Four Years Has Gone Too Fast

I cannot believe Edison is FOUR! He is growing so fast. 

We kind of put together and impromptu party. February 26th came before I knew it. I have always wanted to  do a colorful layered cake so I went for it. 

 It turned out great. The only problem...it made so much. We threw about half of it away. We should have done this last year when we had all our family at his birthday.

We sure love our little Eddie. Happy Fourth Bud.

Tap, tap...is this thing on?

Well, hello again. I know I haven't been the best blogger in the world lately and I don't make any promises to become better anytime soon but my little boy just turned three on Saturday and I think he deserves a post. Edison is in love with Toy Story (the only movie he will sit through) and he especially loves Buzz Lightyear. So, of course we had to do a Buzz Lightyear themed party for him! The cake didn't turn out quite as I was hoping but Edison loved it and that's all that matters. He was in the bath while I was frosting it so he didn't see it until it was complete and he was so excited, he wanted to eat it right then.

I don't know if you can see his devilish eyebrow very well in this picture but let me tell you--this guy is a little rascal!! He certainly keeps me on my toes.

Edison was delighted that so many people came to our house just for him. We had 19 family members at the party and he was just pleased as punch that everyone was there for him. He took center stage and had no problem with it.

I decorated the house with cardboard stars covered in tinfoil, green and purple streamers, and a glittery Happy Birthday banner. We have this spare room upstairs so we turned it into our "Space Ranger Training Camp." We filled the empty room with about 200 balloons and had the kids do target practice with some nerf guns and then we gave each of them a can of silly string and let them go at it. We are planning on replacing the carpet in that room so I didn't think it would be a big deal. Boy was I wrong! It made such a mess! But the older kids thought it was cool to pick up all the silly string and make a big ball so they did most of the cleaning for me. Anyway, the kids enjoyed themselves so that was good. We got Edison a Toy Story bike that he still needs to learn how to peddle by himself but we can't get much practice time with all this snow and cold weather we've been having. We Gordon also got him a Zhu Zhu pet so that they could play together (Gordon got one from his cousin for Christmas and the boys think they are the coolest thing to hit planet earth!)

I just cannot believe my baby boy is three. His speech has really taken off in the last couple of months (Oh, one of those things I forgot to blog about--he graduated from speech therapy!! Like back in October/November?!) He is quite the chatter box now. In fact his favorite word lately is a curse word he heard from someone of the male species in this house. It starts with a d. He also loves to argue with his brother non-stop and won't give up. He knows he is always right! His other favorite thing is to have me close my eyes before he gives me anything and then put it in my hand and say "surprise!" We sure do love this little  big boy!

Better Late than Never

Gordon's party was monster themed and it was perfect because all the Halloween stuff was 75% off. I found this invitation online and changed it to suite our party:

I printed off some Yo Gabba Gabba monster masks and had the kids color them and add different things to them. Then we practiced being really scary monsters. We made scary faces, stomped, and made scary noises. Then we played Hide-n-Scare. Half the kids hid while the other kids looked for them and then they jumped out and made scary faces!

 All the kids making scary faces. Now the story behind the cupcakes. I found these cupcakes in the Fall issue of Taste of Home and that is what started this monster themed party. Well, we had the party planned and everything was ready, including the cupcakes and then Gordon woke up sick (vomiting). So we cancelled the party and ended up throwing away a lot of cupcakes. Well, Chris insisted that we make the cupcakes again and try for the party the next week.

 I wasn't so sure I wanted to make all those cupcakes again! But it actually turned out easier the second time. The kids absolutely loved them. And Gordon even got to help create some with the left over supplies.

At the end we had them follow the green monster footprints to find their goody bags. I just bought a bunch of Halloween stuff (spiders, googly eye glasses...) and I made some slime and put them each in a ziploc bag. All in all it was a successful party.

Edison's Birthday Party

Edison's birthday was last Friday. We had a small party with just some family. The pictures are all out of order (I really hate Blogger sometimes!) but you get the main idea.

We got him a Mr. Potato Head and it has been really fun for the boys. His cousin gave him another Mr. Potato Head so it was perfect because now we don't have any fights about it, except for who has the better eyes, hat, nose....
I really love this photo of Edison. It makes him seem so big. I don't know if it is because he is my second child but he has always seemed smaller to me. I realized at his 2 year check up--he is not small. He is in the 90% for weight and the 75% for height so not to bad at all.
This is Edison giving dad a hug for the present I we gave him. He then proceeded to give everyone in the room hugs. Did I mention Edison loves to give hugs?

Opening presents wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper. Like he really cares what is on the front?!

I love that smile! He is such a happy guy. Well, he did just get a hand-me down brand new barn that makes animal sounds. Who wouldn't be smiling? And I am just going to warn you about the picture below--it involves spit and boogers and cake...
It was actually kind of hilarious because he kept blowing upwards and couldn't get the candle out until he used the spit...and boogers.
The kids love to help me cook and of course they love to lick out the bowl. And below is my masterful creation. I know it looks a little bit like a pig but it is actually a cow. A pretty darn good looking cow if you ask me.
And that is the end of this picture show.

Happy Birthday Edison!

Gordon's par-tay

I think I am loosing my mind. Well, I am definitely loosing everything else. We can't find our camera. The last time we remember having it was at the Halloween party at my parent's ward...hopefully it turns up.

So I am more than a week late in posting about Gordon's 4th birthday. I had to borrow my sis-in-law's camera. The theme was: BUGS!

I got this idea from Cara. I just loved it. Super cute and pretty easy. The only problem was we made the first batch of bugs too skinny so when transferring them to the cupcakes, they all broke. But once we learned that lesson...easy, peasy.
I made antennae headbands for all the kids and I must say, "Super cute". My twin nephews had the brilliant idea of using them like headset walkie-talkies so everyone kept going around, "Come in commander, can you pass the glue." Aaa-dorable.We made little bug scenes with stickers, markers, glue, and paper while we waited for all the kdis to arrive. Then we played stick the dot on the ladybug with Oreos. Lick it and stick it. That was fun even if the my ladybug looked a little squashed.
Each kid also got a tiny magnifying glass and had to go outside in the back yard and hunt for bugs. Then we did cupcakes and "bug juice." The kids loved that and Gordon still asks for it. Silly, silly. My dad was telling all the kids that they had to squeeze so many grasshoppers to get all this juice. Gross.
I didn't get very many pictures of the opening presents part because the kids kept crowding around. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the garbage truck we got him but I'm not joking when I say that thing was gone before I could blink. The kids loved it and Gordon has been playing with it non-stop. It looks pretty much just like this. All in all, it was a fun time. And I know someone who really enjoyed their cupcake...
Happy Birthday Gordon. We sure love you!!

Birthday Bash

Saturday we had a joint birthday party for Gordon and his good friend Terin who also turned three and lives down stairs. Here come the birthday boys...

Gordon has been so excited all week about his birthday. Everyday he tells me, "lets have a party!" He even told Terin the present that he got him, "its a secret, I got you a digger." Gordon was as happy as a clam that it is finally his big day.

We did Disney Cars themed. We had pin the tire on the car, relay race to push a bike tire around the cones, and of course a pinata. Gordon and Terin had a good time hitting eachother with their party blowers while they were supposed to be eating. Mandee made the cake so I got out of it this year! Woohoo! She did an awesome job too. It really was a fun day. Thanks to all who came and made it a special day for Gordon.