Sunday, February 23, 2014

Happy Birthday, Trevor!


It's Trevor's Birthday! We've had a sweet few days celebrating. Friday we had pizza-and-a-movie night. That used to be a weekly event for us...but that was pre-Zack (he's not the best company for watching full-length features) and pre-dairy-free-wheat-free-diet (we've tried gluten-free pizza, and while it's pretty good, it's not AS good...and the dairy-free cheese??  Not a good substitute). Letting go of pizza night has been a painful affair for our whole family.  Anyway...we've begun a new birthday tradition. I call it: Throw Out The Diet Night. That's unofficial.

So Friday was Papa John's and Pacific Rim. Trevor's choice. It was so fun. We sat and watched AFV while we ate our pizza...Zack will watch that for a short period. Then we put him to bed and turned on the real movie :) Trevor really liked it, and spend a long time the next day drawing and looking up names for all the aliens on the movie.

Saturday Trevor went out with Grandmother and Granddad for dinner and shopping. He also spent the night with them, and went to church with them this morning. Then we had family over for burgers after church. I'm a terrible documenter of birthday parties, but I'll share what I did get in pictures.

Sam snapped this of me lighting the candles on Trevor's peanut butter pie.




We all enjoyed that pie! Pretty sure that's what my sister, Kim, used to choose for her birthday dessert. :) Too bad you weren't here, Kim!

Then the gift-opening-madness began. This picture is a good representation of the mania.


Trevor likes to be a little bit of a ham...which sometimes makes a GREAT picture...


...and sometimes doesn't :)


He got quite the loot! He was so pleased :) Thank you, everyone, for the special and thoughtful gifts. He got awesome books, cool new shoes, a few toys and lots of money. We have joined a coin club in town, and he's looking forward to spending some of that money on coins.


We had a lot of other fun this week...here's a couple highlights:

I took Zack to the bookstore to spend some of his money. Some of his books we read at home have pictures on the back cover of other books the publisher wants your child to beg you to buy. This is my first child to respond to the advertising! He's been asking for several books lately. He says we need to buy them. Seems like an advanced concept for such a little guy! Well, I thought he would be thrilled to go to the bookstore...but I practically had to drag him. Never again, though. He LOVED it!!!


We started out reading the books he's been wanting...but that quickly lost his attention as he began to look around. He found lots of books he loved. The best?? A Dora the Explorer coloring book. What??? No way, Big Man. He got interested in the Thomas the Train table, and almost had a fit when we had to leave. And, did we get the affore-mentioned books?? Nope. But we got one that might be better.


Another day I took the big boys to visit the new library. They loved it. They don't really care how many books are there...just about how clean and cool-looking it is. And how awesome the chairs are. And whether there are Scooby-Doo books...or at least, one of them did.

I did not encourage them to settle down and read there...they just nestled in on their own. I loved it.




On our way home we zoomed by this awesome fungus! I whipped a u-turn and went back for pictures. Who does that??? Uh, Trevor's Mom, that's who. :)


Maybe Trevor will use his new mushroom book to identify it!

Sunday, February 16, 2014

It's good to be back...

I took a long break from blogging.  One day recently Zack wanted to see pictures of himself on the computer--baby pictures.  Unfortunately, I'm missing a lot of those, because our computer crashed last summer.  BUT, I do have the BLOG!  I was able to scroll through old pictures there.  I'm so thankful for the little bit that I have recorded here.  It re-motivated me :)

So, I'm trying to get back to my Sunday-blog time.  Here's another regular old week...















It's another nice Sunday afternoon. Zack played outside on his swingset while Tim cooked us lunch.
And now while I'm blogging, he's outside with 3 of the boys playing frisbee golf...















That was William charting the course. They had a little impromptu zip-lining. (No, Zack is not hanging by his neck. Trevor wondered that for you. He's sitting on a loop of cord. Gotta make him a little seat!)















Earlier this week we went to see the Dallas Brass Band play at the Civic Center. It was a field trip! And it was SO GREAT!! Here's some not-so-great pictures...just to document that we were, indeed, there.















Their opening song was the theme song from Disney's Incredibles, and was SO FUN to hear. It set the tone for a very fun concert. The picture of the auditorium doesn't show it full--but it did fill up. They said about 2000 children were there!

We made cookies...















Zack and I went to the store. Ok...that happens probably twice a week. But he doesn't always get to take a ride in the firetruck :) It is such a thrill for him.















One day we heard Zack head outside. We watched from the window to see what he was up to. He got his bike, and rode it all the way around the house. I took this pitiful picture through our screened in window. At least you can see him. He's on one of those pedal-less bikes...so he's really just walking. But he's getting the hang of it!















Lastly, here's Zack looking cute and silly on his changing table. He's laying on his blanket that Grandma made him. It is his most favorite possession. He was pretending to take a nap...















Valentine's Day was such a treat. I had little gifts for the boys, they did school, and then Tim's parents took ALL FOUR BOYS to the LAKE!!! Tim and I had Friday afternoon, and pretty much all day Saturday TO OURSELVES! It was so, SO refreshing. We had a nice little date Friday...nothing special, just dinner at our favorite chicken finger joint (totally my request), walked around shopping a bit, and rented a movie. Saturday I got do catch up on tons on things for school. Lovely.

Happy Sunday!

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Regular Old Life

We've had some nicer weather lately!  I'm so thankful.  I think of winter in the South as mild, giving at least one lovely day every other week.  Not so this winter.  These may be the first in a couple months.

Check out Zack's get up in the swinging picture:  Hat and sunglasses, and rain boots.  Cool Cat.

Here's a smattering of what we've been up to:

Finger Painting


















              Train Tracks



                                                                                                Playing Outside
















Grammar/Composition (butt knot speling)

Fun Canned Food For Dinner Night (Yikes!)


















"Racing Dump Truck" Or, "Push a Toddler on Top of a Toy AS FAST AND LOUD AS POSSIBLE for as LONG AS YOU CAN" (a new favorite with all 4 boys. Around and around and around and around......."



And finally, a picnic at the park today after church. A lovely time!