I thought I’d bring a little humor to the blog this evening. Those of you that know our family know that Zachary is a big source of humor.
One thing about Zachary is that he does not hide his emotions. He displays them clearly on his face. One that I don’t think he intended to be funny is his "mad" face, though it has turned in to quite a game to try to imitate it. He’ll do anything for a laugh, so it doesn’t bother him that we’ve made a joke out of it (something that would disturb his brother A LOT).
What about you? Can you make Zachary’s "mad" face?
And, just cause it made me laugh, here’s the face he made when I asked him to make his mad face so I could take a picture.
Since Emily’s first Christmas, we’ve been carrying on a tradition in our family in which we purchase one new Christmas ornament for each of our kids each year. I’ve certainly lost track of who got what and when, but thankfully we’ve labeled each ornament and kept them in good shape over the years. However, the ultimate result of this tradition is a very sentimental but horrendously hodge podge Christmas tree.
This year we tried something new. We bought a separate 3’ tree for each kid. They’ve now accumulated enough ornaments of their own plus a few oldies-but-goodies from Christmas-past and they can decorate their own trees. Plus, with the dormers on our second floor, where the boys have their room, we can put them in windows and add to our external illumination.
(See them up on the second floor)
The final benefit and probably the main goal was that we were able to decorate our tree with a more uniform style.
Zachary’s birthday was last Sunday, December 7th. He has been looking forward to turning 4 for quite some time. For the last year, any time anyone would have a birthday in which they would turn anything over age 3, he would inform us that he was still three with disappointment. So, it was with great anticipation that he starting counting down the days on November 27 — 10 days before his birthday.
I asked him several times what the big deal was about turning 4, and he explained to me that several things would happen when he was 4:
* he would no longer be a baby – though I explained to him that he would always be MY baby, he was pretty insistent on this one. It really threw him when I told him that Scott was still Grandmama’s baby and that Grandmama was still Gran’s baby…
* he would no longer suck his thumb – we have been passively working on getting him to give up this habit. Having been through before with Emily, we knew better than to push too hard until he was ready. He had decided that he would be ready when he was 4. So, on the night of his birthday, we told him to try to only suck his thumb at bedtime. No point in going cold turkey on a 4 year old habit! Well, I have to tell you that he has done so well. He hasn’t sucked his thumb at all since last Monday night. Not even in bed!
* no more dragging his blanket everywhere – he has carried his “blank with fringe” with him everywhere he went for the past 4 years. He still plays with it around the house, but that’s it. No more getting dragged into the car and begging to take it with us wherever we’re going.
* play on the computer – Timo LOVES to play on the computer. Somehow, Zachary has gotten it in his head that he would suddenly know how to play on the computer when he turned 4. I was willing to show him how to play before then, but he really wasn’t interested. Well, this week, he came to me and asked if he could play on the computer. I opened the NOGGIN website for him, showed him which mouse button to click and he was off and running! All our educational games have gotten pretty scratched up through the years. I guess that’s something we should put on his Christmas wish list…
* go to school – I’ve been surprised that he hasn’t asked to go to school this week. Anytime he would tell me that he would be going to school when he was 4, I would remind him that he would after he’d been 4 for a few months. He’ll be going to pre-K in the fall.
There have been other things mentioned, but those are the top 5. Turning 4 was a BIG deal in his mind. So, we started planning the celebration in early November and the celebration really started at Thanksgiving. On the day after Thanksgiving, he had a mini-party at Gran & Ol’ Granddad’s house where he got to open his presents from Grandmama & Granddad and Gran & Ol’ Granddad. He was quite excited to get a Ben 10 Alien Creation Chamber and some “dollars” (that he later used to buy a Dora game for his Leapster). We all spent the rest of the weekend making aliens.
We came home from Amarillo on Saturday. The next few days were rather tame as far as celebrating his birthday were concerned. We put up Christmas decorations and continued the countdown to December 7th. Grandmother & Granddaddy arrived on Friday. Their visit was mainly to see the kids (and, I like to believe, to see us), they were also coming to see the new house since they had not been up since we’d moved back to Plainview. We’re hoping that we’ll be in yet another new before too long, but that’s for another post.
Friday evening was spent enjoying spending time with Grandmother and Granddaddy. We left the house once and drove ALL the way to Wayland to see the living nativity before dinner, but that was our only outting. Before bed, I baked a birthday cake to be iced the next day. As he smelled the baking cake, Zachary knew he would soon FINALLY be 4.
Our plan for Saturday was to go to Chuck E. Cheese in Lubbock. We always let the birthday child choose one special meal for their birthday, and that was Zachary’s choice. We had big plans for the 7th, so we went on Saturday. I decorated the cake to look like an Omnitrix (from Ben 10) so we could take it with us. We decided to let him open his gifts before we went. He likes to dress up like the characters in his shows. We had got him some clothes similar to what Ben wears in the show, and we thought it would be fun for him to dress up like Ben to go to Chuck E. Cheese. He was very excited to get his own Leapster (so he doesn’t have to beg Timothy to let him play his anymore), Diego checkers, cards, and “magic ink” coloring book, and his Ben clothes (a green windsuit). We arrived at Chuck E. Cheese around 2:00 and had a great time.
On Sunday, Zachary decided to wear his “Easter suit” to church. We have a “Birthday Champ” ribbon that he wore proudly. He had a great morning telling every one that it was his birthday. Because he’s 4, he now gets to go to worship with the family. We had a great time worshipping together. After church, we went to lunch and then headed home.
Now, for the evening, we had a decision to make. After getting the tickets for his REAL birthday gift, a ride on the Polar Express, we had found out that the Children’s Choir Christmas musical was that night. All the kids were scheduled to sing. The service started at 6 and we had to be at the Polar Express Train Station in Lubbock by 7:45. We probably could have done both, but our time would have been rushed. So, we explained to a tearful Emily (the boys couldn’t have cared less) that we’d be skipping the musical. We arrived at the train station at 7:45, picked up our tickets at will-call, and found our place in line to get on Train Car 1.
The train ride was wonderful! Zachary enjoyed letting everyone know that it was his birthday. The whole train car sang Happy Birthday to him twice! Everyone enjoyed singing, dancing, listing to the “Polar Express” story, having hot chocolate and cookies, and of course, getting to see Santa and his Elves.
These pictures are from Chuck E. Cheese and the Train Ride.
There has been one interesting development of letting Zachary open his presents before his actual birthday. Any time someone asks him what he got for his birthday, he tells him that he didn’t get anything. He got a Leapster, Ben 10 clothes, Diego checkers, and an Alien Creator when he was 3, but he didn’t get anything when he was 4. Little turkey…
We spent most of the week dreading Halloween night. Not because we don’t like Halloween. We usually enjoy letting the kids dress up and go trick-or-treating, but this year we found ourselves pulled in several directions. There were a couple houses that I’d promised to bring the kids to, Trunk-a-Treat at church at 6:00, the Fall Festival from Timothy’s school at 6:30, and an office party at 6:30. All fun activities that we wanted to go to, but took some work to figure out how to do them all.
We started the fun at 4. Timothy had learned at the pumpkin patch that pumpkins last longer if you paint or color them than if you cut them, so the kids had been begging since Wednesday to be allowed to paint the pumpkins that we got. They pointed out several times that it made the most sense to decorate them before Halloween, and they were right. So, we pulled out the tempera paint and brushes, covered the table, and they had a great time! Surprisingly, there was very little mess.
The finished products:
Emily decorated hers to look like a black widow spider
Timothy painted a real (used the peach paint) face on his
Zachary usd all the colors to paint a face on his
Then it was time to get their costumes on and go trick or treating.
Emily dressed as an angel (I guess she just didn’t want to dress up this year!), Timothy as Bubblebee, and Zachary as a Storm Trooper (Scott was so proud!!!).
Trick-or-Treating, Trunk-A-Treat, and the Fall Festival were all a lot of fun and we have a pumpkin basket completely full of candy now. We dropped the kids off at some friends house and made it to the party by 8:15. There were 10 people there. When we got there, they were playing a round of “Fact or Crap.” We’d seen the game before, but hadn’t played it. It was fun, but we were disappointed that the cards didn’t reveal the “real” answer when the statement was not true.
The party was pot luck. We knew we’d be late, so we brought dessert. For the first time in my life, I baked a cheesecake from scratch. It was a pumpkin cheese cake with an oreo crust, sour cream icing, and chocolate drizzled over the top in the shape of a spider-web. It was a hit! I forgot to take a picture before, but here’s what’s left.
All said, it was a fun night. Today we get to relax. I hear there’s some big game today that I’m sure will be on our TV at some point.
Yesterday, Zachary and I went to the pumpkin patch with Timothy and his class. Being a small, private school, they do not take busses on field trips. Instead, they depend on parents to travel with them to the destination. So I loaded Timothy, Zachary, and three of Timothy’s classmates into the Trailblazer and we headed to the pumpkin patch in a town just over thirty minutes away.
Now this was like most pumpkin patches that I’ve been to before. There was a short lesson about the different kinds of pumpkins and the kids got to pick out a pumpkin to bring home with them. There was something that I hadn’t seen before though. Beyond the pumpkins, they had a pen filled with goats, donkeys, and horses. They put on a little demonstration with their farm dogs herding the goats. First with the old dog who very calmly rounding the goats up and then young 4 month old dog who ran and pushed the goats around. The kids weren’t terribly interested in this, but we “grown-ups” thought it was neat. After the show, the kids got to feed the animals. That was fun!
Tonight was the last game of the flag football season for Timothy. We got to see him score his first touchdown. As you’ll be able to tell from the video, we were quite pumped.
Here are a few pictures from the last day as well:
Timothy started playing flag football this week. It really is quite comical to watch a bunch 4, 5, & 6 year olds play football. Unlike t-ball, there is quite of bit of education that the kids need to play football. In t-ball, the kids need to know to hit the ball and run the bases when it’s their turn to bat and to catch (pick up off the ground) and throw the ball to first base when they are fielding. In football, they learn to hike the ball, hand it off, and run for the end zone when they are on offense and to grab the flag of the guy with the ball when they are on defense. It’s a lot to remember and requires some ability.
There wasn’t a lot of learning involved in the first week of practices. The kids learned to hike the ball and to run with it. They didn’t learn to hand off the ball or run in a certain direction. We’re hoping that now that we’ve been through the first game, these will be some skills learned in practices.
Timothy’s team (the Redskins) played the Cowboys this week. They don’t keep score, but it’s pretty easy to tell who won. The Cowboys got 3 touchdowns and the Redskins got 1.
Nonetheless. everyone had a great time. All it takes is to get a snack at the end of the game to keep the kids coming back for more.
Emily started 3rd Grade today! I can’t believe it. It seems like just yesterday that I was taking her to Kindergarten. She is attending LaMesa Elementary. This is the same school she attending for 1st grade, and she is just delighted to be back to the school she knows. She is participating the Gifted & Talented Program both at school and will go to weekly G/T classes at the district office. The good thing about being back at the same school is that she does not have to be retested to get back into these programs.
Her teacher’s name is Mrs. Chilton. She has been teaching at the school since it opened 20 years ago. When we tell anyone that Emily is Mrs. Chilton’s class, they all tell us that she is wonderful. Several of her friends from her 1st grade class are in her class. Emily doesn’t feel like the “new” kid at all. We’re confident that is going to have a great year.
Emily is too big to be taken to her classroom, even on the 1st day of school. We had meet the teacher night last week, so Emily already knew where to go this morning. She hopped right out of the car and walked straight in. I’m assuming she did great from there. She told me she had a wonderful first day.
We had Emily’s 8th birthday party last night. When we started planning the party, we were still living in Lubbock. Emily knew she wanted to invited her two best friends from Plainview and a group of friends from school / church in Lubbock as well. She wanted to have a sleepover, but we felt that most of these moms probably wouldn’t be comfortable with their 8 year daughter spending the night in another town. Not to mention the hassle of getting them to the house and back home again. So, she decided to have the party at Mr. Gatti’s in Lubbock and have her two Plainview friends spend the night. In an effort to avoid Labor Day, we scheduled the party for August 22nd. Having the party before school starts has become a custom for us.
Emily decided to have a Cheerleading party. We weren’t real sure what that meant, but agreed to make a megaphone cake. We made the reservations that included food, drinks, the use of a party room, a party host, and a $10 game card for up to 8 kids. She sent out 8 invitations and waited for party day. There was no need to get party favors since each kid would be getting a game card and could get their own prizes with their tickets.
On the day of the party, Emily’s friends from Plainview rode with us to Lubbock. 7 of the 8 kids arrived and the party went very smoothly. I really didn’t have to do much at all, which meant I got to enjoy the party. It was nice! Everyone had a great time and Emily was a great hostess.
Emily is now the proud owner of Monopoly: Then & Now, 2 new webkinz, a webkinz outfit, new pajamas, 2 ePets, a purse & Nancy Drew book!
After all her Lubbock friends had left, we ran a couple quick errands in Lubbock, picked up Slushies at Sonic and then headed home. Once we got there, the girls wanted to play Emily’s new Monopoly game. Since it’s kind of a tough game, I played with them. We decided to play the “quick” version. We quit when two hours passed and there was no end in sight, the girls were pretty simpled out and I was tired. We set them up with a movie in the living room and I went to bed.
The next morning we had Belgium waffles and the girls played with Emily’s new toys until their parents came. Then we all crashed on the couch for the rest of the day.
