How many birthday parties is enough?

October is a busy month for our family. We have 4 family members with birthdays in October - Lauren, Thomas, Nicholas, and Daddy! Not to mention all the friends and relatives who were born in this month as well… plus the holidays right around the corner.

This year, Lauren and Thomas turned 3 years old. They had a b-day party last year and we invited friends over with their kids, but last year they more played “near each other” than “with each other.” They’re finally at the age where they can genuinely appreciate the FUN of a birthday party with friends, and playing with other kids. Let the fun begin!

Birthday Party #1 - (Oct 6): We hosted a small get together of 40+ friends and family at our house to celebrate… most of the pics in the slideshow are from that event. You can see more here at my flickr account. Food from Buon Appetito (yummy!), 2 cakes from Costco (b/c daddy thinks we shouldn’t jip the kids and make them share a cake), a scavenger hunt produced by Aunt Kristin, cake, and a Doodlebop theme. My favorite pics are from when all the kids discovered the joy of lollypops + watching the Doodlebops… Believe me, the house was pretty quiet at that point.

Birthday Party #2 - (Oct 8): My dad was heading out of town on a business trip, so he was going to miss the kids’ actual birthday. So we decided to go out to eat and “celebrate”… This time to Tyson Buffet - a Chinese buffet restaurant (huge selection)! No singing, but no less a birthday celebration. Aunt Kristin and Uncle Minh brought their gifts for the kids — activity books/marker sets and several classic kids board games — Memory, Candy Land, Cherries something-a-rather… They like playing the games… but don’t understand the part about keeping your playing piece on the board. It’s a constant guessing game to figure out where their pieces go. Oh well…

Birthday Party #3 - (Oct 12): On their actual birthday, we got off work early and went to the kids’ school. We brought store-bought/pre-approved ice cream cups and Hostess cupcakes - b/c you can’t just make your own treats like we did when we were little, thanks to food allergies. We also brought several goodie boxes for the kids… which were also Doodlebop themed. Cute “pom-pom” headbands, musical instruments, stickers, etc. Here’s a picture of the sticker we put on their goodie boxes…

Birthday Party #4 - (Oct 12): Mommy and Daddy are getting a little tired of all the birthday celebrations, so we had a “quiet” dinner at home, inviting just my mom and sister over for dinner. Grandpa was out of town. Of course we still had to sing Happy Birthday, but instead of a full cake, we gave them left-over ice cream cups with whipped cream and a cherry on top — oh and a candle too.

Next year we’re gonna think about a combined birthday party including Nicholas… maybe… we’ll see…

Song about Kids and Bedtime

This guy has it spot on!

Fun with Viruses

It’s pretty widely known and accepted that when your kids go to daycare/pre-school, they’re going to constantly be coming home with new and exciting illnesses… Even better they’re going to share with you! Here’s a little fun we had in September.

Our kids’ pre-school has certain times when a “new round” of students enters the school and also many kids shift/graduate from one class to the next. Right after Labor Day is one of those times. Wouldn’t you know it… Thomas got a fever caused by a virus. He was really out of it for about 3 days (Sep 5-7 or so). He ate very little, drank lots of fluids, and pretty much stayed home and watched TV or slept for the entire time. I was working from home so I was also taking care of Thomas. He also decided to run a fever around 102 or so (the danger zone for our kids). He got better by the weekend…

Then that Saturday (Sept we had the twice yearly gigantic yard sale in our community. I sold about $250 worth of junk so I was pretty happy about that. However, that evening I started to have a pretty high fever (102 or so), and then the rest of the family started to show signs of illness as well. Alice got a fever (100+), Lauren and Nicholas also started to show signs… fever and runny noses, etc. We were now all sick — except for Thomas.

I was probably the sickest. I had not only a high fever, but also a massive headache. So massive that I thought it was probably migraines or maybe something worse. Over the course of my sickness (Sept 8-13) I visited my doctor, the hospital emergency room, slept a ton, drank lots of fluids (or so I thought), and generally felt miserable. At the ER, by the way, they did blood tests, gave me fluids, a head CT, and a strep test — all came back negative. The day after, we went to see our doctor and Alice got a strep test - which came back positive. In hindsight, we believe it was primarily strep which took us all out, and my headaches were a combo of the strep + dehydration.

Other fun facts… During my horrible sickness, I figured I’d be able to lay in bed and do some email or something simple — wrong! I was so out of it, I could barely stay awake. The headaches were the worst — and none of the OTC pain relievers seemed to help much (thus the trip to the ER). Did I mention that I lost about 10 pounds too!?!?

But it wasn’t all me either. Alice was sick too… and poor dear, she had to help take care of the rest of us because she was the “least sick”.

Fortunately, we had help… My mom and dad, Kristin, and others were around to help us out. Thank goodness we all live in the same general area. While my mom didn’t get sick afterwards, Kristin did… the chain continues!

Everyone loves a rainbow…

We were coming out of the restaurant we ate at last night and what to we see??  A rainbow!  As Lauren said, “Oooh, it’s SO shiny!”  Who doesn’t love a rainbow?!?

Wink Wink

Kevin has been trying to teach Lauren how to wink.  This morning as I brought Lauren into the bathroom to brush her teeth and get ready for school, she looked into the mirror and started making funny faces ~ it appeared that she was trying to “practice” her winks.  After a while, she started talking to herself, “I can make my eyes blink… hmmmmmm….. soooooo smart!”

Oh my… it was all I can do not to burst out laughing… but boy!  She is not humble at all!

Drama Queen Lauren

Last night, after several attempts of sneaking out of the bedroom…and several spankings for not using her listening ears. Lauren unwillingly climbed into her bed. She was exhausted, but still managed to mumble her displeasure ~ in her usual dramatic fashion, she cried, “mommy doesn’t like me!” and then fell asleep… just like that.

Greasy Elmo

This happened a few months ago, but it was definitely a moment worth blogging… so here it goes:

Imagine being woken up by your 2.5 year old at 11PM ~ “mommy, help! I can’t get this off!” said Lauren as she tried to wipe something off of her face and hands. Sleepy eyed, I tried to make sense of what I was seeing before me ~ Lauren with this “shine” all over her… and globs of it in her hair, on her face, in her hands, all over her pj…. “what’s THAT Lauren?!?!” I asked (it was more like screaming). Before she could respond, in came Thomas with his hands stretched out in front of him…. covered with this same gooey thing… giggling and trying to smear more on her….

Apparently, Lauren and Thomas decided that they weren’t sleepy that night. So, after mommy went to bed and daddy was still working downstairs in the office, the two little monsters decided to have some fun of their own. Lauren went into Nicholas’s room and took a brand new tub of Vaseline off of the counter, brought it back into her and Thomas’s room, smeared the entire tub over their giant stuffed Elmo (from head to toe), and then proceeded to cover herself in Vaseline as well ~ all over her hair, her face, and her arms and PJ. Of course, Thomas had to help Lauren out too so his hands were completely covered in Vaseline as well. By the way, did I mention that the blanket on the floor, the wall where Elmo was leaning against, and the door/door knob were covered with Vaseline as well?!?!?!
Dumbfounded, I didn’t know what to do other than screaming bloody heXX and called for Kevin to get up here. Since we couldn’t wash Vaseline off with water, Kevin and I had to wipe it off of Lauren and Thomas with towels, and gave them another bath at 11PM. (Did I mention that they ALREADY had a bath before dinner!?!) Thomas was easy since he only had greasy hands. Lauren on the other hand wasn’t so fortunate… she went to school the following day (couple of days actually) with greasy hair. (Lovely)

As for the giant stuffed Elmo ~ there was no saving him.

“mommy, just a minute”

This past Sunday I was in a hurry to leave the house to interview our new nanny for Nicholas.  Kevin was downstairs making eggs and hashbrowns for the kids, and asked me to go ahead and bring the kids down for breakfast.  Lauren came eagerly as she was “very hungry”… as for Thomas, he was so excited about the breakfast that he had to talk to daddy right away.  He looked out through the upstairs railing and started calling for Daddy.  “Daddy, Daddy, are you making me hash browns for breakfast?!  Daddy????”   I said, “Thomas, hurry up, let’s go get some yummy breakfast!” He ignored me, and continued to call for daddy’s attention through the railings.  (Of course, Kevin couldn’t hear him with the stove and fan on downstairs.)  I said again,”Come on Thomas!  Mommy is running late, let’s goooooooo!”  Thomas turned around and looked at me with this serious look on his face, he held out his index finger and said, “Mommy!  Just a minute.  I am talking with daddy.”  He then turned around and continued to call for daddy’s attention.   Meanwhile, I am standing on top of the stairs not knowing whether I should be mad that he’s making me run late, or laugh at what just happened….  I think my 2.5 year old son just told me to be “patient and not interrupt him while he’s talking!”

“But Daddy, it matches!!”

Last weekend, Thomas came to the dining table for lunch carrying a blue furry purse (with a big pink/purple daisy on it no less) on his shoulder.  He sat the purse down on the table and proceeded to eat his lunch.  I looked at Kevin with this “what the heck is going on look” on my face, and he responded, “well, I told [Thomas] that boys don’t carry purses, only girls carry purses.  But Thomas [who was wearing a blue polo shirt that day] said, ‘But Daddy, it matches!!’  Well, he’s right… I couldn’t respond to that, so I had to let him carry the purse. “

Oh my!  I think we’re in big trouble!!

Nicholas is Starting to Grow Teeth

See the highlighted area… yes, I know you can barely tell…  but believe me, it starts to hurt if he chomps down on your finger!

Photo: Nicholas’s First Tooth Makes it’s Debut