Noah's Monster Party

Today my little Noah turned 3. Yesterday we celebrated with his first friend party. A few months ago (when it was time to start planning) I gave Noah a few choices for party ideas and he chose Monsters. After Halloween target had some fun Monster stuff in clearance, so we stocked up for goodie bags, then of course we put in an order with oriental trading.

Because Noah is only 3 and his friends were either 2 or 3 we kept it pretty simple. When everyone got there they got a Monster hat (which I ordered from Oriental Trading) then they sat down and colored Monster pictures that I printed off online with monster crayons from Target.

After they finished coloring, we headed to the basement to play Find the Colored Monster. I had bought these bendable Monsters (from OT), they came in 6 different colors, we scattered them all throughout the basement...so I held up a piece of construction paper and said go find an orange monster, go find a green monster, etc.

Here is Noah with his purple monster.

Tanner and Isaac were great helpers, throughout the party.

After that we had a monster pinata. We let all the little kids have a turn at hitting it and then left it for Tanner and Isaac to finish it off.

Next we had cake and ice scream. Noah was so cute when we sang happy birthday. He just sang along very excitedly. For his cake I baked 3-9inch round cakes and 1-2 quart pyrex bowl cake staked them and then decorated with fondant. I am not very good with fondant, so there were cracks and wrinkles all over....but from afar it was so cute and Noah loved it.

We then opened presents and then quickly we had a small parachute and popped monster balls on that. The parachute was rather small, but for the few minutes we did it, most of the kids seemed to enjoy themselves.

Since we only did the party for an hour, the party ended and all the kids left with their monster bags (Target) which were filled with all sorts of monster stuff, including the monsters from the color game and candy from the pinata. For a party with 7 little 3-year-olds running around, things went really well. Of course I couldn't have done it with out so many helpers, so Thanks everyone who stayed to help.

Walk Training

For Christmas Sydney got a cute little stoller walker. She is having a blast walking around holding on to that thing. Maybe just maybe she will start walking before a year. Noah did not start walking till he was about 17 months.

Diaper Cakes

So I have never made a diaper cake before, but I had gotten one at Sydney's baby shower and thought it was so fun....so I just had to try it. I had 2 boy baby gifts I had to do, so I headed out to Target because they have super cute generic blue and green bubble diapers. How perfect they were for diaper cake making.

If you have never made a diaper cake before they are pretty easy. The first cake I made I used about 60 diapers (the second one was less because I ran out and had to improvise). You roll each diaper up tightly and smack a piece of tape on it. I put about 5-6 together to make a bundle and taped all around the outside of that. Then I added a ring of diapers around that bundle and taped it all secure, and then another ring of diapers with tape around it. That makes up the bottom tier of the cake. So for the next tier you would start again with a bundle of about 5-6 and then make one ring of diaper around that. And for the top tier you make one more 5-6 diaper bundle. You use a wide ribbon around each cake tier to hide the tape. I used a wooden dowl down the center to keep the tiers together. I added a little stuffed toy as a cake topper. I also added some pacifiers and pacifier clips, but you can put whatever you want on it to decorate. It look me less then an hour to do it, so it was pretty easy.

The Babies

Today I took the 2 youngest kids to get their pictures taken...they did so good. Cute little posers.

Noah is turning 3 next month. Isn't he a doll, I just want to put him on a shelf he is so cute.


Sydney...have I mentioned that it is so fun having a girl.

Catch Up

I again am trying to get caught up on the old blog...it is just so much easier to post on Facebook. But the main reason I do this blog is to be a journal for me, so I need to touch on some of the highlights.

Christmas: Of course I took a lot more pictures then this...but lets just say I am blog lazy. This year we decided to start the tradition of the Advent calendars. The kids really enjoyed getting a piece of chocolate each night.

Sydney first time in the snow. Could there be a cuter little snow baby??? Never.

Shortly after the new year, Kevin had to go to Disney World for work. Since we had just gotten home from there just 2 months ago, we decided not to take the whole family. Kev and I did want to take an anniversary trip because we will be married for 10 years this month, so instead of the cruise we thought we would take, we went back to Disney, not ideal but we got a little break from the kids and his work paid for most of it, so it worked out well. We brought Sydney with us because she was free to fly, she hung out with me while Kevin was working and then she went to stay with my friend Kami, who lives in Orlando. Kami was so great and worked with our last minute schedule changes and Sydney got a lot of attention, so thanks Kami.

We don't normally do the princess thing, but this trip Sydney got to meet Aurora, Cinderella, and Belle. Also one day while Kevin was working Sydney and I went to a character meal at our hotel.

Also, I have decided to do Body for Life again...it is really hard to do a diet the second time. I also have not exercised in forever (1 1/2 years, because of pregnancy and then lyme disease, I know it is excuses, but good ones, right???), so getting back to that is...painful. I am trying to decide what I want to do as far a cardio goes. I tried a spin class this morn and it killed me (and I don't mean the workout). I am going to try a Zumba class, but most likely I will start going to TaeBo classes at 5:45 in the morn, doesn't that sound fun, o-well, I can get my work out in before Kev goes to work.

That is really all that has been going on here...

Tanner's Piano Recital

Tanner had his first piano recital the other day and he made is parents very proud. He has been taking lessons for about a year and although he doesn't always enjoy practicing, he does enjoy playing his songs once he gets them down. He was really confident and played his songs well. I think he has a real talent for music, it comes relatively easy for him. I really wish I was musically talented, but I'll just live my musical dreams through him.

Christmas Sunday

This morning before church we tried to take some pictures. Sydney just was not cooperating, which was rather unfortunate because she did look so pretty in her Christmas dress. The family was photo was taken by stacking a few things up to set the camera on (didn't want to call a neighbor over at 8:30 am).

The Family

The Girls The Boys

The Babies

The Big Boys

All the Kiddos!!!