Maxwell Turns Three!!

Right now Max is very much into hunting and guns.  He talks about it all the time.  He was constantly asking for different types of guns and bow and arrows for his birthday.  So… I had a nerf gun party!

Max also is not a cake kid.  He loves donuts!  So we did a donut tower for his cake! 

Opening his presents.  Could not resist his toes!

If you wanted to speak Max’s love language – you bought him a gun! 

The amount of guns he was gifted is unbelievable!  I’m pretty sure we could open the first kid gun shop. 

Then it was donut time!  He has the best expressions – so I kind of went over board on the candle pictures.

One left!!

Auntie Steph blew out his last candle and this is the look he gave her.

All the cousins! 

Everyone was a fan of the donuts!

It was a successful party and nerf bullets were flying the rest of the night!  By kids and the adults! 

Also in case you are wondering Max is an adult now that he turned three.  I like to inform him that adults get dressed by themselves and can get their own shoes on.  He tells me when he turns four he’ll be able to do that.  An age three “adult” means that he is just tough and not scared. 

Examples of an age three adult:

He picks out a Ninja Turtle book at the library and I tell him “That looks a little scary Max.”  He tells me “I’m an adult now it is not scary for me.”

Just tonight I was coming out of my room and I didn’t see him standing in the hallway and I plowed right over top of him and stepped on his foot.  Right now he is the perfect height that I can’t see him over my belly.  I felt horrible and I started apologizing to him and make sure he is okay.  He says “It’s okay Mommy.  I’m an adult it didn’t hurt.” 

There was Easter

I am so far behind on my blogging it makes me sad.  I am sure it is only going to get worse as soon as little baby girl gets here… but I’m in denial with that.  I love looking back and reading the stories of the kids because I forget so much!!  Just the other night I wanted to know something, can’t remember what, and I was way back in the blog and I was watching a video of little bitty Mallory.  I’m not kidding – I was crying!!  Oh my goodness!  It is such a treasure to have these memories recorded and written down!!

Back on track.

We really did have Easter.  This year I decided that just hiding eggs and a basket wasn’t fun enough.  So I made a scavenger hunt.  I think it might be my new tradition.  However, I need to work on my clue giving skills.  I wanted 10 clues and it took me a full hour (of full on concentration – kids were in bed, it was quiet, no tv, no music, full concentration) to come up with 5 clues!  Jesse walks in and I tell him I need 5 more clues and he rattles them off in 10 minutes!!  So we had our 10 clues… and next year I won’t try to do it alone, I’ll make him do it with me from the very beginning! 

I didn’t get any picture of the kids running on their scavenger hunt.  I just got a few pictures of them at the end finding their “baskets”.

In the dryer of course!

I never do traditional Easter baskets either.  This year they were in need of new helmets for the RZR – the kids had picked out helmets months ago with Jesse when he ran across a sale online.  However, they forgot about it and we had them hiding – to be used as Easter baskets. 

Inside their helmets they got a pair of riding goggles (for the RZR), flip flops, sunglasses, and a movie.

Mallory got… you guessed it… Frozen.  She was beyond thrilled!!  That movie has just gotten into her and she loves every thing about it!  She was a huge Anna fan, but has recently moved onto Elsa!  She now runs around pretending to freeze things.

Max got the movie Barnyard.  When we were “living” in our camper last spring (and all it did was rain) I let the kids pick movies from the library.  Barnyard was the first movie they grabbed.  I never heard of it.  Max really likes this movie.  He can tell you all about it.  He can even quote lines from the movie.  My favorite is when Max will randomly say “Salt lick”.  Sends me into giggles.  It’s a super funny movie.

So the helmets we got them.  Lets talk about that experience!!  Up until now the kids have been too little for real helmets.  When we would go riding we would put bike helmets on them (they are required to have a helmet by law).  This year we thought they were ready for the real helmets.  Jesse measured their heads… Max has a bigger head then Mallory!  We let the kids pick out the one they wanted.  We ordered them.  They don’t like helmets (especially Max) so we were trying to keep it as light and as fun as possible.

We go to put Mallory’s on on Easter morning.  We get it on, but she says it is too tight.  We take it off and she really didn’t like that.  It tugged on her ears when we took it off.  We had to talk her into trying on Max’s because his was bigger to see if that one fit her so we knew what size to get her.  We get it on – she says much better.

We go to put Max’s helmet on him.  We get it on.  He doesn’t like it – wants it off.  It is too tight (which we should of known since it fit Mallory, but that never crossed our minds).  We go to take it off.  Cant get it off!  Stuck!  On his head!  He freaks out!  Cries!  Jesse is pulling!  It is so stuck on his head that when Jesse is pulling it off – Max is about to be lifted off the ground by this blasted helmet!  It is not coming off!  Max is in full on panic mode now!  We did get the helmet off!  And we traumatized Max!!  Not what we wanted!  We haven’t talked about it since with him.

We spent the rest of the day going to church and seeing family.

Button Reward–Bowling!

Mally & Max are still working hard and doing their jobs earning buttons almost every night.  Mally totally gets the buttons and her favorite thing to do is cash them in to watch a movie.  Max doesn’t spend his!!  He likes to mooch off his sister – she was the one always paying for the movie… we finally caught on though and he had to buy the snacks.

Otherwise they are little savers of their buttons!  They had so many buttons I was just about out of buttons to pay them!  I came up with a new reward – bowling!  It would cost each of them 120 buttons.  They both had enough (with plenty extra).  To the bowling alley we went!

I’m really trying hard to let go and just let Mallory wear what she wants.  It is so hard for me!  Especially if we are going to be in public.  I practiced this day.  We were going to a family event + the bowling alley… but I let her express her style.

Maybe I did this to myself!  See I totally remember dressing her in crazy outfits when she was wee tiny.  Strips, animal print & flowers.

Yup!  I did it to myself! 

Mally would toss her ball down the isle and then slowly walk backwards watching her ball knock down pins.

The ball was almost bigger then Max.  But he was in a do-it-himself kind of mood.  And when that happens (which is super rare) we just let him do it!

He would either stand with hands on his hips and watch or…

… he would come back here and stand with hands behind his back and watch.

I didn’t realize how often Max puts his hands behind his back until one of my Uncle’s saw him do it last summer.  Apparently my Great Grandpa often had his hands behind his back… which would be Max’s Great Great Grandpa. 

The kids did great bowling.  And it was a great reward for working so hard on their jobs each day.