Happy 4th Birthday Eli

I had such a hard time with Adam's 4th birthday, it was a realization that my little guy was now a big guy. But thankfully it's not as bittersweet the second time around. I realize that my little baby Eli is disappearing- the round face is loosing it's baby chub, but what I get in return is pretty awesome too. Eli knows what he wants and he doesn't really like to compromise (we'll work on that). Like at his 4th birthday he wanted nothing to do with wearing the special ninja turtle shirt he picked out, but he looked handsome in his fancy clothes.

Eli asked me to plan a ninja turtle themed birthday. After I finally made out the invitations less than a week in advance I realized with the first RSVP that I had the wrong date- Tuesday the 28th instead of Sunday the 26th. We were able to warn everyone and had 100% turn out thankfully. My mom sewed on demand eye bands for each kid.

 



 Of course we had pizza and fruit trays made in the shape of ninja turtle heads with bands of orange musk melons or red strawberries and a veggie tray and a "pizza" made of crackers cheese and summer sausage. Finger food and paper plates makes my life easier. We made turtle juice or mutagen - lemonade with green food coloring.

Other than playing with the old and new school ninja turtle guy-guys in the basement, knee hockey and some baseball games in the backyard I made a pinnate turtle shell. It held up okay (the Walmart and target kind have been requiring dad intervention to finish it off). The turtle held up for nearly two rounds of hitting- the oldest two only got to have one hit each.

Happy Birthday Eli! I can't wait to see what four brings you!

Hockey, Hockey, Hockey- All March Long!

We spent most of March going to college hockey games and our NCAA brackets we fill out are for the Frozen Four not the Final Four.

We took the boys to Bemidji in November and got to watch Tech's 9th and 10th wins and then have a #1 in the Nation ranking! All season we watched Friday and Saturday night hockey games by streaming them on WCHA.com. In the end of February we did our last trip to a Tech away game with our friend from work Brian and his 4 boys (his wife Jen was getting their house ready to sell). We were sad to see them move away from Hutch to Missouri and sad that the tradition of a weekend away for a Tech hockey game is over (we've been going with them to Tech hockey games since before Adam was born- 9 years!). 

We've been going to the WCHA tournament every year since Eli was almost one and this year we went and Tech finally not only made the tournament, but won a game (and won the first two periods of the championship game before Mankato beat them when it mattered in the last period). We took the boys and made a weekend out of being in St. Paul at the X with stops at the Science Museum. We even went to the alumni event for the NCAA selection with the hockey team on Sunday.

 

 

 

My parents go to the Frozen Four every year and I've always told Dave if Michigan Tech makes it to the NCAA tournament we would go. Well they made it and we went to the Regionals in North Dakota. It was an amazing Faux Huskies vs. Tech Huskies game and unfortunately the wrong dogs came out on top, but we had fun watching the hockey and having a weekend away without the boys.

 



 



And as one of my not so favorite but favorite (because it means Tech scored) cheers goes: "Do it again, do it again, we liked it, we liked it!" It was a great season to be a Tech fan, can't wait to see the Huskies do great again next season!

This Tech Alum definitely won best shoes at the NCAA tournament and we got to sit right next to them and cheer for hockey after Tech lost. Seriously had too much fun cheering for the guys shoveling the rink.

 

 



Isaac is 10 Months Old

 

 

 

Isaac is 10 months old. On Sunday he sang with us at church which was adorable! I'm pretty sure other than crying mama his favorite word is his brother Adam's name! Today Adam came home with an adorable paper that said "I like my baby!" (with an excited mark) and a picture of a crawling baby so the feeling is clearly mutual.

This baby was sick with a fever for 4 days last week right before Easter and heading to Chicago for his cousin Elliott's 1st birthday and now again this week he just seems off. Sometimes he refuses to eat, his diapers were bad and he had two morning explosions this weekend and did a couple mini baby pukes and lately hasn't been sleeping well at night. I'm hoping he's turning a corner and sleeps well tonight because I can't handle another night like last night. It's not so much the waking, but the refusing to go back to sleep that is really frustrating. Yesterday the only time he was happy was in my arms or outside. Tonight it was wonderful so he spent most of the night on the deck watching his big brothers and neighbor Ethan play.

 

 

New Tricks for the 10 Month Old

Today my baby is 10 months old. He's such a sweet baby. Tonight we were hanging out downstairs watching hockey like always and we all agreed we would go upstairs in between periods to get the boys ready for bed (PJ's, books and bedtime snack were already taken care of). With less than a minute left in the period iZ decided he was tired and was heading upstairs to bed. And with that he started climbing up the stairs for the first time.

We did let him practice this weekend in Chicago at the playground, so I'm not entirely surprised. I better start shutting that gate!