Andy's Last Day of Preschool

This afternoon, Andy walked out of the back room for the last time as a preschooler. It was such a joyous and sad moment all wrapped up together. My first born is growing up and moving on to the next step in his education. His teacher has been wonderful and Andy has really enjoyed having her as a teacher. It's been a wonderful experience for our family to be part of Pine Lake Co-op. I still have two more at home to go through this experience with, but it's special since Andy is my first. I'm glad we have pictures to remember events by and to see how much our kiddos change in such a short amount of time.

A Half Sleepover

Tonight was a big night for several families for several reasons. It happens to be Matthew's 4th birthday so we headed over to our friend's the Dang's home to celebrate the with the birthday boy.
It was a Toy Story theme which of course was loved by all since there were 11 boys and 1 girl at the party. The lone girl is the sister to the birthday boy, and also the same age as Aaron. We had pizza and birthday cake, opened a few gifts and let the kiddos play for awhile.
Then the next event of the evening began, putting 10 children to bed.
See, tonight is also the very last episode of the show, LOST, which the parents of the 10 children happen to be fans of. We have done a few LOST parties in the last couple of years for the ending and beginning of the season, so we had to go out in style as well.
Children in jammies, story read by the gracious, pregnant hostess of the birthday boy and appropriate places of rest for all. I'm not sure how many times we were up and down those stairs telling the kids to be quiet in between commercials, for which there were an abundance of. I can say for a fact that everyone had a great time. It was fun to celebrate another year of Matthew in our lives and to end one of the best television series to date.

The Best Way To Spend A Sunday Afternoon

What could be better, but nap time with grandpa and a little snuggly baby. We had lunch with grandma and grandpa after church and as we are having a nice quiet, restful Sunday afternoon, I look over and see grandpa not only put Jacob to sleep, but himself as well.

Lucky for me, the camera on the iPhone is handy and can be put in on silent.

On one of grandma's Costco shopping trips, she purchased the Bob books for the boys to begin the wonderful journey of learning how to read. She bought the first two sets and both of my older boys love the books. I'm sure grandma has read each one dozens of times, but this is truly how they will learn to read. Maybe Andy will be just like his mom and turn into a book worm.

The only thing that would have been even better was mom getting a nap.

A few pictures of Jacob

Here are a few pictures of the 1 month old.

I just love the expression on his face. He is such a good trooper about all the time he spends in the car seat.

This is my little ghost who appears every once in awhile. He tries to scare people and make himself known. We have a bit of the middle child syndrome appearing.


Jacob is starting to fill out and become a bit more chubbier. My little peanut isn't going to be little for much longer.

Why do you put me on my tummy? I do not like this, it's too hard to keep my head up.

I'm Not Taking a Nap

Aaron has decided that naps aren't really for him, even though I am still trying to get him to rest each day. This afternoon, Mike has been installing a new closet organizer for his closet and then putting what was in his closet into Andy and Aaron's room.

I had cleared out the boy's closet of a few bins and the dresser that was in there and it was all just hanging out in the room. I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to what the boys were doing and one of the times I happen to walk by their bedroom, I caught a glimpse of Aaron completely sacked out. I figure, I'll take the naps when I can get them.

Happy Mother's Day!

For Mother's Day this year, I wanted to get a picture of all three of my boys. This was going to be the gift for the grandmas only this picture is really what happened. Of course, I wait until the last minute to do anything, but having a newborn is just a great excuse, so I use it.

We went up to the park by our house late afternoon so the boys could play and I could hopefully, possibly, maybe get a picture of my boys. In all my great mom wisdom, I thought I would try to get the picture taken first and then they could play until their hearts desire, but as you can see, Aaron was having none of it.

Oh well, maybe someday when I get my fancy new camera, taking pictures will be easier.

Or not.

Happy Birthday Andy!

It's my Cinco de Mayo baby and today, he is 5 years old on the 5th day of the 5th month of the year. It only happens once in your lifetime and today is Andy's special day.

I still remember his birth and everyone waiting to find out whether the baby was a boy or girl. Mike walking out to the waiting room to continue the torture to the family and telling them we had a baby. It goes by so fast.

Andy loves taking pictures with mom's camera and his favorite subject is himself, so I find many self portraits and interesting life photographs waiting for mom. He loves music and baseball, his brothers Aaron and Jacob, wrestling with his dad and cooking with mom.

He is a joy, blessing and gift from God and I am truly thankful for him everyday. His personality is his mom's, but he is a miniature Michael complete with glasses.

Since we had celebrated his birthday a few days earlier, I thought we would have a nice family dinner at home with Andy's favorite meal. When I asked him what he wanted to eat, his response was chicken and rice. Um, okay, chicken and rice. What kind of chicken exactly, I did not know, so I thought I would try again another time. I mentioned the conversation with Mike and he informed me that Andy was talking about the orange chicken from Trader Joe's. Well, that's easy. I even bought a raspberry tart and called it good. It was a great night celebrating Andy's birthday and yes, he even got to blow out 5 candles on his tart.

Andy's 5th Birthday Party

Can someone tell me where the last 5 years have gone? My first born is celebrating the big 5 birthday and I'm in shock. Maybe it's just the sleepless nights from having a newborn, but really, where did the last five years go??

I wanted Andy to have a great party that currently wasn't being held at our house, because it's still looking like I have a newborn and not feeling like being the hostess at my house, so a few months ago, I thought it would be great to celebrate at the Seattle Children's Museum at Seattle Center. Andy was totally on board and super excited. He made out a list of friends to invite and mom got the invitations out and went shopping at Trader Joe's for snacks. Okay, even though I still have a newborn, I just absolutely have to make the cupcakes from scratch. It's one of those crazy mom things I won't/can't let go of.
I picked the last time of the day, but didn't realize it was also the first day of boating, so traffic was a nightmare, but we made it in plenty of time. The kids were able to run around the museum and then we met for some food, presents and cupcakes. Leave it to mom to completely forget the candles and a lighter, so we had to sing Happy Birthday sans the fire. I only got a minimum amount of teasing.
After the cupcakes were consumed, the kids shot out of the room to go play some more and I have some great family and friends who cleaned up the mess while I fed Jacob. All in all, it was a great party.
No trip to the Seattle Center is complete without a visit to the International Fountain. The day was cloudy, but not too cool for the first of May, so the water was shooting and people were playing. Andy or maybe mainly Aaron got Grandpa to run around the fountain with them and I managed to get a couple of shots. Andy is in the bright yellow rain coat, so he is easy to find.

It was a great day, with some great friends and family celebrating one great kid. Happy Birthday Ando, we sure do love you and are very blessed to have been given a wonderful gift.