St. Patty's Day

We had a great St. Patrick's Day! We met my friend Tamara and her kids Austin and Amanda at the Science Museum. Tamara and I used to job share together and it has been forever since we've seen eachother, so it was great to get together. Before they arrived we took a few pictures of their St. Patty's Day outfits outside the museum.

Then we had to explore the cool statues they had outside.

Once inside we did tons of fun things! It was hard to take lots of pictures while watching both boys but I did get a few of different activities. Here is Tamara helping the boys do this flying paper activity.

Cooper was able to make his fly! He loved this and wanted to stay for a long time doing this over and over!

We also dug for dinosaur bones. Jackson had fun flinging sand all over.

Three of the four (Amanda was already off running) posing in the alligator mouth.

There were not many cars to go around and Jackson was NOT happy about it!

They did do some grocery shopping for me too which was really nice! :)

It was a really warm day so we were able to go outside and play with the water. Cooper waited (somewhat) patiently for the water gun.

Yes, my turn!

Jackson got really wet and loved it!

We tried to get a group shot of the four of them, I think this was the best we got.

I had to get one of me and the boys in their cute outfits!

Cooper took this one of me and Tamara. He almost got us in!

Awww, Jackson made a new friend!

I made rainbow cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day. It kind of all melted together so it didn't look much like the picture, but Cooper thought it was cool.

That evening Cooper had his first soccer practice! He's playing on his first official team and he's really excited about it. He actually had his first game on Saturday and he did so well. He played most of the game and had a great time. He was tired and sweaty when he was done though!

Showing off his "stopping" skills. We took a soccer class at the local rec center a month ago so that was fun to now practice those skills on his team.

So serious.

He's one of only two boys on his team, it's pretty cute. Some of the little girls are really good!

Our last St. Patty's Day activity was a four leaf clover hunt. Apparently it was way too easy because it took him all of 5 seconds to find it. Then he had to hunt for the rainbow and the pot of gold at the end of it.

Oooh, I found it!

Yes, I worked all day on that rainbow, don't be jealous! :) I am a last minute person for sure!

A busy but fun day!

Happy Valentine's Day! Is it already March?

Yes I know, it's a month late, but I'm finally catching up! We had two little v-day celebrations. At our house I did our annual "heart hunt" with the boys, Jackson thought it was really fun too!

Here they are after finding one of the hearts. Jackson's showing off his new skill-saying "cheese!"

Following the trail of hershey kisses to the first heart. Why I don't have them in their v-day shirts I have no idea!

Our dinner table.

We made little heart pictures for grandparents.

We also had a little celebration at Gma and Gpa B's house. Here is J opening a present from them.

The cute table.

Cooper waiting patiently.

The four kiddos. Finally in their v-day outfits! (the boys' shirts say Love Rocks. I loved them!)

Cooper and Ben's Carnival Birthday Party

The clown named...
Cooper!!!

So it's been over a month ago, but last month we had Cooper and Ben's 4th birthday party. Laura and I both thought a carnival party would be so fun, and since their birthdays are so close together we thought it would be fun to try a joint party this year. The boys loved it and it made things alot easier on us!

We held the party at my parents' clubhouse in their neighborhood. It ended up being way easier than being at one of houses...so nice not to have to clean the house beforehand! :)

Here's the birthday boy!

The sweet treats

The snack table. Each of the families got their own box of tickets to spend on games and snacks, so these were some of the snacks they could "buy."

The party room. The games are all on the right-we had a fishing game, fish bowl game, knock the pins over game, a craft, a few ball games, etc...

We also set up a photo booth with clown noses and a clown wig for the kids to take pictures. Here are the two birthday boys with Elizabeth and Jackson.

And the three big kids in our other photo op!

These boys are so cute together!

This was outside the room as you walked up to the party.

I tried to get pictures of all of the guests, but only was able to get a few. Here is Hunter...

the best family photo we could get...

Elise...

Ashlynn (I love this one...)

Joanne, Jane, and Jill...

Alyssa and Ashlynn (Alyssa was nice enough to come and be our face painter!)...

and Drew (isn't this a good one too?!)

I just had to add this one, I thought it was cute of Jackson!

A few of the activities during the party:

find the marked duck game...

face painting...

snacking...

more snacking...

present opening...

and of course, cake!

Four candles are a lot to blow out!

Yummy!

The best group shot of most of the kids.

We also had a pinata.

The last activity was pin-the-tail on the donkey.

We had such a fun time with this party, and most importantly, celebrating the boys' turning 4!!!! Yay!!!