Christmas

We had the kids decorate the tree first this year.  It was quite entertaining to see how thoughtful they were in their decorating.

 

Tucker helped too!

 The finished product.  I should have taken this picture the other direction as it shows that the rest of the tree above their reach was empty!  They were so proud of it though :)

 I love free Santa's!  Here are the kids at a church party.

 When we got down to 6 days left until Christmas I had the kids make shapes to do a countdown.  They took down one of their shapes & did a Christmas craft every day up to Christmas Eve.

 This Santa was so great!  He just sits outside of his house every Friday & Saturday.  Tommy was too nervous to talk to him so he went & stuck his head inside the car & gave him a candy cane.

I had this adorable little tree downstairs & when I came home from work one day it was sad & bare like below:  

I didn't find all of the ornaments for a few days.... I finally found them in Little Miss Squirrel's drawers of course!

 Tucker had been trying to tear bows off of presents all month so he was quite happy when he got to tear his first one off at my dad's house.

 We left my dad's house late & the other 2 fell asleep, but Tommy was so excited to play with his blocks that he stayed up really late making different shapes.  My dad made him these lincoln logs, except they are WAY better & sturdier.  He should be the envy of every little boy!  Even adults have had fun playing with this set!

 Whitney thinks it is perfect for Minney Mouse, but Tommy has made them into train houses several times.  Take note that these houses are as big as Tommy!  They are much bigger than they look in the picture!

 Tommy had fun making crafts for the final touches of Christmas Eve dinner. 

 Christmas Morning. Santa spoiled us!

Mom made my favorite blueberry croissants :)

 My presents: This is the first time I did most of my own shopping & I sure enjoyed it even though there wasn't very many surprises!

 Vic got some nice braves stuff so he was happy.

 I rarely get a picture of all 3 of these guys in the same picture so I really like this one.

 Here is a random extra picture that makes me laugh.  I just gave all the kids baths & while I was getting the other 2 out this little guy wandered up the stairs & this is how I found him.  He thought he was pretty hilarious.  This naughty baby LOVES being naughty & the more you show disappointment, the more he laughs & smiles at you!

Tommy's Superman Birthday Party

Tommy turned 4!  Tommy loved his Thomas the train party so much that he kept saying he wanted another Thomas party months before his birthday.  We bought him some superman pajamas just a month or so before his birthday & he fell in love with the idea of "Superman to the rescue!" even though he had no idea Superman was a real character or show.  At first I was a bit disappointed & wondered what I'd do for a superhero party, but I'm so glad he picked it as I had so much fun coming up with ideas, starting with this super fun invite!

 Birthday Morning

 I made capes for all of his friends with the letter their name started with.

 ...and a few cute girly ones up top.  All the kids got their cape as they arrived.

 It seems like no one ever gets to parties on time so I had a small super marshmallow man craft planned for all the kids to do that came on time while waiting for the others to come.

 BUT magically everyone made it right on time so we had a busy full little craft table!!!

 I started the "training camp" with explaining how they all had to complete each training "task" before they could be real superheros. 

 The first task we did was to run, jump on the trampoline, & then jump through the hoop.  I was impressed with their little jumps.

 The 2 older boys were especially impressive:

 Whitney was not so impressive, but she sure felt big! (notice her foot still on tramp & hoop!)

 Sam did a true Superman jump and flew straight through so we had to add some cushions!

 Next, they had to learn how to shoot bad guys with silly string.

 Then they practiced their aim trying to hit a moving target through the hoop w/ a ball.  The older boys got to take turns being the bad guy.

 We had a bunch of "bombs" that that kids had to pick up in teams in less than 20 seconds or they had to try again.  I love this picture of Ellie on the right trying to scoop up 5 balloons at once. This was her 2nd attempt & she was determined to pass off her bomb picking up!

 Finally, a "real" bad guy came out and they had to practice their skills and chase him around & hit him with balls.  If they got him, then he tossed out candy.

 All of the kids went nuts & the excitement level was through the roof as Vic ran circles around the house!!

 gathering some candy:

 ...finally attacking the bad guy to the ground.  They did a good job of wearing Vic out :)

Then each party kid got their certificate & Superman sucker for fulfilling their training.

 Here was the Super babies of the party! Cute to see Natalie found a piece of candy too.

 Babies make any cute thing like a cape 100 times cuter!

 On to lunch time!

I had fun trying to think of silly things to say about each food! 

 Once again.... made my own cake after swearing I wouldn't.  This one was super yummy though.  I did a home made lemon cake with raspberry & lemon frosting.  Otherwise I was worried their would have been too much food die involved.

 I love how all the kids are so excited that the birthday boy barely has room to open his presents.

 I was worried Tommy was going to hate Grandma's present because he kept saying superman toys were "yucky" and insisting he didn't want anything superman, but I'd say his excitement of opening this present showed otherwise!

 Vic got him some giant boxing gloves so it went well with the theme of the party!

 Tommy was so happy with all of his presents until he opened this one.  Then it ended any superman excitement & brought up all of his train sets to play with.  I was happy a lot of his birthday guests were able to stay for 4-6 hours so he had lots of time play with all of his new toys.

 Birthday boy & his presents

 A few friends went home before this picture, but we got all the rest.  This picture cracks me up that they are all being so crazy & I really tried hard to get them all to look at me!

Tommy LOVES parties & he sure was a happy with this party :) :) :)

A quick update on Tommy:

He has grown a lot this year.  He went through a few moody months, but overall he is a very sweet boy.  He loves being good & trying to be my best helper.  He is always wanting to make sure everyone follows the rules & he asks why they break them if he notices another child not being perfect. (which is kind of hard to explain off sometimes!) Tommy is very social and loves to play with other kids.  He wants a play date daily, a party weekly, and he loves to make treats to take to friends and neighbors.  He is very protective of Whitney & Tucker, and very loving to them.  He refuses to say if mom or dad is his favorite as he wants everyone to feel very loved by him.  He still tries to be the funny guy of the crowd and happily laughs at his own jokes.  Every month he made leaps and bounds in his thinking & speaking skills.  He really struggled with having to learn to write all the letters, but now he happily writes down the alphabet with pride & can write all his numbers up to 20 and counts to 100.