Pirate Party

Grant thought of lots of strange themes for his birthday this year, themes I couldn't really figure out how to do anything with when it came to cakes or favors or invitations.  Finally he said "pirates" one day, and I ran with it before he changed his mind and went back to "motorcycles." I'm sorry, I cannot make a motorcycle cake.  This was also the first year Grant had friends over, and he was so excited to have a real friend birthday party.  I planned everything and then Justin ran the show.  He is much more exciting (and convincing as an underwater squid) than I am.

Grant's cupcakes, which had pirate toppers, actually caught on fire, which everyone thought was very piratey.  We played "pin the tail on the parrot." Meg colored the parrot and parrot tails for me.  And then we had a treasure hunt.

Grant turns 4!!!

Grant has been waiting FOREVER to have his birthday.  He was so excited when it finally came, especially since he was actually feeling better after being sick all week.  The girls made him special presents. (Ellie sewed hers, quite the involved project.  She made him a blanket with a baseball on front wearing a pirate hat and patch.)  Grant is a fun four-year-old.  He loves his sisters and does his best to please them (even almost picking birthday presents they liked instead of presents he really wanted).  He likes to ride bikes, play swords, wrestle with Spencer, play Wii with Daddy, tease his sisters, and bust some crazy dance moves.  He's been begging me to learn to read (poor, neglected 3rd child) and so we will start working on that soon.  He loves to have a cuddle and give hugs and kisses, and makes our home a happy place.

Gypsy

When our kids are driving us crazy (what? that happens?) we often tell them that if they're not careful we're going to call the gypsies to come take them away.  It works as a kind of joke that calms everyone down.  This Sunday during Sacrament Meeting Spencer kept trying to take away Grant's Buzz Lightyear toy.  Then I overheard this:

Grant (with hand to ears in phone shape):  "Hello Gypsies?  Can you come get Spencer?  Thanks!"

The Littles

Spencer:

Has begun to walk.  Mostly he likes to walk in circles.  Like it amuses him that you thought he was going to visit you, but now he's really going somewhere else.

Has one tooth on the bottom, another coming.  And apparently two teeth on the top.  They are coming in way up high - in the wrong spot - so I only discovered them while cleaning out his nose one day.  (He was screaming - good-naturedly, of course.)

Needs a haircut so that he can stop brushing the hair out of his eyes.  Still, his long hair is so cute that neither Justin nor I can bring ourselves to bring him some relief and actually trim the hair back.

Grant:

Has begun whacking people - just for fun - when he walks past them.  Or drop-tackling any available siblings.  Boys!  Boys are crazy!

Also needs a haircut.  I wish I could decide what kind of boy haircut I wanted him to have.  Who would have thought boy's hair would be so difficult for me.

Went to Primary.  Meg remarked:  "When the bad kids turn off the lights and run to the bathrooms I am good and listen to my teacher."  Whereupon Grant remarked:  "I like to turn off the lights and run to the bathrooms."  Yep.  That's right.

Meg:

Finally had her birthday party.  Every 30 seconds she asked when we were opening presents.  I kept telling her to be polite.  Justin rolled his eyes at me and told me just to let her open the presents.

Has inherited the Andersen "move your house around" gene.  Has decided to move her pillow to the middle of her bed and makes sure to sleep perpendicular to the regular fashion.  This means her feet hang off the side of her bed and her blankets are horribly skiwampous.  But she is glad because her bed is "different than it used to be."

Declared over Christmas to a complete stranger that she doesn't go to preschool but does homeschool with me where "we never actually learn anything at all."

Ellie:

Is horrified her classroom pet died over Christmas break because it was her only chance at a pet.

Is reading about 8 different books at a time, which she leaves all over the house with strange pieces of paper, random toys, ribbons, etc. as bookmarks.  When I move the books or accidentally close them she becomes very irritated.  She especially likes Nancy Drew right now, but when she reads those at night she has to come out and receive reassurances that it is all pretend.

Loves when I let her stay in her pajamas on the weekend instead of making her get dressed and brush her teeth.

Grant's Prayer

Last night was a hard one for Grant.  He wacked Mom in the face, told Ellie she was stinky, and went potty in the middle of the living room floor for full effect.  Needless to say he was in trouble a few times.

This morning when he was saying his prayer, it went like this:

"Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for my Mom and Dad.  I like them now.  You don't have to send new ones anymore...."

Am I wrong in thinking that after last night he was ready to trade us in?

Mystery Party

We decided to throw a Mystery Party with some friends from the ward.  Since my house is small, some creativity had to take place to make it all happen.  I kept the couch in the kitchen (that's where it resides when I teach ballet) and we set up tables in the front room.  Then we served food in the kitchen.  Here's the dressed up house photos:  (Ellie was a great advisor on decorating.  That girl has creativity coming out of her ears, and she is happy to share her opinions.  When she left for school that day she told me:  "Mom the living room looks nice, but the kitchen looks horrible."  So, I worked on it while she was gone.)

We had eight couples total, so it was a little squishy.... but we all had a lot of fun. 

My kind, unassuming friend Donna ended up being the murderer.  It's always the quiet ones.

Justin was a serf:

The whole crew:

Grant adopted this "Knight" outfit which he totally fell in love with.  We had to give it back, so we took this photo to send to Santa.  He's hoping for a real sword though - the golf club only goes so far.

(See my whole color versus blurry issue??????)

Soccer Again

So, one of the reasons I switched the way I do my blog now is that I am saving my blog posts for journaling/picture purposes. This means I wanted to be able to post more pictures - since the printout of these posts will be THE record for those of my children who don't want to go squirreling through hard drives to look at themselves when they were really cute. Boy, that sentence was way too long. (Previous to now I have printed them all out and put them in picture books, but this combines stories with photos which I think is better.) Anyway, this means that now that I've closed the blog you will have to scroll through more photos than before. Ha.

So, here is our family at soccer. We opted for Monday night soccer this year so that Justin would "have" to come with us every week for FHE. It has been way fun than dragging all the kids to the field myself.

Spencer loves his Daddy:

Grant loves getting ready to go get the ball.  Getting the ball?  Not so much.  Getting ready to get the ball?  Yes, that is fun.

He would not take off his shirt underneath, so he is sporting the "I must wear a collared shirt to soccer" look.

I am obviously riveted by the game:

Soccer

Remember this:

This is Grant pretending to be nice when really he was just screaming because I would not let him out of his stroller during Ellie's soccer - because he just ran on the field.  (Also, notice how Spencer already has more hair than Grant at 1, and he's on Round 2 of the hair-growing business.)

Or how about last year, when I had to keep pulling him off the field during Meg's game.

Well, finally it was Grant's turn!!!!

He totally picked the ball up with his hands, just like Ellie.  I always forget to give the soccer rules speech to my sport delayed children.  But he was very excited that it was finally his turn to be on the field.  The girls were a little irritated I didn't sign them up this year.  Oh the tragedy of belonging to a family of siblings instead of a family of one!