Briggs is 1!

           

 When we were pregnant with Briggs we ran our list of names by Evin.  He got really excited about one of them: Rayson.  Eventually we realized it was because he wanted to name his baby brother Race Car..... Race Car stuck all the way until he was a year old.  So of course his party had a race car theme.  

Photo booths are all the rage, here was our twist. 

 

 Karl made an awesome hot wheels track.  

 

We ordered these blow up tires on amazon for less than $30 and got 12 of them!

 

The food spread!

 

The cake!

 

Briggs even had his own cake.   The monkey candle has made an appearance on Lisa, Karl, and Evin's cakes.  

 

Homemade playdough for the favor win!

 

Add friends and you get a TON of fun!

 

Cake face!  

Can't wait to see what life holds for this speedy kid!

Jess is a superhero!

Our nanny is literally a superhero.  So when I was approached by her friends to throw a little celebration of Jessica I knew it had to have a few of her favorite things: 

1) coffee and or tea

2) popcorn

3) her dog Dallas

 

Being the mom of boys, we had already thrown one superhero party so we had a lot of stuff left over.  

 

Evin celebrated by painting Jess and her dog and listing their superheros.  

 

We LOVE you Jess!

Pokemon Go: Don't fight it embrace it!

We are not a screen free house.  Most days the TV is going all day long.  The boys have three different apps and the adults are usually nose deep in their phones.  

We don't limit screen time and my kids are still creative, active, and damn smart.  

Pokemon Go is the latest app craze that has lots of adults asking, "is this a good thing?" 

Here's my arguments for why you should be playing Pokemon go with your kiddos.  

1) Vocabulary: In your pokedex you can select the various pokemon you've caught and read about them.  They have great vocabulary words in them like  arid, acute, and configured.

 

2) Comparisons: While Pokemon are imaginary little beings there are a lot of similarities between their real life adaptations and those of animals in our environment.  Here's a link to just a few but have fun imagining and comparing on your own! 

 3) Exercise: In order to hatch your eggs you have to walk, you can also find pokemon hot spots and bounce around between poke stops.  Get out and check out the environment. 

 

4) Connection: It's a great thing to share with your kids.  We drove about 15 minutes to a special park today to try and catch a squirtle.  We succeeded and Evin was so happy he deemed it the best day of his life.  We got to share in his excitement and we appreciated spending that time with us!