Elijah's 4th Birthday -3 parties for 4 years.

Elijah @ his birthday day dinner with Best Bud Jackson

I'm sorry,  same excuse different day...week...month. Life is busy, and in the spare moments I just want to rest or snuggle, or do something other than write. But I was reminded how satisfying these blogs are to all of you, since you don't get to exactly, live this crazy life with me, every day. So let's start at the most important spot. Elijah turns 4....

What a joy Elijah has been. He is quiet (unless he is sing...and in his sleep would you know it), timid, a little shy, independent and thinks for himself. He's stubborn and easily frustrated. But most of all he is loving and kind.

Suited up in Ninja Turtle Gear Present

His 4 year marker stats are as follows:

Height: 39.5" (56%ile)
Weight: 38.9" (77%ile)

After a year of clear hearing, no ear infections, and no ear tube operations in sight, he failed his hearing test. OIY!  So at the end of this month (May) he will get his hearing tested again, to see if it was just caused from fluid in his ears due to a cold, or if we are going to have to take new measures and re-visit past recommendations that I had desperately tried to avoid.

And I almost forgot! This poor kid, got his 2 four year old shots the day before is first party and had a HUGE reaction to one of them. I was on the phone with advice right before we left. His thigh to his knee swole three times its regular size, and he limped around the whole day with an ice pack attached to his leg (I devised a holding device out of a leg warmer to hold the soft gel pack to his leg).

The Parties (3)
After all the work I did on Lucas' party, I just couldn't do it all over again for Elijah, just 6 weeks later. So I talked to him and asked if we could do a small very special birthday with Elizabeth (his cousin) and Jackson (his best bud), and he said yes to the special day.

Party 1: The Special Day with 2 friends:
Joanie (Jackson's mom) volunteered to help me with the three kids for the day. We headed off to the mall and each of the kids got to pick out a build-a-bear, stuff it, wash it, and dress it (if they could). It was the sweetest thing.  We made all them super special with a sound box that sang inside each bear: Elijah's was the TMNT theme song, Jackson's was Summer from Frozen, and Elizabeth's was Let it Go from Frozen.  Lizzie even got a smell in her bear! And Elijah was all grown up and put his last "guy" (giraffe) in the Ninja Turtle! WOW!

mmmm ice cream

We then road the carousel (Oh man! that darn thing made me so dizzy, I can't do those anymore!) - oh by the way Elijah surprised me by riding the tiger by himself without coaxing, and Liz surprised me by NOT wanting to ride any of the animals! WHAT! They switched bodies or something!
Then we went to Pizza Pirate for lunch and they played in the tiny arcade in the back, and we topped off the day with Clown Cones at Basking Robbins!
I'd say Elijah was pretty darn happy at the end of the day!

Eli a.k.a. Rafael!

Parties 2&3: were just family parties, but he was celebrated and ate cake

Luke Playing with the new toys

(I made one see below- Its a ninja turtle....I gave it my best shot) and opened LOTS of presents (like LOTS of presents...aunt lynn....). His school party fell on his actual birthday and would you know it, they instated a "no outside food" policy that Monday....so we had to make due with chocolate pudding and animal cookies from the cafeteria- oh well one less thing for me to have to do.

Thank you to all of you for the presents you sent, and brought over for Elijah (and Lucas too). You spoiled him and he really loved everything!  We are so blessed to have you all in our lives, and you made Elijah one happy  boy....now to find a place for all those toys....

Here are the rest of the pictures!

The Last Guy... 

Putting love in to the heart, that goes in to the bear

Washing up the "bears" or whatever they each made.

Liz washing her bear

MMMMMMM Ice Cream!!!!

Jackson's messy face!

Liz had a clean face, until I told her she had a clean face, then she made sure she had a dirty face... LOL!

And finally, my ninja turtle cake.

Super Hero Thursday

Brought to you by Vicki...

Back Yard Shenanigans

We had a beautiful weekend last weekend.  So much so, that I broke out the water sprinkler runner througher thingy so the kids could have a little fun and cool down a bit (SHHHHH don't tell the drout police!).  Elijah INSISTED on taking off all his clothes, Lucas was a little more modest and agreed to keep his clothes on, not exactly what you would expect from either of them, in fact, I think there may have been some body swapping going on...
In any case, they had a good time, and once I can get some proper grass in the back yard, this will be more fun!

Happy Wednesday!  The week is almost over- whew!

(p.s. Elijah's 4 year check up is Friday, so stats to come...along with shots....oh man I'm anxious for him on that. I hate shots!)

Sorry that they are little specs, I will try to make the pictures larger

First Hair Cut for Lucas!

Well it only took 2 years and 1.5 months (so 25.5 months) for Lucas to grow an obnoxious amount of hair...enough that we could justify finally cutting it off!  The curls are still there, just much shorter, and don't worry, I think they are permanent, so they wont be mildly visible for long.

Lucas did great! He was a little unsure at first, which is why he say on my lap, but he got in to it, and really liked the tickle of the clippers at the very end.  He looks like such a grown up boy now- WAAAAAA where's my little baby!!!!!  

Elijah also had a obscene amount of hair, so we chopped that, yet again with another coaxing (he is NOT a good client for the hair dressers....)

Here are some before and after pictures, and now you can thank me for cutting all those curls off (only to grow back again).

*Disclaimer: unfortunately Angie, who was my first hair cut, and then Elijah's first hair cut, was NOT Lucas' first hair cut.  I gave in to desperation and we went to Fantastic Sam's.  The retribution? I had to PAY for his first hair cut, where I wouldn't have had to with Angie....and then there is the sentimentality of it all...oh well*

BEFORE...

AFTER!

BEFORE...

MORE PICTURES!

CHEESE!!!!!!!!

Easter has Finally Arrived!

Family Photo, 1st in a long time!

Let me start by saying, I'm sorry, yet again, for the delay in posting Easter. I was pretty tuckered after our full Sunday, and then the week got away from me. I told aaron that any more Sunday holidays I would be taking the Monday following off. It's just too tiring in my **cough** old age. This will also allow me to...hopefully...post on that day off...hopefully....

Enough apologizing and on to Easter :

We had a great day, starting with a unique church service that was a narrated story of the conception to the risen Jesus. Full of songs old and new, some comical and some serene. 

Then off to the grocery store for our weekly food run (yeah that part was tossed in because we had an hour to kill before Aaron's family was back from their church service) and then on to Easter fun, food and activities!

The weather of course , like most our intranet outdoor days this year decided it would rain...for the first time in 3 weeks, and it's much needed so you try not to complain, but seriously why not the day before or the day after. Oh well.  So the weather held, albeit a bit chilly, for our Easter egg hunt.  The kids had a great time as you can see in the pictures and videos. Lucas needed a little guidance, but started to get it about half way through the hunt.  

We found all 12 real eggs, good thing I made sure how many we had because one was MIA for about 5 minutes.s. The kids had a great time eating the majority of the candy from their eggs and baskets, and were none tolerated when the parents cut them off, for a real meal.  

Bob and Bridget cooked a beautiful ham that was cut up for sandwiches. My sister in

Tuckered

Aw's&d sister in law (did you follow that?) made some delicious lemon bars, of which I had at least 3, maybe more... And Tim, Aaron's brother, made a yummy Lemmon cake.

We got home bout 4 and since the kids were tuckered, but there was no way we were going to get proper naps out of them, I threw them on the couch and turned on a show.  Lucas fell asleep about 5, and everyone was fed and put in to a nice cozy bed about 730 pm.

Happy belated Easter and look for more posts this week. 

*Disclaimer: We tried three times to get these kids' hair cut before Easter and everytime we went (and different places mind you) there was a 2 hour wait....so haircuts just happened this weekend 4/11/15 see the post coming later this week*

Meet the Hunters: Lucas and Elijah!

Check out the loot!

On the hunt: cousin vs. cousin (Jack in the back is brother Paul's son)

Surveying the booty

Someone found the golden egg!

1...2..3...4...get your eggs on the floor

Oh Grandma! I love the chocolate you gave me!

Fun coloring from Grandmas easter basket!

Yummy treats from mommy's Easter baskets!

Jump Fun

Aaron had a tournament for ultimate frisbee on Saturday and I wanted to scope out this trampoline place for a very, very small party I am going to do for Elijah in two weekends. I loaded the kids up and took them to the trampoline place that touted a little kids area and was open for play on Saturdays (ALL and I mean ALL of the indoor Jumpy House places around us are only open for private parties on Saturday and Sundays - it erks me, I think they should have thought of that and had more space for open jump and then separate area for private parties. Maybe I need to open one of these places in town....). So we loaded up after a very frustrating morning with two whiney kids (I just couldn't stay here all day with them in that mood, I would have torn my hair out) and headed out to green valley. The kids had a good time, but the little kids area was small and the one maze bounce house was not age appropriate. I had to lift both in, Lucas could not climb the wall to get up to the slide at the end of it, and Elijah had some hard times making it through one section. Instead of going on, I will write them and tell them of my disapproval and we wont be back for at least another year, until Elijah makes 42" so he can go in the other areas.  However, they had fun, and really like the trampoline and foam pit that were there.  That part made me have fond memories of my gymnastic days!
Here are some pictures of our trip. And now its time to do more research and find another place for us to go on his teeny tiny birthday party adventure.

Pre-Easter Post

Finished product

Since I am guessing it may take me more than the same day, to post our Easter day fun, I thought I could at least get our egg dying adventure up on the blog for you.

I bought what I thought would be a really neat egg dying pack, Golden eggs.  When I opened it yesterday I realized that all it was, was a painting pack, and there was no dipping of eggs.  I shot up a quick prayer, stripped the boys of their shirts and took a couple of deep breaths hoping this would work, and they wouldn't get too frustrated in the process.  

I ended up cutting two egg cups out of the egg carton as holding devices, to help the kids steady their eggs when they were painting, and it worked nicely- no perfect, but great.  Towards the end of our painting session, I realized that I had more dye left and that I could probably make the egg dying water cups that the kids could dip their eggs in.  A quick google search and indeed, I had everything needed- dye, water, vinegar. So we held out the last 4 eggs and did some dipping! next year no golden eggs and, I will be sure to read the instructions on the back (but hey, at least I had enough sense not to buy the marbled egg pack....yeah that is something for teenagers or artists HAHA!)

My hands are finally clear of the dye, elijah too, Lucas got it the worst, with it completely covering one hand and up both arms.  The color is almost gone but he looks "bruised" on his arms hahah. 

Happy Easter all, and I will try to get a post up tomorrow...we will see...

you can see the early stages of lucas' full colored hand here. 

The Washing Up. I let him play in here for about a half hour, with some vinegar mixed in hoping it would help.