And…..we’re back – Holidays 2010

I’m not sure why blogging sometimes appeals to me and sometimes doesn’t.  I think it’s because I have a desire to have a record of what happens to our family, but I don’t really have a desire to write it.  Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to want to write itself.  So without further ado, here’s some of what’s happened to us in the last 5 months or so:

Joe and I made our third December trip to New York City.  It’s awfully convenient that I have to go there for work during such a fabulous time of year.  We stayed over an extra day this trip so I got some extra site seeing this year.  We had an amazing dinner date at a place called Insieme and also went to the Natural History Museum.

Christmas was a lot of fun this year.  Brad is old enough to really know what’s going on and Lucy is old enough to be appropriately impressed by everything and to get excited about all the fun.  I snapped a few pictures of the kids before church the Sunday before Christmas.

On Christmas Eve we had the Larson side of the family over to our house for dinner.  Grandpa Larson had a very good time playing Santa to all the kids.  He got Lucy a doll stroller which she had been wanting and got Brad a Pirate Ship playset which Brad has played with all the time, and everyone got some books, so Grandpa did a great job.

Lucy woke up bright and early on Christmas and wanted to get dressed and ready before opening presents.  She got very excited about everything.

Brad’s School had a Santa’s Shop where he got to take money and buy presents for each of us.  He had a lot of fun with it.  He bought me a ring of purple gemstones, he got Joe a “World’s Best Data” paperweight and he got Lucy this:

Brad got a fun set of Hexbugs which entertained all of us.

And Lucy’s big present was a Baby play set that I got a killer deal on at Costco.

That day we met the Tibbs family at Josh and Jo-Elle’s house for our annual gift exchange.  Joe and I had to make a homemade gift for Steve and Kathy and I put together a book for them featuring Brad and Lucy as the main stars:

Scales and Tails

Yesterday we threw Brad the coolest birthday party on the planet.  He had about 12 friends come over and we played games and ate cupcakes and then we had a show put on by Scales and Tails Utah.  Shane Richins brought 7 of his closest reptilian friends to our house and taught the kids all about the scaly creatures.  He was really quite funny and the kids just loved him. 

  The tissue balls are a Martha Stewart project you can find here.

  I used spray-on food coloring I got at Wal-Mart and a star stencil I just printed off the internet to do the cupcakes.

  Brad’s friends were very generous and he got some really great gifts. 

We told him this year he had to choose between presents from Mom & Dad or a party and he chose the party.  I’m pretty sure he came out ahead.

When Shane got there he set up a back-drop and a little stage area.  He made Brad an integral part of the show, having him help introduce each of the animals.  Brad was nervous at first, but got more brave with each new one.  This was a Pancake Tortoise named, Shortstack.

This guy was a red-footed tortoise named, Fuzzy Wuzzy (who wasn’t fuzzy, was he?).  He weighed a lot.

He also brought an alligator scull and talked to the kids about how to tell the difference between a crocodile and an alligator, and that both of them make very bad pets.

This lizard looked a little scary with his pointy horns, but he was very tame, even letting Shane tap on his nose without snapping at him.

 

Shane had Brad dress up in snake wrangler gear before getting out the milk snake.  At first Brad wasn’t too sure about the snake…

…but then he decided it was ok.

Which was good because then Shane brought out Naners – a 13 foot albino python.  Brad, Corbin and Kennedy were the only ones who wanted to get close to her when she first came out.  But Brad got REALLY comfortable with her!

And then everyone got a chance to get up close and personal with the animals.

     Lucy wasn’t a bit afraid

And I even got in on some of the action.

It was really a great party and even the kids who didn’t want to touch the snakes still had a fun time.  I will admit I may have gone a little overboard on the party, but I think I had as much fun as the kids.  It was time and money well spent.

Happy 5th Birthday Brad!

Today my little Brad turned 5 years old.  I’m still a little bit in shock.  Just 5 short years ago I was holding this tiny, helpless baby:

And now he’s all grown up!!

He chose pancakes for breakfast and I told him I would make them in shapes, thinking he would choose a “B” or a “5” but no, he wanted a bat…it was a bit of a challenge.

He also got a few presents…but I’ll be honest, they were all from the dollar store because we’re paying for a party this weekend.

Brad is such a fun kid.  He has a great sense of humor and usually the only time he gets into trouble is when he forgets he’s a kid and not an adult.  He is an amazing big brother always taking care of Lucy and playing with her.  He is really loving Pre-K and is learning a lot despite the fact that he still says they don’t “teach” things.  Lately we’ve been having a lot of fun playing board games together like Candy Land & Hi Ho Cherry-O.  It’s really fun to play games with him that I loved when I was his age.

I thought for his birthday that I would share a book that Brad wrote in Pre-K last week.  He drew the pictures and dictated it to one of the teachers in his class.  It’s called “Dragons Begin”  Enjoy!!