Payton's 3rd Birthday Princess Party

Today is Payton's 3rd Birthday!

As with tradition the birthday girl got to go out to breakfast with her daddy to the "Waffle House" or Holder's Inn.  When he woke her up she was so excited.  She talked excited while he was trying to get her ready to leave.  In the pas,t she has just worn her pajamas to breakfast but today she just HAD to wear her princess dress.  She is so cute!

I think she was ready for her party to start as soon as she got back from breakfast.  She kept asking when her friends were going to get here.  She was like a little energizer bunny. 

Since this was a princess party everyone was invited to dress up as their favorite princess.  Payton's favorite has been Cinderella for as long as I can remember.  However, two days before her party she informed me that Tangled (or Rapunzel) was now her favorite.  I told her too bad and that Cinderella would have to be her favorite for another couple of days.  Ha! Ha!

So to start, we had everyone decorate their own tiara or shield depending on if you were a prince or princess.  I love Oriental Trading Company.  Lots of good stuff there.

(Payton, Olivia, Caeden, Willow)

After everyone was done with their tiara and shield, we went out for a "Treasure" Hunt.  I stuffed a bunch of Easter Eggs with rings and hid them around the backyard along with necklaces, bracelets, and swords.  The kids were so cute with all their "loot".

(Aimee, Ben, Gage, Caeden, and Payton; Sadie and Lathan; Olivia; Lincoln)

We also played "Who sings this?" I had pictures of the princesses hung around the family room and played songs sung by the different princesses, when they recognized who was singing the song they had to go stand in front of the princesses picture. 

After that we matched the prince to the princess.  I printed out pictures of all the princes and held one up at a time, then had them match the prince to the princess on the wall.

LUNCH!!!  The princess requested Chicken Nuggets and Tater Tots.  No problem!  Ha! Ha!  I like easy. 

After lunch we "Slayed the Dragon"  I was able to find a dragon pinata that sort of looked like the dragon in Sleeping Beauty.  It took a little bit for them to bust that thing open but fortunately for us Brianne had hit a pinata before and had quite the swing.  Thank you Brianne!

I am so glad that I have a sister in the cake business.  That is one thing I will not have to worry about in the forseeable future.  Well, unless you have a husband that wants the one cake that she doesn't make...that is another story.  ;o)  Anyway, Payton requested "blue" cake.  I had to make sure my sister understood that it was the cake she wanted to be blue and not just the frosting.  The blue cupcakes were a hit!  Jen was afraid we would be weirded out because the cakes color reminded her of a kitchen sponge.  Ha! Ha!

(Caeden, Payton, Gage, Sadie)

(Willow, Brianne, Lincoln)

PRESENTS!!!! Everyone was so generous.  Payton was in heaven and honestly has played with or used EVERYTHING she got.  I love this age, the kids were all so excited to see what Payton was getting.  My poor mom was trying to take pictures but couldn't ever get good one because there were so many kiddos surrounding Payton.

The party ended just in time for naps!  Yay!  However, the celebrating did not end there.  We ended up going to the Jungle for dinner.   This is a great place for kids.  It is a huge maze of tunnels, slides, and obsticles.  A great workout for parents trying to keep up with the kids going through the maze.  Ha!  Ha! 

Lincoln wasn't to crazy about the maze area but had a blast running around the perimeter.  I spent the majority of the evening on my hands and knees crawling through the maze after Payton.  She loved it!

To finish the evening we had to have cake.  Yes, more blue cake.  :o)  Can you see why I told her that Cinderella had to be her favorite for another couple of days?  Hee!  Hee!  It was probably a horrible idea to feed them cake at 10 o'clock at night, but hey, it's her birthday.  SUGAR!!!!

What a fun day!

Happy Hollow

Payton has been wanting to go to Happy Hollow (a.k.a. the Park Zoo) for a very long time.  We thought it would be fun to invite everyone from her playgroup to join us for the day to help celebrate her birthday.

We had so much fun!  People from our church playgroup kind of arrived in shifts.  We were able to visit a little with everybody as we all were running in different directions chasing kiddos.  We rode on some rides, had a picnic, played on the playground, visited with friends, and rode on some more rides.  Payton even decided she wanted to ride the roller coaster!  I took a video, I am probably a horrible mother but I think it is hilarious.  Oh well.

I wasn't sure how long we were going to last but everyone was in good spirits the entire time we were there we got there (10:00 am to 4:30 pm).  Yay!



Decorating Easter Eggs

OK OK so not "real" eggs but the foam ones you can get from Target.  :o)  I went with the less messy option this year.
Payton made eggs for herself and daddy.  Mommy made one for herself and Lincoln started one for himself that Payton ended up later finishing. 

They turned out really cute. Horray!

Pretzels

One of my friends brought some of these over at Christmas time and they were so yummy.  Then I saw this idea again in a couple of parenting magazines and thought it looked fun. 

I knew Payton would love it because she loves to do anything in the kitchen.

Suprisingly, Lincoln was very into it.  For about 3 pretzels then he was off to something else.  Ha!  Ha!  He is so cute to watch.



Lesson learned, use small sprinkles.  The chocolate didn't hold the bigger dots as well.  Still, they are super cute!

Body Parts

Payton - "Girls have boobs and boys have chests."

Park with Amma

I asked Payton what she wanted to do today and she said, "I want to go to Amma's house."

So we made the trek to Gilroy, went to the park, had a picnic, and hung out with Amma.  So much fun!

Look where I found Lincoln!

He's a climber! 

I guess it was only a matter of time, he has been climbing onto the kid's table for months now.  What's next...the counter?

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Ha!  Ha!  Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner?  Especially when it is chocolate chip pancakes.

Decorating Cupcakes

Last night was Cooking Group.  My sister came and gave us baking pointers and showed us some fun and easy ways to decorate cupcakes.  Of course I forgot to take any pictures...

Payton wanted to participate so badly.  I promised her that I would ask Auntie Jen to leave a couple of cupcakes and icing so that she could decorate them the next day.

She didn't let me forget.  The blue cupcake is the one she decorated for herself and the red is the one she decorated for Linc.  I sent a picture of Payton decorating to my sister, saying she was a natural.  Jen texted back, "She is!  Just like her mommy."  Ha! Ha!  I sensed the heavy sarcasm.

Yummy!

Bubbles

Dave was giving Payton a bath and she passed gas.  Bubbles...

Payton says, "Hey, I blew bubbles out of my bottom."

Settlers

I love the game Settlers of Catan!  Especially when we are able to play with our super fun friends.  Our friends Debbie and Eric came into town from Utah this past weekend.  Yay!  We called in the old gang and got to together for dinner and games.  We had Jen and Anthony, Debbie and Eric, Katie and Winchell, me and Dave, plus 5 kiddos.

It was great, after getting all the kiddos to bed and watching a little HGTV...we sat down for a little Settlers.  I have to admit that when it gets late my tolerance for the game goes down but it is always entertaining to witness the smack talk that goes on (when it doesn't involve me :o) ).  It varies from game to game on who is involved but it usually includes Anthony.  Ha! Ha!  This time poor Debbie was at the other end of his smack talk.

I think my favorite part of this particular game was Eric.  I was laughing the entire time.  He decided to place all his settlements on sheep and then on a sheep port.  The entire game he kept saying, "I will trade anyone, anything for a sheep."  It doesn't sound as funny in writing as it did when he was saying it but trust me it was funny.

It was so nice to see everybody.  Good times!

Easter Play Date

We had so much fun today!  Payton and Lincoln were both so excited to have everyone over.  It didn't take much convincing to get Payton out of bed.  Ha! Ha!  All I had to do was whisper, "Your friends are coming over."  She bolted right out of bed.

First up...Easter Egg Hunt.  Aimee, thank you for coming early and helping me hide Easter Eggs.  We hid over 300 eggs.  It was awesome!  Take a look at our egg speckled yard.

I envisioned something like the Biggest Loser Egg Hunt.  There were tons and tons of eggs scattered all over the mountian side for the challenge.  I think we succeeded, although on a much smaller scale.  :o)  There were lots of eggs in everyone's basket.  Yay!

I love this action shot of Payton running through the fence.  Look at her hair flying behind her.

You can see it in Lincoln's face.  He is thinking, "Sweet!"  I watched him walk across the yard headed for an egg and stop dead in his tracks when he saw this whole pile of eggs. 

Next up...Bunny Races.

Bunny ears for eveyone!  Hopping across the yard like bunnies.  Payton loved this one.

I LOVE Gage's face in this picture.  Hilarious.

Hungry!  Lunch is served.  Chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, fruit, etc...Oh and Easter cookies made by Payton.  I think they were a hit with the kids...She used lots of sprinkles.  :o)

I love Fridays!

Making Cookies

Payton is always wanting to help out in the kitchen and I have to admit that I am not the most patient at letting her when it comes dinner time.  Ha!  Ha!  Usually I try to divert her attention by asking her to set the table.  :o)

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to make Easter cookies for our play date Friday.  Payton was all for it.  I premeasured all the ingredients again so that she could just dump them in.  I can't believe I never thought to do that before seeing my friend Cassy do it.  Thank you Cassy!

Payton loved the decorating part.  I think we made like 30 cookies and she used all the sprinkles we had on those 30 cookies.  Yikes!  After sampling I will admit they are messy.  Sprinkles go everywhere.

Tubes

It was decided that Lincoln needed ear tubes, and today was the big day.  He was a champ!  They didn't even need to give him a sedative to calm him down so he wouldn't freak out when they took him from us.

He took one look at the stuffed bear and coloring they set out for him and was happy.  Everyone there was so nice and they took great care of us.

Only 15 minutes past from the time they wheeled him in to surgery to the time they came and got us to be with him waking up.

The only time I was nervous was when they were leading us back to recovery.  I noticed one of the areas seemed to be having some action.  I couldn't see into it because of the curtains but when the lady leading us back stopped in front of it, I immediately thought something was wrong.  Fortunately, the action was only because Lincoln was waking up and didn't want the nurse holding him.  Ha!  Ha!

Lincoln was very sad until we got home and put him down for a nap.  I think he was just disoriented.  When he woke up he was as good as new.  Running all over, wouldn't have thought he had had surgery that very morning.

I hope this puts an end or at least lessens all those ear infections.

Easter Egg Hunt - The Practice

I was trying to come up with some fun activities for the playdate at our house this Friday.  That is when I decided to kick off the easter season with some easter activities.  :o)

Payton and Lincoln were more than happy to help me test out the best hiding spots in our backyard.  It is so funny watching little kids hunt for eggs.  They have tunnel vision.  If they see an egg they usually only see that egg and not the one six inches right above it. 

I was even suprised at Lincoln's enthusiasm over hunting easter eggs.

Stockings

We (Payton and Lincoln, my sister and her two kids, and my mom) went shopping today.  I love shopping in Gilroy.  We spent the afternoon at the outlets looking for a variety of things.  I love the Factory Brand Shoe Store, I always find way cute tennis shoes for the kids there. 

Today, Payton was wearing sandals and I forgot to bring socks with.  The best I could do for making sure the shoes would fit was grab a couple of those nylon stocking they have for you to use when trying on dress shoes.  I know, why bother but Payton thought they were the greatest thing and made sure that we took home her "new socks". 

When she was showing her daddy her new shoes her "new socks" fell out of the box.  Lincoln grabbed onto one and when Dave saw what it was put it on Lincoln's head.  It cracked me up.  For the next half hour or so he kept taking it off and wanting Dave to out it back on again.

The things that entertain this boy never cease to amaze me.

Ben's Birthday

Today we celebrated Ben's 1st birthday.  Ben is my good friend, Aimee's baby boy.  I can't believe all of our babies are turning one.  They are getting so big.  Yikes! 

Payton was so excited to go to Ben's birthday party and even picked out a little gift for him, a blue stuffed elephant.  She also insisted on wearing a "party dress" and then all day went around showing everyone her "party dress".  She is so cute!

After playing and eating a yummy lunch we all headed out to the park for bubbles and cupcakes.  Both were a hit!  Lincoln was so cute running around saying, "bubble, bubble".

Gotta love the cupcakes with chocolate frosting.  Ha! Ha!