Shower for Baby Boy Brown

Today I hosted a baby shower for one of my good friends.  I love to have a party and it was so much fun (and quite a bit of work, but I don't mind).  I made a diaper cake (see the owl hat peeking above the presents).  We had about 2 dozen guests and I enjoyed using the china and all of my serving pieces.  Luckily a friend of the mom-to-be made cupcakes, so I had one less thing to think about.

We enjoyed lemonade, tea, and water.  I had lots of yummy treats to munch on as we played some fun shower games too.  I think a good time was had by all!

Mom-to-be and me.

I didn't remember till half way through the shower to take pictures of the food table.  At least I have it documented so I can plan for future parties :)

One of the most time-consuming things was the favors.  I gave away bags of popcorn that read "Ready to PoP!"  Super cute if you ask me.  

I can't wait to meet this new little baby due in about one month or so.  I wish the mom a speedy delivery and no complications.

Maverick Turns 4!

How can it be?  Maverick is 4!!

My boy with the gorgeous curls is already four.  Just one year left of preschool.  I'm trying to savor this time and soak it all in.  He is such a joy (most of the time) and I love him so much!

For Maverick's Birthday dinner he requested chicken.  We also had green beans, mango/strawberries, & baked potatoes.  He also requested a cookie rather than a cake and I was happy to oblige.

At 4 years old, Maverick weighs 38 lbs and is 43.5" tall.  That puts him in the 97% for height.  He's definitely going to be a tall guy!

Maverick now shares a room with Jamison and I think he enjoys having his younger brother in the room.  It must be fun to be the older bro sometimes.  He loves reading books, playing with cars, legos, and cooking in the pretend kitchen.  Maverick attends preschool 3 days a week and has a great time with his friends there.  Potty training has been a difficult journey for him, but he is accident free 95% of the time now and still wears a pull-up at night.

3 Bears

Today me and the littles ventured out to 3 Bear Acres for a morning of fun.

I had heard of this place, but had never tried it out.  There is special pricing on Thursdays, so we decided to give it a go and some friends joined us.

Perhaps a new white sweatshirt wasn't the best idea for this trip.  Let's just say it is COVERED in paint, and is in the wash currently.  I'll let you know if it comes clean and then I can say if I liked this trip or not, ha!

Jamison was THRILLED with the painting station.  He could have stayed there the entire time.  Maverick wanted to go, go, go!  He enjoyed about every activity there was there.

I took Maverick out on the paddle boats for a short trip.  Ours was having some difficulty turning.  Probably because it was a lot heavier on one side.  The toboggan run was a favorite of Maverick's too.  He went down a few dozen times.  I know he's napping well right now because of it.  They put water and Tide on the fake grass to help the sleds go down the hill.  The sides of my pants got wet, but at least they smell good.  

The jumping pillow was another favorite of Maverick's.  He would run across it, back and forth, over and over and over again.  I'm sure the big boys would love to join us soon.  We had a great time!

Those Curls....

Maverick.

Those Curls.

Yes, his hair is gorgeous and envied by all.  Perhaps it's a little on the longish side.  I love how it looks.  Daddy....not so much.

Before.

So we compromised and I agreed to a cut.  A small trim.  I took pictures to prove it happened.  To me, it looks MUCH shorter.  Maverick was happy with the cut, and so was I.

After.

Love him!

Brothers

Swim Team Practice.

I thought it was so cute that the boys lean on each other like this.  Chandler is doing better and better, but his form continues to need work.  Brighton is doing okay, but really needs encouraging.  He still has a fear of not being able to touch and gets into a panic.  If you will talk to him and encourage him that he can do it, he will generally give it a try.

Here's Brighton swimming down the lane, finally.  One of the coaches is there next to him for support or if he gets tired.  There's a fine line between pushing your kids too hard, and not enough.  I have pushed Brighton into swimming even though he is scared/hesitant.  I know he can do it, but I have to convince him of this each and every time.  Usually there are tears involved.  After several weeks of this, I came up with a threat solution.  If Brighton cries at swim team and will not swim or get in the pool, he owes me $1.00

That seems to have done the trick.  The next practice went fine.  No tears, and he got in and started swimming with his age group.  Hopefully it will work for more than just one time.  We'll see...

Baptism Reaffirmation

Today was a special day as we had a baptism reaffirmation ceremony for our boys.  All of our boys were baptized when they were around 2 months old.  We wanted to have one special date to remember these baptisms, so we gathered the family and celebrated on March 7th.  Our good friends, the Sauls, celebrated with us and I gave them this collage:

We have become very good friends with the Sauls family and it seemed fitting to include them in this special ceremony.  We did not know them when any of our children were baptized, so we wanted to show them how our family has grown and what the children were like at their baptisms.  

Somehow we all managed to sit at the one table.  I even put out the china and grandma provided a lovely floral centerpiece.  Since Mimi's birthday was the following day, we also had a birthday cake for her.  After all the yucky, winter weather, I felt flowers were bright and cheerful, so we gave Mimi a huge bouquet of tulips for her birthday.  

For the actual baptism renewal we used the advent wreath to hold four special candles that we lit and burned during dinner.  Each boy (with help, except Chandler) lit their candle and we read some scripture from the Bible and reminded the boys of their baptism and our faith in God.  It was really special and I hope to make this a yearly tradition.

The camera was on a weird setting and so none of the group pictures came out that great.  This was the best group shot I could get.  We are so thankful to have our families with us to celebrate this special day and hope the boys will continue their walk towards becoming men of Christ.