Beautiful Ballerinas!

Cousin Ava celebrated her 4th birthday having a ballerina birthday party with her friends. The special guest of the day was the girls beloved ballet teacher, Miss Mina (now officially Mrs. as of March 1st). Mina did a beautiful dance performance for the girls and then she lead them in a traditional ballet class filled with stretching, ballet walks, and of course free dancing when the girls got to go on stage and perform for the audience. They were absolutely adorable and made such beautiful little ballerinas. Daddy stayed home with they boys so this was a special time for Gracie and I to get out of the house together as just "the girls". Lately I am trying to make time in our busy lives to have one on one outings with the kids. Thursday evening Colton and I had a date to Borders Book Store and racked up on some great books. I was so excited to receive my teachers discount card to get 20% off of my book purchases whenever I shop at Borders. I'm learning that there are more perks to homeschooling than I thought!



Some of the party guests


Ava, Kaya and Gracie reaching for their toes.


As miss Mina would say... "mermaid up"!


As the girls danced, Gracie and Ava would frequently look at each other like this. So sweet!


Point that toe!


The girls free dancing on the stage. Gracie's in the center doing a twirl.


My beautiful ballerina!

Busch Wildlife Sanctuary

Today we went on a field trip to Busch Wildlife Sanctuary in Jupiter Florida and had a great time learning about Florida's native animals. What a beautiful day it was to be at such a beautiful place where they rescue and care for animals who can not live in the wild. We certainly learned a lot today and look forward to going back to the Sanctuary soon!


Colton was our junior photographer today and took all the pictures of the animals that you see. He did a great job and had a lot of fun with it!


Fletch loved watching the bobcats walk back and forth. This is a picture of Gracie and her good friend Betsy. She lives in our neighborhood and is the daughter of my friend and hero Kim, who happens to have 7 amazing children and has homeschooled them all! Betsy whose six, is the youngest of the seven and is such a sweet girl. They are such an incredible family and their daughter Molly is a dream babysitter for us for those rare occasions that we get out alone!


Petting a skunk is so much fun! This little lady was so calm and sweet! The great horned owl had all the children's attention. They all wished they could turn their necks the way an owl can!


Colton took this picture of two rattle snakes coiled together. We agreed that when comparing the venomous snakes to the non venomous snakes, the venomous snakes even look more dangerous and creepy!



Colton got this super cool "Save Our World" shirt from Aunt Kelly. He loved seeing one of his most favorite animals of all... the Bald Eagle. Totally magnificent! And petting an alligator is always fun!

Our little guy

Here is an update on Fletcher (sorry this is so.. long, I guess I had a lot on my mind tonight : )


Fletch went to see his pediatrician today for his 18 month old check up, although he won't be 18 months for another two more weeks. We were pretty surprised to learn that he only weighs 20.4 pounds! Not much of an increase since his last visit at 12 months. He has grown in his height and head circumference but hardly at all in weight. I'm assuming this is because he's just so extremely active along with the fact that he has had his share of colds lately which has caused him to not have much of an appetite. The Dr. wasn't the least bit concerned though which was good. He said he's a very healthy boy (besides the runny nose and cough he is trying to get over right now). He's adding some teeth to the four that he already has so finally at 1 1/2 maybe he'll get a set of teeth in that mouth of his! Don't let this photo fool you, he absolutely hates having his teeth brushed. He goes to his drawer in the bathroom and puts toothpaste on his toothbrush and brushes his own teeth several times a day, but when it's time for mommy or daddy to brush them, let the screaming begin! It's not our favorite time of the day around our house. His Dr. also suggested that maybe we get him a helmet after asking about his skinned up knees and Josh telling him "oh, he loves to ride skateboards". The Dr. thought it may be a good idea to put a helmet on that little head of his.

Fletcher still LOVES to dance. It's probably his absolutely favorite thing of all. It's a natural reaction for him to dance as soon as he hears music. He's also seen many times each day walking around the house with a ukulele dancing and making "music". The kids got a mini drum set for Valentine's day that he loves to sit at and drum away! The boy just loves music! I am thinking of taking him to the Music Together classes that I took both Colton and Gracie to when they were young. I stopped going when Fletch was an infant just because our schedules became so over booked, but I really think that he would enjoy this class and it would be a special time for Fletch and I to spend together. I'm a little resistant just because I feel like we do so many extra activities that take time away from school, but I think the sacrifice we will have to make will be worth it, at least for now. It will just mean that we'll have to do school a few hours later that day. Besides music, he's finally starting to get interested in reading books. In the past, he hasn't had any interest at all sitting still for me to get through even two pages of a book. Now, if I catch him at the right time, he'll sit still for a story but particular likes the flap books where he can be involved in opening up the flaps. His favorite story right now is "Where Is My Frog", by Mercer Mayer. As you read it, you are looking for his frog and when he opens up the flap to look for frog, he says "no....." when it's not frog that he sees inside the flap. It's so cute! I just ordered him some more flap books from amazon.com to put in his Easter basket so hopefully this will get him even more excited about reading!

As far as eating goes, I have always considered him a pretty good eater, but now I'm wondering if he really is. I thought for sure he'd at least put on a pound or two in six months. He also will only drink maybe a few sips of milk a day so I think this has made somewhat of an impact on his weight. We had to limit Colton's milk consumption as a toddler because he would drink 27 ounces a milk each day (3 large sippy cups full) and would ask for more but that was his daily limit. We compared Colton's 18 month size to Fletch and they are about the same in height but Colton weighed 24 pounds at 18 months! We always imagined that because Fletch was our "big baby" born weighing 7lbs. 13 ozs, a full pound heavier than both Colton and Gracie at birth, that he would continue his trend and be the biggest kid in the family. I guess that's not how it works though. Oh well, I'm not too terribly worried about it since the Dr. said he's fine, but I think I will keep a better eye on how much he's really eating and just how much is getting thrown on the floor ; )

Fletch is a pretty good sleeper. He usually goes to sleep with no problem at all (which I love and am so very proud of) and wakes up around 6 or 6:30 and comes in bed with us to sleep until 7 or 7:30. I'm nervous what will happen when he weans because for now, he nurses himself back to sleep. When that option isn't there anymore will he stay awake at 6 am??? Please God no! Let me just say, I am not a morning person! He may train me to be one though : ) I have been saying for years now that my life would be easier if I would just wake up earlier. I always wake up when the kids basically force me to but I think if I had a head start on them, my mornings would get off to such a better start. I just can't seem to make myself do it though, so maybe Fletch will! Lately due to his runny nose, I think it's been harder for him to sleep because he's been waking us up around 2:00 every morning. This is so hard because we tend to get our deepest sleep in the early morning hours so with that interruption, I really.. haven't been wanting to get up in the morning. I know that this is a phase that will soon pass so I try and think of how lucky I am to have his sweet little self to snuggle with at night when all is calm and quiet.

Happy Birthday Ava!

Today, March 5th, Ava Rain turns four years old! We celebrated Colton and Ava's birthday on Monday March 3rd, in honor of their dear Nana's birthday. It was such a beautiful evening and was extra nice for us all to be together on this special day!



King Colton and Princess Ava celebrating their birthday's!



Happy Birthday to the big 7 and 4 year olds!




On Tuesday the 4th, the girls went to a princess party to celebrate their friend Julia 4th birthday. The girls looked so beautiful dressed in their princess attire. While we were at the party, Joyce so graciously snuggled with Fletch at her home while he wasn't feeling well and Colton was treated to another mini birthday party at a park in Palm City with some of his homeschool friends. It feels as if he's having a birthday that keeps on going and going!


Kaya and Gracie looking as beautiful as ever!



Princess Ava and Princess Gracie having a bite to eat.



All the party princesses!



Gracie and her sweet friend Ava.



Gracie and the birthday girl Julia (with a mouthful of candy)

Colton's bowling party

Colton's bowling party was a great success! He had such a great time bowling with his friends and after enjoying pizza for lunch and some yummy cake, he received some awesome presents before the boys ended the party playing games in the arcade. We have always done parties at our home so I was amazed to see how stress free this party was being that I didn't have to prepare any food and the best part... I didn't have to clean (before and afterwards ; ) On a bad note, both Josh and Gracie weren't feeling well to the point that we thought they weren't going to be able to make it. They did wind up coming, but Gracie just sat in Aunt Joyce's lap pretty much the whole time and Josh stood in the back feeling miserable. In the end, we were thankful that we all got to be there as a family to watch Colton enjoy his special day.



Colton and his bowling buddies!



Let the games begin!


All the boys had such a blast bowling! We need to start taking our kids bowling more often. I guess I forgot just how much fun it can be! Let me just say, thank God for the bumpers ; )



I can't believe my sweet boy is 7!!!





Okay guys, I know you are going to think I am way nerdy and totally need to get a life but I find something very fun in planning my kids birthday parties. I always think of really neat ideas but somehow I never find the time to do them. I made myself put a little bit of time aside to do these little party projects that some how I managed to have a lot of fun doing. Typically, when I do "projects" I do them when everyone is sleeping at night and the house is nice and quiet and I can actually concentrate. It's like therapy to me. When I'm finished, I get such a sense of accomplishment out of doing something so small. See, it doesn't take much to make me happy ; )


Colton's party shirt. Made from a shirt that was purchased at Target on clearance for $2.50 and from left over fabric from the goodie bags.


Got to love JoAnn's! I went in a few weeks ago asking if they had bowling fabric to make the goodie bags with. The lady looked at me like I was nuts and said, "sorry, ma'am, we don't' carry bowling fabric". I went in a week later to find this perfect bowling fabric that they had just ordered and got in! This was a total surprise to me! Thank you JoAnn's!



We did an activity where I had different tasks for the kids to do while bowling and they had to draw a task from the bag like bowl with your eyes closed, bowl backwards, act like a monkey, waddle like a duck, etc. which I thought they would roll their cute little eyes at me but they really seemed to have fun with it! They kept coming back for more until we ran out of tasks and I couldn't think of any more.



Colton and I had fun making this poster to welcome his friends.