Birthday at the Museum

I decided to have Mark's birthday party at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science this year and it was awesome.  Mark loves going to that museum and before he started preschool, I got us a family membership and we were there almost every week. 

So when I found out that they have birthday parties there, I was on it. Mark wanted a soccer theme which surprised me a little bit since he loved so many cartoon characters from Sprout, especially Super Wings.

But if he wanted soccer,  soccer party it was.

For the party, we were able to go anywhere in the museum so the boys went to the Sports Hall and raced.  Mark had a blast!

We tried taking a picture.  This was the best we could get.

Then we went to the Children's Museum and played with our guests.

After playtime in the Children's Museum, it was time for snacks and cake!

 I could tell this boy was tired and when the party ended, he a had a meltdown because he wanted to open presents right away.

Daddy got the cake ready.

Happy Birthday to my BB.

After the party, we went out to dinner and then came home for presents.  Can you tell Mark was excited?

We are so thankful to be able to celebrate with friends at the Museum. The staff made it so easy by taking care of everything and allowing me to enjoy the party with my birthday boy and our guests. We had so much fun!

Old House

Well, it is official.  Our old house went on the market on Thursday.  I'm s little sad over it.  This is the house where Mark was born and to be honest, I thought it would be our forever house for a long time.  It's the house that we've lived in the longest.

We moved into that house when Matthew started Kindergarten and now he's in 5th grade. So many happy memories and so many celebrations.  I will miss our old house.

I took some pictures before a professional photographer came over.  They recommended that we remove all signs of life for the pictures.  Look how bare our kitchen is.

That little nook with the desk was my little office for over 6 years.  It was so convenient to be right in the kitchen.

Our breakfast room which was used for everything - from eating our meals to homework station and everything in between.

So sad to see it empty.

This is our family room.

This is what it look like now...

Our dining room that we used for actual dinner maybe once in over 6 years...

Empty.

Our living room.

And this was Mark's nursery.  Once Mark decided that he was better off sleeping with Mommy and Daddy, we converted it into Matthew's room, but never took Mark's name off the wall or the nursery window covering.

This was Michael's room. He shared it with Matthew when we first moved in. We got them bunk beds and they were happy until Matthew got annoyed with sleeping in the same room with his brother.  When we finally moved them into separate rooms and got rid of the bunk beds, we found a stack Matthew's dirty underwear stashed in between the bed and the wall.  It was DISgusting! Apparently, that was his hiding place for soiled underpants.

As much as a miss this house, I love our new house-our forever house. I'm excited for this new chapter and excited to make new memories.

Adjusting to new schools and new routines have been a little difficult,but we are getting there and it will be fine. Change is hard, but it is also a good thing in this case.

Four

Happy 4th birthday to my baby boy. I know this post is overdue, but it's better late then never right? Poor baby boy actually got sick on his birthday, but he powered through it.

The night before, he had a bit of temperature and I debated whether to keep him home. He was happy in the morning so I ended sending him to school. He had a field trip that day and I didn't want him to miss out.

When I went to pick him up, he was tired but very excited to tell me about his trip the the fire station and his picnic at the new park.  He loved his first field trip! And they made him a little birthday hat to wear.  It was super cute.

After I picked him up from school, we went and ordered his birthday cake for his party and a little personal cake to celebrate after dinner.  I also got him a cookie cake for his class to celebrate at school the next day - unfortunately, we didn't get to celebrate at school because poor boy was sick and I kept him home the next 2 days.

Grandpa and Jennie came over and gave him his presents.  He was super excited about them and couldn't wait to play.

He couldn't wait for Daddy to put together his new toys!

Love this little 4 year-old.

He wore that birthday hat that they made him at school most of the night.

I only got a picture of him and Matthew because the other one was upset that he couldn't have cake until after his soccer practice.  These days, he's upset with anything and everything.  Who said that girls were more drama?

 Silly selfie...

Happy 4th birthday, Mark.  We love you to the moon and back!

Halloween 2015

This was a tricky Halloween for sure.  I think we are at the point where the older boys are getting too old for trick-or-treating so this may be their last year.  They didn't even put much effort into dressing up.  Michael was a soccer player and Matthew said he was an alien dressed as a human with his sweatshirt and shorts.

Mark, on the other hand was super excited to go treat-or-treating. He's at the perfect age to go trick-or-treating with and he GETS it and just LOVES it.

We went to a block party at a friend's house where the kids ran around and played.  Then we all headed out to get some candy. Michael and Matthew went off on their own with Tucker.  Of course, Michael wandered off on his own and got separated from the other two so we had to stop and drive around to look for him. We finally found him near our old house. At that point, we were done so we drove home.

I got a few pictures, but the older two did not want to participate in the picture-taking so it was mostly of Mark.

These 3 were enjoying the food/candy before trick-or-treating.

There were so many kids but they were busy running around, so group picture was impossible. This was the biggest group I can round up.

The cutest Incredible Hulk ever.

There's a cul-de-sac in our old neighborhood that goes all out for Halloween.  The whole street decorates and it is elaborate.  This was one of the houses on the street that we stopped at.

My little trick-or-treater with his pink pumpkin.

We ran into Jaxson!

Love this little guy.

That's our Halloween! Can't wait for next year.  I might even dress up....