Racing Day, Its Racing Day!

This past Saturday was the Awana Grand Prix Race at church.  Each kid got to design and paint a wooden car and watch as they raced down the ramp. 

There were trophies for the winners of course, and then Wed they will announce some additional winners for car design.  B had a lot of fun designing his car after one of his favorite Hot Wheels cars. 

Yes, his upper right front tooth is gray.  Aftermath from his fall last week .  Its coming out any day.  At least the bruise on his chin is healed!

On your mark, get set, GO!

Braden came in 4th twice, then 2nd and finally a 1st place win!  I can tell we will need to work with B a little on his gracious losing skills.  The kids did a great job on the cars.

I think Justin may have gotten a bit competitive by the end of everything, he is already planning the car for next year.

Date Night at Spirited Art

In lieu of a fancy dinner for Valentine's Day, this year Justin and I went to Spirited Art with some friends. 

We were led through painting two tropical scenes that could be hung together.   We had no idea what to expect with this adventure, but we had a great time and the paintings didn't turn out all that bad!

I was really proud of our paintings.  Justin was much better at the clouds than I was.  I will definitely take Braden there sometime to do one of the kids classes.

We added some birds at the end.  Justin also painted our initials on one of the palm tree trunks.  Major brownie points on that one, Babe!

And a very awkward picture of me being too far away to lean in for the picture properly.

Happy Valentine's Day with Funfetti!

Growing up, my mom made a big deal out of holidays, big or small.  Our birthdays were always huge too.  She definitely had a way to make us feel special.  I really want to keep some of that tradition with my boys.  So this year we celebrated Valentine's Day by making cupcakes and having a special supper as a family. 

Funfetti is just awesome.   Butter cream icing tinted pink is festive and then bring on the sprinkles!

The boys helped me make the cupcakes.  So excited that Ty got to help this time around!  Yes, they are still in their PJs after lunch.

YUM!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Movie Night featuring Lady and the Tramp

Friday night is Movie Night at the Estes house.  Normally we have B or Ty draw a movie title out of the knock off Michael Jackson hat, but since the re-release of my favorite Disney movie of all times, Lady & the Tramp was Tuesday, there was no question what we were going to watch!  I mean, a love story... with dogs and pasta?  How can you go wrong with that?

J was wonderful about the whole obsession and even surprised me with the special movie pack that included a popcorn bowl.  (I come from a long line of popcorn addicts)  The boys tend to humor the sole female in the house on occasion.  I just can't do Ninjago every single night!

We began the night making spaghetti and meatballs.  We also printed out coloring and activity pages to work on after the movie. 

B sat by me and watched the entire thing.  He got excited at the chase scenes and we both stressed out at Trusty's assumed demise.  Ty was interested for a little while.  I'm sure he was wondering where Tyrone, Austin and Pablo were.  Why in the world would the TV be on without a Backyardigan dancing around?

What a Bella Notte!

Fevers & Mulch

Poor little Ty has a nasty fever virus.

Up two nights in a row with very high fevers.  I finally took him to the Dr. today to confirm it wasn't anything else.  He was not happy about getting his ears checked.

Afterwards he was all chatty with the Dr.  He currently has some scratches on his little nose from falling in the mulched area of the playground at school.  The Dr. asked him, "did ya get a little road rash on your nose, there?"  To which Tyler makes the above face and replies,

"It no road rath, it mulch!"

The kids have a lot of training when it comes to mulch at school.  Apparently it is just innate that they pick it up and throw it.  The teachers have trained them to absolutely NOT do that.  When Ty went to get his haircut last Saturday, some of the cut hair fell on his hand. 

He lifts his little chubby hand up for me to see and says, "Mommy look, mulch. 

No throw it.  Go time out!"

Dr. says we probably have one more night of the fever.  Justin and I will probably Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who gets to sleep on the nursery floor with the Pooh blanket tonight.  He better hope we don't thumb wrestle since I have freakishly strong thumbs and always win!  Guess that means Blue, our "special" Boston Terrier gets to sleep in our bed again tonight.  The floor in the nursery creaks relentlessly so if we are in there a lot Blue will wake up in his crate downstairs and demand to be let out.  I try to be strong and not open the crate, but he looks at me like this.

We are looking forward to having our normal Ty back soon.  Feel better, Wild Man!



Doing a little writing

Welcome to my blog!  I have been itching to do a little writing, but there is no way I have time to write anything substantial in this season of my life, so I'm diggin a little bloggin.  Mainly this is my way to record some of the best life has, or what I call "The Good Stuff."  I am so thankful and blessed to have my little family and my kids are hysterical!  I want to be sure I stop and record some of the things they come up with.

For a little taste of what this blog is going to be about, I will explain the inspiration of it all.

This past Saturday I wore my red PJ pants all day long.  I'm talking even on a W-Mart run, people.  I was joking with Justin, the husband, about how the all day PJ pants must be the reason he married me.  I then asked out of curiosity, "why did you marry me, babe?"  And Braden, my very precocious six year old pipes up from the backseat of the Tahoe, "maybe because no one else would!" 

Oh my!

Meet Tyler, Paige, Justin & Braden