Monkey Joes, presents and cake

Ryan had a good birthday Friday. He and his classmates enjoyed slushies during lunch at school, and then after Michael got home from work, we drove over to Monkey Joes to let the kids play. Our neighbor friends Michael and Matthew joined us for the fun and the kids spent several hours jumping, sliding and playing games.

See? He looks like he is enjoying his birthday anyway!

Emma kept up with the "big" kids and spent most of her time running around and playing with Matthew.

Avery spent most of her time in the designated toddler area after being almost trampled a few times on the bigger jumpies.

When we got home Ryan opened up his presents and then it was time for cake.

The birthday boy about to blow out his candle...

Making a wish...

And of course, a random picture of Eden! Because she never shows up in the pics of family activities even though she really is there!

Our great cake adventure

I waited until the last minute to figure out what I was going to do for Ryan's birthday cake. So yesterday (morning at least!) I called around to the usual grocery stores to price out their Star Wars themed cakes.

After realizing that I was not going to get a cake for less than $20-something dollars, I decided that I would undertake the task myself.


So this morning I baked the cakes needed to create a Star Wars cake and of course the girls helped with clean-up as evidenced in the photos above...

My Obi-Wan and Anakin (turning Darth Vader) dueling scene turned out pretty good I thought.

Plus, you can't beat chocolate cake with chocolate icing with chocolate Hershey pieces on it! Did I mention we are on a health kick in our house? No, we really are!

Ryan got home from school and saw his cake and I must say, I got the EXACT response I was looking for! He was so excited and named the lava planet they were fighting on by name. Of course, I said, "What??? What are you talking about?"

He just stood there staring at his cake for a good 20 minutes or so and then followed me around the house asking about how I got the idea for the cake (must say, I found the idea from another mom on-line).

And then he said excitedly (which for the record, he says every year): "This is the best birthday EVER!"

Happy 8th birthday, Ryan!

My classy dresser

This is what happens when you let your 3-year old dress herself!

Ghostbusters!

"Who 'ya gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!"

Emma and Ryan getting ready to go outside for a friendly game of Nerf tag...

Winter leaves?!?

I know it looks a bit like fall but after a lot of windy days the last of the leaves fell from our two trees in our front yard. Michael snapped this pic of Ryan playing in the last of them as Michael worked to rake and bag.

Bare tree limbs and 30 degree weather...I must say it really does feel like winter. Now we just need a little snow!!!

The night before Christmas...

Our Christmas Eve tradition usually involves us attending the Children's Christmas mass at church and then coming home and opening family gifts by the tree before retiring for the evening awaiting Santa's visit.

This year Ryan, Emma and Avery were able to participate in the nativity play during mass. Ryan, as pictured above, was a wise man...

Emma was a gingerbread cookie (the play begins talking about the things we get caught up doing in preparation of Christmas and then of course, talks about the birth of Christ)...

And Avery was a sheep...

After mass, we went over to the church social hall where the kids sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and got to enjoy some punch and cake. This train set was a big hit among all of the little boys there.

After we got home, I have everyone participate in our family Christmas picture before everybody changes out of their church clothes. This is always challenging since it has to be taken through setting up the tripod and setting the timer. Obviously, Eden wasn't in the mood to play along!

And then of course I tried to get one of the kids together...Again, Eden wasn't having it!

The kids enjoyed opening up their family gifts.

We put out our cookies for Santa and Ryan wrote a note to go along with the snack and then it was time to turn in and rest up for Christmas morning!

Decorating cookies

I promise I will finally catch up on all of my Christmas related posts soon! The kids invited a couple of friends over for a cookie decorating activity the week of Christmas.

Of course they all piled on as many candies and sprinkles as the cookie would possibly hold.

And I think they were burned out of the cookie decorating after completing two cookies each! We had a lot of plain sugar cookies sitting around our house.

Luckily my kids enjoy eating plain sugar cookies!

Of course after spending all morning cutting out cookie shapes and baking cookies, I later discovered a package of pre-cut out sugar cookies in the freezer. I guess we'll use those for Valentine's Day!