Happy Birthday, Tyler!

Tyler's birthday cake made by me.  I'm pretty proud of this. :)

Joel getting attacked with ballons by the boys.  The girls sat so nicely and just laughed at those silly boys.

Tyler blowing out his candles. He wished for summer. I like his wish!

Light saber fights! Need I say more.

It's hard to believe that he's already 6 years old.  Tyler really wanted a birthday party even though Joel and I both did our best to discourage this idea.  I really wanted to go to the Dells again, but I also understand why a birthday party is so exciting at this age.  He's gotten way into Star Wars lately so it was a Star Wars themed birthday party.   We ended up with 14 kids running around our house on Saturday evening.  We had some fun party games, ate pizza, cake and ice cream, and had light saber fights. I think most of the kids had a blast.  He got some awesome presents from his friends.  We had two boys spends the night.  They are brothers and the younger one is Deacon's age.  Really good kids and we had no problem at bedtime.  Deacon was out by 7pm.  If he hadn't conked out when he did, bedtime might have been a different story. 

The "God" Talk

Deacon had swim lessons tonight so we didn't make it home until around 6:45.  The stars were out in full force and Tyler and I spent some minutes outside taking in the beautiful setting.  We both expressed our amazement at the incredible universe that God put here for us to enjoy.  As we were walking in the house, Ty said that one of his friends believes that Christmas is just about Santa Claus and it is to celebrate Santa Claus's birthday.  He went on to tell me how that's not right though because it is really about Jesus's Birthday and that is why we celebrate it and the meaning of Christmas isn't about the gifts but about God's gift to us.  I'm pretty impressed because I didn't think he paid too much attention when we talked about this.  We had a pretty amazing discussion about God and what different people believe.
On a lighter note, I made pizza for dinner and Deacon wanted two slices of pizza.  He also wanted a bunch of crackers.  He ate off most of the topping of one slice and then he put crackers on his plate. I asked him if I could have that one slice that he hadn't ate off of yet and he said no.  I said "c'mon, you're not going to eat it." 
"Yes, I am." 
He then proceeded to lick the whole slice so I wouldn't want it.  Ugh!  That little stinker.  He did eat both slices. (Well, actually he fed one slice that he had eaten the toppings off of to the dogs, but he did eat the slice he licked.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love how close these two are.  Don't get me wrong they fight like only brothers can fight, but they also defend each other in way that only brothers can.  On Saturday, Joel took them to get haircuts and he had told them that if they behaved they would each get to pick a show to watch when they got home.  They are normally good for haircuts and there were no issues there, but as Joel was putting Deacon in the car, he started to misbehave so Joel told him to stop it or he wouldn't get to pick what to watch.  He didn't stop, so he lost the privelage.  Deke was very upset and screaming crying on the way home.  I heard Ty lean over and tell him, "it's okay, I'll pick Scooby."  The punishment kind of loses its meaning if your brother steps in and gives you what you want, but I loved that Ty was willing to give up his show to watch something that Deacon likes.  Especially considering that just that morning they had fought over what show they were going to watch.  Deacon only wants to watch Scooby and Ty is sick of them. 
Deacon returned the favor last night.  Ty lost the privelage of picking a book out for bedtime.  Therefore Deacon chose a book that he knew Ty would like.  I'm going to eventually have to change the punishments if they keep this up, bur for now I'm so proud to see the empathy they have for each other and their willingness to sarcfice what they like in order to see the other happy. 

Sleeping Angel

They look so innocent when they're sleeping.  Last night we had Connor over.  Ty and him had a blast running around the living room, tackling each other.  I kept thinking they were going to hurt each other, but both of them seemed to be enjoying themselves.  Poor little Deke was exhausted and fell asleep cuddled up to me.  It's so rare to have that happen nowadays and I really enjoyed snuggling with him.  They grow up so fast.



Olive Garden

Thanks to John and Heather Bradberg, Joel and I got to go out last night.  We went to Olive Garden and I loved it!  We managed to remember to bring home our left overs instead of boxing them up and leaving them on the table which is what we always seem to do.  Anyway, after we got home Ty was sweet enough to carry these in.  We found out when we got inside that he thought they contained desert.  Really, we should have gotten a desert to go.  That would have been great once we got home even though both Joel and I were so stuffed we wouldn't have been able to enjoy it.  The boys decided to eat our leftovers anyway.  I was surprised at how much they ate.  They finished both mine and Joel's off.  I was a little disappointed as I was looking forward to having that food for lunch today.  And yes, Ty is sitting on the table in the picture and no, we don't normally allow that.  I blame the food coma I was in for not making him sit in a chair. 

Baking with the Boys

I made puppy chow on Saturday and the boys really enjoyed licking the bowl that was used to melt the chocolate and peanut butter.  It was so yummy!  Saturday was a very busy day for us.  Alissa  and I went to the Antique mall here.  I'll need to remember to take our parents when they came up. It was really nice and then we had lunch at Mango's.  When I got home, it was such a beautiful day that I decided to go for a run. Ran 4 miles in 40 minutes!  That is awesome for me!  I know that it is still slow, but considering that last year I ran 12 minute miles to be able to run 10 minute miles for 4 miles is just incredible. I never thought I'd be able to do that. I was completely dead after that though.  13 miles is seeming longer and longer, but I can do this! 

Next weekend, we have Ty's party.  I'm trying to get myself organized now so I'm not pulling my hair out by this time next week.  He's inviting a lot of friends from his school.  Okay, not a lot because I had to cap it.  There are only so many kids I can handle.  He could only invite 10 friends and boy did he have a very hard time picking those 10.    

Birthday Card

Here's his birthday card!  I think it turned out great!  Thank you picnik.  I couldn't have done it without you.

Star Wars Theme

 

 

 

 

Joel let the boys watch the Star Wars Trilogy and Ty loved it.  He wants a Star Wars themed birthday and I had the idea to create his own bday card invitations.  Fastenal's print shop can print them for as cheap as I would pay at the store.  I took these pictures to give me something to go off of and then I used picnik to create a really cool card. At least, I think it's cool and Ty's pretty excited about it too and the kids will love it.  I'll post the final product soon.  Too bad that when I finally learn to use picknik (in  a very limited way), they are going to be going away.  

Ice Skating

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are pictures from when we took the boys ice skating.  It's been a very busy week this week with work and with planning the Super Bowl Party.  Ty's birthday is coming up as well and so the month of February is keeping us all hopping!