Keeping Up With the Joneses

Today is Mason's 7th birthday and we've had a busy few days celebrating! Yesterday we had a birthday party with 15 friends and then Mason slept over at his friend's and then we went out for breakfast. Today we had Mason's cousins and family on Marshall's side over for a little party with pizza and cake. Mason is such a special little boy and a great joy in our lives! Here are a few highlights of the weekend:  Mason wanted a Robot Party and I found all these robot decorations which made my job a lot easier!  I made these robot juice boxes and when I picked the party kids up from school I brought them all home for an after-school snack of robot parts: Battery Cells (peppers), Computer Chips (tortilla chips), Memory cells (sliced apples), and Nuts & Bolts (Chex Mix). One of the party games was Robot Races with these wind-up robots, followed by Robot Bowling. Then we had them make their own robots using rice crispy squares as robot bodies and th...

One of Mason's favorite rides in Disneyland was the Star Tours ride, which is based on the movie Star Wars. He has been asking to watch the movie for a while and I've thought he was too young. But after seeing how much he loved the ride, and after he told me that all his friends at school talk about Star Wars, I decided to let him watch it. So Sunday night he cuddled up with his dad and watched the entire 4th movie. He loved it. . .until bedtime. When I turned off his light Myles was already asleep and Mason immediately followed me into the hallway crying that he couldn't sleep because it sounded like Darth Vader was in the room. Turns out Myles breathing sounds an awful lot like Darth Vader to a 6 year old. Marshall thinks the only solution is to let him watch all the other movies to let him know what ultimately happens to Darth Vader. I'm worried more movies will only make him more scared. Thoughts? What is the an appropriate age for movies like this (and Pirates o...

We just returned from a fantastic family vacation to Disneyland. We invited my parents to come along with us as well and everyone had a fantastic time. Here are some pictures and highlights. We left on the morning of Valentine's Day and the kids woke up to Valentine's gift bags filled with treats for the trip. They were fantastic in the car and we were able to curtain Max's car sickness with some medicine. Poor little Max got really sick with a stomach flu the night of our first day at Disneyland. The next morning he rested up and then joined us for the afternoon. This was his first ride feeling better. Max driving Mr. Toad's car. The boys were thrilled to meet one of their favorite characters: Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Watching the fireworks our last night there. The first morning we had breakfast with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and Stitch, and I thought Max was going to die of excitement right then. He absolutely loves Mickey and he...