Marc's 6th Birthday Party

Well, Saturday was Marc's 6th birthday party. Since his "girlfriend" Kylie couldn't make it, they brought a gift to him when they came over for a play date on Thursday.We had his party at the YMCA that i about 15 minutes from our house. We have a membership there so we got a discounted rate for use of their party package. We got the use of the pool, the gym, and a community room for 2 hours. Marc's neighbor friend Spencer was not feeling good, but he stopped by to give him the gift he got for Marc.
The theme for Marc's birthday party was pirates. I found most of the decorations at the dollar store, including cute little pirate hats that we gave to each of the kids....including Samantha. She was the cutest little pirate EVER!
The first thing we did when the party started was to go swimming. The YMCA requires that a parent be present, either in the pool or on deck, while their minor child is in the pool. So we started there in case any of the parents wanted to leave after the pool. I was pleased that 2 parents swam with us and all the parents stuck around for the whole party. I enjoyed the opportunity to get to know the parents' of Marc's friends.
Marc has really taken to wearing his goggles that I bought at the dollar store. :)
After the kids came back to the room, they ran around the big, open area. (I wish I had half their energy). After running around, it was time for the pinata fun!! We brought one of lighter bats because we didn't want a heavy one and have the pinata break before each child had a turn to hit it. Well, after about 30 or so hits, I went and asked for a heavy bat. Each child used that once, and it still wasn't showing signs of breaking so daddy gave it a really hard whack...and it FINALLY broke!......

and then there was mass hysteria of the kids trying to grab up as many toys and pieces of candy as possible.
After some pinata fun, it was time for cake and ice cream. :) And sitting at the head of the table....our Pirate of Honor...Marc III! :) He made the most handsome pirate ever!
Marc picked out the pirates theme for his party. When we went to look at cakes, the only pirate cake was from Pirates of the Caribbean. We didn't really like it so we looked through the book and Marc found a Scooby-Doo cake he liked. That same day he told us that he wanted Scooby-Doo figurines to be added to his Christmas list. Well, as Daddy was looking around for Scooby-Doo figurines, he found a Scooby & Shaggy pirates set. So we bought that set and had them replace the other toy with the Scooby toys. This was the final look. I was super excited about it, it was so cute!!
Making a wish and blowing out his candles.
Samantha enjoyed eating the cake and ice cream.
Our room was so big that there was plenty of room for the 5 kids to run around and play tag. It was so fun to watch Marc interact with his friends.
Uncle Jeff lifted Samantha up and let her play with the empty pinata. She had fun making it swing away from her and then catching it as it swung back to her. She giggled every time! :)
After some cake & ice cream and running around it was time for gift-opening.

Marc and his friend Nathan from kindergarten

Marc and his "girlfriend" Kateri from kindergarten

Marc and his friend Sarah from kindergarten

Marc and his friend Jared from my preschool and childcare

Time flew by at the party and when we hit our 2 hour limit, there were still presents from us, Uncle Jeff, and Grandma that hadn't been opened yet. So, my Mom and Jeff came back to our house, with a pizza stop on the way, for dinner, gift opening, and some fun family time.
Marc was very excited when he opened the Nerf dart gun that Uncle Jeff got him. (pray for all of us and our breakable things. ;) )
We saved the best (at least I thought so) for last. When Samantha was born we gave Marc a Leapster game system. It was awesome to have a hand-held video game system that we could take wherever we needed. An added bonus was that they were "educational" games. Well, our little boy is too smart for his own good. ;) the Leapster games are rated up to approximately 1-2 grade. Well, he is about at that level, so he has outgrown the Leapster games. So, we decided it was time for him to get a "big boy" game system, a Nintendo DS. When you look at the picture below, he doesn't look very excited to have gotten the DS. This was about 7 hours into non-stop activity and the poor boy was exhausted! He really was excited. the first thing he asked me when he got up Sunday morning was "Mom, can I please play my DS?!" (I like playing it too. ;) )
He looked so grown-up sitting next to me playing his video game. :( :)Daddy got Marc some light sabers that make all the noises and lights that flicker when you fight with them. I am not sire who liked them better, Daddy, Uncle Jeff, or Marc. ;)
It was a very fun party, I think our most successful to date. It wasn't a whole lot of work for me, it didn't cost a ton of money, and most of all, I think Marc had a blast!!

Snip, snip

In the last few weeks, Samantha bangs have gotten really long. And, unfortunately, she won't keep and hair clips in her hair, so her nags kept falling in her eyes. My friend, Sarah, told me a way to trim her bangs that she has used on her daughter's bangs. I was afraid to do it so one day when she brought Marc home after school, she cut Samantha's bangs for me.
Her suggestion, and what she did, was to divide the bang hair in 3 equal sections. Take each section, twist the hair, and then snip it as short as you want. When you do the next section, add a little of the completed section for a length guide. By doing it this way, the bangs end up with a "natural" looking line so you don't have to be really careful to make a straight cut on a wiggly toddler.
I think the finished product turned out good. She looks about 6 months older than she did 2 minutes earlier.
It looked kinda straight in this picture that i took right after Sarah was done. the more Samantha played and moved, the more "natural" it looked. :)

Amen!

Before dinner every night we say the "God is Great" prayer as a family. Within the last week or two, Samantha has begun folding her hands and trying to say the prayer with us. (It's kind of hard to hear over my voice on the recording). But she ALWAYS says a very enthusiastic Amen at the end! :) I seem to remember her brother doing the same thing. ;) This was just too precious to not share. Enjoy!

Happy 6th!!

We wanted Marc to have a "birthday" shirt again this year so we made a "bleached" shirt. We went to Hobby Lobby and bought one of their $4 shirts, used some refrigerator magnets that we have used for crafting before and laid them out to spell "it's my 6th birthday". We then sprayed it with bleach. By doing this you are bleaching the shirt everywhere except where the letter are, which makes the words stand out against the shirt.We woke Marc up by putting a lit candle in his pop-tart and singing Happy Birthday to him. After he woke up and got dressed he came up to eat so I put the candle back in and lit it so he could make a 2nd wish. :)
At school he got a birthday crown (which you will see in the next picture). Unfortunately his teacher write Raymond on it instead of Marc (don't know why?????). He also took in a birthday treat to send home with each kid in his class. He enjoyed handing those out to each kid as they left the room to go home.
After school, some time at the sitter's, and a nap, it was time to go out to eat. He chose to go to Red Robin. My Mom & Grandma met us there (thanks!). We ate good food with great company, and ad a fabulous time! Marc's favorite part was after we got done eating and the waiter brought him his birthday ice cream & balloon.

After I took the "nice" picture of him, he wanted to me take some "silly" pictures of him too.....he told me that he wasn't really surprised.....
trying to eat it without a spoon.....
After he ate his ice cream, we let him open some of his presents (the rest are being saved for his party on Saturday). My Aunt Sari & Uncle Gary gave him a cool dinosaur kit. He can mix the plaster, pour in into the dinosaur skeleton mold, and then display his skeleton. :) They also gave him a cool lift-the-flap education book all about dinosaurs. We are going to be dinosaur experts by the time we get done. ;) Thanks Aunt Sari & Uncle Gary...it looks like something we will all enjoying doing together.
Marc had fun reading his card from Great grandma. It was shaped like a snake and had extra s's (?) because of the snakes lisp. ;)
Marc has started keeping a video blog journal using his "toy" kids' camera, but the only thing he ever filmed was his chin (he couldn't see what he was filming). Daddy Marc found a cool video camera that had a screen that rotated to see yourself for pretty cheap. we gave that to him for his birthday. This picture is daddy giving him his first lesson.
Samantha, on the other hand, had a lot of fun playing with all the ripper-off wrapping paper. Toddlers...what are ya gonna do with 'em?? ;)
I can not believe that my "little" boy is 6 years old already!! I am very blessed to have such a sweet, smart, loving, caring, and sometimes mouthy little boy in my life. I certainly feel very Blessed having him in my life! :)

Birthday @ Assembly

At Chandler Woods, for a child's birthday, they can donate a book to the library in their name. Marc chose to donate "An Undone Fairytale". It is one of his favorite books from home. On Mondays the whole school (K-8) all gather in the gym for an assembly. During assembly any child with a birthday over the weekend of the next day gets to go up front and be wished a happy birthday by the whole school, pick out a special pencil and donate their book if they brought one.

The principal, Mrs Lindquist, who is a former art teacher, was so intrigued by his book that she said she was going to read it before she gave it to the library. :)

Weekend Away

We decided that we would go away for Marc's birthday weekend and we also needed to do some Christmas clothes shopping. So we decided to combine the 2 into a trip to Birch Run. On the way over we stopped at Impressions5 Science Center in Lansing. There was a reciprocal agreement with the GR Children's Museum so it was free for us to get in. When we walked in I was a little bummed, it looked really old and run down...well, looks can be deceiving. we had a GREAT time!!

There was a water room with about 5 combined tables with water, boats, gates, scales, and a bunch of water toys to be played with.There is a "chemistry lab" where kids can do experiments along with an instructor for $2. On the day we were there the experiment was making slime. We thought "What the heck, it was free for us to get in". Each child that paid to make slime got a "Slime Ticket" that told the instructor that they had paid.The instructor walked the group of kids through making step by step explaining physical and chemical changes. The kids got to chose what color they wanted their slime to be. Marc chose orange. We wasn't completely sure about the feeling of it. But he thought the whole changing was cool.
There was a toddler room that Samantha went to town in!!! This is a really cool zig zag car tower. As the cars go down the ramps they zig zag back and forth.
The climber/slide was I think Samantha's favorite thing in the whole room. One of the 15 times she went up the stairs, she stopped at the top of the stairs and said "cheese" so I took her picture.

This video is one of the many times up the stairs and down the slide. When she first started walking up the stairs on her feet, I was a little nervous, knowing that her splint had just come off. But I quickly discovered that she was going to do it, whether I liked it or not. (She has a mind of her own). ;) Watching her made me realize just how grown up my little girl is getting. (I think I liked it better when she had to be careful while her arm was broken).

While Marc was playing in the water room, Samantha was watching longingly, wanting to splash around herself. I picked her up for awhile and held her over the table while she splashed and squealed with delight! But, I couldn't hold her that way for long, it was killing my back. So I was excited to see that there was a water table in the toddler area. When she first started, she would only play with her right arm. After some reminding and prompting, she began playing with both hands. She had lots of fun being able to get wet after having to stay dry for 6 weeks!

Marc (and Samantha too, but I don't have a picture of it) thought this mirror room was really cool. In my opinion, that is way too many Marcs! ;) It is a cool picture though.

Another room was a "Create Your Own Music" room. There was a xylophone, string bass, a Dulcimer, tubes that when you bang them with an old flip flop they made different noises, and a piano that displays the sound waves that you are creating by playing. Marc thought the piano was really cool.
There was also a bubble room. Samantha was in awe by the bubbles that we were all blowing. She loved watching them float through the air.....
and then popping them! :)
On the way out, Daddy decided to put Marc on the top of the car...don't ask me why?! But I decided that we needed a picture of it. ;)
After we left the museum, we headed over to Canton to go to IKEA. Marc wanted to go there because their shopping carts' wheel go 360 degrees around. He likes it when daddy spins the cart in a circle or drives it sideways. ;) They also have a "Kids door" that is an archway that has vinyl streamers hanging down that Marc loves running through. While we were there we bought Samantha some Christmas presents. ;) After IKEA we went to the hotel that we paid for using points and not money. :)

On Saturday, we got up and drove about an hour to the Birch Run Outlet Mall. We were looking for some Christmas clothes gifts for the kids. The kids don't care if the clothes are a surprise, they don't want them anyway. ;) but they are going to get them anyway. We were there for about 6 hours!! We got lots of good deals because it was Deer Widow Weekend so there were extra discounts just for that weekend. The kids were FABULOUS!! Samantha sat in her stroller, never fussed and slept about an hour. Marc was really well behaved too. We bribed him. I will tell you about that in a minute.

After we left the outlet mall we went to Bronners. For those of you that don't know what Bronners is, it is the World's largest Christmas store. There is actually a map for the store!! In the parking lot, they have millions of lights throughout their massively huge parking lot. So we had to get there after dark so we could see them. We tried to get a couple of picture of the kids by a couple of the displays, but it was hard to get a good picture. Here is the best one we got.
Once inside, the merriment began. They play Christmas music, have TONS of decorations to buy, and a lot of decorations hanging from the walls and ceiling. Samantha was sitting in the stroller, looking all around saying "wow" off and on for the hour (or more) we were in there.The kiddos took advantage of the photo-op. (Or rather, I made them take the photo-op) ;)

After we looked around, played a little, and bought a couple of ornaments for us, a couple of ornament for gifts, and a new Nativity Scene, we decided it was time to leave the store (and before I spent any more money) ;)

He headed for Marc's (both of them) good-boy-treat. ;). We headed to Frankenmuth (about 15 minutes away). It is called "Michigan's Little Bavaria. It is a very cute little town. The main attraction for Marc is.......The Cheese Haus! ;) So we bribed our little boy to be good at Birch run so he could get his cheese. :) Sorry the picture is blurry, it was dark outside and the cheese was lit really bright (bad combo for picture taking).

After we got our cheese, we headed to a different hotel (which we paid for using a free night certificate) for some good sleep after being on our feet all day.

We got up Sunday, had breakfast, and went swimming before we headed home. Samantha, after a little time to warm up to the water again, had fun splashing around in the pool. :)

It was a very busy, fun-filled family weekend with lots of smiles, good deals, and giggles. :)