Ben's Birthday Cake

As I mentioned earlier I had failed to make a cake for Ben's birthday. The following day was his party and I decided to give it one more try. I did away with the instructions that said to use shortening and flour to make sure it didn't stick and sprayed it with non-stick cooking spray instead (something the directions said not to do.) I then floured it to make sure I had sprayed everywhere and to my amazement the cake came out perfectly. I know now not to read the instructions when it comes to those cakes.

Ben's Scooby Do cake. I almost wrote a 5 on it. Thanks goodness I didn't. :)

I decorated it quickly, got ready for the party, and when it was time for the cake I was so relieved that it had worked. The boys all thought the Scooby Do cake was cool and were excited to eat it. We sang Happy Birthday to Ben, dished out cake to everyone, and then let Ben show the boys how we eat birthday cake at our house.

Ben blew out the candles before we finished singing and I didn't get a picture of him. Here he is before the candles were blown out.

Ben showing the boys, nicely, how we eat cake. It got messier, trust me.

The boys were surprisingly a little apprehensive. I thought for sure they would just dig in with their faces, but instead they looked around at each other. You could just see them asking each other with their eyes, "Is this really OK?" It took a few minutes, but they all started eating cake like Ben and then the mess and silliness began.

The boys starting to dig in.

Here we go. Now we're getting some messy faces.

By the time they were done the boys had cake in their eyes and up their noses. I know they all loved it because it was the first thing they told their parents they did when they came to get them. I talked to our friend Sara awhile later, she's the mother of the twins, and she told me Gavin and Ryker have already informed her that they are going to do that for their birthday. Looks like it may become a Hix traditions too. Sorry Sara! :)

Ben's Party with Friends

The party kids (minus Gracie)

Cy, Sarah Kate, Hannah, Anders, Ben, Gavin, Ryker, and Mckay

This was Ben's first year to have a party with friends. Kenny and I enjoy letting the kids have party's with friends, but we believe the family years are important also. He's been looking forward to this for months and was so happy when the party finally came. He invited 7 friends and 6 were able to make it. We held it the day after his birthday (Friday the 19th) from 5:00-7:30. It was the perfect amount of time and all the boys seemed to have fun.

We started the party off by having some geysers. Grandma and Grandpa Newbry gave Ben a Mento's geyser thing for his birthday and we thought it would be perfect for a group of kindergarten boys. The boys (and my girls) really enjoyed watching how high the geyser went and it made the snow in our front yard very pretty. We did learn that the best kind of pop for a Mento's geyser is cola. Sprites, Root Beer, and any other non cola doesn't work very well, but the cola's (even knock of brands) shoot pop higher than our house. Perfect for little boys.

Standing back, waiting for the geyser to go off.

One of the Cola geysers. They were impressive!

Ben opening his presents from friends.

After the geysers Ben opened presents and then we ate pizza. After that it was game time. We didn't tell Ben what games we were going to play so it was a surprise to him. We started off with an obstacle course. The boys got in two teams and had to climb through things, around things, ride on little toys, make a bean bad toss, and hit friends with balls. It was a total boy thing to do and they loved it.

The obstacle course. Daddy did a great job designing it.

Ben and Gavin racing in the obstacle course.

Next was shooting balloons with darts. We (by we I mean Kenny) attached pins to some of Ben's Nerf darts and taped balloons to a cardboard box. After listening to some important rules about the game, the boys were able to shoot the balloons and see how many they could pop. If they popped one they got a piece of candy. The thing I found most entertaining about this game was that the best shooter was by far Hannah Beth. She shot 3 balloons her first try. Way to go Hannah.

Ben and Anders ready to shoot the balloons.

A view of the balloons. Those kids were surprisingly good at it.

After the balloons came cake. I'll talk about that on the next blog. Let me just say the boys had a blast. When cake was done we sent everyone downstairs to play until their parents came. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the party went. We had just enough time to do everything and the boys never had to wait for activities. Everyone seemed to have fun, but most importantly Ben had fun.

Ben Turns 6

Ben's birthday was February 18th and to be honest I can't believe he's 6. He's getting so big and everyday I'm amazed at what he is becoming and has become. He had a wonderful birthday even though things didn't go the way I would have liked. Oh well! I'm learning that my kids can deal with traditions being broken better than I can.

I had a VERY hard time with Ben's birthday cake this year. I did everything the directions said, very carefully, but the dumb cake just wouldn't come out of the pan. I tried a total of 4 times (yes that may be extreme, but by that point I just had to prove I could do it) and finally gave up around 4:00. Of course being stupid and emotional, I cried and cried and Kenny told me it was OK and we would get Ben a cake at the store for his party which was the next day.

Because of the cake I was SO behind on getting ready for Ben's party. Luckily his friend and neighbor Cy was having a birthday party that day so I sent Ben to the party (from 3:00 to 4:30) and told him his family party would be ready for him when he got home. With Kenny's help we decorated the house, wrapped presents and had the party ready when he walked in the door. I remaining 6 of us blew noise makers as he walked in and yelled Happy Birthday. It worked well and he seemed to enjoy it.

Ben standing with his presents, not wanting to take the time to smile for the camera before he can open them.

Opening his Erector Set. Ben LOVES to put things together.

Of course the first thing he wanted to do was open presents so that's exactly what we did. He had a lot of fun opening his gifts and he seemed pleased with what he got. He didn't get much this year, but thanks to some Christmas sales he managed to get some good things that he liked. His favorite gift would probably by his Nerf ax that is surprisingly softer than their swords.

I love this picture. Ben's opening his present from Grandma and Grandpa Newbry and apparently Gracie thinks it's amazing.

After opening all his gifts Ben found his ax behind the TV. He was SO excited.

Daniel's a little young, but I'm sure when he gets older he'll think the ax is cool too.

After presents we didn't have anything to do. There was no cake (Grrr) and the normal tradition of taking the kids out to eat at a restaurant of the their choice was just not an option this year. Instead we had a normal dinner (I don't even remember what it was) and then the kids played with the new toys for a while before heading off to bed. I was sad and disappointed, but Ben didn't seem to be. He knew he had a party with his friends the next day and that made him happy.

Daddy helping Ben build a car with his Erector Set. Look at that tongue, what concentration.

A Baby And His Blanket

I know of kids who love their blankets and take them wherever they go, but Daniel take his love of a blanket to a whole other level. It can be any blanket (or shirt, pants, coat, whatever he can find) just as long as he can roll around with it and eat it. On Ben's birthday I was finishing up a load of blankets and had left them on the floor in the front room to be folded. I went into the bedroom to talk to Kenny, not more than 2 or 3 minutes and I came out to find that Daniel had found the sheet to our bed.

Yes, he's in there even though all you can see are his little legs sticking out.

He had rolled himself up in it, like a pig in a blanket, and was in heaven. I could hear him making his cute little noises, sucking on his fingers, just enjoying himself. What a little nerd. I let him roll around a little then uncovered his head so he could breathe.

Can you tell by the smile that he was enjoying himself?

Then, of course, after giving me a smile, he had to suck those fingers.

I always try and leave some kind of blanket on the floor for him to play with, but I must say I've never seen him completely roll up in one like he did this day. Maybe it's because he's never found one big enough. Just to prove how much he loves blankets, when I took him out of it he immediately rolled over to another blanket and started rolling in it. The boy LOVES blankets.

The pictures bad, but this was moments after I unrolled him from the sheet.

Lilly and Landon

On Sunday January 31st we headed to Salt Lake to do some job hunting. We spent the night at Kenny's sister April's house and got up the next morning ready to look for work. Kenny spent the next few hours applying for jobs and then we took some time to see family members in the area. As I mentioned earlier my sister-in-law had twin babies on New Years Day. She lives in Salt Lake and after Savannah, her kindergartner, got home from school we headed over to see them.

My 5 and Mindy's 3 (doesn't Dan look huge?)

Lilly and Landon were born New Years Day and when we saw them a month later they were still so tiny. They were both normal newborn weight, but compared to Daniel they looked so little. They were very cute and it was so much fun to see them. Lilly looks like a Newbry and Landon looks just like his Dad. I have a feeling these two will be a lot of fun as they get older.

Ben holding little, sleeping baby Landon.

Gracie LOVED holding the babies.

Hannah and Sarah holding the babies. If you can't tell Lilly is the bigger of the two right now.

Big sister Savannah holding Lilly.

Not the best picture, but Landon looked so small in this swing, I just had to take a picture. Mindy (my sister-in-law) put him in it and he got lost. It was the cutest thing.

After a short visit with Mindy we headed over to my Aunt Val and Uncle Greg's house. Uncle Greg was in the final stages of ALS (or Lou Gehrig's Disease) and we wanted to stop in and visit with them for awhile. It turned out to be good timing because my cousin Jenny was in town from Vegas with her 2 kids Andie (10) and Logan (5). My 2 oldest kids had a lot of fun playing with cousins they rarely see while the adults visited. We didn't stay long, but I was so grateful to be able to visit with them and to see my Uncle Greg.