Tag: firsts

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Lincoln’s 4th birthday!

Dear Lincoln,

I am sure we say this every year now, but I cannot believe you are 4 years old!  It seems like such a short time ago that your daddy and I were preparing for your arrival.  Your entrance into this world is one that will always be extra-special because of the fact that you were born on Easter Sunday.  So in a way, your birthday gets remembered twice each year.  Once on your “real” birthday and again on Easter, because it was such a special day for us.

You have grown more this year than ever.  Gone are the toddler features you had when you were three.  You are a full-fledged preschooler!  (Complete with a shorter haircut than you had last year 🙂 )  You love to ask questions and discover the meanings of new words.  Your handwriting is impressive as is your ability to remember what you learn at school.  I am so thankful for the Godly instruction you have twice a week.  You’ve even taught me a few things!

Some of your favorite things include riding your scooter, playing in the pool at the gym, casting with your fishing pole, playing in the sandbox, and constructing forts & buildings with your brother.  You also love your little sister so much!

We celebrated your birthday by taking you to the science museum to see the “real pirates” exhibit.  Your favorite part was the movie in the beginning, but you also liked raising the flag, looking through the periscope, and the treasure chest of pirate booty.  After the museum, we went out for pizza and then went home to get ready for your party.

Family & friends came at 6:30 and the weather was so unseasonably warm that we had everyone gather outside in the driveway.  That was a first!  I’m guessing there won’t be too many years where you’ll be celebrating your birthday outside without a jacket.  You requested a “volcano cake” so I attempted to come through for you.  I made two angel food cakes, placed them on top of each other and dumped two cans of cherries on top of them.  You loved it, which is all that counts!  (It actually got rave reviews from everyone else too, and there was only one piece to spare at the end of the night.

As if cake & ice cream aren’t enough on a 4th birthday, you asked your dad if we could also have s’mores.  So your awesome daddy brought the fire pit up to the front, started the fire, went to get s’mores ingredients and we had round two of sugary treats.  I have to say, you were in rare form when we finally put you to bed.

You are a sweet, smart, spunky boy, Lincoln.  We love you so much!  And we’re looking forward to watching you learn and grow in the coming year.

XOXO

Mommy & Daddy

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I found this list of questions on another mom’s blog and thought I would start a new tradition of asking you and your siblings to answer them every year around your birthday, just for fun.

  1. What is your favorite color? Purple, green & pink
  2. What is your favorite toy? Buzz Lightyear that spreads his wings out
  3. What is your favorite fruit? Watermelon & pineapple
  4. What is your favorite TV show? “Shaun the Sheep” and “Brer Rabbit” on kids Netflix
  5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Mac-n-cheese
  6. What is your favorite outfit? My kitty outfit (Halloween costume from 2011)
  7. What is your favorite game? “Skongebob” Yahtzee
  8. What is your favorite snack? Peanut butter pretzels & wheat thins
  9. What is your favorite animal? Stingrays & sharks
  10. What is your favorite song? “I’m a little teacup” (teapot) & “Red Solo Cup”
  11. What is your favorite book? Skippyjon Jones
  12. Who is your best friend? Samantha (from preschool)
  13. What is your favorite cereal? Cinnamon Toast Crunch & Raisin Bran Crunch
  14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play in the sandbox with the dump trucks
  15. What is your favorite drink? Lemonade & punch
  16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas (as prompted by Nolan 🙂 )
  17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Quilt and Blueberry (his blue bear from Uncle Tony)
  18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Cold cereal without any milk
  19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Cake & ice cream
  20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Be a firefighter

r

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Gobble gobble

Yes, we live inside the city limits.

Yes, there are 5 live turkeys in our yard.

No, we are not hosting a turkey dinner anytime soon.

 

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Wheels on the feet

The boys were invited to their first rollerskating birthday party today.  It took a little time, but they both eventually started to get the feel of rolling instead of walking.  As we were leaving they each asked if we could go back again.

The roller rink brought back so many memories of “skating parties” my Catholic school had at the local roller rink.  Similar carpet, benches, lockers.  It was like walking back in time as you passed through the entrance doors.  It’s fun to think that there are still places like this open for our kids to participate in an increasingly uncommon activity like rollerskating.

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1st trip to the deer shack

Jake took the boys up north this weekend.  He is there with his dad, two uncles, cousins, and a couple of other guys.  I’ve missed their calls due to working on few projects around the house with my dad, but did get a couple of cute messages and one text.  Apparently, Nolan is having a great time and the “man weekend” is better than donuts. 🙂

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Taking steps

While we were celebrating Christmas at my parents’ house tonight Ingrid started to take off, literally, with her walking!  It was so fun to see her toddle more than just a couple of steps before opting for crawling.

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First day of fall

The kids and I stopped at the park on the way home from picking Nolan up from preschool this afternoon.  The air was crisp and the sun was shining – it was a beautiful fall afternoon.

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1st Day of School 2011

The boys are going to preschool in the afternoon this year.  Nolan will go every day and Lincoln on Mondays & Wednesdays.  I’m still trying to get my head around what that is going to be like.  My house has been full of noise and hustle & bustle for so many years that it really will be strange to have complete quiet for 2 1/2 hours, 2 days a week.  (Little miss will be napping while her brothers are at school.)

Our day began with our 1st day of school breakfast…orange rolls & scrambled eggs. I’m not sure what Lincoln is doing here in the photo…

After eating, we had a few last minute (seriously, last minute) things to accomplish before the 1pm preschool start.  First stop was CVS for 1 hour prints to complete the boys’ “Spotlight on me” sheets.  While our photos were being processed, we began the great backpack search.  Lincoln requested a Transformers backpack.  We looked for one last week only to find that the entire backpack wall display at Target was empty.  I couldn’t believe it.  Completely bare.  That’ll teach me to leave backpack shopping until the week before class starts.)  This morning, Toys R Us came to the rescue.  We walked in and there it was…the last Bumblebee Transformers backpack.  And it was clearance priced!  For once, it payed to procrastinate.  With backpack in hand, we spent time wandering the store (to kill time before our photo pick-up.)  The boys had fun going up and down the aisles and trying out the toy displays.  We could have stayed in the train aisle all morning.

We picked up our 4 pictures and headed home for lunch.  Then, with full bellies, we put on new school shoes and went outside for the “1st day” pictures on the steps.

 

I love these guys so much!  They make me laugh multiple times every day.

Lincoln wanted to pose next to Ingrid before we loaded into the truck.

 

We arrived at school and took one more “1st” picture.  It’s going to be a great year!

P.S. Look how much these two have grown from last year’s 1st day!

 

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Body Art

This afternoon I was sitting in the living room with Little Miss and talking on the phone with my friend, Sarah.  Meanwhile, the boys were sitting at the dining room table coloring “hidden pictures” pages with markers.  Sounds innocent enough, right?  I mean, I was in the adjoining room and could see their heads over the back of the love seat.  Unfortunately, it blocked my full view of them.  If only I had known they were not only coloring hidden pictures, but were using their own bodies as canvases.

Check out the detail on Nolan’s feet!

For the record, I waited to take photos of them because I couldn’t let on that what they had done was absolutely hilarious!  While they were technically using markers labeled “washable,” this particular set is hardly that.  I ended up Googling “remove marker from skin” and found a suggestion for rubbing alcohol.  That, combined with a super bubbly bath, seems to have done the trick.  Of course all of this happened while I was single-parenting tonight.  Jake missed out on all of the fun!

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Watch what you say

My mom took the boys for the day so I could get a few things done around the house – like putting my furniture back in order after our new front window was installed last Friday.  While they were there, they captured a mouse (or shrew) that had somehow gotten into the house.  Nolan saw it first.  It wasn’t until the little thing scurried out from the corner and down the steps, that my mom caught a glimpse of it too.  The rodent managed to find its way to the “fort” room under the stairs and was essentially trapped.  The boys danced around in the doorway and sang “No, mouse, no!” to keep it from getting out of the room until my mom came back with a butterfly net to catch it.  They released the frightened animal in the backyard and had quite a story to tell Papa (my dad) and Uncle Tony when they had dinner together that night.

While Nolan was re-telling their adventures from the day, he got to the part about the mouse/shrew going downstairs and how apparently “There’s just all this crap along the wall” down there.  At that point, my brother just about lost it.  Not only did Nolan use the 4-letter word correctly in context, but he said it so nonchalantly that my mom had to ask my brother if he said what she thought he had said.

Unfortunately, I’m to blame for letting that one slip around the kids.  A few too many toys pushed me to the brink a while back and I uttered a phrase similar to the one Nolan used.  Guess he filed it away for a time such as tonight.  At least he was with family 🙂