Brady's Robot Birthday and a surprise guest!!

We knew Aaron probably wouldn't be home in time for Brady's actual birthday.  So we planned his party for the weekend after his birthday hoping Aaron would make it home.  My parents, sister and girls came for the weekend and Aaron's Mom and Dad, sister and grandma were coming as well.  It came down to the last couple days that we thought Aaron would be letting us know his plans for coming home.  But he said it was not likely that he would make it home.  He was partly right because it was pretty much a stroke of luck or something because somehow he made it home on Friday night before the party on Saturday.

I hadn't heard from him for like 2 days (which happens sometimes because of his flying schedule and the difference in time zones).  But I got an email saying he would call me.  But then nothing for another day.  Friday afternoon at about 1 pm I get a text message asking if there's room at the dinner table for one more!  As soon as I saw the text I knew he had to be somewhere in the US where his phone was working.  So I called him and found out that he was back in the US at the Houston airport headed to Omaha.  He hadn't called or anything because he knew he would ruin the surprise because I would press him for details of what he was doing or where he was!  He even told me later that he didn't use the credit or debit card in fear that I would see where he was  making the transactions.  Only 5 of 28 people on his crew made it back that night and he was one of them.  It was such a fun surprise and we surprised his Mom and Dad who came later that afternoon when he came home.

Anyway, now on to the party pictures.  I'm warning you that there are a lot of pictures and I am so happy with the way that everything turned out I'm posting a lot of details.  Most of these are on FB so you've probably seen them on there already.  In case anyone wants a robot party of your very own, I'll post some links at the end too! :)  I think I had as much fun planning this as Brady did enjoying the party!  He was so excited when he saw all of the decorations going up!

All back together again!

Robot sign I made for the front door

Party decorations in the basement before the party
We did red, green and blue with robots and gears for decorations

Food table and banner I made

Brady, waiting to dig in!

 I had to stick with the technological theme and name all of our snacks to go with the theme!  I know, I know, the kids can't even read but it was still fun! 

My favorite pictures of Brady from the last 5 years

Robot bean bag toss game I made

Goodie bags

Tags I downloaded

The real cake-I kept the topper I made last week from the practice cake! :)

Pinata time!



Aaron busted it open!

Kids coloring robot pictures

Ava's all done!

 Aaron's family was very happy to be there and very happy that Aaron actually got home in time!  His Grandma was visiting from Maryland and wanted to see him before she went back home and she got to!

Because my Mom takes all the pictures, we hardly ever get pictures of my Mom and Dad with the kids or at all!  They were here and a big help as well so we were also very happy to have them here with us too!

Here's the link for the Robot Printables I downloaded and ordered the Invitations from as well!

Valentine's Day and Brady turns 5!

Brady doesn't have school on Valentine's Day so they had his party on Thursday instead.  I went into his class and helped with his class party. 

Balancing cups on straws

Decorating cookies

Playing in the tub of snow

Alligator game-you take turns pushing down teeth and it will randomly chomp down on your finger!  Brady's playing with his friend Aaron

 Since we're waiting for Aaron to get home to have a party for Brady, we had to do something fun on his actual birthday.  He wouldn't have really known the difference because he doesn't know which days are which but we still had a fun night with pizza and cake.

Pepperoni pizza with a 5 in pepperonis

My practice with fondant cake for his robot birthday next weekend
I think I did pretty well for my first time making/working with fondant

I really can't believe my little man is now 5 years old!!  It seems just like yesterday I was at the hospital with him and now he is 5!  He will be in kindergarten next year and it will be so strange to not have him home with me at all during the day.  He has always been such a sweet boy and he has always been my little buddy while Aaron is gone.

When he woke up on his birthday he asked if he was 5 yet and I told him that he was.  He said he didn't feel any bigger than he did yesterday.  But after being up a little while, he said that he felt like he was 5 now!  Such a funny kid!  Love you so much my little Brady boy!

Cold days of winter

On winter days when it is too cold to do anything, we have to find ways to amuse ourselves inside.  This often includes playing, goofing off, baking things and trying to keep me from going crazy!  One afternoon they were taking pictures of each other and this is what they came up with.

His trick-no hands!

We still had some open bounce passes at Bounce U to use up, so we headed over there one afternoon to get out of the house.  As much as we like goofing off at home, I get a little bit of cabin fever with 3 kids in the house all winter! 

This time, Collin finally got to play with us.
He only got a couple steps up before it was too steep for him to do it by himself, so I carried him the rest of the way up to slide.

Brady and Jorie coming down

Look at that electric hair!

This little dare devil wanted to go all by himself!

 They couldn't get the ball to hang in the air over the tee, so they just started having fun with the air blowing out instead! 

Can't wait for some warmer weather so we can get out of the house a little bit more.  We can only play inside and watch movies for so long!