Birthday week

 Ben was in San Diego for the week (insert sad face) but we still had a fun week and I still got very spoiled.  And watch out, because I might turn into a brat soon, because the spoiling continues this week as we go back to San Diego as a family.  I CANNOT WAIT!

This week:

It stormed!

It was the craziest thing.  All of the sudden, the sky became dark blue and at first you thought, "Wow, this is really pretty." but then lightening started filling the sky and the wind was blowing like crazy.  Here's the thing about the dessert; wind is no joke.  Since there's no buffer for the wind, a little breeze can seem ten times scarier than it needs to be.  This was our first dessert storm and I didn't really know what to expect, so we all hung out in the living room and watched a movie until it passed.

Pre-lightening, when we were oohing and aweing at the sky

This is a glimpse of teaching Colin.  We've been working on spelling his name...a good skill to know, right?  Every day we work on it and every day he answers "I don't know" or "Rnbt" (aka just starts saying letters).  Also, he's supposed to be making a pattern with the bears.  And somehow his pattern turned into a circle of not patterned bears that started fighting each other.

Hilariously though, he'll often listen to Eli's lessons and interject a random answer that is magically right.  It drives Eli crazy, but completely cracks me up.

Eli taught Colin how to play chess.  It was hilarious because he only kind of knows how to play so he was making up rules as he went and Colin just went along with whatever big brother told him.

P.S. I have no idea what happened to this picture.

 Birthday morning, we had blueberry muffins.

I opened the box that Elizabeth and Kent sent (THANK YOU!) and a destroy-the-tissue-paper party ensued.

Alison found it unacceptable to wait to celebrate until Daddy got home on Friday, so we went to Cold Stone Creamery for our party.

The kids have never been and were completely fascinated (or maybe it was the lady's purple hair).  They shared a cotton candy ice cream with marshmallows and sprinkles cup and I got a peanut butter cup creation.

They inhaled this thing!

Who knew marshmallows in ice cream could be so exciting?

The kids dressed themselves that day.  I asked Eli why he was wearing all orange and he said because it made him faster.

cannot keep Eli in front of the camera for the life of me

That night, a friend from church came over for dinner.  Her husband was out of town as well and Alison helped me make schnitzel.

Eli continues to impress us with his massive creations with legos.

Ben got home on Friday and brought a slew of surprises with him.

First, was a plate of giant gourmet cupcakes.

Each of the kids picked a present for me.  Eli got me yellow flowers and Colin got me peanut butter M&M's, both knowing those are my favorite.

Ben got me a giant bag of dark chocolate covered espresso beans (I fell in love with these on our cross country move), some clothes and a set of dumbbells.

Alison very sweetly got me a necklace that she picked out herself and even earned enough money to pay for half of it.  It has a charm that says "Run like a girl" and running shoe charm.  It was so sweet.  Maybe she got the gift giving gene that I lack.

Saturday night, we left the kids at the Y for 'Parent's night out' and Ben and I went on a date!  We tried a local Sushi place and ended back at Cold Stone...Arizona, I tell you, is changing us.

I am feeling so crazy blessed and counting down the minutes until we are on the beach!