Grandma's Hydrangeas


Also in June the kids and I spent 8 days in Arkansas, visiting family and dealing with hand/foot/mouth virus. It was a long week. Preston didn't eat because his sores were so many. Aidyn had it too. Grouchy, grumpy, pitiful children.

Going to Grandma and Grandpa's is always fun. The kids love all the outings with Grandpa on his bike, fishing with Uncle Shayne, playing in Eli's pool, and eating food from Grandpa's garden. It was HOT!!!!! And that kind of heat makes me grouchy too. We missed our cousin Kate and Aunt Mary but were glad to see Mike and Nash. Nash drove the kids around in the bike trailor--the 5 year olds loved it. We discovered kittens hanging out in the cool shade of Grandpa's flowers and shrubs and hte kids spent hours holding and chasing them. We ended the week by meeting Jeremy in Memphis for a night in hotel with him on business trip. I took the kids to the Pink Palace Museum and you will see here that the dinosaur exhibit was a bit too thrilling. The kids really enjoy museums and it was a perfect activity for a hot muggy June day.

Spence turns 5

His "actual" birthday. We have received countless complaints that this year his party was not on his actual birthday. We usually do parties on the real day but this year we had Spence's on a weekend so out of state folks could attend. So here are pics from his real day. He still plays Indiana Jones and frequently says he wants an Indiana Jones party next year for his 6th. The kids enjoyed the Vadar rental costume while we had it for a few days.





At Five Years old, Spence is a sweet son. He loves playing with his siblings and is a good helper for mom and dad. ( He did go through a rough patch over the summer as he was addicted to Wii Legos Star Wars and became a bit demanding with all adults over his Wii time and whatever else he thought was "fair". We banned him from it in July and his behavior has returned to normal. As you can imagine using a "fairness" argument with his daddy didn't work too well so Spence is learning to use other tactics to get what he wants. )

At 5, Spence can read basic words and is working on blends--"check, snap, black, them". I know nothing about teaching him to read but at age 3 he started asking to learn so I have used some books that his grandmother gave us. And during year 4 he grasped the basics and is doing well. We usually read to each other while Aidyn and Preston nap. Spence rarely naps now.

His favorite activities are playing Legos, playing with Mom and Dad, riding his bike, playing sports in backyard, dressing and acting in costumes, and playing Wii anything.

He is nervous in groups and doesn't like to perform. Yet his teachers say he is a class leader. He is kind and loving with his friends. He wishes he could see his grandparents and cousins more. And he hates that he will not be attending school with his best friend in the fall. But he is a happy child. And we look forward to who he will become in the next five years.

5th Birthday Party!!!!!

Same note again to kick things off as I try to update for summer posts . . . . Well, I'm a bit behind on posting, just as I am a bit behind on life right now. So I'm going to be updating June through September in the coming days. I've gone three months since updating photo library (which i hate doing) so this may take me a few days to get back on track with my posts.

Those of you who have spent a week or so with us over the summer know what life with us is like so I'm sure you aren't surprised by my lack of posting. The kids keep me on the run, especially Preston. He is full of life and must be watched pretty closely or he gets in the street, plays in the toilet, hits his sister, and the like. Aidyn has come in to her own over the summer and has discovered that she loves soccer and biking. Spencer became completely addicted to Legos Star Wars on the wii and became so demanding in his right to play that he was banned from it in July. So now we have Wii nights on Fridays and he plays other games "with" us instead of how he used to get an hour a day to himself. This has greatly improved his attitude and outlook on his 5 year old life. But he still loves Star Wars and Legos. He plays daily with his legos on the dining table.

So here I go . . . . scroll down to see what we have been doing since Memorial Day. It has been a fun, exhausting summer.


In June we celebrated Spencer's 5th Birthday party. A Star Wars LEGOs party. He invited two school friends and his cousins and several family friends. And most of the party was a surprise for Spence and the kids. For 3rd year party Spence requested a RED party with Lightening, Mater, and Sally in attendance. Then for the 4th he wanted a SWORD party and we went bowling. So I worried about this year's 5th party because his requests were so much more involved--a Star Wars Legos party. Not Star Wars and not Legos. So we had fun planning for this one. And it turned out much better than I imagined.

We decided to have our own backyard bar-b-que and Jedi Training Academy. So we started the party with a meal for the adults and the few kids that would sit long enough to eat supper. Most of them wanted to jump in the bounce house that Uncle Phillip brought and set up for us or pet the horses.

Then our training began. I explained to the kids that we would be training them to become Jedi. We would be playing games that would help us build our skills of cooperation, agility, and use of "the force".

Our first game was musical balloons. To the Star Wars theme song blasting from dad's iphone, the kids circled the balloons and pounced on them when the music stopped. The last kid with an unpopped balloon won.





Next was a T-shirt race, wherein two kids shared a t-shirt as they raced across the yard to break the finish line tape. Aidyn and Daniel won that one. It was a highlight of the party because they were the unlikely pair. She was the smallest and he was the biggest and oldest at 6 1/2.







Next we formed relay teams for a water game. The kids had to wet a sponge, run the yard length, squeeze the water into a coke bottle, and run back. The team with the most water in their bottle won.







Michelle, my sisiter, had great ideas for these activities. Her next one was a marble and water game. The kids in teams had to see who could pick up the most marbles at bottom of water using their toes.



And the kids' favorite was the water balloon fight. They were split into two teams to duke it out with 100 balloons. Thanks to Shayne and Michelle for making the balloons.








After all the training activities the kids were awarded their light sabers. Then they practiced fighting in teams with their new weapons.



Here they are ready to fight a storm trooper who tried to crash the party. (Ryan is one of our babysitters and the kids love him and were thrilled he came to the party.)




Then to everyone's surprise, Darth Vader's theme music began playing and out marched Darth Vader from our garage. He challanged Spencer to fight him in a light saber duel. It didn't take the kids long to figure out that Jeremy was Darth Vader but they were still pretty stoked to fight Vader. So each kid fought Vader and then each took photo with Vader for the kids to take home for their scrapbooks.





And here is Spence's Legos Star Wars cake. We made him wait til his 5th birthday to get these legos. He used all of his birthday money to buy several Legos kits at Disney World Lego store, and we surprised him with these magnet legos for his cake. For months he had been asking for legos on his cake.



Vader and his cousin, Ellison.




We ended the evening by tearing through several packages of pop crackers that Uncle Shayne bought for the occasion. Boys love throwing the poppers on the driveway. Thanks to all our family members and friends for helping us make this a special birthday and one he will always remember.

I still hear comments about this being a fun party and even the most fun ever. So since i know several moms of boys follow this blog, I want to encourage you to do a backyard party sometime. We usually opt for the out of home parties, but our kids really enjoyed playing these goofy games. And it was really easy to plan and execute.

Birthday Trip to Disney World

Spence LOVED his 5th birthday trip to Disney World. Jeremy's parents took Spence for a week. And the highlight of the week was the day they spent at Star Wars Weekend at Hollywood Studios. Spence was selected to fight Darth Vadar. He had been looking forward to this day for six months. Poppa and Deedee were thrilled that Spence was chosen from among the crowd of kids on their first day to the parks so they didn't have to spend every day in line trying to be selected bc Spence would not have come home without getting to fight Darth Vader. I think it was the happiest day of his life.



Here he has just been chosen for Jedi Training Academy and given a cloak. He looks a bit nervous as he contemplates the coming training and fight against his nemesis, Darth Vader.















Poppa is so happy that Spence's dream came true at Jedi Training Academy. And Spence received a really cool tooth brush that plays Star Wars music and quotes as he brushes.