Corbin Turns 9!

Today we celebrated Corbin's 9th birthday!  Corbin has been excited for weeks and has been counting down the days.  He got some money and the game Stratego (thanks to his cousin for introducing him to it--it's one I remember from my childhood). 

Yesterday, while looking through a cookbook for dinner ideas, he found a birthday cake idea.  It was so easy.  Cut a pre-made pound cake into pieces and put them in a pan, cover them with whipped cream and add berries on top.  It was yummy.

For our family activity he chose dinner and a movie at home.  We watched Star Wars--Return of the Jedi and ate pizza. 

Corbin is growing up fast.  He is now counting down the days/years until he turns 12 and gets the priesthood. 

Corbin's Baptism

Corbin was baptised last Saturday.  He was so excited.  In fact he has been looking forward to his baptism since before he was 7.  He shared the special day with 2 friends.  A lot of our extended family was able to come and share in experience.  After the baptism we invited everyone over to our tiny house and had food and visited.  I'm so proud of Corbin making his choice to be baptised. 

Corbin's new suit--he almost didn't get a suit.
We had to search all over and finally got a great
deal at Kohl's.

Corbin and his dad

Lindy, Corbin and Xander

Happy Birthday, Corbin!

Corbin turned 8 on November 3rd.  What a special age!  Corbin picked his favorite foods to eat and picked what presents he wanted me to give him.  He said I could surprise him with one gift, but he told me what that gift had to be. 

We didn't do a family activity because this is a party year for Corbin.  Corbin wanted an animal themed party.  As the kids arrived I had an animal foam craft on the table for them to do. 

I decided to do part of the party at Pratt's Pets.  They do free tours and are just down the street from our house.  Corbin invited a three friends to come to his party.  It had to be 3 because that is all I could fit in the van to take to the pet store.  The tour was neat.  The guide talked about the animals and let the kids hold a few. 

Then we came back to the house and had cupcakes and a snack and opened presents. 

After the boys checked out the presents we played a few games.  The first game was find the dog bones.  I cut out a bunch of dog bones and hid them around the back yard.  They had to find them like and easter egg hunt. 

For the next game I wrapped one of the party favors in layers of newspaper.  The kids sat in a circle and passed the present around.  They had to stop when the music stopped and whomever was holding it got to take of one layer of paper.  The favors were animals that grow when you put them in water.

Another game we played was pin the bill on the duck. 

The last game I prepared was a bean bag toss.  I layed out a few animal shaped plates and they had to try and toss the beanbag onto a certain animal to win the prize. 

I'm not a big fan of parties--they are so much work for me and I'm not very creative.  It's always a relief when they are over.  One of the difficulties with this party is that I was nervous about having boys.  It's easier for me to think of stuff girls would like to do.  I must have done OK, though, because Corbin had fun. 

Corbin also got to spend some time with his grandparents.  My mom and dad took Corbin and his cousin Dyson for the weekend.  They got to out to eat and birthday present shopping.  Corbin picked a pair of rollerblades as his present.  He's still a bit wobbly, but hopefully he'll get the hang of it soon.   





Lola likes to do something special for the kids when they turn 8.  For the girls she will buy their baptism dress and for the boys she will buy their scout uniform.  She took Corbin to the scout store to get his scout stuff and they also went to lunch.  Corbin was so excited to start scouts.  He's been looking forward to it since he was 6. 

Happy Birthday!

Reepicheep

We've been reading The Chronicles of Narnia and were recently introduced to a group of talking mice lead by a tough, loyal mouse named Reepicheep.  We've also been watching the movies that go along with the books.  After watching Prince Caspian Corbin decided that he wanted to be Reepicheep, but since he couldn't figure out how to get a feather in his ear like Reepicheep he decided to be Peepicheep.  He spent the day thinking about how he could attach a feather to his ear.  He was able to problem solve and came up with this:

The one bad thing about him pretending to be a talking mouse is that he won't take care of the mice caught in the traps in the garden.  Now what am I going to do with them?

A New Sword and Shield

I have this history book that is filled with crafts and other activities from almost every notable era in history. Corbin and Braedi like to look through it and find something they can do. I don't really like the book because they always want to do these complicated projects that require too much of my time and we don't always have all the materials. I try to be supportive, but I'm not much of a crafty mom. After our trip to the Estrella Wars Corbin started looking through the book again to find a sword and shield. We didn't have time to work on it that day, and the next day I was going visiting teaching so I told him to ask his dad to help him. When I came home Corbin had almost finished the shield and was going to make a sword. AND he did it on his own (with a little modifications)! Then he and his dad had a sword fight.

Corbin's Beta Fish

Yesterday Jonathan took Corbin to buy the beta fish that he's been waiting for. They found a small bowl at Goodwill and bought the fish at Pratt's Pets (one of the best pet stores). The first day it was named Blue Beard, but today he changed the name to Blueberry. We'll see what it's name is tomorrow.

Christmas Recital

Braedi and Corbin participated in another piano recital. Along with their regular pieces, they learned a Christmas song. I enjoyed listening to them learn the Christmas songs and can't wait for future years when they can learn more.

(Can't you tell that Corbin LOVES piano?!?! How do I help him like it?)

Happy Birthday, Corbin

Last Wednesday we celebrated Corbin's 7th birthday. He was so excited for this birthday because it means that he is closer to his 8th birthday--he really wants to go to get baptized and join scouts. He picked going to Peter Piper Pizza for his family activity. The kids love playing the games there and winning prizes. He got a bunch of Kung Zhu toys from us and from my parents.
My mom came over Tuesday night and took Corbin shopping and bought him an icecream cake.

Jonathan's parents come over on Tuesday and took Corbin out for dinner and to the book store.

I Can Tie a Tie

Corbin tied his tie for the first time today.
Usually I will defer tie problems to Jonathan (even though I know how to tie a tie), but Jonathan wasn't there this morning. I taught Corbin how to tie it and he tried and tried and tried until he got it right.

Piano Recital

Braedi and Corbin preformed in their first piano recital today. I love seeing them overcome fears and do something even though they are nervous. They did awesome!


I would have posted the video, but it wouldn't upload.