Malachi and Naomi started taking Karate in November. They just tested for their yellow belts this month and passed. They were so excited. Now all they do is go around the house yelling "Ay" which they are asked to do when they kick or punch. So they are loving Karate so much I wake up to a loud "Ay". They love to practice all hours of the day.
When I was a kid we would have Special Nights. We would get to stay up late and do something special with our mom or dad. So I wanted to start implementing that in my family. So one day each week one kid gets their special night. So today was Naomi's special night. She has really wanted to fly her kite the last week or so, but there has not been enough wind. Well today was windy (and cold) but not raining yet. So I got the kite out and said lets go. We went down to the park and I taught her how to fly a kite. At first she was pretty nervous to take the kite by herself, but she did it. She had a lot of fun. Her smile was priceless. Kite flying, what a great pass time. Well after a good amount of time the rain started to fall. So we packed up and walked home in the rain. It was fun to have the one on one time with Naomi and I look forward to the next special night with the next kid.
Our family are huge gamers. Even the kids love games. Naomi got Twister for her b-day. The kids thought it was the funnest.
Easy does it. Cassidy falling over trying to reach for a spot.
All that game playing tuckered Cassidy right out. She fell asleep in our bed for a nice long nap.
Break time!
This is the cake that consumed my life. (alright a few days of my life) Naomi wanted a princess party so when we saw this cake set I thought I could figure it out. Why I thought that I don't know. Let me put the disclaimer out that I am not a cake maker, nor do I have a talent in this field. So I stressed myself out over this silly cake for a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds. Needless to say it came together, not as well as I had hope. I was literally putting the sprinkles on the cone tops while kids were arriving. So all the fun details like flowers and stuff didn't even come to pass. I don't know why I thought I would have a few hours of time to decorate a cake with a new born, a 2 yr old and a 5 yr old at home. The kids liked it and it tasted good. I guess that's all that matters.
Naomi blowing the candles out.
Even though it took forever to make it took minutes to destroy. Again why do we do these things to ourselves?
This was a really cool pinata. For those of us who feel it is actually dangerous to place a baseball bat in the hands of a 5 year old, blindfold them and let them start swinging than this is the pinata for you. It has a bunch of curling ribbon at the bottom and one is the special ribbon that releases a trap door where all the candy is stored. So the kids line up and take turns pulling their string. It's safe, it's fun, and they can see what's going on.
Musical balloon. Instead of them fighting over a chair we passed a balloon around. When the music stops whoever had the balloon was out.
Malachi received an academic achievement award in reading. His teacher picked him and did cute little write up on him that I listed below:
We were at Pat and Oscars last night for dinner and Malachi keep telling us he had some chicken caught in his teeth. When Darren looked he told him it wasn't chicken he had a loose tooth. Malachi hasn't lost a tooth yet so this was a little scary and exciting for him. He keep wiggling away at it last night and finally went to bed. This morning it was pretty loose after breakfast so he got a tissue and mommy pulled it out. The first thing he said was "Yea now I can eat fudge bars again." (Darren ate one when we got home and Chi was afraid to have one because of his tooth) Now he's ready for the tooth fairy to come tonight.
I grew up on Dr. Seuss and loved it. My mom would read the books to us all the time so I have fond memories when I see all the Seuss movies coming out or when the kids celebrate Dr. Seuss week in school. One of my favorite Dr. Seuss books is: Horton hatches an egg. So when Horton hears a who came out I loved it, being he is one of my favorite Seuss characters. It may have to do with the fact that elephants are my favorite animals too "who" knows? Well the kids got the movie for Christmas and are loving it. We keep it in the van so when we drive the freeways they get to watch it, which lately seems often. We even bought Naomi the Horton hears a who game as seen above. She loves that too. Well I have to say as much as we love the movie it always makes me cringe when they name call in children's movies. Examples "The mayor is being a moron", "The mayor is an idiot", "You boob". I think we get the picture. Well I really got the picture when Malachi came downstairs one night after I put the kids to bed. They were talking and started arguing over something. Sure enough Malachi says, "Naomi called me a boob." I settled the situation and made sure they knew not to name call. I did however go downstairs and had a good laugh over it. Out of all name calling names that is the one she picked up on. Well I thought the name calling was over til Darren came home yesterday from taking the kids to the park. He told Malachi to come and tell me what he called his sister. Malachi softly says "a moron". I then realized that even though the kids don't hear us say these things they pick up on everything. I really wish movies would not put name calling in cartoons where kids find it ok to use. Maybe I shelter my kids a little, but let them be little as long as we can!
Auntie Sina and cousin Sophia with Malachi, Naomi and Cassidy
Naomi's hand on a Gorilla inprint
We finally took the kids to the Wild Animal Park and met Darren's sister Sina there and her kids Sophia and Samuel. The kids had a lot of fun looking at the animals. We can't wait to go back. 
What fun this baby is. I wasn't afraid of what it would be like to have 4 kids and now I know why. Liberty is such a sweet baby. The first week she did have her days and nights mixed up so I was a little sleep deprived, but that is to be expected. I love having a new born around. It was funny (yet not funny ha ha) today I found a bunch of pre-children pictures of myself. Even though I was in pretty good shape at the time I still wasn't satisfied. Boy now after 4 kids what I would give to have that body back!
Sometimes I feel like pinching myself to see if this is all real. Malachi, Naomi and Cassidy have been so amazing through this whole baby process. They can't hold her enough, bring me enough diapers, help throw away enough diapers, even picking out her outfits is fun to them. We were concerned the most with how Cassidy would do with her, but she has been sweet as pie to the baby. I never thought I'd be the mom that asks, can you kids go get me her blanket, or her binky.... but as busy as things get I've done it and they are the biggest little helpers. So here's to you kids!!!
I've come to the resolve that sometimes we are just lame parents. This is one of those times. We cleaned out the garage the day before I went to the hospital. We realized that since we got the kids scooters they have not been riding their bikes. So Malachi still had his training wheels on. Ok he's 6 1/2, so Darren took Chi and Naomi down to the park today and took their training wheels off. Malachi just took off. He was ready. He's riding like he knew just what to do. (well he should by now). Malachi was so excited and can't wait to go ride bikes with his buddy Eli.