Landon’s Birthday Party

Just after Davis’s birthday in February, Landon told me he wanted a race car birthday party.  His main reason for choosing this was because he wanted a race track cake like Davis’s was.  Luckily, this is one of the easiest cakes for me to do, so I was more than happy to do it.  He invited two friends from school and two families from church, and one neighbor (who couldn’t come), so the numbers were just right.

It was a busy morning, with a 9-mile run for me and a t-ball game for Landon, but with Shane’s help, I had everything ready and even sat down for a few minutes before everyone arrived.  It was simple but fun – making license plates, playing red light, green light, making candy cars, going on a stolen car treasure hunt, guessing how many cars were in the jar, and having a car launch.

   

Making license plates as everyone arrived

       

A wild game or red light, green light!

 

Everyone with their “medals” for red light, green light, and reading the first clue for the “stolen cars” treasure hunt. 

I had the ingenious idea to tell the kids that they were detectives, and if the thieves heard them coming, they would move the cars to another hiding place, so they had to move quietly and slowly from clue to clue.  It was much better than having 8 kids run wildly through my house!

The famous race track cake – my third one since I made the first one for Landon’s 2nd birthday, and then one for Davis’s birthday earlier this year.

 

All the party guests, and Landon opening his gifts

My little boy is sure growing up!  It is fun to see him grow older, but it is sad to see how fast the time is flying by. I was happy the next day, after church, to see him curled up on the floor next to me when I woke up from a short Sunday nap.  It’s good to know that even my old 6-year-old needs a nap every once in awhile!

Landon’s 6th Birthday

Thursday was Landon’s 6th birthday.  It is amazing how much he is growing up every day.  We had a fun time celebrating his birthday this year, and when anyone asked him if he’d had a good birthday, he would respond, “It was great!” 

The birthday festivities began a little early when Grandma Morris drove up and surprised him on Wednesday evening.  Davis was looking  out the window when he said, “Mom, there’s Grandma!”  I told him that couldn’t be grandma, but then Landon looked out the window, saw Grandma, then ran as fast as he could across the living room to me exclaiming, “Mom!  It IS Grandma!!!”  He was so excited that he fell down while running.  He thought it was pretty funny.

Thursday morning, we made Landon some crepes for breakfast (his request) before he headed to school.  He got a fun birthday crown (made of paper, he pointed out to anyone he talked to on the phone), and he was excited to have all of his friends sing to him.  When he got home, my mom made a treasure hunt for him, and at the end he found a $5 bill.  He loves treasure hunts and was excited to add the money to his piggy bank.

We loaded up the car, picked up Shane at work, and headed to Spaghetti Factory for lunch.  Landon wanted to have their macaroni and cheese and rainbow ice cream for his birthday.  Shane didn’t complain about that (or maybe secretly suggested it to him?)  We had a nice lunch, and Landon had fun opening his presents there at the restaurant.  One of his gifts was a stuffed Mario and Luigi from me and Shane.  He had wanted one of each to share with Davis.  He also got a Toy Story Wii game and some Buzz pajamas from us, two great Lego sets from Grandma Malan, a camera and some books from Grandma Morris, and a fun, big ball and cars from Jake and Stacey.   His Uncle Kelly stopped by later with a fun card and another $5, and he got a card from Grandma Landon with some money too.  He was excited to put it all in his piggy bank!

 

Landon opening his camera, and trying it out to take a picture of me

Grandma and Landon

   

James enjoying some crackers, and the Malan brothers with their Mario brothers

 

Landon and Davis with their applesauce, and Landon opening his Lego helicopter from Grandma and Grandpa Malan

 

Happy Birthday Landon!

Thank you everyone for the gifts, phone calls, and visits to help make Landon’s day special!

Mother’s Day

The Friday before Mother’s Day, Landon’s Kindergarten teacher invited all of the moms to Landon’s school for a Mother’s Day tea party.  All of the kids in Landon’s class had drawn a picture of their mom, and we had to guess who we were.  After a few songs, we then found a cute placemat the kids had made for us, a card, and a paper with some sentences about us.  Landon wrote: 

My mom is awesome.

She likes to read.

She always helps me clean.

Sometimes she lets us play in the big sand box.

But the BEST thing about my mom is she is the best mom in the whole big world.

They served us iced tea (yuck) and cookies (yum).  It was fun to be with him in his class!

Sunday was a wonderful Mother’s Day, with crepes and strawberries for breakfast, a hanging flower plant and a Nike+ for running, Shane home with no church meetings, a nap, and best of all, four home made cards from my four boys!  I most of all just felt grateful that I get to be the mom of these three wonderful boys, and the wife of my amazing husband.

Butterflies–May 4, 2011

Every year, my mom sends us a package that contains caterpillars.  We keep them for two weeks in this little jar full of caterpillar food, and eventually, they turn into chrysalises.  On Sunday, the butterflies hatched, and yesterday, we decided it was time to let them go. 

   

Landon following one of the butterflies, and Davis and Landon trying to get another butterfly to come out

 

Davis observing a butterfly that stayed on a flower for awhile

   

Davis and Landon each with a butterfly on their flower

     

After releasing our butterflies, we headed over to the park to enjoy the mid-70-degree weather we were having.  It’s a good thing we did because today has been mostly rainy!  James loved just crawling around in the grass, so I took a few pictures there too.

 

Landon wanted to take a picture of me and James going down the slide – he did good on the first one . . .

   

James crawled over to this fence, and soon the other two boys were over there with him