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!

Yellow belt

Kyle had a belt test last Saturday. He is now on his third belt - the yellow belt! He is so excited and proud! He demonstrated punches and a variety of kicks, as well as broke a board with a "hammerfist" in order to receive his new belt. It took him several tries, but his persistence payed off and he broke his board! He is now in a new class for yellow belts and above at his age level so we're adjusting to a new time schedule. He says he wants to be a black belt and karate instructor when he grows up. At this rate he'll have his black belt by the time he's 10 . . .

Kyle's preschool parent teacher conference

Kyle's parent teacher conference was this morning and he got an excellent report! He is meeting and exceeding expectations in most areas. He is reading at a second grade reading level and is very advanced in math and science. He LOVES numbers! His teacher said he always takes whatever they are learning to the next level and is quick to correct her if she ever makes a mistake. She said he is a "leader" among his peers and really enjoys playing with his classmates. He is quite emotional at times and is still in progress when it comes to using his words to resolve conflicts so we'll continue to work on this both at school and home. Overall we were very pleased and we're very proud of him!

30+ inches of snow!!!

I've never seen so much snow in my life! The total was around 30 inches and then another snowstorm a few days later brought another 12 inches - crazy! We were going a little stir crazy inside but tried to find fun ways to keep busy - pudding fingerpaint, dance parties, and the Wii were fun ways to pass the time. We did manage to go "play" in the snow for a bit so here are some pictures - the boys were fascinated with all the snow!

Snow Day

Today Kyle's preschool was cancelled as well as Max's make-up romp n roll class (that he missed the last time we had a snow day). I was not thrilled to have another snow day and am definitely ready for spring, but I tried to make the most of it. Since it wasn't bitterly cold I took the boys outside to play in the snow today. We had fun building a little snowman, making snow angels, playing at the playground, taking a walk, and having several snowball fights. Kyle got right in the snow and was crawling, digging, falling, and jumping in it! Max, on the other hand, refused to touch it, but was happy to be outside surrounded by it. He mostly stayed on the sidewalks that were clear of the snow. Silly boy! Then we came inside for some hot chocolate with marshmallows. It turned out to be a fun snow day!