Boston's 4th Birthday!

Boston turned 4! I can't believe my baby is already 4 but I certainly love him right now and it's probably my favorite age. He is quite literally obsessed with me and always wants to be right by my side. He will choose me to put him to bed and wants only me to buckle his seatbelt. Most of the time I don't mind because he's just too dang cute. He is incredibly smart and will say the funniest things that are way beyond his years. He picks things up so quickly and loves books. After I read him a new book, he can go back and basically tell the whole thing right back to me. Lately he is loving Dr. Seuss and asks to read "Green Eggs and Ham" all the time. We even made green eggs to eat one day. He is also very obsessed with Spiderman! He likes a lot of the Avengers, which he learned from Leo, but took a specific liking to Spiderman. He has a drawer in his room for all of his "armor." It contains a Spiderman suit with a bunch of masks he has collected, a Captain America suit with a mask and shield, and a pirate costume with a sword. He is hilarious how particular he is with setting the armor up on the floor and then meticulously putting it on and then putting it back. It's so cute to watch! The Spiderman suit is the newest addition, which he got from Grandma and Grandpa Nielson for his birthday. He wears it all the time! He is going to Preschool this year, which can be a hit or miss. Some days he doesn't mind going, but usually he whines about it, but then ends up happy as can be afterwards telling me about the fun he had! He definitely loves to watch TV and his favorite shows have gone from Paw Patrol and Bluey, to the cartoon Spiderman movie, to Gabby's Dollhouse. Boston loves to get his way, and is very smart about making it happen. He also has a hilarious evil laugh. He will often say, "Mom, let's just cuddle," and I melt. We all love him so much!

For his birthday party we decided to do a little one at home with just a few friends. We did an "Avenger" theme and convinced him that an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen was a good idea. He loved going to pick out the picture to put on the cake! We started the party with some kinetic sand and Avenger figures. The kids had a good time playing with that! Then we pulled out the Hulk smash game. The kids had to put the Hulk fist on and smash the ice cream cones as fast as they could. It was adorable to watch! Some of them could barely break the cones. I had Bentley prepare a game as well, and she made a cute "Pin the star on the Captain America Shield" game. That was the extent of the organized games, but we also had him open presents and eat the cake and snacks. His friend Blake came and she was so cute as she read her card to Boston. It said something like, "Boston I love you so much and I hope you can marry me, and I hope you can eat some cherries." Boston responded with, "Cherries! I don't like cherries!" It was so funny, but not his nicest moment! Luckily she did not take offense. The kids played with toys, including some of the new ones Boston opened, and it was a successful party with such little kids. 

After the party (and all the clean up!) we went out to dinner as a family to no place other than Boston Pizza! It's a tradition to go there now for Boston's birthday. It did not disappoint.

Leo's 7th Birthday

 Leo's birthday was also in March, obviously, and I skipped over that because it needed it's own post of course! Leo has had a lot of changes this year and he has done so great with them all. Grade 1 at RDL has been teaching him so many things. He has made many friends, and his teacher loves him and says great things about him. He is so much fun and loves to be outside on the playground and exploring. He loves to craft, play with playdoh and sand, or do weird things like freeze his toys in ice and chip them out. I always seem to find a weird creation in the freezer! He is learning to read and even though he started slower than most kids his age, he has really caught up lately and is starting to read so well! I've worked with him every night and have great things to say about the book "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons." I'm also amazed at how well he can write his letters and is starting to write sentences nicely. Leo has big emotions and even though his screaming can drive us crazy sometimes, we all love how excited he gets about things! He also says some pretty hilarious things, and is such a good cuddler. Things wouldn't be the same without our Leo and we just love him. 

When I was teaching Leo how to read, I would give him pokemon cards as rewards. We all thought he was going to have an Avenger birthday party, but shortly before that he changed over to loving everything Pokemon! So, even though I know nothing about it, I put together a Pokemon party at our house that turned out really cute. I did it the day before his actual birthday because he couldn't wait any longer, even though it was a busy basketball day. He requested a pikachu cake, and I decided to try to make it myself. It turned out way better than I expected! I even put ears on it, and thought it was so cute. 

Leo invited a bunch of his friends over and we ate hotdogs, fruit and cake. Leo loved all of his presents and even ended up with a Pokemon stuffy family! We made Pikachu ears as our craft, and the boys put them on as they were hunting for Pokeballs. I hid a bunch of them in our front and back yard and the boys searched tor them like an Easter egg hunt. When they opened them up, there were mini Pokemon figures inside and the boys traded some and played with them for a while. We also play "Hot Pikachu" (like hot potato), where we passed around a present wrapped in many layers. When the music stopped, they opened as much as they could until it turned on again. The prize was a pikachu stuffy. They also played a memory game that I put on the wall that was surprisingly a hit! We had little prizes for the top winners. We also did a punching game that took me a while to make! I hot glued cups to a poster, put candy in them, and then glued tissue paper over each one to make it look like a Pokeball. The kids picked a cup to punch and inside was the candy they got to put in their goody bags! They also had some time to jump on the trampoline and play around. Everyone had a great time and Leo was very happy!