Ice Cream and the Park? Yes, please!

It had been such a beautiful afternoon watching the circus parade that we decided to make the most of this unusually warm January weather and head to the park... but not before we stopped by the gas station and loaded up on some popsicles/ice cream for a little treat!

 

 

This was probably the first time we have been at the park since Ryan can navigate on his own.  It is both scary (for mommy) and exciting (for Ryan) to be able to do almost everything the big kids can!

 

Justin is getting a little too daring for mommy's liking.. he thinks he needs to climb up higher than high on anything he can.  This was nothing compared to the other obstacle he was climbing (I wasn't willing to take a picture as I stood there praying I could catch him if he fell...)

 

 Katelynn has officially mastered the pole.  Last year I had to help her get from the platform to the pole to slide down.  This year she did it all on her own.  Those long legs help!

 

The Circus Comes to Town!!

We haven't taken the kids to the circus since Justin's 1st birthday so we were due for another visit.  We found out it was coming the weekend after Justin's birthday and asked Grandma and Grandpa Miller to make a visit to the circus Justin's birthday present.  Then to my excitment, I found out that they were arriving by train this afternoon and would be walking the elephants and horses through the streets of Charlotte to the stadium.  It sounded like such an awesome experience.  I was so geeked about it that I actually picked up Katelynn early from school just so she wouldn't miss out on the experience. 

We met up with Justin's friend, Aaron (which is how we found out about it in the first place).  The kids were excited as they awaited the elephants departing the train..

The elephants were so close to us, we probably could have reached out and touched them.. or close to it.  It was pretty cool to be able to see them walking along the streets!  They walked tail to nose and the horses followed them.

 

Afterwards, we were able to get a great view of the Ringling Bros Train that the animals had arrived on as it moved off one set of tracks to park for the remainder of the week.

 

 

Happy 4th Birthday, Justin!

Yesterday might have been the party, but today is officially the day we welcomed our little boy into the world four years ago.  He continued his birthday celebration by bringing ice cream cone cupcakes to school to share with his friends.  I took him out to lunch after school and then to Target for him to buy himself a present with his birthday money from his Great-Grandma.  Does it surprise you at all that he picked a remote control four wheeler out?  :)

After picking up Katelynn from school, we headed to Chuck-E-Cheese to spend the evening.  Grandma and Grandma Miller joined us and of course we had to do one more candle on his real birthday!

Celebrating FOUR with a 4-wheeler Birthday!

Justin made his request for his birthday cake this year pretty earlier on.  He wanted a four-wheeler cake.  He decided this before he even picked where his party would be.  It literally took me until a week before his party to realize that we had picked the PERFECT theme for a 4-year old birthday.  What better year to have FOUR wheelers than the birthday in which he was turning FOUR?!

This might have been the hardest theme I have had yet when it comes to making a cake.  There were almost zero ideas out there on the massive internet world for four-wheelers.  We had to use our own creativity to make this one work.  I seen a 4x4 fondant four-wheeler that someone was selling as a cake topper on etsy but she wanted $24 and Jonathan also wasn't a big fan of the 4x4.  He wanted Justin's four wheeler to be a sport bike.  So, I put my husband to the task of working with fondant this year and creating the four wheelers.  He did a pretty awesome job for not even having anything to go off of.  He did this all out of a picture he had in his head!

 

My next challenge was the cake.  I orginally planned on making a two-tier circular cake for the four wheelers to be placed on, but after searching the internet, I had found some people using a number 4 to go with their theme (not four wheeler theme but just any theme).  I wasn't sure what I liked better so I gave Justin the choice.  He picked the number 4.  After the fact, I realized there wasn't enough time to order a number 4 cake pan and I had to figure out how to form the four myself.  Most people used a rectangular pan and cut pieces, but I hate frosting a cut cake.  It also ends up with crumbs over the icing.  Instead I ended up using mini bread pans, and it worked great!  I also make cupcakes and cupcake toppers since when everything was done, we realized we would have enough cake for our large party!

 



Planning the party is always so much fun for me, but the best part of course was watching how much fun our big 4-year old had with all his friends at his Bounce-U birthday party!  We had a bit of a hiccup as the weather decided to play tricks on us.  His party was scheduled for Friday and a nice ice/rain storm hit Friday morning for us.  We ended up having to reschedule the party for Sunday.  Luckily, all but one of our guests were able to make the change, but sadly Daddy was scheduled at a job out of town and had to leave Saturday so he had to miss the party.

The kids had a blast on all the slides and bounce houses.  I wasn't the greatest at taking pictures.  I realized afterwards that I only got some shots of Justin having some fun and failed to really get any of Katelynn and Ryan.  It was too hard to host and snap the pictures!

After playtime, we enjoyed pizza and cake before heading home to open gifts!

The kids tried out the hurricane ride before leaving.. all three of them had a blast in that thing!

Then it was home to open all his fun presents!

 

Even with the hiccups in the weather, I think it's safe to say that our little guy had an awesome 4th birthday party!  He gave each one of his friends a "thank you" treat bag, which consisted of chocolate donuts.. aka four wheeling tires.

 

We ended the evening by having dinner out with Grandma and Grandpa Carney before they headed back to Georgia and I put my 3-year old to sleep in his new Cars tent knowing that by morning,  he would no longer be 3 anymore....

 

 

 

School Spirit Week Again!

So, we have a short 3-day week at school and it's also another spirit week.  This week's included tacky day (mismatch clothing), pajama day (again), and wacky hat day! 


TACKY DAY:

WACKY HAT DAY:  Katelynn didn't want to wear a hat so she decided she needed a headband to wear.  We found this Mardi Gras one at the Dollar Store.

Age 6.. Going on 16

Lately, Katelynn is enjoying spending some time by herself.  She comes home from school and some days she just wants to unwind in her room coloring or playing with her American Girl dolls without being bothered by anyone.  I remember playing on my own as a child and enjoying some time on my own so it doesn't bother me.  However, imagine my surprise when today we walked up to her room to tell her snack was ready and her door was shut with this on it...

When I knocked on her door, she didn't say anything about my "disturbing her" and later she mentioned that I could still come in, that it was really just for her brothers more than anyone.  But still, how is my baby girl growing up so quickly?  How is it that she even THOUGHT to write something like this and put it on her door?  She is growing up waayy too fast!

Just Because They're Pretty Cute!

With all this time outdoors, I couldn't help but bring out the camera and take pictures just because.   Katelynn is becoming my little model who will gladly take a minute to smile at the camera for me (which is a huge change from how she was last year).  Justin was pretty obsessed with trying to get every waking minute in the jeep today so he was a little tougher to get to pause and smile!