Birthday spring begins!

Here we are, it's March 28th and I've survived two kids birthday parties.  Can I get an "amen?!"  All in all, it was really fun.  We started out celebrating Mr. Isaac Alan on March 14th.  He awoke to presents and a homemade Storybots sign.

When your birthday is "pie day" you get pie!  Bamma picked up a Pi Pie!

 Happy 4th dude!

 We went to McTeacher Nite at the local McDonald's.  Sam was pretty thrilled to see a teacher dressed as a pie and to see his kindergarten teacher behind the counter taking orders!

 St. Patty's Day requires green ensembles!

 Mike was out of town all week and came home on Friday to get cracking on Isaac's cake.  He spent many hours getting the characters just right.

 Very successful reveal the next morning at breakfast!

 We had a joint birthday party for Xavier (2), Isaac (4), and Noah (9) with all the family that weekend at my parents' house.  It was lovely!  Here's the cake artist with his masterpiece and the lucky recipients Isaac and Xavier!

 The birthday boys work together to get the candles out!

 Sam does a spot on impression of "Boop" the angry, red Storybot!

 All the kids left to right: Sam, Francesca, Isabella, Isaac, Nicholas, Xavier, Anya, and Noah!

 These two characters!

 We spent a few days prepping then for Noah's friend party at our house.  Sam was feeling a little left out, with two brother birthdays, so I gave him a special archaeology kit to work on.

 Noah wanted a repeat of last year's theme: Minecraft.  Fortunately, Pinterest came to the rescue with a few new ideas...

 Party day!  He woke up ready to creep it up with his friends!

 The cake was inspired by Noah's avatar "skin" in the game.  It was very accurate (according to him).

 He's nine!

 We hosted a motley crew of school friends, other friends, and neighbors.  It was busy, but awesome!

 Ellie spent the day with Kelly and Ginger, away from all the hubbub.  I think she enjoyed her day with Kevin and Boots!

 So now we head into Spring Break week with lots of new toys!  Thanks to all who celebrated with us, we have a very lucky 4 year old and 9 year old now!

Low key month before the birthday gauntlet

 Things have been fairly calm around here, nothing crazy to report.  Just normal days of school, evenings of karate and homework, and weekends of gaming and other fun.  The older two have been getting along a lot better lately, it's been nice!

 Recent Sam masterpiece, The Lorax.  Looks like he got some of daddy's drawing genes!

 Brother's forever!  Cue heart melting now...

 We had a fun Star Wars/February birthday celebration with the Worsts and Kelly and Ginger a couple weeks ago, so fun!

 Noah has been very much into creating presentations using google slides lately.  He prepared a talk about pugs for the group.  He had a very attentive audience!

 I "pinned for the win" with a rainbow jello creation.  Ginger said it was the most "gayest midwestern creation ever!"

 You say you want a photo with all the kids? Yea, good luck with that!

 Yay for high school friendships that span into the next gen!

 Valentine's Day was very red indeed!

 We had a Friday off school and took advantage of the Field Museum free IL resident day!

 Noah requested some oobleck (cornstarch and water), which Dr. Mike was happy to whip up!

 We suffered through some yucky stomach bug.  Sam had the worst of it and was home for two days.

 But after a couple of days rest, he was good as new and equipped with some new slippers!

 Cold days require warm blankets!

 Waterbury did their Jump Rope for Heart and Sam rebounded from his illness and won the title for his class and was able to represent at the all school assembly!  Way to go Sam!

 Another Friday off (institute day), another jammie day with playdough!

 I was able to sneak away for a gals weekend with Michelle and Andrea, we had a great time!

 Isaac had trouble keeping up with the boys weekend while I was away!

 And Noah has been working hard in Karate sparring class lately, so proud of him!

So, that's what we've been up to lately.  Now, we head into the gauntlet of March birthdays.  Much fun to come!

The long short month

So, I hate February.  Like really hate.  It's cold, no super fun things to look forward to, yuck.  But, since I know this about myself, I selfishly look to fill the void that is February by adding in some fun things to do.  So far, so good and it's...  February 5th.  Sigh.  We have been enjoying our karaoke machine that Bamma gave us for Christmas.

 We went to see Moana with Bamma on a fun Friday with no school!

 Sam celebrated his half birthday and was Student of the Week in Kindergarten.  He was able to bring home Wally, the class mascot, and we took him out for ice cream.

 Isaac helped me do a deep clean of the oven.  Dr. Isaac, paging Dr. Isaac!

 Ellie turned 11 and celebrated with her usual, nap on the couch with tongue hanging out!

 Noah was able to go to a birthday party at Rockin Jump (local trampoline park) and had fun dueling with our neighbor Deven.

 Noah also recently had his purple belt testing in karate.

 Success, good job dude!

 He celebrated by finally using a giant glowstick light saber he had won in a raffle back in October.  It stayed lit for almost 2 whole days!

 100th day of school!

 Noah has had some fun exploring Google slides lately, and created a pug presentation.  Just for fun with his buddy Marko.

 We decided the cold weather called for a joint trip to Rockin Jump, this time with all the brothers.

 Today (Sunday) we braved Chinatown for Chinese New Years.  It was packed, but a lot of fun!  Sam was a pro with the chopsticks and ate everything!  Noah was awesome and tried everything too.  Isaac was just happy I brought a Cliff bar for him!

 Waiting for the parade with FULL sized packs of skittles from Bamma (winner!).

 It was a cold, but beautiful day!

 Isaac became delirious and at one point was jabbering away to me about the "friendly spice aliens" (no, not SPACE aliens mom, SPICE aliens).

 The parade did not disappoint, but it was SO crowded!

 There was a lot of this action today by myself and Uncle Josh, we'll be needing ice packs for the backs later as we watch the Super Bowl!  But the boys did a great job of proving they can handle even busy outings without meltdowns, woohoo!