Lucky # 7

Today we celebrated one special 7 year-old's birthday.

 I have dubbed it his lucky birthday.

Why? Because some consider 7 to be a lucky number, and I like to make things fun. It also made me think of the rainbow with 7 colors. That's pretty lucky too.

So, today we celebrated with some color and fun.

This kid was so excited for his birthday! He could hardly contain himself the night before.

 We sure love this little ball of energy, so we did a lot to make him feel as special as we could for his birthday today. Especially since his party had to be moved until later in January.

I think it worked, he had a pretty good day which means this is a pretty long post.

 But, one last shot of his 7 year-old pictures before we tell you about it.

His day started out with excitement. He woke up bouncing up and down, and ready to jump into it. First he found his new Ikea chair that Daddy put together the night before.

He had to wait for his siblings to wake up to open the rest of his presents. There were tears, but he made it. Finally, it was time. 

 He opened Grandma and Grandpa's present first.

 A pack of dinosaurs! He was thrilled. He has recently discovered that he likes dinosaurs.

Very colorful and fun!

Then we were off to Pietro's pizza for lunch as a family. Complete with tokens, games and fun.

 Aaron was playing this when I came by. He was trying to win one of those cards.

He did it!

We had a coupon for a winter break package deal that came with mini-golf, and laser tag. I walked through with them for mini-golf. Glow in the dark 3D mini-golf!

 Complete with kooky (3D) glasses.

 We had him pick one outdoor activity to do today, he chose roller blading at the park. Thankfully we were able to get it in before the sun went down. We spent some time shopping at Toys 'r' us too because he had some birthday money, so we almost didn't make it home in time for his outdoor activity.

Finally, the part he has been waiting for all day! Cake and ice cream.

April and I made rainbow cupcakes. She did the frosting.

We sang Happy Birthday! So did the dinosaur, and possibly the cat.

 We had rainbow sherbet in rainbow colored bowls.

And, that was it!  The day was over, and it was time for bed. He has lots of fun Lego sets to build tomorrow though, and in January he'll have a chance to celebrate with friends at the swimming pool.


20 questions

1. What is your favorite color? Easy! Blue!
2. What is your favorite toy? Tonka Trucks
3. What is your favorite stuffed animal? Smokey, he's my kitty
4. What is your favorite thing to sleep with? My fan? I don't really know. (Mom and Dad, lol)
5. What is your favorite fruit? Banana
6. What is your favorite cereal? Apple Jacks
7. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Waffles
8. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Pizza
9. What is your favorite dessert? Ice Cream
10. What is your favorite drink? Dr. Pepper
11. What do you want to eat for your birthday dinner? Pizza
12. What is your favorite animal? Tiger
13. What is your favorite book? Mr. Willowby's Christmas tree. Hey it (the tree) got cut off 7 times, and I'm turning 7!
14. What is your favorite song? Boom Clap
15. What is your favorite game? Battleship
16. What is your favorite TV Show? Home Improvement
17. What is your favorite movie? Trolls
18. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with my trucks
19. Who is your best friend? Karly Jo
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A police officer.

Magic Stix Markers (A review)

From the makers of Kwik Stix, The Pencil Grip, Inc., there are now markers, Magic Stix! We had the opportunity to try them out just before Christmas this year so we could share about this great gift idea. You can even order them from Amazon and still have time for them to get here before Christmas with Prime shipping.

 So, what are Magic Stix, and how are they different from regular markers? The biggest difference is that they won't dry out super fast! They are guaranteed 7 days without the cap off and they won't dry out. They are also odor free. I had my boys smell them to see (because I can't smell), and they said they couldn't smell anything. This is a benefit for those who are sensitive to smells.

Olaf has been visiting us for this Christmas season, and he brought some coloring pages to use with our new Magic Stix markers. We sat down and tried them out.

They are nice for little hands to hold. They are washable. I was able to easily wipe off the table from the little toddler's mishaps. The colors are bright and bold.

I colored this full page, and I have to say these were very nice to color with. They are not fine, but I was able to still color in most small spaces. I really liked how I could color a large area, and I felt like the marker didn't run out halfway through the picture. That's a sign of a good marker! I feel like these will outlast our regular markers for sure.

Colored with Magic Stix markers from The Pencil Grip, Inc.

I highly recommend these. They aren't much more than the usual counterparts. They are currently available through Amazon. Give 'em a try!

Disclaimer: I was given this pack of markers for free for my honest blog review, and asked to share about them.

H is for Hide and Hug

OLAF!!

Do you do Elf on the shelf?

We tried one year. I even bought the Elf.

I brought him home, and no one liked how he looked. They all thought he looked creepy. I didn't think he was so bad, but if no one liked him then I guess it wasn't going to be fun. So, I took him back. My kids probably would have been creeped out kind of like these "kids."

I still liked the idea of doing something silly each night. I wasn't so much into the "he's watching you" stuff, so I guess it wasn't meant for us to have an Elf on the shelf anyway.

Then I found Olaf!

Hide and Hug Olaf. (I found him in 2014. That's the only time I saw him in the stores.) I loved this "Elf on the shelf" type thing, so I snatched one up. He comes out each Christmas just for fun.

I haven't been very good about hiding him each night before Christmas since we got him. I've "hidden" him maybe a handful of times. This one is from 2014. The only night he got hidden (that year) he delivered a trip to Great Wolf Lodge.

This year I wasn't in the mood to do it at the beginning of the month, but the boys kept asking me if I'd hide Olaf soon.

I finally did.

I decided I could do the 12 days count down until Christmas with him. So, he hid for the first time last night. I put him on the treadmill, and he put out all our Get Air socks because I knew we were headed there in the morning.

The boys were surprised. I think they had given up on him hiding at all this Christmas. I haven't felt very "merry and bright" this year, but I'm doing my best. We'll see how the rest of the nights go!

Any ideas for my hide and hug Olaf adventures?

Some things we did last week

I don't have a lot to say for our week last week, but still wanted to share some things we did. It wasn't a packed week, but it wasn't exactly a calm week either.

We went to OMSI for a field trip with the charter school. We don't have a membership there anymore, so it was fun to go back since we hadn't been for a while. They have a new exhibit called Illusion. It was really cool some of the things they had to play around with. Very hands on.

This light show was fun to dance around in front of it and see your shadow in a bunch of different colors.

This TV appears white. You put on the glasses and you can see something! 

Projector fun...

They also had their gingerbread display up. There were some amazing gingerbread creations. Huge ones. For some reason I didn't get a single picture of them, but I did get a picture of this goofy kid...

 They colored some gingerbread men too...

The weather was just amazing all week. It was cold, but sunny. When you live somewhere that typically is cloudy and rainy it's hard to not want to get out and play in the sun.

We started a new session of ice skating lessons. The boys are doing intro to hockey this time.

We had a field trip to the police station for cub scouts this week. Those boys were all so interested in everything. The officer did a great job, and showed us a lot. He also is a K-9 officer so he showed us his dog too.

April had her recital and orchestra concert this weekend. Recital was on Saturday, and orchestra on Sunday.

 And that wraps up our week!

Merry Christmas!

She did it!

Yesterday we had quite the day at the DMV! In the morning I took April in to do the written portion of her driving test so that she'd have some time in between that and the actual drive test. While we were waiting for our number to be called a girl had just finished her drive test. She was crying. She clearly didn't pass. We both saw her. I knew that really made April worried for her turn in the afternoon. It made me worried too.

She did her written part, and got every question right. She rocked that part. Then we came back at 1:45 for what we thought was a 2:00pm drive test. Turns out it was actually at 2:20. We had to do something for a bit since it wasn't really enough time to go home. We went next door to Big5 for a while. The waiting even longer was stressing April out. Finally, it was time. We headed back over to the DMV got her checked-in, and then she went out to the van to wait for the tester to come out.

She waited in the van for a good while, probably almost 10 minutes.

April sitting in the van waiting for the drive test to begin.

Still waiting...

Meanwhile inside this is what I wanted to be doing (flailing all over the floor). I was just as nervous for her as she probably was. I knew that if she didn't pass it would be a broken heart like the girl earlier. I think I was also worried because she was in our van without us. It's a scary thing in a way. Once she pulled away I was better though.

We were all excited for her. The boys were very encouraging, and were really hoping she would pass. Alex was most excited because he gets to go get hot chocolate with April just the 2 of them, she promised him.

She pulled back in about 20 minutes later, and they sat in the car for a bit. I wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not. Finally they got out, and she came in. She wasn't crying! When she got close to me she said she passed. Phew! She got an excellent score too. So proud of her!

Later that evening we went to Limeberry to celebrate with the family.

 It was a good day.