Party Time

Birthday party options here in Prescott are limited. The YMCA gymnastics facility is an obvious choice. The kids always have a great time. It was our friend's Alanah's birthday this past weekend and she chose the Y. Emily had a joint party with her and a few other friends there 4 years ago. You can read it here. Oh my gosh, she was so tiny. Emily no longer wants a joint party. She wants the focus to be all on her.

But Saturday was all about Alanah. It was a great party and she invited all our friends from the hood.

Emily was having fun.

Ben was showing off his best Spidey moves.






Yeah, he seriously thinks he's Spiderman. He was spinning webs if you don't speak Spiderman.

My girl looking pretty.

I was curious what Noah would do. He's never been in any type of organized class and even though this is a bit more relaxed, the coaches there try to keep the kids orderly. He ran down the trampoline a few times.

On one of his attempts, he tripped over his own feet.

We all let out a collective, "oh Noah are you okay"?  He got right up, gave us his best pout and walked off the trampline. Totally dejected.

Could you not just eat him up? Oh my gosh. I ran right over and scooped him up. I love him.

Ben just hanging out.


Emily and the birthday girl, Alanah, doing pull ups.

Noah got over his embarassment and had fun with Dad.

It was time for the rope swing, and I knew Ben was nervous.

But, he handled it like a champ.

Emily isn't afraid of anything.

Ben doing the monkey bars.

Noah was walking around like he owned the place.


See, she has no fear.

David tried to put Noah on the parallel bars. He has fear.

He looks so freaked out.

And happy to still be alive and have his feet on the ground.

There is no air conditioning in this gym. Just a swamp cooler. In Arizona. In August. Let me just tell you, it's not a dry heat in August. The kids were a hot mess. But, it was time for cake and presents.

Then back to playing on the rings.


When Emily and Ben took gymnastics here, Emily used to only go up about 10 feet on the rope. Now, she climbed the whole thing.

And she was doing flips on the trampoline.

This was as crazy as Noah got.

It was such a fun party. We had a great time!

Lacking

My blog is seriously lacking lately. It does that sometimes or rather I do that. I'm on track to break a record for the fewest posts ever in a month.

I'm blaming it on our crazy schedule. The kids are back in school, maybe I have less material now? I'm working more hours starting this week and couponing is another part time job. Seriously.

In any case, I found this video of Emily and Ben when I found the ones I posted of Noah last week. I'm trying to guess their ages here. I'd say about 4 and 2ish. This video always makes me smile, so I want it on my blog to remember it always.

David's Dad just got out of the hospital after almost 2 weeks! Everything is going to be okay luckily, so we wanted to send him a clip of Emily's piano playing. He's her biggest fan. She's learning to play with 2 hands now, and she is doing really well with reading music. This one goes out to you Grampie!

Okay that's it for now. I have a load of laundry in the washer, another in the dryer, the dishwasher is almost done, I need to take out the trash and recycle and I'm cleaning the bathrooms.

And I wonder why I don't have time to blog...

Noah's Baby Book

I wrote about Noah's empty baby book here. I refused to let him grow up with the third child syndrome where he gets the shaft on everything.

But, it happened! I don't know how, but it has. His book is still empty. The least I can do is blog about his stats and the things I would put in the baby book and let the guilt go.

Here it is. All about Noah at 3 years old...

We just went for his well visit he is 38 1/2 inches tall (76%) and 29 pounds (20%). A little skinny, but that's okay.

Favorite Foods: dry cereal (Trix, Life, Oatmeal Squares, Honey Nut Cheerios), chips, string cheese, drinkable yogurt (drinky yogurt), ham, hot dogs, bacon, pasta. He doesn't eat many fruits, only bananas and apples and no vegetables, except pasta sauce. Sad, I know. Oh, he loves chocolate chips and Chips Ahoy cookies. He really doesn't like to eat.

Favorite Activies: Playing superheroes with Ben, dressing up in costumes, blowing bubbles with Granny, swimming, walking around naked. He loves to be naked.

Favorite TV Shows: Super Why, Dino Dan, Tom & Jerry

Favorite Things to Say: Look at my buttcrack. (seriously...maybe he shouldn't be naked so often and then we wouldn't need to look at his buttcrack.)

He's almost completely potty trained. He wears underwear more often now. We were in CVS the other day. I was walking in front of him and he said, "Mom, pants on the ground". Sure enough, without a diaper, they fell right off him. Luckily he had underwear on or all of CVS would be looking at his buttcrack.

He loves to sing. His current favorite song is "We Are Young" by Fun.

He's strong willed and opinionated and will scream at the top of his lungs if he doesn't get what he wants.

Yeah, he's a work in progress, but we love him.

Three

Noah is three today! I can hardly believe it. It seems like just yesterday, we brought our preemie home from the hospital, a whopping 3 pounds.

And now, he's a rambunctious, strong willed three year old! When did that happen?

I think he had a good birthday. I filled it with his favorite things, like Cap'n Crunch Berries for breakfast, playing in the bath alone for an hour, spaghetti for dinner and the pool! We saved cake and presents for last.

He's so happy.

He said all day, "It's my birthday"! As if we'd forget!

He really doesn't like cake, but I let him pick out what he wanted at the store. He barely had it though, I should've just gave him a bowl of chocolate chips as that's his favorite.

He got money from Grammie and Grampie and from my Mom, Granny, as well. This kid is loaded!

He got lots of superhero gifts.

I think Ben is dying to get his hands on Noah's gifts.

Emily was so sweet and wrapped up gifts around the house for him. He was a little confused.

Ben couldn't wait to try on the Spiderman mask.

And Emily too...

All in all, I think he had a good day. He's loving having Emily and Ben gone all day at school. I thought he would miss them, but it turns out, they are the reason he screams all the time. Now, he just does what he wants all day around the house and he's happy. He's not strong willed at all when there isn't competition around.

In any case, we love this little guy so much. He's complicated and funny, rude and the sweetest boy on Earth all rolled into one firecracker. Yeah, we lucked out!

And I found this video on iTunes today of Noah when he was about 8 months old. So cute.

This is my favorite and proves while I will never be parent of the year.

Hehehe, I'm so mean! Happy Birthday to our sweet little boy who still hates that dinosaur.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of 1st grade for Ben.

And the first day of 3rd grade for Emily.

I would like to think that Noah will miss them, but I think he'll be happy to play with all of Ben's toys without having to share anything. Notice his evil grin.

Noah and I took the kids to school. There is a new drop off and pick up procedure and it was mass chaos, as I imagine the first day of school is just about everywhere. But, I got them to the playground okay and that's all that matters.

We didn't realize that Emily now has to go to the big kids playground as the other playground is for K-2nd grades. She found a friend and started walking over to be with the big kids.

And Ben found his friends and started playing follow the leader.

Then Noah and I went to the store alone. It was kind of nice, but I miss Ben and Emily. I hope they are having a great day!

In The Nick of Time

Summer has really gone by fast. The kids got a box from Papa and Grandma Suzy full of fun stuff. Isn't that the best? At home, doing a bunch of nothing and a box full of goodies arrives for your kids. Well, they loved it! Thanks!

Noah got an awesome bubble blower.

And they all got these cool lights that go on your fingers. You know Ben thought he was the Green Lantern with these.

Emily thought they were cool too.

I was just telling David on Tuesday that the summer has gone by quickly and I never once wished school would start. Then, we woke up on Wednesday and all that changed. They were fighting and tattle telling (the worst) and driving me crazy. School can't start fast enough. The 4 day count down was on.

Tonight we had the teacher meet and greet at the school. Ben has Emily's 1st grade teacher, which is a good thing.

Emily seems to have a wonderful 3rd grade teacher who sent out a letter last week. I love when teachers are organized and on top of things She gets an A+ already.

Emily also has a bird in her class named Snickers.

They have some new pick up policy, so while I was waiting in line to get some information, David took the kids to the playground. I truly think these kids have one of the best playgroud views ever.

And Noah manged to hurt himself somehow. One minute he was on the rock climbing ladder, the next he was on the ground.

Poor kid. The meet and greet night will always hold a special memory as it was 3 years ago this night that we met Emily's Kindergarten teacher and within an hour I was at the hospital. Within 3 hours, I was on a helicopter to Phoenix to have a baby 9 weeks early. I can still remember it vividly. I'm sure I always will. Maybe it's a reminder for me to not take things for granted. I know I could've died and Noah too. Everything can be gone in an instant. So, I'll enjoy these next 3 days with my kids.

And I'll enjoy dropping them off at school on Monday too.