The Invasion of Spiderman

The other night we decided to go down to Octoberfest.  It's a cute little festival really.  A few bouncy houses, a few beer stands, a few food stands with your choice of fried oreos, fried twinkies, fried corndogs…basically as long as it's fried you're money.  Anyway, it was fairly non-eventful UNTIL the boys all "won" blow-up Spiderman dolls.  I use the term "won" VERY loosely here because it was a game where you pick three rubber ducks out of a swimming pool pond and magically everyone is a winner!  My kind of game really.  We ended up with three very happy little boys, until one of the them popped.  But we won't talk about that.

Here are the happy boys.  They proceeded to bounce their Spiderman Dolls all the way down the railroad tracks and up to the restaurant for dinner.  Ahhh, precious boys.  Precious precious boys.

  

Picking up the Slack

Once in a while I escape the compound and get to enjoy a Girls Night Out.  I love my kids (and husband…usually) dearly but I'll tell you what I love me a Girls Night Out.  Nothing soothes the soul like a little grub, a little chatting and a lot of wine.  The most recent night was in celebration of Ms. Amanda's Birthday.  She desperately wanted to go to The Melting Pot to celebrate her birthday this year and her crappy husband failed to get a reservation in time (kidding, he's not really crappy but he is a procrastinator apparently).  Don't worry, we were more than happy to pick up his slack and treat the young lady to the dinner she had been dreaming of.  Tough work, but someone had to do it.

I didn't leave empty handed, definitely won myself a bottle of salad dressing.  Who's jealous?

And here we have our awesome waiter doing some tricks with the cheese.  Fancy yes?  And seriously, he was the best waiter ever.  He didn't even bat an eye when we asked for one million separate checks. And then we have the birthday girl blowing out her candle.  Happy Birthday Amanda, I hope it was everything you dreamed of and more!

Elmo Who?

It's happening again.  The second kid is also growing up way too fast.  This time I'm not actually talking about physical growth though, I'm talking about way more important things like…toy selection?  Nolan buzzed right past all of the "baby" toys.  I always blamed the fact that he was around older cousins, and had some older friends (I mean and he's a genius…duh).  With Bennett I guess I'm blaming…Nolan.  Bennett has skipped right on by Elmo and has landed right in the middle of all the guys.  What do my children have against that little furry monster anyway?  Quite sad actually, I thought I'd have more time…I thought I'd have more time.  Now don't get me wrong, the Superhero phase is my favorite phase (although it's about to get bumped out by the Lego phase), so I'm not mad that he too is enjoying some Superhero action I just wish we could have stayed in Babyland just a LITTLE bit longer.  Oh well, it could be worse I guess. He could like Yo Gabba Gabba.  

Tardiness

I have never claimed to be the most punctual person on the planet, and Chad would surely back me up on that statement.  Sometimes I think being late is just the direct result of life getting in the way.    Sometimes LIFE makes me late.  A breakfast that took a little bit too long, an unexpected conversation with a family member,  a little boys jacket that WOULD NOT ZIP, a stoplight that lasted a wee bit too long.  You know, normal stuff.  Well today life happened and all of the previously sited "life happenings"..happened.  So you know what?  I got Nolan to school late (actually right on time, keep reading).  He was officially written up for being "tardy".  You know what the kicker is...HE WASN'T ACTUALLY TARDY!  I was in the school with him BEFORE the bell rang yet the mean rule abiding car pool line nazi attendant instructed me to sign Nolan in at the office for being tardy.  WHAT?  I mean are you kidding me?  Is this a joke?  You do realize he is 4 and is in preschool right?  I mean isn't it my prerogative as to when I get my child to school?  You have to know me a little bit to sincerely understand the magnitude of this situation.  I like to follow the rules, always have...always will.  Almost to a fault.  And this lady telling me that I was tardy today when we weren't really tardy, about put me over the edge.  BUT I was hyped up from my leisurely breakfast date with my chatty birthday boy and you know what nothing was going to change that (carpool nazi's lucky day I guess).  Take that tardy police, can't rain on our parade!  This is how we feel about your tardy slip...

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to my goofy little lego lover!  

We celebrated Nolan's birthday a day early and had a big bash at a Bouncy House place, those pictures will follow shortly.  

For today I just want to wish this smart, handsome, polite, sweet, loving little boy a very 

Happy 4th Birthday filled with all of the legos he can dream of!

Frankenstein

Well tonight I went to Happy Hour after work and I came home to find out that Bennett was walking.  Perhaps if I went on a Girls Vacation I would come home to him peeing in the potty?  I'm not sure, but I'm certainly willing to take my chances.

This video doesn't really do the walking justice, but I am ever so grateful that the Nanny (okay, my Mom) was here to get some of the action on video for me.  He has been taking a few steps here and there lately, but apparently tonight was his night to shine and he was all over the place.  Don't fret I yanked him out of bed when I got home so that I could witness it in the flesh.  He walks like Frankenstein and it is A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E.  Is there anything cuter than a freshly walking baby?  Nope, there sure isn't and here is a video to prove it...

One Hot Party

Warning:  Longest picture post ever

I'm feeling awfully picture happy tonight for some reason, or just too lazy to delete so I'm showing a bunch…you pick.  Our little buddy Jack turned 3 and he had a Fire Truck Party to celebrate.  The party was totes adorbs (that's me trying to be trendy, translation for Chad: Totally Adorable) and had all of the details you could imagine…

Yes in case you were wondering there was an actual firetruck there and No it's not because Curtis started a fire…though I'm sure someday the truck will be back for the later reason.  

Before we get into the firetruck pictures though I'd like to highlight Bennett and his girlfriend Violet.  I had to put them next to each other in two separate pictures because quite frankly neither of these two ever sit still for a second.  But seriously how cute are they?  I will tell you though, Violet is going to have some competition around these parts fairly shortly.  Ms. Lori is blessing this group with another little girl for the moms to dress up and for the boys to fight over and we are PUMPED.  

Yep Lori, I just spilled the beans.  Someone had to.   

Alrighty back to the party.  Here was the big firetruck reveal...

I don't know…I think he liked it.  Yes?

A little climbing around on the firetruck for everyone...

 After awhile some of the younger party goers got a little bored with the firetruck and decided to try out a different mode of red transportation instead.  Nolan jumped in for a bit too, is it me or does he look ridiculously too big for the wagon?  My poor poor giant. Another thing to note, check out B's eyebrow raise in the bottom picture.  Again…totes adorbs.

Blowing out the candles…

Random happenings...

And let me just show you what the Dads were doing.  Yep, that's a TV in the window.  I mean the NERVE of Kim and Curtis to not have a Jumbotron set up outside for the football game.

Looks like they liked what they saw…losers.

And that's a wrap.  

Happy Birthday Jack, your party was RED HOT!

Cheese

Nolan came home from school today and had a little surprise in his backpack.  You see, school pictures were taken a few weeks ago and today they were delivered.  The day the picture was taken Nolan came home and showed me how nicely he smiled for his pictures and believe it or not he actually smiled totally normal (which is NOT totally normal for Nolan).  He also proceeded to impersonate all the other kids and the "weird" faces they made in their pictures.  Hmmmmm, I think he might have gotten things a little messed up because let me assure you this is not the smile he showed me on that fine day a few weeks ago!  However, something about it is just plain awesome.  I think it's because it is TOTALLY Nolan and therefore it TOTALLY brings a smile to my face.

Drum Roll Please

Nolan's first school picture…

Chair Surfing

Bennett took about a 5 second nap yesterday.  You see, he pooped his pants and that basically means there is NO WAY he is going back to bed.  Sorry folks this is real life, sh*t happens.  Anyway, that meant he was up and about climbing on everything as usual so I decided, hey if you're going to climb on stuff and look all cute, you're going to do it outside and I'm going to take your picture.  He probably wishes he had just gone back to bed.

Raise your hand if you think this little stunt ended badly…

Hopefully you are all waving your hands high.  He totally tipped that chair backwards. I will say, he did it very elegantly.  Basically just landed on his bum, and was A-Okay.  So I just flipped that old chair around and we went on our merry way…standing and climbing again.

  

Video Proof

Just to prove that this party was a little ridiculous, but a little awesome, all wrapped up in one.  Here is a short video of one of the "dance parties" that the kids all did.  I think the move is called "The Spaghetti".  If you would like to embrace said move at your next wedding reception, I warn you to proceed with caution.

Party Hardy

That's right, the one year old extravaganza has not ended yet.  I'm finally getting around to sharing his party!  I mean you didn't think we would go without a big bash to celebrate this HUGE milestone did you?  I am a big fan of house parties for the kiddos.  I have a small obsession with doing all those little details that no one else notices or cares about but I spend hours fretting over.  I know it's ridiculous, but I'm ridiculous.  Well this year I couldn't exactly do house parties for the boys as we…HAVE NO HOUSE.  Soooo, that left me with no other option.  I had to outsource the party this year.  I decided on a place called "My Gym".  I had heard good things about the parties they have for the kiddos, and I can't lie it was pretty great.  Now, it's not what I had in mind for B's first birthday but it came in a close second.  So here is the party.

It was a "Robot" themed party, because Bennett loves Robots????  

Okay, I like Robots and I'm in charge right now.

The birthday boy…

The birthday boy "hugging" his buddy Connor…

The birthday boy taking down his buddy Connor...

The zipline...

The older brother giving the party lady the "I got this" look...

The swing and the most awesome picture of the day…

Randoms…

Circle time, inclusive of puppets and songs and bubbles (this went over surprisingly well with this active one year old)…

The birthday parade.  (He clapped for himself almost the whole parade, precious? Yep.)  

Immediately followed by singing Happy Birthday to Bennett while he was in the swing…

The big happy family...

The look you get when you tell the Birthday Boy the party is over…

Behind Bars

I hope this post is not foreshadowing of Mr. B's future.  Just a little documentation of where he likes to spend his time these days...behind bars (conveniently located on the stairs).  You know up and down, up and down, up and down, just frequently enough that no one can sit down and relax while he is awake.  We have made ourselves at home here at my parent's house, but drilling into their banister is where we drew the line.  No baby gates = eagle eye parents at all times.  B has made it his job to always keep us on our toes, and he does it oh so well!

The Cool Mom

It was a gorgeous day out today so I decided we would spend a little time at the park.  We went to a park that also has an area that sprays water all over it.  Honestly, I thought they had turned this function off by now but NOPE when we got there it was splashing in full effect.  For miles you could hear kids saying "can we go in there"  "I want to go in the water" "please mom"…and then you heard the responses "don't you get in that water" "you're not getting in my truck wet" "don't even think about it". Well Nolan was one of the kids gazing at the water from afar and he ever so politely asked if he could go over and I said "of course you can."  I am so sick of telling him "No" lately that today I thought, why the hell not?  It's just water people…news flash:  IT DRIES!  Nolan thought I was the coolest, and as all the other kids stood there watching in jealousy I can't lie…I thought I was the coolest too.  Doesn't he look happy?

Here he is showing me how he was Iron Man flying through the tunnel to dry off...

If you were wondering,  the answer is yes I had Bennett with me as well.  I'm Cool, but not Awesome.  He'll have to wait a bit before I let him getting soaking wet.  I can only handle one mess at a time.