Kindergarten!

Today is Gunnar's first day of kindergarten! I have such mixed feelings about him being in school all day long, but those unsure feelings quickly fade when I see how excited and happy he is!

He's such a cheese ball!

Bennett wanted in on some of the camera time!

Waiting for the bus! I have to admit that the bus part of this transition is the hardest for me. Maybe after a week when everything becomes normal and not new I will be more comfortable with it!

Birthday Madness!

Last Saturday we celebrated Gunnar turning 5 and Bennett turning 2 years old! We had a packed house, to say the least (close to 50 friends and family)!! Thank you to those who came and helped make Gunnar and Bennett's birthdays memorable!

Here are some of the kids enjoying some tasty food! Thank's to our family for helping to make/serve food !!

After food we opened present's! Bennett had Dana's help unwrapping... I didn't get too many pictures as present time was very chaotic!! Gunnar and Bennett sat on the floor and we handed them presents to open as they were surrounded by all the kids (12 total)!

Then it was time to sing happy birthday and eat cake!! I forgot to take a picture of Gunnar's cake (it was a dirt/worm cake in a planter) so this is the only one I have!

I also made cupcakes w/ worms and flowers. Instead of cutting cake we just gave all the kids cupcakes and it was way easier....

And Bennett's flower cake... Ashley (our roommate/live in nanny/all around awesome girl) Helped me cut out all the flowers and leaves... could not have done it without her!

We also had a fun birthday surprise.... we gave the kids 2 new puppies!! I'll introduce them in a post later this week!

Again, thank you to everyone who came and made this day so fun/special!!

Preschool Graduation

Almost 2 weeks ago Gunnar graduated from preschool!!! And both boys had an end of the year program that some very close friends were able to come enjoy with us! The boys sang lots of songs with there classmates... and Bennett was entertained by taking pictures of Chad and Liz!

Gunnar loved his teacher Mrs Murray and the preschool director Mrs Meyers!

We are so blessed to have such great "family" here in Mason City! All the kids loved having Aaron & Dana, Chad, and Liz at there program... we all celebrated with ice cream afterwards!

We are so proud of Gunnar and his success in preschool! The fall will begin a new journey for us all and Gunnar can't wait!!

Boys will be boys?

Lately, Gunnar has been going through a phase of disobedience... basically he gets in trouble all the time, and I am pretty annoyed with him often! Here are the 2 big things he has done lately:

2 weeks ago he threw a toy at a window on our porch and broke it... I was having a play date and all the kids were playing on the porch when it happened, but none of them came and told us it happened... one boy even cut his finger on the window! To top it all off, Gunnar lied about breaking the window and told us a different boy had done it.

Then this weekend while I was at a girls game night, Gunnar drew all over our leather couch with an ink pen! Talk about doing something bad... and the worst part is that he's old enough to know better!

So we are at this new point in disciplining where we are taking things away. For breaking the window we took juice away for a week and for drawing on the couch we took his bear/blanket and juice away for the week.

I am open to suggestions on how to deal with this phase Gunnar is going through. I get the fact that he's a crazy boy and that is how boys are, but this lying thing is something that we really need to kick in the butt!! So, any advice would be great!!

A few months later... Spongebob!

Back in May Gunnar turned 4, and I made him a Spongebob Squarepants birthday cake using fondant! Here are some pictures and instructions if you are feeling creative and want to try making a cake with fondant!

The first step is to bake the cake and cut the shape that you need... for spobgebob I used a 9X13 pan and then cut it down to size. Before cutting, I placed the cake in the freezer after it cooled to make it easier to cut. Then you frost the cake so the fondant has something to stick to. Then you are ready to start placing your fondant on the cake... the picture below shows spongebobs brown squarepants.

In order to place the fondant on the cake you have to roll it out to the size and thickness you desire. (also if using white fondant you must dye it your desired color. For this cake I used store bought already colored fondant... it is more expensive but saved me a ton of time!)

Pictured below is my yellow fondant rolled out... you can use a regular rolling pin or a special fondant rolling pin, but either way, you need lots of powdered sugar to keep it from sticking to surfaces.

Spongebob's arms and legs are shaped from fondant and stuck to the cake using water.

Just a few more touches before he's ready!

I used round fondant tools to make the bubbles on spongebob's body.

The hands were pretty tricky! They turned out okay and I loved that he was holding the candles!

And here is the birthday boy enjoying his cake... he loved it and that made the 4 hours of work so worth it!

So Much To Do!

Last week Bennett had an eye appointment in Iowa City, so the kids and I went down and spent the night with Thaddeus' parents. We always have a great time at Ted and Lori's house, and there is always so much to do!

Our evening was filled with races on the driveway...

Running up and down the sidewalks...

Taking care of the flowers with Grandma Lori...

Smelling all of the flowers...

Playing in the pool...

And watching Fifi try to get the pet toads!

Never a dull or boring moment when we're with the grandparents!

Shaving Foam Mania

Last Friday the kids and I went to a play date at my friend Quincey's house... it was her 3rd annual Shaving Foam Mania play date!

She laid out a tarp and all the kids wore their swimsuits and everyone brought shaving cream and we let the kids go crazy with it!

Here is Gunnar... he loved the shaving cream! He was the first kid to be totally covered and I think he had a smile on his face the entire time!

It took Conrad awhile to really get into it, but he had just as much fun as Gunnar!

Here are the boys totally covered!

And even sweet Bennett enjoyed playing in the foam a little! She would have played on the tarp had I let her, but she was pretty content in the grass with the leftover foam!

This was so much fun for the kids, and cheap too (shaving cream is $1 at dollar tree)! Thanks for hosting Quincey, such a great idea!

Chart Time

Believe it our not, my boys do not always play well together (like in the picture below!) And for awhile I have been thinking about starting an obedience/chore chart.... After a week with grandparents it seemed like a good thing to start! I made my own chart, but I stole the idea from a blog that I follow(it's one of my favorite blogs!)... you can check it out here: http://hollyfurtick.typepad.com/the_preachers_wife/2010/06/summer-chores-and-money-management.html

So, here is the chart that I made. I used picture's instead of words since the boys can't read. We chart Monday through Saturday and on Sunday we do our money management. The boys get a sticker for everything that they do and a X for the things they don't do. Our categories are: Make your bed, brush your teeth, listen the 1st time, take dishes to the sink, share toys, pick up toys, and feed our pet toads. The nice thing about making our own chart is that we can work on the things that the boys have a hard time with (picking up toys, sharing, listening the 1st time) and daily living things (brushing teeth, making bed). At the end of the day I sit down with the boys and we put stickers and X's and talk about what we did good and what we could do better.

Then on sunday we work on money management. For every sticker they have on the chart they will get 10 cents. We will lay the dimes out on the chart (over the stickers) and then in the votive holders I have pictured below we will sort out the dimes. Our categories are God (tithe) Save and Spend. For every 10 dimes 1 will go to God, 1 to Save, and the rest to spend.

Growing up I never really learned the importance of giving money to God or even saving money... I was given an allowance and I spent it. It is very important to us that our kids know how to manage money and that they are obedient to us and other adults, so hopefully this chart will be a great teaching tool!

The Birthday Party!

Gunnar and Bennett's birthday party was almost 2 weeks ago and I'm just now blogging about it... I will do better soon!! Here are some pictures from the party! I made Gunnar a sweet Sponge Bob cake! I'll post more pics of this later! Gunnar scored some sweet Toy Story toys! Gunnar's first Bike!! Bennett with her Aunt Lindy... what a pair!! Conrad riding Gunnar's bike Bennett Opening presentsBennett and her giant cupcake birthday cake!

Happy Birthday Gunnar

Four years ago our lives changed forever... Gunnar James was born! He is definitely one crazy and fun little boy, and we have learned so much from him in these four short years! Happy birthday Gunnar, we love you so much!

Spring Time