Minecraft Birthday!

Owen celebrated his 7th birthday this week with a Minecraft party with seven of his closest friends from school and church.  Everything was green and black and we played several Minecraft themed party games.  Keeping eight 7-year olds occupied for three hours in our house was a bit challenging because they were so excited to be together which meant lots of energy!  A highlight of the party was "mining" for gold treasure with a scavenger hunt around the house.  Poor Dallin tried to keep up, but got lost along the way.

  

 The boys.  They got along great considering most of them didn't know each other.  They loved their bottles of Minecraft "healing potion" aka Sprite.

 Owen is such a sweet boy.  He adds so much fun to our house.  He is incredibly smart, especially when math is involved.  He loves to do anything active and is currently playing basketball.  He prefers to play with others than be by himself.  He isn't sure he loves having a younger brother, but adores his older sister.  He loves video games and LEGOs.  He also loves art and science.  He prefers non-fiction books about animals, space, weather, and underwater life.  He hates to be bored and likes to be entertained, which makes our house a busy place.

The cake was a little plain because Minecraft has not released licensing rights which means they are not making any Minecraft party ware for now.  Thank goodness for Pinterest where I found a ton of awesome ideas and printables!!   We also originally wanted a giant cookie cake, but our bakery stopped making them :(  

 One of Owen's favorite gifts - a Minecraft torch.  He is using it as a flashlight.

 Since the party was on Presidents' Day, the other kids were around to help me host.  Trenton did a great job creating an unplanned diversion to calm the troops.  The boys were very impressed with his marble tower creation which involved a kitchen chair and duct tape.

Dallin wanted to be in the middle of the party, but eight wild boys made that a little difficult.  He got pushed to the side and overlooked.  He followed behind and settled on eating lunch with Ashleigh instead of the boys.  Despite all the craziness, I think he had a great time.  He is ready for his birthday next :)

Piano Performance

 Ashleigh was invited to play for one of the top pianists in the Cincinnati area this past weekend at a special "Master Class".  She memorized a fairly lengthy song making sure to include many special effects to the piece.  She was instructed to play it as if she was telling a story.  She did a wonderful job and played without any mistakes!  We are so proud of her!!

More Snow

We have had plenty of snow again the past few weeks.  Somehow having so much snow is making winter seem like it's dragging on.  The kids don't even ask to go outside and play in it anymore.  Dallin did enjoy trying to catch some giant snowflakes that fell in our last snowfall.

Since going outside isn't an option these days, playing on electronics seems to be a favorite activity around here.  Owen got a new DS game for his birthday and it was quite popular with both he and Dallin.  Dallin sat and watched Owen play for over a half hour like this.  I thought it was so cute!

Winter Grind

 It has been a while since I posted because there hasn't been too much excitement around here the past few weeks.  Winter is dragging on and we are all feeling anxious for spring.  Owen's birthday is coming up this week, so we should get some good pictures from that.  Check back next week :)

Late Sunday night movie watching.  Dallin was giving himself bunny ears :)