Tractor Party

We celebrated B's 3rd birthday a few weeks early due to the fact that Matt was going to be home most of the month of October, and nothing is guaranteed with his schedule in November. Ever since we have started taking K to dance class, B has had a fascination with tractors. He loves to look for them in fields, and also likes watching them when they work. (To him a tractor is anything that does outside work - farm work, construction work, etc...) All last year, they were working on building a video store next to K's dance studio. Every week we had to go look at their progress and watch the "tractors" hard at work.

Anyways, we found a cake pan shaped like a tractor back in the summertime. He really liked it, and when I gave him the choice of colors - red, yellow, or green tractor, he chose green and yellow. So, John Deere became the theme for this party. We had a double party with another one of our friends from church - because we all end up going to the same parties and wanted to save some people some time. The party was at Let's Jump - which the boys loved, and they had about 15 or 20 of their buddies there to jump with them. Here are a few pictures of the fun night.


Here is the cake I made for him. I like to make their cakes shaped like whatever they are in to at that particular time. It makes their party special to them. Plus, there will be plenty of years where they don't care about having a special shaped cake. B actually helped me mix the cake, prepare the pan and pour it into the pan. He was so excited that he could hardly wait until it was done baking. He came in about 5 minutes after the cake was put in the oven and said, "I think it's done now." Of course I told him that it wasn't done until the timer beeps. A minute or two later I heard him in the kitchen making a "Beep, Beep" noise. Then, he came running back shouting, "The timer beeped! It's done now!" At that point I realized that we needed to find something else to distract this excited little boy for a while. I usually stay up most of the night before the party working on the decorating. Although this one took longer than I thought, I was only up working on it until midnight.

Here's Mr. B man coming down the slide. they came down fast!

Here he is hamming it up for the camera. He loves to have his picture taken. So does his sister. This was the longest I could get her to stay still for a picture - it took about 4 or 5 seconds and she was gone again.

They haven't had too much sugar tonight, have they???

Scarecrow Day

Once a month, the preschool has a special theme day where all of the kids dress a certain way and then they have pizza for lunch. The first time was red, white and blue day and they learned alot of things about the United States of America, and had a little parade through the school where they carried their American Flags that they made. This month, the special day was Scarecrow Day. I had no idea how I was going to get my little "princess" to dress up like a scarecrow, so off to shopping I went. When I came home, I had found a hat, some blue jeans, a plaid shirt that her brother can wear when it is cooler outside, and some yarn to make fake "hay." (We were told specifically no real hay due to allergies). Well, little miss priss decided that there was no way she was going to be caught wearing blue jeans on scarecrow day. She wanted there to be no doubt that she was a girl scarecrow. So, we worked and put this little costume together.
Here she is posing in our flowerbed as a scarecrow. The next picture shows B doing the same thing. (Can we say monkey see, monkey do?)

"Off we go"

We went to the air show today with the kids. This was their first time to go to an air show and actually see what has been making the walls of the house shake at times. They said that it was really fun, but loud. K didn't seem to mind the noise too much - although she did ask for ear plugs during the Thunderbird's' show. B spent most of the day with his head buried in a blanked because he didn't like the noise and he didn't like the feeling of ear plugs in his ears. We got some pictures of them in an American Airlines 777 engine. When Matt put the kids up in the engine, the mechanic just shook his head. I guess he figured that if someone was bold enough to walk up and jump up there then they must know a little about planes. Although it was a tiring day, it was a great day to spend outside!

K - "Posing" in front of a B-52 wheel. She is about 43 inches tall to give you an idea of the size of the wheels.

B - Up next to a 777 wheel - he is about 41 inches tall. (Yes, they are 2 years apart, 2 inches apart, and also 2 pounds apart).

Santa shops at Wal-Mart

I have posted quite a few funny things that B has said lately, but K has said her share of them too. Last week, I left B with Matt and picked up K from school. On our way home we went to Wal-mart to get some groceries to last us through the week Matt was gone. While we were shopping, we were turning the corner of one isle and about to go down another isle when suddenly she got very close to me and began tugging at my shirt. I heard her whispering, "Mom, Mom - there's Santa Clause - he's right over there!" Okay - it was the first of October - what is she talking about is all I could think. I looked up and sure enough there was a man with a long white beard, glasses, and all of the "looks" of a traditional Santa Clause. Of course, it was 85 degrees outside, so he was wearing a red Hawaiian shirt, khacki shorts, and bright red patton tennis shoes. He seriously looked like Santa on vacation or something. When we got down the isle she said, "I guess he really is always watching to see if we're good." Every time we crossed him as we walked down an isle she immediately stood up as straight as she could and walked quietly by my side. I don't know if it was out of fear or just concern that he would mark her off of his "list."

"Thank you Jesus"

A few weeks ago I was making cookies with our mixer that my Grandmother gave to us. I normally don't allow the kids to lick the beaters because I have this problem with fear of them getting food poisoning from the raw eggs. This day, I decided we would go ahead and let them have a little. You would have thought it was Christmas by how excited they were. Pretty soon, I heard Braden singing his dinner time prayer with a new twist. Here is how it went...

"Thank you Jesus, Thank you Jesus
For these things, for these things,
Now we get some cookies, now we get some cookies,
when they're done, when they're done."

I thought it was just too cute and had to take a picture. Here it is...

1st Day of Preschool

Kaylee started Preschool this year. Her 1st day was the day after labor day and life has been so hectic since then that I have not had the opportunity to sit down and get this started. She has already learned so much and comes home each day telling us all about her new friends and what she did that day. Braden has enjoyed having one on one time with me and sometimes two on one time with his dad and mom, although he was a little lost the first time he went to the park without his sister.

The honesty of a 3 year old

Yesterday, Matt was putting Braden to bed and he asked Braden, "do you have a tractor in your bed?" Braden replied, "No Daddy I don't have a tractor in my bed." Matt knew he was not being truthful, so he said, "are you lying to me?" Braden said, "No, Daddy." Matt gave him one more chance to tell that he had a tractor in his bed and then pulled the covers back. He looked at Braden and asked, "Well then, what are these?" Braden answered with, "I don't have a tractor in my bed Daddy, I have three!" How do you discipline that?

After school, we picked up Kaylee and Braden was practicing saying his words that he is not supposed to use. He called Kaylee an "idiot" during this process. Of course, Kaylee didn't hesitate to tell us that he called her an idiot. When we got onto him for saying idiot, he quickly replied with, "Mom I didn't call her an idiot, I called her a "Bidiot!" Right, and bidiot is an appropriate term to use in our house??? I guess we will now have to say that you can not use certain words or even words that rhyme with those words... AHHHHH!!! He's only 3!