Getting Ready for the Pirate Party

After Will's pirate party last August, Henry immediately asked to have a pirate party for his 4th birthday. This made my planning very easy since I could just repeat everything I had done for Will! We celebrated Henry's big day last Saturday with family and lots of friends.

Invitations from my talented friend Ally

Goody bags from Meri Meri

filled with a pirate CD, pencil and small bag of Pirate's Booty.

We had eyepatches for all our pirate friends.

Banner from Meri Meri (reused from Will's pirate party)

The food table

This time I had Ally design table tents for the food:

Pirate's Booty

Cannonballs (my peanut butter bites -- huge hit!)

Grog (juice boxes)

Fish o' the Sea (Goldfish) and Fruity Booty (fruit salad) and Nuggets of Gold (chicken nuggets, not pictured)

Cake from Whole Foods

Our activities included pirate coloring pages, decorating spyglasses (toilet paper tubes) and going on a treasure hunt with Pirate Redbeard. More pictures from the actual party to follow.

Henry's Big Day

Henry's 4th birthday was great from start to finish. He began the day with Swedish pancakes and lingonberry jam. Yummy birthday breakfast!

Then he was off to school for another fun birthday celebration. I ordered pizza and brought cookies and Henry got to wear this birthday crown all day.

And best of all, it's Pirate Week at school, which is perfect for my pirate-loving little boy. Everyone made wands and crowns.

One of Henry's favorite activities is riding his bike, so he rode around while waiting for Daddy to come home. (Note: he got a real bike today. It's blue. Surprised??)

Dinner was Henry's choice and he picked Little Matt's.

It was the perfect day to sit outside on the patio. 70* and sunny!

My birthday boy

with a cheeseburger!

Dessert was cupcakes from Crave. The best part is the quick walk down the block to pick up birthday treats!
Lemon, candy bar and Nutella cupcakes. Yum!!

Making a wish

and blowing out the candle.

After cake, it was time to open a few more presents.
And with a full tummy and lots of new toys to dream about, our big birthday boy fell fast asleep!

4

Today is Henry's 4th birthday!

He is such a happy, silly, sweet little boy who we all love to bits. Doesn't he have the best smile?

I asked Henry the same questions I asked Will last month. Here are his responses:

All About Henry at Age 4

My favorite food is blueberries.

My favorite sport to play is football with Kalino.

The best show on TV is Mickey Mouse.

My favorite thing to learn in school is rocket ship things and space things.

If I could go anywhere in the world, I'd go to California.

My favorite color is blue.

When I grow up I'm going to be a spaceman.

My favorite song is "Callie" ("Go Car Go" from a Kindermusik CD).

The book I'm loving right now is On Top of Spaghetti by Paul Brett Johnson.

Three words that describe me are: very silly, happy and like to read books.

When I was little, I used to suck my two fingers.

My favorite season of the year is winter because I want snow.

The snack I like best is bunny cracker mix.

The food I really dislike is oranges. (Henry actually loves oranges and almost every other food out there, including mushrooms, olives and stinky cheese!)

My best friends are Will and Kalino and Tej and Noah.

If I had one wish it would be that I was an astronaut right now.

My best memory is playing that memory game on your phone when we took Weezie to the vet.

My favorite toy is Baby.

At night I like to sleep with Baby.

I really like to play.

Happy birthday, sweet Henry!

Spring Break 2012

Spring Break 2012 was awesome! We didn't travel anywhere and we didn't hit any of Houston's busiest spots (rodeo, museums, zoo), but I'm pretty sure the boys enjoyed every single minute of their spring break. From playdates with friends and sleeping in late to two birthday celebrations and lots of family time, we had a great week! Here are some of the highlights:

We saw The Lorax. I heard it got bad reviews but the boys and I loved it!

We built a Thneed factory, inspired by The Lorax.

We played in the puddles in Kingwood and got all muddy.

We read a lot. We got a last-minute babysitter and had dinner with two old friends from Gene's law school days. It was so much fun to catch up with Jonathan and Julie!

We had dental appointments. (Will thought this big circle was perfect to sit in while waiting to see the dentist!)
We spent lots of time with Daddy, who was able to take three days off.

We even got to open some birthday presents a few days early.

We discovered Star Wars, or at least the Lego version of Star Wars.

We had a great week.

A First Birthday

March is full of birthdays in our family, but first birthdays are always extra-special. We spent yesterday at Nana and Pop's house to celebrate baby Michael's first birthday, a few days early.

Birthday boy.

Yummy cake!

Mary helped her little brother blow out the candles.

Baby Michael loved his cake.

Present-time!

The big kids gathered round to check out the new goodies.

Will read Michael two of his new books.

Brothers.

Henry got to open his birthday gift a few days early too. A real camera!

Will got one too. (That was a very smart move, Nana!)

Happy 1st birthday, baby Michael!

We love watching you grow.

Author Study: Candace Fleming

After our week of Dr. Seuss activities, the boys were excited to do their second author study. To start, we chose one of our all-time favorite authors, Candace Fleming.

Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! is one of the best kids' books I've ever read. Mr. McGreeley decides to plant a garden but has to try to outwit three hungry bunnies who sneak in and munch on all his growing veggies. Tippy-Tippy-Tippy, Hide! is the sequel, and it is just as entertaining and well written.

In honor of Mr. McGreeley's garden, we visited the garden at Will's school (in jammies) last week and found Beets! Tomatoes! Figs! and Broccoli! Henry actually loves the herbs best, especially the garlic chives.

We couldn't read two books about sneaky bunnies without making a bunny craft out of cotton balls and pipe cleaners. Can you see that Henry's bunny has three eyes? He insisted.

We borrowed Imogene's Last Stand from the library. Imogene is a little girl with a big passion for history. In her quest to save an historic building in her hometown, she quotes many different historical figures, from Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King, Jr. I came up with two activities for the boys. In the first, they matched the quotes from the book to the original author. Will's favorite, though not a direct quote, is the Vietnam War protesters who said, "Heck no! We won't go!" Henry likes Davy Crockett's "Ain't no one coming."

And in the spirit of famous quotes, I took some well-known phrases from the boys' favorite books and had them fill out a "Who Said That?" questionnaire.

Next up, we reread Seven Hungry Babies and made a chick cracking out of an egg for our craft. Henry decided one eye needed to be on the egg instead of on his chick.
Clever Jack Takes the Cake is an original fairy tale about Jack's journey past trolls, dancing bears, and gypsies to bring the princess a cake. After reading it, we had to bake our own cake -- for Gramma's birthday, of course!

The little boys and I love reading and it has been so fun to plan activities related to our favorite books. Will is already coming up with authors for future weeks.