Happy 5th Birthday Blain!!

Blain Turns 5: We had a lot of fun for Blain's big #5. We decided to do a family activity and family party rather than a friends party since he hasn't started school yet. He chose to go to the Living Planet Aquarium and on his actual birthday we took him to a rock shop and snow cones in Orem, and had a pizza party with the family afterwards. He was so cute saying he thinks he feels a little bit taller, and loved all his fun new presents and playing with all his cousins!

"Maquarium": At the aquarium some of their favorite exhibits were the sting and bat rays, electric eels, and the shark tunnel. It was really more than an aquarium with penguins, some bigger cats, and exotic birds! Blain was eyeing those scarlet macaw feathers haha! At the end of the day we made a souvenir penny, and Em and Uncle Tim both got him fun presents from the aquarium. Em got him an egg with a shark tooth inside that they had to dig out, and Tim got him a stuffed manta ray which are Blain's favorite marine animals! It was a really fun day to celebrate with Blain.

 Cute kids all enjoying the wildlife!

 Blain in front of the Penguins - he and Chloe were both a little sad because the penguins wouldn't jump in the water but it was still fun to see them waddles around!

 Tiny Avenlea smaller than the penguins!

 This rope bridge was in the rain forest area and the kids all loved it. The first time through Blain was really scared and almost didn't make it the whole way, but afterwards he went across easily and was just like an American Ninja warrior. Avenlea also loved the bridge and went across by herself a couple times! Marie is always so brave, she had no problem going across:)

 The frog after the rope bridge crossing

 Sting rays!! There was another exhibit where they let the kids touch the sting rays and Blain thought that was just the coolest part!! They file down the sting so they aren't dangerous. Blain said he liked how soft and rubbery they felt.

watching the sting rays some more 

 Zeyta was so good in the carrier the whole time. I was hoping she would fall asleep but of course she never sleeps unless she's in her crib, silly baby

 There was a really big electric eel and they had a little zapper contraption that you could touch to experience what a mild electric shock feels like. The kids liked it a lot! It felt more like a tingle to me and Nate couldn't feel the shock unless he kept his fingers there for a while.

 Shark tank! Chloe and Marie were both so sad that the sharks weren't bigger, lol. I thought they were pretty good sized but those two little thrill seekers needed them bigger!! It was really cool to see them swimming over you in the tunnel and they had a huge sting ray in there as well.

 The group! Nate was such a good sport to come along on his knee scooter the whole. He ended up getting a blister on his knee from all the wheeling around but wanted to be there to celebrate with Blainy. What a lucky boy Blain is to have such a good Daddy!

 We were later informed that this prehistoric animal loved to eat kids who didn't go to bed on time, brush their teeth, or eat their vegetables ;)

 Blain and Chloe working on the egg to get the tooth out. After they had been working for a while it was time for lunch so Blain told Chloe, "You stay hard at work, I'm gonna go eat some lunch". Chloe would chisel and Blain would brush away the dust. He keeps his shark teeth in his treasure box

 Blain chose the picture of the sting ray for the penny collection

Birthday Morning: Blain had a good morning before going to summer school for his birthday. Chloe was very excited to give him the gift she made him (teddy bear with headbands and a snickers bar) and we let him open one from us and one from grandma. I had put together a little treasure hunt the night before and wrapped up a piece of the map with a few jewels. It took him a while to figure out the map and clues but he loved finding the buried treasure under the X.

 Blain with his birthday bear

Finding the last piece of the map!

Putting all the pieces together to find out where the X is!!

 Blain with his big jewels! I was so excited for him when I saw the jewels had a couple big ones mixed in because I knew he would love them!!

 Wild Krat toys from Grandma!

 Eating cream of wheat as requested :)

Birthday Afternoon: Our first stop after driving down to orem was a place called Simple Elegance Rock Shop. They were so nice letting each of the kids have a free rock and helping Blain fill up his little grab bag to it's fullest capacity. Blain chose out some really cool rocks including amethyst, selenite (a flat clear crystal looking rock), two big pieces of fools gold, and a bag of rainbow and gold magnets. 

Blain LOVES those super shiny peices of fools gold. He carried them around at Em's house, we played hide the gold in the tree for a good 20 minutes, and we are now keeping them up on the shelf next to his picture in the living room so he can see it and play with it while keeping it safe from the roughage of his treasure box :)

 We stopped off at a snow cone shack for some rainbow slushies after the rock shop. Blain had been asking for that for his birthday ever since we went out for them for family night and he did so good finishing his giant snow cone!

 rainbows all around!

There were so many family members that made it for Blain's birthday celebration! We had fun eating pizza, playing outside, and of course playing with all Blain's new toys! He got some awesome rocks/crystals from Melissa, a bag of coins from all over the world from Molly (she has been saving those for him since she found out he loves treasure and decided he is old enough to take good care of them, I agree!), super hero action figures, finger lasers, a ninja turtle dinosaur and T-shirt, bug catcher, puzzle book and the list goes on! Everyone was so generous and he hasn't stopped playing with all his new presents, what a sweet 5 year old!

Blain requested a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, sprinkles and gummy bears on top with pink, white and brown ice cream. Daddy might have been relieved to be off creative cake duty for a year ;) He did 3 big cuts with the birthday knife, even using 2 hands like in the picture!

Love this Birthday Boy!!

I threw a bunch of pennies in the yard for him to find with his new treasure truck. It actually does a pretty good job at finding them! It also picks up the little gravel rocks if they are too concentrated so we moved away from the walkway and it worked a lot better. What a cute treasure hunter!

Abe and Yuko's 10 year anniversary: The love birds had the whole family back to their reception hall for a 10 year anniversary luncheon. It was so nice, their whole family looked beautiful, and it was nice that everyone came together to celebrate their 10 years of marriage!

 Cute babies all dressed up

Beautiful Chloe

Avenlea cheesin' it up!

Hello Baby!

 My handsome Blain

Mommy and Daddy

Some family snippets: 

 Blain woke up with strep throat on Sunday morning so we got him on some antibiotics and when we went to family dinner quarantined him in one of Molly's extra bedrooms so he wouldn't infect anyone. There were two problems: one he turned out to be allergic to amoxicillin (he got really itchy) and Em's pregnant immune system couldn't handle being in the same vicinity as him despite the quarantine and she got sick a few days later :( He was so good staying in the room to eat dinner, play with toys by himself, and try to rest best he could. Molly brought him in her rock collection to look at and Melissa stayed in and played a matching game that made him really happy. He is now taking azithromycin which in my opinion is kind of better because it's only once a day for 5 days rather than twice a day for 10 days. He is doing so much better and still enjoying all his sick snacks!

 sweet baby picture on Molly's cute little Victorian couch

 Love sleeping baby pictures! What a little Angel!!

 Farmy news: Broccoli! These two heads were growing in the garden and tasted delicious in broccoli alfredo made with home made butter and fresh cream from Bella! The peas are also taking off (i got a baggie full this morning) and everything looks like it's growing well! We are also on day 2 of a broody chicken (our last maran) sitting on 8 eggs. Here's to baby chicks in 19 days!

The racoon has continued to evade capture despite moving the trap around and switching bait a couple times. Avenlea is my good helper going in to place the bait behind the trip plate because I can't really reach in there. Love her in her boots and pretty dress lol!

We came home to our neighbor knocking on our door to inform us our trampoline had blown into his yard. Nate had two of his co workers come over to get it over the fence and bend it back into shape. We played on the trampoline for about an hour today and it doesn't seem to be damaged which is good news since I saw another one blown over that looked pretty mangled. 

Nate also had his follow up appointment today with his surgeon. He is in a removable boot (yay for a real shower!) and down to one aspirin a day to ward off blood clots. He says the boot is a lot heavier than the splint but hopefully it's more comfortable for him in the long run!