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...

Jack Frost Meets Jackson Pollack

I took these pictures last Friday when the weather was in the teens with clear blue skies. I went out to my car in the morning and found it covered in this awesome frost. Neato, huh? Of course I had to run inside and grab my camera...the neighbors must think I'm a total nutcase!

Getting Into The Spirit

We usually get our tree over Thanksgiving weekend but, since our last ohhhhh...seven trees have dried up by December 25th, we restrained ourselves and picked it up last Sunday. It was cold. COLD. Almost too cold to get out of the car to choose...but we braved the cold and did our duty to support a Pagan tradition. ;o)

Here's a Santa ornament I painted years & years ago.

Keats = Goofball

Sully did a most excellent job of decorating this one specific portion of the tree.

And this is what I get for asking the boys to stand next to each other in front of the tree...

This was the coolest thing...maybe ever. A machine that ties up the tree so you can just plunk it on top of your car and go. Excellent.

Sully was very excited to see this inflatable Santa at the tree farm. He would run up to it, then run back to me saying "I'm okay; I'm not real...I'm just pretend!" Tee hee. He has a fear of many things lately and if he is scared of something on tv I'll tell him "Its okay, baby. It isn't real. It is just pretend." So he tries to comfort both of us by telling me that HE isn't real. Too cute!!!

5K

Debbie and I ran a 5K today. Well, ran most of one: I had a cramp/stitch in my liver area that just about brought me to my knees. I walked through one stitch but the second one was a doozy! I was soooooooooooooo damn mad!!! because I KNEW I could run the whole thing...if I only hadn't had such a bad cramp. I think I kept running too long after the cramp because I was so not going to stop for a stupid stupid stupid cramp! But, whatever, at least I made the attempt! We did run most of it.

I'm going to sign up for another 5K in January and hopefully a cramp will not stop me next time.

The pics below are the boys' artwork as it hangs on the wall. I strung some sisal rope from one side of the kitchen cupboard all the way to the other side of the wall. This allows us to display some of the cute stuff they are each doing, both in school and just messing around at home.

Above & below are Keaton's cute cute cute figurines. Mostly, he draws Star Wars guys. Sometimes I am not sure exactly what they are...besides cute, of course!

Above is most of the display. Sully brings home GREAT stuff from Melina's, but most of Keaton's stuff is done at home. In school he mostly does work with spelling & writing.

Moose is hangin' loose! This pose is so cute. I think he must have sat down and started grooming himself; once he got to his tummy he slid into this position and just stayed. He's so funny. Both Moose & Reuben are the types of cats that will lie in whatever position they land in. Like if Reuben is asleep on my bed, and is in my way....when I turn over & he flips around to his back...he just stays there. So funny. I love how secure they both are!

I'm (Almost) 39, And That's Final!

I bought Mike a bottle of wine tonight at Fred Meyer. The checker asked to see my ID and I said "Oh! Thanks for asking." and told her I'd be 39 on Saturday. Her response? "Wow! You don't look that old. My MOM is 39!!

I told her that her mom must have been a very young mom (I was estimating the checker's age to be about 25) and she told me, "Well, she was 20 when she had me. I'll be 19 tomorrow."

Okay, now I officially feel like I should at least pretend to feel a little old. Geez....

She's Baaa-aaack!

I just cannot seem to make time for this blog lately! Actually, I THINK about it all the time...I think "Oh poop, I really need to update the blog!!"...and then I do nothing about it.

I swear that I had more free time before the boys were each in school for a couple of hours, three days per week. Now, on MTW, we leave here around 8:40, drive to Keaton's school and drop him off right out front (he's MUCH too grown-up to have his parents walk him in, don't ya know!), then head straight to Melina's so Sullivan can go to school. We usually get there around 9:05 and I never seem to get out until maybe 9:20. Then I drive home and have a whopping 90 minutes until I have to go get Keats. I walk to get Keats at 11:20 (he's out at 11:30) and then we come home, I fix him lunch, and we go pick up Sully around 12:15 or 12:30. I learned early on that I need to let Sullivan eat lunch at Melina's. He gets SOOOOO mad if I pick him up before she's served lunch! Then we come home, getting here around 1:00 or so. Melina is stuck home with kids all day long so we usually end up talking quite a while...we both need adult conversation!

So, during the 90 minutes I have, I end up doing things like the budget, laundry, surfing for Christmas gifts, or sometimes I actually go shopping. 90 minutes isn't a lot of shopping time, at least for me, so I prefer to wait until I have more time. If Sullivan doesn't nap, we usually head out. It is very very very very very very VERY nice not to be Nap Trapped, as I have dubbed the situation of being stuck home while little ones nap. Today we went straight from Melina's to the mall downtown. Thursday is Oregon's "Civil War" football game against University of Oregon and Oregon State University, and Keaton's school is having a Spirit Day. The kids are supposed to wear the colors of their favorite team. We're more Ducks (UofO) than Beaver (OSU) fans, so we went shopping for a shirt. He would be so crushed to not get to dress up for Spirit Day so Daddy told us to go get a shirt today. What a sweet daddy!

Anyhoo, we shopped around, they got some frozen yogurt, and we didn't get home until almost 4 pm. Then it was dinner, dancing, and baths. The days are an absolute blur...meaning one blends in to the other which blends into another....

Tuesdays are Mike's "night off" and he's out to a movie. I had the boys in bed---ASLEEP---by 8 pm. Amazing. I'm not sure how I did it but I'm happy to have some "real" free time!

Here are some pics from the past few days:

I spent about 5 hours on Saturday organizing the garage. I really want a play area out there (since we lost the playroom by adding Mike's office) and realized the new play area wasn't going to just magically appear. It isn't complete- not safe enough yet for them to play out there without some supervision, but they are really having fun out there. Mike added the tv in front of the treadmill so we can watch it while we work out & while the boys play.

The next pics are just the boys and I messing around last night....

Sully would NOT cooperate!

And when he DID look at the camera, silly Mama had the zoom in to close. But I love how blue his eye is in the above shot, and how clear blue they are in the shot below...

The above shot is the closest Sullivan came to actually cooperating.

Neither of us knew the other were making silly faces above; below is some sort of superhero expression. Of course it is.

The above shot requires plenty of explanation. I had Keaton's parent/teacher conference last week. Academically, he is doing great. Kids in the Spanish immersion program are expected to be at least somewhat behind their English-only peers until 3rd grade. Apparently by Winter Break of 1st grade the kids are supposed to have some huge "Aha!" moments, but if they were tested in English they would be behind. Keaton's teacher, Senora Stewart, told me that he does GREAT academically, even though he's in the Spanish program. His handwriting is some of the best she's seen for a five-year-old boy. He can sing the Spanish alphabet and can count to 39 in Spanish. She said he is very close to reading, even though they aren't teaching that until next year. So, we are happy that he is doing fine with that side of school.

But....he spends a great deal of his day talking with is friends, goofing off, giggling, not doing the projects he is supposed to be doing, etc. She said he had spent the first 5 minutes of many a recess on the bench in time-out for not listening in class. Once, he even spent the entire recess inside because he'd had too many warnings. Oddly, Keats never once mentioned these time-outs, so we had absolutely no idea.

There are four or five boys who just get along great and they are causing problems in the class. Keats has a seat right next to the teacher for circle time because she can't trust him to sit by his friends. Sra. Stewart told me that Keaton is delightful, bright, and has never been outright rude or disrespectful...but I think his talking during class IS disrespectful.

We decided to do a thumbs-up/thumbs-down daily report, and every Friday he will come home with a written narrative of how his week went.

The jar above is filled with bits & pieces of Legos. Keaton dreams of the little Lego people, especially Star Wars but he'll take any of them, so I bought some, put them in a jar, and told him he could choose one every day he gets a thumbs-up from Sra. Stewart. At least until we run out of Legos. ;o)

Yesterday and today he got the thumbs-up sign, and I am happy about that! He's chosen Darth Vader, Chewbakka, and Anakin Skywalker. The first day I let him choose two so he'd be excited about the system we set up for him.

I'm happy that he loves Reuben AND Moose =^..^=

New hairdo that was just done yesterday.

Sully is getting good at playing an Elmo game on the internet. It is so cute to see him doing this!! He looks like such a big kid.

The day before Thanksgiving, Sully came home from preschool with this feather band/hat. He also had a very cute cornucopia: a waffle cone, vanilla yogurt, chocolate ships, and fruit snacks to sprinkle on top. He had a lot of fun eating it!

Just some funny shots of Moose. The day after these pics were taken Moose's bottom lip swelled up HUGE...you can actually see the start of the reaction here; usually his bottom lip isn't so pink, especially that far down his chin. On his right is where the swelling originated. He required an urgent vet visit (which surprisingly only cost about $60) and shot of steroids. He was okay a couple of days later. Poor baby! He is allergic to something he is eating...he is such a scavenger and he is always looking for leftovers from the boys.

Sully absolutely LOVES Devo. Mike bought the video for the song "Whip It" and Sully just wants to watch it over & over. Here is is wearing his version of the hat the band is wearing. I'm not exactly sure why Sullivan is nude but I suspect it has something to do with his being age three.