Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Let's celebrate Kella's birthday, part 2

Tuesday was Kella's birthday birthday.  She got to wear her special birthday girl outfit, a gift from Aunt Kim when she was first born.  I spent a fair amount of time taking her picture, trying to get one to send out in a card to everyone.  She's just too cute! 
The only way to get her to sit still enough for a photo was to put in a baby Einstein video.

Grammy got to hold her all pretty before she had to leave.


Daddy and Kella

and Mommy and Kella

best one! and sweet smile!

Did I mention that her outfit came complete with a crown?  Not a big hit, with her anyway.

She got another cupcake-this one a rainbow one made by me.  Delicious!



Happy Birthday to Kella!

Let's see how much Kella liked her cupcake :-)

A sweet birthday for a sweet girl!






Let's celebrate Kella's birthday, part 1

What a lucky girl!  Kella got to have 2 parties for her birthday.  The first party was on Memorial Day, with lots of family.  Grammy Pammy, Grammy Linda, Grandpa Jerry, Uncle Chris, Aunt Kim, Savannah, Marie, Cassie, Abby, Delaney, Marcus, Cale, Ewan, Liam and Andy and myself were all there.  After a while, all the people were a little much for her and she needed a nap to recover.  Overall, I call this party a success and a great way to start off Kella's next year!
Here's her cake-baked by Grammy Pammy and frosted by me. 

It was hard to get a picture of Kella with her cake.  She wasn't the only one trying to make a grab at it.

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Little girl got a cupcake all to herself!

We did a rainbow colored cake for her.

I think everyone liked it.  And, we had just enough to go around.

Then we opened presents. 
Kella had fun opening some of the presents.  Then, she kind of lost interest and started playing with the tissue paper.


Afterwards, the cousins played some Wii.

Then, I had to get their picture.  Kella, not included, since by this point she needed her beauty rest.

And then Tuesday was her actually birthday...

Mother's Day swag


I am one lucky mom!  Here all are the things I got for Mother's Day....
a planting of seeds from Liam (yet to be determined what kind)

some paper flowers from Cale, a purple foam flower from Ewan and a "potted plant" from Liam

a card with a handwritten note from Ewan (I do not know why it posted upside down)

a sweet note from Cale

this was another project from Cale's class-I like the letter "T" myself :-)

Liam colored a card for me


Marcus made a little book.  Shaped like a hat, it was titled "Hats Off to Mom".  Each page had a prompt for Marcus to fill in.  Here they are...

"My mom wears many hats in our family.  My mom is a teacher.  She taught me how to....,,do the multiplication table."
"My mom is a cook.  I love it when she makes....home made pancakes."
"My mom is a nurse.  She always makes me feel better when she...tells me to rest."
"My mom is a magician.  She can always find lost things.  Once she found...my missing styles for my D.S." (Marcus's original spelling included-ie stylus)
"My mom is a sanitation worker.  When she sees my room, she says, "...clean up the room."
"My mom is a chauffeur.  She drives my to ....the denist."(this one is sweet because the dentist must be on his mind, since he had an appointment soon.  and also, he edited his own work by circling the misspelled word-but he didn't correct it)
"My mom is the best mom ever!"  stick picture of what I can assume is me :-)

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Happy 1st birthday Kella Elizabeth!


Kella Elizabeth

then....

...and now

It's been a year, and I can't imagine our lives without our sweet, baby girl.  She is such a happy girlie and a welcome addition to our family.  She is definitely a little princess at our house, and with our neighbor kids. 
Here's some stuff she's doing now...
*eats "regular" food, just like the rest of her family
*is drinking whole milk, just like her brothers
*cruises the furniture and is so close to standing by herself and walking
*loves her blankie still
*takes a pacifyer at naps, bedtime and sometimes when she just needs to relax
*favorite toys inlcude anything with buttons-she also likes to play with our phones
*favorite foods-everything! now that it's not jarred baby food, she even likes most veggies
*favorite shows-baby einstein videos-loving Baby McDonald right now
*likes to "dance" by bopping up and down to music
*likes to try and play the Wii with her brothers
*recognizes little friends her age-Gabby, Emma and baby Jeremy
*nicknames:  Kella Ella (or Kella Bella) Dumpling, or sometimes just Dumpling
*has 3 toys in bed with her for sleeping:  a stuffed Larry the Cucumber, a soft doll named "Peanut" (actually belonged to Liam), and a stuffed loon

Friday, May 18, 2012

preschool program and Ewan graduates!

Our spring preschool program was last night-be prepared for some picture overload!

As you might be able to tell, the theme was "Jungle".  The kids walked in with their little explorer hats and binoculars.  Ewan and his friend in the green kept turning around to look into the foliage behind them with the binoculars. 

Extra bonus, my Ewan and Liam were close enough to get in the same pictures.  Ewan's is on the left, top and Liam on the bottom right.

Tried to get a shot of the whole preschool.

Ewan's class sang first.  Ewan had a joke to tell with another classmate.  "What is a snake's favorite subject?"  "Hiss-tory."

Liam's class sang next.  That's right, he's rocking out the sweatbands.  What you don't see are the two-sizes-too-small moon boots the boy has on.  We negotiated a change into nice clothes if he got to wear the boots.

And, after his singing, Liam got his certificate and joined us.

Andy got to walk around and hold some kids.

After all the classes performed, it was time for the pre-Ks to graduate.  Ewan was so excited.  He had the biggest grin on his face the entire time.  I think he loved that it was his special day and he got recognized.

Each graduate got to talk with the teacher.  Here, she is asking Ewan what the 4 layers of the rainforest are.  She also spoke a little bit about each student.  She said that Ewan is the comic relief in class, but he is also a good role model for the other students. 

Attempting to turn their tassels.

Proud parents and proud Ewan!

With the jungle theme, comes jungle swag.  Here is a portion of what the kids brought home.  Two cool things in this picture are a scrapbook that Liam's teacher did for his year and the Bible that Ewan got for graduating.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Grammy Pammy came over

Grammy Pammy came to visit way back in April for Liam's birthday.  Here is a collection of pictures to summarize her stay with us...


She helped celebrate Liam's 3rd birthday.

She helped Cale fly his boyscout kite.

She played with Kella.  Gave her bottles, changed her diaper, dressed her, held her, loved on her.

She shared her creepy BBC show with us.

She just got to hang out and enjoy being with us, but more important-her grandkids!



Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Happy Mother's Day!


So thankful that I can be a mom to these wonderful kiddos!

Friday, May 11, 2012

introduction to a new game

Saturday, I introduced Marcus and Cale (and Ewan a little) to the exciting  (?) game of Risk.  I've been waiting for a while for them to be old enough to understand the basic rules of the game.  I have to admit, they did pretty well with figuring out how to play.  We got in about an hour and a half of playing time before Kella woke up.  It was rough at first, the first time Cale lost one of his territories.  But, he managed to come back strong and take over the entire North American continent.  Marcus had decent control of South America and Africa and I was holed up in Australia.  I have to admit, that I was getting beat.  But, by the end of the game, I was on the verge of a comeback (against a 8 and 7 year old, I know).  Who won?  That was the question on the boys' minds.  I tried to explain how this game could go on a very, very long time until only one person's army had control of everything.  Not good enough.  We needed a winner.  So, we settled on tallying up who had the most territories=Marcus, and who had the most armies=Cale.  Cale has been asking to play it again and I know he wants to go up against Andy.  Of course, this is laying the foundation for other strategy/role playing games I have in mind (Settlers of Catan-can't wait!)

Thursday, May 10, 2012

karate promotion=new belts!

The boys had promotion last week in karate.  They've been working hard since coming back to classes in March and were able to advance to the next levels:  gold belts for Cale and Marcus and a full yellow belt for Ewan.  I didn't get to see much of the promotion, dealing with 2 other kids, you know.  But, I didn manage to get up front in time to get some pictures at the end.  The boys were all excited to get new belts and I think it encouraged them to keep going with karate.
Cale

Marcus

Ewan (who was super excited to get his new belt-he wanted to keep it on to show his friends when we got home)



After everyone gets their new belt, the students turn around, the last time as their old rank, take off the old belt and put on the new belt.

:Liam was stoked to get Ewan's old belt to wear.

The promotion class.  So proud!