Patrick's 7th Birthday - Family Party

On Patrick's actual 7th Birthday, we celebrated with family and a small party at our house.  It was a beautiful day - just like the day he was born!

We gathered in the living room for socialization before a yummy bbq lunch.

Patrick & friends

Patrick star is as tall as Kathryn!

Couldn't wait for lunch!

Grampy and Grandpa

Grandma & Grandma

Auntie Boo!

Lunch!

 After lunch, Patrick opened his presents.

Posing with Kathryn

Love his expression as he opens the gift from us

 Then we sang and had cake!

Spongebob theme and playthings for later

Blowing out the candles

 After cake was eaten and food was tidied up, we played outside in the wonderful sunshine.

Willy had refused to go for his nap as there was too much fun and excitement with all the family, so this is how we found him moments after putting on the DVD he requested.

He did transfer to his bed and nap for a while, but I woke him so he'd go to bed later and he ended up napping on me for about an hour too!  See, silly boy, you still need a nap!

One for the paper

As part of my resolution this year to decrease the amount of stuff in our house, I have successfully conviced both Kathryn and then Patrick to do something for the community for their Birthday Parties instead of getting a ton of gifts. 

Both kids agreed to have a Toonie Party along with collecting donations.  Kathryn collected food for the food bank, and used her toonies to purchase a ariel playset from WalMart.  Patrick collected donations for the public library and used his toonies to purchase some star-wars lego.  

While we didn't weigh the food that Kathryn collected, we did count the $ that Patrick raised - $150.  WOW!  That is amazing!  One kids' party put $150 back into our community, instead of piles of, albeit wonderful, but unnecessary gifts into someone's house.

I am so proud of my children.  I am also very happy that the response was so positive for both parties and I hope that this idea will catch on.  Imagine all the good we could do in our community, along with teaching our kids about community spirit if parties were about the party, and not about the gifts!

Shaun's mom suggested we call the paper to let them know when we would be dropping off the donations and they came to take the kids' picture!  I'm not sure why Kathryn is making that face though....

Patrick's 7th Birthday Party - with friends

Even though  this blog is private and has a reader's list, I did not post direct pictures of any of the children from Patrick's party. But I do want you to know I did take lots of pictures of him and his friends for him!

Patrick's 7th Birthday party was again at the bowling alley.  This year, it was an all-inclusive event, with bowling, glow-in-the-dark mini-putt and the arcade games were all turned on for free-play! 

My parents were here for the weekend, and my Dad was able to join us while Mom played Barbies with Kathryn at home and Willy napped.

It was a 2-hour event, but the time went VERY fast.

We started with bowling:

Our set up and lanes

Patrick waiting his turn

Loot bags

Bowling!

 Then the kids moved onto the video games and mini-putt.  So much fun!!!

Glow-in-the-dark mini-putt

 It was actually a task to round them all up to sing to Patrick and eat a cupcake!

MMmmm sugar!

 The kids weren't interested in bowling after that, so they had a blast with the mini-putt and arcade games.  Dad and Shaun finished up the bowling game.

It was fun, but crazy, but fun!  :)

Life Sized!

 Patrick is going to flip out when he sees how BIG his birthday balloon buddies are!  WOW!!!

Fun Fair Fun

The Fun Fair was tonight at P&K's school.  For a family rate, we got to go and eat supper (hotdogs/hamburgers/pop/veggies & popcorn) and play as many games as we wanted!

The kids had a lot of fun playing the games - they tried to bounce ping-pong balls into cups, dug for dinosaur bones, threw balls through hoops and fished for treasures.

But I think their favourite prize was the monster teeth.

Super scary!

Spring Showcase

On Wednesday April 18, Patrick was part of the spring showcase at school.  His class sang a very sweet song, and on the screen behind them were baby pictures/now pictures of each kid in the order they were sitting on the stage.  It was very sweet!

We had planned to stay as long as possible - we really wanted to stay till the end!  Grandma Dorothy had come and volunteered to take Willy home when he'd had enough (which was after the 3rd class performance).  She snapped these sweet pictures of playing in the backyard:

We didn't end up staying until the end - the tallent was excellent but the big kids were running short on attention span.  Maybe next year we can stay longer!

Dance!!

Kathryn's year-end dance recital was tonight.  I love how Jodi turns the last lesson of the year into a family-friendly recital.  Its very relaxed and informal and the girls get to show off the dances they've been learning after a full-studio warm up!

Ready to dance in her recital outfit

During warm up with her class and other classes.

Sitting with Ms. Chloe and watching other dancers

Getting ready for their special dance

Once again it was a magical night.  I love watching all the girls dance - there is a lot of talent!!

Curls!

Kathryn wanted to have curly hair, so Friday night after her bath I put mousse in it and rolled it with rags.  She slept on it overnight and this was the result in the morning:

 She actually wasn't too fond of it down so we put it in a pony tail and that made her very happy.

True to her hair type, it was all fallen out by the next morning with only a few stray waves remaining.  But it was fun, and we'll do it again!

Zoo!

I changed over some of the toys in the living room.  Kathryn had a great time playing with the little people animals (and other small assorted animals we've collected over the years).  First she set them up along the piano in a parade, and then she put them all in the zoo.

And then she asked me to take her picture :)

Kathryn is also very much into Star wars these days, and this is her preferred hair style - Princess Leia buns.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

There was lots of egg-citement in our house last night as the kids eagerly awaited the arrival of the bunny.  Patrick was up super late and had to be re-settled several times before he finally passed out.

In the morning, they could barely wait for Willy to be up and changed so they could charge down to the living room to see if the bunny had left any treats having already found one egg each outside their bedroom doors.

And there was much excitement!  The bunny had indeed come with baskets and hidden eggs and a note to Patrick about why hiding eggs in the basement where the kitties were sleeping was a bad idea.

 Willy thought the idea of chocolate encased in plastic was just wonderful!

 And there was much chocolate consumption.  And happy hyper children.

 Also colouring.

 and lego building!

Happy Easter from our little bunnies!  Hope your day was hop-tastic!

MmmMM apples!

Willy prefers to eat his apples whole now, thank you very much.

Now to learn  how to eat around the core instead of into it....

Art

When the kids bring home a large piece of artwork, I always take a picture.  I know I'm not going to keep them all (maybe just one a year) because they are so bulky.  However, I want to document all their creative endeavours and have a record of how their artwork evolved as they grew up.

Kathryn likes to be in the picture with her artwork!  I like that it adds another dimension to the picture - it provides a reference to her age at the time!

Spring Flowers, by K.  April 2012

Currently bits of artwork are hung around my kitchen on the cabinetry.  However, when we renovate this summer that won't be happening anymore!  I will need to find a new system to display their creativity.  I have a couple of ideas, but we'll have to wait and see the logistics in the new layout!