Brooklyn's 4th Birthday

The first week in April, my sister Lindsey had a royal birthday party for her daughter Brooklyn. The kids and I drove up to Camarillo that Thursday, and picked up uncle Denny and Aunt Taya along the way. They had been living in Manhattan Beach for the last few weeks while Denny had been working out and training for football. They were staying in an awesome beach house there with his friend Austin and his family. Apparently, the place was a part of the old 90210 show and was Kelly and Donna's beach house. I totally remember it too! Just google it and tons of pics come up. It is also for sale right now, so if you have an extra $10 million laying around, then I'd say go for it.

So, after picking them up and being stuck in the ugly LA traffic, we finally made it to Lindsey's, only about 20 minutes late. Brody jumped right in, though, and was ready to party. He was so excited about this personalized crown that Lindsey had waiting for him.

And even cooler was the sword he got!

The girls got to paint their nails, put on blush, and wear tiaras and rings. I tried to take a picture of Piper, but she was being shy and refused to keep her tiara on for longer than a second. They also had a table to make bead necklaces, but I never ended up making one for her. Then it was on to the pinata! Uncle Denny was crowd control for the event and helped each child when it was their turn. The birthday girl got to go first!Good try Brooklyn!Watch out, here comes Brody! I was actually surprised that his hitting skills had improved so much from his previous poor pinata experiences. He was whacking that thing like crazy! There is hope for baseball after all!

All the kids got to go twice before it took a pro to demolish it.Then it was a mad house, kids grabbing at candy like crazy.Piper was slow on the start, and needed some serious help with hers."Look at all the Dots gum drops I got!" Hope you end up liking them. Which he didn't.Since it was actually quite windy and cold at times, most of the party was held inside. Here is her princess tea party. It was all too cute.Waiting for the food.The birthday girl at the head of her table. Brandon had his company make personalized tea cups that said, "Brooklyn's Royal Tea Party April 2011". They ended up being the gift bag filled with the candy from the pinata wrapped in cellophane. Really cute idea.
The food tableJust because Easton is just too cute!

After eating, the kids played pin the crown on the princess.His landed on the her mouth. . . . not too bad.Then they played Duck Duck Goose and it seemed like it was the first time the kids had ever played. They were having fun, but needed a lot of help.Piper was in la-la-land for most of it.But isn't she cute! I didn't have a princess dress for her, so she looked a little left out, but she never really cared.Brody got shy when it was his turn to play.Run Piper Run!Ooh, present time! My kids got Brooklyn a Tangled doll and the girls went nuts for it.Four years old!"Look what I got Mom!"Yum, pink cupcakes.We ended with a game of Red Rover led by Denny and Brandon. The kids were loving it, but never really got the idea of trying not to let go of your hands when someone tries to run through. They would let go as soon as they saw someone coming.I love how excited Piper was here. She was finally warming up to all the kids.Uh oh, whose going next?And there goes Mac! Watch out Piper.Brody making a run for it.
Trying to get a group shot of the kids. This little girl was having a great time, but insisted on sitting that far away from everyone. Kids are too funny.I love this shot for some reason.Once all the kids left, we played in the back yard for a while. Brooklyn is mid fall here, but they were having sword fights with each other and uncle Denny.Brooklyn got to open all her family presents later too.Easton is preparing to be the next uncle Denny.We stayed until it was bedtime and Lindsey made Chicken Divan for dinner (my favorite!). We had cupcakes and ice cream for desert and then skyped with Mom and Dad to wish Brooklyn a happy birthday. It was a fun day- thanks to Lindsey and family!

Puppet Show

We had two field trips this month. For our first trip, we went to a puppet show performance at the Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. John stayed home to watch Piper while I went to with Brody. We were nicely dressed and had a great time with everyone. We had to wait outside for awhile until the show started, but his teachers brought cookies for snacks and it made the wait worth it. Who's that good-looking, grown-up boy in the center?!A little goofing off before the show. It is hard to keep all these boys so still. As we waited for all of our group to show up, we took the boys over to a very large artistic structure-like tower. They loved running through it, yelling and hearing the echo. Also, I'd like to take this time to point out that the building behind the kids is John's old building his company was in. It is a great looking building, and I miss visiting it, but we sure don't miss the drive it took to get there. He is in Irvine now and it is great.One good looking group of kids. There are a few extras since they invited some of the 3-year old class to come.We had to line up just before we entered the theater.A few of the boys: Gerard, Christian, Brody, Shane, and Dominic.

Getting a little tired waiting around.Yeah, we are in the theater now! Just minutes till show time.The production was called Mermaid Theater of Nova Scotia. They did 3 stories from Leo Lionni's works SWIMMY, INCH BY INCH and FREDERICK. I had no idea what I was in for and was not familar with these books, but I was really impressed with it all. They did the Swimmy story with like shadow puppets behind a screen and the all the boys agreed that it was the coolest. The other two were done like a normal puppet show would (I don't know all the puppet terminology) and had the best visuals. I think Inch By Inch was my favorite because the puppets were so visual exciting and the story was cute. Apparently these are classic books, so maybe I need to go get some. After the show was over the puppeteers came out and explained how they do it all. The girl in the center and the man were the two that you saw with the puppets and the other lady was a stage hand. It took only those 3 to make the story work.Here she is showing us the fish from the story Swimmy and how it works.It was really fun and so much better than I expected. Puppet shows have really come long way. The kids loved it too. I am so glad John was able to stay home and hang with Piper so I could have some time out with Brody.

Spectrum Fountains With Friends

In the beginning of April, I met my friend Angela at the Spectrum water fountains so our kids could play and we could catch up. It had been way too long since we had gotten together, so it was very fun to see her and her darling girls. Before they arrived, my kids already started playing. Piper was a bit timid with the amount of children there and the water, so she stuck by my side for awhile just watching.

She circled the water for a while, not sure if she should get in. Brody, on the other hand, was in as fast as he could get his shirt and shoes off.Good girl Piper!Having too much fun!

Climbing on planters is fun to do, fun to do, fun to do. . . .
Yeah, our friends got here! Admiring the flowers is good. . . . But picking them and throwing them in the water fountains is not so good.After we got after them about that, they made a train and choo chooed around the fountains.The older girls were in charge and Brody wasn't sure if he wanted to be along for the ride.Here comes the train!We had only one little mishap: Brody stubbed his big toe. It created some tears, but wasn't too bad. We called the day quits after that as it was time to go. It was a fun day with friends though. Hopefully many more to come!