Fun Things

Things you only do because you have kids...and that make you appreciate that you have them!

• Go fishing at the Resevoir on a windy, overcast Saturday afternoon. Took a picnic dinner. The mama was the only one being a baby (she gets cold easily)...everybody else loved every minute of it. Stopped at McDonald's on the way home to get the kids Happy Meals because they really weren't interested in eating at the park!
• Play pirates. Mama was the crocodile.
• Continue to play pirates the next day - in the hour that Matthew had at home between work and coaching water polo. We rushed through dinner...
• Plant the garden. Wyatt is very into it...Annabelle fell in the dirt once, then retreated inside to play by herself with her babies.
• Take a picnic lunch to the car wash! Yeah! My own bag of Cheetos!

Hope all is well with everyone!

How Can She be Two???

Annabelle Grace turns two today. How crazy is that!? We had a nice family birthday dinner last night to celebrate all of the March birthdays we have in our family (there are 5!!!). A fun time was had by all. Annabelle has been fighting some sort of bug for the past day or two, and I could tell that she just wasn't herself yesterday afternoon, but I also thought that all of the people and commotion could have been the reason she was fairly quiet and subdued (she's normally pretty gregarious and full of spunk!). She perked up and ate her ice cream cake like a pro, and enjoyed opening up her presents.

At the end of the evening, I could tell she was warm, so I took her temperature...103.7!!!!! Within an hour of some Motrin it was down to 101.5, so I tried not to worry so much, but needless to say I didn't sleep much last night. This morning when I looked at the pictures that were taken last night, they really show how yucky she probably really felt. She held her composure so well and was such a trooper! Happy 2nd Birthday Annabelle Grace!

He Made it Look Like Nothin'

So we decided to borrow cousin Jackson's smaller-no-training-wheel bike today to try to learn how to ride a bike. I loaded the kids in the car and headed over to Jackson's house to give it a turn, thinking it was a bummer that Matthew wouldn't be there for it, but also knowing that it wasn't that big of a deal because Wyatt would surely need more practice and Matthew would be there for that.

We got Wyatt's helmet on and him on the bike. I did the requisit holding of the handle bars and seat to get him going, all the while cousin Jackson was giving Wyatt all kinds of encouraging words and tips. I felt like my holding was slowing Wyatt down, so I nervously kind of let go. Do I tell him I let go, or let him just kind of go so as to not break his concentration??? After a pedal or two, I let him know that he was on his own...and DOING IT!!! He stopped, of course, and we tried it again. I held on longer this time and Jackson kept telling me to let go!!! I didn't want Wyatt to fall, thinking it was too soon, but then eventually let him go. He was really riding!

He did this another time or two and then it was time for us to go. We took Jackson's bike home with us - both of us sooooo excited! When Matthew got home, we showed him a little of what Wyatt could do in our cul-de-sac. We all decided that maybe that bike was too small for Wyatt (his knees would hit the handle bar when he tried to turn, which would knock him over!), and that we would take the training wheels off of Wyatt's bike and give that a try in the next day or two.

Well, Wyatt couldn't wait for Saturday, so I went ahead and took the training wheels off the next day. I held on to the seat for about a second and he was off! Within 3 or 4 more tries, he was able to get started all on his own, use his breaks, and more or less ride all over the place! Unfortunately, Matthew missed this event, too, but I was able to catch a little bit on video that I will post here.


Watch Wyatt riding his bike...

Jedi Training Center

March 3, 2007 was Wyatt's 4th birthday. He really wanted a Star Wars birthday party, so I did what I could to make it just that. His birthday breakfast of choice was bacon and pancakes. When his friends arrived, they had their picture taken with a life size cut-out of Darth Vader, received their light saber and went out to play. After everyone was here, they played a game of musical chairs to the original Star Wars sound track. Each child had an opportunity "hear the force".

Next, they played a game called Meteor Blast - they had to pop balloons that I had filled with candy and small toys. They all really loved this, and wanted more! On to pizza and then some ice cream cake. I think all of the kids had a great time (and the parents enjoyed catching up, too!). I hope it was a birthday to remember for Wyatt! We ended the day with a birthday dinner request of a place that had curly fries! We went to a hot dog joint downtown called "The Dog". The kids enjoyed their fries and other assorted greasy food. By the time we got home, Wyatt thought he wanted another piece of ice cream cake, but when it came time to eat, all he could muster was one bite! He was wiped out from a great day!!!

Hair Cuts

The kids both had their hair cut on Tuesday. This was the first time for Annabelle. Wyatt's first hair cut was a disaster in every way...I took him to Supercuts (always trying to be economical) where the Asian person had little to no child-side manner about her. He FREAKED at the sound of the clippers, was even more hysterical with the scissors, and we both ended up covered in hair bit because we ended the event with him sitting on my lap! What fun! That was at about 18 months...at almost 4 - meaning last Tuesday - was the first time he appeared to almost enjoy the process. Thank goodness for Cool Tops and their videos and motorcycle/horse barber chairs! Annabelle - having been to this place 2-3 times before, just to play while Wyatt had his hair cut - was as cool as a cucumber. In fact, I couldn't get her to look at the camera to take her picture...she was WAAAAAAY too involved in the Dora the Explorer on the TV!!!











Yep, that's red hairspray! You remember his favorite color is red, right?!