Not a Baby

Lately Alex has been telling me that he's not a baby.  I'll ask him is he's a baby, and his response will be, "No baby!"  Then he'll pat himself on the chest and declare, "Mine!" which is how he describes what he is.  He's such a funny guy. 

 

Last week we went out to buy him some underwear since he's shown such interest in the bathroom lately.  When I showed him the package of bargain underwear, he declared, "No!" and pointed down, "Choo choos!  Train!"  He liked the Thomas underwear.  I bought both.  Now both he and Logan have Thomas underwear in the same size.  At least they aren't the same pictures.  I'll probably still get them mixed up.  I'm counting on Logan's looking more worn. 

 

Anyway, as much as he likes to sit on the potty, as picky as he was choosing underwear, and as excited as he was opening the packages, he was hesitant to put them on.  I don't mind; after all we've never pushed potty training and we've never had a battle with it.  I just want him to have the option when he's ready.  

 

He did decide to wear some 'choo choos' a couple of days ago so I whipped out the camera.  These fit him a lot better than when Logan and Annie got underwear at the same age.  He's definitely my biggest (normal size?) kid. 

He lasted for a few hours and felt like a big boy.  After the second accident, he wanted a diaper though.  That was good timing for me.  I was ready to be done with it for the day too.

Logan Turns Six!

Logan had his sixth birthday on Friday.  The day before he wanted to know at exactly what time he would be six.  So the morning of his birthday he watched and watched the clock.  It's a good thing he was born at noon and not later!  He wanted to be aware the moment he turned six!  He is such a great kid.

 

Here's the official six year old picture.  This kid is so tiny and yet incredibly mature.  I'd say his body is too small for his age, and his mind too old.  There sure is an amazing boy packed in there! 

That evening we went as a family to Noodles N Company for dinner, Culver's for ice cream (both with coupons making it a $12 night...yeah!), and back home for presents. 

After he opened his presents we played the game we'd given him.  It was a clearanced $5 find at Toys R Us that I bought for $2 with a coupon, so we weren't expecting much, but it was actually fun! 

The next morning he was up early and excited to put together his Lego space shuttle that my mom sent him.  This was excellent because it meant he let us all sleep in, and he had something to occupy his time while waiting for his birthday party.  For the first time ever, he didn't make himself crazy with anticipation on a party day!  I was super impressed how quickly he put this together.  He was almost finished by the time we decided to get out of bed.  :)

He had chosen this cake a couple of weeks ago because he loves space.  However, I couldn't find toy astronauts ANYWHERE to put on top of it (without paying expensive online shipping), so two days before his party we'd decided on something else.  Then I had a phone call from a friend who'd found this Lego space rover and astronaut.  She'd bought it for him as a gift and wanted to know if we'd like to have it early.  Sweet!  I'd mentioned the cake situation casually to her, and she was so thoughtful to go out and find this for him.  Then we were surprised to find that my mom's gift had also included an astronaut; they even match!

This cake was seriously the EASIEST ever.  I was even supposed to make the frosting messy.  Yes!

Here he is getting excited for his party.

He had six friends over (plus he unexpectedly invited the 4 year old neighbor girl to join in) for his party.  We had a LOT of boy energy!  These pictures crack me up because he is SO tiny next to his friends.  I have to wonder if I was even this small at his age.   

They played a few water games, and also just played around a lot.  The first game was 'asteroid ball'.  It involved hanging onto the space ship (jump rope) while trying not to get hit by the asteroids (wet socks).

The second game was a cup balancing contest.  Some of these boys were amazing!

Denver was our undefeated champ. 

Walter was his closest rival.  They had a VERY long contest.

Last, they played drip drip drench.  Or at least they started to before it turned into a water fight.

I wanted the kids all together for a group shot so just because I think it's amazing how tiny Logan is.  Thankfully, it doesn't bother him at all.  He has a great attitude about everything.

The kids oohed and aahed over the cake.  Fantastic!  I'm glad they thought it was neat.  Then they chowed down.  The cake was totally GONE.

I've never seen a more excited bunch when it came time for presents.  They're sitting in this picture, but that didn't last more than two seconds.  These boys were SO eager to have Logan open their gifts!  He was equally thrilled with their gifts.

After his friends left, the kids played with his presents all evening.  The only exception was that Logan stepped away because he was eager to put together the clock we'd given him (our real gift vs. the cheapo $2 game that turned out to be a good gift).  This was a 'do it yourself' mechanical clock.  He assembled the whole thing, and wound it up.  Boy is that clock loud!  I had to send it to the basement because it was making me feel like a bomb was about to go off!  I have a feeling this will be something he takes apart and puts together many more times.

Happy Birthday Logan!  We are so glad you are part of our family!

Miss Meltdown

Annie does not handle life well when she's tired.  For an unknown reason she didn't get enough sleep one night last week, and had a terrible day.  SO MANY TEARS.  So we were relieved to find her asleep immediately after dinner.  She needed it.  Sweet girl.

 

Kids Say

I haven't been very good about recording these lately, but they are starting to get erased in my phone history so here's a few.

Annie, "Did you know that watermelon can walk from slipping?  I just saw my watermelon walk because it was slipping!  It did it again!"

Logan walked up to me one day out of the blue and said, "1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10=55."

Alex approached me with a pair of scissors in his hand saying, "Got it!  Got it!"  A closer inspection revealed he'd picked up a cheerio with them.  He was so proud of himself!

Logan, "Mom can I do something stupid?"

Annie, "Good night Mom.  I want you to never pee on people."  ??!!!

Annie after giving Jim a big sloppy kiss, "Dad, do you like booger kisses?"

One evening during dinner Logan was telling me about a conversation he had with his neighbor friend.  Apparently she'd offered him a piece of gum, but he didn't trust that he could take it.  He asked her if it had alcohol in it, she responded yes, and he turned her down.

Me to Alex, "Can I keep you?"   Alex, "No!"  Me, "Why not?"  Alex, "Cause."  That's his explanation for a lot of things right now.

Logan, "Whoa!  Mom!  It's a waterproof bug!"

Part of Annie's prayer one night, "...Please bless me not to take away things...and please bless us not to sleep with each other...Bless us not to cuddle with each other..." 

Diaper Time

What do you do when your kids are outside and the older ones come in yelling, "Alex is naked!"?  You grab your camera of course!  This was actually quite funny (in my opinion).  I guess he wanted his diaper changed, so he started to take off his diaper and shorts.  He walked all the way into the house like this.

He really is getting close to potty training.  I need to buy him some underwear now and then let him decide when he's totally ready.  He's VERY interested.

I love this little guy!

The Funny Page



Our kids are so funny.  One night at dinner they were showing off their muscles.  They were very much in earnest.

 

Logan's arm muscles

Annie's arm muscles

Logan showing his leg muscles.

Annie showing her leg muscles.  Notice her facial expression.  This wasn't a chance capture; that is definitely a normal Annie expression.

A couple of days this summer we went to a nearby summer enrichment program.  It was a free drop in thing and the kids really enjoyed it the few times we went.  One day during the last week they had an end of the summer party and the kids each decorated their own cake to bring home.

Aren't they beautiful?  They tasted about as good as they looked...

Annie was playing dress up another day and Alex really wanted to get in on the fun.  Specifically, he wanted to spin in a dress like Annie was doing, so he put one on too.  I have some great videos of him spinning.

Week Of Fun

Last week we had a totally packed week of fun.  It was really the perfect thing since the weather was nice all week and we're getting serious about school again now.  Most of it was spontaneous which made it even better. 

Monday:  I decided to stop by 'Old MacDonald's Farm'.  It's at a park here, and we'd never visited.  We only had a little bit of time that day so it was a good stop.  There were some farm animals and lots of ducks.  The kids really enjoyed watching the ducks.  I mainly enjoyed the fact that the weather wasn't melting us.

Tuesday:  We went to the beach on the only hot day of the week.  Can we say lucky planning?  That was the only thing I'd planned ahead of time, and had randomly picked Tuesday.  Score!  Two other families joined us, and we had a good time playing for four hours.  At one point I noticed that Logan was building a sand castle with two college girls in bikinis.  I laughed about it which brought it to the attention of the other kids with our group.  Pretty soon, those girls had a LOT of extra help!  They were really good sports about it and built with the kids for a long time.  They even said goodbye to Logan on their way out.  We came home very tired and only a little sunburnt.  Logan did the sunscreen on my back, and I had the strangest sunburn afterward!  You could (still can actually) see every spot he missed.  My back looks very splotchy!  I think next time I'll have an adult help me.  :)

Wednesday:  We actually stayed home all day, BUT the kids had two friends over for the whole day AND we made cookies.

Thursday: Some friends invited us to join them at a nature center that we'd never been to.  I forgot my camera.  :(  I thought it was a really great place and will definitely take my kids back.  We walked the trails a bit, and then explored in the nature center.  They even let us bring the dog in the building with us.  Just outside of the building, they had lots of things for the kids to climb on, play with, and explore.  We were good and tired by the time we got back in the van.

Here's my Thursday picture:  I guess it's fitting since we went to the nature center that day.  We also picked some fresh produce from our garden that morning.  There is LOTS more including several orange pumpkins!  Those tomatoes made some EXCELLENT salsa!

Friday:  We'd read somewhere that there was a kids' field day going on at the county fairgrounds, so we decided to head up there.  It's a 30 min. drive, so I was glad we were in the middle of a good CD book.  I was doubly glad for the book because when we arrived, we discovered an empty parking lot!  The guy who'd organized it apparently did a very poor job of getting the word out.  The kids were disappointed, but we turned ourselves around and headed home.  We really were enjoying that book though, so I can't say I was terribly disappointed.  :)

After a short break at home, we hopped back in the car and headed the other direction for 30 min.  There was a 'Sand in the City' event going on that I'd read about (in the same place as the field day) and was smart enough to check out online.  This was really fun.  We arrived to see piles of sand dumped in the middle of the street in the downtown/University area of the city we were in.  The sculptors were still finishing up, so we headed over to the kids' area.

There was a pile of sand just for the kids, and that was the first thing we had to do of course.  I'm always impressed with how much my kids love digging in the sand.

After an hour of playing in the sand (I get the patient momma award, especially since I had no one to visit with), we checked out the kids' crafts.  Alex was in love with all the orange stickers.  I think we finally know his favorite color.  The funny thing is that was Logan's favorite color at that age.

After their sticker aquariums, they made visors. 

Then we stopped by the booth set up by the university hospital.  The kids tried stethoscopes and touched real organs that had been coated in plastic. 

On our way to see the sand sculptures, we stopped at the Noodles N Company booth.  They had a wheel that you could spin for free things and you won every time.  They were super nice and let the kids spin twice.  We won a yo yo, big cookie, 2 rice krispies, 2 BOGO coupons, and a waterbottle.  I had no problem resisting temptation at the vendors since we had our free treats!  Then we stayed even longer at their booth because they had a beading project.  Logan beaded a snake, and Annie made a necklace and bracelet.

We finally went to see the sand sculptures (two hours after arriving).  They were really neat. 

I loved this one.

This Africa sculpture was the kids' favorite.  It won 2nd place in the contest.

Another part of the Africa sculpture.  I love the monkey in the Jeep.

This was 1st place.  Very cool.

I wasn't sure what was supposed to be hiding in the igloo.  Maybe a bear?

This one was really clever.  It was made by the dental fraternity.

 After the sand sculptures we headed home because we'd seen it all, and we wanted to catch Jim when he arrived from work.

Saturday:  We went to watch the local minor league play baseball.  The kids had earned free tickets through a reading program, as well as these backpacks they are carrying.

They also earned these wobble-heads.

I expected the kids to get bored during the game, but they didn't!

I had to peel them away during the 8th inning to play on the inflatables.  They'd earned tickets for these through a different reading program.  I knew they'd be disappointed if they didn't get to use them, and they were only open DURING the game.

Alex was smiling at this point, but not when we headed back to our seats.  I had to wrestle him to get out of there!

The game was surprisingly short, so we ended up with time to kill before the stadium fireworks. 

Funny story:  Annie wanted to be on the right, but Jim insisted on this placement of the kids.  We didn't realize until after the picture that Annie had the best idea.  Alex is behind the girl, and Annie is behind the boy.

She still had her picture where she wanted it, though.

The fireworks were short, but very lively and fun.

It really was a very fun week.  I guess it's time to get serious now...