It’s funny because the logo for the place is “Where a kid can be a kid.” Really it should be more like, “Where an adult can be a kid.” I think the adults have just as much if not more fun than the kids. Both Caleb & Jacob were pretty excited to be there. They’ve only been a couple times ever and it’s been a while. They liked the rides and did pretty well playing the games. 
There was that time when Jacob almost knocked someone out when he was playing Ski Ball. He was having a hard time rolling it hard enough to get it up to the holes, so I told him to do it harder. He ended up launching the ball sideways about 4 rows over into some other kids’ game. And Caleb just couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t let him throw it like a baseball. I figured it was a good time to end that game! Both Jacob and Caleb loved it, but I think they need to wait a few years before they can play it the right way. I enjoyed watching Jeff too; he loved the games and looked like a kid most of the time. 
I think the boys’ favorites were the games they could play with Jeff. Even Matthew did awesome; he was just happy to be carried around the whole time and fell asleep in my arms at the end. Another one I enjoyed was the sketch booth. We were able to squeeze all the boys in and got a cute picture with the boys and Jeff, and the boys and me. By the time we had finished using up all our tokens I think everyone was ready to head home. It’s a bit amusing to see what kind of prizes you get after spending $10 worth of tokens. We got a couple plastic snakes, a spinning top, a plastic beetle, and a few tootsie rolls. Hmm, those were some expensive tootsie rolls! More than anything it was just fun to have the time to spend together.
On Tuesday, Jan 29th Jacob got to have a 'part 2' of his birthday. Whenever a child in preschool has a birthday they get to bring a special "Birthday Poster" with pictures and a paper telling about themselves. They also get to take birthday treats for all the other kids, and get their very own birthday crown to wear and take home. Jacob was excited for his special day. He helped me pick out the star cupcake holders and pictures to put on his poster. He had fun wearing his crown and sharing treats with his friends. He even got a special birthday book from his teacher.
Tuesday night, Jacob had a friend who also turned 4 and he was able to go to his birthday party. From what I saw and what Jacob told me, it was about the coolest birthday party ever. It was a Ninja Turtles themed party complete with costumes, games, a pinata , food and fun! They took some fun pictures from the party. I think it's obvious to say that all the boys had a great time!
Today was Jacob’s 4th birthday. I think I was as happy as he was (and not just because he would ask me EVERY day how many days until his birthday and EVERY day if he could open his presents yet). It was really a fun day to celebrate.
To start the day off, Jacob had decided a week earlier that he wanted rice pudding for breakfast so we topped it off with some candles and sang happy birthday to him. I also let him pick one present to open that morning, he picked a song book from Grandma & Grandpa Stevens.
We pretty much did things at home, letting Jacob choose different games/activities that he wanted to do- playing with dinosaurs, reading books, and watching a movie. Nothing too exciting, but we had a lot of fun. I especially love playing dinosaurs with Jacob & Caleb- they get all of them out; we line them up and can play for hours.
For dinner Jacob wanted pizza so I made some yummy homemade pizza and finished up his birthday cake- a delicious 4 layer ice cream cake. (And don't you just love the food on his face? I still don't know how I missed that before all the pictures!)
Finally when Jeff got home we had dinner and opened presents- the time Jacob had been waiting for all day! He had a great time and really got some fun things from Mom & Dad, and the Grandparents including: a piggy bank, books, clothes, lots of cars, a semi loader truck, the Mac truck from the movie Cars, a big carpet that looks like a road to drive the cars on, a soccer ball, football, some games & a puzzle. He also loved the birthday cards that were sent and the fun phone calls from family members.
It was sure fun to celebrate Jacob’s birthday; we had a fun day and I still can’t believe he’s already four. Seems like yesterday…
Happy Birthday Jacob!
Our ward held it’s 2nd annual “Paper Bowl” It ended up being a lot of fun for everyone! There was a dinner with lots of food, and we enjoyed socializing with everyone. Then they started the main event- The Paper Bowl Championship. There was a bracket set up with everyone who wanted to play including kids. When they first started off the game they put on some music, the kids loved that. It was funny because all the kids immediately ran up to the front and started to dance to the beat. Caleb especially was showing off his dance moves. It’s so funny watching them because they get a little crazy; as you can see from the pictures! They really had a fun time though, and luckily there were no casualties.
Anyway, the paper bowl game was lots of fun. Everyone was able to play that wanted to. They matched people up and went from there. Jeff, Jacob and I played too; unfortunately none of us made it past the first round. Jeff actually did well, scoring 5 touchdowns, and would have continued through the game if he had not had such an outstanding 1st opponent who scored eight touchdowns; it’s a little hard to compete with that! We had a great time anyways! 
Jacob did really well and had fun. Caleb just loved running around like a wild man with all the other little kids, but he did stop to try his hand at making touchdowns with the little paper football and did pretty well even if he didn’t have an opponent! Matthew was a super sweet baby and was so good the entire night. By the end of the night he had fallen asleep in Jeff’s arm even with all the noise and confusion. It was a fun evening and great to spend it with friends and ward members.
This week seemed like the week of parties! On Wednesday the 23rd we had a playgroup party for all the kids who have a birthday in January. I had actually forgotten that it was on the 23rd, for some reason I was thinking it was the 30th. Luckily I checked my e-mail early that morning and whipped out some rice krispy treats, got everyone ready quickly and walked over to the playgroup. Another blessing- Jeff had the car that day, which also had the stroller & baby carrier inside. Luckily the party was held at the apartment complex down a ways, and across the street. I held Matthew and put the treats in a bag, then held Caleb’s hand and we all had a nice walk over. The party was fun. A big thanks to 
On Wednesday night Jacob’s preschool had it’s ‘Dad & Donuts’ night. It was a fun night where Jeff got to go with Jacob to his preschool for an evening of fun, games & of course donuts! It was fun for Jeff to be able to see the preschool and some of the things they do there. Jacob was so excited and was talking about it all week. They even made these cute little frames and had their picture taken together. Jacob especially loves having an opportunity to do fun things with Daddy. They had a great time. Caleb, Matthew and I enjoyed an evening at home and even had a special treat ourselves.
Friday night was the ward “Paper Bowl Party.” However, I needed more room and had lots of pictures so this one needed its own post…see next post…
Saturday morning the Primary had its first Primary activity. Jacob was so excited the previous week at church when he got the invitation for a pajama party. The night before I was wondering what pajamas he should wear; he’s grown out of all his ‘real’ pajamas so he usually just wears boxers and a t-shirt to bed. Luckily I remembered that Grandma Stevens sent him a new pair of pajamas for his birthday, so Saturday morning we let Jacob open a present early to get his brand new pair of camo pajamas. He was very excited. The activity was great, it was a ‘plan of salvation’ based activity with lots of fun and games included. They played musical chairs, and had donuts and juice at the end. Jacob sure enjoyed it. It was fun for me to take him alone; and afterwards we stopped at the store to pick out a few more things for his birthday; we got some ice cream, wrapping paper, balloons, etc. It was a nice little outings just for Mom and Jacob. The rest of Saturday was spent doing chores, etc. Saturday night Jacob and Caleb got to have some friends over. We watched kids while our friends went out on a date. We’re looking forward to our date night next week, and Jacob & Caleb had a ton of fun with their friends Ben and Seth.
Jacob has always had a love for food! From the time he was born he had to nurse every 2-3 hours for about 45 minutes. Needless to say I spent a lot of time on the couch his first couple of months. He immediately took to baby food when it was introduced right at 4 months (a week before he turned 4 months, he was already
Now, at 3 years and 362 days (Jacob will be 4 on Monday) Jacob will literally eat more than I do!
Here is an example of a typical day:
Jacob wakes up and is hungry for breakfast at
Dinner time I usually give him portions just slightly smaller than mine, and he usually finishes off everything and sometimes wants seconds. And of course he’s always game for dessert afterwards. (or a couple desserts!)
(Side note: I think Jacob gets his love of food from Jeff. It was so funny when we were reading through Jeff's old journals; especially those from junior high and high school. In almost every entry, no fail, he talks about the food he had that day in some form or other.)
Caleb can also be a good eater if he’s in the mood. This morning he also had a piece of French toast, a small bowl of oatmeal & some cereal. But with him, it completely depends on his mood. He still loves to drink milk and sometimes prefers that to food, which can cause some interesting battle of the wills! Mainly because it’s not healthy, but also because milk is almost $4 a gallon!
I feel like I spend most of my day in the kitchen preparing something or getting food for both Jacob and Caleb! Really though, it would be interesting to see a break down of the minutes of my day into each room of the house; I bet I spend a great deal of it in the kitchen!
In all actuality I am grateful that the boys eat well, especially since they’re pretty fond of fruits and vegetables and healthy food. It’ll be fun to see how Matthew does when we introduce solid foods in a month or so.
Anyway, I’m a little nervous at this point. Nervous about how high our grocery bill will be when we have three teenage boys! It’s already a little tricky to really keep the grocery budget. Good thing Jeff will be a practicing doctor at that point because we’re going to need that salary just to keep food in the fridge!
Afterwards we headed downtown to do some sight-seeing. Although it was chilly we were fortunate the weather wasn’t too cold. We lucked out and found two parking spaces just a couple cars apart (which isn’t easy to do in downtown DC on a Saturday!). Then we got out the stroller & baby carrier, loaded up the boys and headed off to the museums. Don’t you just love the picture of Jeff with all three boys? 
Kimber and I switched off pushing Jacob and Caleb in the stoller (after all 
We decided to go to the museum of natural history and the boys absolutely loved it! There were dinosaur bones, animals, insects, fish, rocks & gems, etc. I think they’re favorite was seeing all the huge dinosaur bones, but Jacob did tell me that he was disappointed that there weren’t any real dinosaurs. After explaining that if there WERE real dinosaurs, they would probably eat him, Jacob decided he was happy looking at their skeletons instead! 
Caleb was just enjoying taking everything in. They enjoyed looking at everything with the exception of the “Gems & Rocks” section where they started to get a little impatient. I would have liked to spend a little more time in that section, but they didn’t quite have the interest for all the beautiful stones & jewelry. (See how happy they are? :)
Matthew was a great trooper! He was happy the whole time, took his bottle great, and even fell asleep by the end of the trip. Those museums are absolutely amazing! We spent a few hours there and didn’t even come close to covering the whole thing, and what we did see was pretty quick. We finally headed back around 
The trip was so much fun, and although you get home tired, and still needing to prepare for Sunday, it was great. My favorite parts are definitely being at the temple, and also just having the time to spend with family. It was so fun to spend time with Kimberly & Mike again; even though we’re so far away from family, it doesn’t seem quite so lonely knowing they’re just a few hours away, we love getting together with them! And I love having the time with Jeff on the long drives. We haven’t done as many road trips lately, Jeff’s schedule is way too busy for that!, but we sure enjoy them. It’s a great time to be able to sit and talk together without distractions. I love it when they boys fall asleep and it’s just the two of us talking & laughing together. We enjoy the time when the boys are awake too, we have some fun conversations together!
Anyway, it was a fun trip and I’m so grateful we were able to go and spend the day together. Thanks again to Kimber & Mike, we had a blast!
You might be wondering what this picture is. These happen to be the nice assortment of random items that Caleb put inside our cd/dvd player; contacts, pennies, some random earring, etc. Funny…yes, but the incidence of items being put in the hole of the cd player is much too common. 
I’m surprised the poor thing is still partially working after what it’s been through! These are the types of things that are daily occurrences in our home with our little boys. It seems I’m constantly cleaning crayon from the walls, putting food(like eggs) back in the fridge, putting the computer stool up so they can’t climb up to get things off the top of the refrigerator, pulling apart wrestling boys on top of the newly folded laundry on my bed, and taking care of other wild & crazy “adventures.” These boys definitely keep my hands full; I don’t know how many times I’ve had people tell me, “Boy you must be busy!” (Many times I get that when Jacob is at preschool and I only have Caleb & Matthew with me) And yet I wouldn’t have it any other way. They make life busy, challenging, and yet so fun and worthwhile. They’re wild and crazy, and I can’t help but love them for it.
