Sunday, May 21, 2017

Birthday Party

This year the boys wanted to have an actual birthday party with friends. They got to invite three friends total. We took them to see "Guardian's of the Galaxy 2" then came home for pizza, cake, games and a sleepover. 
The invite Brad made. It's actually the boys faces photo shopped into the picture.



One of the games we played was this saran wrap/prize game. We wrapped different prized throughout this big ball of wrap. When someone got doubles they got to try and get to a prize until someone else got doubles. It was funny to see how excited they got once someone got the the first prize. 

 You can see in their faces how into it they are. We told them a few times that it's a ball and rolls, but they still all tried to just rip though it...
 Until over half was through when Camden finally listened. 

Then they had an Injustice 2 tournaemt. Brad made a bracket and there were prizes for 1st and 2nd. We told the boys that they have played it before and got presents so don't go full force. Cam listened, Beck didn't... Beck won 1st, but I think all of the boys had a lot of fun. 
 One of the boys got really excited the closer he got to winning and kept standing up as he played. 
Then they stayed up way to late I'm sure, but the boys had a lot of fun. Now it's almost time for Jackson's birthday.

Jacks' Book

Jackson made a book in class this week. The top of the page tells them what to write about. I love reading how they spell things and what they think. 
 "I have 4 boys and 2 girl in my family. We have fun."
 "I im a kool man!"
 "I like recess." (he's playing he's a ninja turtle)
 "I have two dogs. Luna is a girl and Eevee is a girl."
"My favorite thing about school is bene (being) friends forevr."
He is pretty proud of his book. 

Random Kids

This weekend was really nice and so we put the pool up for the kids. Jacks' swim suit is a little big on him still. They love to play in the water as long as they have water balloons, so once those go away they lose interest pretty quick. 

 Beck and his "Arrington" throw. (my family isn't the most athletic in the bunch, but we sure try)
 The kids made me mother's day gifts at school. I love seeing how excited they are to give them to me. The boys made flowers. Beck's has the note. 
 Emery made the mom sign. It took me a bit to realize it said mom... or wow depending how I hold it. We now have all of the kids hand prints from kindergarten. I think it is a must do gift for them, but I love getting them. I like this one because it wont break. 
 Camden wanted to make cinnomin rolls the other day and once they were about done cooking I had him make the frosting. Not sure how he did it, but he got power sugar all over his nose. I tell the kids all the time a messy cook is a good cook, mainly because I'm a messy cook like my mom and she was a good cook, so I hope I am too. 

Carnival

The school had an end of year carnival this past week. Brad was a trooper and took all of the kids alone thanks to me having to work more, and the kids had a blast. It was a lot of fun for them and put together well. 

 The balloons the kids got there. Emery's is a bracelet. 
 Emery and her friends. 

Park

Last week we went to the First Federal park. Everyone is so sick of the colder weather, so when we have even semi nice days we take advantage and get out. Good thing it wasn't too hot, because the park is usually packed the warmer it gets outside. 









As I did the boys update I realized that we used to take a lot more pictures. The thing that doesn't make sense is then we had to get the camera out and take them, now that I have one on my phone we don't take pictures very often. I think a good new goal is to take pictures just because and put more random ones on here so the kids have more memories from when they were kids. 

Thursday, May 11, 2017

11 Years Old

Every year it's the same thing when the kids have birthdays, the time goes by way too fast. I was looking through baby pictures of Cam and Beck yesterday and it makes time seem to go that much faster. It's been a fun and interesting year with the boys since  they are really starting to try and figure out who they are...more on that later. They are finding out they don't have to share everything and do the same things all the time. Next school year will be interesting because they chose different electives, so they for sure will have separate classes. They are getting into different hair colors, so we bleached their hair again, this time we did the whole head. 
For their birthday this year we opened up presents before school because they got shirts and we thought they would want to wear them to school. All of the kids were awake and ready by 6:45 am. I guess they were a little too excited. At school they had the big year end math test on their birthday and somehow to each of them this was a good thing and they were glad it was on their birthday. At least they were happy for it I guess. 

I'm not sure if its a normal 5 year old thing or just a 'Brad and Kilie Barnes'  5 year old thing, but Jacks has been like Camden was at 5, very emotional, especially over little things. Not as bad as Cam was, but still lots of fun. With that going on it's been a good look back at how far Camden has come. From 5 to being so sensitive to now 11 and turning into his own person and much happier. He loves to help people, especially at school. Because he is so good at math he likes to help others who don't understand it. He tells me all the times that he stays back and helps in the library or his teacher, which as a mom is so nice to hear. If I ever have a math problem I turn to him and he can do it in his head every time. He really loves to figure things out and build some interesting things. Recently he made a hammock using his door and a blanket. It didn't last long because I made him take it down, but it was still a good idea.  When he and Jacks are in the perfect moods at the same time they are the best of friends and Camden will play with him so well; doing all of the imagination things Jacks loves to do. Then they turn around and annoy each other to no end. Cam has to be right and Jacks.... well Jacks is Brad's son and loves to just bug for the joy of it. He knows what to say and do to get a rise out of Camden and loves to do it. Camden has excelled this year in piano so much. I took a different approach this year with him and it's worked so well. He has played a lot more songs he likes and wants to learn and has gotten so much better because of it. When we moved rooms we thought Camden was the messy twin but he has surprised us and is actually the cleanest of all the kids. He seems to like to cook the most and helps me out when he can, or I let him have full control and see how well he can follow the recipe. Camden is more quiet when it comes to figuring out who he is. He likes to know he did a good job. The only bad thing is he thinks of 100 things at a time and then forgets to do other things. If he's in trouble now it's either bugging Jacks or not doing something we asked a few times because he go side-tracked and did something else. He has asked a lot of questions and was the first one to bring up where babies really come from. I could tell he had been trying to figure it out since the puberty talk. He knew all the anatomy of it, especially the boys side, but couldn't figure out the physiology of it. That was a fun conversation with them...We may be in-store for some interesting questions to come as he gets older. Camden's favorite food is fries. His favorite subject is math, and his favorite toy and game are fidget spinners and "Geometry Dash".

They even blow their candles out at the same time. They went to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Arrington and we had cake after. After sharing so much they did like having their own cake. 
Beckham has changed the most this year as far as becoming his own little person. He tries to be funny, sarcastic, and tough a lot. Sometimes it works, other times not so much. I have a pretty big needed space bubble and he likes to get close, so that's been fun. Another thing he likes to do is make up jokes. Some are funny, others are pretty racist, those we put a stop to fast and have to talk why they aren't actually funny or appropriate. Like Cam he loves math. If I ask how school was he will always say fun, especially if they have a math test. I think he has tried a little more this year to become just Beck, not Beck the twin. He seems to try and do his own thing more than Cam. Even with this, he still loves Cam and needs him around. He's like me and enjoys just hanging out in his room without anyone or any noise. Anything we let them do that makes him feel like he's getting to be more adult like or more responsible he loves. We let them ride to the gas station once and he loved it.  Beck is one to talk, he loses focus because he's always thinking about what he can tell us. He does repeat a lot, but I love that he talks so much and is so open. He always talks about what he wants to be when he grows up and it's always changing. They got a DC fighting game for their birthday, it doesn't come out for a week or so, but he tells me all of the time who he wants on his team and asks who I want. I have to tell him every time that I don't know the names of most of the characters and I don't really play games a whole lot. After we watch a movie, every time he asks what is my favorite part. I try and watch to have a specific one to tell him. Beckham likes to make book ideas or characters. He gets an idea and is obsessed with for a few days then switches onto the next thing shortly after. He is good at just getting things done, mainly so he can have game time. He loves to play video games, so when he's out of game time he usually just follows me around the house. One weird thing he does, (well I think it's weird, Brad said he did it), is he will jump and hit the top of every door opening with his hand. EVERY DOOR EVERY TIME! He likes that he is almost as tall as me and tries to size me up all the time. I can always count on Beck to notice things, he is going to make someone very happy some day. If I cut my hair or get a new shirt or just do something different he notices and comments on it. He is still such a sweet boy. Even when I came in to listen to the puberty talk with them he pulled a seat up for me to sit next to him and gave me a hug in front of his friends. (Cam just said hi and sat away from me ha) His favorite food is sandwiches. Beck's favorite subject is math, and his favorite game and toy are "Destiny" and fidget spinners.
 I love doing these yearly look backs. It really makes me take time to sit down and see all of the wonderful thinks that our kids do and at what amazing kids we have. Just a few pictures I have on the computer of the boys. I had to make myself stop, there are too many good ones. 








Going day to day sometimes it's hard to not look at what frustrating thing they did, but really they are such good boys and that outweighs anything else. I love the little men they are molding into and while I wish it would go slower, I can't wait to see what the next years bring with these two great boys. 

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

If You Give Me Paint

Have you read the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"? That same concept applies for Brad and I and decorating... If you give Brad and Kilie a gallon of paint, then they will re-do all of their decor. It started with our room/bathroom. I didn't like the color in there and wanted to paint it again. Once it was up Brad liked it a lot and we thought it would go well in the kitchen when we finally get to the cabinets in there. Then came the stairs, which I was really glad to paint over that. Then came the planter shelf. Once the wood was done it wasn't really what we wanted it to look like, so we finally took it down and painted that. I think we finally have it how we like it, which is good because we are almost out of blue paint.