Nathan is 6 - Balloons, Beach and Bonfire

My oldest turned 6 today and we decided to celebrate by making this a family fun day focused on all the things Nathan loves.

We started by cutting open trash bags and taping them to his door frame so that they would hold balloons behind them as long as the door was shut. As soon as he opened his door in the morning he was greeted by a waterfall of balloons...only wish I would have been able to see his face!

 

He had his own decorated Birthday Boy chair for meal times:

Speaking of meal times, he started the day with pancakes stacked six high with an actual 6 shaped pancake to top it off (which he polished off by the way!) and for lunch something he had seen me looking at on Pinterest and had been begging me to make for some time - Grilled Mac N Cheese Sandwiches. Yum!

After lunch we packed everyone up and made what will probably be our last lake visit of the year. It was a little chilly but lots of fun nonetheless.

After that we got some ice cream at our favorite outdoor place near the lake (no pictures, too busy scarfing it down!!) and then took a long drive so little brothers could get a cat nap in the car. At home we relaxed for awhile and then the camp out activities commenced, starting with a fire so the boys could roast hot dogs and smores.

Once Isaiah goes down for the night (he'll get to start camping next year:), Nathan and Jordan will get to camp out with daddy in the backyard where they will do all sorts of fun boy things and then probably pass out after a long, eventful day. They were nice enough to let Isaiah play in the tent some while he was still up:

And as if today weren't enough, Nathan got spoiled rotten this last weekend at his Spiderman Birthday party (including a pinata big enough to fit all 3 of my boys inside it courtesy of grandma and grandpa who picked it out in Mexico:)

Lots of great memories have been made as we celebrated this special day. Nathan, I look forward to seeing what great things this year brings and am so proud of the boy that you continue to grow into. You are smart, sensitive as well as being an amazingly kind and patient big brother (well, most of the time anyway!) and we are lucky to call you our son. Happy 6th Birthday!!



Family Movie Night

I have been talking lately about how we have been trying to be more intentional with our time as a family. While on one hand we are trying to be more disciplined financially and organizationally, we also want to be intentional in taking time to have fun with our kids. So one of the things we discuss every week as we sit down and discuss our upcoming weeks plans is Family Night. This week we decided on movie and pizza. We decided to let the kids make their own pizzas. This was not just the cheaper way to go but more importantly it makes for great memories. I really love spending time in the kitchen with the boys, it is such a great way to bond with them and they always have so much fun. Here is what our night looked like (the boys are a little hard to separate as grandma had just given them the same colored shirt and they have matching buzz cuts:) :

The movie

The food

Lots of cheese!

Jordan liked the pepperoni

Heavy on the olives

He's a one on the pizza two in my mouth kind of kid:)

Excited about his microwavable smore

Yum, Yum!

 On a side note we made our smores using then new Dark Chocolate Granola Thins from Nature Valley. I liked it! The granola was kind of sweet and the chocolate was already on there so you didn't have to buy it separately. The peanut butter ones would be good as well with a piece of chocolate on top, for those of you crazy people who actually like peanut butter;)