!  I was so excited to post pictures from our Disney trip, that I didn't post anything about Easter.  I'll keep this brief, but here are some pictures from our Easter Sunday - spent at Ammy & Paw Paw's house, going on an egg hunt.  My dad also sent the kids a box of stuff and what they liked best about it was the bubble wrap!!

Disney Day #7 - The Last Day

Our last day in Disney was VERY eventful.  I "slept in" until 5:45 but we were still able to get to Disney by 7:30.  The same characters were out front, so Brad quickly got himself a couple of fast passes to Space Mountain and then we immediately hit the Buzz Lightyear ride & Peter Pan's Flight.  

Now, when we got off Peter Pan's ride, Henry said he did not feel good... his tummy hurt, he had to "go" to the bathroom and then he didn't even want to wait in line for 20 minutes (our longest wait for a character) to meet Ariel.

So while Kyra and I were in line to meet Ariel, Henry sat on Brad's lap, said he wanted to go home and then threw up all over himself.  What to do?  It was only 9am... oddly, once he threw up, Henry felt much better, so our excellent parenting skills took over and I took them to Toon Town while Brad went to Space Mountain. 

The kids LOVED Toon Town!  Mickey and Minnie's house is in there so we went to Minnie's house first - so cute!

Her living room...

Her kitchen...

They were doing a dance on our way in to Mickey's house, but his house was kind of under renovation so not as charming as Minnie's...

Toon Town also has a little play area for the kids to play in and Donald's Boat... it is this huge boat that has water coming out of it - the kids seriously LOVED this thing!  They spent an hour trying to run from the water, or in Kyra's case, trying to get hit by the water!

She was soaking wet by the time we left the Boat - I had to buy her a new dress!  Note Henry's new shirt above (to replace the one he threw up on).

The last ride in Toon Town was a kiddie roller coaster - Kyra's first roller coaster ride ever.  She absolutely LOVED it!  She laughed & squealed through the entire ride!  We had to ride it 2 times.

While waiting for our 2nd turn on the ride, Henry informed me that he'd had an accident... his hiney threw up, as he calls it.  So we had to ditch our lunch plans with Pooh & Gang and went back to the hotel to take naps.  The kids really wanted to go to the pool when we woke up, and Henry seemed to be feeling better, so I took them back for a bit while Brad started packing.

On Saturday around 7:45am, we were packed and about to go in to the hotel restaurant for breakfast when Kyra threw up on me.  This did NOT bode well for our 9 hour ride home.  She was either throwing up or sleeping the entire way home - poor thing.

But by 4pm, we were back in Cornelius and her stomach bug had passed.  I spent the next 4 hours doing laundry and unpacking while Henry played Wii and Kyra ate almost everything in site!

Our Disney Vacation is over... it was a great trip and one I hope the kids will always remember!!

Disney Day #6

On Thursday, we went back to Epcot but this time, got on the 8:30 bus so that we were one of the first people there when it opened at 9am.  This really was our biggest "lesson learned."  You have to get there early!

We were able to walk on to Nemo & Friends 2 times with no wait.  We got two sets of fast passes so that we could each take Henry on the Test Track.  It was great!

This is a fountain that sprays water out to music - very cool.

Kyra was not in a good mood at this point...

But while Henry & I were on Test Track, Daddy took her back to Pixie Hollow & then paid $15 so she could get her face painted!

Next we very quickly walked through all the countries en route to Morracco... we had heard that Jasmine hung out there.  It was at this point that Brad turned to beer to help him handle the crowds - wise move... 3 beers in to our stroll through the countries and he was happy as a clam.

A nice worker in Morracco told us where we could find Jasmine.  We only had to wait 15 minutes for her to come back and when she did, she brought Aladdin with her!!  What luck!

On our way out, we had to get more pictures by the golf ball (as the kids called it).  Kyra was once again not in a good mood and if you look closely, you can see some tears.

It was late by the time we left Epcot, but we took the kids to the pool again anyway... I tried to convince them to take a nap but that just did not work.

Disney Day #5

On Wednesday, the temperature in Orlando was still very cold, especially when you hit a theme park at 7am!  I actually had to go out Tuesday night and buy the kids a pair of pants from an outlet store - thankfully I had brought sweatshirts!

When you get to Magic Kingdom that early, they have about 5 or 6 characters out for you to meet.  So this morning, we spent time with Pinocchio and Chip & Dale.... and both kids were hitting Pinocchio's shoes!

Again, we were able to walk on every ride with little to no wait.  Henry's favorite today was Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.  Around 11am, we got a spot on Main Street, some popcorn and waited for the Parade - my favorite!  Now it was getting really warm out and again, by the time the parade ended around 12:30, the park was packed so we headed back to the hotel.

The kids really wanted to go swimming so we spent about 2 hours in the pool, which was nice as long as you were under the water!  All of Disney's pools are heated to 80 degrees, but the temperature outside was more like 70, so you kind of froze if you weren't submersed in the water!

That night, we had reservations for dinner at Chef Mickey.  Kyra passed out on the bus ride to the hotel...

Against my better judgement of never waking a sleeping child, I did wake her up to meet Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Goofy & Mickey!

I suggested that the kids ask Goofy to do the Hot Dog Dance... and I swear if I didn't know better, Goofy was giving me a dirty look!!!

The kids hit Mickey's shoes too... he pretended to laugh but you have to wonder if these characters don't get a little annoyed with kids like mine!