Alex's Bounce Party!

Alex had his 5th birthday party last Saturday at Bounce Planet with many friends and family in attendance. In the days leading up to it, the party was all he could talk about, and really, how can you blame him?! Wouldn't you have killed for something like this when you were a kid?! (For those who are uninitiated into the bounce party place, Bounce Planet and other places like it are large indoor rooms with many inflatable bounce houses and slides and also separate rooms for parties.)

The guest list was wide and varied but Alex was so happy to have everyone at his party. In this picture from left to right are Jackson (neighbor), Lydia (neighbor), Katie (friend from MOPS), Nicholas (friend from MOPS), and Josie (neighbor).














Here are Nicholas and Alex going down one of the slides together. (PS, this big slide is my favorite part of Bounce Planet!)


















Here is Alex with Uncle Scott...or is that just a really big kid? Or both? :)















Here is Alex with his buddy Evan playing a little bounce basketball...

















Here is our little dare devil Andrew on the big slide! He had no fear in this place--he was a maniac!




















Everyone having a bouncing good time...
















After the bounce time was over it was time for CAKE!




















Alex loved having everyone sing happy birthday to him! Again!
















I had to throw this shot in because it is a rare sighting of me in action. I'm never in any of our pictures! Nice hat, by the way...















Some people who are not 5 yet had a bit of an issue with the cupcakes! I think Andrew is STILL on the sugar high from the 2 cupcakes that he ate!















Then it was onto presents! Wah hoo! Here is Alex opening up some cool 3D sidewalk chalk from Own and Lydia (neighbors).















Grandma and Grandpa Schoenherr and Uncle Scott and Aunt Cat got Alex a Tag reader. (Which he LOVES, by the way, if you are reading this Schoenherrs!)















After presents everyone got some tokens to play in the arcade. Alex couldn't quite get the hang of skee ball (or is it Ski ball?) but Daddy was able to help out.














Here are Daddy and Alex and Nicholas racing...

Landscaping!

OK, so this may not be the most exciting post I've ever made to this blog but it was really thrilling for us! Last Thursday and Friday we had some major landscaping done to our backyard. It all started last summer when we got a landscape design done with Salsbery Brothers Landscaping. Part of the plan called for what the landscape designer lady Robin called a "birm" but really it's just a big ol' flower bed!

The first step was to create the outline of what the bed would look like. Robin (Landscape Designer Lady Extrordinaire!) came by on Wednesday and spraypainted the outline onto the grass. I was sort of surprised at how big they were but she reminded me that these beds were designed to hold trees, shrubs and plants that would get big so we had to make it big.

So finally the big day arrived! The landscaping crew showed up bright and early and the first thing they needed to do was move our playset. Why the people who lived here before us decided to put that set smack in the middle of the yard, I'll never understand but the plan very wisely called for it to be moved to the side of the yard, closer to the basketball court. I couldn't believe how easily that Bobcat picked up the set like it was a toy! You can see in this picture where the set was before--it left a little square of sand where the sandbox was.

I had to include this picture because it cracked me up! Nick took Thursday and Friday off to watch over the work except The Man in him wouldn't let him just stand by and watch them work so he worked much of the day with the crew. That's him on the far left telling them where the set should go. I don't think he understands the concept of paying other people to do the work for you!
















So while one part of the crew was moving our playset, another guy was using a sod-cutter to cut out the outline of the bed. This nifty little machine cuts the sod from the ground making nice little carpets that you can roll up and use for whatever. We used some of our sod to cover some spaces in the yard, including where the playset used to be.

After the outline was finished it was time for the dirt to be delivered! We had 5 or 6 of these trucks full of dirt delivered to help build up the birm. Or flowerbed. Whatever it's called.

After they dumped the dirt, the Bobcat moved it around and made it smooth. I couldn't believe how good the guy who was driving that thing was! He was so precise with such a big peice of equipment. The boys got a kick out of seeing the Bobcat zoom around, too. And by "boys" I mean Nick, too! :) The dirt delivery and placement took by far the most amount of time, probably 5 or 6 hours.




















The next day it was time for the mulch to arrive! Most of you have spread at least some mulch in your yard so you know what that work is like. This was A LOT of mulch!!! I was purely happy to just sit and watch the workers spread the mulch for me. I was like a lady of leisure...

















And here is the final result! It may not look like a lot to you all but we are really pleased with it. Now if we could afford the trees and shrubs to go in it...

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!