Jackson's 5th Birthday

This year Jackson requested a friend party. And since Megan had a friend party from the time she was 3, and Jackson had yet to have one, how could I say no. Given his obsession with HotWheels, I was not surprised when he said he wanted a HotWheels party. We started off his party by painting (that's right painting with 5 year olds) some race cars.

The finished products.

Then we had lunch which consisted of race car shaped sandwiches, and fruit.

Jackson's crew.

Opening of presents.

Followed by cake.

We ended the party with a HotWheels themed treasure hunt, which led us to the take home goodie boxes. The last two clues read, "You have been caught speeding and sent to jail. Go to the place where you sleep behind bars" (Sadie's crib). Followed by, " You broke out of jail, now finish the race. Your car needs a bath, what's the best place" (bathtub).

Jackson spent the afternoon playing with his new toys, including this Spiderman sprinkler.

After dinner Jackson got to open MORE presents! This time from us and other family members.

Opening MarioKart from my mom and Ken. He was so excited. After he finished opening his presents inside we had one more surprise for him.

Doesn't he look cool driving a motorcycle? Much cooler than driving around that Barbie Jeep. I'm sure he feels much more manly now.

I think Jackson had a great day. He received so many wonderful gifts, cards, and phone calls from everyone who loves him. Thank you to you all!

At 5

My little sweet man Jackson turned 5 today.

At 5:

• He is obsessed with anything HotWheels! Cars, games, tracks - you name it, he wants it.
• He still has not shown a dominate hand.
• His favorite color is green.
• He is always hungry! I hear "Mom can I have something to eat" at least 20 times a day.
  
• Lately he has been using the term, "I swear ya." For example, "Mom I swear ya, that soup is hot."
• His eyelashes seem to get longer and longer each year.

• He likes all of his shoes to be too big for him.
• He loves to play on the computer.
• His favorite cartoon is Penguins of Madagascar, followed closely behind by Spongebob.
• When I drive in the car with just him, he talks and talks and talks. However when Megan is in there with us, he barely says a word.
  
• He can count to 150 and probably more than that, but I usually cut him off.

• He loves to play outside.
• Just recently he has become more comfortable in the water and has learned to swim without his life jacket.
• He comes out of his room almost every night pretending that he fell out of bed.
  
• He is a very slow eater.
• He insists that he can't clean his room unless he is listening to music.
• He hasn't yet found a sport that he doesn't enjoy.

• He is a tender-hearted, loving, good-humored boy that we couldn't love more.
  

At One O'Clock

At 1 O'Clock Today:

1. I have three sick children. 2 (Jackson and Sadie) who seem to have the same thing, and seem to hopefully be on the mend, and 1 (Megan) who has a fever, cough, sore throat, and is exhausted. Since Megan is generally not a sleeper, finding her asleep in her bed at one o'clock in the afternoon, makes for an unusual day.

2. I also have a very hot house! Since Megan is sick and has been extremely cold all day, I have had to turn my air conditioning off. For your information 84 degrees, inside, is feeling very hot today. And it keeps getting hotter. It now reads 86 degrees!

3. I captured a little snapshot of my countertop that very accurately describes our morning. Multiple medicine containers, peanut butter and honey (from lunch), and my DIET Dr. Pepper which is disgusting but I am drinking it anyway in my quest to lose weight.

4. At one o'clock I also found this sweet boy putting laundry away, without ever being asked. I am also working on a hotwheels themed birthday party for said boy this week. Luckily his guest list is very, very small, and still very young, so they won't be too critical of my party planning skills.

"Have you been dealing with summer sickness?
What do you keep your house temperature at?
Do you drink Diet drinks?"

Pioneer Days

I really am grateful that we have a huge pioneer days celebration in Nevada, since it was almost my very favorite holiday when we lived in Utah. Some pics, with a little commentary.

The temperature may have been cooler than normal, but the humidity had to have been a lot higher, because we were all sweating like crazy. Poor little Sadie's hair was plastered to her head the entire time.

Luckily Megan and Jackson had ample opportunity to get wet.

Both Megan and Jackson tried the dunk tank. Megan sunk Jackson in 3 throws, while Jackson sunk Megan in 2.

Megan and Jackson both went into this dark maze inside a semi-truck. Apparently they were in there for a really, really long time and some of the parents were starting to get worried. Finally a group of older kids came out and said they had been in there scaring all of the littler kids (oh great!). Then a kid came out with a bloody nose. And then a couple of kids came out crying. Eric was expecting the worse when Megan and Jackson came out, but they finally appeared completely unscathed, and unafraid. I would have been one of the kids who came out crying.

While Eric took all of the kids around, I spent most of my time working the Bake Sale. This picture was taken at end of the night, and I really felt like I had melted.

Girly Belt

This boy of mine is quite "all boy." He was born loving, loving, loving hotwheels cars, sports of all kind, guns, swords, and dirt. Since I have an older girl, he has also been around hoards of girl toys, but has generally abhorred them. However today, he has taken a special interest in something I think is decidedly girly. He discovered this lovely, pink, yellow, and purple belt that I was throwing away. I informed him it was a girls belt. Eric informed him it was a girls belt. Megan informed him it was a girls belt. But Jackson informed us it was not a girls belt, it is a rainbow belt, and therefore good for boys and girls.

By the way, see the yellow part? Jackson says it is not yellow, it is green. On an interesting note today at tennis lessons, Megan and Jackson's coach told Eric that if you ask boys what color a tennis ball is, the overwhelming majority will say green. But if you ask girls what color a tennis ball is, the majority will say yellow. Very, very interesting.

Typical Sunday

At the end of a typical Sunday spent dealing with our 3 typical children and their 3 typical personalities.

I said: "Eric after spending all day with us, do you better understand why sometimes I am not overjoyed when you leave at night to play basketball."

He just smiled.

Today I

Today I:

Seriously have no patience. I just played a game with the kids and thought many times about screaming due to slowness.

Am thinking about how much I hate making lunch. Nothing ever sounds good to me! I think I have had toast 5 out of the last 7 days.

Want to watch T.V. but everything I would choose to watch can't be watched with children. Have I mentioned that they seem to follow me all around the house.

I am considering selling things to Children's Orchard. I am also considering selling things on Craigslist. Does anyone have experience with either of these?

I am also considering buying Lagoon tickets for our upcoming trip to Utah. Has anyone been lately? I have not been in over 15 years.

Oh and, I just discovered I am completely out of diapers. Sadie is currently wearing a swim diaper.

Curly Q

The ringlet in the middle kills me, and is the main catalyst why I cannot in good conscience cut her hair. I adore it too much.

Also the fact that she smiles on demand: IRRESISTIBLE!!!

Megan Said

Megan has slipped on some water and fell earlier in the day.

Megan: "My butt hurts."
Me (teasingly said): "Maybe you broke it."
Megan (with a smile on her face): "Well it does have a crack down the middle."

I have to say I do enjoy having a witty, sarcastic child.

Frugal Friday

Every week I go through all of my store ads and inevitability there are numerous things at numerous stores that I want to purchase. However I have no desire to go to 6 different stores, so I finally decided to try price matching at Wal-Mart. I have to admit that it was a bit of work, that required extra time, and a lot of organization, but compared to driving to 6 different stores, it was worth it. Price matching alone ended up saving me about $30. I used ads from Walgreens, CVS, Smiths, Vons, Albertsons, and Food 4 Less. I also chose to go at a time (9:30 p.m.) and chose to go to a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market instead of a regular Wal-Mart, in hopes that I would annoy fewer people. Luckily it wasn't that busy, but 5 people behind me did end up leaving my line when they saw I was price matching. Well too bad for them. I saved $30 and they didn't. I could have saved more, but I restrained myself to only buy things we actually need. I have a tendency to buy things I don't need, just because they are such a good deal, so I do need that restraining.

Check out the size of my receipt? It almost spans the entire kitchen table. Couponing and price matching creates a huge receipt and a huge mess. My table is still not cleaned up.

You Take The Good, You Take The Bad

You Take Them Both And There You Have: The Facts Of My Life.

We will start with the good:


See these three women? They are three of my very favorite. Rachel, Rachael and I headed out to the other side of town this week to have lunch with my very missed friend Bekah. I miss having her right down the street, but love having a friend that you can pick right off where you left off, no matter the distance.

Bekah, Rachael R., Rachel P., Me

My week has also been filled, with tons of wet baby pictures. Here are a few.

Oh and I can't forget to include one of my very favorite squinty smile pics of Sade.

Another bit of goodness, is that the pumpkin seed the kids have been growing under the trampoline is getting bigger and bigger. The bad news is that there seems to be no pumpkin in sight. Just a gigantic plant.

Megan has propped the bat against the plant to keep it from falling over. It is quite limp.

Now for a bit of good news, mixed with bad. The good: My kids are very imaginative and independent players. The bad: They choose my bedroom to do most of the playing in! Now they each have a room of their own, but for some reason (I am guessing the size) my room is the play room of choice. This baffles me, because after they drag everything in there, they have to drag it all back. It seems like much less work if they would just play in their own rooms.

Their most recent mess.

See this cute almost 5 year old? He is quite the athlete and finished playing another season of pee-wee soccer. The good news is that now that he is almost 5 he can move up into the big leagues, and play some actual games.

He loves to play, and is very good, but the bad news is that he had to miss his last practice. And now for the really bad news. After we were all buckled into the car, I discovered it would not start. It turns out someone tried to steal it, and in the process cut a wire that caused the car not to start.

They broke in through the driver's side door which left this gouge, along with a dent.

They then used a screwdriver or something to break into the ignition. Apparently when doing so they broke the wire, which kept them from driving away. However there is some good news attached to this. First, the car wasn't stolen. Second, my Macgyver type husband actually fixed it so the car is now starting with no problems. These must have been some pretty inexperienced car thieves. As we were driving down our street the other day we noticed a couple of other SUV's that had the same tell-tale gouge and dent in their driver's side doors. I wonder if the thieves were finally able to steal a car, or if they just gave up!

"Who was your favorite Facts Of Life character (mine was Blair, but I also really loved Mrs. Garrett)?
"Do your kids play in their rooms, or do they drag their toys throughout the house?
"Does our pumpkin plant look normal?

"Have you ever had your car stolen?"