Brothers

"Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero!"

- Marc Brown

Paw Patrol - Landon's 9th & Carter's 6th Joint Party

For the boy's joint birthday party with family, they decided on a Paw Patrol theme (a tv show about dogs). I have noticed that I have been getting more low-key and less complicated with my parties. It's refreshing!

We had a mid-afternoon cookout with hot dogs, hamburgers, all the fixins, baked beans, mac & cheese, and chips. I also had pretzel rods (aka "fetch sticks") and Scooby Snacks graham cookies (aka "dog treats") as snacks. I served the chips and pretzels in (new and clean) dog food bowls and graham cookies in a (new and clean) dog treat container. I picked those up at the $ Tree. I set out to make "toilet water" which is a basic punch recipe (white grape juice, Sprite, Koolaid, and sugar). For toilet water, I was supposed to use blue Koolaid. Lesson learned...just because the Koolaid packet is blue, doesn't mean the actual Koolaid will be blue. So we ended up with red punch and I scrapped the "toilet water" sign (because red toilet water is just gross). I served water and beer too.

I picked up Paw Patrol invitations and napkins at my local party store and basic cups, plasticware, and divided plates at Walmart (sticking to red, blue, yellow, and green to keep with the colors of Paw Patrol). I had a Paw Patrol tablecloth and balloons...again, keeping it simple.

I made the most easiest but cutest cake - a paw print. All it was was one round cake and three cupcakes. All from one box of cake mix and one tub of icing. Easy peasy.

It was a great time getting together with family and celebrating my two sweet boys. Nine and six! Wow.

Bagley Boy Yard Service

My favorite part:

"We can help you with your yard work 

(except cutting grass because we are just kids)."

My King

Daddy,

I may find my Prince,

but you will always be my King.

Sprinkle for Baby Oakley

My sweet nephew, Oakley, must have been overly excited about his baby sprinkle that Aunt Ashley and I were giving him, so he made his surprise entrance into the world 6.5 weeks early - well before the sprinkle. He came home from the hospital just in time to make an appearance at his party!

I reserved the picnic shelter at Meadowmont Park in Chapel Hill, which was just a shelter set in the woods beside a small pond. It was a perfect and quiet setting for our woodland-themed sprinkle.

We served "bundtinis" from Nothing Bundt Cakes in Cary and had iced tea and water (with lemon, mint, and cucumbers) in mason jars for refreshments.

Ashley made the name banner (to hang in the nursery later) and a cute fox corsage among many other awesome decorations. We grabbed pine cones from the woods and put them in mason jars tied with twine for the tables. I'm a sucker for a mason jar. And nature.

And we asked everyone to write a wish for Oakley on paper and roll around a candle. On his future birthdays, he can pull one out and read the message of love. Isn't that special!

It was a beautiful day. And what a glorious occasion to get together; to honor Mr. Oakley and his sweet mama, Beth.

Wrenn Cuteness - 6 Mo (June '15)

I just cannot get over this cuteness day in and day out!

All these toys but she's going to play with a diaper. She will move across an entire room to get to a diaper!

Tough life.

End of K & 3rd Grade

Another year has come and gone. I feel like I was just taking their "1st day of school" pictures on the front steps and dropping my little guy off for his first day of K with tears in my eyes.

The boys rocked this school year. They did so amazing and we couldn't be more proud! They also had super teachers this year! 

Carter adjusted very well to school, and excelled beyond our expectations. He is reading well above grade level, but the most impressive thing is that he comprehends it! On his final report card, he received 4s (above grade level) in Math and Reading with 3s (at grade level) on everything else.

That's my kid rocking his shorts on backwards, grabbing his "area," and picking
his nose during his end-of year performance. Future star, I tell you!

Carter and his K teacher, Ms. Vescio

 Landon matured a ton this year. He is definitely not the same boy he was back in August when he first started 3rd grade. He's a super cool kid with lots of friends and SO smart. Personality, looks, and the brains - triple threat! He finished with 4s in Math and Art, with 3s in the rest of his subjects. (He has gotten a 4 in Art every year; not sure where he got that talent from!) He did well on his very first EOG (end-of-grade tests) and MADE IT INTO THE AIG (Academically and Intellectually Gifted) PROGRAM FOR MATH!!! Here were the requirements for getting into the AIG program: he had to take a test and only the top 95th percentile (nationally) got to take a 2nd test, he took the 2nd test and only the top 95th percentile (nationally) got to take a 3rd test, he took the 3rd test and only the top 95th percentile (nationally) got to be considered for the program. They reviewed his entire school portfolio; test scores, grades, school work, teacher comments, parent comments, etc. And he made it in for Math!!! He was juuuuuuust under for Reading. We are so proud, but most importantly, he is proud of himself. The AIG program starts next school year and I think he's going to have a lot of fun with it. The boy LOVES Math.

Landon and his 3rd grade teacher, Ms. Knight

We feel so blessed to have such well-mannered children who do great in school and actually care about their schoolwork and desire to do well. You rocked the 2014-2015 school year boys. Now go enjoy your summers!

Carter Funnies

Carter is always cracking us up. He is a witty boy; you just never know what's going to come out of his mouth. Lately...

"Did you know that Yoda is super old? Like a zillion and seven."

"I wish we could stay up 16 hours past midnight."

"We can go anywhere you want for dinner since it's your birthday. What about CFA? It'll be special. You can get ice cream with 6 scoops."

After he got his hair cut, with crossed arms, "This is what 7 year olds look like."

He asked if he could invite his girlfriend to his sleepover for his birthday.

"I changed my favorite number. It's not 12 anymore. It's 73."

After leaving church, he waved his artwork in my face and said, "Mommy, you're going to hell." (Still trying to figure this one out...)

Little: "I have special cheetah shoes."

Me: "Where'd you get them?"

Little: "At the superhero shoe store."

Me: "Where's that?"

Little: "7 stores down from Walmart."

"I look like a man drinking beer. Not root beer."

Earrings!

I took my sweet girl to Piercing Pagoda this week to get her ears pierced! I don't remember having mine pierced (I was very young) and I had been wanting to pierce hers even before she was born.

I was waiting for the 6-month mark so I could have my ped do it. But my ped said they could do it, but a place like Piercing Pagoda had the same equipment but did it more often than their nurses did. Since that conversation, I've swung by PP twice to chat with the girl, but never got her ears pierced because I thought Christopher would want to be there for it.

Last weekend when I suggested we go, he said that he is okay with her getting it done but didn't want to see it. Oh, sweet daddy.

So I decided I would take her this past Monday night. I was so excited until around lunchtime on Monday. I started having second thoughts and was feeling bad for hurting her for vanity. I talked to a few girls at work; one suggested putting Ambesol on her ears beforehand.

I was still feeling uneasy, but my nanny won me over. She shared her personal story of the agony and stress she went through as a 12 y/o girl trying to work up the nerve to go get hers pierced. So she said that I am saving her the stress in the long run! What a good perspective! What little girl doesn't want her ears pierced? And if she doesn't, she can take them out!

So...we went. My hand was shaking as I signed the paperwork. The same girl that I had talked to several times before was actually leaving when we walked up but came back to do it. I knew that was a good sign.

So I sat down in the chair with Bird on my lap. (I had put Ambesol on about 5 minutes prior.) She marked the spots. Looked good. I held Wrenn's arms down with one arm and her head back to my chest with the other. She pierced one. Wrenn started crying. She pierced the other very quickly. I stood up with Wrenn, hugging her, and she calmed right down. I'd say she cried/whimpered for about 15 seconds. And she hasn't messed with them since.

Non-event.

And look how precious!

Right after

5 minutes later

Tooth #7

Tooth number 7 came out (Landon actually PULLED/TWISTED it!!!) last Sunday night. Per usual, the tooth fairy visited and left him a golden dollar coin!

Sibling Love

The boys do their fair share of bickering, but overall I am very proud of the sibling bond all 3 of my babies have. The boys are best friends. They play together, want to be in each company (for the most part), they even sleep in the same bed together by choice. They adore their little sister, and oh my word how she adores them. I pray they will always remain this close.

Landon's Actual 9th Birthday

We had already had the friend birthday party the weekend before and the family birthday party to come, but we couldn't let the day go by uncelebrated.

Carter worked hard on a birthday card for his big brother the day before. He asked, "Mommy, how do you spell special?" I looked over at the card and saw he had written "I hope your birthday is s..." My heart swelled.

On his birthday eve, and like everything birthday eve, the Mister and I blew up about 30 balloons (with an air pump) so I can cover the birthday boy's entire floor. And every year, the Mister blows up about 5 and says "Ok, that's enough." I make him push on and he repeats that about every 3-5 balloons after. I end up having to blow up about 10 on my own. I add streamers everywhere: the door frame, the bunk bed, the dresser, the stair banister outside of his room, and the bathroom mirror. I hope they remember this tradition fondly when they grow up, and do this for their children.

I let Landon play hooky from school and I took the day off from work. Landon asked if his baby brother could play hooky too so he could enjoy the day with him. How would I ever say no to that?

I made him his favorite breakfast, mama's scrambled eggs and cheese. (And you have to blow out a candle in your eggs!)

He also enjoyed one of his favorite beverages, an iced (decaf) hazelnut latte.

Then we headed over to the mall (with Wrenn and our nanny, Lindy, in tow). We started at Dave & Buster's (an arcade) for a little bit, then took a break to eat lunch at the food court. Landon was wearing a birthday necklace. The manager at ChickFilA, where we chose to eat, saw the birthday necklace and came over to me and asked if he could bring us all a special treat for his birthday. ChickFilA is awesome!

Then went back to Dave & Busters for some more fun while Miss Lindy took Wrenn home for a nap. I had such a great time with the boys that afternoon. They got A LOT of tickets, which they pooled together and traded for a basketball.

Landon was thrilled with his gifts. Carter gave him some magic sets. Wrenn gave him Taylor Swift's new album, 1989. That's the smile you see below.

We went out to dinner - Landon's choice, Ruckus Pizza. And had frozen yogurt afterwards. The Mister and I gave Landon our gift, a Camelbak WITH BACKPACK POCKETS! He has a Camelbak watering pack, but he's been swooning over the ones with small pockets too. We filled the pockets with a book, Pokemon cards, and candy.

I think it was definitely a good day celebrating my 9 year old, Landon!