Skylander Six!

On March 31, 2009 Matt and I became the luckiest people in the world. Because that's the day we finally got to be Bennett's mom and dad. I seriously love this sensitive, smart, crazy active little boy! We can't believe he is already SIX!

Bennett wanted a Skylander birthday party. What is a Skylander, you ask? Great question...we had no idea. I guess it is a game Bennett played on the Wii while at his friend's house, and he became obsessed with it. Matt and I, however, had no clue what Bennett was even talking about when he kept telling us he wanted Skylanders for his birthday. So we took him to Target while in South Dakota and had him show us. Bennett took us to the back of the store, and there, in the electronic gaming isle, he introduced us to a whole new and confusing world of physical toy characters that are microchipped into a portal pad, which transports them into the Wii to be controlled by the player, or "Portal Master".

Whaaaaat?

We sort of just stood there staring dumbfounded at the rows and rows of Skylander paraphernalia for awhile (there are like, four different versions of this game) and tried to figure out what in the heck we were doing. I have never felt so old. Luckily, a seasoned parent was there with her son, and after observing our confusion she generously shared her wisdom of which version of the game to buy, which characters had the best powers, and where we could purchase more characters in the future. They could make an entire collage course based on Skylanders. Several more parents joined us during our conversation, and by the end of our time in the electronics isle I felt like we had joined a support group for really old and out-of-it moms and dads.

But Bennett did get his Skylanders party, complete with Skylander invitations we ordered off Etsy (it looked like one of the trading cards that come with the characters, but we didn't realize that until about two weeks after his party. We're still figuring this thing out), Skylander birthday cake, Skylander party decorations, and a grand finale present of Skylanders, the game itself. Now we get a lot of free work from Bennett in trade for Skylander playing time, because the rule in our house is, "You have to earn your fun."

We're having lots of fun letting him do our chores :)

Some of the party guests

 

Playing games in the backyard. Bennett lost almost every game we played. We consoled him with birthday cake and ice cream.

 

The Skylander cake. The characters on top are real, and belong to the actual game we had secretly bought and hooked up downstairs. It was like Christmas when we revealed that to Bennett.

Trying out the new game. Look at those little blank faces staring at the screen. Ugh. It will be good for those long winter days we have here, but you better believe I am like the Wii Nazi with a timer.

The night before Bennett's real birthday (March 29th) Matt and I waited until the boys fell asleep, then filled 200 balloons using an air compressor, and dumped them around Bennett's bed. It was so fun to wake him up the next morning. He talked about it for days.

When I asked Bennett what he wanted to eat for his birthday dinner he said, "Steak. And vegetables. And really cold peaches for dessert." Okay! So this is the steak Matt bought him. Our six year old. This steak. For just him. Bennett ate the whole thing and said it was the best steak he had ever had. He talked about that for days, too. I don't think Matt has ever been more proud of him.

When he turns seven we'll have lobster tail.

Happy birthday, Bennett Boy! We love you, we love you, WE LOVE YOU!!!

Hippity Hop

An update!...A fast one...

Easter isn't a huge holiday around here, but we do love us some competitive egg hunting and chocolate bunnies. So Saturday morning the City of Killdeer did an Easter egg hunt for the kids, and we had to go. They split them up into two groups, one for the older kids, and one for the younger kids. Matt went with Bennett to the park for his hunt, and I took Patton and Kennedy to the nursing home for theirs. And holy cow. These eggs were the big ones, and each big egg had like, four good chocolate candy bars inside. And each child got like, seventeen eggs. You do the math. It was a morning well spent.

Patton, getting after it.

Kennedy, getting in on the action.

"What are these things?"

Because Matt was with Bennett we didn't get as many pictures of his hunt. But he made a pretty good haul himself.

That same day it was Conference, so we headed straight home from the egg hunt to eat our candy and be spiritually fed as well. I love Conference. And I actually heard quite a bit this year as well. Our kids must be getting better at causing chaos quietly. This is Bennett and Patton sitting on my lap during the Saturday afternoon session and making each other laugh. They are such good friends and such good little boys.

That night, the kids and I went over to our friends' home to eat dinner and dye Easter eggs while the men went to the Priesthood session of Conference.

We discovered that if you use a wire whisk to hold the eggs while they are dyeing it works a lot better and with a lot less mess. Which is good, considering the crowd we were working with. Exhibit A pictured above.

Exhibit B

The finished eggs. Patton's are on the top, Bennett's are on the bottom.

 Cute eggs I decoupaged with the kit my parents sent us in our Easter package. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

The next day was Easter Sunday, so the kids woke up to find their baskets the Easter Bunny had hid (why there are no pictures of this, I'm not sure) and then we had friends over for the traditional Conference Morning Brunch. It was delicious and a good time was had by all.

Happy Easter!...one month late...