Grandma Marsha gave Owen this stuffed Yoda a loooong time ago, and we put it away because he had no idea who Yoda even was. But with all his playing Lego Star Wars and watching the movies with daddy…he now definitely knows who Yoda is. And I found him while going through Owen’s closet today…so we decided to just give it to him!
He loved it.
Katie is napping and Tom and I are busy upstairs so he has the whole floor to himself for Lego construction!
When I told Owen I was going after I dropped him off at school he was upset because he wanted to play with the toys. Katie took care of that for him.
He was playing xbox so she had to, too (she has her own controller that we’ve removed the battery from).
ATTACK!
They both like Legos and Owen is willing to share!
Getting ready to start loading the car!
Happy, relaxed family!
She wanted to try to poop so very badly…and she’s SO cute.
Owen and Anna were bestest buddies!
Then Kathryn and Izzy were playing frisbee and Owen wanted to join! This is his catching stance.
His robot stance.
Look at that form!
Good catch!
Proof that his form actually works! He can throw pretty well!
I told him to write his name in the sand. You can see the normal-ish sized O right behind his feet…and then I told him he could do it a little bigger and so he’s drawing an O about three times his size (he’s finishing up the last of it). That’s as far as he got with his name before he lost interest. 🙂
We brought a new Lego kit for Owen to build…and Anna was more than willing to help! They made a great team and did a good job. (The next night, Izzy helped and they did an amazing job!)
Owen said: “Wow! We have a lot of Legos going on here.”
Toys, part 1
While one kid is at school and the other is napping…three bags to donate.
On a side note: please, no more stuffed animals!
Our friend Alice (actually a professional nanny—though usually for much older kids!) is staying with the kids while we go to Florida. The kids met her about two weeks ago when she came for two nights to meet them and Owen was excited to have her back.
This was the first picture we got on the road—some pre-nap cuddles!
Maggie and the kids enjoying the nice weather, the bubbles Alice brought, and playing swords!
She spoiled the kids with a fun dinner: Owen got a caterpillar hot dog and Katie got hot dog palm trees. Both got strawberry flowers:
And she braved giving Katie yogurt:
My honest first thought was What is she doing to me? Now the kids are going to expect fun dinners all the time?! But my immediate next thought was Oh what a super special surprise that only Miss Alice does! 🙂
Tom and I took Owen to The Lego Movie today. He was SOOO excited! The whole time we were coming home from Costco he was telling us to hurry so he wouldn’t miss the movie! We assured him we would be home in plenty of time. He even wore his new Lego Crocs!
The movie was really cute and Owen was super excited to see some of his own minifigures in the movie!
As the movie ended these were my exact thoughts:
You’ll understand all of those when you see the movie but here’s #3:
Then this happened on the way home:
We had a birthday party for one of our best friend’s kids at the bounce house place today.
Being goofy on the bounce house:
How she eats pizza:
And how she eats a cupcake:
Around the time we wanted to leave, we couldn’t find Owen anywhere. Tom and I each took a turn looking (and there’s only so much you can see without actually going into the bounce houses yourself) and neither of us could find him in the throng of kids. Turns out, he was in the under four area playing with blocks. Yep, it was time to leave! But a great time was has by both kids!
Playing along with big brother…with daddy’s help to make sure she doesn’t accidentally turn it off. 🙂
Owen wanted to work on this Super Heroes Lego kit he got for his birthday. He did quite well for the first two hours…then he started to lose his focus and get a little grouchy. So we took a break and finished it when daddy got home. But overall he does really well and doesn’t need much help.
We had the gang over after the gymnastics party so we could hang out and visit—with everyone’s busy schedules (and with Trimble’s living back on base instead of in the same neighborhood) we rarely get together anymore. We ordered pizza for dinner and had a few drinks while the kids played. We had Owen open his gifts sporadically throughout the night and then had him blow out candles on his cake (I had forgotten candles for the gymnastics party). He loved opening his presents and pretty much every response to every gift was an excited “WHAT!?!!” It was super cute.
Then he opened his big gift from us—a used iPhone 4—and he looked at it like “Huh?” and immediately said “Daddy, this is yours!” and tried handing it to him. He completely didn’t understand that it was for him, even after I showed him the Lego Indiana Jones wallpaper. He was just too excited about all the other Lego/Ninjago/Star Wars stuff. We should have kept it until after all the excitement of the day was over.
Building one of the smaller Lego sets he got:
Taking his birthday picture…that I didn’t technically need to do because it wasn’t his actual birthday!
We had Owen’s 5th birthday party at one of the local gymnastics places. We invited his entire class (16 kids) as well as our friends. Half of his class RSVPed (of which two asked to bring other siblings, which was fine) and I was annoyed but honestly pretty impressed that we got a 50% response rate. However, of those eight that RSVPed, four didn’t show…two of which were the ones that asked to bring extra kids. 😐 So that cost me extra because I opted to go with the 25+ kids plan (which allowed for another employee to be scheduled) because we were right on the line with RSVPs and I figured we’d likely get some that would show up without having RSVPed. So we ended up with 15 kids total instead of 23. Oh well, it’s only money, right? And Owen had fun so that’s what matters, right? But he did have fun so it’s all good!
Ursula made the awesome Ninjago cake!
When I called Owen over to see it (he was out playing) he said “It’s Jay!” (Of course, he was right, Jay is the blue ninja.)
Owen with two of his classmates, Tanner and Braxton (who I’ve posted pics of before). You see that Owen really isn’t the same size as the rest of his class. 🙂
Katie having fun running around:
Katie was very interested in what was going on in the bounce house—but we put her in with the kids and she screamed. So she was content to just peek in for a bit.
I showed Katie how to hang on the bar and she loved it! She’d hang and swing then drop off—over and over.
And then she got in the bounce house because it was fairly empty:
Back at the bar showing daddy her tricks!
The birthday boy in the middle of the parachute!
And here’s a 6 minute video of the parachute fun (pretty much for the grandparents). 🙂
Each kid got to do their own thing in the middle of the parachute balloon. Owen did a spinning twist.
A few last runs before leaving…
The last pic of our best friends for quite some time—our friend Tom is deploying next week and we’ll be moving this summer…
As Ursula was getting the cake packed up to go, Owen saw that the head was off to the side and was VERY concerned that it wasn’t coming home and kept asking about it. We assured him Jay was coming home. Then he saw Ursula carrying it to her car (to bring to our house) and he was concerned that the cake itself wasn’t coming home at all!
Overall, it was a great party for Owen’s first REAL birthday party (not just something at our house with a few friends or family). 🙂
Everyone is in the water at the “beach!”
Picnic on the beach!
I found this small kitchen for Katie about a week before Tom came home. Owen saw it in the back of the car and was SO excited about it (even though I told him it was for Katie). He wanted it up right away but I said it would be after daddy came home and we took the tree down (because it was going to go in the same spot). So today was finally the day! They both loved it!
Katie helped to put all the Legos in the bucket, then..
First we had the beach with Gramma Jean. Second we did the playground. Third we did a movie. Fourth we did a different playground. Fifth was photos with Santa at the mall. I think that brings us to number six (though I should ask Owen—he’d know for sure!)—Jump In Jax, an indoor bounce arena. We met friends there for a play date and he was off like a shot. Luckily he takes care of himself because I have to stay near Katie to keep her corralled in the under 4 area.
Then I tried to at least get one picture of Owen. 🙂
I also had to have a little talk with Owen… He kept coming back to play in the toddler area with the blocks. Seriously? The kid I have to tell at least three times a day to stop jumping on the couch isn’t jumping on the bouncy things? I told him it’s okay for a few minutes—if he wants to come play with Katie—but otherwise he should be BOUNCING. We’ll see what happens the next time. 🙂
Amazingly, she never tries to put them in her mouth! She just takes them apart, hands pieces to Owen, and tries to put them together.
Maggie doesn’t quite know what to do with Katie in her bed.
Where I finally put Maggie so she’d relax. Except I think she knows it’s not quite right because she keeps rearranging herself. 🙂
This Lego Minifigure history book (LEGO Minifigure Year by Year: A Visual History) was a Christmas gift from Uncle Doug, Aunt Marie, and cousins Gabrielle and Robert—and he LOVES it! I’ll turn on his monitor in the morning and he’s flipping through pages. At night, that’s the book he wants me to “read” (I say “read” because he really just wants to flip through the pages and look at figures and ask me what their names are). Almost all of the figures he says “I want this for next Christmas.” 🙂
EDITED TO ADD THE FOLLOWING NIGHTS AS PROOF:
Guess what, Katie? CHICKEN BUTT!
He was REALLY into telling me a story about his Legos.
Because your toys aren’t already taking over the playroom, the living room, your bedroom, and the upstairs living room…
Every morning she has to haul at least two or three stuffed toys out of her crib.
I love my kids, but I can’t wait to NOT have to deal with this every day.
