Luke's Birthday

Luke came up with his birthday cake idea by himself. He wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, green coconut for the grass, a road, and a (new) matchbox car on the road. I got the supplies that he requested and he created it himself, and even added a man "watching" the race.

When it came to the candles, he put them all behind the car to make it look  like it was going so fast that it was on fire.

Making his eight year old birthday wish.

Present time!

Lots of books.

Lots of books, games, a car model kit, and mini skateboard park.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful baby boy! Thank you for making me a Mom eight years ago on a snowy, cold, NC day! I love you!

The Rock

One tradition in our area is painting the school's "spirit rock" for your child's birthday. We went out this afternoon and painting Luke's school's rock so it is all ready for his birthday tomorrow.

Get together time

We started up our monthly get togethers again and loved having our friends and their families over to play, eat, and chat.

Terefech and Maiya building together.

The kids eating dinner.

The adults eating and chatting. Always in the kitchen.

Terefech and Maiya have such an awesome relationship. Terefech is very maternal with Maiya, and they sat in this chair together for awhile. Terefech was playing with Maiya's hair and they were all snuggled up. It was quite sweet.

And, just because we love them so much, this is the King clan. Our kids love their kids, and us adults like each other, too. We are very lucky to have found such a great family to be friends with.

Surprise Luau

We came home to a surprise Luau on Saturday.

Evan and Luke enjoyed their (kid friendly) Pina Coladas.

Dan and Luke eating their "poi" (banana pudding) with their hands - just like authentic Polynesian people!

Cracking open a coconut.

Getting ready to take a drink.

Basketball

Luke is playing basketball again this winter season. Every time I'm not at the game, he scores. On Saturday, I left the game a little early* and he scored THREE times! Luckily, Dan took some pictures for me.

* Maiya was super cranky and needed a nap.

Accessories

Maiya's latest fashion statement are necklaces on her head.

Painting hearts

Our Valentine's Day decoration was painting doily hearts. The kids really enjoyed painting them and they turned out pretty, too!

Valentine's Day Cake

Our Valentine's Day tradition is to made a heart shaped cake and let the kids decorate it.

Working hard on our (gluten free) heart cake. Please notice Luke's coat sleeve in the icing. Yep. Lots of pink down his arm. Don't worry, he licked it off. (Ewwwww.)

Each kid had a section to decorate and eat.

The finished product.

Then they grabbed a fork and dug in!

Evan and Maiya decided to toss the fork and go in with their whole mouth!

And, icing up the nose... She has some yucky pink sneezes later in the evening!

Happy Valentine's Day to my three sweet little valentines!

Best one in the class

When I was growing up, my Mom and Dad would always tell us kids that we were "the best one _____" (singing in the church chior, reading a book for Young Authors day, etc. etc). Whatever we did, we always knew that Mom and Dad would tell us we were the best/cutest/smartest ones.

Now that I'm a parent, I find myself telling my own kids that very thing! But, it's TRUE! :)

Today, I went to Evan's preschool class to help with his Valentine's Day party. I did a circle time with the class (read a book, did a sorting activity, etc) and Evan was the BEST one in the class! He sat on his bottom and listened so well. He participated in answering questions when they were asked. He waited his turn. He listened to, and followed, directions. I was so proud of him. I always felt like he was probably like that in class, but I never knew for sure. Today, I got to see with my own eyes, how perfectly perfect my sweet second son is at school.

And, when he got in the car after school was over, I was sure to tell him that he was the best one!

This and That

I was making cupcakes to take to a friend, and our little chef was my decorating helper. Since I had a small bit of batter left over, I made a small cake for him to decorate.

The finished product. Please take note of the adorable apron he has on. A good friend made it for him. Maiya has one, too. They are the perfect size for kids. Love them.

Getting ready to dig in.

Maiya has been practicing her cutting skills. She is pretty good at holding the scissors and opening and closing her hands. She thinks she's pretty cool when she does it, and laughs every time she makes a cut on the paper.

Just have to watch her so she doesn't end up with a haircut.

The boys finished their Valentine's today. They wanted skateboards, so we found 25 cent skateboard toys at a party store and made their "Rollin' in to say, Happy Valentine's Day!" cards. Taped the toy to the card and now they are ready to give their candy-free Valentine.

On the Bus

Luke told me about a conversation he had with another kid on the school bus:

Kid: (something very boy sounding, like shooting, stabbing, etc. ending with...) And, I would die forever!
Luke: You can live forever in Heaven.
Kid: Heaven is where God lives.
Luke: No, God is always right beside you to help you.
Kid: Like a ghost? Ahhh! A ghost! I'm scared of ghosts!
Luke: Kind of like a ghost because you can't actually see Him, but it's the good kind of ghost because He loves you.

My little man is evangelising on the school bus!

Out of the mouths of babes

Evan tells me I'm "sweet" pretty often these days. I think it's because his preschool teachers love him and tell him all the time how sweet he is, so he is using their word to describe other people (me!). He is so sweet.  One of the kindest kids I know.

Maiya calls me Mommy now. No more Mama. Just one more way she is growing up right before our eyes.

Luke shows signs of maturity on occasion. Yesterday, I wasn't feeling well. Luke and I were sitting at the table working on his homework and he stopped abrubtly and said, "Hey, Mom. Why are you looking so glum?" I told him I didn't feel well and he seemed genuinely sad for me. Feeling empathy is something I have talked with Luke about - it's not something that comes naturally to him -  and it was nice to see him have a moment of true thoughfulness for someone else.

Maiya is such a smarty pants! We were playing with magnetic blocks and I started sorting the colors into rows. Maiya quickly caught on and helped me put the colors together. As we all know, she's not a big talker quite yet, but if I ask her "which one is red/blue/green/yellow?" she can point to the correct colors.

We took the kids to the circus this past weekend. It was the first circus that Evan and Maiya had ever been to and they loved it! We spent ridiculous amounts of money on plastic toys that light up and spin around. But, the kids were all so happy and we had a fun family day!