Aaron's Birthday!

Aaron's TWO! Well as of Friday! Who would have thought he would make it this far. Not me! HAHA! He is a unique little boy for sure.

Six months ago we thought he would never talk and now he has all sorts of words. He is smart and a great helper even when we don't want him to help. His latest is helping me with the laundry. He gets to put in the dryer sheet and then start the dryer for me. Nothing pleases him more. He says truck, ball, thank you, dad, mommi, mine, and a whole bunch more I can't remember. He loves to play in the sink, stand on everything, watch you leave and get into his sister's room.

His favorite thing to watch is Baby Einstein and he gets mad if you turn it off when he leaves the room. He still needs his mommy time on occassion, but that is OK with me. Aaron is also sleeping better through the night and no longer needs to be drugged. Yeah!

Today we had his party and our friend Tanie joined us for tacos and cake. Aaron loves tacos and he loved his cake more as you can see by the pictures. As for presents, he opened the first one and wanted to play with it now. Didn't want to open the rest. We coaxed him into a few more, but really just wanted to play than open.

And smiles he was not. He loves to furrow his brow at you and does it quite frequently. It's just him though. It makes him special! :)













Blowing his candles out!


Yum! Cake!










Chilling with his presents


Don't touch my stuff!





And as I write this entry he is sitting on top of the piano taking his diaper off and playing with his penis. "cool" he says! That's our boy!

Spongebob Birthday!

Ryan had his Spongebob Birthday party this afternoon and WOW, he sure is a ladies man!

When we started talking about his party we asked who he had wanted to invite. Noelle of course because she is his friend from across the street. he also wanted to invite his friends from pre-school. We said Ok, who? "well Sarah and Alex." OK, Is Alex a boy? "NO" ok, so we did. Then he said "who is that girl from Dawg's house?" We told him that was Sydney and her brother Ryan too. We invited them all. DO you see a pattern to all of this? Yes, Ryan is a ladies man!

So today Noelle shows up, then Sarah, then Alex. He takes them all upstairs to show them his room. Places his hand on Sarah's back as he leads them all upstairs. Then, Chris saw this and told me to go check it out. Ryan had put on his bathrobe and was walking around upstairs with all his girlfriends. So we have a little Hepf on our hands. Oh my! He did take the bathrobe off though.

They played hide and go seek, put the jellyfish in the net - like pin the tail on the donkey, freeze dance and drop the clothespin in the jar. They also colored Spongebob pictures. What a blast. He loved all his presents and gave all his girlfriends a hug!

What an amazing little man we have!

Ryan and all his girlfriends -his sisters too of course.

Alex, Sarah, Ryan & Noelle

Playing hide and go seek

Ryan taking his robe off!

Pin the jellyfish in the net

Ryan getting his groove on!

Yes he ended up with 3 girlfriends

Hugging Sarah

Katie dancing with all the kids.

Harry Potter Rules in this house!

Well we are trying to recover this morning from Meghan's Harry Potter sleepover for her 10th birthday which is Monday. I was gone most of the day for DI training in Hunter, ND but Chris and the kids worked the whole day getting things together. Chris dressed up as Professor Snape and I dressed as Professor McGonagal. Thankfully the weather was still beautiful so they played outside a bit on the trampoline.

We had pizza and then sent the kids on a scavenger hunt to find Meghan's big birthday present from us. We had gotten her all the Harry Potter books and wrapped them in brown paper and then hide them all over the place. Each had a clue to the next and some of the clues were tricky to read. One they had to use a mirror to read because it was backwards, another they had to use a marker to color on because the clue was written on white paper with white crayon. Anyway they were all found and the last clue led them to the their Potions class with Professor Snape.

The kids did about 4-5 potions, experiments including making lightning in their mouths with Wint-o-green Lifesavers and making a volcano with a balloon. Afterwards they played the Harry Potter DVD game and hide and go seek in the dark. Ryan and Aaron got so much attention and they loved it.

The party was not without tears of course and over the course of the evening 4/8 of them cried, including the birthday girl, but it was her party so why not.

I think they slept last night but I don't know as I put my earplugs in at 12. They were up though and on the trampoline at 6:30. Not sure the neighbors were thrilled, but oh well.

I have 3 extra pairs of socks and a headband left at our house. Overall it was a great party. Happy 10th Birthday Meghan!

Reading the backwards clue

Professor Snape

Snape's special potion

Making a volcano

The Birthday girl

And it's off to Houston he goes...

I guess I should have expected a business trip to pop up soon. They always do, especially this time of year because it is our busiest for the family.

So Chris calls this morning and tells me he has to go to Houston on Sunday till Weds. Well oh joy! So here are the things I had to cover.

1. Family pictures. They were rescheduled from last weekend because of the rain for Sunday at 4. The last flight out of Fargo to Minneapolis and onto Houston is at 4:30. SO I call Noelle, she has nothing till the 26th. Well then there is the issue of the weather and how many times are we going to reschedule. She is booked Thurs and Fri next week. I call Chris, he says pull the kids out of school either tomorrow or Fri and get them done. Noelle is booked those days till 3. I work at 5. Since it is 1 1/2 hrs to Crookston not feasible. So we are now pulling them out of school on Thurs for the day, pictures in Crookston at 11 and Chris rescheduled his 1:30 mtg. UGH!

2. Find babysitter for Tues Night and Weds Night - our college age babysitter has band till 6. I work at 5. HMMMM!

3. Ask our kind neighbors to take Meghan and Lauren to choir on Tues morning instead of Chris driving. and beg them to cover from 5-6 on Weds or until our babysitter arrives. Of course at this point we don't know if she can babysit. lol

4. Reschedule my nails from Monday night to Sat morning.

But lucky for us there is no church for the girls on Weds night, so I don't have to worry about getting them to church and just have to adjust to a little more driving around for the kids.

On the plus side - costumes are going well. Katie's is done, Meghan's is done, I just have to put the fringe on her scarf, Chris's is done - needs buttons I guess, Ryan's costume for preschool is done, his trick or treating one is almost done. SO that leaves mine and Aaron's. Yeah! Go Jen!

The DI meeting went well and I will be picking up the registration forms on Friday and hopefully getting the teams formed over the weekend. I am going to Michael's today for parchment paper to create Meghan's birthday party invites for her Harry Potter party on Nov 1st. I may make it till then. HAHA!

Cheers!