Demzi's 5th Birthday

Demzi has been super excited about this birthday because she is now finally old enough to go to kindergarten.  About a month before her birthday we started to plan a birthday party.  The list of things Demzi wanted to do for her party were: macaroni and cheese for dinner, duck duck goose, and bowling on the wii. Given the agenda we decided that it would be more fun to just do with our family, meaning Demzi got three little parties.  

Liam quickly gave up on bowling and handed his remote off to Kris who gladly took over.  I love watching the kids get into it, using their whole bodies to throw the ball.

After we played our games it was time for presents.

She decided that since we were making a cake the next day for my family she just wanted ice cream cones, of course with a candle because. Tad is still obsessed with fire.

The next day (Sunday) we were at my parents for family dinner so combined some presents and cake/ice cream right along with it.

Love that she is bracing herself to be bonked on the head.

After she opened this present she said, "Addie! ha ha"  I guess because she got Princess Candyland and not Addie?

Demzi wanted a blueberry Ariel cake for her birthday this year.  I wasn't sure how to go about that so I ended up getting a package of these little princesses that my kids love playing with and plopping it on top.  To make it blueberry we did a jello cake.  Probably not the best combination but it was what she asked for.

These candles were crazy.  They were supposed to look different colors when you lit them. Kris was trying and trying to light them and finally we figured they were burning even though you couldn't see it.  It wasn't until we told her to pretend to blow them out and saw the smoke after we realized they were lit the whole time.

The following Sunday was our family night with Kris's family so we once again tacked on a little birthday celebration for Demzi.

Kris's mom is making blankets for the kids this year.  None of my kids knew about it until Demzi got hers but they are now all super excited for their blanket.

This is how those candles were supposed to look.  They actually looked pretty cool.

Thompson Egg Hunt

We decided to have the Thompson egg hunt when my dad was in town so it ended up being at the end of April.  We started out with lunch and then we went for a walk around the block while the dads hid the eggs. I wish I had brought my camera as we walked to get a picture of my dad skipping with all of the grandkids.  My parents make such cute grandparents!  Finally they were ready and the kids all raced to fill their buckets.  My parents had the money eggs hidden ranging in difficulty for kids and adults.  A good time was had by all, even if my dad did get to keep the $100 and $50 eggs again this year.  

Laser Tag

These pictures were also part of our spring break.  Ryan had talked about taking his kids to play laser tag which we thought would be fun too but since we have a laser tag set we just needed to find somewhere to play.  So we headed down to Kris's parents where his mom was nice enough to let us play in the basement of the high school.  We had the orange team and the blue team (Bensons vs Thompsons) and turned out the lights and played a bunch of games.  It was tons of fun.  I'm not going to lie, my team lost every single time but I felt pretty good about things because at least I beat Ryan, even if it was only by a couple of shots.

Playing at Grandma's

While the kids were all out of school for spring break my mom had everyone over to play.  It was perfect play outside weather.  I decided that maybe I would put Tad in shorts, hoping that he would figure out it wasn't really pleasant to crawl around outside and he would walk instead. He did figure out pretty quick that he didn't like it so he adopted the Mowgli instead.  Look at his filthy legs....

 Liam loves the play house.  He would stay up there for hours.  I'm not exactly sure what he does but it seemed to keep him and Lola occupied for a while.

 Addie floated from the trampoline, to the sand and then the yard games.  I think she was just happy to be outside and playing with friends.

 My pictures of Demzi are few, maybe because she is giving me this look in all of them.  She wasn't grumpy the whole time, just when I pulled the camera out.

 My mom was nice enough to go get food for everyone.  I kept trying to distract Tad with his own food and move him away but he kept going back.  Finally in frustration, and because all the kids were done, I just let him go crazy.  He helped himself to a frosty right away.  He took one drink and then started shaking it, getting it everywhere.

 I think Ryan spent the whole time bouncing kids on the trampoline.  The big kids wanted to be popped up high whereas the littler kids didn't love it, I think Demzi just thought it would be fun to let Ryan bounce her.

We spent a few hours there before deciding that Tad probably needed a nap and headed home.  I love that we live close enough to both sides of the family that my kids think of there cousins as their friends.