happy birthday sadie!!!

 i tied a monkey invitation to a banana and gave them to sadie's friends, inviting them to join us for some crazy monkey business...a surprise b-day party for sadie.  she had no expectations of a party this year (since she was in florida on her birthday).  her friends and brothers did such a good of keeping quiet and giving NO CLUES.   she was completely SURPRISED!!!

my mom took her shopping while her friends decorated the house.

they hid up in the loft and jumped out right when she walked in.

we gave her a banana and an invitation when she walked in.  

she was shocked and then excited.

the girls ate pizza and talked on the trampoline.

then we had a few monkey-ish games...one was monkey in the middle, which ended with the girls each picking out a monkey t-shirt.  

sadie loved her cake.  my friend has a cake business and she made it.  it had a monkey made out of chocolate, with a palm tree and a bunch of runt bananas.

while sadie was opening presents max made off with the palm tree....he sat down on the step, eating, kicking his feet.  when the girls noticed, they all started laughing.

the girls had fun making their own banana splits, eating cake.....

talking and laughing!

the night ended watching dr. doolittle and painting fingernails.

during the movie each girl helped sew part of a sock monkey for sadie.  they all signed it so sadie could remember the great friends that came to her 11th birthday party.

it was a great night.  the greatest part was watching sadie smile.  she kept telling me how surprised she was and how much fun she had. 

 afterwards she was so grateful.  she gave me a hug and said thanks AND told me i could plan ALL her parties, which made it all worth it.  we love you sadie!! happy birthday!!!!!

hangin' out

it was so quiet in my house this afternoon.  sadie was at a birthday party, max -asleep, dave-working, and abe and my mom were at the bookstore.  it was a little too quiet, so i decided to go on a kai hunt....i found him just quietly hangin' out.  love that kid!

see me smile

a few conversations:


sadie: "that guy has the hugest adam's apple, it's as big as the trunk of an elephant."


me: "that's mean."


sadie: "no it's not. i was using a simile."


*********************************************


sadie and abe were discussing something.
abe just wasn't getting it.


finally sadie said, "you just don't understand."


abe: "i do understand, you're just not using colorful enough words!"




both of their teachers have been emphasizing creative writing...it's fun to see it carry over into everyday life.

grandma and grandpa's

we went to utah for the weekend to finish off our spring break. we slept at my parents' house and sadie woke up sick. so disappointing since she was looking forward to spending a day with cousins and being in UTAH. luckily grandma and grandpa have a big screen and disney channel... we hooked her up with a throw-up bowl and g-pa's electric blanket. luckily no one else got sick and she felt a little better the next day.
my mom always has some project planned. today was making piggy banks so we can start to save our change for our christmas family service project.
since sadie was sick my mom and i didn't do a whole lot... we looked at paint colors, drove around a few neighborhoods, but mostly i loved just sitting and talking with her.

the boys LOVED an entire day lounging with grandpa in his super grandpa shirts, watching MARCH MADNESS!! they watched game after game, marked their brackets and ate candy out of the candy drawer. grandpa's kind of fun.

mimi and papa john's

MAX'S BUG BIRTHDAY PARTY:

we threw together a family celebration in honor of max while we were in utah. it was fun to hang out with dave's parents, siblings, and cousins.

bug hunt and racesthe moon bounce...
was a hit.

max loved playing baseball with his uncles and papa john...anyone that would risk holding the ball while he whacked it.

FINALLY, we met SAM-O.

our newest cousin.

so snugly and so cute!

loved by all.

an attempt at a cousin picture...abe, kai, sadie, sam, max, and lily

happy birthday max

max is TWO

even if he says, "three"

we spent the day together doing some of his favorite things.

presents: a baseball and bat, a bathketball set (for the bathtub), AND

two fish, because he is two. (it turned into four fish because i didn't realize one was pregnant and must have been so shocked with it's new surroundings we think it went into preterm labor and had it's babies...no wonder it was freaking out and abe wanted to name it h.a. for heart attack)

we went to sedona for the afternoon for some warm outside time.

playing in the sand
jumping with dad
hiking and throwing rocks

a picnic and baseball at a park

ending with chocolate from the chocolate factory.

we love our big kid maxwell. happy birthday.

scottsdale

dave had a continuing medical education conference in scottsdale. he planned it over spring break so the kids and i could tag along. dave enjoyed learning while the kids and i enjoyed sleeping in, eating breaksfast on the patio under the palms each morning, playing the wii in the lobby, room service, disney chanel, soccer on GRASS, visiting cyndee and ryan, soaking up the sun and lounging in the lazy river. it was a beautiful hotel and a fun little get away.