Lego Party

We went with a Lego theme for Asher's birthday party this year. Before showing you the details, I'll just include the disclaimer that I don't know how I would have planned my kids' birthday parties before Pinterest!

Four friends from school and church, plus the birthday boy and his little brother equaled six little boys. We started with an estimation jar as they arrived, then gave the Master Builders some time to do their thing.

Lunch was Lego pizza, glass brick jello, a cutie, and lemonade, with birthday brownies for dessert.

The pinata was a must for Asher, and the Pin the Head on the Minifigure game was the most entertaining part of the party for his parents.

The kids all had a fun time, and we observed afterward that Asher has focused on quality over quantity when choosing his friends.

Asher is 6!

There is no question that Asher is an introvert, but everyone loves to feel special and loved on their birthday, right? So it was funny to see how he handled all the extra attention on Tuesday. He stood in front of his kindergarten class and grinned while they sang to him, but he wouldn't look any of them in the eye. When his taekwondo teacher (who didn't know it was his birthday) coincidentally asked him that afternoon how old he was, he answered "Six" without giving her any clues. And when Tyson was telling random strangers in Target that today was his brother's birthday, Asher did his best to act like he didn't know that kid.

But we love Asher like crazy, and were happy to give him all kinds of special attention. He requested waffles for his birthday dinner. (He requested at least 6 other meals before that, but a couple of days before I finally told him that he couldn't change his mind any more, since I'd bought the buttermilk, fruit, and whipped cream.) After eating cupcakes, opening gifts, and playing games, the birthday boy had had enough. In what was probably a first for any of our kids, he cuddled up on Dad's lap and told Scot that he was tired and ready to go to bed.

Some things I want to remember about 5-year-old Asher:

He's such a sweetheart. If a sibling is having a bad day Asher will give them a toy or book of his to put a smile on their face. If someone isn't feeling well, he's so thoughtful and attentive to their needs. He loves his grandparents and gets especially attached to his Grandmas when they're around. And he's still the best cuddler of my three.

He is a smartie. His Primary teachers last year would often tell me that if no one in the class was answering a question, they'd turn to Asher. He would rarely volunteer it, but they could count on him always knowing the right answer, if they asked. He's so far ahead of the rest of his kindergarten class in reading that he meets a few times a week with the school's reading specialist and a group of first-and second-graders. He's in the highest math group in class, and instead of memorizing sight words with the rest of the class, his teacher gives him a list of 15-20 "challenge words" to spell each month.

He's never been much of an animal person, but he immediately bonded with the tortoise that joined our family in November. Asher calls him "Little Guy" and hurries back to say hello to him as soon as he gets home from school.

He likes building things and following a plan. Give him any sort of building toy (Legos and Zoobs are current favorites) and an instruction guide, and he's content to play alone for hours.

He and Tyson have all kinds of goofy fun together. When they're getting along there is plenty of giggling, silliness, and mischief. And Asher adores his big sister. The two are great at hatching plots, making plans, and solving mysteries together.

And Asher gives me the most enthusiastic running tackle-hugs every day when I pick him up from school.

Tyson is Three!

After our long hike on Tyson's birthday, the kids all took a good nap when we got home. That gave me plenty of time to decorate his birthday cake, which I was really excited to surprise him with.

He'd seen enough birthday celebrations in our family in the months leading up to his, that he knew the drill and was very excited for it. The day before his birthday, Riley and I were helping him practice blowing out his candles. So he was a pro when that lighted cake was placed in front of him.

Happy third birthday, Tyson! Our family just wouldn't be the same without you!

Riley is Six!

This year Riley celebrated her birthday the day before and then again the day after her actual birthday. We went to lunch the day before her birthday with Grandma, Jess and Cory, and their kids, and then spent the afternoon at the zoo.

 Jess made the event exciting with birthday hats and fancy cupcakes.

Two days later, Riley celebrated her birthday with some friends with a Fancy Nancy party.

The girls colored, made jewelry, ate a fancy lunch, including parfaits ("That's French for ice cream sundaes."), dressed up in fancy clothes and had a fashion show. The girls were all adorable, and on their best fancy behavior.

Happy birthday to our six-year-old! And now you can stop growing up.

Asher's Birthday Party

As I mentioned in another post, Asher is becoming a little more social as he gets older. He invited two friends to his fourth birthday party. The three of them, along with Tyson, partied at a local bounce place for a couple of hours. All four of them got along well, and were so cute together.

Asher Man

Asher has grown and changed so much over the last year. It seemed that when we were with other people, he used to be content to hanging out in Riley's shadow. She was the one that would say hello to strangers, and he would look at them with a shy smile. When asked questions like how old he was, he would gladly let her answer for him. I wouldn't say those days are completely behind him. Just today someone said hi to Riley and then asked Asher his name. He stood there quietly while she answered.

But we have seen huge improvements. He has made a new friend in his tumbling class, and will occasionally strike up conversations with adults while we're waiting in checkout lines. Also, we've had reports from his teacher at church that he doesn't seem a bit shy in her class. Hooray!

At his four-year checkup, we learned that Asher is in the 12th percentile for weight and 15th for height. He has quite an imagination, and will play by himself with his action figures and cars for quite a long time. He told me today that his favorite foods are macaroni & cheese and green beans. In fact, he asked me if he can be in charge of planting the green beans in our garden this spring. Asher has a few pairs of inexpensive stretchy mittens that he often wears around the house. And he will not play any type of ball until he has them on, as he insists they help him catch better, just like the real football players. He enjoyed watching football with Dad during the season, and can't get enough of Wild Kratts and Angry Birds. I'm pretty strict about TV and iPod time, but that doesn't stop him from asking for it...frequently. Scot is a little more of a push-over, and it hasn't taken Asher long to figure out that he'll probably have better results if he asks Dad.

Asher has started doing lessons in the same learn-to-read program that we used for teaching Riley. It's fun to see how excited he is when he finishes a difficult lesson, or reads a word that he started out thinking was too hard. But his real interest right now is numbers. Whenever he sees two or three digit numbers he'll ask me "what do 1 and 9 and 6 make?" He is good at adding and subtracting small numbers, and he's really close to being able to tell time on a digital clock. He loves counting for no particular purpose. Yesterday he was asking how old Scot and I were, as well as all our siblings. After each answer, he would start at one and count up to their age. That kept him occupied for quite a while. Asher loves his class at church, and often tells us how nice his teacher is. And he is VERY excited to start preschool in September.

He and Tyson are slowing learning how to work and play together, but Asher and Riley really get along well. Although that's really nothing new. We had a huge snowstorm last weekend, and when it was all over, had two foot drifts in some parts of the backyard. Asher and Riley would bundle up and play out there for an hour or two each day while Tyson napped. One day he was ready to come inside before Riley was, but she bribed him to stay out there until she was ready to come in too. I knew that some sort of deal took place, but I didn't know the details, so I asked about it at dinnertime. Asher explained to us that if he stayed outside with her, Riley promised that he could play with a particular doll of hers every day that week. As soon as he was done telling Scot and I what the deal was, he turned to Riley, pointed a finger at her, and told her, "You better write that down, Riley." Smart boy.

Tyson is Two!

We celebrated Tyson's second birthday a few weeks ago. Our intention was to play at a nearby splash park, but the day turned out to be cold and windy. Instead we spent some time at the library.

Tyson had a great time with this birthday card and some gifts.

"Cookie" was one of Tyson's first recognizable words in English, and at the time we were planning his birthday meal, he used that word to describe anything sweet. So when Riley suggested a giant cookie instead of a birthday cake, we knew it was a perfect idea.

It took him a little staring and then a couple of tries before he managed to blow out the candles, but his siblings were pretty excited when he finally got them.

Tyson in the 25th percentile for weight and about 45th for height. I've been asked quite a few times if Asher and Tyson are twins, despite their 16th month age difference (not to mention what I think are fairly obvious racial differences).

Tyson loves being chased, but not tickled. He has a huge appetite and will eat most any food. He's fond of our dog, Bernie, and would love to snuggle with him, if only the cranky old dog would let him get close enough. Tyson loves pants with pockets, and sticking his fists in them is the first thing he does once he's dressed each morning. He loves to brush his teeth and will scramble up the stool to get his toothbrush any time he follows someone into the kid's bathroom. He is starting to recognize the difference between cars, trucks, and buses, and much of our time in the car is spent listening to Tyson point them out.

Many nights he pulls everything off his bed, onto the floor, and sleeps there. In order to simplify this routine, we've limited him to a pillow and his two favorite things to sleep with right now: a silky blanket my grandma made for him, and a soft black bear-shaped pillow. Tyson sleeps on the bottom bed in a shared bunk with Asher, and it's a rare night that the boys don't get reprimanded a time or two for giggling and talking together, sneaking into each other's beds, etc.

Tyson understands us very well now, and is good at communicating with us. We're learning that this boy is going to take his own sweet time with learning to talk though, and we suspect it has more to do with his personality than with his relatively recent introduction to the language. When we ask him to say a word, he nearly always has one of two reactions: he completely ignores the request, or he babbles sounds that in no way resemble the requested word. We joke that it's his own version of Google Translate.


He has shown quite a bit of interest recently in peeing on the little potty seat. I'm sure it has everything to do with the M&Ms he's been promised, but we don't mind the reason.

Tyson's personality seems to be similar to Riley's in a lot of ways, including his independent streak. Once he learns to do something for himself, he has no patience for my help with that task. He loves to put his Crocs on, put his clean socks and pajamas in their drawers, climb into his chair at the kitchen table for meals, climb from the ground into his car seat and then buckle the chest buckle, and put dirty clothes and trash in their respective containers. He's getting pretty good at getting his pants on and off by himself (a must before I take the potty-training any more seriously) and helping Riley and Asher with some of their chores like dusting, cleaning their bedrooms, and sorting laundry.


Tyson is a charmer and loves to wave and say hi to people. I've been told by more than one woman in the nursery at church that Tyson is their favorite kid. (I can get away with revealing that here because I don't think anyone in our new congregation knows about the blog.) He loves attention, and is very skilled at figuring out how to get it...good or bad. We love this kid, and are so grateful for the energy, smiles, fun, and yes, even the noise that he has added to our family.

Riley is Five!

I can't believe my little girl is five years old. And I can't believe how much I feel like my Dad when I say that. If he were here to tell me that he remembers when they first laid me in his arms, and how I just stared up at him and didn't cry, this time I wouldn't respond "Oh Dad" as I rolled my eyes. Because I get it now. All those details I remember about the night we met Riley for the first time do not seem like they happened five years ago!

But enough of my gushing. Riley's birthday was on a Wednesday, but we stretched the celebrations out long enough to make some of my sisters proud. Scot's parents were in town the previous weekend, and that Sunday we had some extended family over for dinner. There were three people there that night with birthdays within a week of each other. So naturally we called it a birthday dinner, and convinced Riley that the chocolate-covered strawberries that Aunt Carol brought were especially for her, since strawberries are one of her favorite foods. I didn't take many pictures that night, but here's Tyson covered in that same treat.

On her actual birthday, we met Jessica and her kids at the zoo. Because it was her birthday, Riley got in free, and got a special elephant birthday pin. I'd love to share more details, but the zoo is the zoo, right?

For dinner that night, Riley requested homemade pizza. For several weeks leading up to her birthday, she was also making birthday cake requests. But each time she requested a different cake. A couple of times she even requested two cakes, a Princess cake for herself, and a Cars cake that the boys would appreciate. Finally I told her that I was going to make her a surprise birthday cake that I knew she would love, and I was no longer taking requests. When it was time to decorate the cake we sent the kids downstairs to play.

Here is the finished cake:

We sat Riley down at the table and made her close her eyes for the big reveal. Fortunately I was right: she loved it! 

We used a real Belle doll, which was one of her birthday gifts, and a gotta say, Riley was surprised and I think a little freaked out when we pulled the doll out to serve the cake and out came a pair of naked legs!

Preschool was out for Spring Break the week of her birthday, so her class sang to her and made her a special birthday crown the following week.

Riley is in the 91st percentile for height now, and 31st for weight. Up from 79 and 27 last year. Scot and I wonder if she'll be taller than both her brothers when they're adults.

We snuggled together in Riley's bed that night, and because it was her fifth birthday, I spent five minutes telling Riley things that I love about her. I'll share a few of them here:

• Even though we don't have the same DNA, we do have a lot in common. I love that she likes to have a place for everything. She is pretty good about keeping her room clean and her toys put away when she knows where everything should be.

• Riley learned to read last summer, and while it was a struggle sometimes, she loves reading now. She also loves being read to. This makes me so happy, since reading is one of my favorite things. Every night in bed, she reads a book to me, and then I read a chapter to her. Right now we're working our way through the Ramona books. I think we'll do the Little House series next.

• She is very compassionate. She looks out for her friends and her brothers and wants everyone to be happy. I was the type of kid that would cry if I saw someone else getting picked on. Riley would feel empathy for them too, but I suspect she'd walk right up to the bully and tell them to cut it out.

• She is so friendly and outgoing. That's one thing that is definitely not like me, but I'm becoming better through her example. Anytime we go to a place where there are other kids, a park, the library, a fast-food play area, the nursery at the gym, Riley leaves with a new friend. Just today she made a friend named Savannah at the park. Her approach this morning was, "Hi. My name's Riley. Do you want to play with me?" She just makes it look so easy.

• Riley isn't afraid to share her talents. Last fall she sang a solo in front of the whole congregation at church. When she was walking up to the pulpit I was so nervous for her, I felt like throwing up. But she had a smile on her face the whole time. She told Scot and I afterward that she was a little nervous, but "I just pushed all the nervous into my hands. Then my hands were shivering a little bit so I just held on to the pulpit really tight." Riley has also memorized a couple of scripture verses, and loves when she gets the opportunity to share them in Primary.

• She is such a helpful girl. I can always count on her to help out the boys if I've got my hands full. She does a good job of looking out for them. She is in charge of feeding the dog every day, and she has several other chores around the house. She is usually great about doing them without complaint, and often when she sees me working, she'll ask, "What can I do for you, Mom?"

What would I do without her? I am grateful every day that it was God's plan for Riley to be in our family, and equally as grateful to her birth parents for allowing that plan to happen.

Asher is Three!

Finally, I have a good reason for a belated post! Things have been hectic around here for the last few weeks. We have tried to keep things at home as consistent as possible for our kid, especially Tyson, but we've got a lot of balls that we're trying to keep in the air right now. So far everything is working out, and we are reassured that we are moving in the right direction. As I told my grandparents when we talked this morning, we're just trying to keep our heads above water and our feet underneath us.

Fortunately Asher's birthday happened before all this craziness hit, so we were able to have a celebration that he was pleased with.

Asher was thrilled with all the birthday cards that came in the mail during the days leading up to his birthday. I'm convinced that nothing makes a three-year-old feel more important than getting mail from people he hardly remembers meeting.

Scot was still home taking his "family leave," so the whole family went to lunch at one of Asher's favorite places, McDonalds. He proved he was a big boy by making it all the way to the top slide in a rather confusing Playplace, without any help from his big sister.

For dinner Asher requested his favorite: slow-cooker lasagna. I've made all my kids' birthday cakes until this year. He had been telling me for weeks that he wanted a Lightning McQueen cake for his birthday. My friend Maggie had given me an idea for an easy way to decorate a Lightning McQueen cake and I debated doing it myself. But in the end, I decided to cheat. I still felt like my hands were full with three kids and we were preparing the house for showings. But the deciding factor was that I knew Asher would be happy with any birthday dessert, as long as it was colorful and made of chocolate.

At his 3-year check-up Asher was in the 5th percentile for height and the 25th for weight.

Asher is the sweetest little guy. He talks a lot, but is very quiet when he's out of his comfort zone. With another child in the house with a strong personality, we are reminded just how easy-going Asher is. Honestly, he is a good buffer between Riley and Tyson.

Asher's favorite things are cars, trains, Dora, singing, bath time, chocolate, ice cream, pizza, his super bouncy ball, penguins, playing with his cousin Brady and his friend Gunner, books, aquariums and fish tanks, dipping food in Ranch dressing, playing on Riley's scooter, and making Tyson laugh.

Birthday Bowling

Riley’s preschool class is over at 10:30, and I didn’t have anything else planned the morning of her birthday. So after we picked her up, my mom and I surprised Riley and Asher by taking them bowling. Riley loves bowling, but we don’t go all that often. (I’m sure that  has something to do with why she loves it.) And Asher has never actually bowled before. We had a great time. Asher loved the giant, colorful balls, and Riley got pretty intense about it (as you’ll see in the photos).

I think kids in bowling shoes are so cute! Unfortunately they didn’t have any shoes available in Riley’s size, so she bowled in her tights.

Most of the rest of these shots are of the kids as they’re looking down the lane as their balls head toward the pins.