Bens 4th birthday!

Can you believe that this little guy is 4 now??? I can't.  Kids just grow up way too fast.  One of Ben's favorite things is Kung Fu Panda II, so I wasn't too surprised when he asked for a ninja birthday party.

We had all the cousins come over, Grandma and Grandpa Yamashita, Addison (Ben's friend that we do joy school with) and luckily we had Jenny (my cousin) and her family come!  It was a houseful, but tons of fun!

The kids posing as ninjas!  Notice Noah in the back left, anytime I would ask him something, he would bow to me.... made me laugh!

When I asked Ben what exactly ninjas did, he told me fight stuff, so I decided to get balloons and draw ninja faces on them so they could fight their own ninja!  ( Got the idea off of pinterest!)

These are the bean bags Tamina and Michelle helped me make.  They held down the balloons.  There were pink with bows and bling for the girls, and red for the boys.  FYI;  fleece and hot glue don't work well, we should have just sewed them :)

The next few pictures are of Ben being a ninja!

HI-YA!

Ben practices these kicks on the love sac down-stairs.  

Whenever he is concentrating, his tongue comes out!  Wonder where he gets that from???

We had a few casualties.  Unfortunately I didn't think to check how tight the mylar balloons were tied onto their strings, so a few balloons flew away.  Luckily I had a few back-ups.

My ninja after a hard ninja fight :)  

I thought it would be fun to have a ninja training course.  So although the fighting balloons was pictured first, that really happened last.  First off were 3 stations.  Picking up marshmallows with chopsticks and running them to a ninja bowl.  (above:  Erik and Noah)

The little kids had a hard time with this one, so they just stabbed and ate marshmallows :)

(From left to right, then front;  Addison, Parker, Ben, (Tamina in back) Nara, and Sarah in front)

 

Then I had a laser light course set up.  I had initially planned for the kids to be inside, but the weather cooperated, so I used lawn chairs to hook this one up.  They had to go under, around over, etc without touching the red lasers.  Cause ninjas have to be stealthy... (Parker)

Then there were tricky ninjas hiding in the trees.  I made cardboard ninja stars for them and they had to try and throw their stars to get the ninjas!

Ben and Isabel painted and glittered the stars for the game!  They loved helping make stuff!

After we had completed the training course, we played ninja duck duck goose.  The kids had to put their star behind their back, and the person who was 'it' had to try and steal the star.  The kids had so much fun!

The game was a hit until Nara and Parker ran into each other!  Crying at birthday parties is never fun :(

Then we went inside to do the Wii Just dance for kids, Kung Fu Fighting.  There were some awesome dancers there!  (this is one of Bens favorite things to do at Taminas house)

Then it was cake and ice cream time!  The Japanese writing says, "Ninja Ben, Happy birthday, 4"  I made the cake out of a bundt pan.  The wings and spikes and eyes and teeth are made from candy melts.  The ninja heads on the cupcakes are replicas of the invitations we sent out.  (Thanks grandma Tracie for helping me with the cake and for doing my dishes while I was decorating it!)

Looks like he had some helpers blowing out the candles!

My 2 cute kiddos!

Ben insisted that we had ninja water.  It actually worked out well, cause we could write the kids names on the bottles and I didn't have to do dishes :)  If you look close you can see little colored ninjas in front of the water bottles.  After the training camp, they each earned one of those to take home with them!

I couldn't have a party without rice crispy treat something or other, so I made Kid sushi.  The wasabi and ginger are just colored frosting.    Outsides were fruit leather and insides were rice crispies.  Sweedish fish and cut blue peeps on top!  I think they look pretty real!

Then it was present time! Ben was SO excited for his own leap pad from grandma and grandpa!

Chris got him a 70lb punching bag!  We now have it hooked up outside on the swing set.  The kids love to swing on top of it, and hand from the monkey bars and kick it!

Hooray!  An angry bird pillow!

Parker was a very good helper! 

So was Addison!  He got stuff for his bike!  The only thing still on it is the mirror, everything else takes turns, cause they are all connected to the bike with screws, so he can take them on and off by himself :)

Jenny to the rescue, helping him open the tape so he can see his new clothes!  He was SPOILED!  Thanks everyone for the presents! 

I thought I should put pictures on there of  the decorations I made.  Here is the dragon door with japanese lanterns....  The words say, "happy birthday"

And with extra paper, I had to make ninja head and "ninja Ben" words for the fireplace.  There were ninja head balloons everywhere too.  Ben was in heaven! 

And the rest are just random fun pictures from the day!  Ben was walking on cloud 9 all day!  He still likes to wear his headband around everywhere! 

Jen and new baby ninja Zach!

Jon and Chris entertaining themselves on the Wii while the kids are eating cake!

Nara smiling with cake in her mouth!

Sarah LOVED the balloons! 

Chris, Jon holding Sam, Sarah (in front) and Kelli Ann watching the kids Kung Fu dance!

Ari striking a ninja pose!  Isabel sporting a feminie flower on her headband :)

Cute ninja Sam!  He is walking everywhere now!  Hooray!

And Adrienne showing us her balloon and ninja doll!  Thanks everyone for coming to help celebrate my little guys birthday!  And thanks Ben for having a birthday I could have fun planning!  I love you little guy!

Feeding Ducks at the Midland Pond

The weather here has been nice, so we decided to go feed the ducks.  Jen was here as well as Tamina and kids

How do you feed the ducks?  Ben winds up and throws as far as he can.  His ultimate goal is to hit the ducks with the bread.  

 Here is Tamina helping the kids.  Notice Isabel helping Sam.  She LOVES Sam.  I love the Midland duck pond cause you are above the ducks, so the ducks can't chase the kids when they refuse to let go of the bread :)

Sam LOVES the ducks.  Even when the other kids were playing on the playground he would point towards the ducks and beg to go see them again.

 I love that Isabel is such a kind little girl.  She really has a sweet personality and is very willing to help others.  I hope it is a trait that carries on with her through her life.

Nara had fun throwing bread too!

I loved this picture of Isabel.

Adam and Ari checking out the ducks. There were a lot of people fishing.  Soon we'll have to take the kids back to go fish.

This is Isabel helping Maylee (Tamina's niece).   It was a fun way to get out and enjoy the sunshine!

Silly Pictures

Trying to take pictures of these two together, you know, ones that are cute is sometimes a challenge :)

 This one turned out ok, well, for them being in a cardboard box!  I love that they enjoy each others company most of the time!

Ben swim lessons

Ben has been super excited to learn to swim! We got him signed up for the

4yr old class at the aquatic center with his friend Addison and Cole. I figured

that if his friends were there, he would be much braver.... and he was!

All of the shivering little boys. They are so cute! Their teacher, MichaelAnn was great with them.

Ben's favorite part of lessons was jumping in!

I was most concerned for him getting his ears wet. He hasn't had a chance to swim without me and without tubes in, so my main hope was that he would be able to see that it wouldn't hurt to get water in his ears. It took a few lessons, but he was so brave and would dunk his head! He got brave enough to jump in without help! Last day of swim lessons was fun cause they got to wear life vests and float around the pool! Ben held on tight (death grip) to Addison, but he did it and loved it! One more time with lessons and I think he might turn into a fish!

The LONG winter months

Last Halloween the kids and I started decorating Great- Grandma Maxine's door up at the nursing home. We started with a haunted house (with tombstones that had funny sayings), then a turkey, a Christmas Tree with snowglobe ornaments, snowflakes, and snoopy with heart valentines. I finally decided to start taking pictures of them, so the kids would remember what they helped with. They (well Isabel) love helping me with the door each month. Here is the door for March.

Isabel cut out most of the gold pieces and arranged them

in the pile with the leprechaun on top. It was fun. I like crafting with her. She talks non-stop while we work on it together. :)

Nara found out that she had to have surgery for tubes in her ears and to get her tonsils and adenoids out. This picture is a day or two after surgery. Ben, Isabel, Ari, Nara and Sarah all were watching a movie :)

We've done some fun things for joy school lately. I found out that you can buy a dozen worms at the gas station for under $3! I was in charge of the letter W, so this worked out perfect. Ben is enamored with worms. The first thing Ben did was empty the container into his hands, and look at them individually. He stretched them, and got so excited when one of them curled up in his hand. "mom! It's cuddling with me! Aww, isn't that sweet!" Those were his exact words :)

Sarah wasn't going to come to school that day, until she found out that we had worms that they could play with. Then she was excited!

I eventually put a tablecloth down and let Ben play ALL day. He made homes for each of his worms.

He would just sit and stare at his worms. He loved to see which ones were fast, which ones were slow. He played helicopters with them (swung them around above his head like propellers...) The most indoor winter fun a 3yr old could have!

Isabel joined in the fun when she got home from school! They both love worms. Some cousins (Adam, Ari, Sarah and Sam) came over and played with them too! Ben and Ari held a stick between them, put a worm on it and tried to see how long it would take for it to crawl from one side to the other. Ben and Sarah put worms on the swings and pushed them so they wouldn't get bored....

Worms are one of his favorite things! Can't wait til it's time to work in the yard again, so we can go find some worms of our own in the yard!

This last picture is for V is for volcanoes. (If you can't tell, these are rice crispy volcanoes!) We made the paper mache kind for the kids to explode with vinegar and baking soda, and we also did the mentos and diet coke way! Mentos and diet coke are awesome! It shot a good 50 feet into the air! All the kids were fans :) The adults too!

For another activity, I froze some of the kids toys into a tray so they could hammer them out. We were talking about spring and how ducks have to break out of eggs.... (a stretch I know) then I gave the kids their ice with toys in it and a hammer and let them bust out their toys! They loved it! Ben thought it was awesome. Joy school has proven to be tons of fun :)

Happy January

The kids absolutely LOVE waking up to snow! The first snow this year they were so excited they went out in their jammies! At least Isabel put on gloves and a hat before going outside to get her breakfast of snow :)
Ben put boots on before he made it outside! We haven't had a lot of snow this year, which is ok with me. We still haven't been able to go sledding yet.... we didn't make it last year either :( Well, the groundhog said 6 more weeks of winter, so there is still hope!
Brady is the webelos leader and the kids had to make a box sled to race at pack meeting. It got stored at our house. All kids need is a cardboard box! Luckily we had 2 big boxes left from Christmas, so I made 2 more cars. The kids are still playing in them.

Nara got her tonsils and adenoids out and got tubes in her ears this past week. Chris came over to fix my computer and brought Nara and Jen and Jon and Tamina were having their ducts cleaned, so Ari and Sarah came to play too! Here they all are chillin' on the couch watching Tangled. So cute! Glad Nara' surgery went good. Here's to a speedy recovery!We have been getting packages from the Philippines the past couple of weeks. Mom and dad are starting to send stuff home. They could only take 40lbs each to the island, so they decided to just send stuff home instead of taking it with them. We HAVE to air the stuff out. It smells like all of my stuff I brought home from Brazil..... like mold. They sent home 2 nativities this week. Isabel was in charge of putting them on the table so they could air out. She had to make sure all of the figures were looking right at baby Jesus. Isn't she so cute! Notice the Rapunzel dress?? She has worn it everyday for almost 2 weeks now. She told me she wants her hair to grow all the way to the floor, like Rapunzels', and then when she tuns 18 she wants me to color it yellow. HaHa! Her hair is already really long, and she complains about it when we brush it, just imagine if it went to the floor..... At least I don't have to worry about that argument until she is 18 :)And last but not least, I made treats for scouts and they turned out cool! I figured I should put it on this blog cause I have lots of rice crispy ideas here :) I made regular rice crispy treats and spread them as far as they would go on a cookie sheet. Then I melted some dark chocolate chips and some butterscotch chips (1/2 pkg each) and spread it over the top. Then I rolled them up cinnamon roll style and sliced like you would a cinnamon roll. They turned out really yummy! Chewy and chocolatey! They would work good with just frosting too! You can make anything with rice crispy treats :)