Alex's Fifth Birthday!!!

Our sweet boy turned five on Monday and we had a small family celebration to mark the occasion. Alex got to choose what we had for dinner--hot dogs, waffle fries, cottage cheese and chips--YUMMO! And he told me he wanted a yellow cake with chocolate icing AND sprinkles so thats just what I made him.

Alex got to open his presents from us and Nana and Grandpa Bob and got some really great stuff! Nana got him a Curious George and the Firefighters book...















We got him a Mickey Mouse Yahtzee Jr. Game...















Nana and Grandpa Bob also got him a Mr. Bucket Game...















And of course they had to play it right away! This game is hilarious, by the way! The bucket spins and moves around while spitting out the balls you just put into it. The object is to get all your balls into the bucket at the same time but I'm pretty sure this is impossible. The kids loved it!
















And he loved having "Happy Birthday To You" sung to him...who doesn't?!
















After making sure there were FIVE candles on the cake he made his wish out loud which was to have a happy birthday. Wish granted! :)

Legos!

Last Saturday we went to the Children's Museum with Uncle Scott and Aunt (well, almost!) Cat to check out the new Lego exhibit!

Here's Alex in front of the giant red dragon made entirely of Legos...

Uncle Scott working on a fantastic Lego creation with Alex and Andrew.















They had these jousting horses that you could wear...Alex really was quite good at it!





























All my boys Legoing together...

And of course we had to have a ride on the carousel!

Snow Tubing

Yesterday Nick, Alex and I headed to Perfect North Slopes just outside of Cinncinatti for a day of snow tubing. They have three huge hills that are dedicated just to snowtubing, along with ski slopes. This time of year there isn't any snow on the ground but they have plenty of artificial snow. The weather wasn't the best--28 degrees and a stiff wind but we made due with plenty of layered clothes and hot chocolate!

Here is us in the warming area (they have these cute little fire places!) with one of the snow tubes, which you get as part of your admission. (FYI they don't recommend children't under 3 so Andrew had a fun day at Nana's house.)

Here is a picture of the three tubing hills. The one on the left is the fastest one, the in the middle is the regular speed and the one on the right is where you can link up tubes and go down as a group. We saw 30 tubes linked together going down that hill!
















The best part of snow tubing there is the CONVEYOR BELT that takes you to the top! No more of the heart attack-inducing trudge up the snowy hill all so you can sled down in 5 seconds. Here they have these really great moving walkways that take you all the way to the top of the hills--think like they have at airports only they go uphill.





















Here's some video I took on the conveyor belt...


And of course the best part was the tubing down! Nick says I should win a prize for holding the camera so steady while we were zooming down the hill at around 25 miles per hour (or so)! Also, I feel compelled to tell everyone that I attempted to put together a much nicer hat situation for both boys but all in vain! At least we would have been able to see Alex from a mile away if he got lost...anyway, here's the video!

Funny boy!

Today I picked Alex up from preschool and was doing my usual "How was your day? Who did you play with? What did you make for a craft?" thing and when I asked him what he did at recess he says "I kissed Lily. And then I patted her on the head for a while."

After a very strong attempt at stifling a guffaw I said "You kissed Lily?" He repeated "Yeah, and then I patted her on the head for a while."

Normally he does this to Andrew after Andrew has been hurt or is sad so I said "Were you trying to make her feel better? Was Lily sad?" and he says with his voice dripping with exasperation "No, Lily is a girl. Girls are always happy."

That boy is in for the surprise of his life when he gets married!

Our Abe Lincoln

I had to share the hilarious thing that Alex said today when I picked him up from preschool. Today they talked about President's Day and what it meant. They learned all about George Washington and Abe Linclon and even made an Abe Lincoln mask. When I picked Alex up he put the mask up to his face and said in a booming voice "I am Abe Lincoln, KING of all the presidents!" Out of the mouths of babes...