The big SIX

It may have taken Max a long time to turn five, but six came way too fast.

Max's birthday was on a Sunday this year and I absolutely loved how whenever he talked about his upcoming birthday (which he did a lot) he always included, "Of course, I'm not going to celebrate it on Sunday...I'll wait till Monday." (I think "celebrate" was synonymous with "party" in Max's mind.)

When Max's big Sunday did arrive, we didn't party, but we did celebrate the birth of this boy who adds so much love, sweetness, energy and facial expression to our family.

We were saving the cake for his party so Max requested pumpkin scones with carmel  sauce for his birthday treat...

...with a candle, of course.

Reed and Max are the best of friends and I love it. Ruby adores Max too and wants to do everything he does. He is a loved boy.

Max is one of those "lucky" kids that has a birthday right after Christmas. I try to be on top of things, but usually during the first week of January I am still in "Christmas recovery mode" and  usually behind in gearing up for our next celebration. Thankfully, the boys made my job a lot easier this year by taking it upon themselves to plan and prepare Max's ninja party. I must say I was completely impressed with their planning and execution abilities.

 For more than a week they plotted together pouring over their plans, storing all their details on a red clipboard. I wish I had more pictures of the planning and preparing process because that might have been my favorite part of this whole thing.

I did get a couple pictures of the three of them painting the "pin the headband on the ninja" poster. Reed drew a great little ninja and then added a grid on top so they could make it larger on their poster. The drawing was very cute, but what I was most impressed with was how Reed allowed everyone (including Ruby) to participate in the painting of the ninja. Reed has a tendency to be a little controlling when he has a vision for something, but in this case he was happier to have everyone help than to have it turn out just they way he had planned.

Not a bad finished project for 3 pairs of little hands.

Max's actual party  came a few weeks later when the Bywaters (our favorite go-to party guests) were healthy enough to join us. It  just wouldn't have been a party without them.  Unfortunately, some bad weather delayed their arrival by a couple hours so my little ninjas entertained themselves with all kinds of warrior antics while they waited.

I don't normally allow this kind of behavior, but for the sake of the party theme I turned a blind eye for a moment or two.

 The boys found a little worksheet online that showed you how to come up with your "Ninja Name" by using a special code. It made for great addition to our party headbands. 

I think I can add "making a fierce face" to the list of things I am not good at. This may be hard to believe, but, out of three shots, this was my best. 

Sam on the other hand, seems to excel in this area.

The kids always want to include their baby sister as much as possible. If you can find the "Ninja Name" code online you will know what we are planning on naming our baby girl. :)

I told the kids to do a Zen picture. From the looks of things, no one in our family knows what that means.

And this was our "ninja warrior" picture. Everyone did pretty well with this one, although I think I look a little more like I'm in the middle of doing a cheer. 

After a treacherous drive on snowy roads, the Bywaters finally arrived just in time to enjoy our Chinese buffet. Sometimes I chuckle at the fact that I was a married woman before I was even willing to try Chinese food. I'm glad I haven't raised my children to be as weird as me. They love it. I may have broadened my food horizons a bit, but our rice krispie treat sushi rolls are as close as I will ever get to that stuff.

Game #1 Wii Sword Fighting.

Game #2 Throwing Shurikens. This was probably the boys most impressive handiwork. They made origami shurikens (like Chinese stars) covered each of the edges with velcro and set up a target for them to stick on.

Game #3 Fruit Ninja Pick Up. I was surprised at how good the kids were at using chop sticks--certainly a skill I do not possess. (That might have something to do with the aforementioned refusal to each Chinese food.)

Game #4 A Chinese Calligraphy station taught by Reed, of course.

Game #5 Decorating Ninjabread Mean.

The cake. Add cake decor to that list of things I don't excel at. It's just not my thing. I much prefer the simplicity of cupcakes-- so much so that Sam was impressed that I  even agreed to attempting the cake the boys planned at all. It was supposed to be black, but when what we had didn't work out and another trip to the store wasn't in the cards, it became a brown ninja cake. Thankfully, in typical Max fashion when I asked if brown was OK, he said, "I'm fine with that...I mean, Ninjas do throw Shurikens into wood after all."

I may be biased but I thought the party turned out great. And from the looks of this picture I'd say I'm not the only one who would share that sentiment. 

Happy Birthday Max--my very lovable (and sometimes fierce) ninja boy!

Snow & Company

Snow & Co sounds like a great new line of winter wear, but in actuality it's just the two words that sum up our after Christmas festivities. With our somewhat handicapped conditions--neck and pregnancy--we were not about to venture too far from home. Thankfully for us, however, that did not mean missing out on being with extended family over the holidays.  In fact, we were lucky enough to have company from Christmas until after New Years. 

After some disruptive weather my parents finally arrived Christmas afternoon to some big smiles and some even bigger mounds of snow. This was our first real snow and having it at Christmas made it even more perfect.

I don't have any pictures of Max sledding, because by the time I got my camera out he was frozen and done. (We are a little weak in the glove department.)

Ruby's favorite thing to do was to race Reed down the hill while he was sledding.

She was even happy to just race the sled. 

Reed is a great older brother to Ruby.

It doesn't hurt that he loves the snow and is clearly less sensitive to cold than I am.

In typical Ruby fashion, her excitement level started here...

but quickly turned to this when she realized that there was wisdom in wearing two gloves.

Reed had already been out for a while, so when Ruby was ready to go out again after recovering her other glove he wasn't anxious to go out again.  Luckily Grandfather was around to satisfy her snow cravings. Sometimes Grandfather pushed Ruby...and sometimes Ruby pushed Grandfather.

Ruby's sledding sometimes got a little out of control. (Dad: if you ever see this, this picture gives me flashbacks to you teaching me to ride a bike with you hanging onto the hood of my sweatshirt to slow me down.)

I'm pretty sure Ruby enjoyed being the pusher more than the pushee. She is lucky Grandfather was a good sport.

Later on Grandmother assisted inside with a warmer activity. Even with 3 very helpful children the gingerbread train turned out pretty cute.

A few days after Christmas, J.R., Casey and their family arrived. The kids were beyond thrilled to have cousins to play with. In fact, Ruby is still asking when they can come back. Our neighborhood is full of great sledding hills so pretty much wherever you go you can have the space to yourself.

We don't normally get a ton of snow, so I was really happy that Mother Nature cooperated and gave the South Carolina Dicksons possibly the most snow they will see all year.

For not having much experience with snow, Casey and McKenzie seemed to know just what do when it came getting down the hill as fast as possible.

Apparently, wearing Target's line of Shaun White clothes was enough to make a "snowboarder" out of Reed.

Although...not all of his runs were successful.

J.R. was a pro going down on his belly...

while Max went down on his back sled-less like a penguin. I'm cold just looking at him.

It wasn't all sledding. A snowball fight was also on the agenda. Casey didn't hold anything back...

and neither did my boys with their retaliation.

We even got enough snow for a replica of George Washington made from snow. Sam said I should have gotten a profile shot that included a pony tail to really do it justice.

Reed and McKenzie stayed out longer than anyone else and didn't seem to mind the freezing temperatures at all. Crazy kids!

Getting snow is always fun, but having family around to enjoy it with was the best. Thanks for making our "stay-at-home" Christmas a great one.