Landon's TORNADO Birthday Party, and a Little Bit of Everything!

Landon is kinda obsessed with the weather.  Calender/weather is his favorite time of the day in school, and he especially loves tornadoes...slightly morbid, I know!:)  When I asked him what kind of birthday party he wanted to help plan, he said a tornado birthday party, and even though I had no idea how I could pull that off, I knew this theme was right up his weather-lovin alley.  So we brain "stormed"(pun intended), if you will, and did our best.

 These are the invites.  If you read closely, all the kids were supposed to come "all twisted up".  With mismatched buttons, backwards clothes, crazy hair etc.  One of the Moms even came dressed up.  I wish I would have taken more pictures of their cute hair, and clothes, but you might be able to see it in the pictures.

Front door sign:

I could not think about how to decorate for a tornado birthday party so we turned our house upside down, which let's face it with 4 kids wasn't that hard.  A lot of the work was already done for us, if you know what I mean.:)  This party was perfect for a home with a new baby, because if your house looks like a tornado went through it...Perfect, blame it on the party theme!:)

We thought the game twister would fit the theme.  This is me explaining the game to the kids.

They were so cute!

We also played a game where I made a plastic wrap "candy twister", and the kids sat in a circle and passed it around while the music played.  When the music stopped they tried to untwist the twister and pull out the candy hidden in the different layers.

 

I also made a "fan tornado"

We started it out slow and then turned it up and told the kids it was an F5. 

It was kinda mesmorizing for a while and then it destroyed itself from all the spinning.

The cupcake cake was super easy.  We just made the tornado shape with cupcakes and then drizzled frosting, and added some random toys, that got caught up in it.

We sent the kids home with a "pet tornado" that I made by drilling a hole in the pop bottle caps, melting them to weld them together, glue gunning any weak areas to seal them shut, and them duck taping it all to be sure that it wouldn't leak too much.  I added lamp oil so you could really see the twister.  

Landon absolutely loved his tornado birthday party and was so happy!

There are a ton of pictures some from before the baby and some from after that are a little bit of everything.  Since this is my journal for our family, I thought I should add them in so we don't forget any memories...

I got to help out in Landon's class on April Fool's Day, so I told the kids that we brought in brownies for them.  We brought out a tin foil covered plate around snack time, and the kids were excited till we gave them each a "BROWN  LETTER E".  They were pretty good sports about it, and we are not THAT heartless so we did bring out some real brownies that we had kept hidden to share for snack time.  Landon had fun tricking his class.  His teacher also let us bring in the baby to show and tell.  He will be so sad to leave kindergarten.  He sure loves his teacher!

Our church has a general conference 2 times a year.  One in October, and one in April.  It is a world wide broad cast where the leadership of the church shares messages of love, encouragement, and guidance for our lives.  It is one of my favorite times of the year.  We treat this two day event like a holiday, as we sit and listen to these leaders who I know have been called of God.  We try to make it engaging for the kids too.  We rotate our toys every so often, and this time we rotated them right before conference so that the kids would have toys to play with that they hadn't seen in a while.  Then, we blocked the toy room off with streamers, and let them run through it right before conference started and break into their "newish" toys.

Since conference was around Easter, we thought it would be fun to put the apostles and prophets faces on plastic eggs and when one of them spoke to us, they got to open it up, and do an activity while that person spoke.  Some of the activities were, eating a candy each time they heard that person say a certain word like, "prayer", walking around the room while that person spoke, taking notes, or drawing pictures about what that person was speaking on.  I really think it helped them get to know the prophets, and keep them listening, and moving.  Even when they were walking around the room as the activity, they had to do it quietly, and it helped them get their energy out.  

We also try to have great food and snacks around.  I got a Belgium waffle recipe from a friend that was so good.  We might have to make it a new tradition to have those for conference breakfast.  

Oaklyn spent conference on my lap snuggling, which I loved.  So this was my view every time I looked down through most of conference.  I love her!

Poor Easton spent most of conference like this.  He was so sick!

My biker gang!

We went to feed the ducks before Pax was born.

These two are the best of friends!

Picnic picture with the sun in our eyes.

Family photo shoot.

This one is for Oaklyn who loves feet, and especially Paxton's.  Every time I have him bundled up in a blanket, she yells, "Toes!", and quickly unwraps his feet in an attempt to gaze at his perfect, tiny little piggies.  So here are all their little toes:

All my boys at about a week old in the same outfit and blanket.

Easton:

Landon:

Paxton:

He didn't want to open his eyes at all, so it was hard to recreate the picture exactly.

Pax:

Paxton stretching.  It's hard work being so cute!

My parents came when Paxton was born, and took the kids on all sorts of adventures.  Rock climbing:

Swimming:

My parents are leaving to live in Brazil for 3 years and this was their last visit before they leave.  Their were many, many tears in our home the day they left.  I love these two more than I could ever put into words.  They truly are some of the biggest blessings in my life, but because of that I know it is time to share them.  They will do a lot of good, but our hearts hurt to see them go.

Then my mother-in-law and their famous Aunt Anne came for a visit.  They were so helpful and the kids had a great time.  We love visitors!  A lot of these pictures are taken by their Aunt Anne, because she is so good at capturing all the little moments.

Their Aunt Brittany also came to visit for a bit, and we loved having her.  She was so sweet to my kids and they loved getting their bedtime story read to them by her. 

We celebrated Aunt Anne's birthday with real Belgium waffles for supper because Aunt Anne loves to travel, and spent a recent birthday in Europe.  We wanted to try to recreate that.

We put a candle in her waffle and sang to her.  We love her so much!

We hung out in the backyard.

Went to parks.

Played with silly string.

Ate lots of treats.

Went swimming.

Out to eat.

It was such a fun visit!

We blessed Paxton in church on Mother's Day.  A blessing is a special prayer that dedicates the child's life to the Lord.  It was the best Mother's Day gift.

I sent my Mom the blessing pictures and she sent me a picture of me as a baby, I think there are some similarities.

Also, Mother's Day questions Landon and Easton answered at church and cute picture Landon brought home from school:

This smart, sweet, creative, thoughtful, honest, and talkative little guy turned 6! He loves to learn and is such a great example to his younger siblings. Landon asked for my homemade pizza for his birthday dinner. This guy is like his Mom and is always up for a chat. It was so fun to listen to him while we made pizza.
We started a new tradition this year of video taping a birthday interview. His answers were priceless! I learned among many things, all about his favorite sports, and that if he could have one wish, it would be that everyday was his birthday, his favorite book is, "Matilda", and his hero is his Dad.

  Also, for his actual birthday he asked if we could have a reading party.  We popped popcorn, made a fort, and read library books.  He loves to read, which is one of the many things I love about this boy.  A reading party is my idea of a perfect day too!

Paxton is well loved and thriving.  Oaklyn likes to share her toys with him, and the boys like to share their books with him.  On Paxton's first trip to the library! The older 3 kept propping books for him to "read".

The many faces of Paxton:

Lastly, all these cute little boy cousins born within 6 weeks of each other are over a month old and could not be more cute.  Here is an updated picture of each of them starting with the first to be born:

Hudson:

Leo:

 

Paxton:

Oliver: