Layla's Princess Birthday Party!

Now that I'm finally getting caught up on some blogging, Layla had a princess party for her 4th birthday on June 2 (her birthday is June 4).  She loves the Disney princesses so the party was a perfect fit for her.

 

I can't even remember why Gibson (or Grumpson as we like to calll him at times:D) was upset here...

It was windy and slightly rainy so we had to have the party inside.  We still did one of the games outside...instead of hitting a pinata, the kids hit a box with Flynn Rider's picture on it with a frying pan (that will make a lot more sense if you've seen the movie Rapunzel).  Layla thought it was great.

And for the food pics...

Auntie Heidi did a great job decorating her little princess cakes!!

 

 

The "Snuggly Duckling" is the bar in Rapunzel...

 

 

 Pin the lips on the frog...

 Layla and Auntie Kristina...

 Showing off our princess tats...

 

 We got her a Rapunzel dress (one of her favorite movies) to wear to Disney next year (lucky girl gets to go twice!)...

 Auntie Em and I with the kids...less Gibs, he did not want to be in the pic...

A failed family pic...

 Layla wanted a picture of her with Dolly and Hilda (her Build-A-Bear) at her party...

 Trying out her new umbrellas....

Posing with her gifts (of course when I tell Gibs to get out of the picture, he wants in)...

 The morning after her party, Daddy made her a delicous apple crepe...

She was so excited about her gifts the next day.  She had been wanting that Tervis mug since I have one in a larger size that I drink my coffee out of all the time.

 

 

 

Halloween!

 

This is related to Halloween in the fact that one of the Minnies that Greta is holding was a Halloween gift from Grandpa and Grandma.  Greta loves holding the little Minnies which I think is cute:).  I gate off all but the bottom two stairs now and she seems to be getting the hang of getting down feet first--not enough to trust her on all the stairs though!  I'm sure that will be awhile.

 Out of order, but the kids today were looking through and sorting out their candy.  They were so excited about trick or treating (before we went, during and after it was done).  They were both up at 6:45 Halloween morning!!  Normally I wake Layla up around 8:30 (so that she gets in that habit for school mornings--otherwise she'd sleep until 9:30 if she could but then we have some issues with her going to bed) and Gibs gets up around 8 (or earlier if I let him take too long of naps).   I was frustrated that they both woke up so early that day until Layla told me that her legs wouldn't stop moving in bed she was so excited for trick or treating and that's why she was up early.  Hard to be mad at that:).  Tonight I was talking to her a bit about how Grandparents' Day is tomorrow at school and then realized that maybe I shouldn't have talked to her about it right before bed or she may not sleep good again. Hopefully not:).

Sully and Mike going to Gigi and Grampy's door (yes, we walked out of the garage (since we're living there) and then to the front door)...

 Getting candy from Gigi (weird angle, but I got shoved in the corner by other agressive trick or treaters:D)...

 Since Maddy, Jonathan and Lincoln don't have a neighborhood to trick or treat in, they joined us.  This is probably the only year we will ever live in a subdivision:).  We made it to about half of the houses and then it was dark, really cold and just slightly starting to rain so we called it quits.

 

 

 Cinderella, Sully, Buzz Lightyear and Mike Wazowski...

 Boo (the little girl in Monsters Inc--her eyeballs didn't stay up great and it was too cold to worry about fixing them)...

Greta and Gibs in their Halloween shirts...

 And Layla decided to join the picture...

In the afternoon, we went downtown Zeeland for trick or treating.  It seemed like about all the stores participated and it was really busy.  We definitely didn't make it to all the stores, but enough where the kids had fun and got lots of candy.  Each kid has around 60 pieces of candy in their bag now (I may have taken out some of my favorites from their pile--dont' feel too bad for them, they have plenty of good stuff left) so I told them they can eat one item a day and it'll last us until we are ready to leave for Disney World.  It's kind of like the chain link idea:).

Gavin and Harper joined us too (Greta stayed home to nap with Gigi since she for some reason would not nap earlier at Em's for her afternoon nap--she has seemed a bit off from her sickness last week and finally today is eating/drinking normal)...Sully, Peter Pan, Mike Wazowski and Tinker Bell...

Gavin had Grandparents' Day at school today so Gavin came home with Gigi afterwards and then Harper (and Auntie Em) came later to pick him up.  I thought the girls both looked cute in their pink shirts.  Harper hasn't been feeling well this week (and was sick the same day as Greta last week), but seems to be on the mend today thankfully.  You can also see in the pic that Harper has been getting up on all fours lately and somewhat trying to scootch (thought I'd write that down since her mommy doesn't:D).

 

Silly Things

My kids constantly say things that make me laugh.  Like all little kids, the questions they ask, the way they mix up certain words and the things they make up often make me smile.  Layla has such a vast imagination and Gibs is all boy with his silly (not-so-smart) ideas he thinks of.  I always think how I should write them down so that the kids can look back at them some day (and of course so I can look back at them too!) and know what they were like when they were little.  I of course never remember to write any down, but here are some things I can think of lately that have made me laugh (or at least smile).

While eating at Mike and Em's the other day I took out their cookie container and said how I was surprised there were real Oreos in it (as opposed to Aldi's or another store brand since Em likes store brand foods).  Layla then took one and asked, "Mom, did you think the cookies were just pretend?". :)

I think it was that same day that while Gibs, Gavin and Layla were playing outside, Layla was pretending to be the queen and Gavin was pretending to be the king.  Gibs then came running over to Em and me and asked what he could be.  Em suggested a jester, a joker or a prince.  He liked the prince idea:).  He then told Gavin and Layla that he was the prince.  Awhile later they were playing king/queen again and I heard Layla say that she again was the queen, Gavin was the king and told Gibs he could be the dragon.  Poor youngest child (until Harper and Greta are old enough to play that is) that gets stuck being things like a dragon:).  Maybe when he gets older Gavin and Layla will listen to his ideas of what to play.  Although as a youngest child, I know that is probably not going to happen:). 

Gibs is such a goofy kid.  He will be playing with his cars and trucks one minute and then go right into playing dolls with Layla.  He can be so tough with falling and getting scraped up all the time and hardly crying, yet lately when he goes in our room and hears our monitor (that I have in the family room so that I can hear Layla and Gibs wake up in the morning since both of their rooms are off of the family room) he gets so scared and first had thought it was monsters.  We then showed him that it is just voices through the monitor from the other room and he gets it, yet he'll still come out of our room crying that he doesn't like hearing the voices in there.  He's a typical boy too in that he doesn't ever throw a fit about what I tell him to wear.  He doesn't care.  But you can tell the influence of his sister because he loves to try on my shoes (as he did when he was little too) and the other day said he wished that he too could wear jeggings like Layla:).  I will be very curious to see what Gibs' personality is like next year in school (if he goes to threeschool).  Right now, he seems like he'd be the class clown.  He thinks it's hilarious to make funny faces or doing silly things to get people to laugh at him.  One thing he really thinks is funny (that Mom and Dad are not okay with) is doing silly things with his food while he eats.  It of course always happens while Mom and Dad are not sitting by him--it's when he sits with other kids at the "kid table".  A typical thing he thinks is funny is putting food like catchup or ranch or whatever on the ends of all his fingers and declare they are "bandaids".  Or we have found him sticking food on his eyes to gain the attention of his fellow table mates (again, that is NOT okay with Mom and Dad).  We have noticed that part of this problem is that other kids do indeed find those types of things funny and therefore encourage him to keep going.  Right now, he's the kid that if someone tells him to do something, he'll do it, even if it's not a smart idea.  That concerns me a bit for when he's in school!  Hopefully he ends up being the quiet, good-listener type in school.  Hopefully he can just get his naughtiness out at home:).  We shall see:).