Indoor Campout

It's President's Weekend, a three day weekend, and nothing is planned...we couldn't treat is as just another weekend but we really didn't want to go anywhere.  We had considered driving to the mountains to see what little snow was there but then rain was forecast (not snow, rain...no thank you.)  So after some thought, we settled on a campout

...in our living room.

 Two tents were set up. 

We did some fishing. 

And then as the sun set, we had hot dogs and beans

by candlelight and lantern. 

We read stories...may I recommend recent Caldecott Winner Blackout, a perfect story for a candelit evening...

And then we told stories...Jason told us a story based on something he recently read about a trip into outer space where some kids smuggled appleseeds and then grew trees so they would have fresh apples.  Very fun! 

We finished the evening with S'mores. 

Yummy, yum, yum!

Good night...

And then the next day we watched a movie from inside a tent...a very relaxing President's Day :)

Pancake Pen

One of Andrew's Christmas presents was a pancake pen.  He loves to be creative when making pancakes and now it's just that much easier...

these simple little circles became...

Here Beth wears her decorated crown...

And Adam has a present (this was right after Christmas)

Jason's star (and yes, we had whip cream on our pancakes for dinner...gotta love Christmas pie leftovers)

And finally Jill's half-eaten elephant lathered in peanut butter (that's what she asked for after Daddy was running out of Christmas themed ideas)

There was also a camel

a shepherd and some sheep

and of course, a Christmas tree! 

The pen has since been used to make many letters and hearts, and the kids even got a chance recently to try it out (although they realized it's a lot harder than it looks and we had mostly blobs so there aren't any pictures :) 

Bowling Party for Jason

Jason's birthday party was held at a bowling alley (thank you Groupon!)

A bunch of his friends came to play, eat pizza, and celebrate!

Some of the little ones (and even some of the bigger ones) used fun tools to help them bowl...

Beth was the winner on her lane for both games played (she picked up the spare in this shot!)

And even though Adam wasn't the winner, he had a blast playing!  I'm thinking we need to do this as a family more often :)

Thank you to all of Jason's friends for coming, for giving him such amazing gifts, and for just being a part of his life and ours...

And here's a picture of the cake...designed by the birthday boy (each cupcake planet is a specific color designed and decorated by the kids, Daddy did the planet Earth cake)

We're an odd family once again...Happy 9th Birthday, Jason!

Jason turned 9, making my life simpler in that I don't have to think about the ages of my children for the next 4 months.  They're 3, 5, 7 & 9.  Beth thinks it's especially fun because 7 8 9 (I'll give you a minute to think about that one and laugh...) 

On his birthday, we had his favorite foods for breakfast and lunch (so much his favorite that I didn't get a picture before it was all gobbled up!)

Daddy came home at lunch time and we had a scavenger hunt for his presents.

It was so much fun.  There was a present at every stop (everything from a new box of crayons to a large Lego set.)  He had to go all over the house from Beth's bed...

to the bathroom...

and even outside (they were all impressed that we hid a present outside up in the tree.)

For dinner, we headed to Ruby's at Balboa Pier because even though it's January, Jason wanted to go to the beach.  We live only a few miles away, so why not?  Dinner was fun (although taking a picture of his big burger was too much.  Has he reached an age where he's embarrassed by mom???)

He received birthday phone calls throughout dinner...

And he got his own big yummy dessert!

And of course, we finished the evening at the beach...

Happy birthday, Jason!  Hope your day was all you hoped for...because you are above and beyond all we could have ever hoped for!  Thank you for being you :)

PS We had a party with friends at the bowling alley a week later but didn't really get many good pics because of the dark, I mean, "cool galaxy" lighting.  I suppose I'll do another post to show off his cool cake and a few of the pictures from that really fun afternoon, we'll see...

No more cast day, yipee!

It was only three and a half weeks, and it was soooo much easier than a broken leg, but we've still been counting down the days!  Counting down until when we can wear long sleeves and a jacket.  Counting down until we can take a bath without a plastic bag.  Today was the day.  Happy, happy day!

She was prepared.  She remembered the saw from getting her leg cast off (which she screamed through and then got angry that they were throwing away her beautiful pink cast!)  This time she understood what was going to happen, and she was happy.  Interestingly enough, this attitude confused the poor cast room tech who stopped halfway through sawing and asked me, "How old is she?  She's doing really well!"  Experience was my response. 

To celebrate we went to the Discovery Science Center because Dora and Diego are there! 

This made our little girl super happy!  It was fun to watch her play and slide while still managing to keep her arm in cast position.

It was such a huge hit with our cast-less little girl that we will be going back as often as possible over the next few months.