Someone at our house turned 7 years old!

That's right - look out world, there's a new 7 year old on the loose. Yesterday was Zach's 7th birthday and boy was he excited. He's been counting down the days for the last 2 weeks and he never thought it was going to come!

We started off the day with a fun breakfast - green crepes! You might remember from Hailey's birthday post in December that we had pink pancakes for breakfast. Well, back then Zach told me he wanted green crepes on his birthday and although he forgot all about it, I didn't. It was a fun surprise and he loved it!


Here's the birthday boy - completely happy with his green crepe breakfast!


Both Zach and Hailey had fun eating green food - they thought it was quite a neat experience.


At school, the birthday child gets to wear a crown all day with their name on it. Here's Zach's crown from school.


He also came home with a birthday book and a birthday certificate from his teacher wishing him a happy birthday.


Here are a few more close-ups of this birthday train. It's quite a fun a idea. He colors the train engine and then all of his classmates color a car that gets stapled to the train. It was really fun to see some of the pictures and notes that his class did for him. He really loved it!



After school and a quick round of homework, we decided to take Zach to a new place to eat. It was called Pirate Island and was so much fun! I meant to take some pictures of the neat decor, but it was really dark and I didn't want my flash going off and bothering the other customers, so I decided against it. But it sure was fun. When you first walk in, you see a pirate display with a skeleton, treasure chest, etc. surrounded by a moat of water. The whole place looks like the inside of a pirate cave and it's really neat. They also have almost a full scale model of a pirate ship. Once we were seated, the kids were enthralled with their kids menus, which happened to be pirate hats.


And what would be a pirate dinner without each child saying "arrgh!" - too cute!



They even had an arcade where you could play games. We thought about staying and playing there, but decided to move on to the Nickel Arcade we had been planning to go to since we figured we could play a bunch more games at the cheaper price.

The kids were a little bit upset figuring the new place couldn't possibly be as neat as the last place, but when we walked in the door, they were completely happy. So we set off playing driving games ...


motorcycle games ...


skeeball (where Hailey threw more of her balls in Zachary's lane than her own - hilarious!) ...


and air hockey. Of course, there was much, much more that I didn't get pictures of.


We ended up staying and playing for an hour and a half - much longer than I thought they'd last. In fact, if it hadn't been so late in the evening, they could have played much longer. They even won a bunch of tickets for playing the games and each came home with a couple of prizes.

On the way home, Dad decided we needed to stop and get a little treat, so we stopped at Macey's to get an ice cream cone. If you haven't been to Macey's and see the size of their ice cream cones, then it's definitely worth the trip. The cones that the kids are eating are their small size and are only 47 cents. The kids loved them - Hailey ate almost all of hers and Zach ate all of his plus the rest of Hailey's!


When we got home, the fun still wasn't over. Since we are having a family birthday party on Saturday, we decided to split up his gifts and give him half last night and half on Saturday. So we let him open 3 of our gifts and the gifts he got from his Nana and Papa in California.


Hailey was so excited to give him her gift - she picked it out all by herself. It's a lego set that makes a helicopter, boat, and airplane - something he's been saying he's wanted for a long time.


Here are the gifts he got from Nana and Papa in California - a fun new game, movie, and rocket balloons (thanks for that last one, by the way).


And here are the gifts he opened from us - the lego set from Hailey, a new leapster dinosaur game, and a new color wonder market set (both from Mom and Dad).


We were late getting to bed, which we tried to avoid since he had school today, but it was worth it. He had a wonderful time and could not stop smiling the entire night. And it's not over, we have more festivities and presents coming up on Saturday, so I'll be sure to take more pictures and post them.

Happy Birthday Zach - WE LOVE YOU!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Pictures taken on March 5, 2010

After thinking we already had the last of our big snowstorms for the year, we were lucky enough to have what might be our final one. The kids absolutely love to go out and play in the snow - no matter how cold or how wet it is.

Nana gave the kids a "snowman kit" back in January and this was the first time we've been able to use it when building a snowman. Every time since then the snow has either not been enough, been to powdery, or someone has been sick and we haven't been able to go out.

Well, this time we were all well, the snow was heavy and wet, and there was just enough for us to make a little snowman.

Here are the kids helping pack our little snowman together. As you can see, it's a very small snowman - being 7 months pregnant, I wasn't up to building or lifting anything bigger than that. Luckily, the kids didn't seem to care.


Here's our little snowman with all of the items to make him look authentic. We had a plastic carrot nose to use, but it was huge and would have taken up most of his face, so we opted for a button nose this time around. There was also a lack of twigs around, so this snowman is without arms, but you can do the same thing that we did - use your imagination to imagine some arms on him.


The kids were thrilled with our little snowman.


Good thing we went out and got him built when we did. No more than 2-3 hours later, almost all of our face and body embellishments had falled off. Later around dinner time, the snowman was more of a 2 tier snowman and the next day he was more of a single snowball. The next day, almost all of the snow was melted off of the grass and only a tiny pile of snow was left where the snowman was.

But the kids were happy and can't wait for it to snow again so that we can build another snowman. We may have to find a day when Dad's home so that our snowman is a little bit bigger. Of course that day may come next winter, but we've still got all our supplies for the perfect looking snowman!

End of Basketball Season

Sadly, after 2 months of practice and games, the 2010 basketball season came to an end. Zach had a blast and did really well. We were extremely impressed with how well he learned the idea of a team win - meaning he didn't have to make all of the baskets to do well. By the end of the season, he was passing more than shooting and we couldn't have been more proud of him.

As promised (in a post forever ago), I took some more pictures and video to post of him playing. Here they are of his last game:

The happy boy right before the game


Dribbling


An action shot


And a final picture of the team with their coaches and medals.


And I couldn't help but post a little video of him making a basket.



He did great this year and we noticed how much he's improved. We all can't wait for basketball next year.

WAY TO GO ZACH!