Friday

 One more week of cookie sales! Girl Scout boothing - love these friends. We'll be at Lowe's tomorrow, come visit!

First top tooth lost:

My date to the mall:

Mohawk haircut:

Free video games are the best part of getting new hair cuts. And lollipops.

We are happy to have family in town this weekend. Kids are way happy Aunt Kim brought them four loaves of Grandma Sycamore's "Utah" bread! Tomorrow we watch Lexi compete in gymnastics.

He's 9!

Tyler's last single-digit year - can't believe it. Just minutes ago he was my littlest guy and we were hangin' out on the steps of our Encino apartment building. He's the one who made me a mom, and I couldn't be prouder of that. Tyler is the best, and anyone who knows him knows he's a great kid. Smart, funny, helpful, reliable, great worker, motivated, sensitive, and a good leader. He loves reading and writing, making comics, karate, and has started another season of baseball (Go Dodgers!) He's still obsessed with Legos, minecraft, and his DS. Tyler loves his friends, and is a fantastic big brother. It's really cool to watch how much he grows and changes with each year, while still staying true to many of the Tyler traits he's had since birth. Lucky us, we get to watch this kid grow up.

Birthday breakfast request - Cap'n Crunch.

Cole and I took a treat to Tyler's class. Tyler picked glazed doughnuts. Mrs. Lane and his friends sang to him - he was nice and embarrassed, but a big smile on his face. Cole thought it was the coolest to hang with the 3rd graders.

After school Tyler opened presents from family. Then off to the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Dinner. Adam is the scout master now, and the primary helped put on the dinner so we were pretty busy, but it was fun. Adam planned a magic-themed night, and the boys all learned magic tricks after dinner. It was a great night!

Tyler got his wolf badge which was a pretty big deal, and a couple other awards. Adam had everyone sing Happy Birthday to him (again, nice and embarrassed). There was cake after dinner so it doubled as birthday cake - perfect!

It's been a great week celebrating our boy. Here's to a happy, healthy 9th year. We love you, Tyler!

Tyler's Lego Party: Park

A million bazillion pictures from our day celebrating Tyler at Legoland! It was awesome to get in the park early, and a great day to go - didn't stand in a line all day long. Rode a bunch of rides we hadn't ridden before, and I made the kids go on a roller coaster. Audrey loved it, Tyler was terrified (but brave), and Cole said after "that was a little fast for me". Ate yummy food. Sang "Happy Birthday" to Tyler over apple fries. Such a great day celebrating our boy, who officially turns nine tomorrow.

Tyler could ride a bunch of rides by himself (and wanted to), which was nice with our odd number of people.

Love all the Lego building stations:

Racing Lego cars they built:

Cole was too scared for the slides.

Don't they look thrilled?! Caught the Clutch Powers 4D Lego Movie.

Tyler's request we spent a lot of time in Star Wars Mini-Land. They're unveiling the Death Star next month (and Lego Friends Heartlake City) so we'll have to go back again.

Everybody found their favorite:

Sure do love these three.

A fun trip... lots of great family memories. Happy birthday to our favorite first boy.

Tyler's Lego Party: Hotel

Every time we've gone to Legoland we walk past the Lego Hotel and kids wanna stay so bad. Finally splurged and made a reservation for Tyler's birthday. It was awesome! Worth every penny (and if you go during the off season it's much less pennies). Since Adam was on hiatus, we picked up the kids after school Wednesday and drove straight there.

So many cool things about this hotel: 

Legos in your room to play.

Juice boxes, hot chocolate, and more complimentary, which was nice. 

Play areas full of Legos around the hotel. 

Dance parties in the elevator.
Everyone made a big deal of Tyler when they knew it was his birthday.

Swimming pool with floating Legos.

Building contests and shows for kids.

Restaurant was super kid friendly. Had dinner there - kids loved the balloon lady.

Breakfast buffet included. It was delicious and had healthy stuff, too, like steel cut oatmeal and mango smoothies.

Scavenger hunt around the hotel, ends in opening a treasure box in your room full of Lego gifts for kids to take home.

Wish I had better pictures of the hotel, but really we were having so much fun. Loved the room set-up, too: separate areas for kids and grown ups, two TVs. I now appreciate how nice it is to stay somewhere made for kids. You could adjust the shower to "kid size", built in step stool, and kid potty for Cole. It's the little things!

Kids slept great, though Cole needed a little coaxing, and eventually ended up in the pack-n-play.

The hotel was a big hit, and I think we'll remember it for quite some time. One more big perk is they open the park early for hotel guests. We were all ready to play at Legoland when the gates opened for us.

Early Birthday Party

We just spent an awesome 36 hours celebrating this kid's 9th birthday a week early:

A night at the Lego Hotel followed by a full day playing at Legoland. So fun! Lots of pictures to come...

Last Cookie Call

Last call for this cute girl scout to deliver cookies to your front door! We'll be making our last rounds through Monday, so if you need to stock your shelves (or freezer - mmmmm), let us know. It's been a fun cookie season, and a good experience for Audrey. Love this girl.

Happy Love Day!

My four Valentines:

 It's a Henry Danger bear! Such a lucky find, thanks Wal-Mart.

Little treats for everybody, and thank you Adam - my See's Candy is making me very happy this afternoon.

Family dinner out, and maybe a movie after kids are in bed? Adam and I have quite a bit of Sunday church prep tonight.

Grateful for these crazy Valentines, and all those we love - near and far. Hope everybody has some chocolate today.

Valentines

It's beginning to look a lot like school parties over here. Plus some Batman for Cole.

Ah, Friday

Beautiful day out selling cookies with these lovelies. My favorite is Presley with the bike helmet. I mean, how could you say no to this cuteness:

Stopped at the park for playing on this gorgeous afternoon with lots of fun friends.