Charles 5th Birthday Party!!

Preparations for Charles 5th birthday party began many months ago. He is obsessed with dogs and has known that was the theme for his birthday for a long time. Charles has ten stuffed dogs. He has 31 pretend dogs that he takes time to play with and feed every day. Charles favorite thing to play right now is pretend dog with Michelle being the master. So, everything this birthday was about dogs. The present he wanted most was a dog. We had to explain to Charles that with us traveling so much over the next couple of months, no one would be home to take care of a dog so it would probably be better that he not get a dog for his birthday present. He is such a trooper and said it was okay as long as he could get a dog soon. Anyway, we had Charles party today. It was fun!

Here is the Birthday Boy or Top Dog as we called him!!

Charles designed his own birthday cake. When I asked him what he wanted for his cake, he explained what he wanted in detail. He picked out the colors and supervised the whole cake making process!!

He wanted to play two games. I talked him into an art project for the kids to do while we were waiting for everyone to arrive.

The dog art project!

Pin the paw on the dog invitation!

Bone, Bone, Who's got the Bone (played like button, button)!

This was the most priceless picture of the party, Charles' reaction to the trick candles I put on his cake. Every time he would blow the candle out, it would relite.

Patiently waiting for cake and ice cream!!

Presents!! Presents!!

We had so much fun for Charles party. Thanks so much to Gabe and the kids for helping get things together and ready for the party. I couldn't have gotten everything done without them. Also, thanks to my great friend Crystal for helping wash kids' hands, serve cake, and take pictures!!

Spring Blizzard!

Winter has gone by with not much in the way of moisture. It is the end of March and our spring blizzard hit. We woke up Thursday morning to a sprinkle of snow. Schools closed, businesses closed, and Gabe was sent home for the day. Snow continued throughout much of the day. We woke up Friday morning to about 15 or 16 inches of snow. The kids were more than excited. They had talked all winter of going out and catching snowflakes on the tongues and making snowmen. Well, they got their chance on Friday. Here are Charles and Michelle frolicking in the snow.

The snow really isn't this deep. Charles got a kick out of wiggling through the snow on his knees pretending he was a snowplow.

Michelle insisted on eating the snow. "It's good mom!"

The best part was our almost environmentally safe snowman. He had rock eyes and buttons that we dug out of the snow in the backyard. His nose was a cucumber. His arms were celery sticks. The hat was Charles' that he just whipped off to put on the snowman to keep his head warm.

Not bad, huh. It has only been years since I made a snowman!

We had a blast playing in the snow. Thank you kids for keeping mom young and helping me remember what fun it is to be a kid!!

Silly Picture!

It has been a while since I updated our blog. Just like everyone else, life is busy. I did want to share this picture of Michelle. See if you can guess what she is doing!

Now I will tell you the story. One morning while Charles was at preschool, Michelle and I were drawing pictures. She had traced her hand and drawn a few things. All of a sudden she put her head down on her paper and was drawing. I asked her if she was okay. She said she was tracing her head! I wanted to bust up laughing, but her request for help to trace her face was so serious. Even now, as I type this post, I am busting up laughing. Kids sure keep life interesting!