Six

The Caboose is SIX! We celebrated this momentous occasion with a Phineas and Ferb birthday party. Here he is with the Perry the Platypus birthday cake. (Thanks Carolyn for the fondant recipe!)

Phineas and Ferb's older sister Candice is always trying to get her little brothers in trouble and is known for the phrase "You're busted!" In her honor, we had a "You're busted" balloon pop. Most of the kids loved it, but there were a couple who weren't so keen on the loud noise. Oops!
Doctor Doofenshmirtz is always trying to catch Perry the Platypus. So the kids made these contraptions to catch Perry - complete with a cookie for bait. We named each contraption after the kid who made it, like the "Donavin-inator 6000". It was really cute.

We played "Where's Perry" hide and seek and also let the kids make there own "Ice Cream Invention". It was a great little party and I think the kids had a fun time.

After the party we headed off to Red Robbin for a birthday dinner. (Of course the only reason they pick Red Robbin is for the shake and the sundae.)

Here's the Caboose at age SIX:
-The Caboose LOVES: reading, playing with his brothers (and his brothers friends), McDonald's, soccer, his Nintendo DS, having friends over, playing on mom's iPod
-The Caboose HATES: When his brother's bug him, being treated like a baby, sleeping in his own bed, and when Diamond sings
-Favorite subject in school: recess
-Favorite food: Taco soup

Happy birthday little man. We love you TONS and TONS and even more than that!

It's Amazing!

Big Boy #1 is officially a teenager. He is wearing a size 12 shoe and is taller than most adult women. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we had an Amazing Race party.

The Race began as teams unscrambled certain words that described BB#1. Once they correctly did that, they were given their next clue which lead them to JAPAN where teams choose between two tasks: Hard to Find and Hard to Swallow. In Hard to Find teams looked for one of four eggs that contained their next clue.


Hard to Swallow involved eating a piece of sushi. (Two teams picked Find, two teams picked Swallow.)


SWEDEN: Teams put 15 pictures of BB#1 in chronological order. (Pictures spanned his life, from an ultrasound picture to a shot of him at Scout Camp this summer - and everything in between.) Clearly BB#1's team had an advantage here, but really, it stumped even him.


Each team was given a map which directed them to the various countries - various parks and open spaces near our neighborhood - and even a friend's home. They moved around the area quite a bit, but things were close enough that they could often run between "countries".

AUSTRIA: BB#1 collects Pez dispensers (that originated in Austria) the teams were given a picture of a groups of pez dispensers. After studying the picture for 30 seconds they had to then put the Pez in the correct order.



MEXICO: They had to count the number of black beans in each jar - and get it exactly right. Most teams had to count at least a couple times to get the precise number (around 250).


INDIA: This challenged really threw them. Eating sushi was fine, but baby food??? Apparently not! (It was only squash!) It really slowed some teams down.


USA: The final challenge was find the one and only penny minted in 1998, the year Big Boy #1 was born. Once they found the penny they had to sing "Happy Birthday" as loud as they could while standing in the front yard.


Teams also selected one player who then was challenged to make five baskets in a row, they were asked trivia questions about BB#1, run the circumference of a park and determined where the next country was based on vague clues. The party was a ton of work, but it was fun and the kids had a great time.

Of all of his birthday presents, his new cell phone was his favorite. We struggled to figure out the best timing for entering into the world of cell phones. We didn't want to get him a phone too soon, (some kids in the area get their own phones in third grade!) but we didn't want him to be the last kid to get one either. Thirteen seemed to be a good age.


And he couldn't be more thrilled! Frankly, it's been really convenient for me to be able to text back and forth.

Happy Birthday big guy! We love you!

Special Day

With another birthday comes another Special Day with Nanna and Grandpa.

Big Boy #2 was sure to get in all of his favorite things, starting with breakfast at IHOP:

Bowling with Nanna and Grandpa:

Back to Nanna's and Grandpa's house for games:

Then off to see Cars 2:

Yet another wonderful special day for Big Boy #2!

Birthday Treat

Somewhere along the lines the boys got the idea that a basic cupcake was not nearly good enough for their school birthday treat. Big Boy #2 is bringing in his treat tomorrow and we made these:


Kinda cute huh? It's basically two vanilla wafers (the top one has sesame seeds) with a Grasshopper cookie, a blob of orange colored frosting and colored coconut.

See, I can be domestic. Sorta.

Five!

The Caboose turned FIVE!

LOVES: Superheros (especially Spiderman) doing anything his brothers are doing, playing with his brothers and their friends, all kinds of sweet treats, mac & cheese, Dinosaur Trains, Cat in the Hat, silly/potty talk (I can't STAND it!) playing games, adventures and sneaking treats

HATES: Going to stores, being sick, boring things, doing chores, losing at games, staying in his room at bedtime and being frustrated.

NOTABLE QUOTABLES:
"I want to be a superhero when I grow up."
"I'm your play date with destiny!"
"I'm a really good sneaker"
"I have a girlfriend. Kelsey (his cousin) AND Adrienne (his other cousin.) I have TWO girlfriends!"

The birthday boy wanted to have a Monster Truck party so the big boys spent quite a bit of time putting together this super cool Monster Truck Track in the living room. We gave each guest a Monster Truck of their own that they could play with on the the track and use for some other games.

We had my niece join in the fun. Here she is trying to get a ball into the tire.

Blowing out the candles

The birthday boy!

In addition to the Monster Truck cake, I made these 'Lucky Leprechaun' cupcakes for the Caboose's preschool birthday treat. I just divided up the batter, colored each portion a different color and then layered each color in the cupcake tins. It was a pain to spread each individual color, but I think they turned out really cute.

Now that he's five years old, the Caboose has promised to give up both his thumb and his blankie. (They tend to go together.) When he went to bed the night before his birthday he swore that would be the last of Blankie. But when he woke up on his birthday he thought he shouldn't have to give it up until after his party.

While he certainly was milking his last moments of 'babyhood', I must admit that I was enjoying it too. It did my heart good to see that a part of him is STILL my baby.

Twelve

Twelve is a big deal birthday in our family. Mostly because it is when the kids leave the children's program at church and enter into the youth program. It also is the age when boys are ordained into the priesthood. And yesterday, on Halloween, Big Boy #1 was ordained as a Deacon.

There is something breathtaking in seeing my young son literally encircled by these men who care for him, want him to be successful and are such great examples of strong, loving, good men. What an amazing thing.

BB#1 has been so excited to start going to Young Mens. He has a whole list of things he's excited about with turning 12; getting the priesthood, passing the sacrament, going to the temple. It's been such a payoff for me to see him genuinely anxious to progress in those ways.

Of course this birthday isn't all about the spiritual realm. He also finally got his I-Pod Touch, which he has been working towards and saving up for for several months. Big Boy #2 gave him a year supply of gum and made up a little Easter-like "gum hunt" for him.

The Caboose found a favorite toy in the basement, wrapped it up like new and gave that to BB#1 as a gift. BB#1 was a great sport about it all. :)

Of course there was dinner at Red Robbin and cake and ice cream. It was a great birthday.

BB#1 is a bright, inquisitive person. He is beyond curious about everything. He is a hard worker and I hardly ever have to tell him to get his homework done. (Although practicing his guitar is another story...) He is funny, tender-hearted and thoughtful. He loves just about every sport, but baseball and basketball are his favorites. His favorite subjects are math, social studies and drama. He's a great kid and we are so glad that he is part of our family!

Surprise!

For the last several years, I have been putting aside $20 a month in the name of Diamond's 40th birthday. As his birthday got closer, I started selling some of my scrapbook tools on Craig's List, etc. and by the time I put it all together I had enough for a quick trip somewhere in the US.

Of course Diamond knew nothing about any of this.

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:30 Sunday morning, so I got up like I was going to my morning leadership church meetings, but came home shortly after because there was a (pretend) emergency, and Diamond and I needed to quickly head up to the hospital. (Really, it was a totally reasonable scenario.) He quickly put on his suit and we dropped the kids off at my parents before heading up to the "hospital".

About 3/4 of the way to the airport, I told him we were actually going to the airport. His first response? Grumpy.

"What about work?" Vacation time had been pre-approved

"I don't have any clothes!" Our packed bag was in the back.

"What about my Sunday School lesson?" I had organized a substitute.

"How are we paying for this?" Taken care of.

When he was finally convinced that all the details had been taken care of, he started to enjoy the process. Here he is changing into travel clothes at the airport parking lot:

"Where are we going?" was his next question. I wanted to keep him in the dark for as long as possible. While we were in line at security I taunted him; "Think of it, you could be ANYWHERE in the US by lunchtime!!!"

We got all the way to the terminal without him figuring out where we were headed. As I approached the sign which would tell me which gate was ours, Diamond said "Come on! You have to pick a side!!!" Nope! I stood right in the middle and closely looked at each and every screen.

Diamond was thinking Phoenix, or maybe New Orleans. But there were also gates leaving for Orlando, San Diego and Salt Lake. "We better NOT be going to Salt Lake!" (Reason #394 why I married him!)

As we passed by the Phoenix sign, he said "I think we're going there." "Maybe!" "Well, I'm sitting down!" So we sat in the Phoenix waiting area for a bit, then I got up and suggested we keep walking around. We basically did the same thing at the Orlando gate.

Then I spotted a flight that was boarding, headed to New Orleans and we got in line. "So we're going to New Orleans?" I told him that he should know me well enough to know that I would stand in the wrong line, just to throw him off. Then again, this could be our flight...

It wasn't until we gave our tickets to the airline worker and actually got on the plane that Diamond knew where we were going: New Orleans, LA.

I had originally envisioned a beach somewhere, but with our recent cruise, I opted for New Orleans, a place we had never been and were curious to explore. Plus Diamond had mentioned a few times that he would love to go there. Once we were settled into our seats, I handed him some travel books and he read up on "Nola" the whole way there.

Day O' Fun

For Diamond's 40th birthday, we decided to surprise him with a Day O' Fun. (Actually, this whole day was created just to throw him off of the bigger surprise that was coming the next day.)

We started with a nice breakfast of creepes and cinnamon rolls. We can never do breakfast in bed with him - he's always up too early! When he was done eating, we presented him with his first of several envelopes - that had a little poem which provided a clue as to where we would be going next: a tour of Coors Field.

In the visitor's locker room:


The highlight of the tour was getting to go down by the field and in the dug out.

Just another game at Coors Field:



In the dug out:

After lunch at Smashbrother (yum!) we were off for some baseball and ice-cream:

Ouch! Those numbers have to hurt!!!

Then we headed to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, where a few of his friends were able to surprise him!

Surprise!!!

Our Day O' Fun was a lot of, well, fun. However, it was NOTHING compared to what was coming the next morning...