5 Super Monsters

On June 19th Eric took the day off and his parents treated us and the kids to the new Superman movie. It was kind of weird that we went as a whole family, but our boys are totally into superheroes, Ailey's been a fan of superheroes since she plays with Nathaniel most of the time, Shaylyn kind of likes certain superheroes and ever since Smallville - I've been a fan of Superman.

This movie was pretty good. I don't know who the actor is that played Superman is, but he did a good job. The story line was just a little too everywhere to really get into it. That being said, the kids did great. We only had to tell Nate to be quiet a few times and Ailey slept through the majority of the movie.

Before we went into the movie, however, we ran across the cardboard cut-out head in the hole thing for Monster's University. I wasn't going to have the kids do it, but Shaylyn ran back there before we could stop her and then everyone else wanted a turn. Thankfully we had time and the kids took turns quickly and there wasn't anyone else around. I was also glad I had my phone - though I don't like the size of pictures my phone gives me.

Anyway, here are our 5 Super Monsters all ready and enrolled in Monster's University. (They all have their student ID's to prove it now.)

What Happens Next...

He Likes To Do His Own Thing

Last week Lex turned 9. Yup, 9. He's been on this earth for 9 years and I really honestly can't think of how that many years has passed.

Being the individual that he is, he DID NOT want a Build A Bear. I was fine with that, except that it meant we'd have to find a gift(s) for him. Thankfully, he made this job easy and knew exactly what he wanted and had a bit of a list that he shared with us.

So the night before his big day (the 11th), Eric and I headed to the store sans kids and bought his gift and a few other items that were needed. It was a good thing Eric was with me because it made deciding on which gift that much easier.

The next day, after jobs were done I let Lex open his gifts...He was so excited.

...Yes, I gave him a container. It was to hold the Lego pieces. Yeah, he was a little confused...

He then went to work building his new Lego Chima thing...

He stuck with it for 3+ hours and actually put it together completely by himself. I was so proud of him.

We then took a swim in the backyard and had a blast. Shaylyn and Lex played quite a few water games while Ailey and I stayed in the middle and just enjoyed the cool water. (Tanis was away at Scout Camp and Nate has something against water)

After we all got changed and some of us showered we took a quick drive to McDonald's. Lex really wanted McD.'s for his birthday dinner, so I took them. Though I'm not a brave mom and we just did drive-thru. I don't like McDonalds, so we also ran to Burger King so mommy could have some dinner.

We got home and I then made some brownies so we could have some brownies and ice cream for a birthday treat. It was a huge hit.

Lex also opted to have a friend party instead of having a family party. I much prefer family parties, but I try to let the kids have what they would like on their birthdays. So on Friday, the 14th, he invited 4 of his friends over. Only 3 came, but that didn't bother Lex in the least.

He wanted a Lego Ninjago/Chima kind of party, but our Walmart kind of sucks at the party supply thing and I procrastinated a bit, so we had to do things as we could. I bought different color napkins, plates, tablecloth, etc. to match the colors of the Ninjago Ninjas. The cake had colorful sprinkles on top and I later discovered colored layers inside which also matched the Ninjas.

The birthday banner was multi-colored and I enlisted Shaylyn's artistic skills and had her draw some Ninjago Ninjas. I drew a couple big Ninjas but they weren't nearly as nice as what Shaylyn came up with.

...Cute little party crasher...

I pretty much let Lex decide how the night would go. We all had pizza and then started playing some video games. After a little bit Lex asked if they should do presents. (Hahaha) His friends readily agreed and it was on to gift time.

...Yup, the tiny car was in that big box...

After gifts they went back to the video games. (Big surprise, eh?) When it got to be around 9, I decided we should probably do cake & ice cream before it got too much later. I was surprised to find that most of the boys weren't interested in dessert at all. One kid only at half a cookie, one kid only ate a bit of cake, even Lex only ate a bit of ice cream and cake. There was only one kid that ate all of his cake and ice cream. Oh well, it meant more for us as the week went on.

Then because it was a sleepover party, we let the boys continue on with video games and movies until they all fell asleep. It took me awhile to get to sleep (I have trouble falling asleep as it is) because of the noise, but I think by about 1 or 2 they had all fallen asleep and we all slept soundly.

The next morning the boys had a breakfast of cereal, OJ and some small donuts. I kept things simple. They didn't care and ate breakfast and played a bit more before it was time for them to go home.

I think Lex had a good birthday and he was happy with all of his gifts. He was so polite to all his friends and even let them all play a game together before he remembered how to get another joystick working so he could join them. He didn't complain at all when they didn't really want to watch the movie he wanted to watch and he went with the flow. I love that about his personality. He'd rather just be having fun and make sure everyone else is having fun than really try to make a scene.

Happy Birthday!!!

What Happens Next...

This Place Is A Zoo

For awhile now, Eric and I have been talking about the fact that we needed to go back to the zoo to make use of our memberships before it runs out. Technically, I guess it wouldn't have mattered if we got back this summer or not as we had it paid for by going as much as we did last summer.

We never got there during the fall, winter or spring so I kept feeling like we needed to go back. I guess I kind of wanted to go back as well to see if anything had changed. I had thought about going this past weekend, but didn't mention anything to Eric as I decided I had other things I should do.

However, on Saturday morning I got a call from Eric. He had left to go get his car renewed and on his way home he heard a radio ad about Lego 'sculptures' being at the zoo. He asked if it was something I might like to do and I just kind of laughed and told him I had thought about it, but then didn't bring it up. So we decided we'd go.

Lego's are a big thing in this family. 4 of the 5 kids are obsessed with Lego's and Eric still has a love for them, though he doesn't really build with them anymore. As for me, I was just glad to get out of the house and glad to have something for the kids to do.

Being a Saturday, I figured the zoo would be crowded, but I never imagined it would be as crowded as it was. It was a mad house. Thankfully, Eric and I weren't in any sort of hurry so we just took our time and enjoyed being out together as a family.

Our first stop (just because we entered from the back side of the zoo and those animals are located there) was the wolves. We were just about to walk pass, but then we saw them both come up from the lower part of their enclosure and we got a couple pictures.

When the one wolf laid down, Ailey said, "That one died." We had to let her know he wasn't dead, he was just taking a nap. Silly little girl.

Next up was the tigers. A tiger is Shaylyn's favorite animal, so we had to make sure we didn't skip out on those animals.

We then made our way over to the giraffes for Ailey. On the way to the zoo Ailey was telling me that they had a pink giraffe that she wanted to see. I don't know if she ever saw it, but I never saw a pink giraffe. That didn't seem to upset her in the least though.

...Not the best picture, but I wanted a shot of the 'baby'...

Then it was off to the new Polar Bear area. After seeing the animals we decided it was time for the lunch. Everyone was getting a bit cranky. So while Eric went to stand in the forever long line, the kids and I found a couple tables and waited. Some more patiently than others.

I then found out how much my husband really loves me. While I ran to the bathroom, he took the chance to take this picture of the kids for me. I was kind of floored that he thought to take a picture and actually did so for me. Love that man.

After visiting with the rhinos for Lex and the elephants for Ailey, we found our way to the Big Monkey area. Here they had some 'stick your head in the hole' type picture things to go along with all the Lego sculptures. I was quite surprised that all the kids did both the Orangutan AND Gorilla happily and without major encouragement.

...She carried this map around all day, like a big person. Then was upset when it tore in 2...

We then found our way to the Spider-Monkey's for Tanis. Sadly, most of that exhibit is destroyed as they're doing some new construction around it, but Tanis saw his monkeys and he was happy. I kind of missed them. Don't know why.

My body then decided it had had enough and we had to rest before walking around to the back again to get to the car. Ailey was getting tired as well and we knew it was time to head home.

Here's a quick look at all the fun Lego sculptures. I think we missed one, but we sent the older kids and they found it. For your information, I think the sculptures are there until September. So if any of you want to head to the zoo before the end of next month, let us know. We'd probably gladly go again.

The funniest part of this outing though was the sheer number of pregnant ladies we saw. I don't know if we happened to notice more because I'm pregnant or just because the sheer number of pregnant ladies that were there was astounding. Either way, it got to a point where Eric or I would just say to the other, "There's another one." We'd then just crack up. Sometimes all we had to do was laugh and we knew exactly why the other was laughing. In any case it prompted Eric to make this post on Facebook with his phone.

I just had to laugh when I saw it. The fact that the phone autocorrected to 'wide' just made the whole situation that much funnier. I can also assure you that there were many 'wides' there wider than me and expecting their babies a bit sooner than we are.

What Happens Next...