Nate the Great is 4!

Ok, actually, he doesn't usually like being called Nate the Great.

Nate is sweet, stubborn, sensitive, artistic, mathematical, musical, sparkly-eyed, mischievous, and so many other things I can't write them all!  He can be so super sweet and ask me to tell him how he can be a helper.  Or he can run and hide at a request to do a simple task.  Or sob and sob because his two pieces of toast are open face instead of sandwiched together, when he didn't say he wanted them sandwich style.  He's in this stage where he really is still a little boy, but crossing into older boy world, too.  I think that's hard for him sometimes.  Or maybe what is true is that it is hard for me.  I want to expect him to be older, but he really is still getting there. 

Anyway, for his birthday, we went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity with my brother, David.  That may be Nate's favorite place!  It was super busy, but still really fun for the boys.  We were way too busy keeping our eyes on the boys to stop and take pictures.  I definitely would recommend one adult for every kid under 5! 

He's pretty proud of himself for being 4!

Here are some pictures of Nate in Tball season.  We had a team of kids from our neighborhood, and it was super fun! 

Getting ready to catch.  Since this was a preschool/kindergarten division, there were no outs and everyone got turns to hit/catch.  When our team was in the field, one kid would be on first, one on third, and everyone else stood in the line in the middle to catch and throw to either first or third when the other team's batter hit the ball.  Brian spent his time on the field helping everyone know what to do.  My job was to attempt to keep Mckay off the field and away from "Daaaadddddyyyy!"

 My favorite!

UPDATE:  Just came in--3 pictures Brian took at the Museum!  Woohoo!

Happy Birthday, Camden!

Camden's love of dinosaurs has slowly morphed into a love for dragons.  So, of course, he wanted a "How to Train Your Dragons" birthday party.

Invitations: Drawn by Camden, burned by me. :)

Cake: After searching for easy "Toothless" cake ideas, I resigned myself to the idea of another difficult, not as cool as the picture cake.  But, I stumbled across this idea, and it was much more to my liking!  Camden thought it was pretty hilarious and silly to have the dragons attack the sheep cake, and he loves marshmallows.  All in all, a success!

Games: We played several games to simulate "Dragon Training".

1. Put out the dragon flames.  The goal was to knock over three "flames" inside the dragon's mouth with water balloons.

2. I spy a dragon.  There were 10 pictures of dragons hidden around the yard. Each boy had a can of silly string and had to find and spray the dragon pictures.  Great fun!  And pretty funny to watch. :) 

 3. No pictures, but the boys were split into 2 teams.  They had to throw  the water balloon "sheep" into the buckets.

4. Design your own dragon.  I was impressed with the boys' drawings.  I'm trying to only post the pictures of my kids, but each of the drawings was really cool.  They each also had to tell what special power their dragons have.  One power was shooting batarangs, one was invisibility, one was that his dragon's fire made all the enemy dragons really sleepy (what a great idea!).

 5.  Dragon racing. Brian cut 2 pvc pipes for me, and I traced a dragon head outline onto a piece of posterboard, folded in half.  Then I cut out the head, glued the edges together, and slipped the head onto the pvc pipe.  Woila!  Dragon hobby horses!  

Despite rain and hail, the party was a success! 3 birthdays down, 2 to go.  Or, as Brian reminded me, 3 to go. :)  I think Camden's was the most planning and prep, though, so I'm feeling much more relaxed  now. I think this is a more busy season than Christmas for us!  (B B-day, Easter, General Conference, M B-day, Anniversary, C b-day, Mother's Day, N b-day, M-bday.)  We've had lots of fun with all this, but I'm glad we're on the down hill stretch. 

Happy9th Anniversary!

I remember shortly after Brian and I got married, that his sister had her 10th wedding anniversary.  I thought that 10 years sounded SO long!  Now, Brian and I aren't too far off ourselves. :)  

And a little sample of the rest!