Birthday Boy! Five

1.  Look who turned ONE!
This is my favorite shot from T's photo sitting.  There's something about the expression in this one that melts my heart.  The photographer was very patient and creative, and T was ... well, he wasn't fussy - but it took a little bit to warm into the smiles I love!

2.  Birthday Cake
I made a Hershey's chocolate cake with fudge frosting.  E and J were both sick, and so the cake lasted longer than I expected, since they had very little appetite.  We're getting an ice cream cake to celebrate with Grandma & Grandpa this weekend.

3.  Opening Presents
... is a family affair at this age.  :)

4.  Birthday Boy
Since we have a doggy door at this house, T is our first child to have the opportunity to go outside at his leisure.  He loves to go and play in Duchess's outdoor water dish, or to sit in the grass, or to climb stairs, take toys or trash outside, eat wood chips, ...

5.  Craft Time at the Library
Because I have to include something about the other children!  They are coloring the artwork for those blue, plastic cups.  This was our first outing of the week yesterday, because E and J were sick for several days.

Five for Friday

1.  Father's Day

E had been wanting to have a "real" picnic - a real picnic is one with a blanket on the ground to sit on while eating.  So we decided Father's Day might be a good opportunity, and went to a nearby park.  Then, ... she decided that there were too many bugs to sit on the ground.  So we ate at a picnic table.  Some people's children are hard to please.  I enjoyed reading a book on the blanket while the kids explored.

2.  Eyes
As in, I can never get enough of these eyes!  I love this boy!  In case you are wondering, E was practicing making turbans with my pajama pants.

3.  The Bubble Room
Benji is such a fun dad.  He got one bubble all the way to J's knees before it popped, but I didn't get a picture of that.  The bubble room is Benji and my favorite place at the McWane Science Center.  So much so, that the children get bored of it while we're still playing.  Kids that get tired bubbles?!  I don't get it.  But ... I do foresee a date night in our future!

4.  Sulk vs. Smile
She knows how to glare - too bad for her that she's laughably gorgeous, even when sulky.  But I like the smile even better.  The glare is because she wants to go to the science center, and I'm not fast enough getting ready.

5.  BINGO!
The summer reading program at our local library is using Bingo charts to get prizes.  The kids get a small prize for each Bingo (3-in-a-row for J and 4-in-a-row for E), and a bigger prize and raffle entry (for a bike) if they fill in the whole sheet.  They have been filling out an entire Bingo sheet every week so far.  For those keeping score, that is 8 prizes a week for J, and 10 for E!  We are starting a collection of small, useless toys.  I've been trying to steer them towards picking dumdums just to avoid the clutter.

Friday Five

1.  E and J both advance in their swim classes
E completed all her (Guppy) requirements with checks and smiley faces and her comments read: E improved in this class!  She is becoming a strong swimmer!
J is still swimming with floatation assistance, but had fun.  His comments read: J did well in this class and it was fun to watch him progress!
We will take two weeks off, then consider enrolling them in the next level.

2.  We got a membership at the McWane Science Center
The children were so excited to learn that we were going to the McWane Science Center, when they realized it was the same place Grandma & Grandpa took them last year, when they spent a week with them after T was born.  We didn't get to explore it all today - the kids moved so fast that I didn't really get to appreciate it.  They really loved it, though.  The kids are in the mouth of a fish sculpture here:

3.  This is the Life
How I wish my kids would spend more of their days.  We are working on some sibling issues ... but when it comes down to it, they really love each other!

5.  The Park
There don't seem to be as many neighborhood parks, but there are some grand playgrounds, and of course a state park just down the road.  We spent an afternoon this week at a lovely park.  I thought J would be really easy to spot in his bright yellow shirt ... but then a camp or daycare group arrived, and all the children were dressed in the same shade of yellow!  It was actually easier to spot E.  Go figure.

Five Things for Friday, First Edition

1 Trading temple spire view for mountain view

We are moved into our home.  We can even park in our garage now!  We are not done unpacking, but we are living.  In our last house, as I turned off the main street, I could just see the angel Moroni temple spire through the trees.  I miss being so close to a temple.  To help ameliorate the loss, this is the mountain view as I turn onto my street.  (It was raining so yes, those are drops on the windshield.)  Alabama is beautiful.  I love driving around here, and I love the hills and trees.  It is also the land of Benji's forefathers - so it feels somehow right to be drawn here.

2 J sick

There's nothing like watching your child go through an illness.  J had a prolonged fever all weekend, and even missed two days of swim class.  He looks to me like he has lost a lot of weight.  But he's better now, and back to his rambunctious, ... and sometimes sulky self.

3 Speaking of swim class

We joined the loal YMCA, and signed E and J up for swim class.  They are doing well, although on the days he was well enough to go, I still had to bribe drag J to go.  He is glad he went afterwards, but ...

4 The Emotion Code

By Bradley Nelson - this is my current read, and I'm intrigued.  Speaking of my sulky boy ... I noticed a few months ago he would start going into this offended state - I started calling it his "rut."  Dr. Nelson would call it a trapped emotion - or negative energy resonating somewhere in his body - he says once you have negative energy resonating somewhere, it is easy for the whole body to resonate to that frequency - like a tuning fork close to a window - once it touches the window, the window resonates to it, too.  This same phenomenon would explain why a smell, a touch, or really any trigger, can release a flood of emotion, or why an "angry" person gets angry so easily ... or why a happy and loving little boy can suddenly revert into a sulky, nobody-loves-me boy.  I have been praying for intuition on how to nurture him out of this rut.  We'll see.  :)

5 Everything is going according to Plan

Since January of this year, I have had this sense that "Something Wonderful is about to happen." Many wonderful things have happened, and I still have this sense that more wonderful things are around the corner. We have felt so Guided in the move, in finding our new house, in packing and moving so soon (May 3rd was sooner than I expected - Benji was ready in April).  I was getting my mail one day this week when I was just overcome with the feeling that we are meant to be here right now, and everything is going according to Plan. We still aren't sure what the Plan is, but we're pressing forward.