Colin and Kaden's 8th Birthday Party

  Oh my!  I cannot believe my baby boys are 8!  And getting so tall!  And looking more like boys and not little boys!  I love you guys so much!  We had your birthday at Sci Tech Discovery Center and did the Sparkle, Shimmer, and Shine party.  We had like 30 kids and a ton of presents!  You guys wanted a Minecraft party and the cake was AWESOME!  All of your friends wanted a Minecraft cake too!  At the party we did science experiments including: making a circuit with a watch battery, electric tape, and an LED light.  We then made glow in the dark goo with polymers!  Then, we had a fire experiment with coffee creamer, oxygen, and a lighter!  That was cool!  A really cool birthday!  Nana and Papa and Aunt Stephanie and Uncle John came too.  You then got to play in the Sci Tech exhibits.  You both rated it a 10 of 10!  We all then came home, opened a billion gifts, and then played Minecraft, of course!  

  You guys are amazing!  We are so blessed by you!  So glad we had 2 wonderful boys!  Just know how much we love you!  I cannot wait to see what the next years hold for us all!  

Victoria conserving toilet paper

  Victoria has been potty training, and with everything Victoria does, she must do so independently.  She's done very well with very few accidents.  However, she's using half a roll of toilet paper each time she poops!  After cleaning the toilet paper out for the 3rd or 4th time, I explained to her the need to conserve toilet paper due to tree consumption, etc.  I could see that she was understanding my meaning, and I felt really good about our environmental potty practices. . .  As with everything Victoria does, she does nothing by halves.  Soon after our discussion, I was discovering poop in the potty with no toilet paper at all.  ???  Hmm, what's that smell in the bathroom?  Oh wow.  She did take our conversation to heart, I reflect as I inspect the source of the smell.  Victoria has decided to really conserve resources, to utilize the toilet paper, and then just roll it back up on the roll. . .  Yes, using it, then rolling it back up on the roll.  That's what I said.  Oh my!  I've never experienced this with my others!  We had to have another conversation about conserving, but in a clean, sanitary, non disgusting manner.  :-)  I love how God made her, and I'm so blessed to be her mom!  She keeps me on my toes for sure!

Kaden and Narnia

  It's bedtime.  We're reading the Chronicles of Narnia.  We get to the part where Edmund betrays his siblings for some Turkish delight.  I'm appalled.  I want you all to be appalled too!  I'm relating that I can't believe Edmund did that to his siblings.  Colin agrees.  Katharine agrees.  Victoria is to young to do either.  I look at Kaden and ask, "Good grief, Kaden!  Can you believe that?"  Pause. . .  Then Kaden responds, "Well, exactly how much candy are we talking about?"!!  Gotta love Kaden!  :-)

Katharine and Victoria get Big Girl Bunk Beds

Katharine and Victoria decided a couple of months ago, that they wanted bunk beds like brothers.  They said they wanted to have a sleep over every night.  :-).  Daddy did a good job putting them together, and tonight is their first night to sleep on them!  They are so excited!  Let's hope no one ends up on the floor!

Belated Birthday Party at Main Event

The kids decided they wanted to wait on their birthday party, until Aidan could be here to celebrate. Aidan spent spring break with us, and tonight, we went to Main Event. They wanted to do Laser Tag :-). Nana, Papa, Aunt Stephanie, Uncle John, and Mackenie Ridout and family were all there. Katharine and Victoria had a great time playing Deal or No Deal with Papa. Katharine likes the games where you win tickets. We also played miniature golf with the kids for the first time. Kaden, Colin, and Katharine were getting the hang of it. Victoria, on the other hand, set her ball down about 2 inches from hole! She was very successful with that strategy!

Laser Tag was a blast! Kaden, Colin, Aidan, me and Jason went. Katharine wanted to, but she was to short :-(. They were so cute running around in their laser tag vests! I wish I had gotten a picture! So stinkin cute! They had so much fun! We played twice! The second time, Colin and Kaden decided they had to use the bathroom right before we were supposed to play. I stood outside the bathroom and kept yelling for them to hurry, as the line was all ready going in. Kaden made it. I ran with Colin, and we walked in after the door was closed. The Laser Tag hostess had all ready started her rule intro when she came over to collect our tickets. Colin: "I'm sorry my ticket is wet. I had to use the bathroom and didn't have time to wipe." LOL! We all died laughing! She was appalled, as she was all ready holding the said ticket! Thankfully, he meant he didn't have time to dry his hands after washing them! It was hilarious! We then went in and had another blast with laser tag :-).

The boys raced each other in the Nascar video game. Kaden and Colin kept running into each other intentionally and laughing. Aidan was so serious! Never cracked a smile, but he did win the races :-).

Victoria had a great time with Skeeball. She rolled the ball up, and it rolled back to her :-). She also tried to steal a few of her neighbors balls :-). Kaden was pretty good at skeeball. He plays it on his itouch. All in all, we had a great time! They loved it! We'll have to do the laser tag thing again. Hopefully, next time we'll all have dry tickets! Gotta love Colin!

Kaden lost his first tooth!

Kaden lost his first tooth tonight! He was so excited! We promptly put the tooth in the rocket tooth pillow for the tooth fairy :-). My baby is growing up! Time goes by so quickly. There are no words to express the love. We will have to see what the Tooth Fairy leaves him in the morning!

Asthma and Emma's Birthday Party

Colin's asthma has been acting up the past few days. We tried increasing his treatments, but he still wasn't improving. To Acute Care Kids we went for some oral steroids. Darn it! Hopefully, he will be on the mend soon! ABX just to be on the safe side.

Emma had her 6th birthday party at Pump it Up. It was the first time Victoria has been there, since she was a baby. The first time Colin, Kaden, and Katharine had been there in a long time. They were thrilled and made themselves right at home! Victoria was really pensive and would only watch for several minutes. Then, she finally decided to take me up on the offer of sliding down the big slide with her! Once she started, it was difficult to get her to stop! She even went a few times on her own! Like her sister, fearless! Has to do whatever big brothers are doing! She is really growing up! They all played very well together and were happy to see Emma :-).