Hunt Family Connection

As read on Wil's Facebook page last night.....

"As any parent knows, you can only teach your children so much. Eventually you have let them go out and make their own set of life-altering mistakes. Fortunately, my oldest is only five, so I have a bit more time to mold him...

...or so I thought. We were eating dinner at Taco Time today, and when we were getting ready to leave he told me he wasn't ready to leave yet because he was still hungry. As I turned around, I was telling him how sorry I was that I had already thrown out all our food... only to see he had a burrito in his mouth. Any guesses where he got it?

If you guessed the garbage can, congratulations on making a perfectly reasonable and completely wrong guess. If, on the other hand, you guessed the table next to the door where the homeless guy was trying to eat his dinner, you win. My son simply decided he was hungry, grabbed a crisp burrito off the nearest table, and started munching!

In the end, I think I was the most upset of everyone. Graham was not exactly sorry. (He was hungry, after all!) And the homeless guys thought it was the funniest thing they'd seen all day. Needless to say, I made a small reparation on the way out the door -- my face tomato red.

Apparently I forgot to instill the don't-take-food-off-homeless-people's-tables-or-anyone-else's-tables-for-that-matter lesson in Graham. Here's hoping Ellie learned from his mistake.

I'm going to go hang my head in shame for a bit."

Happy Mother's Day!

It has been a really wonderful weekend - I feel very appreciated and well taken care of!

I guess the Mother's Day celebration really started on Thursday when I went to the Mother's Day Tea at Graham's school.

They sang us a few songs, including THIS ONE, served us cake and strawberries, and had some very fun gifts to give us. Graham was very sweet and polite (on his best behavior!!) and I had a really nice time :)

That night I made Mother's Day cookies to share with some moms....

Mum-Mum was here on Friday to help watch the kids since Sabrina had a day off so she got a plate, we took a plate when we went to visit Kenny's mom and dad on Saturday, and Chery's plate was delivered to her this morning. I sent my mom a package earlier this week, but no cookies in it....hopefully the picture will be even better?? No calories!! lol

On Friday I worked late because the kids were with Wil and Kenny was working late. I had a wonderfully relaxing evening all on my own though....

Saturday morning I got my Mother's Day gift from Kenny - gift certificates for a mani/pedi and for my favorite foot massage place (must make an appointment soon!) We enjoyed the morning coffee/tea out on the patio - so happy that the sun is shining again. We took Sammie to Portland with us for a visit to Kenny's parents - my first time meeting them :) Saturday night we went for a nice walk around the neighborhood, then came home to sit by a campfire in the backyard.

This morning we met Wil and the kids for breakfast....

They brought me some balloons, chocolates, and this beautiful arrangement :)

And here's a shot of the other goodies the kids made for me...

After breakfast we stopped by Grandma Chery's house to drop off her cookies and card, and somehow managed to get a halfway decent picture of me with the kids...

(gosh I love them!! makes me smile looking at this picture again)

We said goodbye to the kids, and headed to the mall for my mani/pedi - such a treat! This afternoon Kenny agreed to go to a movie that I wanted to see and he had very little interest in. I came home and called my mama and had a nice Sunday afternoon chat.

It was a WONDERFUL weekend. I'm feeling quite loved and appreciated and I'm feeling incredibly grateful to be a mom. Best. job. ever!

Walking/Playing with Grandma Chery and Campfire in the Backyard

These days it feels like I'm always trying to catch up when I post here! I'm about a week behind, but determined to keep documenting, even if it's after the fact.

Last Saturday (05.04.12) we met up with Grandma Chery to go for a walk. She managed to get a shot of us walking toward her (love that she got this shot - thanks Chery!)

We continued walking up the street, stopping to visit a yard sale, and then stumbling upon a church/daycare playground. It was such a great sized playground for the kids....they had a blast climbing!

Grandma Chery even got in on the action!

Of course Ellie had to get some swinging in....

(every night I ask the kids what their favorite thing about the day was....Ellie ALWAYS says swinging!)

And my sweet boy....

.....he picked me some flowers :)

We made a quick stop for juice at Grandma Chery's and Pa-Paw's house before heading back home....

There was a little bit of a chill in the air, so we started a little campfire in the backyard Saturday night (and when I say "we", I mean Kenny started a fire!)

The kids were a little scared of the fire when it was getting started, they were holding hands and keeping their distance...crazies!

We had a little Taco Bell for dinner in celebration of Cinco de Mayo :) and then we broke out the marshmallows to roast for dessert. That got the kids much closer to the fire.

Not a bad day at all - lots of playing and ending with marshmallows. Good times, thumbs up!

Updating with some video

Thanks to Pa-Paw for sending me the video of Graham snorkeling previously referred to in THIS POST. I've watched it about three times now tonight and I'm just stunned every time.

Now before you watch I want you to remember that this is the same child who was TERRIFIED to get into the pool for swimming lessons just a few years ago....he's made so much progress! I have to give most of the credit to Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery on this one. They've been consistently getting Graham into the pool outside of our swimming lessons and pushing him to go a little further all the time, helping him to become more confident and comfortable in the water.

I'm so impressed with my little man - take a look at him SWIMMING here: Graham Snorkeling

WITL - Sunday 4.29.12

I know I covered last Sunday, but since that was kind of unusual weekend day being Graham's birthday, I thought I'd throw in one more. My Sundays without the kids look a little different...for example, mornings are a bit quieter and no one is running under my feet while I try to fix breakfast.

I decided it might be better to do my shopping EARLY, to avoid all of the Sunday shopping craziness, so I headed out to do that, and Kenny took care of cleaning up the house.

Kenny mowed the lawn while I took some pictures of flowers blooming, and then I helped by sweeping off the patio

Kenny caught me doing something I do often....

....checking the iphone - looking at Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, text messages, or playing Bejeweled!

With the work all done by noon, we headed out for a walk with Sammie.

It was beautiful out there :) And Sammie had a blast since we let her off her leash to run to her heart's content!

We were pretty happy to be out there too....

We drove around enjoying the day and looking around the countryside a bit, then headed home. I grabbed a shower and then sat outside in the sun with my US Weekly magazine :)

The rest of the evening was pretty quiet. I did call to check in on the kids...I kind of get to really missing them by the time Sunday night rolls around. Gotta love technology!

And speaking of the kids....Wil shared some pictures of what their Sunday looked like.

Graham helped his daddy make a potting bench, and Ellie helped plant the seeds - teamwork! If you'd like to see Graham working on his bench, you can catch the video HERE.

They had dinner at one of their favorite places...Chicken Bonz. Graham is waiting in line to get change to play DIg Dug, and Ellie is finishing up her eats.

And finally a shot of Graham playing the baritone (previously played by his daddy and before him, Great Uncle Bill)

There's actually a little video of that HERE.

And that brings yet another Week in the Life (+1 day) to a close. Thanks to everyone who contributed video or pictures to the project. I'll be putting pages together and printing them for my WITL album - you can find links to the posts and the finished pages by clicking on the Week in the Life category in the column on the right ----->

WITL - Saturday 4.28.12

Saturday we had planned to take a friend of Kenny's fishing, but for a number of reasons, we never quite made it to our destination.

But no worries, we returned home with some logs to split....

The wood splitting was Kenny's job of course, while I kicked back and soaked up some of the beautiful and much needed sunshine!

We had a wonderfully quiet and lazy afternoon/evening....and enjoyed an awesome fire in the fireplace while watching tv :)

Wil said he took this picture of Ellie after noon - that she fell back asleep before 9 that morning and slept waaaay in.

He thinks she might have been having a growth spurt as she complained of some aches, but never indicated any other symptoms of illness.

They picked up Graham from Grandma Chery and Pa-Paw, then headed to Saturday Market....

....and enjoyed smoothies.

WITL - Friday 4.27.12 continued

All right - finally getting around to documenting the rest of last weekend to round out my Week in the Life posts. I already posted about most of Friday, but I wanted to be sure to include the rest of the story.

Jim and Chery picked Graham up from preschool and had a special birthday afternoon/evening with him since they were out of town on his birthday the week before. They took him to the hotel where they were staying and let him open his birthday gift.....

.....snorkeling gear!

Luckily (and not so coincidentally!) they were staying at a hotel with a pool :) I'm told that with a lesson and some practice time, it wasn't long before Graham was doing it on his own.

I'll have to see if I can find a way to get the video from Pa-Paw, but it was so impressive to see my boy SWIMMING in there all on his own....no floaties!

snorkeling with Pa-Paw

and with Grandma Chery!

Dinner was at the Outback (near their hotel) - they improvised with the birthday dessert, substituting a crayon for a candle :)

Rumor has it that G was very sleepy during dinner after all of the swimming/snorkeling. He was so excited to have this special time with Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery - so fun to have the birthday celebrating go on and on...

And while Graham was having a special time with Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery, Eleanor was having a special date night with her daddy.

They had dinner at Ax Billy Grill - Wil said that Ellie wanted to eat up high, so they got a window seat and looked down at the city.

Dessert was at Voodoo Donuts....

Then the walked around a little bit, taking in some Blues street music by Daddy's office, and then hanging out at the game store for a bit.

And a shot of Miss Independent brushing her teeth before bed...

So it looks like everyone had a good evening :) I'm so grateful to Jim, Chery, and Wil for sharing pictures and stories for Week in the Life. I'm still editing pictures from Saturday and Sunday, but my plan is to have them blogged before the weekend is over.

Visiting the Dentist

I can't say enough good things about Dr. Helen Lester and the people at her office - they have been so wonderful! So wonderful in fact, that Graham absolutely LOVES going to the dentist.

And why wouldn't you love going when you can wear cool glasses like that?! Graham is a rock star there - they love to see him and he is soooo cooperative and easy to work on. I sat there in a bit of amazement really....it's good to see him following directions for someone ;)

Dr. Lester says his teeth look great - no cavities! He also demonstrated his brushing technique and that got a big thumbs up too.

Ellie had asked if she could go with us to the dentist, so I thought it would be a great time for her to at least see what went on there and see how easily Graham did it all. Dr. Lester invited her to ride up and down in the chair, but she wasn't too sure about the whole thing....

We convinced her to ride on my lap first, and then she was willing to do it on her own. She absolutely refused to open her mouth though. That's right....my baby girl who can't stop talking, wouldn't open her mouth. At all. Not even when she was made aware of the treasure box. Didn't matter.

It's not a bad start...we'll try it again next time :)

Just one more quick story about the dentist visit....
As we were walking into the building (and past a number of windows), Graham and Eleanor were holding hands. Graham actually stopped at one point and wanted to give her a kiss (he's always had a lot of love for her and he's such an emotional little guy!) I kind of giggled a little and told them to c'mon and hustle along. Well, while we were waiting our turn to go in, a woman came out and said she had seen the kids through the window and thought the whole kissing thing was adorable. I mumbled something about them "having their moments"....but she encouraged me to be sure and enjoy every bit of this time with them. She said her kids were grown, and that she really misses this stage that my kids are in. It was a pretty great reminder on a day that was kind of rushed, crazy, and busy. These are days to enjoy....no need to rush them along at all.

Visiting Pa-Paw and Ellie's ABCs

Taking a break from the WITL weekend posts as I'm still editing the pictures I have, and waiting on some more pictures and videos from others.

Yesterday Pa-Paw had knee replacement surgery. Everything went very well and he was feeling GREAT, so after work I picked the kids up from daycare, grabbed a little dinner to go, then went to the hospital to see Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery.

The kids munched on chicken nuggets and fries and we shared some with Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery too :) We had a very nice visit and even ran into daddy before leaving.

On the way home, Ellie started singing the ABC song. I have never heard her sing the ABC song, but she did a pretty good job of it! I held up my phone to try and capture it....you can check it out HERE. You can hear that we have a little work to do around the middle, but I was really impressed :) I can only assume that this is something Sabrina has been working on at daycare...awesome!!

WITL - Friday 4.27.12

Finally Friday! Graham woke up to his alarm (first time all week that the Yoda alarm clock was able to wake him up) so we had plenty of time to get ready this morning. Ellie wanted a PB&J for breakfast....

....and Graham wanted to play on the computer and eat at Sabrina's. The deal was he had to get himself all dressed and ready to go first.

Ellie chose an interesting place to do some reading before getting dressed....

Arriving at daycare....

Still trying to make some progress on that pile of files at my desk, then off to meetings for the rest of the afternoon

After work I met up with a couple friends at B2 to chat and enjoy a nice glass of wine to get the weekend started...

And then home to a very quiet house....

While I'm happy to have some quiet time, time to recover, and time to get things done....I still miss them when they're gone.

Kenny and I went to Dickie Jo's for dinner....

Can't say enough about the awesome customer service we received. They got Kenny's order wrong, so the woman who brought us our meal whisked it away and returned with the burger done the right way, and a $10 gift card as an apology. We will definitely return :)

Home to watch a movie, then bedtime....it's been a long week!

WITL - Thursday 4.26.12

Thursday I had a meeting at Graham's school, so I let everyone get a slow start since we didn't have to leave until 8:30ish. Graham took full advantage and slept in....

Graham LOVES his Iron Man costume and regularly wears it to bed. Looks like he was also playing with the helmet the night before.

Ellie was up bright and early though, and demanded to choose her own clothes. Once we had a discussion about the weather and what dresses she could choose from, she picked this one...

And then she insisted on getting herself dressed, "I got this!"

While this was all going on, G woke up. He can dress himself, but often asks for help or needs reminders to stay focused :)

Ellie has been asking to take her books to daycare - here she is doing some reading while waiting for me to be ready to go....

I dropped Ellie off at daycare and then took Graham to preschool. Awesome art to pick up today, including a bowl that Graham designed! Looks like it's the perfect size for mac&cheese....

After dropping him off I stayed to attend another Family Fun Night meeting (I'm on the planning committee!) I'm in charge of tickets....

After my committee meeting, I made a quick stop at the Itty Bitty Consignment sale - they have them twice a year and it's usually a great way to fill out the kids' wardrobes. I needed some summer clothes for Eleanor, and I'm always looking for shoes.

Found lots of goodies - mostly summer clothes, shoes, and a swimsuit for Eleanor, but a few pieces of clothes and a pair of sandals for G too.

Back to work to write a report for an afternoon meeting, then attended two meetings to end the day. With no idea what to do about dinner, I was thankful for Kenny's offer to pick up a pizza on his way. The pizza was a big hit, but Ellie had a little bit of a meltdown after dinner. I think she was just tired, so every little thing made her cry. We asked her to cry in her room, and let her know she could come back out when she was done....

(she was back there for quite awhile...a little bit dramatic this one!)

Once she recovered, we opened up a package from Nana. She fixed the Easter dress she had made for Ellie (the sleeves were a little tight) AND she made a matching dress for Ellie's baby pirate!

Awesome Nana - THANKS!!

On to bath time...the kids used to take baths together, but for some reason it just wasn't working well and things got a little crazy in there. So now Ellie goes first, and then Graham comes in when she's done. Everyone is much happier about it now. Ellie's independence is carrying over to the tub and she wants to wash her own hair and body....

She does a pretty decent job! She even wants to rinse her own hair and asks me to hold the washcloth over her eyes for her.

Finally, we've made it to bedtime. Ellie gets stories first while Graham is still in the tub.

Ellie's favorite book right now is Charlie the Ranch Dog - I like it too, but after a whole week of it I sometimes encourage her to choose something else. Tonight we read the new books that I picked up at the consignment sale.

A little rocking while hugging my baby girl...I know this won't last much longer, so I take as much as I can get :)

Then I got Graham out of the tub and ready for bed....his favorite book right now is his Lego Star Wars character encyclopedia...

Hugs from my boy - good stuff :)

Some blogging and tv before falling asleep in the recliner, and then it's bedtime for me too.

WITL - Wednesday 4.25.12

With no kids to get ready, I had a chance to run to the grocery store for a few quick things this morning....

A quick stop back at home to put the cold stuff away, and then off to the district office to tackle some paperwork....

It all went pretty well until I had a difficult phone conversation with a parent....sometimes it doesn't go quite like I think it will.

(notice there's still a sizey pile of files there too - boo!)

Two big meetings this afternoon - I find I'm often in my car going from one school to another....trying to make it to my meetings on time.

It's Graham's job to feed Sammie - it's usually the very first thing he does when we get home. I encouraged him to ask for a raise now that he's 5, so he gets 10 cents a day for it :)

Got some pretty awesome mail today too....

That's right, a birthday package for Graham to pick up AND a belated birthday card from Darth Vader! The birthday celebration continues :)

Ellie waiting for dinner while watching tv....

While I try (unsuccessfully) to come up with a meal plan and shopping list....

And to wrap up the Wednesday post, preschool art from Graham.....

(the white painted circle is the Earth Graham tells me - an Earth Day project)

....and a beautiful drawing from Eleanor.

 

WITL - Tuesday 4.24.12

Fixed one of my favorite quick breakfasts this morning - bacon/egg/cheese sandwich!

Overheard the kids playing together this morning before school...

Ellie asked Graham, "and what is this guy's name?"

Ellie played with Sammie some while waiting for G to finish getting ready to go (seriously - it's just crazy trying to get these two ready and out of the house in the morning!)

As often as I can, I pick Graham up from preschool over my lunch time....

Instead of taking him back to daycare today, I took him to school with me to have some lunch before his Kindergarten orientation!

Kindergarten orientation went very well. Graham enjoyed touring his new school and spending some time in the Kindergarten classroom. The big finale was taking a ride around the block on the bus. Graham asked if he could go by himself....when I said yes, he marched right on and never looked back at us! I managed to get a shot of him on his return (still not very worried about where we're at!)

It was back to work for me after orientation - a little more paperwork to be done at the elementary school, then back in my car to get to the middle school for a meeting....

Though my contract day is supposed to be done at 4:00pm (ummm....right!) this is not an uncommon sight at the end of my work days....

Tuesday night the kids were with Wil, so I ran some errands after work (also not uncommon for my non-kid days!) - Costco!

Then a quick stop to pick up dinner for Kenny and I - no cooking tonight AND we get to eat in the living room instead of at the dinner table (it's the little things we get excited about!)

Finally a little quiet time in front of the tv with the last piece of G's birthday cake in my favorite chair - heaven  :)

WITL - Monday 4.23.12

Mornings start pretty early around here, and my goal is always to try and get myself up and ready to go before the kids so I can help them get ready. On a good day, I even get a little time to myself before they get up....Monday was one of those days and I got a few minutes on my computer before Ellie was up.

Ellie's usually the first one up - this is how I found her this morning (she loves books!)

We took some time to snuggle and watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse...

Our morning routine varies by day, depending on who gets up when and whether or not G has preschool that day. I know I'm going to need to change that up next year when G starts Kindergarten, but for now we go with the flow. This morning it was easier than most days to get them out the door for some reason. They like to take toys to daycare - today G chose his light saber and Ellie took her duck.

And we're off!

I spent most of my Monday right here...

 ....writing reports, met with a parent, and consulting with staff. It was a fairly productive day and I ended it with a long afternoon meeting before picking the kids up from daycare and heading home to enjoy the beautiful weather.

I did have to make a quick stop at the post office to pick up a letter....I rarely take the kids on errands like these, but the man standing behind me in line said that "for 2 and 5 they have been really well behaved" (it was a bit of a wait and Graham was apparently dying of thirst!!)

Most Monday nights Faith joins us for dinner - sometimes there is homework to be done before dinner.

But luckily there was time for fun too...Faith is so patient with the kids and they love playing with her.

More playing outside...

A tiny bit of a melt-down (can't remember now what it was all about, but I'm sure it was very important!)

And Kenny got this pretty adorable shot of Sammie...

I snuck in the house to pack the kids' suitcase for a night at their dad's on Tuesday, and then got everyone back in to get ready for bed.

I love it when we can all get outside to play before and after dinner - the sunshine made for a very good day :)

WITL - Sunday 4.22.12

So it might have been a little bit crazy to take this on right now, but Ali says it's time for Week in the Life 2012 and I have a hard time saying no to that :) So I decided to start on Sunday. I've already blogged about Graham's birthday, but there were some other things that went on that day that I didn't share in the birthday post.

The first being Graham's choice of birthday breakfast (not at all different from his request for breakfast pretty much every weekend) - MUFFINS!

They also each got their own pear - they LOVE the fresh pears. Grapes is another big favorite here right now.

Ellie's been wanting to get herself dressed in the mornings, and has been doing a pretty awesome job of it! On this particular morning though, she had a bit of confusion about what order things go in....

Still makes me giggle. She's not really wearing underwear yet (at least not for me - I think this pair came from her daddy's house) but we're getting close. I got some princess underwear at Costco, but I just don't think she's quite ready to make the jump. Maybe I'm not ready either....this potty training stuff if hard work! She is going more regularly now....so we'll just keep working on it. The goal is to have her fully trained by the fall so she can go to preschool.

Graham really likes playing on the computer I've set up in the kitchen. He's limited to only going to a couple of websites - Nick Jr. and Disney - but he finds plenty of games he likes to play there.

Once we all ate and got dressed for the day, we decided to take Sammie out for a walk and give Graham a chance to ride his new scooter. Ellie volunteered to walk Sammie....

....though there is some question about who was actually walking who :)

Graham enjoyed getting out there on his scooter and rode it a little over halfway before deciding he was too tired to keep going. I tried to get them all to stop and look at me...

....but this next picture definitely better reflects the tone of our walk.

When we got back from the walk, Wil arrived to take the kids out for lunch with Mum-Mum and Pop-Pop and then he offered to keep them until the party so I could get everything together.

It was a GORGEOUS day on Sunday....

So I ended up taking a little bit of time to sit in the sun and just relax a little bit before the afternoon festivities.

Not long after I sat down, Kenny came out with the clippers and started trimming up a few of the trees in the backyard. I felt a little guilty just sitting there, so I helped him haul off the debris to the side of the house, awaiting room in the yard waste bucket.

After all of that was done though, it was right back to my chair on the patio for a little snack and light reading :)

Then it was on to party prep and then the actual party itself. Here's a picture of Graham with his cake that didn't make it into the birthday recap post....

When we finally got home from the event, the kids ran around outside a little bit more to expend some of the chocolate cake energy. Ellie got some bubbles from Mum-Mum, so we played with those a bit. And then it was time for bed. It was pretty easy to get Ellie down (she was pretty wiped out by then!), but Graham had trouble getting to sleep....there were too many birthday goodies to play with!

I stayed out in the kitchen for a bit waiting for him to settle in and unloaded pictures from my phone and camera....

But I was so, so tired, so I didn't do much more than just get them up onto the computer before heading to bed and falling asleep myself.

So now you've see the rest of Graham's birthday day and our Sunday. I edited Monday's pictures last night so hopefully I'll stay awake long enough to get that blogged later on tonight after the kids go to bed :)

Birthday Weekend Recap

For two nights now I've tried to finish editing photos from this weekend and post about it all, but for two nights I have completely passed out and fallen asleep with the computer in my lap. Crazy, busy times, but definitely GOOD times :) So tonight I'm hopped up on chocolate cake, the birthday pictures are edited, and I'm determined to get this done!

Kenny asked if he could give G his present on Saturday morning.....

....a Star Wars fishing pole! He wanted to give it to him on Saturday morning so that Graham could go out fishing when he and Faith went out that afternoon. Of course Kenny tried to teach him how to use it, but if you have a 4 or 5 year old, you could guess that Graham already knew ALL about it and didn't need any advice (yeah, right!) He only threw the entire fishing pole once while practicing casting :) Good to get that out of the way before you get to the water! The pole came with some "practice fish" so Graham did some fishing off of the play structure.

No one caught any fish when they went out later, but I think they all had a good time. Graham didn't throw the pole into the water, but he managed to fall in and get all wet. I'm so happy that he enjoyed the adventure - I've been looking for ways to keep him outside more as it gets nicer.

Later that afternoon we Skyped with Nana and Papa so they could see him open their presents. 

Graham's very excited to have some new games for his Leap Pad :)

I also decided to let him open one of my gifts - just to spread out the celebration and help him enjoy the beautiful weather....

....on his new Star Wars scooter! Again, trying to keep him outside more often than he's on the computer or Leap Pad. He's been a little disinterested in learning to ride his bike, so I thought this might be a good in between step.

It was so nice out and we spent a lot of time outside...

I even caught Ellie trying out G's scooter ('cause she can do anything her brother can! lol)

(she actually does a pretty decent job on it!)

 On Sunday morning he got the rest of his presents from me and presents from Eleanor - some Star Wars and Spiderman stuff...

Love his happy face when he opened the Lego Star Wars character encyclopedia :)

(we've been reading about 6 characters/night before bed - he's hooked!)

Right before lunch Wil came to get the kids to hang out with Mum-Mum and Pop-Pop before the party. Worked out well that they got to spend some time with him, and I had some time to prepare for the party without little people at my feet. Party prep included cake decorating....

....and getting everything to Chuck E. Cheese's so that we had a bunch of reserved tables together.

Graham wanted his party to be at Chuck E. Cheese's this year - definitely one of his favorite places. And with the weather being as unpredictable as it's been, it seemed like a decent idea. He also wanted to have a Star Wars themed party - thank you Target for having these awesome inflatable light saber favors! Little buckets of tokens and some Star Wars activities sheets also awaited his guests.

Soooo many fun shots from the party - it's hard for kids to NOT have a good time at Chuck E. Cheese! I think the big kids and even the adults had a good time too :)

Justin playing a driving game with his light saber at the ready!

Faith and Krissy playing skee ball - I got some skee ball in myself later on :)

Ellie and Sabrina getting their Nascar on!

Josh and Melissa playing Guitar Hero (I caught Melissa playing again by herself!)

Can't believe how big these boys are getting to be

Brian and Sam racing

Graham playing his favorite game in his party hat :)

CAKE!

And presents - this is a Yoda alarm clock from Faith :)

Graham tells me he had a great birthday and if he's happy, then I'm happy! We are so very blessed to have so many family and friends (both near and far) to celebrate this special occasion with. Thanks to everyone that remembered Graham with gifts, cards, and happy birthday wishes - it made his day very special!

Graham is FIVE!

Five. I'm so very happy to be celebrating this day with Graham. In some ways it feels like the last five years have just blown by us, and in other ways it's so hard for me to remember a time when he wasn't part of my life. Today Graham is FIVE!

Of course I have to dig back through my pictures and remind you of what he looked like when he first came into this world...

The day itself is a little bit fuzzy, because I was awake all night long before he finally arrived at 8:18am, but I do remember it being a pretty awesome experience.

 Watching him grow has been pretty awesome too. He's such a sweet boy - loving, curious, and thoughtful - I feel quite proud to be his mama :)

Right now Graham:

• is totally and completely into Lego Star Wars - he's been carrying a LEGO catalog around for weeks!
• is learning so many new things, both inside and outside of school
• is a pretty great big brother to Eleanor - Sabrina says he looks out for her at daycare too!
• is a happy preschooler - he seems quite comfortable at his school
• would be completely happy with a diet of french toast sticks, pears, and mac&cheese
• wants to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels
• likes to sleep in the mornings and sometimes has a hard time getting going
• doesn't love to sleep so much right away at bedtime - keeps popping back out!
• loves the water(swimming), tennis, and the Lego Star Wars video game
• loves his Pa-Paw more than any of those things and would drop everything to go hang out with him
• Often talks about family that doesn't live here - he really remembers people and places where we have been
• wants to be a police officer when he grows up
• is excited about going to Kindergarten in the fall
• sometimes has trouble following directions
• does math (adding) and is starting to learn to spell words too
• asks so many questions - he wants to know how everything works
• is LOVED - he is lucky to have so many people that care about him

Such a happy day!! LOVE you Graham :)

Preschool Birthday Party

The birthday weekend celebrations have begun! This morning I took some rice krispie treats (made by Kenny - THANKS Kenny!) for G's snack time at school.

Graham got to wear his birthday hat and blow out a birthday candle while everyone sang to him.

If you'd like to see some video of it, you can click HERE

It was fun watching him at school - I obverve so many kids for my work, it was nice to be watching my own child...just for fun!

The weather was so warm and on its way to being sunny, so I decided to let G stay and play for a bit after school - another special treat to kick off the big birthday weekend :)

We had family dinner at Red Robin tonight (Graham's choice) then played with balloons a bit before bedtime. Not a bad way to start a very special weekend :)

Sign of spring....

I'm not sure why, but I just haven't been taking many pictures this week. I don't know if it's the dreary weather, or if things are just too busy to do much more than work and get through the day.

While I've been slacking off, Kenny stepped up and showed me this picture that he took with my camera...

It reminded me that it hasn't really been raining non-stop (even though it feels like it!) and it reminded me that spring is just around the corner. That flower is the only one out there in the backyard right now, but I'm sure more will be popping up soon and the sun will shine again.

And how cool is it that Kenny did this? Every once in awhile he'll grab the camera (mostly when I'm not around) and capture a bit of everyday life. He's also taken it upon himself to make sure that I'm in the pictures every now and again....to prove that I'm a part of the story too :) It's going to be fun involving him in A Week in the Life this year (by the way - that's coming up on Sunday if you want to play along!)

Knock knock....

Eleanor has always stayed in her crib or bed, yelling for me when she was ready to get up...or in her words, when she is "done weeping"!

Her door sticks a little, so it's hard for her to open it on her own. Not that she has ever tried...well, until today. I was sitting in the kitchen eating my breakfast when I heard a tiny little knocking. Instead of yelling for me, she had gotten herself out of bed and was standing at her door, knocking quietly to get out.

I certainly like this approach much better than the yelling that tends to disrupt others :) I'm afraid it won't be long before she figures out that whole door thing too and is up and out whenever she wants.

No more training wheels

In a week my boy with be 5. FIVE! Last weekend he decided that it was time to get the training wheels off of his bike. So Kenny did just that....

I think that Graham thought he was going to just hop right on and take off without any problems.

Well needless to say, that's not quite what happened. You can see video of his first few tries HERE, but let's just say this is going to take some practice.

He was a good sport about it, but was more than ready to take a break after a handful of runs. I have no doubt that he'll figure this out soon, but I think we need to find a bigger space to practice...somewhere he can just keep going and going.

There is no doubt....he's getting to be a very big boy :)