Taft's preschool birthday

Taft had his birthday party at his preschool. Miss Jamie (his teacher) gave him a book & crown, then I had to bring a posterboard of pictures of him and a paper on the back about what he likes & facts about himself; many of which I didn't even know (or at least knew he knew about himself). Then I brought cupcakes at the end and passed them out to everyone in the class. He felt pretty special...I was glad!

If you are wondering, some of the things he said was: his favorite sport was basketball, he is good at video games (which is very true actually...he definately gets that from his dad), his favorite vacation is going to the beach (I had NO idea). I can't remember more now but I will update this when I get his poster back.

Taft's actual birthday

We started out Taft's birthday opening his presents (notice the spiderman pajamas). Then we decided to go to the zoo together.

Taft is finally tall enough to go on this Safari ride at the zoo. You get into these jeeps things and drive through Africa looking at animals and taking pictures. He and Brett went on it together...he feels so cool becuase he can ride it now. He has also wanted to get his face painted for almost a year now. So, for his birthday we finally let him. Of course, it was spiderman he picked. :0) The kind of messed up on one eye but he didn't care and was acting like spiderman the rest of the day; as well as telling everyone we passed at the zoo who he was & how spiderman shoots his web. Then he wanted pancakes for dinner and wanted to go to a restaurant. So, IHOP here we come! The restaurant was basically empty, so, they boys had a good time dancing on the benches to the music and got all the attention of the host/waitress/manager for his spiderman face and birthday. They had this special meal because of the new movie "Horton hears a who". The had "who cakes" and a "who drink". Basically sugar bomb pancakes topped with frosting and a lollypop & a sprite with chuncks of blue & red jello in it. It was really fun & they were quite thrilled with their meal. At least we didin't have to fight them about eating this meal...no vegetables were included.

Taft's superhero party/datenight

We have a datenight group each week, so we decided to just make that Taft's 4th birthday party. He wanted both girls and boys; & he wanted a superhero party. So, it became the superhero/princess party (superheroes need someone to save).It was a fun night. We had dinner (if you count hot dogs & mac-n-cheese), played pin the "S" on superman & save the princess (we hid a little Belle doll and timed the kids to go and find it upstairs), then we had cake & ice cream and watched the Bee movie until parents came back. I can't believe he is 4! Glad I have one more year before he starts school; I am not ready for that. Oh, and yes...the belly is getting much bigger.

Painting our squirrel feeders

A few weeks ago I took the boys to Lowe's (they do a free project a couple times a month). We built bird/squirrel feeders. Well, we finally got around to painting them & the boys loved it. It was a little hard not to step in and help them paint since they were using a ton of paint and it was all mixing together to become one very strange and unappealing color but I did show some self control and let them pain the whole thing. I am glad I did becasue it really doesn't matter and they LOVED their feeders when they were done.

Another snow day for the boys

Just taking advantage of the snow while we can. This time it was followed by hot chocolate...got to love the Bishop store house hot chocolate!

Wicked in New York

One thing that Brett & I still wanted to do was to go and see a Broadway play together before we leave. Considering I am having a baby in June and we are moving in September the window was getting smaller to go. I decided to surprise Brett, so, (with the help of Teresa with Ebay...Thanks again!) I got great tickets for a great price last minute (the beauty of living 2 hours away) and we went. It was a bit crazy of a day getting ready & getting the boys situated (I found out at midnight the night before we left that I won the tickets) but it was a WONDERFUL night and well worth every bit of money or stress. Plus, it was really fun to just be spontaneous again (something that I haven't been able to be for awhile). The seats were awesome the the musical...brilliant; my date was pretty hot also, which always helps!

Taft's first primary activity

Taft had his very first primary activity (a pajama party). He was SO excited to go and continued to remind me the whole week before that he had to wear his pajamas. They had the kids play different games to represent the different steps to the Plan of Salvation (pre-earthly life, life on earth, death, spirit world, resurrection/judgement, Celestial kingdom). It was well done and they had a great time.

Dad's and doughnuts

Taft's preschool had a "Dad's and doughnuts" night; where the Dad's get to come and see what they kids are up to at school. Taft (& Brett) we excited and had a great time together.

Snow Day with Dad

The little snow we got this year was fun for the boys. Zea doesn't last very long before being cold gets the best of him but Taft will last forever out there. This was on a very little hill at our complex. Brett got home from the work and thought he should take advantage of the snow (since we most likely won't be seeing much of that next year in Las Vegas), so, he took the boys out for an hour or so and played. They had a great time.