Three rowdy boys

On Sunday morning at church, both kids declared that they really wanted to have a friend over. I tried to explain to them that lots of people have plans and that you can't expect to have a play date on-demand (so to speak). So we talked about who they wanted to have over and I told them I would contact mothers and try to plan on a Friday afternoon play date. Unfortunately Payton's didn't work out, but Ian ended up having two boys from his school over this afternoon.

 

I picked up all three boys at carpool. As soon as they were in the house, they were off like a shot. Ian's friends had never been here, so Ian gave them the whole tour. They ended up in Ian's room...on the (in)famous slide/bookcase (please see, 'Yup, it's broken', June 2011; The Bookcase, Aug. 2009). And I knew this because I heard a big kaboom and then crying. As I'm flying up the stairs two at a time, I'm dreading the worst and hoping for the best. One of Ian's friends was laying on the floor crying and Ian and his other friend were trying to help the hurt boy. I asked what happened and they said he jumped off the edge towards the bed. (you'd think Ian would learn after 'Yup, it's broken'!)

 

I calmed the boy down. This is when I told them (again actually) 1. No jumping and 2. No running. It didn't take long and hurt boy was ready to go at it again.

Everything seemed ok for about 10 minutes and then another boom, and TWO boys were crying! Ian wasn't one of them. Ian's two friends had come around a corner, going opposite directions, and bumped heads. When I got to them, they were sitting on the floor holding their heads, crying.

 

I felt horrible. Maybe I shouldn't have invited both of them over. Maybe the boys couldn't handle all the excitement. That's when, I decided I had to turn into Lay Down the Law Mommy.

 

I reiterated the rules. And told them if they get hurt again, their Mommies probably won't let them come over again.

It helped...for the most part. There were no more incidents...whew! But I was on edge the rest of the play date. Ian had a great time, and the boys were not ready to go when the play date was over. But, I don't know if I want to handle 3 rowdy 5 year old boys anytime soon!

 

Bowling

On Thursday, we went bowling at Plano Super Bowl.

I know there are a lot of newer and maybe a little nicer bowling venues. But this place reminds me if the old school bowling alleys. And it is reasonably priced and sends out coupons regularly :) Oh, and they have the BEST french fries!  - Even at 10:30 am, they just hit the spot.

The kids really enjoyed bowling.

I think the adults did too.....

Happy Spring Break!

This past week, we had my brother and his family visiting from Cat Spring. When the cousins get together, there is always something going on. Games, trains, tree climbing, chase, playing restaurant....you name it, it happen this week. The noise level in my house increased by threefold when everyone was here. But everyone had a great time and were sad to say good-bye.

Kevin, Dawna, Kiera, Kaylee, and Kevin Jr. arrived on Monday afternoon. We just laid low that afternoon, took a walk around the pond, and played at the park. Tuesday, we went to Lifetime Fitness (our gym) to play in the indoor pool. They had the slides running, so Kiera, Payton, and Ian each went about 10 times :) Tuesday night, Aunt Lucy came over for dinner for steaks - yum!

On Wednesday, we took the show on the road and went on a train ride. We traveled on the Grapevine Vintage Railroad from Grapevine to the Fort Worth Stockyards. Kevin Jr. is very much into trains right now, so he was glowing with excitement. The train ride was fun and surprisingly relaxing.

This was our conductor, Bob. He was 6'4" and super nice :)

The only drawback to the ride was that when we were 5 minutes from the Fort Worth Station, we had wait for four other trains to move while we sat on the tracks for 45 minutes. I don't think it happens too often. So, we got to Fort Worth late, and stayed later to accommodate some sight seeing.

We let the kids have a pony ride.

Saw the cows moseying down the street.

Got a couple of souvenirs and were back on the train for the return trip.

It was a fun, but long, day.

Ian's class rodeo

Last Wednesday, Ian had a rodeo at school. The kids were dressed up in denim vests adorned with Texas symbols. They learned the state flower, bird, flag, and some songs about Texas. You know that Texas Independence Day is in early March ;) Yes, we used to be our own country.

 

Anywho, he was so excited for this day. Parents were invited, so I went.

 

First they had a picnic, where the kids 'paid' for their lunch with play money from their saddle bags. Then they played rodeo games like barrel racing, flag in the boot relay, and bull riding. Ok, so the bull riding was actually trying not to fall down while in a bounce house, but hey it was cute.

 

 

Happy Birthday Ian!

My baby boy is 5 years old! He's not a baby anymore :( but he is a very sweet, energetic little man - who loves sword fights, shooting toy guns, and building Legos!

Ian decided he wanted to have a Knight themed party with a castle cake. (This will be my third castle cake....but more on that later:)

Daddy and I decided to have the party at Lifetime Fitness, so we wouldn't have to entertain 12 children for a couple of hours. It was very nice to have 'wranglers' corral Ian's friends for games and activities. They jumped around in a bouncy house first. Then they played indoor soccer,

rolled around on scooters,

 and finally, played indoor hockey.

Everyone was worn out and ready for cake and pizza at the end.

We trekked upstairs to a conference room for the food and candle lighting.

It was a nice way to celebrate Ian's 5th!


And now a word about the cake.....

Scott and I thought that we should use some Lego knights to help decorate the cake. Well, then I thought it might be cool if we made the turrets and a draw bridge out of Legos. So, Scott got involved in the creation of the cake. At first, we had a little difficulty seeing eye to eye. But after a few negotiations, we came to a compromise :)

First, Scott built the drawbridge and I was a little taken aback by it....because it was huge! I got him to scale it back a bit, but it was still a little big. So, the platform was built.

This thing was pretty sweet. The whole top slides off to reveal a lower level where the knights dwell.

The top is held in place by the turrets which are also removable so that I could put the cake on top of the platform.

I used 2 - 9x13" cakes, 2 - 8x8" cakes, and half a loaf pan. It took 4 boxes of cake mix and about 10 cups of icing. 

 The grey icing was a little frustrating because it took a ton of it to get a dark grey that matched the Legos. I thought I had the color just right, and then the icing kept turning darker and darker as time went on. By the time we served the cake, it looked purple! At least we had already taken all our pictures by then :)