Martin Moments

With Dave and Caroline's back-to-back birthdays, we like to stretch the fun out as long as possible. This year we celebrated for a whole week!

We had some local family over for a bbq. I love being close to family - it means I don't have to plan a "birthday party" - just invite everyone over for grub and it's a celebration!

Dave and his usual birthday pecan pie.

Caroline usually lets me know what kind of cake she wants each year for her birthday, but this year she wanted to decorate her own. So I made her a plain, white cake and let her go to town - she loved it and I think it turned out cute!

A few years ago Caroline asked when she could get her ears pierced and we decided on her 7th birthday. So that night we went to the mall and did it! She was so brave. The piercer did the first ear and said, "You ok? Ready for the next one?" and Caroline said, "I think I need a minute." It was so funny. She took a deep breath and gave her the green light to do the other ear. She didn't cry or complain at all. The next morning when we went to clean her ears - she threw a fit because she thought it would hurt! Silly girl.

Caroline requested breakfast in bed, which I thought was kind of funny, so I woke up early and granted her wish. Of course, Caroline got up and I had to send her BACK to bed to get her breakfast! But she still loved it.

The Monday before was Veterans day which she had off school, so we went to the Sonoran Desert Museum. Dave and I have both been when we were kids, so it was neat to go back - I forgot so much of it.

It really is beautiful out there. It reminds you that the desert is its own kind of pretty.

Miles favorite part was the icecream.

We went to a few shows there. One was a live animal show where they let an animal out and it would walk around the stage while the worker would talk about it. At one point the worker needed a kid volunteer and asked who had a birthday coming up. Well, Caroline's hand shot up and she got to go to the front to feed the next animal. They gave her a peanut and told her where to stand and the animal came out - it was a porcupine!!! Of course it was tame and the quills couldn't come out but it was pretty funny. I loved watching Caroline pretend she wasn't nervous :)

Months ago I bought tickets for Dave, Caroline, and I to go see a Phantom of the Opera spoof at the Gaslight theater for their birthdays. I LOVE the Gaslight (doesn't everyone?!) but neither of them had ever been before, so it was fun to be the one to introduce them to it.

We sat right up front and got some good interactions with the actors. The show was great and so funny and it was just such a fun evening for the three of us.

Here's Caroline playing with one of her favorite birthday gifts. The family I babysit for got her a Brave bow and arrow (suction cupped tips of course) and she LOVES it!

It was a great, great birthday week. I love these two so much and love celebrating their awesomeness every year!

I'm not sure how I posted about Halloween and didn't include our pumpkin pictures! But, better late than never.

We've been painting pumpkins for Halloween ever since Caroline was a baby. It's our family tradition.

Caroline said her's was "an ugly lady. She belongs to the Ugly Ladies Club".

Miles was old enough to join in and he loved it.

Mine is the one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater. Dave, as usual, takes the cake with his Frankenstein pumpkin. He's obviously the family artist!

This year we started a new tradition by having caramel apples for dessert on our pumpkin painting night. We decided to go with apple slice kabobs - better carmel to apple ratio that way :)

I was really excited for Halloween this year. I thought Miles would be old enough to "get it" and he...sort of was :)

Miles had lots of costume options thanks to some hand-me-downs from cousins. Unfortunately, I underestimated my sons' rate of growth and they didn't fit. Luckily, we already had this cute rain slicker that a friend gave Caroline when she was this age and the Dollar Tree had the helmet. Voila: fireman. He loved it. He watches a show on Netflix called "Fireman Sam" so he totally knew what he was all about :)

As usual, Caroline decided what she wanted to be months ago. I figured a peacock-like dress/skirt would be easy enough, but had no idea how to do the feathers. I wish I had taken a picture of the back! It was pretty cool and we had fun making it. I especially love the headband. She was definately the only peacock we saw!

I think Caroline's favorite part of Halloween is that she gets to wear make-up :)

Miles would NOT look at the camera! He does look awfully tough, doesn't he? Thanks to falling face-first on the bricks the day before, he had some authentic scrapes on his face. Hey, what's Halloween without some blood, right?

I was a mother of one girl for over five years. Now I spend a few days a week at home with three little boys!

Even Miles love Target.

Last week I filled the swimming pool with rice crispies and buried little dollar store toys for the boys to dig through. They had a lot of fun, and then the dog ate most of the spills :)

I love how easy boys are to please. Little cars and airplanes make them so happy!

Miles loves play doh now. I've started making my own and love how soft it is.

This is a rare moment when these two actually shared the caterpillar. A lot of my time is spent resolving disputes between two kids who want the same thing!

I think it's good for Miles to have some other kids around. It gives him an opportunity to learn that he's not the only kid in the universe! Life requires occasional sharing and waiting!

A few weeks ago we had a super-fun girls activity with some of Caroline's cousins and aunties at Disney on Ice! It was so great and even better that we got to share it with such fun girls!

So excited! I didn't tell her until right before she left and she was jumping up and down with glee!

It was a great show. We went to a Disney on Ice a few years ago, but this one was all princesses - very fun for a girl's day out. We had a blast!

Dave's parents sent the kids a package for Halloween.

It.Was.Awesome.