Griffin

I forgot to put this picture in the birthday post so Griffin was adamant that I give it its own post.  He was so thrilled to get a musical birthday card in the mail from Mok and Pok.  

p.s.  Cameron really loved it and says his musical card is coming in September :)

Trafalga

Trafalga is a family fun center near our house.  It is free for us to go and do whatever we want since we have a pass of all passes.  That is good because I would never pay to go here. It is so run down and shoddy.  Luckily, the kids have no idea.  They think it is super awesome.

We started out with the world's lamest mini golf course.  Some of of the kids liked it, most just ran through it rolling their balls up the course instead of hitting them.

They rode airplanes that are supposed to life up into the sky (Like Dumbo at Disneyland).  But these airplanes pretty much just went around in a circle on the ground.

This was Cameron's favorite ride.  Yep, it lifts you up and drops.  He loved it!

This is the hopper.  It used to be Griffin's favorite ride when he was two.  Not so much anymore.  He is second from the right.  Lila is far left and Cam is in red next to her.

The is the same kind of ride as the one they love, but it is a little smaller and indoors.  However, it drops you much faster than the big one.  Lila loves it.  She rode it more times that I can count.  Cam rode it 4 times and he looked pretty scared, but he kept getting back on, so I assume he liked it okay.

Bean Museum

The Bean Museum is a free museum on the BYU campus.  It used to be a favorite place of ours, but it has been closed for remodeling for a couple of years.  It just reopened and we took a trip down there with Mimi.  

We loved it!  They have made lots of improvements and it was just really fun.

First Trip to the Dentist

I take my kids to the dentist for the first time at 3 and Cam is close enough.  All 5 kids had appointments at the same time, so you can imagine it is a little chaotic.  We totally took over the dentists office.

Cam did great.  He loved every minute and was smiling and talking to the dentist.  He is a really easy going kid, so I new he would be fine, but even so, I was impressed with his maturity.

I sat in the room for the first 5 minutes while the dentist checked him out and then I had to go sit with another kid.  It was time for Cam's first cleaning, so I asked Sunny to sit in the room with him for that and she said he loved that part too.  Even the fluoride treatment.  Yay for him.

The only downside was that Cam has 1 cavity that he needs to have filled.  I don't think he will care very much.  We told him he will get a little shot and then the dentist will clean the cavity off.  He said okay.  We probably won't use laughing gas, because I think he can handle a shot just fine.  We will see!

Cam With a French Braid

We are always looking for ways to keep Cam's hair out of his eyes.  Usually he just likes bobby pins, but the other night I talked him into letting me do a little french braid.

This is one of those pictures that make a cute kid look horrible, but I love it anyway.

 Turns out, he loved his braid.  Might be a little girly, but I still think it is cute on him.  Hopefully once his hair gets a little longer it will part to the side better.  If not, we will cut it, because I am sick of it being in his eyes all the time.  

He still says that he wants it long though, so for now, we are letting him have his way.

Griffin's 5th Birtday

Griffin has had an awesome 5th birthday extravaganza!  We have had so much fun celebrating our favorite 5 year old.  We started out with presents from Nana Blair.  She gave Griffin money to go pick a present and thus began his first ever trip to Toys R Us. 

The kids were amazed.  After we walked in, Lila turned to me and said, "Mom, everything I could ever want is HERE!"  

Griffin searched long and hard before deciding  on playdough cooking set.  He loves it.

We spent the actual day of his birthday with Mimi at the Museum of Natural Curiosity.  It was fun, as always, and Griffin loved being "in charge" of what we did.  

New birthday outfit from Nana Blair

We went to dinner at Jim's Family Restaurant.  It looks like it might have once been a Shoney's and it totally reminds me of being in Crestview.  It was delicious.

At the beginning of the week, a package arrived from Uncle Josh and Aunt Jess.  You know me, as soon as it arrived, I let him open it.  He was THRILLED with his Spiderman action figure.  I have a couple more pictures of this, don't know why they aren't all together.

On Thursday night, Sunny and Griffin made a birthday cake and Griffin decorated it himself.  Turned out pretty great :)

The "Uncle B.J." pose

Griffin got to go with Bear to a special birthday lunch.  Griffin chose McDonalds and loved his kids meal.

We knew Josh and Jess were coming into town on Friday, so we had Griffin's party Friday night at Mimi and Bear's house.  Griffin was spoiled rotten.  He got a mini trampoline from Mimi and Bear and cool soccer stuff from Mok and Pok for his upcoming soccer season.

As soon as we got home, he wanted to try on his soccer gear, shin guards, shoes, and all.  He is so excited for the season to start and I hated to tell him he still had to wait another 3 weeks or so.

At Mom's house we had another birthday cake.  This one was a worm cake.  Griffin is terrified of worms and it is so funny.  I had been joking with him that he was going to have a worm cake for his birthday and he was not amused.

He did end up loving the worm cake with Spiderman on it to fight the worms.

Happy Happy Birthday to our awesome G-man!  We are so lucky to have him in our family.  G has been an interesting child to parent because he is a little bit different from our first 3 kids.  He is loud and busy and has tons of energy.  For awhile I think we just didn't know what to do with all his energy and we spent a lot of time trying to make him calm down and be like his siblings.  About a year or so ago I was really thinking about G and what he needed and I realized that it was totally okay that he was different.  It wasn't bad, in fact, it was awesome.

Since we have adjusted our expectations, I have seen Griffin grow by leaps and bounds.  He is so confident and so fun and I can really appreciate the kid he is.  I love how he is always up for an adventure.  He gives 100% to everything he does.  He is always willing to help and he is so fun to play with.  He makes up really cool adventures and is always on the move.

He is still a pretty big kid.  Usually at least a head taller than other kids his age.  We just got him new shoes and his feet are bigger than Lila's and the same size as Sunny's.  He is solid and I think he will have a great future in sports.  He loves to play and can't wait until he is old enough for basketball and football (next year.)

He had a great year last year in Miss Melody's preschool and behaves so well at church for his primary class. All his teachers tell us he is so calm and such a good example to the other kids.  I had registered him for Kindergarten, but recently found a preschool that I think will be perfect for him, so I pulled him out of the elementary school until next year.  He will go three days a week for three hours at his new school that is just around the corner from our house.  It is run by a friend of mine who is a kindergarten teacher who has decided not to teach kindergarten this year.  I think it will be great for him to have an extra year to spend more time with me and Cameron at home and to continue to mature.  It will also be great for sports.  He will be unstoppable! 

We love you Griffin!

BYU Planetarium

Today we headed down to the BYU campus with some friends to go to a show at the planetarium.  It was really neat and all of the kids except Lila loved it.  She thought it was a little scary.

We had fun walking around campus and taking random pictures.

After the show we stopped by the Museum of Art to check out a new exhibit they have.  It is a collection of costumes used in movies and it was really neat.  Then we headed over to the BYU Creamery to get some yummy ice cream cones.