party people

grace and carter were super excited to celebrate their birthdays especially since their party included pjs and cereal!!!

when the guests arrived, they began making their fruit loop necklaces.

next, we tossed pancakes.  there were lots of giggles during this game.  carter and pierce were chunking the pancakes at each other.  andrew kept trying to eat his and then turned it into a hat.  allie had to dodge them.  pancakes landed in lots of unusual places.

the kids enjoyed lots of yummy breakfast foods...cereal, donuts, pancakes, and fruit.  mmm!!!

before our friends left, we played one last game...

this may have been the most entertaining!

we loved having friends and family over to celebrate!!!

r i s e & s h i n e

it's party time!!!

we celebrated both grace's and carter's birthday with a pajama party!  our theme was "rise & shine."  we decorated with sunshine-y colors, ate breakfast foods, and wore our jammies (of course).

four.

this boy.  this boy.

all tucked in as a three year old for the last time.  well, for the last night.  because, i'm sure that i tucked him in at least 14 more times after this.

he woke up before the sun.  crying.  i went in to check on him thinking that he was scared or sick.  nope.  he was crying because i decorated his door with blue and red balloons.  he wanted blue and green.  geez!  i went back to bed.

he got over that and enjoyed his cinnamon roll birthday breakfast!

after many more meltdowns about sandwiches and shoes and such.  we made it to school.  i think (aka: hope) that he was just so excited about his birthday that he didn't know how to handle all those emotions.  i'm praying desperately that this is not what four looks like.  after an uneventful school day, we celebrated some more.  he was very excited about his ninja turtle tent!!!

he picked chuck e cheese for his birthday dinner.  it has pizza and games and prizes.  so, there is really no other choice.

yep.  that face sums it all up.

carter man, we love you!

we really do!

trust.

seven.

as i tucked this girl into bed, she said "i'm saying good-bye to being six."

and she did.  because this morning, she woke up taller and prettier and smarter than ever before.  she is seven.

we celebrated with the traditional cinnamon roll breakfast.

and balloons.

she got a big chair for her new art desk that santa gave her.

she picked steak & shake for lunch.  there is ice-cream there so that was the obvious choice.

after lunch with the boys, grace and i saw annie.  it was cute!

i love this seven year old with all my heart!!!

happy happy day!!!

happy new year

after hanging out and eating dinner with friends, we were driving home and grace asked if we were going to stay up until midnight.

it was already after ten and i was ready to go to bed or at least do some binge watching on netflix without kids.  but, john says, "sure!"

he was thinking that when we got home, we could have a little countdown at "midnight" and go to bed.

but, grace walked in the house and looked at the clock and said, "it's 10:30.  that means that we have an hour and a half until midnight."  surprise!!!  she can tell time and apparently has a pretty good concept of it!

oops!!!  so, we pulled out a few party supplies and partied hard for that hour and a half!

at midnight, we had a glowstick dance party to ring in the new year!!!

then, we went to bed.

2015, here we come!!!