James 33rd Birthday

We like to celebrate with food, apparently.

We checked Brielle out of school and picked up James so we could all go to In'n Out for a special birthday lunch.

And made James' favorite birthday dinner.  Corned Beef and cabbage, with carrots, potatoes and Irish Soda bread, followed by toll house pie for dessert.  We then had a second celebration on Sunday with the extended family, so he was happy about the chance to eat his favorite foods twice.

Ethan's 5th Birthday

I usually ask the kids at least a month in advance for them to plan out their birthday menu.  They get to choose their favorite breakfast, lunch, dinner and of course what they want for their birthday cake.

This year, Ethan knew right a way he wanted a fire cake.  He has been very obsessed with the forest fires close to our house, so I think they may have influence his decision.  After looking at some picture ideas he told me the cake had to have a pond and a tent as well.  

He planned what he needed and helped me shop, and then once I had everything prepped he decorated the cake himself.

He had mini marshmallows on toothpicks by the campfire.  The candles we put in the fire pit, and while we were singing happy birthday to him, he started roasting marshmallows over the candles.  

Party Favors-s'mores trail mix.  He enjoyed mixing the 'ingredients' and bagging the mix.  We had an extended family party, and he wanted to make sure everyone had a party favor.

With the camping theme he chose I went with the s'mores idea.  I made s'mores cake (chocolate with marshmallow cream, fudge and graham cracker filling), and s'mores ice-cream. 

He never did decide on breakfast.  I asked him multiple times.  The last time I asked him the night before his birthday he said he just wanted 'ice-water' for breakfast, because he was hot.  I ended up just giving him Lucky Charms, since I wanted them to use for our St. Patrick's activities during the week. For lunch he wanted popcorn and for dinner he asked for pizza, breadsticks and caesar salad.

Ethan 5 Year Interview and Stats

Ethan (aka Little Buddy)

Height: 3' 10 1/2" (97%)
Weight: 49 lbs 14 oz (93%)
Sleeping: Night-11 1/2 hours (7:00 pm-6:30 am), falls asleep almost as soon as his head hits the pillow.  No nap, with Brielle's school schedule, but will fall asleep in the car when he is low on sleep.
Words: still goes to speech twice a week, but now can say all the sounds appropriately for his age. Is learning to read (sounding out CVC words), has improved his ability to memorize (knows all the Articles of Faith), but still has a hard time with numbers.
Common Phrases: 'Your Majesty, I bow', 
'that's baby-ish' 
can I listen to music?' 
'cept' (except)
'this is the best day ever!'
Movement: Is constantly on the move, jumping, running, climbing...can't hold still unless he is asleep.
Interests: 
Money-has a collection of money from around the world.  
Building 'experiments'-with marbleworks, legos, random kitchen supplies, etc. 
Animals-his before bed question is often something about an animal 'how long does ___ live,' or 'what is the fastest animal?'

Ethan's responses to 5-year-old Interview Questions

What is your name? Ethan

When is your birthday? March 9th

How old are you? 5

What is your favorite color? Blue (his favorite color is still green, he just wanted to play a trick on me he told me after....he loves playing tricks.) :)
What is your favorite song? 'I am a Child of God"

What is your favorite food? Grilled Cheese

What is your favorite animal? Tigers

What is your favorite movie? Planes

What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Chocolate Chip

Who is your best friend? Mom and Dad

What is your favorite book? When the one plane crashed the two buildings down. (Fireboat)

What is your favorite thing to do? Go to the park and play

When do you go to bed? nighttime

What does your Daddy do? woks at work. takes care of mice.

What does your Mommy do? Make food for people.

Preston Crawling Progress

8 months


9 months

Brielle on the bike

First time riding with no training wheels!

9 months old

I still have more to post about Ethan's birthday, but it just occurred to me that Preston is 9 months old today!see the drool...yep, that is normal, everyday fashion for him.

At 9 months:

-has one tooth, second one on the bottom is about to pop through.

-just figured out how to crawl forward this week

-pulls himself up to stand...wants to be standing all the time

-sporadic sleeper (just dropped 3rd nap.  Sleeps roughly 11.5 hours (in chunks) at night and 2 hours in 2 naps during the day)

-nurses frequently (about 9 times a day) but is fast and efficient 

-is making the 'dada' babbling sounds

-favorite cuddle blankie is the burp cloth

-likes table food.  Prefers to be fed over self feeding.

Happy Birthday to the Birthday Boy!

The first thing he did this morning was run downstairs and measure himself on our growth chart wall to see how much bigger he was now that he was 5.

He got dressed for church, then picked out Preston's clothes to make sure they would match.

He was very excited to not do any jobs on his birthday.  (He didn't realize he got a little gypped with that one, as his birthday fell on a Sunday this year, when he doesn't have chores to do anyway.)

He planned out his birthday menu, made his party favors, and mapped out his 'camp-fire' cake to make sure we had all the candy supplies needed to put on top.

...More info to come after I upload pictures.