"happy (3 months later) birthday to you!"

Toward the end of last year, Ky and Kade began to complain that their birthday is so close to Christmas.  They said when they get presents for Christmas, and then four days later they get presents for their birthday, it just feels like more Christmas.  Plus, then they don't get any for almost an entire year.  I don't blame them for feeling this way; I completely agree with them.  So, they were given the option of celebrating their birthday a few months late.  They were hesitant to agree to it at first, but they did.  On their actual birthday, they got to open a few presents from grandparents and aunts and uncles, pick what they wanted for dinner, and have a simple birthday cake, but that was it!  Which meant we saved all the presents and parties and celebrating until the end of March.

March 28th was the big day!  I have to say that it was lots of fun to celebrate a birthday in the spring. All of our real birthdays are at the end of the year, so it was refreshing to celebrate one in March.

Oh, and it's hard for two year olds to understand that it's all the other boys' birthday, but not his.

Ky and Kade used some of their own money to buy each other gifts this year.  I loved their generous attitudes, even if it's just more stuff that they get to share with their brother.  Being a twin must be so awesome!

We invited six of the boys' friends to come over for a movie night themed birthday party.

We had popcorn cupcakes, and root beer cupcakes.

We put up some simple party decorations (afterall, these were eight year old boys we were trying to entertain)

We started the party out with pizza.  I'm not kidding when I say that dinner lasted 8 minutes total.  I looked at the clock after they had all left the table and thought, "What?  We still have 2 hours and 52 minutes left to keep these boys entertained!?"  It only took minutes after they finished eating to have found all the swords and light sabers, and toy guns, and bows and arrows and to proceed to run through the house "attacking" each other.

After they played "war" for a little bit, we settled them down with popcorn and movie concessions to watch Turbo in 3D!

We finished the party with presents, cupcakes, and playing video games.  I think everyone had a good time, and my house was still standing after 3 hours of nine boys running through it, so I call that a success!

We sent all the boys home with these fun party favors.  They included microwave popcorn, candy and a code for a free redbox movie, so they could have their own movie night at home.
Happy (really late) Birthday, Ky and Kade!

wishing daddy good luck

 A few weeks ago, Bart had to take his re-certification test so that he would still be allowed to practice medicine.  After a brutal three day review course, and as he prepared to take the test the next morning, we decided to send him some good luck pictures to let him know we were cheering for him.

 The twins thought of all the sayings for these signs, which is why they are a bit random...

 Then, we decided to take the silliest pictures we could, to make daddy smile, and hopefully ease his stress.  We definitely got silly!

 Then the couch ate the three boys...

 We totally nailed the jumping photo

 We like to wear shoes on our hands, and hats on our feet.  And make weird faces.

Wow look!  It's a six armed monster!

 Then the twins and I decided to play with one of their portraits in photoshop.  Yes, we've got mad photo editing skills!
We sent all these photos to Bart in an email, and he said they made him smile and they probably helped him pass his test, I'm sure!

spring break 2014 edition

I was nervous about this spring break.  I was just starting to feel decent, some of the time.  Plus, I knew it was going to be too cold outside to plan on doing anything out doors during the week.  Also, at the end of the week, Bart had to go out of town for work for four days.  The idea of entertaining and caring for all three kids all day given those circumstances was a bit daunting.  But, we were able to get out and do some fun things, the boys helped me get some things done, and they were very understanding of my need to rest occasionally.  It turns out we had a great week!

One day we headed to a nearby children's museum that we haven't been to for several years.  All three boys had so much fun!

The first thing we did was play mini golf, and honestly I think Krew would have been happy if that was the only thing we did there that day.  He loved it, and didn't want to be peeled away to do something else (until he saw all the other fun things to do.)  I was however, a bit disappointed to see him golfing right handed.  Not because there's anything wrong with being righty, but simply because we already have two sets of little kids left handed golf clubs, and when the twins outgrow those, we'll probably buy two more sets of left handed golf clubs.  When they outgrow those, two more sets of left handed clubs, etc.  Then, when Krew is ready for real clubs, we'll have to buy a set of right handed clubs.  So, three different sets of golf clubs in each size?!  Golf clubs should be something we can pass down right?  Oh well, thank goodness for craigslist!  Or I should force Krew to learn to play left-handed...

This ball area is the best!  The kids all run around putting balls in the different points, watch them get sucked up the tubes, roll down, get spun around, etc. and ultimately end up in a contraption in the ceiling.  Then they wait underneath for the contraption to open up and dump all the balls on their heads.  My kids (and I) love this room!

Kade put this hat and vest on and said, "Look Mom, I'm Emmett!" -as in the main character in the Lego Movie!

Kade and Ky loved the art area.  They had fun painting on these thick pieces of cardboard, and yes they both got paint all over their clothes.

Okay, so you know how people talk about how kids have short attention spans?  I'm not sure why they say that, because Krew kept putting this rubber ducky in this water area, watching it go around and come out the other side, over and over and over.  We had to drag him out of there after the fiftysomethingth time he watched the ducky go around.

Another day during spring break, we met up with some friends at the bowling alley and had a blast.  This was Krew's first time bowling, and this smile shows how excited he was!

I love his expression in the above picture.  Pure delight!

Thanks to this ramp and the bumpers, Krew tied with Ky for second place out of the five kids!

Kade's mad skills earned him first place, breaking 100, which is usually my goal (yeah, I'm an awesome bowler!)

Love Ky's concentration!

One day, the twins had a birthday party to go to, and when I dropped them off, Krew spotted this little play area, and had to climb around on it, despite the fact that it was maybe 20 degrees out, and the play area was surrounded by several inches of snow.  This kid hasn't been to a playground in nearly six months, so he was going to play no matter what.