Low Key, Low Budget, But Still Alot Of Work Birthday Party

I swore that I was going to keep the boys birthday parties, low key and low budget. Today was Aidan's party that was Dinosaur theme. So I painted a triceratops and made horns to play "Pin the horn on the triceratops" I painted a dinosaur theme cardboard setting and cut the dino faces out so the kids could have their photos taken as dinosaurs, I made what felt like a million cupcakes with frosting , sprinkles and topped off with dinosaurs. I put together dino themed favor bags and made tags that thanked our guest for making the day special. I set up a dino mask and dino bead/necklace making station and I even decorated our bathroom in dinosaurs for the event. Not much money was spent, in the ball park of maybe $180 but many hours were put into preparing for this event. So the moral is low budget, low key does not me "Low WorkLoad" too.

The kids had a great time and it really got wild after the cupcakes were consumed. Give about 10 kids some sugar and minutes later you have pandimonium...just totally out of control. The best part of all is that Aidan thought his party was a success....even though it was a simple backyard party. (photos to come)

Aidan's Birthday

Aidan turned 4 today. It sure was a special day for him. We celebrated with his request for pepperoni pizza and cheescake. Grandma and the neighbors (Finacoms) came over to sing "happy birthday"...what a thrill it was for him. Even more thrilling was his birthday presents, he sure got spoiled and I'm sure there's much more to come because his official birthday party is Sunday. The loot included this remote control dinosaur that had Liam absolutely stunned, Daddy caught Liam's expression on photo that if you had to translate it, said "What the Hell is that!" Had us just busting up over it.


The night ended with a little struggle to get Aidan to go to bed. What child wants to go to bed when they have a loot of new toys to play with. With a little encouragement and support form mommy and daddy letting him know we understand it's hard for fun days to come to an end he finally caved in and went to bed (with grandma of course).

Grandma's visiting

Grandma arrived yesterday and I have to say the boys are just thrilled. They absolutely love all the attention grandma gives them...everyone of them! I have to say it surprises me. Of course we know Aidan is going to be thrilled, he's the first grandchild and has always been showered with grandma's love (and gifts)...in an obsessive kind of way, so of course he loves it and is thrilled when she visits. But, Liam and Miles are also thrilled, she reads to them and plays with them and showers them with attention (and some gifts) too, when Aidan's not in the spotlight, and they eat it up. Credit should be given, grandma is making an obvious attempt at being fair to all the kids (not a successful attempt, but an attempt). It is nice to see the boys have a such a sweet relationship with their grandma

Mommy's Shoes Are Cool

Liam has a new fascination with my shoes. He's always trying to put them on and walk around. I don't wear heels very often anymore, but recently I had a pair out and he really thought those were cool. That is, until he put those on and stumbled around in them, eventually falling on his head, poor guy. So he decided Mommy's flip flops were a much better fit.

Does Aidan have school spirit?

This week at Aidan's preschool is "Crazy Days Of Summer Week" sort of a school spirit week. I got a little excited for him, thinking, "oh he's going to love this" The week started off with crazy hair day. I borrowed some colored hairsprays from the neighbor and had planned just to put a dash of blue in his hair. Boy was I mistaken. He said no crazy hair day for him, his hair would be brown. That was the end of that conversation, he wanted nothing to do with it.

Today is pajama day, so I pulled out what I thought was his coolest pair of jammies that he might love wearing to shcool. A fun pair of dinosaurs, what boy wouldn't want to wear those to school right. Well, begrudgingly, Aidan is wearing them. But, I've had to listen to a long drawn out complaint about how upset he is about this. I'm hoping when he gets to school with his buddies in jammies too, he might be alot happier about this.

Hmmmm, who's spirit week is this really, Aidan's or mommy's?

Dr. Aidan

Aidan has a doctor kit he got quite awhile ago. So, we were really surprised when he pulled it out and started to play doctor on daddy.

If you're a parent, you know how that goes, you get your child a new toy and it's a huge hit for let's say a couple of day or a couple of weeks if you're lucky, then it's tossed to "the toy grave site" forgotten about.

Mommy and daddy were having a great time with Aidan taking pulses, checking reflexes and looking in ears for spiders. But the sweetest thing of all was when Aidan told daddy, what daddy needed to feel better was "a kiss on the lips" followed by a kiss from Aidan. I was so touched by this because Aidan doesn't dole out hugs and kisses freely, You usually need to beg and nag for them and often times all you'll get is his cheek for you to kiss. (pics to come)

3 In A Tub

Bathing is usually a chore that is designated for daddy and I have to say, for this I am grateful. I find it a daunting task and let's not forget back breaking. On occasion I have to take this task on, for example tonight since daddy is having a guys night out. So I find it easiest to just put all 3 in the tub at once with a bunch of tub toys of course. They love this and I think it just goes by so much faster. They get engaged with playing together so they forget that your washing and rinsing them so there's less of a struggle. Aidan is usually a freak about having his hair rinsed but when he saw that Miles his little brother had his hair rinsed with no fuss at all, he too was going to do the same. So they played, made a bit of a mess, but it was all worth it and over in just under an hour.

The good thing about taking over daddy's chores every once in awhile is it's a reminder to me how helpful he is. Note to self: thank daddy and compliment him for what a good job he does with the bathing.