Easter baskets from Nana

The kids got their Easter baskets from my mom today, and they were way too excited to wait to open them.  They got lots of fun stuff!  They all loved the glasses Cambria got and wanted to get pictures in them.

I told them to make a silly face, and Cambria refused.  I guess princesses don’t make silly faces.    Kyrie and Asher were happy to oblige, though.

Here’s a hilarious video of them opening the baskets!  They all got a little crazy, of course, and I quickly realized we should have opened them one at a time.  You’ll also notice Cambria gets just a little excited about some of her gifts.    And Kyrie was so cute – she had just asked me for a couple of the things she got only the day before, so it was really neat for her to get them in her basket from Nana (who, ironically, had NO idea Kyrie had asked specifically for those things!). 

Thanks, Nana! 

If you want Cambria to take a nap…

…just tell her it’s time to clean her room!  She’ll get mad at you and fall asleep right on the spot. 

Karate Kids

Clever title, right?    Kyrie’s gi finally arrived, so I had to snap a picture of our karate kids before class tonight!  They’re showing off some of their karate moves, too – Kyrie is doing a tsuki (sue – kee), and Asher is doing a Jodan uke (joe – dawn – oo – kee).  It’s keeping us really busy (classes are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for 45 minutes each time), but it’s been really great for them! Kyrie especially has really benefited from it, and we are already noticing a huge increase in her stamina, speed, and coordination. One of the biggest reasons we put them both into karate is because we loved how this sensei focused so heavily on respect and obedience. Both kids are getting much better at that! I think it helps that we can threaten to tell their sensei when they misbehave, though. He’ll make them own up and do extra push ups or laps if we give him a bad report! It’s great.  (Thankfully we’ve never had to give him a bad report – they always shape up fast when we remind them! )  He’s the nicest sensei – very gentle and kind, genuinely loves the kids and what he does.  But he’s also strict and makes them answer up (always demanding a “Yes, sir!”), so they have a lot of respect for him since he’s got such a good balance of being firm yet kind.  He hugs them all after class.  We sure love this dojo!

MCAS Air Show

Today was the yearly Marine Corp air show.  We’ve gone the past few years, so we didn’t spend all day there like we normally do, but it was still fun!  We got up close and personal with lots of aircraft.  You don’t realize how huge they really are until you’re right up next to them.  The kids got to sit in the cockpit (Bri didn’t want a turn for some reason), and there was even a pilot sitting in there to answer questions.  Asher loved talking to him about all sorts of stuff! 

We also saw some missiles, and we read that they weigh 500 pounds each. 

 

We went inside a huge aircraft that is used to transport vehicles.  The ceiling was literally covered in all sorts of cables and wires.  It was pretty crazy!  We also got to see where the guys sleep.  There were only 2 bunks!

 

They had a couple different booths set up, and one of them is a booth where Marines let you test your own skills to try and win some prizes.  They had different criteria for men, women, and children.  The kids were just supposed to hang onto the bar with their hands for a specific length of time to win their prize (20 seconds for the first prize, 30 seconds for the next biggest prize, etc).  Well, Asher put his own spin on the rules and had the whole crowd cracking up!  I thought his idea was pretty genius myself.    And then Kyrie gave it her best shot but realized it’s not as easy as it looks!  Derk and I opted to avoid embarrassing ourselves. 

I couldn’t believe how huge these propellers were.  The picture can’t even begin to give you an idea of how ginormous they are!

It was a really fun day.  I love that the kids get to experience this ever year.  Asher especially gets a real kick out of it, and they learn a lot!

Asher’s 7th birthday party

Today was Asher’s birthday party.  We decided to keep it pretty low-key this year because Asher didn’t really want many decorations or fuss.  He said he just wanted some friends over to have fun and play games.  He chose a Star Wars theme, so I had a little bit of fun coming up with a few things.  My girls are totally opposite and want a huge celebration, so it’s kind of hard to scale back for Asher!  Anyway, it ended up being just a couple close friends who came over and was exactly the low-key party he wanted.  He had a blast! 

The decorations were simple – black and white.  For food, I took some help from the Internet to give me some catchy ideas.  A few of them I came up with on my own (or at least, I think I did…I’m sure someone else far more clever than me has come up with them before, but I can pretend ).  We had Vader veggies with Driod dip, Ewok eggs, fruit sabers, pizza the Hutt, Fett fudge, and Yoda soda.  For cake I just did cupcakes that I formed to look like a light saber.  Or, that was the idea at least.  Didn’t really turn out that well. 

We played a few games, but mostly the boys just wanted to jump on the trampoline and run around.  They played “pass the death star” (just a partially deflated child-sized basketball that I wrapped with a few layers of foil), death star relay races, and then an impromptu game of dodge ball.  Asher got some really fun presents from his buddies, and then it was back to playing!

Cambria took a break from all the party craziness to do some coloring.  I just think she’s adorable no matter what she does. 

Asher loved his Yoda soda!

It was a super fun party for Asher.  Thanks to everyone who came and helped us celebrate!

Asher’s 7th birthday

Our sweet boy is 7 years old today!  He was very excited about his birthday and came in our room bright and early (6am!) begging to open presents.  We had planned to wait until after school to open them, but we agreed to let him open one before school.  We frustrated him by taking way too long to get up and get dressed (no longer than normal, but of course to an anxious 7 year old a whole 10 minutes of waiting seems like an eternity!), and then it was finally time.  He tore through that gift so fast I hardly had time to snap a picture!  It was a new video game from Daddy, and he was super excited about it!  <3  (Totally unrelated side note: our walls look like a nasty pea green in these pictures!  I don’t know why…)

 

After school he got to open the rest of his presents.

 

 

 

Kyrie was so sweet and got the table all set up for the birthday boy’s dinner!  If you look closely at the plate of cookies, you can see she formed the ones at the top into the shape of the letter A. 

For dinner we had all of Asher’s favorites shrimp (scampi), asparagus,and sautéed mushrooms.

 

Then for dessert we had a carrot cake that Bri and I made during the day.

 

He loved his new Transformer toy from Aunt Abby, Uncle James, Logan, Noah, and Ben so much that he took it with him to the table!    Normally we don’t allow toys at the table, but we made an exception this time.

 

And here’s a little comparison – Asher when he was just 2 days old and the big 7 year old (who was too excited about opening gifts this morning to let Mom comb his hair before pictures ).

Happy birthday to Asher!