September 28, 2014 at 03:01PM

via Instagram http://ift.tt/YxU8Bt Oh my Calin! Today was the primary program at church and he had a solo 🎶 It melted my heart! The whole program was amazing. The faith and testimonies of little children is so powerful. I'm so thankful to have a family of my own and know we can be together. Forever. #proudmommymoment #iamamormon #familiesareforever

Calin's 5th Birthday Party {TMNT}

Calin requested a ninja birthday party this year. I asked him if he wanted Lego Ninja (Ninjago) or Ninja Turtles, and he said Ninja Turtles, so that's what we went with. It was a pretty easy theme to go with, and lots of fun planning.  Calin and Capri both have birthdays that fall on holiday weekends, so usually lots of friends are out of town. This year for Calin's party that was probably a good thing. This is the third birthday he's celebrated here in AZ, and with preschool last year, church, and kindergarten this year, he's had time to make lots of friends. 

When guests arrived, instead of coming through the front door, they were led through the garage to the Secret Sewer Lair. 

Before they could enter the TMNT Secret Sewer Lair they had to start the transformation process. . . 

eat 1 piece of slime (green jello)

eat 1 worm (gummy worm of course)

Climb through the TMNT Secret Sewer (a tunnel I made on the other side of the door, that I made with black plastic table cloths)

I wish I would have taken a picture of the table with the slime and worms.

But here is the sewer

 Once the kids made it out of the sewer their transformation was complete -  they received a TMNT mask and were official Ninja Turtles. 

  We played lots of games! 

For this one I made mini pizzas that they had to toss to feed to the Ninja Turtles. While half the kids played this, the other half was tossing some green tennis balls at some green cans of slime trying to knock them all down (I guess I forgot the picture of that?)

We did Limbo with Donatello's Bo Staff

Pin the Mask on the Turtle

We had pizza of course! With some TMNT go-gurts, green goo (go-go applesauce), TMNT fruit snacks, and some sewer lids (oreos).

After they ate, we did another game before opening presents. 

This is the Punch Box. Calin really wanted a piñata, but since it's too hot to do outside, I opted for this instead. It was a big hit with the kids. 

 Presents were fun. I always get nervous and worry that my kid will be ungrateful or bratty for this one part of the party (I know I had a few of those at my own birthday parties when I was younger. Oh the shame!), but Calin was very sweet and thanked all his friends and showed that he was really excited about each of the gifts. He got LOTS of Ninja Turtle stuff of course, and has had so much fun playing with all of his birthday gifts!

 

I'm so glad I ordered the cake this year instead of making one. I love to bake, but with all the other party planning going on, it was nice no having to worry about this part!

 And it was actually pretty tasty. I think we only ended up with maybe 2 or 3 pieces left over.

The kids each got to take home a Ninja Turtle goodie bag. It had some sewer slime (homemade Gak) and some TMNT candies.

Here's a picture I took of the games and decorations the night before the party.

And here is the invitation:

I had a blast at the party, so the kids must have too right?! :) 

Cars

I want to get back into blogging more often about the little everyday things. I still have big events to post, and that usually stops me from posting little things, but I'm going to try and post other things in the mean time. 

And of course while I'm trying to type this I am reminded why I don't blog as much. I have been interrupted about 23 times. It has taken me 15 minutes to get this far. Ha! I can't even finish a thought before being interrupted. I'll just go with it. If my sentences blend together, or there are random words of gibberish in here, it's their fault. Those cute squishy faced sticky hand munchkins interrupting me every 5 seconds (really. every. 5. seconds.). I love those munchkins so much!!!!

Here's what they are doing right now:

Last Thursday Jordan called and said the jeep wouldn't start and he needed a ride home from work. Right now he's at his Mayo Clinic rotation, so it's about an hour away, sometimes 2 during rush hour. It took us a little over 2 hours to get out there, then about 30 minutes of trying to fix the car (nope. wasn't the battery), then another hour and a half drive home. The kids didn't get to bed that night until close to 10. Yikes! (they are usually in bed around 7)

So Jordan took the mercedes the next day, leaving me carless. 

**Sidenote!!! Did you know we finally got a second car?! We shared a car for 6 years. It was time. SUCH a blessing! Especially right now! And it sure is a lovely one!! It was my Aunt's car for 15 years, so I kind of feel like a mini (though I'm pretty sure she's smaller than me :) Aunt Beth driving my kids around in my fancy new (to me - it's really 16yrs old) mercedes suv. hehe. **

Calin had to miss school on Friday, he bawled for a good 20 minutes saying "I want to go to school!!! I want to learn!!!!" cute kid. 

Sharing a car was no big deal before I had kids in school, and while Jordan was still in school just down the street. So this week was stressful trying to figure everything out. I had to find rides for Calin all week. Luckily it was my friend's week to drive the girls to preschool, so that was covered. But I had to cancel Taylor's check-up. And I was sick earlier this week (probably stressing over the car situation), and probably should have gone into the dr, but I'm better now, so no biggie.

I also had Calin's first Parent Teacher Conference this week. It was pretty uneventful. She said he's doing great, he got perfect scores on everything. She says he smiles and is happy all the time. She also said he can be quite chatty. Always wanting to turn around and talk to the other kids around him. And asked if I can work with him on listening better. She said he always has great eye contact and hears her just fine, but sometimes when she asks him to do something he is looking at her and nodding his head, but is zoned out (or zoned into something else going on around him). 

Oh, and last week I also had to get a new iMac. I found a good deal on a used one, so I've been happy about it. And it has already saved me SO much time! I'm glad my old iMac finally had enough and gave in, cause I definitely had more than enough!

I think we are getting the Jeep back today. Yay!! The word was that the ignition was broken. Better the ignition than the transmission huh!

September 14, 2014 at 08:38PM

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1tTZHE2 Baby Grace ❤️❤️

September 13, 2014 at 09:58AM

via Instagram http://ift.tt/Xdust5 Made it to Portland. Tay loved the plane. Maybe a little too much. I'm exhausted from him bouncing around and playing in our seats for 2 hrs. #illtakethatovercrying #taylorsfirstflight

September 12, 2014 at 09:02PM

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1m1nkMb Leaving for Washington in the morning. Here's what I'm taking with me. #newniece #newbornphotography 😀