Easter Eggs

Today Jason took the day off work and we had a family fun day. We dyed Easter eggs, went to Chuck E Cheese, went to California Tortilla for dinner, and had ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery for dessert. The boys had a great time and enjoyed dyeing and decorating Easter eggs. Kyle looks forward to it every year and Max seemed to enjoy his first time!

Happy 5th Birthday Kyle!

Today was Kyle's official 5th birthday. He woke up saying "I can't believe I'm 5!" We took popsicles to school for him to share with his classmates for a special birthday snack. Our main gift for him this year was his new bed/bedroom with a Star Wars theme, but we also got him a couple of gifts to open on the actual day. He got new star wars pajamas and shirts that I picked out for him. Max made him a card. And Daddy got him a special Gryphon Hatchling stuffed animal (from his WOW video game that he plays and occasionally has Kyle "join" him for adventures). Then we took him out to Red Robin for a free birthday meal - he chose spaghetti with mandarin oranges. It was a fun day! I can't believe he's 5 either!

Preschool Sunday

Today was Preschool Sunday at Messiah Lutheran Church where Kyle attends preschool. The children and their families are invited to come to church and the children perform a few songs for us and the congregation during the service. This is followed by a reception with food, cake, and gifts for all the children. Kyle did a great job singing and both boys did very well during the service. Max actually surprised me and sat through most of it with distractions of looking through the hymnal to find letters and numbers he recognized, grapes, and coloring. He also seemed quite fascinated when we sang or did a response reading so that kept his interest. They even had a children's sermon where all the kids were invited down to the front and Max wanted to go since he saw Kyle down there. It was so cute to see them sitting down in the front together until Max decided it would be a good time to poke Kyle in the face. They both thought this was hilarious and ended up getting "talked to" by his teacher. I ended up having to go sit behind Max to prevent further disruptions. Overall it went well and the boys had fun. We didn't get a great picture of Kyle standing in front for singing, but we took a long video of all 3 songs. I know it won't let me post it here so once I edit it I'll post a bit here. And I thought the picture of Jason and Kyle was cute since they happened to have on matching outfits!

Bowling Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Kyle's 5th birthday with a bowling party at Bowl America. He invited 10 of his closest friends and Ma and Pa came to help out with Max. They came a little early and brought him his birthday presents - a new bike and a lego set. He was thrilled! He had a GREAT time at the party and was so happy to celebrate with his friends. He managed a strike and a few spares while he was bowling. We had pizza, cake and ice cream in the party room after the bowling fun! Then the kids could choose to play games in the game room when that part was done. Then we came home and he opened his presents. It was a very fun day and I think everything he had hoped it would be! He'd been talking about it for months before it happened and had even decided he wanted a bowling party at least 6 months ago after attending 3 bowling parties last year and loving them!

I'll add the rest of the pictures here as soon as I get them all compiled in one place! :)

New beds

Kyle has pretty much outgrown his toddler bed and now that he's about to turn 5 he's moved up to a twin bed. We got him a new twin bed, headboard, and mattress for his birthday along with star wars themed sheets and wall decals. As we made this transition, we moved the toddler bed into Max's room along with all the Thomas sheets and wall decals so he got a new room out of it too. I can't believe Max is no longer in a crib, but he's doing great! He goes right to sleep in his new big boy bed and sleeps till morning no problem. He definitely surprised me! I wasn't sure he was ready (we didn't move Kyle out of his crib till 2 1/2 and that was only because Max was about to be born), but Jason suggested we capitalize on his excitement and try it now and it has worked out well! They are both super excited about their new beds and rooms (we did some rearranging and redecorating in both). Max likes to go up to his room often and as soon as he walks in just looks around and says "wow." As we were setting it up he kept jumping around and saying "Yay!" This is the first time in 5 years that our house is crib-free. I can't believe my babies aren't babies anymore . . . .they're growing up!

Max singing

Here are a couple cute videos of Max singing . . .

The first is "Thank You Jesus." He learned this at church - they sing this prayer before their snack of cheerios. The other day he was eating cheerios at home and started singing with his eyes tightly shut. At first I couldn't make out what he was saying, but I finally recognized the tune and figured it out. He did it much better off camera, but this video gives you the idea. The words are: "Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, for our food, for our food, and your many blessings, and your many blessings, Amen, Amen."
The second video is the "ABC" song. He gets a little quiet in the middle, but has a strong finish. He definitely likes singing the end of the alphabet best! He used to sing "Now I know my ABC's . .. " at the end but for some reason recently he's been resinging A-P to finish it off!