E's 7th Birthday!

My sweet boy turned 7 today! It was a pretty epic day, quarantine notwithstanding. 😉 It was a fun Ninja-themed day filled with food, fun, and family! From breakfast pancakes and Ninja swords, to Papa John's pizza and drones! He planned the entire day, and we had so much fun!

It was a little different opening gifts, but we FaceTimed with each of the sweet family members who sent our birthday boy a gift so they could watch his excitement as he opened it! He loved the attention, and I think we all enjoyed getting to see faces that live outside our four walls! Mona and Aunt Jo even stopped by (to deliver a certain 12yo addict more yarn from Hobby Lobby) and it was so lovely to talk to them through the front window! 💙

Here are a few pics from our day!

E's 6th Birthday!

((Still playing catch-up on the blog... posting this on 6/8/2019. Better late than never!))

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We celebrated E's 6th birthday with a little trip to Great Wolf Lodge! It was so much fun, and we especially enjoyed my mom (Mona!) joining us for her first visit to GWL. E had a super great time, as did the other 3!

Squish wasn't too sure about this water park stuff... but I promise he eventually had a blast! I really didn't get any pics of the older 3--including the birthday boy himself--because they were too busy hitting all the waterslides and playing lots of MagiQuest.

We went to dinner at Dave & Buster's on E's birthday, and came back to the hotel for a little cake and lots of presents!

Isn't he the cutest, sweetest, most hilarious 6-year-old you've ever seen??

He LOVES Charmander!

HAHAHAHAHAHA! That face!

One of his favorites new toys! It's a car that drives on the wall. Too cool.

My sweet boy had a great time celebrating his birthday at GWL! I'm so proud of this young man and am so excited about this next year!

Halloween 2018

Yep... still playing catch up on my blog! Here's a quick recap of Halloween 2018 (posted on 6/7/19)!

The kids had a great time dressing up this year! LO chose to be Hermione from Harry Potter. I made her cape thing (I'm not a Potterhead, obvi), bought the outfit, and she had a wand from her birthday. She ROCKED it!!!

Chase is still DEEP into his love of all.things.Pokémon. He wanted to be Ash Ketchum, the famed Pokémon trainer! He looked fantastic in his mom-made costume! He had to take off his hat for the photo so he could show off his black hair!

I totally and completely "phoned it in" for the younger boys this year. These are skeleton pajamas from The Children's Place (I think). Yes, these boys went trick-or-treating in pajamas. I don't even care.

We went to our friends' neighborhood to go trick-or-treating with them and had a FANTASTIC time! It was so much fun!!!

E's 5th Birthday!

Happy 5th Birthday to E!

My sweet little fella is turning 5 today and I couldn't be more excited to celebrate him! This has literally been the most low-key birthday to plan... ever! It's been waaaaay different than Chase's epic 5th birthday for sure! LOL! It's been super easy because the birthday boy had all.the.plans. and I just had to sit back and make 'em happen!

First of all, he picked the theme. Can you see it?

Let's zoom in a bit...

Yes, my 4 going on 5-year-old wanted a Ghostbusters theme for his 5th birthday. Isn't he just the best!? This sweet goofball.

Next up? Breakfast pancakes of course! So hubs has been working from home pretty much exclusively for months now, and we couldn't love that more! We tend to stay super low-key and have lots of lazy mornings, but today was not one of them. Daddy has to be in the office for "regular hours" this week (GASP! LOL!) so he had to leave by 8:15 AM. Y'all. I'm usually not even AWAKE at 8:15 AM most days. The kids barely roll down the stairs at 8AM. (Remember the lazy mornings I mentioned?) So in order to have birthday pancakes together as a family (minus sweet sleeping O, who is teething/irritable and NOT to be awoken under any circumstances!), we had to do it early! So this sleep-head mama was up at 7:30 AM to make pancakes, eggs, and bacon!

SIDE NOTE: I sent hubs to Walmart last night around 12:30 AM to pick up party supplies and wrapping paper. I like to be transparent here on my blog and, yes, it's true: four kids make it hard to stay on top of all.the.things. And while hubs was at Walmart, I was baking E's cake. Because obviously going to bed at 2AM was part of my game plan. hahahaha!

Back to this morning! Everyone was up and downstairs for the big "5" birthday pancakes and singing for sweet E! Yummy!

Isn't he just the cutest?? I think so.

The kid took for.ev.er. to blow out his candles. It was hilarious!!!

Yum-o pancakes, bacon, eggs, and orange juice. The best way to start your birthday!

After breakfast, the birthday boy decided to watch The Smurfs movie, which is what we're currently up to as I write this. And, not surprisingly, O is still asleep. Bless.

The plans for the day are all dependent on a certain 5-year-old's whims, and I'm totally cool with that. I do know he chose a very specific (and super random) menu for his birthday dinner tonight, which he insisted we have at home. The menu?

Chicken Nuggets

Apples

Hawaiian Rolls

Chocolate Milk

He's so crazy! Hahahaha! After dinner it'll be cake and ice cream and his favorite part... PRESENTS!

I can't wait to see what he asks me to make for his cake. All he's given me so far is 1) chocolate and 2) chocolate, and I'm totally on board with that.

More to come later today...

Easter 2018

What a busy whirlwind of Easter excitement, y'all! I haven't been able to catch my breath for what seems like weeks, but that's another topic for another time... For now, I'll just focus on Easter last weekend!

I was super excited to join the worship team at our church for Easter services by singing in the worship choir -- along with my mom! It was awesome. We had rehearsal Wednesday evening, and it was really so wonderful! We had three Easter services, one Saturday evening and our usual two Sunday morning.

On Saturday afternoon, the kids dyed Easter eggs and had a blast! Squish was napping so he didn't make it into any of the pictures. ;)

My super sweet and smiley Rock Star, Chase!

My beautiful daughter, LO!

The family goofball: E!

Let's do this!

See above. Goofball.

Love this boy!

Pretty eggs!

E liked placing his eggs in ALL of the colors... which basically left him with either poop brown or army green. Good times.

LO going for turquoise here. Win!

So many pretty eggs! I especially love the turquoise creations.

The finished products! I spy Lloyd from Ninjago... Silly Chase!

After our Easter service Saturday evening, I prepped some food for Sunday, and had an EARLY morning on Sunday to do it all again... twice!

Y'all, we typically attend our 11 AM service, which means I usually don't get up on Sundays until around 9:45 AM. Holla for weekend sleep! But to sing in both morning services, I needed to leave the house at 7:40 AM for our 8 AM call time. Whaaaaat! Whoa.

Everything with my family was super low-key this year. I did buy LO a new dress several weeks ago, but only because it was cute and majorly on sale. I wasn't even thinking of it as an Easter dress at the time. And I literally forgot until Saturday evening (after the kids went to bed) that I hadn't even bothered to figure out what the boys would wear! Sheesh. Sorry, hubs! He was flying solo Sunday morning to get 4 kiddos fed and dressed for Easter Sunday. #epicwifefail

The Sunday morning services were so incredible! Afterward, we literally went through the Arby's drive-thru for lunch on our way home. What can I say... it was a busy week! I forced the kids to let me take a few pictures before we let them inside to eat lunch... and find their Easter baskets! #hahahaha #momwin

Here are my Easter cuties!

Love this Squishy kid of mine! Just look at that toothless grin!

I mean, really... he IS the biggest goofball I know!

This boy. My heart!

Pretty girl!

There's that smile again!

Meanwhile, back inside opening Easter baskets... or, for some, watching everyone else open Easter baskets.

Heyyyyyyy!

Oh! A new book! Love! And a frisbee? Totally practical for a 9-month-old. LOL!

E's Easter basket had a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and a tiny Ray Stantz action figure from Ghostbusters. Squish absolutely loved the Marshmallow Man! I think I have an idea for his Halloween costume...

After a quick lunch and Easter basket fun, we loaded up the kids and the food I'd prepped the night before, and hit the road to head to hubs' parent's house. My MIL had hip surgery and has been homebound, so we really wanted to bring Easter to them. A couple of casseroles, rolls, and cranberry sauce paired perfectly with my FIL's amazing grilled pork tenderloins. Oh, and a blizzard cake from Dairy Queen. Yes, y'all, I phoned it in with this year's Easter dessert! We also had an egg hunt for the kids in the front yard and my MIL was even able to come outside and watch the kids run around like little crazies. It was beyond perfect!

This really was not a "typical" holiday for us, but I don't care. I worshiped along with our amazing church congregation... THREE TIMES. I loved on my family. I got to spend time with my incredible in-laws. It didn't matter to me what we ate or what we wore. My focus was on relationships -- investing in the lives of the people I love. And I wouldn't have it any other way!!!