Max's 8th Birthday party

Max had a Lego party for his birthday this year.  The boys are way into legos right now, so we went along with the fun.  This cake was by far the hardest one yet.  It was quite frustrating but Max said he thought it was cool so that's all that counts.  I baked 10 different little cakes in bread pans and frosted each of them with the five different colors.  The stacking and not trying to blend the frosting was way harder that I thought.  If I wanted to get really fancy,  I should have used fondant but I don't care that much.  As you can see,  I'm not a professional.  The tops were just marshmallows cut in half.  I'm glad that one is over but, like I said, Max enjoyed it.  For the opening of presents, Nick taught the Spanish kids the "Heavy Heavy Hang Over" game.  They thought is was fun to bonk him on the head with their presents and have him guess who it was. We are super happy to have Max in our family.   He is such a sweet boy and we feel SO blessed he's ours.  In our church the kids are able to be baptized at the age of eight if they choose.  He is really excited and looking forward to being baptized.  We are so proud of who he is and the good decisions he makes.  We love you Max!

Max and his Triathlon

Today is Max's 8th birthday.  Happy Birthday buddy!  We are having his friends party this saturday so I will do his birthday post after that.  He is super excited to be turning 8!  This last weekend, he did a kid's triathlon.  Caden was planning on doing it too but three days before, he cut his foot and had get it glued in the ER.  So it was Max's time to shine.  Nick was able to go along with him and they had a great time. 

Max was in the 7-10 year old group and he got 4th place overall.  He got a medal and was filmed by the little local news crew.  He was so proud and says he can't wait until he can do the next one.

It was a 75 meter swim, 2 mile bike ride and a 1/2 mile run.  Good Job Max!!!

Warming up

Looking at the prizes

Getting ready

His swim

Bike

The run

Getting his medal

Happy Birthday Max. we are so proud!

Jake's 5th B-day party

Today we celebrated Jake's 5th birthday.  He has been looking forward to it for so long.  How do kids grow up so fast?  He chose to have a dinosaur party and lucky for him, I hadn't done one of those yet with the older boys. It was a new and exciting party to plan.   It was fun to have him give me ideas of things to do and help decorate the cake.  He wanted a volcano cake with dinosaurs around it.  He helped me decorate it from the beginning to end.  He was so excited about the lava.  I loved spending that time with him, just the two of us.  It was one of those moments where I was reminded how much I love my job as a mom.  He can be quite the little stinker,  but deep down, he is so sweet and I'm so glad I'm one of the few he will show that side to.  

Happy Brirthday Jake!!! We love you!

Spencer and Tanner's "Spain" birthday party

Since the babies were born here and our friends that saw them grow up during their first year wanted to help celebrate, we had another party for them.   We went with a Spanish theme since we already had their "American" party.  Yes, the Spanish bull on the cake is anatomically correct.  The babies were so tired so we hurried with the celebration part and put them to bed.  We had a great time with our friends and food.  Feliz Cumpleaños!!!

Tired babies

singing with their friends Jennifer and Morgan

Some of the group.  All of the kids were playing outside.

Lucia gave them some new cars

Our cute friend Valeria

Good Job Nick!!

We are so proud of Nick for his hard work as a dentist in the US Navy.  He's really done a great job in all of the clinics he's worked in.  In Japan and here in Spain.  He's constantly being commended for his work an dedication in the command.  It's a big to deal to put on rank in the military. It doesn't happen often so when it does, it's a great thing.  This week Nick put on rank and became a Luitenant Commander in the US  Navy.  He's only been in the military for four years and so this came earlier than usual.  We are super proud of him and appreciate his hard work.  He's a great example to our boys.  I know they are proud he is their dad.  Good Job, Nick.  We love you!

Repeating the oath after Captain Turner

Changing his shoulder boards from Luitenant to Luitenant Commander on his uniform

Isn't he so handsome in his uniform???