Superheroes Unite!

Will started telling me around Halloween that he wanted a Spider-Man birthday party. I know it seems silly that I usually start planning his birthday around this time, but with it being right after Christmas, I usually like to get it out of the way before I have to start ordering Christmas cards, etc. I wanted to give him what he wanted, but I also felt like Spider-Man was a little limited....especially for the girl friends in our life. So we started talking superheroes and Will was pumped. All he ever asks for when we talk about what kind of party he wants is a bounce house. January is an incredibly difficult time of year to swing a bounce house. Our weather has been CRAZY lately, and of course, had I planned to have a bounce house in our yard this year, it would have worked out perfect since the high this past Saturday was 72. However, I also know that if I had indeed scheduled it to be delivered, we would have probably woken up to snow! You just can't count on the weather in January. We decided to have his party at Pump It Up in Trussville. I may not ever have another party at my house ever again :) It was SO EASY!! You basically just show up with your cake and party favor and credit card and you are good to go! It didn't allow for me to be as creative as I normally like or to really embrace a real "theme" with food, etc. But Will was in heaven and it was just what he wanted!! He had the best time with all of his friends!! We had his party early (9:15) so we told everyone it was a pajama party and to wear their favorite Superhero pajamas and come to jump with us (On a side note, Will much preferred Alex's Spider-Man pjs with webs over his Superman ones. But they did not have his size in the Superman ones so we really had to talk them up :) ). The kids were adorable and WORN OUT by the time it was over! I highly recommend Pump It Up if you are looking for a party place in Birmingham. There are 2 different inflatable rooms. Your party guests (no outside guests are allowed in) spend 45 minutes in each room and then go to the party room for food and cake! The best part was they clean up for you! You just load up your car and leave. Here is Will's party in pictures...

Thank you sweet friends and family who came out to celebrate with our precious four year old!

Interview with Will: Age 4

AT FOUR...
Favorite Color: Blue and Orange
Favorite Toy: Hot wheels cars and big Spider-man that talks
Favorite Fruit: Strawberries
Favorite TV Show: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Favorite Movie: The Great Mouse Detective
Favorite thing to eat for Lunch: Peanut butter and jelly
Favorite thing to wear: Spider-man shirt
Favorite game: Superheroes
Favorite snack: Goldfish
Favorite Animal: Gorillas
Favorite Song: Jingle Bells
Favorite Book: Fergus (Good Boy, Fergus by David Shannon)
Best Friend: Oliver, Zay Zay, and Gabe
Favorite Thing to Do Outside: Play with my foxtail and run
Favorite Drink: Chocolate Milk
Favorite Holiday: Christmas
Favorite Thing to Take to Bed: Froggy
Favorite thing to eat for breakfast: Chocolate Muffins
Favorite thing to eat for dinner on your birthday: Chicken Nuggets
What do you want to be when you grow up: A daddy

Just had to share a quick story to go with the last question....this morning I was loving on Will and squeezing him tight telling him he couldn't be four and that I didn't want him to get bigger. He said "YES, mom, I HAVE to!!" I asked Will what he was going to do when he got big and he said without a moment of pause, "have a little kid." We have NO idea where this came from and have never heard him say it before. So tonight, as I asked these questions, and got to the last one, I was convinced he was either going to say an Auburn football player or Spider-Man. Without pause, very similar to this morning, he just replied "A daddy!" The only thing I can think of is that he has a pretty awesome daddy and he must think that being a parent is the best job of all. And it is...HANDS DOWN!!

Christmas Morning

We had a pretty excited little boy Christmas Eve. Alex didn't really know what was up, but Will totally understood this year about Santa. We put our cookies out and Will was almost hurrying us up to get him in bed instead of most other nights when we are rushing him :)

It appears our two sweet boys sure were good this year!

Even Bentley was on the nice list!

Santa outdid himself this year and brought the boys a really big present. So big it couldn't fit in the house. So Santa left a note complete with a treasure map that Will had to follow in order to find his gift! It was so funny because Will didn't notice the note at first. We just let him play with his toys and were hoping he might not notice it until Alex was up. It actually worked out better so we could enjoy this "hunt" with Will. The treasure map had him hop around the dining room table, go to the Christmas tree and sing Jingle Bells, then go to his room and put on his coat and shoes (he was confused about this...), then go to Mommy and Daddy's room and get their coats and shoes, and then head outside. He gasped so loud when he saw what was out there.

We couldn't stay out long because it was WET and COLD. 

Shortly after, Alex woke up and was so excited to see that Santa had left him a stash.

The ball pit was by far his favorite gift. I kind of felt like Santa struck out with Alex this year. He loved the ball pit, but everything else he just kind of threw to the side and wanted to play with Will's stuff :) Probably story of our life from now on....

 After breakfast, now that it was daylight :), we headed back out with Alex in tow to jump. Y'all, it is SO fun!! John and I are enjoying the trampoline as much as Will and Alex!!

Gingerbread House

 In between making Christmas cookies, I decide to create even more of a mess and add a little more chaos and have the boys decorate our gingerbread house. We were lazy this year and just bought the kit and hot glued it together so there would be no waiting time to decorate :)

Cookies For Santa

On Christmas Eve morning I found myself at Wal-Mart before 6am buying ingredients for our cookies for Santa. I guess I could have run to Publix, bought the slice and bake dough, and called it a day. I just really wanted to create a memory for my boys-one that they probably won't remember AT ALL, right now, but if we do it every year it creates a little tradition-one that I hope they enjoy. This is our 3rd year making cookies on Christmas Eve. We had a busy weekend leading up to Christmas Eve/Christmas Day and even though I had been to the grocery store approximately 6 times in 3 days, somehow we still did not have ingredients for cut out cookies! Cut out cookies are a LABOR of LOVE. Maybe I am just not very good at them! They are super yummy but there are just a million steps and they create a mess. I knew though that Will would enjoy using the cookie cutters and decorating them so we stuck with the original plan.

 I got home a little after 7:00 and my head elf was waiting on me!

 He recruited another cute little elf and we started mixing!

 This so called elf was super excited to hear that all the gooey stuff mixing would actually be cookies!

 He needed a closer look...

 Head elf was all business....

Little elf had no interest in the actual work part of it, he was still interested in the gooey stuff

 

 Proud of himself for all of his hard work!

While Alex napped, Will decorated (and ATE)! I am convinced he ate more sprinkles than actually went on the cookies. He saw this as a benefit of being Head Elf.

 Santa must have been pleased with all of our hard work! He left only crumbs!!