MAJOR Catch up.. Has it been a whole year?

Just about a year ago, Beckett turned 3.  I was distraught that my new reality did not include a 2 year old.  He had a Spiderman party that I never got around to posting about.  I still feel guilty.  He had such a great time and my # 1 memory from the day was Lance leading a game of "freeze dance" (which is what happens when you put Lance in charge of games - they cost 50 cents to execute, they are creative and fun and the kids have a blast).  In freeze dance, you dance like crazy and then when the music turns off you jump on a piece of construction paper.  Lance randomly yells a color and if you are on that color he chucks a piece of candy at you and you go nuts.  He also randomly gives out prizes for "most enthusiastic twirling", "most jumps in a row", etc.  The only way to describe Beckett was that he was going absolutely BONKERS, in a spiderman suit, jumping up and down like crazy.

 My best cake EVER!! 

Freeze Dance blur

On Easter, Beckett will turn 4 and I can't believe that my new NEW reality will not include a 3 year old.  Tomorrow we are having a dinosaur party.  His big request was a cake with dinosaurs and a volcano with hot lava.  I thought I was pretty brilliant turning a bundt cake pan upside down and filling the cone part with cake batter to make the volcano.  I'm not quite done but so far it is looking pretty good!

Beckett and I made the cake together yesterday.  He insisted on wearing his lion apron, which is really Gwen's and says her name right on it, but he hasn't noticed yet.  Then, he asked me to turn the oven light on, he pulled up a chair, and he camped out waiting for the cake to bake.  We had such a great time together.

Believe it or not, other things have happened in the past year that I also have not blogged about!  Darcy had her SIXTH birthday and we celebrated with a cowgirl party.

 Horse cake... not my best work : ) 

Gwen had a school play in November and she was Snow White.  I thought it funny that there was a Goldilocks that was played by a brown haired girl in Gwen's class, while the role of Snow White went to my golden haired child.  (both were singing roles with no speaking lines, so I don't think talent played too much of a part in the casting : ) .  I was so incredibly proud of my big girl up there on stage.  I continue to be amazed as a mom how my heart can beat faster when I spot this little being in a crowd of kids.  Even today, I waited outside the school doors as the bell rang waiting for my favorite time of day - when we walk home from school together.  Kids started streaming out and I was literally excited to spot Gwen in the crowd.  This girl just lights up my life. 

I told my kids they could have "away from home" birthdays at ages 5 and 8, which was the biggest mistake ever b/c we enforced it with Gwen so now we have to enforce it with the rest, even though we have realized that "at home" birthday parties are much harder and end up being more expensive!  So anyway, for Gwen's 8th birthday party she wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese.  Normally this would be a nightmare, but it worked out PERFECTLY for us!  It was on a Monday evening over Christmas break during a BLIZZARD.  The place was totally empty except for us and one other party that got started as ours was almost done.  The kids could actually hear each other talk, have fun together and basically have the run of the place.  Lance and I didn't have any friends or family there, so we actually got to just sit back and watch our kids!  It was awesome!

Unfortunately, I can't find my pics from the school play or the party, but here is Gwen in her Bday hat at age 8.  The hat hardly fits on her head anymore, but I love that I have pictures of her in it starting at age 1 and all the way up so far.

Here is a picture of all 3 kids at Christmas time, going to breakfast with Santa.

Also this winter, we thought we were going to lose our Piper, who just had her 10th birthday.  We were up in the mountains over Christmas and she was hardly moving, not eating, had a lot of blood in her stools, etc.  When we made the vet appointment, we thought for sure we were putting her down, so we all walked to the park and took some pictures of the dogs.  Turns out, she had a million little things that were all treatable so now she is back in business.  Still showing her age, but we are grateful to have her around.  As much as I would like our dogs to go happily live on a farm somewhere, I was very sad when I thought Piper had reached her end.

 Our other dog, Marley, is happy as a clam ever since he got his eye taken out : )  I swear that surgery brought him back to his puppy years!

Somewhere in there Lance had his birthday, but he was out of town for work so we didn't really get any pictures or have a party.  And in March, I turned 35 and we went out to dinner with our neighborhood friends.  Gwen and Darcy's school talks about "filling people's buckets" which you do by being kind, supportive and nice to other people.  My bucket has been overflowing for the past year and I am so grateful.

Ok, I really have to go to bed.  Triathlon season has started and I am meeting friends for a run/bike in the morning and then frantically getting ready for the big dinosaur birthday party!  It felt good to download all the events that had been going through my mind for so long.  I don't have time for scrapbooking anymore and this is such a nice thing to go back to.