Happy 6th Birthday and first lost tooth Hunter!

Hunter's birthday party had to be indoors this year due to inclement weather, but we still had a great time and Hunter lost his first tooth to boot! We're pretty sure he swallowed it while eating bat shaped PB&J sandwiches though because he noticed it was gone right after eating and we scoured the floor and didn't find a trace of it.

A quick game of "Hot pumpkin" before cake eating.

Hunter opening his present from his dad, a superhero video game he's been waiting for to be released for about a year now. Tom, being the trickster that he is, has been telling Hunter that the release date had been pushed back to December and that maybe he should put it on his Christmas list instead. Hunter was pleasantly surprised if you can't tell by the expression on his face!

Gryffin giving me his best mischievous face as he cheated at bobbing for apples. We had to resort to pears because my kids kept eating all the apples I bought for the party and we were only left with about eight apples for the game. Pears don't float...except for the red ones!

Blowing out the candles!

Mom mom used trick candles a few family birthdays back and Hunter has been waiting and waiting to have his turn with the trick candles. He thinks they are about the coolest thing and he's grinning from ear to ear as he watched them relight!

Thanks to Aunt Aubrey for her homemade dark chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate buttercream. Hunter's absolute favorite!

Hunter's good friend Ella and cousin Nadia reconnected for the first time in months and were super happy to see each other and play together at the party.

I always feel overwhelming anxiety when I'm about to have more than 20 people in my house, but everything turned out great and my sisters helped me so much with the preparations and clean up and didn't seem that bad at all. Thanks to everyone who made Hunter's birthday so special!

Super Mom...or at least striving to be!

We have settled into a great routine for weekdays that I can't help but feel proud of. I am gone most mornings until it's time to pick up Hunter at school at 2:00 PM. We walk home together and he tells me all about his day. I love this little bit of time we have together and I can see how much he has grown in just one month of Kindergarten. None of the material is new to him as he had 3 years of preschool at Noah's Ark, but his social skills are ever increasing and he LOVES his classmates, teacher and school in general.

When we get home, mostly, the twins are still napping and Hunter gets to have a little bit of down time. He can choose either an hour of TV or an hour of video games. (yes, I let my 5-year-old play video games, some one call child services!) When Olivia and Gryffin wake up, we head over to the school playground for some energy release and to keep the peace between the kids. They never fight or pick with each other there because there are other kids to keep them busy and no toys to fight over! An added bonus is I get to interact with other mothers and actually get to have conversations that don't involve Blue's Clues, string cheese or more goldfish crackers!

We head home around 5:45, or whenever the crowd disperses. I feed the kids dinner and clean up while they play in the bath. Hunter is starting to be annoyed by the toddler bath antics and I usually have to wash the twins quickly and remove them from the bath before the bathroom becomes a small pond.

Olivia and Gryffin usually need to be in their cribs by 7:30 or the situation can get quite hairy. There is usually very little resistance if any at all. A book is read to them by either Hunter or me, brush teeth and up to bed. Again, Hunter and I get to have a few moments together to reflect on the day and read some books together before he heads up to bed.

It's usually about 8:30 PM by the time I get back downstairs for a little bit of me time. I have about 2 hours to finish cleaning up, do laundry, blog or load pictures off my camera onto the computer, read or just watch TV before Tom gets home at 10:30. The routine is working great for now and I'm not really looking forward to the cold weather and being cooped up inside. I guess we'll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it...