Callie's Birthday Party

I can't believe Callie is turning 5 next week. Generally speaking I'm not a fan of birthday parties. Early in my parenthood I would almost cringe every time we got a birthday party invite. I have slowly changed my train of thought. I realize now it's really about the kid and making them feel special and seeing their eyes light up. It's not about the ridiculous presents or the extremely loud surroundings. It's about making memories for these little's. I have to admit I had a little too much fun planning this one. Callie loved her kitchen set so much (Christmas present) that I decided it would be fun to do a "Callie's Kitchen theme". (with Callie's permission of course!)
Callie's Birthday Party invite:

 We made pizza, frosted cookies, decorated aprons, and played "Pin the 5 on the Callie"

 "Pin the 5 on Callie"

She has been so excited for this day to come, and has been talking about it for weeks. She helped me with all the details and helped me bake the cookies the night before. I'm really glad it went fairly smooth. LOL I had so many "helper moms" that stayed. So glad that I have such good friends and that Callie had a happy day. She was on cloud nine all day (even crashed on the couch this afternoon). I just love this girl. She has such spunk, attitude and LOVE. She really amazes me with her understanding and her energy.

She crawled up on the couch with her new blanket and new stuffed dog, she was out cold in 30 seconds. I wish bedtime routine was this easy. ;)

Sunday Mornings

Sunday Mornings in our house can be a little crazy to say the least. Ron usually leaves for his bishopric meeting around 7am and I get to get all the kids ready and get to church by 9am. After about a hundred requests Mason and Noah are pretty good about getting themselves ready. Callie obviously dresses herself and once both shoes are found I just have to focus on her hair. Lately I've been experimenting with fun and different hair styles for Callie. I am NOT very good with hair. I can't even do my own hair (which is why I wear it down ALL the time). Today I was particularly impressed with my hair styling skills (thank you to YouTube for their hair demonstration videos) and I snapped a picture to brag to Ron and show Callie. I took this picture of Callie's hair and then hollered at the boys to come in my bathroom so I could fix their hair. (I curled her hair after I took this pic)

I knew their the boys hair would be easy to fix since Ron had just given them hair cuts the night before. When Mason stood in front of me I sprayed it with the spray bottle and started working the gel through his hair... at first I wasn't too sure what I was looking at. My first thought was "No way. Did Ron shave this bad in the back..."

Mason, Mason, Mason had decided to be a little curious George in my shower and experiment with my razor. I'm just happy he didn't cut himself. I'm still laughing at how ridiculous his hair line looked in the back. We haven't had too many scissors-to-hair mishaps in our house (knock on wood) but this one is definitely in the same category. I love that after I took a picture Mason wanted to see it and while I think he was a little embarrassed he was able to just laugh at himself and promise me not to do it again.

I trimmed up his hair line help him out a little. LOL 

Spontaneous Sea World trip

Erin called me up a month ago with a deal on Sea World tickets I could NOT pass up. She knew someone who was offering a group discount deal for $6/ticket. You had to go on a specific day (Weds, March 2) which meant the kids missing some school. We have been studying the book of Mormon as a family for a little over 2 years now and were so close to finishing. I thought this would be the perfect motivation to finish it by March 2. (That gave us less than 30 days fro read about 60 pages in the Book of Mormon.) We finished the last 3 chapters of the Book of Mormon in the car on the drive. Such a great feeling to have completed such a perfect book as a family. I still can't believe I talked Ron into taking this short last min trip but I'm so glad I did. Sea World is so magical to me. I love that it caters to all ages. Something for every child to enjoy. We drove up Tuesday after the kids got home from school, went to Sea World Wednesday morning and enjoyed the park ALL day long. On Weds. evening we headed home. I didn't bring my nice camera and really didn't take too many pics. I was just living in the moment enjoying this fun memory in the making. 

 Ronnie lost his hat on the very first ride. LOL 

Noah is such a sweetheart. He is not the most adventurous but pretty brave. I talked him into riding the Manta Ray rollercoaster. As we walked up to the ride he could hear the coaster rushing past us and riders screaming delight. That scared him a little and he wanted to head back. I had to practically force him to get on the ride. It's seriously on of the smoothest fastest roller coasters I've ever been on. I LOVE it. When we got off he said "I'll do that again... in 2 years." Later in the day he rode it like 3 times. I just love this kid. There was literally hardly any lines at Sea World the entire day. It was so nice, no waiting not much crowds. Totally worth the lack of sleep and missing school. Shhhh don't tell his teachers I said that.

Mason is just straight up fearless. He was totally fine riding alone and wanted to ride roller coasters NON-STOP. I love his sense of adventure and thrill seeking personality. Just makes me a little nervous for his future in general. I've become quite the paranoid mom with him... in my defense he only has one good eye.

Callie surprised me the most. She loved touching the manta rays, and petting sharks. I love her little feisty personality and curiosity. She is so inquisitive and smart. She amazes me with her level of understanding and thirst for knowledge.

I was very proud of myself for conquering my fears and touching a shark!!!! 

April of course was a perfect little angel (like she could ever be anything else). She would nap in the stroller when needed and was just so happy all day, she LOVED watching the animals and everything around her. We sat in the soak zone during the Shamu show... She wasn't a huge fan of that. But the boys (aka the brothers as Callie calls them) LOVED the soak zone and moved up to the 2nd row to get more!

Poor Callie was less than 1/2 inch away from riding most of the bigger rollercoasters (you had to be 42 inches tall). She handled that pretty well so we rewarded her with Elmo time at the end of the day. She was in heaven riding those rides!

We drove home after dinner at In-N-Out burger. Mason looks exactly how we all felt. I don't know how Ron stayed awake. I tried really hard but probably napped a good 1.5 hours.