Homemade Slip and Slide

This may very well be one of the top 5 things I've made for the boys. They LOVED it and have been asking when we can do it again. The video is with my phone so sorry for the shaky quality.

Banquet

My baby boy has "graduated" from elementary school. For their end of the year celebration all the 5th graders are bused across the island to the Kaanapali Beach Hotel for a lunch buffet and magic show. Parents are told numerous times that we are not invited but I just had to go check it out. I literally popped in for one minute, took a couple pictures, and left promptly.

Caden's 9th Birthday

Well, Beans has survived through another year,......barely.

8 was the year of stitches, permanent tooth implant, multiple oral surgeries, broken wrist and growth plate, cast for 10 weeks, ....., let's hope 9 is better! :)

Sometimes this boy gives me a heart attack with all his crazy stunts,

sometimes he melts my heart with his kindness.

Sometimes he drives me crazy with his abundance of energy,

sometimes I could watch him for hours on end perfecting his tricks.

Sometimes I feel like I yell "beans, stop!" all day long, and

sometimes I just give up and laugh at him cause he really is funny and cute.

But ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS,

I love this boy of mine!

This year, Caden has a Pirate Party

The invites - gold bars gilled with candy and coins.

The party started at the theaters to watch the new Pirates of the Caribbean.

As if we ordered him, a guy showed up totally decked out as Captain Jack Sparrow right as the party started!

Then onto the Beach Villas for,

Pinata...

Treasure Hunt in the pool,

Drinking pirate beer,

(a favorite with the kids - they LOVED pretending like they were drunk),

Cake,

(yes I made it myself -

it looked better on Family Fun but it was delicious and the boys loved it),

Presents!

All in all, another great day, and another great party! We LOVE you, Beans!

Ho'olaulea

The Princes for Ho'olaulea. Each color represents a different island. Chase represented the island of Hawaii.

The entire court. The entire school gathers on the field and performs dances for the Royal Court and all the parents. It is so cute but so hot!

Chase and his friend, Amanda

All the boys in the Royal Court

So proud of my handsome prince. He is turning out to be a really good boy :)

Disneyland!!!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, all things Disney.

Disneyland is heaven on earth for me.

As much as I love it, is as much as Geoff hates it.

So, for Mother's Day weekend, I got to go to my favorite place with my crazy boys, my awesome, energetic momma, and our best buddies, the Taylors. Despite the crowds, construction everywhere, and freezing weather, we still had a blast and opened and closed the park every night! So be ready for picture overload!

Disneyland

I love that my boys will all still go on the little kid rides with me, even Chase is a good sport about it. I hope this never changes cause I love Fantasyland.

There was always a fight over who got to sit with Grandma. This was the rare ride that Crew didn't sit with her. I pretty much just stood on the sideline and waited for someone to take pity on me and say that they wanted to ride with mom.

He HAD to have his face painted! So, of course, Grandma took him to do it. She spoils them ROTTEN!

Jack Sparrow was very in character. He wouldn't even look at the camera.

The little petting zoo was so cute. One of the goats took a little nibble at Crew. We were laughing so hard, luckily, so was Crew.

The boys had an epic light saber battle with their new swords. Later, Caden got to go onstage to battle Darth Vadar!

The only good meal we had in 5 days - the Blue Bayou - in the Pirates ride. Cool atmosphere, good food, a great way to wrap up our trip. Thanks Mom!

California Park

Oh my - what a group we were. I don't know if all the stares were because our kids were so cute, so fun, or so out of control! I'm sure a little of each.

Toy Story Mania was a favorite of everyone.

One of our surprising favorite things to do was the animation academy. Chase was so excited to do this so we reluctantly went with him. We loved it so much we went several more times.

The boys always have a blast at the Redwood Creek Challenge.

They burned through tons of money on the Midway games. Good thing Grandma was with us ;)