Nate turns eight! (almost)

We had Nate's birthday party on Sunday, the day before his actual birthday.

CAUTION: Lots of pictures ahead!

I started preparing a few days early (Friday), with cupcake baking and LEGO Man decorations.  Nate had specifically requested LEGO cupcakes with "that LEGO candy on top."  He also requested white vanilla cupcakes.  I figured even I couldn't mess up cupcakes...

Photos of the preparations

Nate, helping decorate the cupcakes.

Looks kind of like a Crayola factory exploded.

This little guy was the main decoration.

LEGO Man "garland" (without ribbon)

For Nate's actual party, I didn't go to too much effort (really!).  We scheduled it for two hours, and let the kids dictate what we did.  Nate had invited seven friends (two girls), and five were able to come.  It was just about the perfect size party.

We did have a "pin the head on the LEGO man" game.

Bella and Nile were closest.

Then, we played a LEGO Building contest.  I basically gave them a tub of bricks and let them build, then each kid won a prize for their creation.  Prizes included:  Tallest Structure, Craziest Creation, Most White Bricks, etc.

After about 40 minutes of playing, the kids were ready for cupcakes and ice cream.

Novak had his later, after he woke up from his nap.  Incredibly, he slept through most of the party (and associated noise and chaos).

I like frosting...

All in all, Nate had a pretty good birthday party.  I am happy that it was simple and easy, and low stress.  And I loved having it at home, it was a bit more work but it was also nice to have everyone come to us.

Birthday Boy.  Is it true he's eight?

Zoo Birthday Party!

On Saturday the boys went to their friend Rachael's birthday party. It was at the Niabi Zoo - what a perfect place for a party! The weather was perfect, if not a bit warm (it was pushing 85 degrees yesterday!).

Nate was beside himself with joy when we arrived and his friend Connor from Kindergarten was also there. The boys (Nate, Connor, Nile, and Daniel) were pretty much inseparable throughout the party.

I realized I didn't get any pictures of Novak's first zoo trip. But that's probably okay. All he did was sleep in his car seat in the stroller.

Nile, riding the "biggest tiger ever" on the zoo carousel.

Nate and Connor on the carousel.

Measuring their "wingspan."

Superheroes

Nate had a Superhero birthday party on Saturday. One of our friends captured these two videos of the superheroes playing outside. This is Spider Girl, Wonder Woman, and Nate the superhero (he had so many different superhero names, I honestly can't remember one). Oh, and Nile.

First they race down the hill...perhaps for battle? If you look closely you can see Nile coming down behind the three.


Then they return up the hill. I'm not sure why Nile needed the baseball bat.


Thanks to James for capturing this on his iPhone.

Nate turns 5!

On Thursday, Nate turned 5. My little boy will be heading to Kindergarten in the fall. It's a cliche, I know, but it's amazing how fast time flies. Since we were planning a birthday party for his friends on Saturday, on his actual birthday we just had a family dinner and gifts at home.

Thanks to Gramma Elaine for sending home a giant brownie so we had something to put candles in! :)




Yeah, it was that good.


With Autobot Ironhide.


Looking at a new space book from Gramma.

I mentioned the party on Saturday. We only got one good picture that day - I did get some videos but haven't uploaded them yet.

For Nate's party, he had a Superheroes theme. He invited six friends, two of whom were unable to make it. So we had Spider Girl Emma, Wonder Woman Rachael, Batman Nathan (our neighbor), Andrew, Nile, and of course the birthday boy, who made up so many superhero names I don't know who he was.

The kids had tons of fun playing outside (see here for proof) and then we had pizza and cake. It was a perfect party - low key and laid back. No planned games and just enough guests. (It doesn't hurt when the parents stay too!) Nate had a blast and is already playing with his gifts. Now, the challenge will be to get him to write thank you cards.

And see, we did have a real cake for him!

Is he still my little baby boy...?

My baby boy Nile turned 3 on Friday. We spent most of the day at home. Cousin Emily came over for the day, so we didn't plan on doing much of anything. Nile didn't want to get dressed in the morning. I figured, "what the heck? It's his birthday!" - so I told him he could stay in his PJ's as long as he wanted. So here he is at 3:30 pm, eating a snack with Emily, still in his frog jammies.

We had been asking Nile what he wanted to do for his birthday for the last several weeks. It was always one of two things: Stay home and have his friends come over, or go to Monkey Joe's. The one consistent statement? "With Andrew, Alex, and Emma!" Since Tom didn't feel like hosting a party, Monkey Joe's became the plan.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Monkey Joe's, it's basically a large room full of inflatable bouncy things and slides. It's loud, crazy, and at least 50% of the times we've been there, absolutely packed with sweaty kids. But, the kids love it. They claim to cater to the parents - if you read on their website this is the statement they have: "While your kids monkey around, you take advantage of our adult area, which features comfortable seating, free high-speed wireless Internet, flat screen televisions, and computer stations."

This "adult area?" It consists of about four chairs in the middle of this room of craziness. Not really what we pictured. But, we're talking about preschoolers and toddlers. We know when we go there, that we aren't going to be sitting down and relaxing any time soon.

So, last night, as soon as Tom got home, we headed out to dinner at Old Chicago, then off to Monkey Joe's for an hour or so of running, jumping, climbing, and bouncing. (With Andrew, Alex, and Emma of course!). We only stayed an hour because that's all the time we had, they close at 8 pm, and dinner took until 6:45!

Nile got to open one present at dinner - from Andrew, and Alex. It was, in his words, a "rock guitar!" - when he opened it, this is exactly what came out of his mouth. I quote: "No way, Jose!" Here he is this morning (he had to get it out right after breakfast). Emma got him some new books - a Mater (from Cars) book, and "Where the Wild Things Are" - we've already read them at least once.

Tom and I had also bought Nile a guitar. But we got him (again in his words) a "John Denver guitar." These two guitars haven't left his sight all day. Guess we did okay, huh?


Back to what I said at the beginning. My baby boy Nile turned 3 yesterday. I told him I probably couldn't call him my "baby boy" any more. So I asked him what I should call him. He told me, "You can call me baby boy." So I guess I'm off the hook. He's still my baby! :)

New Year's Madness

We went to the home of our friends the DeBaene's for New Year's Eve. Their daughter, Emma, is three and Nate and Nile love visiting her house - mostly for her really cool toys.

Nate loved dressing up in Emma's "superhero" stuff. He started out as Robin, wore that for an hour, then changed into Captain America for a few hours. Finally he finished off with the Spiderman gloves and mask (we did draw the line when he asked to wear the sparkly Spider-Girl outfit).

Here he is as Captain America.


Nile put on a guitar concert for the kids. Basically he was playing with Emma's Barbie guitar and microphone, so the rest of the kids set up chairs and pretended they were at a concert. I think he was oblivious to them. But...maybe he did know what was going on. Either way he entertained them for quite a while.


We got home late (really late) and Nate was worried that he hadn't gotten to open the "poppers" that the boys had made with Grandma Elaine at the Bettendorf Children's Museum. So, on New Year's Day, right after breakfast, they were excited to find out "what was inside" them. (Although they made them, so they knew what they had put inside...)




We spent the rest of New Year's Day hanging out at home with Grandma, Papa, and Becky and watching four college football games. And of course, we ate our lucky black-eyed peas.

Missouri in November

This weekend we took a trip to Missouri for my aunt's 50th wedding anniversary. The boys got two nights in a hotel, swimming, three nap-free days (yikes), lots of playing, and lots of car time. Tom and I got to "enjoy" three days of driving (over 800 miles and 17 hours total), three nap-free days (did I already mention that), and two cranky boys, but we did still have fun.

I don't have pictures from my aunt's party (I left the camera in the car), but I do have pictures from the park in Clinton we played at before heading off to the party. It was over 60 degrees and sunny, the most beautiful weather.

I have the three cutest boys in the whole world!


I just love the expression on Nate's face in this one...


Nile, as usual, enjoyed going over the "bridges."

Introducing...Brown Bear

Let me introduce Brown Bear. Brown Bear is Nathan's preschool "Indian" name.
(I cringe even to type it, I'd rather say "Native American," but I feel I should stick with what Nate and his teachers were calling it).

Oh, and by the way - that's not red paint on his nose. He hit his nose with the lid of his laptop last week...

Today we attended Nate's preschool Thanksgiving Feast and program. Again this year I continue to be amazed at the improvement Nate is making. At last year's program he stood with the group and, well, just stood there. This year, he participated! Yippee!

Here are a few photos I thought I'd share.

The class singing one of the songs. (Nate is on the right side of the photo)


The boys go to do a little drumming while the girls dance.


The boys then got to dance while the girls played the drums.


After the program the families got to eat a special Thanksgiving meal that the class helped prepare. Vegetable soup, cornbread, applesauce, chocolate chip bars, and apple juice. Nate proudly informed me that he "dumped the corn into the soup!"

It was a good morning.

bouncy boy

Last night we went to a party at Jen & Scott King's house to celebrate Scott completing his master's degree. Nate LOVED playing with Andrew. The two are truly kindred spirits and have very similar personalities. (It would be an understatement to say they get a tad hyper when excited)

Anyway, Andrew has an inflatable jumping thing. Nate and Nile loved it! I was able to get a short video of Nile enjoying it with my cell phone. The quality isn't so great, but you can still see the fun he was having.