Happy Birthday MAX!!

Every year I say, "No Party for you this year!" and every year I realize my Maxie boy will only turn ___ (fill in the blank) once and this year it was 7! This year was a little trickier being on bed rest ...so I planned.. Alyssa and I prepared...and Tim was the man in charge.

For the last 4 months it has been all about Pokemon at our house. . . . so having a Pokemon Birthday party seemed fitting. We had *Birthday station.* Each station had a Pokemon coin the friends had to find and turn in for a super-sized prize at the end.
STATION 1: CREATE YOUR OWN POKEMONSTATION 2: PIN THE POKEMONSTATION 3: PIKACHU STOMP
(The boys and one girl ran around trying to pop each others balloons.)
STATION 4: I totally forgot what this station was called. . . BUT. . I do remember that all the little friends had to find chocolate gold coins and it was a total hit! Who doesn't love chocolate??
Sissy LOVES chocolate!! Yes she does!
STATION 5: A Balloon relay!
(Winners were whichever team filled their pink bin first.)
Tim's demonstration of what to do. . .No HANDS.
And all the little friends may have done their own version. . .using their hands. :)
STATION 6: Pop all the balloons to find the token.
Some of the kids got very inventive.

My Alexander boy taking his sweet merry time! ah. .
STATION 7: COIN TOSS
All that fun got the kids hungry. So we took a break and had drinks and pokemon cupcakes. . .
And of course presents. Thank you friends for all the super fun surprises!
STATION 8: The last one. . .Do you love your trainer? Just like do you love your neighbor. Ever heard of that game? You have one friend stand in the middle of a circle and say something like, "You love your trainer if you are wearing shorts." The kids wearing shorts change seats. I (the head honcho) takes one chair out. The one friend without a seat in OUT! Last one standing is the winner.
Let's turn in those tokens for our super-sized surprise. . . A pinata. YAY! A Pokemon one of course!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR MAXIE BOY!!! WE LOVE YOU!!
Check out our Lego Bionics Birthday party last year.

Kids 2009 Pictures!

Oh. . I know it is a tough job trying to get these four crazy kids to look at the camera and smile, but our photographer did a great job. I love all our pictures.
Our four crazy kids. . .
Them being even crazier. .
Maxie boy ~ Who likes to be called just "Max!"
I'm surprised she was able to get anything from these two . . . they really like to make faces for the camera.
Alexander . .
Barrett
Jacqualynn Grace
I just can't get over how big they are getting. They are just growing up right before my eyes. Love love love them!!!

*First day of school*

My boys were so ready and so excited to start school . . I got to hear all about it from my bed! As much as I dread the end of summer, this year the start of school was a huge relief. Someone (mom and Tim) got some great pics for me to live my little life from my little bed. Oh. . the joys of bedrest. I don't think I need to say more.
Maxie boy 2009 ~ Our big 2nd grader!
Alexander and Barrett . . . can you guess which is which? That is their favorite thing to do these days. Alexander will say, "I'm Barrett!" Whatever! We know who you are and we love you both!In both pictures Barrett is on the Left ~ Alexander on the Right!

My VIEW.

The rumors are true. Strict bed rest for this lady. . . and only 89 days to go. Hopefully I will not be on bed rest for the remaining 89 days, but for now we are taking everything one day and one doctors appointment at a time. One week down and so far so good. Thanks to the help of family and friends. The kids have still been having fun summer adventures with Dad, Grandma, Auntie and playing with their neighborhood friends. . . .but today the view from my thrown included LEGOS!!! The kids set up their working stations around 8:30am and played until 1ish. They were so proud of their little lego accomplishments. They asked me to take pictures and post them for their FAR AWAY friends. So this is for you FA friends. . ..



When they were finished they organized little piles in my room so they can pick up tomorrow where they left off. Not one of them took a shower or brushed their hair, but they were happy happy kids hanging out with their mom and. . . . I love that.