Seven.

This kid turned 7 today. How in the heck did that happen?!  How do we have a 7 year old?! So hard to remember what our life was like 7 years ago. What did we do with our free time?! I can remember lots of peaceful nights, peaceful dinners, and peaceful car rides BUT on this day 7 years ago that all changed and we wouldn't have it any other way....we love him so much and can't wait to see what he accomplishes and how much he grows in the next year. 

 

Over Night Trip to Camp Lodestar

The school we choose for our kids is an AWESOME school. It's a public school in the school district but it's kinda like a charter school. It's very parent oriented. They take lots and lots of field trips and you have to do monthly donations and parent volunteer hours. The donation is not required and of course since it's not really a charter school they cannot discriminate or tell you your kids cannot go there if you do not donate. 

All the parent involvement makes it so great for the kids to learn. The parents are in the classroom for about an hour or so helping with different centers so the kids get so much more. We haven't started our parent volunteering for this school year yet. We will have our first parent meeting in a couple weeks and will sign up then. Not sure how it will work this year sine Cameron is in First grade but I am assuming it will be similar to kindergarten. 

Field trips are huge deal and we do not take buses so of course the parents have to volunteer to drive. And last year I went on every single field trip. This school also has overnight field trips for all grade including the kinder classes. The overnight field trip wasn't until the end of the year and you have to kinda apply to be a chaperon. I was chosen to go....whoooohooooo:) Since I have a son I had all boys in my car and our cabin was an all boy cabin. Including Cameron I had 4 boys so there was about 15 or so boys in our cabin. Everyone is always shocked when they find out the Kinders go on an overnight trip. There were a hand full of kids who did not go. 

The field trip was to Camp Lodestar. It was almost a 2 hour drive. And on a two lane windy-ish road. The teachers had warned us to have some barf bags and ginger ale because sometimes the kids can get sick. And well they were right. I had 2 barfers in my car. One of them being Cameron. They didn't barf much. Cameron made his in a bag and the other little boy did not and it was all over the front of him. The car smelt for a couple days but we got home and cleaned it up it was fine. So now I am a freak when we drive somewhere knowing Cameron can get car sick. Once we made it there the kids were fine. There were a couple other kids that barfed as well in others cars....oh joy:) so much fun!

The trip was only one night. We got there in the morning and then left the next afternoon.  The kids did lots of activities. We went on a few hikes and did activities on the hikes. There is really no down time for the kids to get bored. They were always doing something and keeping busy. 

 Dinner time!!!!

 Going on a night hike. The night hike was cool. We saw a whole family of deer and a few bats. It was cool to see the kids' reactions. 

 After the night hike the kids made smores. Of course Cameron doesn't like smores so he just ate the graham crackers. 

 This is the little pond Cameron was talking about for days before our trip. They showed a video in class of Camp Lodestar and on the video I guess they found a water snake. Well Cameron wanted nothing to do with getting in the water. He kept saying, "I am not getting in the pond, they are snakes in there", I told him he didn't have to. But once we got there and he saw all the other kids in the water he slowly took off his shoes and was knee deep in the water. He did so much more than I thought he would do. I was so proud of him. Like I have said before it's such an awesome feeling seeing your kids succeed and do things you've never seen them do before. 

Here is another proud moment. He was holding a little slimy fishy and frog. I would have never thought he would touch either. Maybe it was because all the other kids were holing them, I don't know and I don't care. He did it all by himself and that makes me so happy and proud.

This year in first grade they go on a 2 nighter. Of course I will be wanting to go on that one as well. All these field trips will get tricky when Easton starts kindergarten next year. Everyone thinks I am crazy wanting to go on all these field trips but I love going and spending the time with all the kids. It's fun. Yes its crazy but FUN. I am so grateful I can volunteer and go on all these field trips. 

A First Grader.

I cannot believe this dude is already in First Grade. Where in the heck did the time go?! Today was the first day of school in our hood. I have a feeling tonight he will be exhausted. School all day then baseball practice for almost 2 hours. Ryan and him are still not home. Next week will be a long week for him since it will be his first full week of school all day LONG. This is bittersweet as I am looking forward to having him in school all day mainly because he and Easton need some time apart BUT sad because he's growing up too fast. 

And yes I was one of those parents with a camera on the first day of school. BUT I was not the only one:) 

Boys' Skylander Birthday Party.

So as most of you know Cameron and Easton's birthdays are in December. Cameron's is the 17th and Easton's the 24th. So we try and have their birthday party the first weekend of December and we do a combo party {not sure how much longer that will last}.

Last year {yes this is one of those catching you all up post. A little late but at least its getting done...right?}They both decided on a Skylander Party. If your not familiar with Skylanders it's a video game. Santa brought the kids a Wii for Christmas the previous year and it was the special Skylander edition. It comes with this power of portal thingy that the little characters sit on and then you are that character in the game and you can switch them out. There are like a bazillion characters {we have about a million of them}. So prior to this party they have been all about Skylanders. They go in phases and as of lately they haven't played it much at all. 

I was thinking of buying a cake to look like the power of portal but got a couple quotes and was like "Oh HELL No!" LOL. I looked at some pictures on the Internet I told myself I could totally make it. So that's what I did. I wasn't wanting a fancy cake or anything. A round cake with 2 colors of fondant on it and the prices were crazy. It was super easy to make. All  I did was roll out white fondant and covered the cake. I used the Duff pre-made stuff from Michael's. I got little square cookie cutters, there were 3 different sizes and I just made about 2 inch panels or so and gently pressed the cutter into the fondant to make it look like stones. Then I just gently laid it on the cake. It was super duper easy. Then I bought them some NEW Skylanders and used those as the toppers. 

The party was held at LazerCraze. By the name you can tell its a Lazer tag place but they also have this huge party area and inflatables for the kids to bounce on. It's a great place to have a party for the little kids. They also have arcade games. It was a great party and Cameron was able to invite all his new Kinder friends from school, which he was super happy about. It was a little weird not decorating and cooking and party prepping but it was SO nice not to have a mess to clean up. 

I saw these invitations on Pinterest and had to have them for the boys. So when you buy a Skylander it comes with a trading card and they look exactly like this. The Etsy shop owner can no longer sell these because it goes against the copyright policy or something like that. Too bad because these are so cool!

 Bentley wanted nothing to do with the slide or bounce houses. He hated them. Nowadays he loved them! Uncle darrin and Cousin Landon enjoyed themselves:)

 We took presents home to open. The kids were bummed but it's just easier to take them home and open. Especially when there's two kids it can get a little crazy. 

This was the best picture out of like 10 different ones. Oh well at least Ryan and I are looking at the camera.

 This was on Cameron's actual birthday day. We took him out to dinner and ice cream. The little crown he got from school and just had to wear out to dinner. And can you believe we still have that crown. It's almost ripped in half because Bentley has gotten a hold of it a couple times but it's still hanging on. 

And poor Easton will never have a cool birthday dinner and ice cream. Everything closes early on Christmas Eve. So we had take out pizza and Baskin Robbins. Then we went and checked out some Christmas lights. We might just have to make that a traditon on his birthday now since everything shuts down so early. It was a wonderful night and we will always remember it. The kids faces lit up when they saw all the lights. Absolutely loved it!

Please forgive me if there are numerous typos. I did kinda proof read. Dinner is cooking, Ryan and  Cameron will be home soon from baseball practice. Ryan always lets me know when there are lots of typos...thanks dear:)

Monster Jam Party.

So a little over a month ago we had the boys'  birthday party. Even though their birthdays were still like 3 weeks away we like having their party the first weekend of December. It's a little bit away from Christmas but still in their birthday month. They wanted to have a Monster Jam party with a bounce house. Well since their birthday is in December we had to warn them that it might rain and if it rains we cannot have a bounce house. We told them that several times and they still wanted to have it at home.

So the birthday weekend comes and its pouring rain and actually it poured all week  and was suppose to let up on Sunday the day of the party. That Friday I was running errands for the party and it was crazy out. Pouring and windy. I was soaked every time I got out of the car. So Sunday morning comes around and it's just crazy out! We had a few down pours and one lasted for a while the  backyard flooded and water came into our bedroom:)) Yep water all inside our room, it could have been worse....down the street it was a river and cars were flooded, so thankful that didn't happen. SO we got a little water in the bedroom and had to pull out some of the padding and replace it. We were a little displaced for a few days but nothing too bad. And we went on with the party and the sun decided to show itself but still no bounce house. Everything was waaaayyyy too wet for that.

Even though there was no bounce house the boys still had a great time. And really that's all who really matters. I am not concerned with everyone else {I mean a  little bit}, as long as my boys have fun that's all we care about. I ordered this cool Grave Digger pinata and filled it with gold fish, graham crackers and m&m's. Instead of having your typical party favors I ordered these little monster jam boxes and the kids filled them up with the snack pack of goodies that filled the pinata. It was so funny watching the kids try and hit the pinata blind folded. So after the first time around we took off the blind fold. It was a little hard for them:)

At first I wanted to order a cake shaped like a monster truck but then after calling around and getting some quotes I just couldn't see paying that much for a cake. Then when Cameron said he wanted me to make his cake I started  thinking and looking around. I came across this blog where I got the idea for the cake and thought to myself I could totally do that.....and I did!!! The boys loved the cake and thought it was "super awesome". 
I made 3 cakes put two together and then the third one I used for the ramps. I used graham crackers and brown and gold sprinkles for the dirt. I had some posters of the invitation made and used for decorations and I also put up some pictures of the boys at a recent Monster Truck show we went to. 
I made the little fabric flag garland, I just love making these! Its super easy and looks so cute. Then afterwards you can use it for decorations around the house. I hung these ones I made for the party in the playroom. So it kinda has a Monster Truck theme now. I also took the posters I had made and put those in there too along with the all the monster truck wall decals. The boys think its so cool.

This was the awesome invite I found on Etsy.

 Eating left over birthday pizza for breakfast the next morning:))

5.

Happy Birthday Cameron!

Seriously cannot believe you are already five years old....where does the time go?!
Mom and Dad love you so much.

Preschool.

Last week we reached a milestone in our household.......Cameron FINALLY started preschool!!!

I was a little worried on his first day. He was very excited to go but he is very shy and timid at first when he doesn't know you and clings to Ryan and I. Ryan happens to work in the area so he was able to stop by for a few minutes. It was a nice day out so all the kids were outside playing when we got there. He wouldn't leave our side for about 10 minutes so finally we said....Okay we are leaving now, he gave us a hug and kiss and slowly went with the teacher to go play. I stayed around in the area and did some shopping just in case they were to call and tell me he is crying hysterically and I need to come ASAP , but I never got that call. When I went to pick him up he was outside playing with all the other kids and they told me he did really good and even participated in the classroom during learning/circle time.
Everyone asked if I cried when I left and I did NOT. It did feel a little weird leaving him since I have never left him with anyone but family or close friends. But it will be good for him to be around other kids and listen to someone other than us.
So for the rest of the day that's all he talked about. He couldn't wait to go back. Right now he is only going Tues/Thu half days.

First day of Preschool.

And of course the little cold I got last week, well I passed it on to the boys. Easton woke up Tuesday with a runny nose and then Cameron started to feel sick Wednesday night and woke up Thursday morning with a little fever, cough, and runny nose......so you know what that means.......he had to miss his second day of preschool:( He was so sad when he first woke up and I told him he might not be able to go....he said to me, "But Mom they have tissue there" it was so cute and sad. They both seem to be better but still have those darn pesky runny noses. It seems like once they get a runny nose it stays with them forever.

And this is Cameron drinking the chocolate shake he got for being a good boy when we left him at school. 

Four.

Happy Birthday to our sweet boy! You are full of energy, crazy, and drive us nuts sometimes but we love you so much and can't believe you are already 4!

Happy Birthday Cameron!

Potty Training HELL Continues.......

OK.........so Cameron is almost 4 and we are still in potty training hell. It has gotten much better. He wears underwear everyday and goes pee all by himself in the toilet and hasn't had an accident in awhile but it's the other one we are having trouble with....going #2. He does go in the toilet sometimes but most of the time he ends up going in his pants. And when he does it's a huge ordeal and sometimes takes him a couple days. Sometimes it hurts him so bad he is yelling and screaming and won't even try to sit on the toilet. I feel so bad for him, it's so sad. He holds it because it hurts but then when he eventually does go it hurts him even more. Then I think the times that it doesn't hurt he is just scared to go. I don't know what to do anymore. It's so frustrating.

I thought he was going to be so easy at potty training. When he was 2 he started showing interest and peeing in the toilet. I had no idea it was going to be like this. Thanks goodness we finally almost mastered the peeing;) I guess after we master #2 we move onto the night time training. He still wears a pull-up to bed. That should a ton of fun also....oh joy.

Does anyone have any helpful tips on this matter?

Cars 2.

Last Sunday we took Cameron to see Cars 2 {I know this post is a little late}. We left Easton with my Grandma because well he is only 18 months and that would not have been good. Although he does love Cars and anytime he sees anything Cars he goes crazy...it's so cute, but next time he can go;)


Cameron was very excited and has been talking about going to see it for like a month now, whenever he first starting seeing previews and seeing all the crap they have in the stores. He would ask every single day, multiple times a day...................and finally the day came.


Ryan and I both like it and thought it was cute. We loved how Mater was the star of the show. We thought it was hilarious that Lightening and Mater were watching Wipe Out on the plane but thought it was a little weird for the cars to be shooting at each other with guns. We both thought the first one was better. 

On our way;)

Very Excited!

Of course I had to get pictures with Mom and Dad.

Eating a little snack before the show.

Cameron has never tried popcorn before, well because its a choking hazard and I am a freak when it comes to the kids eating stuff they can choke on. Since we were at the movies and he always talks about popcorn I gave him one piece, he gagged and spit it out. He didn't like so much, it was kinda funny. 

Before we left the house I tried to get him to wear a pull-up but he refused to put one on, he HAD to wear underwear. No accidents! Yay! He went right before the movie started then Ryan took him once during the show. 

It was a very successful first trip to the movies with the little man. Someone told me there is a Toy Story 4 coming out...maybe that will be lil chunkers first movie;)