Birthday Boy

It's happened, Johnny turned 5!

Our family came over to help us celebrate. He got "everything he ever wanted" for his birthday and is presently in toy heaven. He thanks me many times a day for his remote control truck (anyone want to take bets on how long it will last?) He loves his Lego's, they all drive or fly or have doors that open and close. He is lucky enough to have a sister who is willing and able to help him assemble them. He takes his Darth Vader Lego guy with him everywhere. He loves the guns that came with his G.I.Joe guys and is excited that the guys fit into the finger snowboard he got. He loves to wear his transformer watch around while he incessantly throws his retractable yo yo towards the ground. There are constant drops of water all over my floor from his color changing cars and Bumble Bee music and blast noises filling the air. He is trying his best to share all of his new found loves and he even used some of his birthday money his aunt gave him to buy Alex a little present. So thoughtful. He feels special right now, on top of the world, equal to Alex (which is a lot in his mind) I hope this feeling lasts for a very long time. He deserves it!

Also, I am not a fan of making cakes, so when Johnny started talking about what kind of cake he wanted, I knew I had to do something special with my cupcakes this year to make up for the fact that they aren't a cake. I had fun making these little Toy Story Alien cupcakes and he liked the sour candy ears and antenna. I was running around all day and once everyone was gone and the kids were in bed I went to work making crepes for Brad's Father's Day breakfast so he didn't miss out since we don't have a lot of time in the morning before church. We had a nice relaxing day together as a family on Father's Day, what more can you ask for?

Friday night was the Father/Son campout for our ward so Johnny got to spend some quality time with his Dad and wake up in a tent for his birthday. Alex and I took the opportunity to have a girl's night out. We used one of her Kid's meal coupons and went to Red Robin for dinner. They had a balloon guy there who made her a horse. And while other kids were choosing their favorite crazy colors for their animals, Alex wanted her's to look like a real horse and picked brown for her balloons and named her horse "Peanut Butter". Such the realist. And since it is summer and Alex's 16 inch bike was literally too small for her to ride and Johnny just learned to ride a two wheeler, we decided she needed a larger bike now and it couldn't wait for her birthday this December. Her criteria for her new bike was that it had a bag in front to hold things and streamers on the handle bars. So who's birthday is it? Really. She has no reason to complain.

Two Wheeler

So it looks like both of my kids are taking steps towards growing up. Johnny has been asking to ride a two wheeler since the sun came out this spring. So today I threw his bike in the back of the car and we headed over to the church parking lot where we had so much success with Alex. This time I made sure he had on long pants, long sleeves and knee pads.

He took off right away on the first try and his face was beaming with pride (as was mine). I think his seat was a bit too high because he had a hard time reaching the ground to start or stop himself. He didn't mind crash landing though and got pretty good about hopping off to the side of the bike when it was going down. He actually liked using his knee pads though when it was necessary. It wasn't too long before he wanted to try to go up curbs and stuff all by himself.

He wanted me to help as little as possible and as he was riding, any obstacle he needed to go around became his main focus and he would always end up going right towards it instead of in the opposite direction. I got quite a workout keeping up with him but I did manage to get a couple of videos of him riding his two wheeler! Check them out here and here.

Still lots of practicing to do but I'm sure he'll be a pro in no time!

Growing Up

Alex has been asking to get her ears pierced since she was 3. I wanted her to be old enough to take care of them on her own so I told her she needed to wait until she was 8. Well here she is, 6 months away from her 8th birthday and my friend gets me thinking about Alex's ears. So this Saturday while we were at the mall (shopping for a father's day present) we stopped by Claire's and made it happen. They said that ideally it would be best to keep them in for 6 months so now she will be ready to take them out FOR her birthday and try on some new earrings. On our way there she was asking me and her Dad if it would hurt. We assured her that it would pinch a for a second like when she's gotten her shots but it would be over really fast and she would have glamorous ears. The lady at the store told her that she would feels a pinch and her ear would feel hot but that they would cool it down with some cleaner afterward. Alex had lots of questions for her as she hugged the little "Claire Bear" they let her hold. She had the girls reading her the label on the cleaner and even picked up the little "gun" they use to pierce her ears with her finger on the trigger, we took that out of her reach real fast. As soon as she saw the earrings to choose from she was dead set on her December birthstone, the blue zircon. Since then she has tried to pick out blue clothes to wear and has had second thoughts on her color choice. I assured her that her clothes don't have to match her earrings, but that she (being a blondie) just plain looks good in blue. We topped it off with some bright Barbie pink nail polish to balance out all of the blue. She has been growing her fingernails out lately which I told her she was welcome to do as long as she kept them clean. I asked her what I was doing, letting her get her ears pierced early and buying her bright pink nail polish and she just said "making me the most fashionable!" When I sent out a picture text to our family she was anxious to read all of their replies and was walking on cloud nine through the mall with her "I just got my ears pierced at Claire's" bag in her hand. Our little girl is growing up.

Matilda

This past weekend I was lucky enough to take off solo and visit these wonderful girls and their Mother, Sarah, who is like a sister to me.

I spent of lot of my time being put in my place by this one...

And most of my time oogling over this one...

And snuggling her...

And playing with her...

She was quite the highlight of my trip. And since she is such a sweet, easy going baby, it left me lots of time to talk Mom to Mom with Sarah.

Today is the last day of school. Alex is so excited for summer to begin and even more excited that I let her wear a dress to school today! Yesterday was field day and after a weekend away and waking up with a migraine that morning it didn't even occur to me. So Alex went to school with no sunscreen, no hat and no water bottle and came home a little pink around the edges. Poor kid, how hard is it to keep an extra bottle of sunscreen out for the fair skinned children who's mothers flake out on field day? And would it really be that bad to allow the water-bottle-less kids a chance to run inside for a sip from the fountain once in awhile? Or maybe a phone call saying "Mrs. Day, you are a bad Mom and didn't take care of your child today, please come to school with sunscreen and a water bottle asap!" She survived, lesson learned...I hope.

Forts and Four Wheelers

For the long weekend Brad and I packed up the kids and took off to cascade. The kids spent most of their time outside building forts and going for rides on the four wheeler. Johnny picked his spot for a fort because one the the trees had little broken off branches jutting out for him to climb on. Such a little monkey. Alex spent her time knocking off all of the broken off branches from her trees so no one could use them for climbing and "it just looked prettier that way". I took them on one hike but halfway through it Brad came and picked the kids up in the Rhino and lapped me a few times on the neighborhood loop. The next day I put on my running shoes and ran the loop and then ran down to the lake and back. So much more refreshing than running on a treadmill at the gym. It was sprinkling a little from time to time so we did a lot of roasting marshmallows in the wood stove until the last night we were able to build a little fire outside. The kid's favorite part about being at the cabin is always roasting marshmallows at the little firepit outside. We're so lucky to have a place like this to retreat to once in awhile and I'm so grateful his parents share it so willing!