Turning 5

It happened. My baby turned 5 on me. She is so excited about being five and getting to go to kindergarden next year. But she was even more excited to celebrate her birthday with a party. We had our small family celebration on her actual birthday. Then she had her friends party the following Saturday. She wanted to have it at the gym where she does gymnastics. So of course she got what she wanted.

Her family birthday cake picture.

About to blow out the candles. And trying to hide her smile from us.

Playing with some of ther friends in the gym.

The birthday girl gets to paint her hands on the wall and they stay up for the entire year.


All her friends gathered around for cake and presents.

And another cake. I think turning 5 deserves two cakes...at least.

Another year blows by

Time is moving to fast. I blink my eyes and it seems like months have passed by in a blur. So I am going to try and catch my breath a bit and recollect a bit of what has been going on.

We celebrated my baby turning 4. Hard to believe it but she is. Unfortunately her birthday also happens to fall in April which is smack dab in the middle of baseball season and soccer season. Makes for planning a birthday party for her a little difficult. We celebrated with a small family birthday dinner like we always do. I mentioned it in a previous post. Finally, a month later we finally found a free time where we could have her "friend" party.

She picked none other than Chuck E. Cheese. It's not my favorite place but she really loved it and having her friends there to play with. She met Chuckie himself and seemed a bit impressed.

Then she went into the ticket wind tunnel with Zach to help her. She liked that, but she loves anything that her big brother Zach does with her. It was a fun time for her and her friends and that's what really matters.


So after celebrating Anna's birthday a month late, it literally was a blink of an eye until we celebrated my big boy turning 12. I can't believe I have a 12 year old. Seems like yesterday he was still a small baby. He also had a small family party and got his desired and highly coveted PS3. Instead of our normal chocolate cake, he made his own dessert. He spent the day at Grandmama's and Pappy's house and decided that he wanted Peanut Butter Rice Crispy treats. So not only did he turn 12 on me, he made his own "cake" so to speak. See what I mean by growing up so fast. And they were good too. I think I'll let him keep on making those. But I was keeping with the lack of birthday planning and forgot to take my camera out. So I didn't get my picture of my birthday boy on his actual birthday.

Two weeks later we celebrated Kate turning 6 years old. She turned 6 the day before we headed out to Omaha for the College World Series tournament Zach's team was playing in. So naturally we had another small family birthday dinner to celebrate.


And yes, the chocolate cake was there. Although Kate had been at grandmama's house and helped to frost it. I've never seen such a brightly colored cake before. She went to town with it. She enjoyed her pink DS she got and got to use it plenty over the summer. But in keeping with this awful habit I started with Anna this year, her friend party was about 5 weeks late.

She decided she wanted her first ever slumber party. So she picked a few friends from her summer camp and invited them over. It was a small group to begin with but it ended up being just three girls at the party. All the other kids were sleeping over at friends houses or grandmama's. So we went to the movies Friday night and swimming Sat. morning before all the fun finally ended. She loved it and wants to have another slumber party soon. Anna is begging to be included in the next one though. And again, I never took out my camera. Truly, I'm lacking in my pictures here aren't I?

So there we have another year flying past in a blink of an eye. For the time being, I am allowed to say I have a 12 year old, 7 year old, 6 year old and a 4 year old. It will change in a month's time when Michael finally turns 8 but until then I'm allowed. Hopefully his party won't be so late in arriving as the girls.

My baby turns 4

Hard to believe it but my sweet baby girl turned 4 on me. She got to wear her birthday crown all day at school and was spoiled by all who saw her. Grandmama picked her up a little early from school and took her out for lunch. After that she got to go to the post office with grandmama. When she walked in they actually stopped and sang Happy Birthday to her. Not your typical postal group there.

She had grandmama make her cake for her. It was her favorite chocolate of course.

I had to get a picture of my big 4 year old with her mom and dad and grandparents.






Then she got down to the business of presents. With her brothers and sister encouraging her, it didn't take to long for her to get through them. She loved them all of course. That's just how she is. But she really likes her big girl Hello Kitty scooter alot.


She is such a sweet little girl and such a blessing. I am so proud to have her for my daughter.

Birthdays are in the air

We are starting our next round of family birthdays. Today is Hubs birthday. He is now 41. It's really not that upsetting to him so that's a good thing. So what does Hubs want for his birthday? Who knows. He doesn't have anything that he really wants and doesn't really need anything. So we are just going to go out and let the kids pick him something that they think he would like. It's always fun to see what they come up with. One year he got a bag of marbles, Z. really felt that he needed those. And of course he felt he had to play with Hubs in the process. I've already been requested to make his favorite birthday cake. So of course I will do that, what flavor you may wonder. It's almost embarrassing to say it but he really likes pink strawberry cakes. So that's what he gets, even though the girls have told daddy that it's a girl cake. He doesn't care though and still wants a pink cake. I guess he never believed that whole boys don't like pink theory.

So Happy Birthday Hubs, we love you very much. Enough to eat pink cake and play marbles with you. May your upcoming year be filled with as much love and joy as you give all of us on a daily basis.

Weekend Update

Well since I've been bad at posting, I thought I'd bore you with some of our weekend.

1. Saturday was my birthday. I'm twenty five....again.

2. Saturday was the day that Z. had a baseball tournament that lasted ALL day long. I had the three youngest running around and filthy in no time. Not really all that much fun.

3. Hubs flew in from Finland late Saturday afternoon. He went straight to the baseball fields to become my knight in shining armour and save me from all these kids and baseball.

4. Hubs took me out for Mexican after the last baseball game and then we went home and ate birthday cake that K. made for me.

5. Mom and Dad gave me a beautiful, very big antique crucifix with a water font on it. It came from an antique store outside of Pairs (the real one, not the one in TX)

6. I love my crucifix because now all that teasing my Hubs about needing a water font by our front door can now be turned into reality. And this one is much nicer than a plain water font.

7. Z. wrote me the sweetest poem for my bithday. It was written the way only a 10 year old boy can do when he is trying to make his mom feel good when he realizes that he doesn't have a present for mom.

8. Sunday we had more baseball games. Then we were finally defeated and it was all over. So I made Hubs take me out to buy me a present. I'm sublte like that.

9. Of all the things he offered me, the only thing I wanted was a new bird feeder outside the kitchen window. So that's what I got. Now I can see all the Blue Jays fighting over the seed in the morning.

10. Then I talked my way into another birthday dinner since I really didn't feel like cooking.

11. I am so glad that Hubs is home. I missed him. And more importantly, he brought me my favorite chocolate ever.

So there you have it. Our weekend. Baseball, Birthday Cake, Crucifix with water fonts, Bird Feeders and dinner out. The weekend doesn't sound so bad after all.

Look Who's Forty

Hubs turned 40 on Sunday. And there is no way that I could let it pass quietly by. Even though we are still unpacking, I decided to call a few friends and have them come celebrated Hubs getting older. So I thought I'd share a few pictures of our good times.

Even though he's old, I still held him responsible for the grill. But he had lots of chaperone's to make sure he didn't forget to take them off the grill.

And since he had some great friends, he had lots of teasing about his age. No matter what his argument was, he was still older than 99% of the guests there. And we reminded him at every opportunity.


After our geriatric grill master finished our dinner. We had to sit around and visit for a long while. At least as long as the kids would let us. They were begging for cake. So we decided to light his candles. But not to worry, we kept a fire extinguisher close by just in case it was needed. Hubs took it all in good fun.



He has promised to pay me back when I turn forty. But since I know his memory is slipping I doubt he will remember it when the time comes.


The only two guys not picking on Hubs to bad were our good friends Greg (he turns forty in two weeks) and Mike (black hair in the picture below) who has already reached that milestone.




It was a fun night with the three F's, friends, family and forty year old Hubs. It ended a bit earlier than the parties in our heyday, but since it was a school night and we really are all old now, nobody complained.

Happy Birthday Hoss!

Hoss celebrated his fifth birthday yesterday. It's hard to believe that he is five already. He's quite proud to be five since that now means he is an entire hand of fingers. We just had the small family celebration yesterday but he enjoyed all the cupcakes he had at school along with the birthday cake he had at home. Meanwhile all the rest of the kids are completely on board with anyone having a birthday since it usually means two pieces of cake instead of the normal one they are allowed. (Since most the time all they do is lick the icing off anyway, it's a great way to get the cake out of the house). I guess I should just serve a spoonful of icing and call it cake, I really don't know if they would notice the difference or even care.

Where did nine years go?

Nine years ago you entered my life. To my unknowledgable eyes, you appeared beautiful and perfect. You soon proved me to be right. One of my most vivid memories of you as a baby is of you nursing and me just holding your small baby hand and wondering what you would be like at different ages.

You smiled early on and you haven't stopped yet. You are always so affectionate and loving and even though it' no longer cool, you still are. I remember holding those small tiny hands as you slept and now when I look at them, they are already scarred up and constantly throwing a ball of some sort. You have never been a quiet child, I always knew that as long as I could hear you, everything was fine. Your still not a quiet child but the noise has now changed. Some days I really miss all those crazy car chases across the rug with your toy cars. Now when your driving cars around it is usually a game that your playing with your friends.

I remember when we lived in Finland how I would hold your hand as we crossed the street to walk to the grocery store, and how you would help me carry our bag of groceries home. You were such a good little helper. I don't have to hold your hand anymore when we cross the street but sometimes you grab it just because and it always makes me catch my breath and smile. I remember the first time you rode a bike and the first day you took off your training wheels, I was so proud of you.

I also remember the first time you cried because someone had said something mean to you. It broke my heart probably more than it did yours. And to this day I still hold a grudge against that child for being mean to my baby. Mainly because that was when you realized that I couldn't protect you from everything all the time.

I am so proud of the boy you have become, so sweet and honest and caring. You were my first child and yet you never showed any resentment or jealousy of the other children that would follow you. Instead you just ask when we are going to have another baby for you to hold. I look at you now and some of my question has been answered. I know what you have been like at the different ages these past nine years and I have enjoyed every moment of them. I still look at you today and wonder how your going to change as you get older. I know I will enjoy each of those moments with you especially since time seems to be moving so fast.

Happy Birthday son and thank you for blessing my life in ways that I never imagined nine years ago.

I love you, Mom.