Christmas

The above photo pretty much sums up what every square inch of our floor looks like. Legos everywhere!
Melina gave us this drum set. Keats thought the set would be too small for him but it is actually a great size. We put the drums out in the garage and he's already asked to go out and bang on them a few times.

Sully was given a Leapster 2 from Santa.

Have you heard of these handheld games? Neat stuff! First of all, it is all math, reading, and things like shapes/colors...but there is a game going on so kids don't really see it as learning. Jokes on them! ;o) These little machines connect to a website and stores all kinds of fun information. You can follow how your kid is progressing in the three Rs, limit how much time they can play each day---the coolest thing, imho....you can have the machine turn off after 30 minutes or up to as much as six hours!! We chose to set no limit for now since the toys are new and the kids are on vacation anyway. The kids are rewarded points for how much they play and improve and those points can be turned in for prizes on the website. Cool stuff.

Sully is showing off his Buzz Lightyear jammies.

You have to watch this kid with candy! Especially chocolate! I wasn't watching him as he pulled items out of his stocking and when I looked over he had shoved a HUGE piece of chocolate in his mouth and was trying to open a second. He eats the candy incredibly fast, too.

Sully the rock star.

More chocolate!!

Sully just shoves his candy in his mouth as fast as he can, but Keats puts it all out in front of him and enjoys looking at it while he eats.

Chocolatey teeth! Good thing Santa brought new toothbrushes and toothpaste! (and very funny that both boys get so excited to receive new toothbrushes!!)

Christmas Eve-Eve and Christmas Eve

Last night, the boys and I bundled up and handed out Christmas cards with candy canes to some of our neighbors. They looked so cute and were soooo excited....though I suspect they were mostly hoping I was going to give them some candy cane when we came home (I did). If I left it up to them, especially Keats, we'd pass them out to everyone in a one-mile radius!

Lisa sent the boys these funny glasses in their Christmas packages. They are something like a crazy straw. Keaton and Sullivan had a very fun time tyring out their new glasses!

Santa already came...and is heading to bed after this blog is posted. Lol. Mike bought the fire-pit as a family gift, and the drum set was given to us by Melina. The stack of red packages in the front is what Santa left for Sully, and the green stack is for Keats. Everything else is from their parents. :o)

A Special Day At Preschool

Keaton is out of school for two weeks but Sully has school at Melina's. Yesterday was a special holiday-theme day. The kids were making their own stockings and I offered to stay and help. Keaton was invited to come join in the festivities as well.

Sully still had school, just an abbreviated version.

They have a group of songs they sing at the beginning of class.

Here, they are singing "hello" to each child.

The kids choose a weather cling and put it on the window.

Keaton has his stocking sewed together and Melina is using hot glue to attach his decorations.

Sully's turn to embellish his stocking.

Here is the entire group. Starting with the cutie in the front of the table and working clockwise: Ty, Keats, Kyler, Sully, Ariella, Chase, and Justin. Sully, Ariella, and Chase are the usual preschoolers in the group; Justin is Chase's baby brother and he is there during school but doesn't participate in everything.

Keats, Ty, and Kyler. These boys sure love each other. Such a silly group!

Ariella. Isn't she adorable! What a ham for the camera!

Not as much of a ham, but cute and at least he's looking at the camera!

Sully, Chase, and Ariella show off their creations. Melina had lots of stuff to put inside the stockings! These guys sure raked in the loot.

I just love how happy Ariella looks here. She just gets right in there with the boys!

The Preschool Gang (don't let the big boys hear me say that!!)

Happy Birthday To My Not-So-Baby Baby Boy!

Some pictures from yesterday, Keaton's actual birthday. We saved our gift for him to open on his birthday....he was a little bit surprised, as you can see. ;o) He has wanted this yellow ship for months and mentions it approximately every fourth sentence. lol. I had no intention of buying it for him as it is about $60! Last Saturday, I happened to go into Fred Meyer in the morning when they were having one of those "door buster" two-hour sales. This set was marked down to $40 and there was also a "buy two Lego sets, get one free". I bought three that were usually too expensive to consider but that were on sale AND went towards the freebie. I spent about 1-1/2 hours putting this stupid (did I say that??) ship together and nearly went blind in the process. But he was so happy and shocked that it was worth it!

Yet another Lego Star Wars ship. He apparently cannot get enough of them!

Above are just SOME of his birthday Lego sets. Lucky kid!

He came home from school yesterday and immediately put together the three Bionicles that he received; next he and I went to work on the Lego sets.

He loves Bionicles!

Moose tried to help with the Bionicles. Thoughtful kitty, huh?!

I found these "starter" inline skates at Goodwill last week for $3!! They were probably used two or three times...excellent condition. So, Sully opened his new skates while Keaton opened his big yellow Lego ship.

Party Like You're SIX!!

Keaton celebrated his sixth birthday on the 15th with a private party at the indoor playground. It was less expensive to reserve the entire place on a weeknight than renting just some of the space on a weekend, plus we were allowed to have a hundred guests included in the lower price; last year it was more expensive and we were only allowed 15 guests! So, I invited many people with kids, thinking only that they may as well come play for free since we paid for the place.

What I didn't consider, with all those invitations, were the number of gifts that Keaton would receive. OMG. Our home looks like the Lego catalog came to life! I think there were 21 kids, plus all the grown-ups, so we had a good turnout. I think all the kids had a great time. I am pretty sure that Keats will remember his sixth birthday party well into adulthood!

He received many Lego sets, a cool paper airplane folding set, a Lego watch (which he is THRILLED with and thinks that Mike should get a grown-up size one to match his, lol), a Darth Vader shirt, Star Wars figurines, books, the game Trouble (which is very fun! Even Sully can sort of play along)....and just lots of stuff.

When we got home and emptied the bag of gifts I was shocked at the size of the pile! I mentioned to Keats that there are kids that will not get much for Christmas (I did have to say that they'd get ONE gift from Santa because if I said they'd get nothing he would wonder why Santa wouldn't deliver toys to those kids...Keaton is much too close to figuring out the whole Santa charade!) I told him that we were donating some toys to an eight-year-old boy this week and asked if he would like to donate any of his birthday gifts. I was pleasantly surprised when he chose TWO very cool gifts. Not Legos, of course, but toys that he and Sully would have had a good time playing with. I'm so proud of him for giving away his gifts without even questioning why. What a good kid!

The Lego-ish cakes and Lego-ish gift bags.

I wrapped up this Batman costume for Sully to open while Keats was opening his gazillion gifts. Sully was soooo thrilled with the costume and I am very glad I thought to bring the gift along! He ran around in the costume the rest of the party. Doesn't he look cute!?!

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER

My dad turned 70 last Saturday and we went to a party at the Elks Lodge where he is a member. Um. Interesting scene: old people---and I mean like 80-year-old ladies pouring back a few drinks, lots of polyester pant-suits, I must have noticed six wrist splints...you get the idea. We had a very fun time and drank entirely too much. Beer. Drank too much beer. Much too much. But it was fun!

Mike took the boys home from the party at about 7:45 and Vince & Debbie agreed to drive me home. After we left the Elks, we went to a bar here in West Salem. I drank much there as well. As a matter of fact, I apparently drank fruity drinks that my neighbor bought for me; I remember seeing my neighbors and talking with them but I have no memory of the fruity drinks. I think that's about the time when everything faded to black....

...luckily I was delivered home safely and woke up in my own bed the next day. Not as hungover as I deserved to be but I definitely remembered why I don't go out drinking: it sucks to have children to care for when all you want to do is, well, die. ;o)

Anyhoo, here are some fun pics of the night, plus a few cute ones taken before we left home for the party.

Me. Second bar. Very drunk.

Vince & Debbie

Debbie, Dad, and me

Debbie and me

Daddy'o, playing with the boys before they had to leave the party.

Debbie & Vince. Again. Yes.

Barely caught this cute picture of Sully giving his daddy a big kiss.

They just don't cooperate.

Sully either does the above face....

....or this face....which is CUTE but not exactly natural looking...