Celebrating Ben's Birthday

Jeana gets awesome mom props for deciding to make this Angry Birds cake for Ben's birthday.   Ben loves to play Angry Birds on Jeana's iPhone. It took us most of the afternoon to put it together, following a few different online tutorials.

Jeana invited all of us to celebrate Ben's birthday at Chuck E Cheese.  I think Fernando was impressed with our Angry Bird cake.

Ben loved it.  All of the kids did.

Sweetie was pretending to shoot some video.

The birthday boy taking a bite of a bird.  

Handsome Husband gets really excited about all the tickets at Chuck E Cheese...

Captain Adorable liked this little tractor thing.

I was following him around, helping him spend his tokens.

He saw a game that involved BALLS.

I think he played this game about 3 or 4 times in a row.  I just can't get over how fascinated he is with balls.

This was the PERFECT game for Captain Adorable because you just chuck a ton of balls at the screen.

He wasn't very interested in the ride on toys.  He wouldn't even ride them the whole time.

Captain Adorable helps Handsome Husband feed the ticket machine.

It was nice to see the girls trying to share tokens and play games together.  They go through the tokens really fast, so we had to encourage sharing to make them last.

THIS was Captain Adorable's MOST favorite game of the night.  Basketball!  He was SO unhappy when we pulled him away from it.  

Look at that boy tossing the ball like a pro.

Basket!

High Five with Daddy.

Fist Bump.

Gabby LOVES the driving games just like her brothers.

I thought it was so cute how the girls tried to talk to the mechanical Chuck E Cheese. We had a great time at Ben's birthday party.

Visiting the Temple

Every year we love to take the kids to visit the temple grounds.  This year I thought they would feel extra special if we went inside.  Every temple has a lobby that anyone can go into.  The Portland Temple is unique because it has an atrium just inside the lobby with many plants.  It's the only place inside the temple that you can take pictures.  

The  kids were pulling all sorts of crazy faces for me.

I think they really enjoyed going inside.

After those pictures I took them outside for some more.  They were being so cute running to and from the doors to the temple.

My initial thought was that I'd get to practice taking pictures outside the temple in case I needed to take pictures for a wedding there someday, but really, I don't know what I was thinking.  Trying to get three kids to behave outdoors is hard enough work.

Ballerina is trying to help Captain Adorable up.  Her help was not appreciated by him.

I know, I took too many pictures, but they are just too cute.  And notice how Sweetie's shoes are on the wrong feet.  She's been getting better about that, but every so often...

I love this one of all of them running towards the temple together.  Symbolic?  I hope so!

We met up with Jeana's kids at the reflection pool.  We had a great time trying to keep the kids from running on the walls.

Captain Adorable was mesmerized by the ducks.  There are two that have made the reflection pool their home.

At one point he climbed up enough to dip his shoe in the water.  It's a good thing I caught him or he would have been soaked!

There are the ducks.

And the running.

Kids are just so drawn to water.

Duck!

I made the girls pose for me in front of the temple.

Then we had all the kids come and touch the walls of the temple.

I love this picture of Sweetie.  She is just too darling.

Then we went over to the fountain.  

Ballerina was pretty interested in how the fountain was working.  

She was very pleased with herself when she figured it out.

Captain Adorable LOVES touching the water.

I have pictures of him doing the same thing last year.

THIS is the group of children that Jeana and I are always herding around when we go out.  When you see them all together like that, it's pretty daunting.  And sometimes we have ANOTHER one when I'm babysitting Babydoll.

All I have to say to this picture is AWWWWWW.  Sweetie has a major crush on Ben.  

Captain Adorable found Gabby's pacifier and popped it in her mouth for her.

Towards the end Captain Adorable found a great spot to crawl through bushes and get dirty.  

And THAT was this year's trip to the temple.