Birthdays

Summer is birthday season at our house. Christopher turned 5 in June. Drew turned 4 yesterday, and Clarissa's birthday will be in 3 weeks. I'm starting to get a little burned out. I LOVE decorating for their parties, and enjoy picking a theme for it with the birthday child, but I stay up too late the night before prepping.

This year Christopher wanted a fish birthday party. Not fishing, or surf, nor pool themed, but a fish theme. I actually had a lot of fun planning it because it was a little different. I planned party games for the first time and the kids had a blast. We had several water games, but the water balloons were by far a favorite. I made chocolate fish for the cupcakes and used pretzels as fishing pols. We also had Oreo and sour worms cups (as bait). 

Christopher is growing up so fast. He's lost 2 teeth and enjoys telling anyone and everyone about it. He is super talented with music, he can shake his booty way better than anyone else in this house, he's also a great singer. One of his favorite performers is Adele (and Selena Gomez, still). Christopher has a testimony of the gospel and enjoys sharing it EVERY fast Sunday at church. He has an amazing memory. Christopher is also a great swimmer, and is pretty much fearless around water. His favorite restaurant is Red Lobster (that's where we went for his b-day). At first I just thought he liked seeing the lobsters there, but the kid actually really enjoys seafood. He specifically asked for lobster, crab and shrimp for dinner (an expensive taste for a 5 year old if you ask me). He had a great time at his party and is supper happy to be 5. Happy Birthday big boy!! We love you!!

 Water balloon games

Drew turned 4 yesterday. I can't believe he's getting so big. Andrew is so fun to have around. He loves 2 things: being tickled and superheroes. So it is no surprise that he had a superhero party. He actually wanted an Ironman party, but I hate specific themes, so I talked him into something a little more broad and again, I had way too much fun planning and decorating for the party.

I usually do all the decorating when the kids are in bed, so when he woke up on party day he was AMAZED. I kept hearing over and over again "this is the best birthday ever!" He was so happy and grateful, that it made my hard work all worth it. 

I wanted to do superhero games only, but Drew insisted on having water balloons for his party too. So, once again, I filled over 60 water balloons up (and told myself, never again am I doing water balloons for a birthday party).

Drew is a super sweet little boy. He's quick to apologize, loves playing with friends, and is a great friend to anyone. He plays super well with both his siblings. The only thing Drew likes more than superheroes is being tickled. He can't hear or see us tickle Clarissa or Christopher and not get involved. I've never seen a kid beg so much for tickle time. His favorite foods are pizza and soup. In fact, when we asked him what he wanted to eat for his birthday dinner  he said "Soup!" (We always take them out to eat on their birthday and Cory and I were trying to figure out where to take him.) We love you Drewzinho!! (Little Drew in Portuguese)

 His smile says it all!!

 I dressed Clarissa as Batgirl

 I had costumes for the kids could dress up. They loved it. Drew is Spiderman (and I am Super Mom).

 I love this picture. Spiderman VS Captain America. Christopher tried sneaking in to blow the candle first. You can totally see the stare down he got from his brother.

 Blowing out candles

Silly Kids + Milestones

We've a few funny moments at our house lately. I've been trying to limit the boys screen/iPad time this summer and have forced them to play. (I know, I am such a mean mom). They get pretty creative when everything gets turned off (and my house gets trashed, but I guess that's the price I have to pay for creativity). This day I can't remember what the boys were trying to do, but this is how I found them in their bedroom. Drew has the pillow head, and Christopher has pajama head and pillow feet. Crazy kids!!

My parents moved into their home at the beginning of June (not sure I blogged about it). After running their remodel for 2 months it's finally over!! (Well almost over.) We were at their place the other day and Clarissa really wanted to get in the pool (even though she had already swam earlier that day and I had already bathed her). Have I mentioned she's persistent (aka SPOILED), and tends to get what she wants? Well we turned our backs to her for a second and this is what happened. She got in the pool fully dressed (since we weren't going to undress her). This little girl has such an attitude. Cory and I are in BIG trouble.

This week Cory replaced the batteries in Drew's remote control car. I was in the kitchen when I heard Cory calling me over for some "girl" help. Clarissa put the car up to her hair and it got all tangled. I couldn't stop laughing, so she started to laugh too. Then when I asked her what should we do and Drew responded with "let's cut it", the laughs turned into cry. Cory got it on video, it was pretty hilarious. First time we get hair tangled. Pretty sure it won't be the last.

I have taken Clarissa with me to get a pedicure before, but she has never gotten her toes painted professionally. She is terrified of letting strangers touch her. Last week when I went to get my toes done I just assumed that would be the case again, but this time she actually wanted to get it painted. I was in heaven. I finally got a little girl to do girly things with me. Not sure who was happier, me or Bel. The first thing she did when Cory got home from work was show him her toes and say "pink!"

Christopher lost his first tooth yesterday and got $1 from the tooth fairy this morning. He's so excited about it. We took him to Target today so he could spend his money.

Lastly, we went to Sedona for the 4th of July. The plan was to spend the weekend. The weather was great, but we had a HORRIBLE night (I think that's an understatement). Clarissa and Christopher woke up at 4:00 and wouldn't go back to sleep (she was actually being silly the whole time - which isn't very funny at 4:00 am). Then Cory finally took over at 5:40 when Christopher and I collapsed and he managed to get the talking parrot back down. Christopher peed the bed at 7:00am so I had to get up again to clean and find him a new place to sleep. By the time we all woke up we were in a terrible mood with no cousins or friends to entertain the kids. We swam ih the morning and left soon after lunch. This was our shortest trip ever. It felt great to be home again and the kids slept in until 9:00 today.