Brady's Early Birthday Party

My Baby is all Grown up

Lets Reminisce

Here's Brady at 6 months having fun with his big sister.

Look how cute my little man is...it seems that very time I post a picture of my kids from when they were little, they are naked. Remember Alex was born in Nevada and Brady in Texas so it was really hot :) Just excuse Alex's picture.

Brady at 10 months sporting his Nebraska Corn Huskers Attire. 

And then Brady at 14 months, walking. Look at the hair. So blond and longer. Now he wears is super short and spiky; which I love.

In Early June, Brady had an early birthday party because we are getting ready to move and he wanted to celebrate his birthday with all his friends. I can't believe that he will be 8 years old in just a few weeks. My baby isn't a baby anymore. They grow up so fast and I am not sure that I am quite ready for that. Anyways, Brady wanted a Skylander themed party as well as a sleepover. He has never had a sleepover party so I thought why not. So here are a few pictures, or I should say several but they are pretty cute. Brady had 10 boys over and man was I exhausted afterwards. They were busy wild boys. 

Brady and his Skylander Cake.

I made the portal of power with cake &

fondant of course, the characters at the top

are real Skylanders of Brady's. I do have

to admit that it was an awesome cake.

I made this shirt for Brady. It has Skylanders on the front

The boys eating dinner......WOW did they eat!!!!!!!!!

Opening Presents. 

A closer look at presents...

Brady got this card, of course we thought
it was the funniest thing

Of course, it's not a Skylander party unless we 

battle each other 

More Eating....

Getting ready for bed, watching a movie

Boys full of energy and being boys...no shirts

 A little twister before bed. The boys loved playing this. they played for 45 minutes

Breakfast of eggs, bacon, chocolate and regular pancakes, orange juice.

To end the party, the boys went outside and did silly string. They had a blast running around with Joe chasing them.


Brady's Actual Birthday 
July 5th...in Louisiana 

We had ice cream instead of cake

Brady also got some birthday money, so he wanted a skateboard.

Brady had an awesome party with all this friends in Maryland and a great birthday in our new place. We were really sad to leave such great friends in Maryland. We miss you all

Mother's Day

I just wanted to post a picture of my kids and I on Mother's Day. I had a wonderful day with my wonderful Kids and Husband.

Brady Earned his Wolf Badge

Next to Baseball, Brady loves being a Cub Scout. We found him a wonderful Pack here in Maryland and he has met many new friends and has had some wonderful leaders. Brady joined Cub Scouts a little more then half way through first grade. He really buckled down and worked hard to earn his Tiger badge in 3 short months. Then this last year (2nd grade), he conituned to work hard and earned his Wolf Badge. 

We are really proud of you, Brady

It was really hard getting a picture of these 2. Not sure why, maybe they just wanted to look goofy :) 

His entire Den earned their Wolf Badge together

Brady loves Baseball

Even though the season is almost over, I thought I should still post a few pictures of Brady doing what he loves most...............

BASEBALL

Brady up at bat. He's always ready and waiting with a smile...

Brady loved being catcher. It's funny because the gear doesn't really fit so it makes it hard for the boys learning to catch but he sure does look cute.....









This is who Brady is going to miss most in Maryland and playing sports with. Brady's best buds; Grayson & Thatcher. Brady has played many sports with Grayson and he has loved every minute of it. 

My Little Girl Turns 10

          On May 6th, my little girl turned 10. The big 10...double digits now. I can remember the day she was the born, the day she took her first steps, the day she got her first tooth, when she started preschool, kindergarten and now she's finishing up the 4th grade....WOW time sure has flown by. She's now 10 going on 18. She's so much into fashion, clothes, shoes, wanting to wear make-up, wanting a cell phone and the list goes on and on.

Just a few pictures to reminisce.....

Alexandria just days old.... 

Alexandria about 6 months old

THE PARTY 
The girls painted nails, did facials, colored hair, sang and danced, chased the boy that lives next door...wild & crazy 10 year olds. 

The goofy girls

Eating and again silly

More Eating

Colored hair, playing outside...Brady loved being around all the girls.

THE CAKE
Lets talk about the cake. I have a very gifted friend who makes great cakes. She is very talented. So, I asked her to help me make this one for Alexandria's birthday. Alexandria loves pink, zebra and cheetah print. I had a lot of fun doing this with her.

The chocolate fountain....lots and lots of chocolate

Cakes and cupcakes....they were yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alex was so excited and do you see the make-up :)

We are really proud of the young lady you have become and the happiness you bring to us all. We love you!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXANDRIA

WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?

     I cannot believe that it has been almost 2 years since I last blogged. The last time I posted Brady was turning 6 and in just a few short months he will be 8. 
     
     So much has happened over the last few years but instead of going back lets move forward. In two short months, our family will be moving. Joe and I found out the last day of February but did not tell family & friends, including our children until just recently. 

The reason for not telling people...WE WERE NOT HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!

     I'm not sure how to explain how we felt. All I can say is that it was a blow. This location wasn't on the list. I know that this location is a place where people live and call home. A place that people love and can't imagine living anywhere else. It's a location that they love so much like I love San Diego. We knew we were moving this summer that was no surprise. We spent a few months creating that list of possible places to go; we considered big ports, small ports, places I could put up with, places the kids would enjoy along with the cost of living and how big the LDS church was in the area. We spent countless hours deciding. Of course, San Diego was first on our list. LA was right behind it. But we also had east coast and the gulf coast locations of possibilities. All places were perfect jobs for Joe. Our kids wanted to go to San Diego, I wanted to go to San Diego, Joe wanted to go to San Diego. But I guess the coast guard didn't get the memo or didn't sense the tone of desperation in Joe and I.

     Let me first say that yes the location for us is not very desirable. All I can think of are the mass number of mosquitos and the uncomfortable mess of the humidity. I guess I have become a snob...I grew up in San Diego, California where the weather is beautiful all year around. Not to hot, not to cold and no mosquitos. This was very unexpected. It's not necessarily a place that I would really ever consider going. But it is now, a place that my family and I will home for 1 to 3 years. 

     On a good note, I will be visiting this location in the first week of June to find a house and get the kids registered for school (school starts early out there). Hopefully, all will go smoothly when I visit. I hope to find the good and understand why that's where we need to be. 

     I have spent lots of time in tears and wondering why I did not get my way. Why my family and I can't go to the place where family is and what we call home. I have not given up hope that one day we will live in San Diego again but for now Lafayette, Louisiana will be the place we call home.
  

   Disclaimer: My intentions were and are not to talk ill about Louisiana. I don't want to criticize anyone or speak badly of a place that many may love. As I said, this was a shock and we are all still adjusting :)

Brady turns 6

Happy 6th Birthday Brady
Brady's birthday was last week July 5th. Besides having a party all Brady wanted to do was go to the pool and eat at McDonald's. Done. A pretty easy and low key day.

My kids love cheesecake especially when I make it. Chocolate cheesecake with strawberry sauce all over it. Very RICH but very YUMMY!

We spent the day at the pool with Brady's best friends Grayson, Thatcher & Jonah. Only Grayson isn't in this picture I think he's further down. Alex loves Jonah. Anytime he's around she plays mommy.

We brought McDonald's to the pool. I am not a fan of McDonald's but sacrificed for Brady's day. It was hard let me tell you :)

Brady is all about Legos. Here he is with his lego watch.

Here's Brady with his best buds...Grayson & Thatcher

Now for the birthday party. We did his party about 10 days earlier being that his birthday falls the day after the 4th of July & it being summer.
Of course, a Lego theme. Now I got a lot of my inspiration & ideas off the Internet and also using a friends blog. She did a lego party for her son & I used a lot of her ideas, Thanks Jadi!!!

I wrapped two big boxes with blue and green wrapping paper & then glued the same colored plastic cups on top to look like giant legos. They turned out pretty cute. I made Lego head pops and a lego cake.

These are the lego head pops. Super easy. Marshmellows dipped in melted candy mix from Michael's with lollipop sticks in the bottom. To make the top little piece of the head I just cut out circles from a marshmellow. I should have used mini m & m's. That would have been easier. For the faces I let Brady and Alex draw them with edible cake pens. Very easy but time consuming. I wish they were a little more smooth looking but I think they turned out cute.
If you like marshmellows then you will like these. Oh and to make them stand, I turned lego pieces over and put the sticks in the holders and layed legos all around to support the sticks.

I ordered lego plates & napkins online. For the goodie bags, I used colored bags and cut circles out of the same colored paper glued them to the bag to look like a lego. I put brick lego candy inside with a free lego magazine, lego stickers and a lego toy (that we all put together during the party)

I made these cute lego cracker snacks. Just crackers, cheese and cream cheese. Really cute.

When everyone got to the party they each got a lego toy to put together.

The kids had a good time putting these together. I was glad to have Joe there to help because I am not a lego mom. I can barely follow the directions and put together. But the boys all had directions to help put together. I was impressed because they were really concentrating and going as great job building the toy.

Here's my lego cake. The top pieces are marshmellows, of course. Brady's favorite color is green so we colored it green. I tried making it a darker green but couldn't get it dark enough. I was impressed with myself because I am not a cake decorator but I think it turned out great.
Brady loved it.

We also played a few games, one was lego toss.

Not a great picture but these are ice cube brick lego pieces and lego guys. I made them with kool-aid so they tasted pretty good. I had the kids put them in sprite which made them fizz. It was pretty cool. They kids loved these. After pulling these out of the freezer it's all they wanted. I think each kid had like 6. It was a hit.

Of course, it wouldn't be a party without jumping on the trampoline.

My big 6 year old.

Another group shot.

Dinner was pizza, chips and fruit.

It was a great party...I really loved planning this party and decorating for it.
Brady loved it as well. I will never forget his face when he saw the lego head pops, the cake and the big lego boxes. I think he was amazed that his mom could really do this. Brady loves legos so much that in his spare time whether its 30 minutes or 2 minutes he sits on the floor and puts together legos. He loves the ones that have directions. Its an engineer thing!

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY BRADY