Happy Birthday Andrew!

Today at 7:30 in the morning Andrew turned 5 years old. He was born on March 22, 2004 on a very hot day. He is such a joy to have in our family. Here are a few pictures from the past few years. Unfortunately his baby pictures are all before my digital camera, so I haven't scanned in a lot of them yet, and scanners and I don't get along well. So here are a few that are already downloaded.







This morning when Andrew woke up he wanted to open his presents from us before breakfast. So of course we let him, it was his birthday! Here he is in his Halloween pjs opening his presents.




Bethany likes to make presents. She does this for Christmas and everyone's birthdays. Here is her present for Andrew - a paper Animal Barn. I don't know how long it will last before getting smashed, but it was cute anyway.




We wouldn't let Andrew actually play with his new toys until after church (we have 9:00 church so we were in a hurry.) As soon as we got home and choir practice was over he wanted to set up his race track.
Jorgen loves cars, too. I hope they will learn to play without hitting each other (is that possible?)



Here is my handsome boy in his suit. He's grown enough this past year to actually fit into it (mostly - with help from some suspenders). He looks like a little missionary in it. He knows how to make my heart melt!


Happy Birthday Andrew, we love you!!!

Andrew's birthday party

Yesterday we had a birthday party for Andrew. He turned 5 today! I can't believe he is so old! I wasn't really sure who to invite because whenever I asked him he couldn't remember any of his friends' names, except for maybe one or two. So we just invited a few kids from the neighborhood and from preschool.

I have to say that 5-year-old boys are so much fun! They were so funny and well behaved and seemed to have a great time. This party seemed way easier than the girl parties I have done in the past for Bethany.

Here is the race-track cake I made. It was really easy, but it doesn't look quite as nice as the picture in the recipe. I couldn't get the lines straight. But the boys loved it. It took some convincing to get them to believe me that those crumbs were cookies crumbs and not dirt. They also didn't want to eat the paper cars.



As the kids arrived we colored pictures. The party was a "Cars" theme, so the pictures were from "Cars." One kid said "That just didn't look very interesting" so he just watched while everyone else colored.





Then we had a fishing game. I made this poster and hung it on the stairs. Dan was the fish below filling up the bucket with prizes. The boys liked to peek, but seemed to enjoy it. I forgot to take any pictures of them actually fishing, this was taken earlier.



Then we headed outside. When planning a party for a bunch of boys, I thought they would probably like to run around. So we went outside and they ran through an obstacle course. They had to go around the buckets, through the tire, under a rope, balance on another rope on the ground, over some buckets, up a step stool and jump off, up the neighbor's playground and down the slide (I hope they didn't mind - they let us play there all the time). Then start all over. The boys did it over and over and never got tired! There were some pretty comical moves, too.











Boys also like to hit things, so what is better than a pinata? Except this pinata had a trapdoor that makes it a lot easier than a traditional one. It didn't take nearly as long, but they still seemed to have fun.

(Sorry about the bark in the candy! I should have thrown down a blanket. )

Blowing out candles - took him a few tries.

They spent the whole time while eating cake discussing how strong some kid was (a boy's older neighbor that wasn't there). It went something like this - Is he stronger than a balloon? Is he stronger than a rock? Is he stronger than the wind? Is he stronger than..... (repeat over and over and over and over and over....)

Opening presents. Everyone was so generous. One kid said, "I don't even know what I got you, my mom got it and wrapped it for me." (Don't worry, I've done that before too)

Umm, does he look tired to you?

After we cleaned up we let Andrew pick where to go for dinner. He chose Red Robin. He was so worn out he fell asleep on the way, and so did Jorgen, so we took the scenic route (to Centerville and back) to let them sleep. Out of the three kids, guess which one ate ALL of his kids' meal? (Jorgen)

It was a super fun day! Andrew, we love you bud. You are such a great kid and we are so glad you are in our family!

Friday Grandma Nay came to visit and bring Andrew some Birthday presents. He got Transformers, a book and some clothes. Thanks Grandma!!



Andrew also helped me make his birthday cake for his party. I would include messy-kitchen photos, but you all know what it looked like - a mess. Andrew loves to help me cook. He loved his racetrack cake. Check my next post for party pictures!

Walk Around the Sun

At Andrew's preschool, for their birthdays they do a cute little thing called "Walk Around the Sun." Andrew has been waiting ALL YEAR to do this. (He did it last year, too). They get to hold the world and walk around the "sun" (candle) to represent each year they are alive. So he got to walk around 5 times. Each time he walks around he puts a small bead into a counter. It is pretty cool. I've had kids at this preschool for the past 4 years and have never seen this, because I've had babies home asleep or for whatever reason I missed it. So I was glad I went to see it, since we won't have anyone in preschool for 2 more years!

Andrew did his "Walk Around the Sun" on Thursday.


On a completely unrelated note, Thursday night Jorgen was chasing after Andrew who was running to the bathroom, and Andrew accidentally slammed the door on Jorgen's fingers. Jorgen was screaming harder than I've ever heard him scream. His fingers looked really bad, and possibly broken, so we headed to Wee Care's after hours clinic (cheaper than the ER). After 2 sets of X-rays (he squirmed too much the first time, and he HATES X-rays by the way) the doctor said they weren't broken but just bruised. By this time they didn't look as bad as before but were swelling a great deal and very red. It just looked painful. We decided against a splint because Jorgen would just pull it off. He seems to be almost all healed by now, so we are grateful they weren't broken. Maybe he'll learn not to put his hands by the doors anymore. We are also trying to reinforce our no-slamming-the-doors rule, but kids seem to forget so quickly.

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is not optional if you have kids. I never really cared much about it, we are not Irish. But the kids love it, I think because of the simplicity of it. Wear green, eat green food, the end. It's not nearly as intense as most other holidays, so I have to agree with them that it is fun!

For breakfast I made green pancakes. This in itself is an accomplishment, because it was a school day and I never cook breakfast on a school day. We always have cereal or toaster waffles. Because I hit my snooze button too much and we are always in a hurry.

For lunch Andrew and I had pizza (not green) and green apples.





For dinner I made Green Eggs and Ham (Bethany's request), hashbrowns, green grapes, green biscuits, green beans, and a green milkshake. They thought it was great. Andrew doesn't even like scrambled eggs when they are yellow, so he wouldn't touch them. The biscuits really were green, but you can't tell in the picture.

Animal Zoo Day

This week at school Bethany's class was working on their animal unit. Each student was assigned an animal to learn and report about, then on Friday (yesterday) they dressed up as their animal and had a zoo in their class. Above is Bethany's rabbit costume. She made the ears herself with paper, tape, and a white headband (and then later I found some ears at Target for a dollar, but hers were cuter). She also made the tail, but it wouldn't stay on.

Since their animal zoo was right after lunch I decided to join Bethany for lunch, so I left the boys home with Grandma and met Bethany at school. The lunch was okay, but, well, it's school lunch. Bethany thought it was fun to have me there anyway. I was still hungry when I got home.

I know Bethany is a friendly girl, but I was surprised at how many kids knew her and said hi to her. I was never that popular.

Here she is with her friend Ruby:



Here is the "zoo":





They had to go back to their desks and tell us all about animals. They did a lot of fun work. I didn't get a picture of her poster, but it was cute.



Then they sang us a few songs for a mini-program:

After that we went back to the class for punch and cookies. It was a fun day. It was a little somber, though, because one of Bethany's classmate's mom died this week, so Mrs. Barker was on the verge of tears the whole time, and she had to leave early to attend the viewing. It's really sad, and Bethany is friends with the boy, so it's been a challenge.

Another Recital

What a great looking bunch of kids!

This is a week late, but last Saturday I had another student recital. My students played all of their Federation pieces that they have been working on since October, for some of them. It was a great recital, and we are all ready to move on to other pieces!


This picture is a bit dark, but here is Bethany playing her pieces. Good job everyone!