Superhero for a Day

On Saturday, February 25th, Landon and I headed over to the local community college to participate in the Recreation Department's "Superhero Party." They threw a similar party in September based on princesses that I took Abby to so Landon was very excited when it was time for his turn!

Landon chose to be Batman and I was his loyal sidekick, Robin...

He got 10 tokens in his little gift bag that he used to purchase different prizes in the "Batcave." He thought it was pretty cool to decide how to spend his "money" and loved counting them out and receiving prizes.

He was quite the expert at getting through the obstacle course...

No obstacle was a match for this little superhero!

Showing off his "muscles" with his favorite superhero in the background...

His favorite activity was the moonbounce (surprise, surprise) and he was able to go in several different times over the course of the afternoon.

After all that action, it was definitely time to refuel "superhero" style!

They finished off the activity with a "Parade of Superheroes."

Landon had a blast at this activity and is still talking about it several days later. It was fun to be able to spend some one-on-one with my little guy!

Oh Sweet Nolan

Happy 8-Month Birthday little man!!

I think I could stop the clock right now on Nolan and be quite happy. He is at the perfect age where he is perfectly content to sit with a basket of toys in front of him and because he is not quite mobile yet, I don't have to worry about him getting too far too fast.

I'm glad that he doesn't mind getting lots of hugs and kisses because he has four other people in our home who are always trying to sneak some in!

We have lucked out with three very happy and healthy children, but I think Nolan still gets the award for being the happiest and easiest baby ever. He is now sleeping through the night very consistenly which makes me love him even more!!

But c'mon now...how could you not love a face like this?!?!

After a few months of solid foods now, he is downing them like a champ. This kid can seriously put down some food in his belly! He can easily down 2 jars of food in one sitting and acts like he could keep going. He must have a hollow leg though, because he's still our little man at just 15 pounds!!

Everything goes in the mouth these days so we have to be a bit more diligent about things like rubber balls, legos and jewelry that Abby and Landon seem to leave around wherever they have been.

(Don't you just love this awesome string of drool?!?! Still no teeth to speak of but the other two didn't get teeth until 15 and 13 months respectively so I hope that we won't see any until after a year. I will miss that gummy grin!)

We sure do love our little sweet Nolan man. Just stop growing so much little boy, I want you to stay my baby just a tad longer!!

The Birthday that FINALLY arrived!

To say that Abby was excited about her birthday would be the understatement of the year. She has been counting down ever since my birthday was over in January (she knew hers came next in our family) and almost every day we had to give her the number of days left until February 20th. This birthday was kind of special too because her birthday was actually a federal holiday this year, President's Day. The last time this happened was on the day that she was born six years ago!

So without further ado...here is a recap of Abby's Sixth Birthday!!

After rolling around the idea of doing a "location"birthday (like Chuck E. Cheese, Monkey Joes or Pump it Up) we finally decided to just do one at our home. The only request was that it be an "all-girl" party full of princesses. Her wish was granted...

We actually kept it pretty low key and just had a few games/activities planned and then let all the little girls play whatever they wanted. At this age, this seemed to be what they wanted to do the most anyway. While the guests were arriving, they each got to make a personalized princess crown...

Abby also took a picture with each girl as she arrived and here was the group shot of everyone who came. It was a nice mix of girls from church, school, the neighborhood and the gym. (Each girl was also instructed to come in full princess dress-up mode...Landon joined in as the honorary super-hero!)

After pictures and crown-making, we played the best game of the day...the pinata. Everyone got a chance to hit it before the candy finally all spilled out.

After a few more games, it was time for lunch (pizza, strawberries, grapes and juice) and then cupcakes for desert. Abby thought for just a split second about what she was going to wish for and then blew out all SIX candles from her cupcake!

(It took her about 3 different tries to get them all, including a brief break to hold her hair back so that it wouldn't catch on fire!)

Afterwards the girls had an impromptu "jump-on-Jason" time. He was a good sport and helped a lot with the party, including dressing up in his suit to hand out roses to each girl as she left the party.

After all the games were done, it was time for Abby's most anticipated moment...opening presents!! This picture was taken at the very beginning of the gift-opening process (notice the wide circle of girls...)

And by the end everyone was up very close and personal trying to get a good look at all of the amazing and fun presents that Abby received.

Later in the afternoon we let the kids play at a new bounce house place in the mall before taking everyone out for Abby's Birthday Dinner of choice...Golden Corral. We then had just enough time to come home and open family birthday presents and receive a few birthday phone calls before bedtime.

It was a very fun day for our little girl and I am so glad that it was everything she had wished for!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Call Clan!!

(These were the Valentine's they passed out at school, church and to neighborhood friends. Each one had a lollipop inserted into the hand area!)

We hope your day is filled with lots of love and sweet things to eat!!

Frosty the Snowman

Abby's Kindergarten teacher gave her a "snowman" kit for Christmas, complete with scarf, hat, pipe, carrot nose and buttons for eyes and mouth. We were finally able to utilize it this last week after a snowstorm on Wednesday (We only got about an inch of snow so we had to hurry and make the snowman before it all melted away!)

I only helped a bit with stabilization (the head kept wanting to roll off!) but other than that, Abby and Landon built this little man all by themselves. I sure do love it when they can work nicely on little projects like this together!

Ice Fest 2012

At the end of Janurary, we headed up north into Pennsylvania for Chambersburg's Ice Fest (I still find it crazy to drive 5 minutes north and be in another state and drive 10 minutes south and be in yet another state....ahhh the joys of living on the east coast!!)

On our way there, we saw the brightest rainbow we had ever seen...it looked like it was pointing us right to our destination!

The Ice Fest wasn't quite as good as last year since the sculptures were melting so fast with the warmer than usual temperatures, but it was still fun!

And this year, we got to add to our "family love" with the addition of little Nolan!

I have to say that I am really loving this winter. We have had so many gorgeous, warm days and the kids have been able to play outside almost every afternoon after school. It sure makes for a lot less cabin fever around these parts!

First Snow

Well it took a few months, but we finally had our first "real" snow of the season a few weeks ago (I don't count that one fluke snowstorm in October...it was wacky and we weren''t ready for it back then!)

The kids had been itching to get some snow since we finally had all the snowgear they would need to truly enjoy it this year....good coats, hats, waterproof gloves, boots and snowpants!!

When they woke up to snow on Saturday morning, they wanted to be out playing in it before they even had breakfast...

We only got about 3 inches of snow, but it was enough for Jason and the kids to make this fun sledding ramp in our front yard. Abby and Landon spent hours going down it and it quickly became a neighborhood hit with lots of other kids who live nearby.

Abby, Landon and Jason spent about 5 hours outside enjoying all the white stuff, only coming in briefly for a hot chocolate break! Nolan and I preferred to enjoy it all from the comforts of our nice warm home! I'm sure Nolan will be enjoying all the snow action next year though!