Birthday Boy!

We started off the week with a birthday.  Liam is the last birthday of the year.  It also comes at a super busy time of year, but I'm glad it happens before all the craziness.  Hyrum and Lila enjoyed staying up "late" the night before to decorate his chair.  I'm not sure how we got started, but we decorate the chair of the birthday person.  It always ends up being very creative with wrapped ribbons and paper signs.  The kids love it, especially waking up to the balloons in the morning.  Technically, his birthday was on Tuesday, but we celebrated on Monday due to Tim's schedule.  

Usually, I have the kids decide what foods they want, but a two year old really doesn't get it so I picked things that he generally likes.  For breakfast he had crepes with fruit and blueberry, blueberries being his favorite.  Gotta love the messy face!

 

We did presents right after breakfast, because while Tim was home he still needed to work in the afternoon from home.  Liam liked opening presents and has enjoyed playing with new toys.  The other two love them as well and there is plenty of fighting over them.

We ended with white chicken enchiladas.  Liam really loves Mexican food.  He is definitely Tim's burrito buddy!  Hyrum had to swallow the black beans, which are his least favorite...I don't know why because he used to eat them all the time.  He also got chocolate cupcakes, that I managed to not burn.  We have an extremely temperamental oven that is more like an old fashion wood burning stove that you heat up to what you think is the right temperature and then make adjustments to time and temperature as you go.  The kids are pretty good at just cutting off the burned parts and being okay with a hint of charcoal. 

I thought it was pretty funny, because Tuesday morning, his actual birthday, he decided that he wanted to sit at the table with us.  We have tried in the past, but he wasn't into it.  He's sat at the table every since like he has always been there.

We had a full week of school.  The kids continue to do great.  We finished up a couple of major things with Hyrum.  He finished Little House on the Prairie.  We did an audio version, which I love.  While he said that he didn't like it, and was glad to be done, de did.  There were parts that he really got into and some that were particularly sad like when they thought their dog drowned in the river crossing.  He also finished compiling his Thanksgiving facts into a book.  He decided that he wanted to spend extra time on for a couple of days to finish it early, so he could have some extra days off of Social Studies.  He spent a couple of hours on it over the course of two days and finished it in record time.  

We have had some rough days behaviorally/weeks.  The older two tend to get into a lot of trouble...go figure.  It usually gets worse the longer Tim is away or has a schedule that has him away until late at night.  It shouldn't be a surprise, but it always sneaks up on me and it's not until I've had it that I realized Tim's been absent and we are all ready to have him back (more so me than the kids).  They have been getting into trouble in particular during quiet time.  Lila is ready to drop her naps for the most part and I am needing a nap every day due to annoying pregnancy sleep patterns.  Starting Monday she will start quiet time.  She'll spend 30 minutes resting and if she needs sleep she'll take a nap and then get up and if not she'll get up and do some activities that I have prepared.  Hopefully, it will help give them some structure to prevent trouble and allow me at least an hour to get house stuff done and sleep for a a bit.  She's pumped that she isn't taking naps any more!

Tim had a hard week with games.  He had games most evenings and Saturday and Sunday he had two games each day.  He's tired to say the least.  The will have Thanksgiving day off this coming week and fewer games.  Hopefully, soccer will end soon and eventually football will, which will help with the fatigue.  

That's all from us.  Hope everyone has a safe and filling Thanksgiving!