A first and last time for the video game place.

We came home from a play date with friends and the kids wanted to go across the street and play with the three neighbor boys. They went over and the kids weren’t home but the dad offered to take Katie and Owen to them—they were at a local gaming place. They were both willing to spend their own money to do it so I then offered to pay for them, thinking that they would be able to play a multiplayer game with the other boys instead of being limited to two people per game like they generally are at home on the Xbox.

Fast forward to receiving this picture from the dad and this is what was going on: everybody was on a different computer doing something different. In other words, paying for exactly what they could be doing at home for free. so we had a conversation about that when they got home. Katie spent two hours on YouTube and Owen played by himself for two hours which is just an insane waste of money.

Kids.

Easter Bunnies

The good thing about the kids getting older? I don’t feel the need to be up at 6:30am with them to look for eggs! (Tom was up, though–he’s always up!) I heard them excitedly searching for and finding them, then rolled over and went back to sleep for a bit. When I did get up, I made them pose with their because of course. 🙂

This is part of what it looks like while I’m trying to take them:

And then moments later they got their Easter treat: xbox time!

Owen’s 9th birthday sleepover!

We decided to do a big summer party again so Owen invited two friends to spend the night.

Katie was thrilled to be able to play Xbox with the boys.

Pizza!

Katie helping get the cake ready. (Owen picked it out at Sam’s Club yesterday.)

Oliver and Brandon

Everything went really well. They were crazy loud at times but they were all really well-behaved and were in bed by 11 and had stopped chatting by 11:30…

Another successful birthday sleepover!

Owen wanted another summer birthday pool party, so like last year, we had a sleepover with two friends for his birthday. I’m not sure who was more excited—Owen or Katie. She did pretty good overall but didn’t understand why the boys didn’t want to go play with her instead of playing with Owen. (That said, she did get to play with them most of the time.)

We had pizza for dinner, then they all played downstairs (including Katie), and then it was time for Pie face! 

Ice cream! Poor Colton (in black) doesn’t like chocolate so didn’t want the ice cream or brownie…so had an ice pop.

Attempting to play a new video game. It wasn’t quite working, so…

We watched a movie. Awwwww. 

Of course, Katie was right in there, too.

Owen: “My bros!”

iPad time

Spying on them. 

We put them to bed at 9:30 and they wanted to read a book so we told them lights out at 10. I happened to be watching on the monitor when they turned the lights out at 9:45. We thought it was too easy…and we were right. They were gabbing LOUDLY for the next hour. The last 20 minutes or so, Tom and I took turns going in to tell them to quiet down and go to bed. The last time Tom went in he warned them that they would not get donuts in the morning if he had to come in again. Then they were finally quiet. 🙂

Tom said they were all up at Owen’s usual time (6:30!) so they were back at Xbox and Tom went to get donuts.

The kids left by 10:30. Owen had a great time and we were glad to have our relatively quiet house back.  

Owen’s first sleepover

Owen’s first sleepover was tonight—and it was the first for both of his friends, too.

The kids played for a bit, then we started Fruit Ninja, which they all thoroughly enjoyed.

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It’s somewhat exhausting—and they can only really play one at a time—so then we did Crash Course which they could all play at the same time.

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Manuel doesn’t have pets, so he was ENTHRALLED with ours (you’ll see more pics later). 🙂

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Getting ready for cake!

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Time for a movie! Katie enjoyed the sleepover as much as the boys did!

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Getting the boys ready for bed about 9. They lined up for a picture, each with one of Owen’s stuffed animals—and here Owen was realizing that they each had one of the primary colors!

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Overall, it went pretty good. The boys were boys (roughhousing and such) but they are all fairly similar—very nice, polite, not too terribly rough, and they listened well. We were most worried about putting them to bed and what happened after that since neither of the boys had had a sleepover before. Of course, their parents were on call to come get them, and I had been updating them via text and pics throughout the night. So they all got their PJs on, brushed their teeth, and decided who would sleep where. We told them they could stay up and talk, but they couldn’t be too loud (since Katie was sleeping next door). I read them a story, pointed out all the night lights, told them that if they were scared at all or if anything was wrong to come get us (and we could call their parents), asked if they had any questions (no), and then turned out the lights, crossed my fingers, and went downstairs.

Within minutes, we heard them coming down the steps. 🙂 Apparently the boys were scared of the big stuffed bear, even though they had all been playing with him. But no biggie, Tom just went up with them and threw it in the guest room.

The second trip down (again with all three of them!) was because the kid who decided he wanted to sleep on the top bunk was apparently suddenly afraid of heights and didn’t want to sleep on the top bunk even though we went over that before. But no biggie, we asked if he wanted Owen to sleep on the top and he said no, he wanted to. Ooookay. Back to bed then, and we sent them upstairs.

The third trip down was to tell us that somehow the top-bunk-kid needed his bed made again (turns out he had pulled off all of his bedding to sleep on the floor). Okay, no biggie, Tom went up and got the bedding issue settled.

At this point, I told Tom we should go upstairs to our bedroom so the kids didn’t have to come all the way downstairs each time. So we did. 🙂

Minutes later (the fourth time out of bed), two had to go to the bathroom—even though they all went before getting in bed.

The fifth time, someone was scared of everything in the room. We added another night light (in addition to the three already in there).

Then we heard them talking quietly and we thought maybe that would be the end of it…but then we heard loud thumping and lots of noise so Tom went down and and found them all out of bed! They got told they could talk but they had to stay in bed. We heard more talking but nothing crazy.

About 10, we finally noticed they were really quiet. Tom checked on them and they were all out! We crossed our fingers and hoped it lasted!

OWEN ATE A BANANA!!!!

Owen shocked the hell out of me and asked for AND ATE a banana today. Just. like. that.

I was on the computer in the office and he was out playing his Sesame Street Xbox game and I saw that Cookie Monster was eating a banana. Owen came in to me to tell me he needed a banana. I was sure he just meant to play with it (to mimic what Cookie Monster was doing) and I said no, he didn’t need a banana.

A few minutes later: “Mom…I NEED A BANANA!” I asked if he was going to play with it or eat it—completely expecting him to say play with it—but he said EAT IT! So I said “Are you really going to eat it?” He said yes.

So we went downstairs, I started peeling it for him, handed it to him, and he took a bite like it was the most normal thing in the world and he’s been eating bananas forever. EXCEPT HE’S NEVER EATEN A BANANA IN HIS LIFE (aside from mashed when he was a baby) AND YOU KNOW HOW HE IS ABOUT TRYING NEW FOODS.

I was floored. FLOORED I TELL YOU! And perfectly giddy in my excitement—if we’re being honest.

He only ate about half of it BUT HE ATE IT! Without any coercion! Now to find videos of Cookie Monster eating some veggies!!

*As a sidenote, I really hope he continues to like them because that should help with the poop issues we’re STILL having…