Happy 6th Birthday, Seth!

We really do think this is the year of the never-ending birthday for Seth.

There was the big party and sleepover at Andrew's. Then we did a modified party with Grammy (complete with cake and presents) before Thanksgiving. Then we had a wonderful Thanksgiving in the TN mountains with Mike's aunts, uncles and cousins, where there where plenty of people to help Seth celebrate his big day. Finally, we arrived home the evening of the 27th (his ACTUAL birthday) and did presents and cake with just our little family. We thought we might forego the cake that day, but we were told quite adamantly that "I won't turn six until I blow out the candles on my cake!" No amount of reasoning would work - like, say, "Seth, you blew out candles on your cake with Andrew" or "You also blew out candles on your cake with Grammy..." In case you weren't aware, it only counts if it is on your actual birthday. Wonder if that makes me actually younger than I think I am? :-)

At any rate, the boy got to blow out all 6 candles on his birthday cake, on his birthday. See:


He made out like a bandit this year! We got him a new bike, Katey got him some Star Wars legos, Grammy, Grandma and Grandpa, Granny and Papaw and all the other friends and family who sent packages got him too many wonderful gifts to recount on this small screen. But, I will say that one of his absolute favorite presents this year was the book "No, David". Below is a picture of him reading it aloud to all of us. So cute!!

So, for the final time this year, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SETH!!!! We love you!



This last shot is at the request of the birthday boy. These are all his "lovies" - 3 of which he got for his birthday. For posterity their names are (from left to right, of course) Puppy, Vincey*, White Wolf, Brownie* and Beary. All of them are being covered up with Sheepy.
*Warning, these 2 names are subject to change. In the last 24 hours they have been Fluffy, Furry and Shovel in addition to their current names.

The Annual Birthday Party

Seth's birthday is coming up on Friday! For the 4th year in a row, we planned a combined celebration with Seth's buddy, Andrew. Alison (Andrew's mom) had the idea to do something smaller this year so we opted for a sleepover at their house with each boy inviting one friend. Everyone started out at Andrew's house with pizza and brownie cake, then headed to a fun little sports place where the kids did mini-bowling and arcade games. When we returned back to Andrew's at 9:15 PM we put on the movie UP and assumed that the group of 6 year old boys (whose bed times are usually around 7:30PM) would fall asleep watching the flick. Silly us! When the movie finished at 11 all boys were still awake - though, thankfully, sleepy.

After the big sleepover, and without any tears for mom's in the middle of the night, the kids had pancakes and waffles for breakfast and got to play and watch Saturday morning cartoons. All in all, it was an awesome birthday party! (Except for the part where Jen forgot the camera.)

So now you get to use your imagination. Here is a shot of the boys blowing out birthday candles.
And, here is a great picture of the gang playing mini-bowling. Oh, and this last one is my favorite! This is all the boys running around the living room and yelling to one another while their friend, Charlie, is still fast asleep on the floor - a boy after my own heart!

Now, if you are tired of using your imagination, you can check out the post Alison did on the party. At least one of us remembered the camera!

Happy birthday, Andrew and Seth!!!!!

What Every Mother Longs to Hear

I was up in the playroom with Seth the other night, hunting for the ever-illusive media center books. We were looking in the book baskets, under the couch cushions, under the couch, under the guest bed, on the train table, in the toy baskets... You get the picture. We finally pulled out the drawers under the train table and looked under them. No books to be found, but I hear Seth cry out with joy:

"Mommy, oh, there it is! I finally found my lipstick!"

Yeah, happy for you, Seth. Very glad you found your CHAPSTICK. Maybe you could get into the habit of calling it what it actually is and not mention to your friends that you like to put on "lipstick?" And, I promise, I'm not just asking that for my sake.

What a Memory!

We were sitting down to a nice dinner last night when Katey starts the following conversation:

KATEY: "Mommy, do you remember when we went to Chuck E Cheese and had pizza for a snack but didn't actually have dinner that night?"

MOMMY: "Um, when was this, Sweetie?"

KATEY: "Probably like a year ago..."

MOMMY: (Looking at Daddy with questioning eyes) "You mean when we met the Molendorps there last Christmas?"

KATEY: "Yes."

MOMMY: "Okay, what about it?"

KATEY: (As she is taking a bite of dinner) "Well, we didn't have dinner that night and I am still pretty upset about that."

Fantastic.

This conversation was quickly followed-up with an explanation of what holding a grudge is and why we shouldn't do such a thing. Oh, and it was also pointed out that we really haven't missed any meals since then and no harm came from foregoing dinner after having pizza for a "snack" at 4PM! I think we have our hands full with this little girl. We just pray that, when it comes to fun and wonderful things, her memory is just as good!

All I Want for Christmas...

It is one of my favorite memories. Granny would sit us down at the island in the kitchen and hand us the toy catalogs from JC Penny and K-Mart and wherever else she received them from and give us the order: Time to make a Christmas wish list. Oh, the hours of fun we would have pouring over the bright and shiny pages containing bright and shiny new toys and writing down our requests (page numbers included, of course!).

Well, it is that time of year again. We have already been receiving requests for Christmas lists for the kids so I put them to work the other day. This is what they came up with:

SETH:
He actually drew all his requests on the dry-erase board and then told me what the pictures were. Unfortunately, he erased it before I could get a picture - it was super cute!

Buzz Lightyear
Musical Triangle
Monster Truck
Guitar
Real puppy
A friend for his lovie, Puppy
A friend for his lovie, White Wolf
Kite
Book about Super Heros
Wii Games ("Crash Banidcoot 3...if there is such a thing")
The book "No, David"

Okay, this list isn't too bad. Most of it is pretty possible (except the real puppy. Sorry, not this year!).

Now for KATEY:
Leapster 2 ("It is fun for kids and educational so parents like it, too, Mommy!" Oh, my daughter, the walking TV ad!)
Candy Jewelry Factory
Easy Bake Oven
"Alive Pet Parrot" Quaker Parrot
Bird food and millet (Of course)
Lucky Charms
Cinnamon Life Cereal
Frosted Flakes
A snowy day (not the book - an actual day of snow!)
Heated Pool
Flute
Prince Caspian, the movie

And the list goes on and on and on with titles of books (let me know if you want ideas on them).

This girl has asked for cereal for Christmas (I feed her, I promise!). What?!? I'm thinking that the snowy day and heated pool are all a ploy to soften us up to the real parrot. Sorry Katey (and Mike), no more birds in this house!

So, there we have it. I'm sure this is just the beginning as the lists will surely get longer as the kids do more thinking about them. What fun it is to see the twinkle in their eyes as they talk about all the things they are dreaming of.

Fall Fun

Here is our hodge-podge post of Fall fun!

First, we spent some time carving pumpkins and roasting pumpkin seeds. Turns out that, while Katey was very excited to have roasted seeds, she doesn't actually like the taste of them! And, Seth wouldn't even try them. Oh, well. We had fun carving and loved the results.


































Next, we (and by "we" I do not mean me) raked leaves. The kids started out raking them into piles. Then they had fun jumping into them and throwing them up in the air. That is where the Mike portion of "we" comes in and where the leaves actually were raked up and gotten off the grass. :-)

Finally, October wrapped up with Trick or Treat. The kids picked out their costumes a month ago, so they were very excited to put them on and go candy-collecting. Mike took the kids around the neighborhood while I passed out candy with my mom. Seth lasted all of a half hour before deciding that he had plenty of candy and wanted to come home. Mike and Katey went back out for another hour or so. I think we cleaned out the neighborhood!! We all had fun and the best part is that the kids don't like candy with peanut butter or caramel. YUM!