Ten on Tuesday

1. Hooray! I think the baybsitter chaos is finally settling down.  We have a lovely new babysitter that the boys seem to be having a great time with.  M is at camp so we'll get her opinion next week, but so far, so good. (Praying)

2. With the return of a more normal work/life break I'm able to actually not work, when it isn't my work hours.  Yesterday, I was inspired by an email from Big Picture Classes (If you've never taken a class there you can sign up for free here using my referral link).  Yesterday's email was about an upcoming class called "Kidding Around 4"  I have looked at this class every summer, but my kids were always too young.  They "might" be old enough this year so I signed up using the KIDFUN code for $7 off the price (expires at midnight!)

3. So, what did we make from the fun email?  We made some fun sidewalk chalk paint out of equal parts water and corn starch with a bit of food coloring as well. Above are the results.

4. I leave for Philadelphia in the morning.  NO, I'm not remotely prepared.  I am looking forward to seeing my friends, learning some new things, exercising, and relaxing.  (We'll see if all of that gets done :)

5. M is going to art camp at MDO and having a great time.  There are a wider range of ages in her class than usual, but she seems fine with it and is making lots of fun paintings.

6.  E got so many lovely things from friends and family for his birthday.  One interesting bit is noticing trends across time.  The strongest immediate reaction he had to the toys at his party was to this brown puppy.  Brent and I smiled at each other across the room as this was actually the third of these characters in our home.  Each child has been given one by a different person on their first birthday.  Kind of a neat thing, right?

7.  Brent is wrapping up IRSP this week.  It is hard that he has to work late, but kind of neat that he gets to have some summer fun with this students.  He manages to go to a Redhawks game, Shakespeare in the park, and a neuro night lecture each summer along with a variety of things that are different each year.  Tonight will be my last night of IRSP this summer.  I think we will all be relieved when Friday comes and we can move on to a more real family summer experience.

8.  E is not doing as well transitioning from formula to milk as the other kids.  It is getting a little better each day and he seems to enjoy other liquids like water, lemonade or orange juice.  I think he is hydrating enough, but is definitely getting more of his nutrients from actual food versus milk.  That actual food is largely summer fruits at the moment as he loves blueberries, strawberries, and watermelon.

9.  The donations keep flowing in for the healing scraps project.  It is so encouraging.  I think when I get back from my travels we'll begin our focus on the distribution more clearly.  If you have any ideas of the best way to get these to victims or good organizations to work with to identify those that might want some of these products, we would greatly appreciate it.  We have some leads, but additional ideas are appreciated.

10.  We are traveling to a big family gathering in CO soon.  All five of us will fly together for the first time.  The pure logistics of moving all of us, renting cars, bringing car seats, etc... is kind of daunting.  Any suggestions for air travel with a big family would be good or for things to see and do in Estes Park.

Have a beautiful summer week!

Birthday Week: Dear Birthday Boy

Dear Birthday Boy, there we were a year ago.  You were so very tiny, and it is so hard to imagine that now.  You were our third baby and we thought long and hard, but knew we needed you.  I am so glad we trusted and were brave as you are amazing.  Somehow, I think it took til the third try until I truly got that incredible love for the baby phase.  It was admittedly not my favorite before, but with you, I knew what came next, I knew to cherish this moment and I feel like I have. 

You are third, but completely different and we've cherished that.  We are crazy in love with you dear boy from your fuzzy hair and skin issues to that your hysterical little laugh.  I love picking you up in the morning.  I hold you close against my chest for as long as you want.  I just wait until you're ready.  This isn't something I did with the others.  There was always a rush, always a what's next even when I tried not to, but this time, even with so much more to do, I will hold you close every minute you let me as I know these minutes are short and precious. (I'm writing this on father's day and wondering if part of that is also being the child born after my dad died.  Probably too much psychology for a birthday post). 

I love how relaxed you are.  You have been so go with the flow, whatever that might be.  Most of the time you just haven't had the luxury of perfectly scheduled naps or things being done on your time line.  You are one of five and happily seem well suited to our lifestyle from big, loud parties to the soccer sidelines to hanging out with Daddy and I when the bigs are in bed.  You just smile and snuggle along with us.  I love how much you love me in every look.  You want and need to be held and carried on my hip.  I love to watch you giggle and play with your brother and sister or "chat' with your Daddy.  I love to hear you say "Go, go, go" as you practice trying to walk or crawl quickly on your own.  There are signs of stubborness and a temper in you too, but we'll figure it out.  Truth is, we're all like that too. 

I want you to know I've done my best for you dear boy.  I've tried hard, savored, and every day I try to make sure that your babyhood and childhood are as full of attention, love, and special as your siblings' or as my own.  You are my bitty boy, my baby.  A year ago, Janna said to me in talking about her third and last child that he just is "her baby" at the time I could not really understand what she meant.  Somehow, although its hard to explain I get it.  I am a better mom and a better person for having spent a year with you.  I was unsure, to the very last day about having a third baby.  You wiped those worries away and made our family new, better, and stronger.  Some days I still wonder if I'm strong enough or patient enough, but I cannot imagine a world without you in it. Thank you my snuggly mama's boy for loving us and for being your own adorable, sweet self.  Your smile is an everyday miracle and I hope the year to come is full of smiles.  

Love,

 Mama

Birthday Week: Scrappy Sunday

3 months old

It seemed that as we near the end of birthday week posts we should include some of his scrapbook pages for our Scrappy Sunday installment.  These are not all the ones in his baby book and do not include those I made this week and haven't photographed.  It is a bit of a look at a few of them though and I hope you enjoy it!

June 2012 - Meeting Aunt Jamie, John, and Mattew

April 2013- constant obsession with trying to eat the dirt/plants.

April 2013- Chillin' with Daddy.  He loves to be up high. 

April 2013 - the ongoing chewing on his socks obsession

April 2013 - Toy Favorites - this phone was first given to B, but all of them have loved it

June 2013 - Meeting Uncle Able

Playing in the box with his siblings, one of their first group lay times.

June 2012 - Newborn picture by Heather Warren

June 2013 - Newborn Picture by Heather Warren - Story about being our smallest baby.

June 2012 - Newborn Picture by Heather Warren - Story about savoring, clinging to this moment.

September 2012 - Photo by Heather Warren - story about my kids making me happy

Dec. 2012 - Photo by Heather Warren - story about pulling his shoes and socks off constantly

Sept. 2012 - story about his baptism.

Sept 2012 - Photo by Heather Warren - story about E & Brent

Sept 2012 - Story about soccer season

June 2012 - about how calm he was. 

June 2012 - Photos by Heather Warren - Story about being brothers. 

Birthday Week: E's Birthday Party!

Ooookay!  We're back, with more birthday fun.  I will be completely honest in that we pulled our house and party stuff together in very short order today.  However, it was an awesome party and I "think" everyone had a great time, particularly our somewhat tired birthday boy.

 

The theme was red wagons and sock monkeys.  (Note, yes, there was a handle planned for this wagon.  Blame Uncle Able for its absence).  Anyway, on the table we had the cake and some classic sweets and toys.  Those circus peanuts are tied to some of my only memories of my Grandpa Blakley so they were a must. It turned out lots of people had memories about circus peanuts. 

Small fun collection of some of his birthday goodies. He now has his own sock monkey (pictured here) and both small and large wagons.  In that scrapbook + on the mantle are layouts from every month of the year and many from certain months. I spent a crazy amount of time making layouts for all 11 months leading up to this one.  No one opened this book, and maybe someone looked at the mantle, but it mattered to me and it is in there.  (Yes, Chrissie, I know you would have looked if you were here :))

Our recent tradition is to have layouts from the last year on the mantle.  Not that many fit, but it is a great sampling of the stories from the year and fun to see how much he grew. 

Audra, there were very few things hanging from the ceilings.  My apologies.  There were balloons? I also, for the first time in all my 34 years, used an entire roll of red curling ribbon all on one day.  It was amazing. 

Our party started off very quietly with Grammie and Granddaddy and a few neighborhood days.  The rest of the day was, well, substantially noisier and more boisterous. 

Mom brought some authentic vintage decore for the party too. 

All the food was "snack" themed as E very much likes fruit and snack foods.  It was a hit.  I wish I'd ordered more nuggets as 120 was very much not enough.  We did order 2XL and 2L pizzas around 6... (the party started at 2).   We party hard here and extra time with our friends is wonderful.   Thanks to everyone who hung out with us. 

E seemed to like his cake and has been playing with the pinwheels off and on for weeks.  Definitely one of his favorites. 

E loves his wagon.  He went on lots of rides pulled by many people.  Grammie got him a shirt with a wagon on it that says "This is how I roll," which I thought was awesome. 

This was the best picture during the "Happy Birthday" singing.  Yes, he seemed fairly perplexed by it. 

Then the cake smashing began. (Yes, we did take off his shirt, but not his shorts....)  He, obviously, loved it. 

And, wait for it, I made red velvet cake.  Who does that with 10+ kids in the house and one baby smashing it everywhere.  It is amazing to think I have three kids and still make these strange, naive choices sometimes. 

Then, we opened presents and he had A LOT of help.  I'm fairly sure he had no clue what was happening and it was all very fast.  He did seem to play with this very cool wodden puzzle a lot. (No clue who gave it to him...sigh). 

Stephen was definitely the ladies man of the day.  These three young ladies had a fabulous time with him.  I think they briefly abused and kept him hostage, but he and they seemed to have a great time. 

In the back yard we had this mini-carnival set up.  We had ten stations around the yard (initially, the mixed up pretty soon).  Most of the stations were things we normally have in our yard, just more spaced out than on the porch.  A few others we bought for the occasion-- ring toss, burlap sacks for sack races, wagon rides, badminton, and Grandma bought kiddie bean bag toss to match the grown up version Uncle Able brought by.  There were also lots of balls, parachute, trucks, trikes, etc...

The signs were fun.  It was "supposed" to be red poster paint, but was mostly a neon pink color.  We went with it and let M design with do-a-dots as she liked. (Yes, that bokeh is natural, not a filter!)

It was great fun and everyone helped clean up and, all but one small baby, went home happy.

Oh, there were also goodie bags with Cracker Jacks, Jax, Sock Money Stickers, a picture of E, a ring, and, in most bags, a red jingle bell as E rather likes them.  If you'd like a goodie bag let me know as we have "several" left. 

Happy Birthday to E! I hope you had a wonderful time. 

Happy Birthday E!

Today was the big day--- E's very first birthday and we celebrated all day long!

How does one celebrate being 1? Part of me knows it is really a celebration for us, more than him, but we are celebrating him and us and what a year its been!  We began with doughnuts with his siblings and let him make a HUGE mess.  He loved every bit. 

 

 

What's not to love, when there are chocolate and sprinkles involved?

Much later in the day, after naps, work, and Daddy's return from his trip we opened a few presents.  It is hard to know what to do with a present when you've never had a real birthday present before that you could open yourself?   

With quite a lot of coaching he figured it out (with a little help from his siblings).  The first present to open was, of course, from them.  They each got to pick two things for him from the dollar spot. He loved it. 

 

 

 

After presents we had dinner at Humble Pie.  If E has a favorite food, it might be pizza crusts.  He is completely uninterested in the rest of the pizza, but loves to gnaw on the crust and Humble Pie has fabulous crust.  He was pretty exhausted though by the time we got home. 

We put him in his chair for cake.... but he was too sleepy to be bothered at first. 

So, we waited for Uncle Able & Kari and opened another present, which seemed to help wake him up. 

 

Just in time to smash some more cake and then decide it was time to party with Daddy way past his bed time.  We had a great day and I am so excited to celebrate with everyone on Saturday!

We love you so much sweet boy. I think you had a good birthday.  There was a lot of clapping through out the day and big smiles.  We sang you happy birthday three times throughout the day and gave you all the love, hugs, memories, and kisses we could.  Sweet dreams my littlest man. 

(More of birthday week is coming, but I wanted to share these right away!)