Six

I don't know how it happened, but my BABY turned Six!!!!

Yikes!!!!!!!! 

He is still as adorable as ever!

Where has the time gone?

Six years ago we welcomed him into our arms.

And today we are doing our best to stay up with him!

It is such a JOY to be Carter's mom.

I am so lucky!!!!

We had an Easter Birthday celebration because his birthday was so close to Easter this year.

For the first time, we had an all boy party.

It was fun, but definitely different!

April 16th, 2011

We started off the party with a movie.

Hop

Afterwards, we came home for Ice cream and Cake.

I made an Easter Basket Cake.

Carter loved it and requested a bunny rabbit cake for his real birthday.

We opened presents.

 After presents,  we headed outside for an Easter Egg Hunt.

200 eggs and 10 kids and the eggs vanished much faster than I anticipated!

The kids had fun though so that's all that matters!

The kids had fun eating their candy for a few minutes before they went home.

I strategically planned the egg hunt last, so they could all take their candy home!

I am sure their parents loved me!

Popcorn, Punch, Cake, Ice Cream, Candy..... Sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar!!

Carter had such a great time! 

After the party he immediately played with his two new webkinz buddies; Frank and Ziggy!

April 18th, 2011

Carter woke up to wrapped presents on the coffee table.

He was sooo excited and begged to open one present before school!

He was ecstatic about his very own Wii Remote control!

So excited, in fact, that he had to call Aunt Misty to tell her about it!

Carter took chocolate doughnuts to school for his birthday treat

and came home wearing a birthday crown.

We had the family over for dinner- Carter's Choice...... Lasagna!

(Well, he originally wanted Sushi but not everyone likes it, so he

went with his second choice, lasagna.)

Carter was very excited to open his presents!

He loved the huge chocolate bar and baby pillow pet from Grandma and Grandpa.

He was thrilled to get money from his other grandparents too!

He was also very excited about his new video games,

and Lego sets.

For the first time, he read all of his cards by himself and did a fantastic job!

(And I really should add that there were BIG words in some of the cards too!)

His Bunny Cake turned out really cute!

And it was rather easy too!

We sang Happy Birthday

(Loved that Carter sang too! and added "Cha, Cha, Cha..... After each line)

I also love that he is still holding his money!

I still can't believe my baby is six!!!!!!!!!!!

Funny Tidbit- Carter let go of a little gas the morning of his birthday and he started giggling and announced, "He, he, he...... Those are SIX year old farts!" 

Oh my......  I guess six year olds still think bodily functions are funny!  Lovely!  When does that end??

Misc. March

The boys finished up their second session of swim lessons and

will start their third session next week.  Alex has advanced to level 4

and Carter to level 3.  They are both turning into such great swimmers!

I really need to video it!!!!!!!

We went swimming with Laurence and I snapped this picture

with my Iphone during swim break.
They are getting so big and looking oh so cool!!!!

Carter also started Karate this month, but I haven't taken any pictures.
He is doing fantastic and you should see him do knuckle push ups!
Today we were 2 minutes late so he had to do 25 knuckle push ups. 
I told Carter I was sorry and he said, "It's okay mom!  They're easy!"
He dropped and did 25 push ups on his knuckles in no time at all!
Way to go Carter!!!!!!

Hallie has also started Ice Skating.... Pics to come, I promise!
She can't wait to advance to level three---- hopefully next month.

I took Nadya and her friend  to the last home meet for the Red Rocks....

We Celebrated My Birthday........

It fell on a Tuesday and on Tuesdays kids eat free at Lonestar,

so we took full advantage and took all four of them!!

We met up with my parents, Kris, Josh, Laurence, Misty and Aaron too!

Nadya and Hallie were the photographers, so they are not in any of the pictures.

Love, love, love the picture of Carter!!!!!!!

They seriously brought him an adult size soda.... What????

After we came home and celebrated some more........

I made homemade cream cheese lemon icing and Doug baked a spice cake.

It was delicious!

 

We took the kids to their first hockey game. 
They had a great time and were so well behaved.....
We used our Pass of All Passes and
all 15ish of us sat together! 

Funny Tidbits---

 Already shared these on Facebook, but I want to document them for my blurb book.

Carter: "Mom, how does your blinker always know where you are going??"
Me: LOL

******************************************************************************


Me: Carter you're never going to get married if you can't learn to lift the toilet seat!!! No one wants to sit in your pee!


Carter: That's okay, don't you know I want to be a bachelor????

Reminder to Myself-  Video Carter reading.... He has completely turned the corner and reads everything with great speed! 



100 Days And More

Carter Celebrated his 100th day in Kindergarten.

I can't believe how quickly this year is flying by.

Like Alex did last year, Carter was instructed to create a poster

with one hundred items on it. 

He chose things you'd find in cupboard, complete with

cranberries, marshmallows, life savers, noodles, fruit loops,

and other fun goodies.

He did a great job.

  He is so good at math!

He also had the estimation jar.

Funny story that goes with that.

My boys are definitely growing up and their interactions are really starting to change-

Lately, I've noticed they've kicked it up a notch.

Exhibit A-The Estimation Jar:

Carter was suppose to fill the jar with something of his choice

and his classmates would estimate the quantity.

So, the boys were discussing different things that could go inside

when Alex took the jar and said he could fart in it. 

(Sorry for offending any of you, but I do live with boys after all.)

Anyways, Alex said, "I could fart in it and then Carter could show the jar

to his classmates and ask them to guess the amount.

Alex smiled and said, "They'd all say nothing. And you would say,

 No.....There is ONE fart!"

We all laughed, and then I proceeded to tell the boys  they couldn't do that and then

I threatened Carter within an inch of his life NOT to tell that story at school. 

(Gosh, I hope it worked!)

Exhibit B-Ikea:

(logo from Ikea.com)

Apparently while I was in Maui, kids could eat free at Ikea.

Well, Doug took full advantage of that.

My kids ate there TWICE, in ONE day.......lol

(and probably would have eaten there more often if it were not such a drive)

So while eating at IKEA Carter was drinking his chocolate milk

(from a small milk container)

and Alex said to Carter, "Hey, look at those lights!"

Sure enough, Carter took the bait.... hook, line and sinker.....

He looked up to inspect the lights only to find

his chocolate milk pour down the front of his shirt.

Poor guy.  He was still a bit emotional about  the whole incident

 when he told me all about it almost a week later.

Yep, my boys are growing up.

And I LOVE it!

(Most days!)



Happy New Year!

Alex celebrated the New Year with a sleep over at Aunt Misty's house.
He told us that he stayed awake until after 12:00- an entire hour past in fact- Until 13 O'clock. He said he mostly ran around in circles and banged his head against the wall to help keep him awake.

I laughed and later opened my email to find this:

"It's too funny watching Alex do Yoga on my wii fit.  He tried to stay awake until midnight, but fell asleep at 11:00."
 Picture Attached

Alex's New Years Resolution will be to quit telling fibs. 

Even though they make us all laugh....  LOL!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Both boys had Thanksgiving Feasts in their classrooms. Unfortunatley I had already taken a day off work to be with my Grandpa at the hospital, so I didn't feel like I could ask for more time off to attend their feasts.  So, we improvised.  Doug went to Alex's feast where Alex was dressed as a pilgrim and Doug as an Indian for their simulation. In typical Doug fashion, he went  to the event without a camera.  Boo. I am hoping perhaps his teacher took a few pictures.


Aunt Misty had the entire week off of work, so she went to Carter's feast. She didn't take a camera either, but my sweet friend snagged one with her phone and sent it to me.

Doug ended up taking Tuesday off of work and could have made it to both feasts, but Carter wouldn't have it.  We already told him Aunt Misty was going to his feast and that is just how he wanted it.  Doug and I come second to Aunt Misty. 


We spent Thanksgiving at my moms.  It was so nice not to cook the entire meal myself.  (Thanks Mom!) I didn't manage to take a single picture, but it was a pretty typical Thanksgiving for us. The kids played pool with Uncle Aaron, the adults cooked and talked, and we all ate an insane amount of food.  We had Hallie for Thanksgiving this year, so that was a nice bonus. 

Before dinner the kids were taking turns sharing what they were thankful for- Alex was thankful for food,  Nadya was thankful for Hallie, Hallie was thankful for her family, in which we replied, "Good One!" And Carter yelled out, "I am thankful for Jesus! Top that!"  We laughed!


Doug and I stayed up late and planned our black friday shopping. (Okay, really Doug stayed up late and I went to bed.)   Our two major purchases included a new laptop, (woot,woot!)  and shelving for the storage room under the patio.  (Our house was built in the 60's and it's really more of a bomb shelter, but we use it as storage.)  Doug braved the crowds while I stayed home in my warm bed.  We got a few more things too, but the laptop and shelving were our main priority.

It snowed and snowed and was freezing outside so the kids kept themselves entertained inside. They built one of their best forts, complete with four bedrooms and kept it up all weekend.  The boys slept in it all weekend, but Nadya had been nursing a horrible cold, so we thought it best if the girls slept in their own rooms. 

Later that weekend, we decorated the tree and got our Christmas decorations out.   I really wanted to get a real tree this year, but Doug insisted we put our small, fake one up. (He is really way too practical for me..........cough, cough..cheap, cheap..)  The kids  all enjoyed hanging their special ornaments except for Alex.  Poor guy, he was sick, sick, sick..........  He just laid on the couch  while we decorated.  We saved all of his special ornaments for when he felt better.

Doug and I hung our ornament from our first Christmas.  Hallie insisted on taking a picture.  (She wanted us to take many pictures while we were hanging special ornaments, but I refrained and just took a few!)

Nadya is pictured with one of her Russian ornaments. 

She has 8, one for each Christmas she spent in Russia.

Later that night, Alex was feeling a little better and hung his ornaments. (Unfortunatley it didn't last long, he was up puking the next morning.) 

I just love having the

tree lit up at night!



Funny Tidbit

We had parent teacher conferences this week.  The kids are all doing fantastic.  I am very proud of them. All FOUR of them. I had to record this though.  Carter's teacher had nothing but great things to say about him and she ended all of her compliments with, "He always has a lot to say and he has an opinion about EVERYTHING!" 

Fast forward a few hours later to Alex's conference.  It was pretty much the same thing.  Great kid, he is doing fantastic, Got all E's (excellents) and H's (Honors), but ended with, "He's a man of few words."

My boys are polar opposites.   I couldn't help but laugh.

Somebody Hide My Credit Card!!!!!!

Lately I have found that when I order something from Amazon that there are a few other items in my cart. Kinda cute. Alex shops for himself.  I usually delete his items and make my purchases.  I really didn't think much of it until I saw this total on the screen the other day.

Yes, you are reading that correctly.  7 THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!!!!!!

Apparently Alex thought we needed a vacation!  

An expensive one!!!!!!!!  

And we leave at the end of the month!!!!!!

Alex, Alex, Alex. 
Please don't forget you are only in Kindergarten

and you can not plan our vacations yet. 

(unless, of course, you can pay for them!)
And, would someone PLEASE hide my credit card????

No worries.  We are not going to the Bahamas.  

I caught this one in time. (Thank God!)

But, I am no longer leaving my credit card info on Amazon.

That would just be too easy for him!