Free Pancake Day

We love free pancake day at IHOP. It's a great treat for the family to head out to dinner with only the donation to our local children's hospital. Following our trip to the fire station, we headed to IHOP for our free yummy pancakes. We were so glad to see that we arrived before the dinner rush and were able to sit down without too much of a wait.

Everyone cleaned their plates covered with pancakes. We all had a delicious dinner. We love national pancake day and we're already looking forwad to next year!

Annual Firestation Visit

Each year, we take a visit to our neighborhood fire station in honor of the EMTs and firemen who arrived the night Trinity was born. We just like the opportunity to thank them for all their service to our community. Shortly after Trinity's birthday, we took our annual trip to say thank you and let them know we appreciate their willingness to serve. This year, the firemen welcomed us to take a little tour of the firehouse and checking out the fire trucks. Xander, who points out any fire truck he sees, was so excited.

They got to check out the inside of one of the emergency vehicles.

The kids also got to climb into the fire truck - sitting in one of the jump seats, letting them "drive" and checking out all the hoses. The firemen were so nice to take time to explain all the tools and components.

The kids had a blast!! What a very special treat it was!!

Trinity's Birthday Party

This year, we made a slight turn in Trinity's party. Up until now, the party has been a big family affair - inviting all of our family friends and it's simply a big event for everyone. This year, we decided to have Trinity only invite the friends that she wanted to invite and have it be a true kid party. It was quite an event to watch her narrow down her friends and plan for the special day!!

As the girls arrived, they headed outside to our big jumpy house to have some fun.

Her party was centered around creativity. When everyone was here, we came back inside to start being creative. We had purchased foam pictures frames for each of the girls to decorate with markers and stickers. Our plan was to take a picture of all the girls and print them out to send home, however, we ran out of time. But, they did get a pretty cool and individual picture frame.

Following the frames, we helped the girls braid friendship bracelets. This was fun to watch them braid their own bracelets, help out others who had a little more difficulty and then trade the bracelets with each other. Another personal gift where no two were alike.

Cake time!! Sticking with the theme of creativity, the girls got to decorate their own cupcakes, ice cream and cookies. I love having a huge box of cookie cutters ~ we had the girls' first initials, the number 8, stars and flowers. The girls could cover them in icing, sprinkles and goodies! Delicious!!

In lieu of gifts, we asked the girls to bring coloring books and crayons to be donated to a local children's hospital. We've done donations in place of gifts for a number of years and we love it. After all, our kids have tons of stuff and they always get great gifts from family. Look at all the collections we received from her guests. They were so generous!

We were glad that Craig's parents were able to come and share in the fun. They brought gifts for all the kids - a monster truck for Xander and a ballet costume for Kalyn. For the birthday girl, they gave her a brand new purse, some fun lip gloss, a fully stocked pencil case and her annual Precious Moments figurine.

Following the party, Craig couldn't pass up the opportunity to try a big jump onto the jumpy house. Apparently it wasn't as soft a landing as he expected, but he can now say he's done it.

It was a great afternoon of celebrating. Thanks so much to all her friends who made her day so special.

Celebrating Trinity's Birthday

Trinity had a couple of options on how to celebrate her birthday. She choose to go to Chuck E Cheese and enjoy an evening of games and pizza. We had a great family night!!

The night began with a round of pizza. It was so wonderful to have everyone eat without "reminding" them to take bites and stop talking.

Following dinner, we all indulged in some amazing game playing. Kalyn and Trinity did awesome at Skee Ball. Trinity then put her great basketball skills to work while Kalyn did a bit of shooting practice. Xander had a blast on the little carousel, climbing in the monster truck and riding the roller coaster simulator with Mommy. Craig had a great time with the pinball machine! Trinity and Kalyn made a wonderful team on the video game.

Feeding the ticket counter was just another game. Trinity got to select the prizes and was so sweet to get gifts for everyone. We all had so much fun being kids!!

The next day was Trinity's actual birthday and that's when we gave her her gifts. Trinity received new pencils and erasers, which she loves for all her school work and story writing. She was also given a cool MP3 player that plays music, videos and games. Craig had taken time to upload some songs and videos onto the player so she would have something to enjoy as soon as she opened it. We played the songs and everyone in the room began dancing.

It was a wonderful celebration!

Once again, happy birthday Trinity!!!

Aquarium Bound

The day after Valentine's Day, the kids were out of school. So, we planned a fun trip to the Tennessee Aquarium. Once a month, Kalyn gets to be "Top Banana" in her class which means she gets to bring in a show and tell item, be the teacher's helper and lead the lines wherever they go. The teachers like it if the show and tell matches the letter the class is studying that week and her week's letter was T. So, we decided to do a book filled with Kalyn and pictures of various T items at the Tennessee Aquarium. (We knew getting a season's pass would come in handy.) We thought it would be fun and we had a great time.

Kalyn's book included pictures of her in front of tanks, touching animals (such as sharks, butterflies, stingrays and smelt), with Trinity, and looking at tree frogs and turtles. She was so proud to take in her book on her special day. Plus her teachers gave it an "A+".

We tried not to make the trip all about Kalyn. We made sure that everyone enjoyed the trip.

After watching the otters frolic around for a bit, one of the aquarium employees came up and asked if anyone wanted to feed the otters. Our kids jumped at the opportunity. So, they were each handed some smelt and threw it over the viewing wall.

The petting tank filled with stingrays and sharks is always a lot of fun. The trick is trying to keep a little bit of Kalyn's sleeve slightly dry during this excursion. Kalyn was able to even touch one of the elusive sharks - a rare treat!

Unfortunately, the butterfly room was not as active as it has been in the past. It took a while, but we finally found a butterfly willing to be held. So, each child got to have it sit on their hands.

We love being able to watch the divers in the huge tank is so entertaining and educational. The kids gets to ask questions while the divers tell about life around the aquarium.

We headed home after a full day. What a great day of memories.

Valentine's Day

This year, we celebrated Valentine's Day a day early. The actual day, I was going to be at church all day between our morning service, a bridal shower for a former youth, handbell practice and youth. So, Saturday night, we gave the kids their gifts and had a bit of family time together. All the gifts were gifts that all of them could enjoy.

Kalyn got to open one of the movies.


Xander got to open up other movie.

(A side note, we acutally bought these as Christmas gifts back in September. However, when it came time to wrap them, I had completely forgotten where I hid them. I found them in the middle of January. So, they got them for Valentine's Day. It worked for us and they didn't know any differently.)

Trinity was given game that looks like a ton of fun - it's a fast paced "I Spy" type game. We can't wait to try it out.

When the gifts were opened, we all enjoyed a piece of our heart cake, made with strawberry mix. It was yummy.

It was a great night together!