Lombardi St. Pat's Party!

We were thrilled to attend the big event at the Lombardi house...they LOVE St. Patrick's day and we love to celebrate with them! Delicious food and great company!

Can you tell these two are in love with each other! They were writing limericks which are included below.

Paul and Anthony were playing a St. Patrick's day game of Find this Person

Wow! This cake looked and tasted amazing! Cassie orders from the same lady every year and loves to pick out the flavor combos. This was lemon cake with raspberry mouse filling and almond flavored fondant. I'm a frosting girl...I ate the fondant off of mine, Alanna, and James's plate! Yep, I'm a sugar addict!

This was from playgroup, but as long as I'm stealing pictures off of Cassie's blog I'll get this one too. I love this kid's funny faces!

James….
There once was a boy named Jimmy
Who stunk when trying to swimmy.
He jumped in the pool
And lost track of his stool.
But blamed the bad deed on poor Timmy.

Alanna…
There once was a leprechaun
Her name was Diamond
And she was naughty!

Paul…
There once was a guy named Paul.
Paul was a ball.
And Paul ball was a doll.
Paul ball doll was treated like a ball.

I was kind of embarrassed about James's limerick. He and Alanna both got prizes though...rainbow skittles and rainbow taffy!

St. Patrick's Day Dinner with Perx...

We got together for a Sunday St. Patrick's dinner with Rubens, green broccoli salad, split pea soup, green Gatorade, a fruit rainbow, and key lime tart lets! Delicious...and green is one of my favorite colors so it's nice too everyone dressed in it!

Jackson made some green origami cups for each place setting filled with green mint M&Ms and Andes mints.

I cut this fruit for Jackson to design a fruit rainbow...so tasty!

Max is an avid explorer. It's fun for Blaze to be around babies because he is our baby and hasn't had the opportunity to witness crawling and eating baby style! Everything Max does is just amazing to Blaze...he told me that Max crawls like a doggy!

These two cuties loved playing catch with the "giant" beach ball. It's nice to be able to hang out in the basement now.

Uncle Andy is always showing the kids the latest and greatest games on his tablet.

Baby Max makes the perfect little leprechaun :) Vibrant Red hair with green clothing!

Jackson and Paul Indoor 2014...

Jackson and Paul were able to play on the 4/5th grade team so we didn't have 4 soccer games on a Saturday! I think these boys are ready for a more regular and competitive experience in the fall when that's available. For now they are enjoying playing together.

She's on the Move!

Alanna has loved playing indoor soccer with some of the neighborhood kids: Kamdyn, Gabriel, and Bronson. Without the cold weather to interfere, she has been running hard and kicking that ball! She's even decided that she likes playing so much that she will brave the cold for outdoor soccer in a few weeks :)

Alanna's 100 Days of Kindergarten...

The kids are always so excited to hit the 100 day mark. In Kindergarten they make a big deal out of it and use it as an excuse to count to 100 etc. For Alanna's class they all brought different treats to make trail mix and count out 100 pieces. It was full of marshmallows, pretzels, Swedish fish...all of the treats we don't have in our house. Of course she savored it! Another fun tradition the school has is the class shirt. I actually hate them because my kids want to wear it EVERYDAY, and they are always too big and bulky. But, it is a nice memento since each child draws a self portrait to be printed on the shirt. Alanna is so proud of her portrait, and it will help her remember her kindergarten friends when she moves to a new school next year :(

I feel like Alanna has grown leaps and bounds during this school year. She can't wait to get on the bus and excitedly gets herself all ready to go, including making sure to pack up her reading book and homework folder. I love how conscientious she is about being prepared and organized - I can relate to that! Although I don't always find her sense of style to be what I'd choose for her, I try really hard to let her be herself, and to be confident about that. Doing her own hair has become something she has been so proud of as she douses it with copious amounts of gel and hairspray to make her pony tail hold together!

Alanna also is so proud of her reading abilities and this week finished her first chapter book! Around the house she appears as a blur as she cartwheels all over the house. She's also perfecting her back bend flip over thingies...I'm not familiar with all of the tumbling terms. When she's not tumbling, she loves to make art, especially cards for family members. And she's so great at sounding out words all by herself! At parent teacher conferences Miss Fife said she wished she had 20 some students just like Alanna! She couldn't be any better :) I agree...LOVE this itty bitty girl!

 

Pi Day...

We celebrated Pi day with a banana cream Nutella and toffee crunch pie. We actually had a little contest between my pie, and the leftover Smith's chocolate pie James brought home from work. It was the kid's idea...I'm sure it was a way for them to trick us into being  able to have two pieces of pic! My pie won anyway :)

I'm not a big fan of pie unless it's made with graham cracker or some other kind of cookie crust. So this may be my pie baking creation for the year. And now our kids know that Pi= 3.14......

Cake Wars...

Jackson and Chase came up with the idea of having a cake contest all on their own. They had very minimal help from me, but I was in the background listening to the entertaining process of them figuring out how to bake a cake. I think letting kids loose in the kitchen is a very educational and fun necessity. I just have to take a deep breath and remind myself that the crusty fingerprints come off of the appliances, and soap and water clean up the flour dusting over the kitchen!

Of course, the best part of making a cake is tasting along the way! Good thing these were personal sized cakes :)

I think this was some kind of alien.

Unfortunately, Paul picked at Jackson's cake and sort of ruined the top before he even began decorating. It also takes some practice spreading the frosting on the cake. Jackson was pretty frustrated by that, but I told him he'll have plenty of opportunities to frost cakes!

Blaze-a-roo was the little judge! He had said from the beginning that he would choose Jackson's cake because he loves Jackson. So, Chase and Jackson secretly traded cakes to trick Blaze. And he chose Chase's cake that Jackson was holding. Then they traded back, and he still chose the one Jackson was holding. The boys had a whole series of "tricks" to try to get Blaze to make an objective decision, but it just wouldn't work. It was a fun experiment to watch though, and the boys were so happy with themselves for their accomplishment.

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess...

I'm not one of those moms who gets pressured into celebrating made up holidays because of Pinterest :) At least it encourages reading though! My kid are ridiculous...Alanna came home from school and changed into her bathing suit top because 45 degrees is "so hot"! She loved helping with the "Oh the Places You'll Go" cookies! I have to admit...they are very fun to make!

Sometimes Alanna says she's going to be a baker when she grows up. I love it!

I think a big part of why my kids love to celebrate Dr. Suess's birthday is because they actually get to eat some ham! I can't stomach eating green eggs...they think it's fun though. The smoothie is just thrown in there so I can trick them into eating their daily dose of spinach and kale :)

After dinner we read a collection of Dr. Suess books. And by we, I mean that Jackson, Paul, and Alanna each read to us all! I can't believe I have 3 readers, and Blaze will probably be reading from Dr. Suess next year!

Recent Fun...

Braxton and Blaze wanted to watch "Planes" in our room, while the bigger kids opted for something new on Netflix. My picture didn't capture their cuteness though...can't believe they are 3!!

Blaze is a singer! His favorites are "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam", "I Am a Child of God", and of course...bits and pieces of songs from the "Frozen" soundtrack! I'm impressed with how well he has memorized these songs...gotta teach him those Articles of Faith songs soon!

Blaze was awarded a prize out of the treasure box at school. He chose a blue ring pop and enjoyed it so much that he rubbed it all over his face so he could save some for later.

These boys enjoyed President's day snowboarding with their new helmets. I'm glad they got to have an outing with their dad while the rest of us stayed home and played games and baked cookies! The warm indoors is definitely the place for me :)