Birthday-palooza

If you know us well, you know that we don't just celebrate birthDAYs, we celebrate the birthday SEASON at our house!  With birthdays on July 18 (me), July 28 (Mark), and August 6 (Will), we begin celebrating Birthday Season around mid-July, and that stretches until mid-August.

My birthday landed on a Friday this year, so my parents, Mark, and I had a relaxing Olive Garden lunch with celebratory tiramisu!  It was also our waiter's birthday AND a lady in the booth behind us - how fun!!  We celebrated with cards and presents when Will came home from Goddard that day, and he loved trying Mommy's favorite candy, Hot Tamales ("Hot Tails" to Will).

Mark's parents and Angelica arrived for a visit on Mark's birthday, just in time to go to Mark's birthday (and any day!!!) locale of choice - Don Pepe!  We had a great dinner with the whole family, including my parents and "Uncle Matt."

The Stricklers were not here for Will's birthday, so they gave him his presents early - one of the hits was a wind-up pool/bath scuba diver toy.  (This reminded me of "Scuba Steve" from the Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy!)

We celebrated the July family birthdays on another night while the Stricklers were visiting.  We were happy to be with Ross surrounding his birthday of July 31.

Will's actual birthday was a Wednesday, so with Daddy at work, it was just he and I.  We talked about how on your birthdays it's fun to do some of your favorite things, so he said he wanted to paint a picture of his house.  Here is the beginning of our process, including my sketch of the house - more pictures later as we finish!

Will's favorite author is Laura Numeroff, and we have gotten a library book called Two For Stew that we have been reading EVERY night for weeks.  It is a great story of a woman and her dog who come to a restaurant known for its "dreamy" stew, but they are OUT of the stew!  The waiter tries to give options to the woman, but she only wants stew and will even creatively brainstorm any way to get it!

Soooo... we have talked a lot about what stew is, and the night before his birthday, I asked Will if he would like to try stew the next day.  We didn't have any stew at home, so we decided to splurge on a "Two for Stew" (or really chicken noodle soup) birthday date at Panera.  Here he is with his "stew" and book - we brought it along for table decor.  :-)  And you can't have a birthday date at Panera without a yummy cupcake - check out that face of excitement!

He and I enjoyed some time at the pool in the afternoon (ANOTHER of his favorite things to experience on his birthday!) and a dinner with Meme and Pawpaw at Chili's.  He got to open some more presents from us and Meme and Pawpaw and have one more cupcake with a Kit-Kat piece on top.  He had to watch out for Pawpaw with his cupcake and enjoyed some loves with Meme.

Stay tuned for Birthday Party-palooza post...
(Say that five times fast!!)

Swim Lessons: Week One

Will has been enjoying the first set of swim lessons at the Chester YMCA this week.  His teacher is Miss Ashley, and she works very well with Will.  His great smile is a great indicator of his confidence and self-assurance!  Even from the first lesson, he volunteered (!!! What child is this??!!) to go underwater and to jump into the pool and into Ms. Ashley's arms.  We need to continue practicing getting in and out of the pool from the wall.  Our first set of lessons continues Mondays and Wednesdays for the next few weeks.

Will kicking with "Superman arms" outstretched

 

Getting ready to jump in

Miss Ashley gives the kids a choice of whether to be a tree (chop, chop, chop... TIMBER!!) or a rocket ship (3-2-1-BLASTOFF!!) when preparing to jump.  Will prefers to be a tree  :-)

Going underwater at Lesson #2

Look for the BIG smiles when he comes up

 



May and June Update

Bridal shower for my "bus buddy" Amy Holschuh

Isn't she beautiful??!

 

Mother's Day - time at the park and gift

SODA Field Day - annual picture at Lakeview Elementary

End of season Soccer Banquet for Will

He LOVED Coach Kyle!!

 I met with my future AP group at an evening meeting in May

 Will LOVES to swing at the park!

Check out the answers on this test.  Really??!!  This student is taking Summer School.

Will and Beatrix had a great time at the SODA End of the Year Banquet

Beginning of Summer Celebration at Goddard

June 1 - Stop Hunger Now Meal Packaging Event at BHUMC

Our church raised $3204.50 and packaged 12,818 meals!!!!

We also raised enough money that day to purchase two water filtration bucket systems

 

June 13 - Meme's birthday!  We celebrated at Don Pepe!

While the Strickler's were here in June, we got to celebrate both of our moms' birthdays, Angelica's birthday, Ross and Brenda's 40th anniversary, AND Father's Day.  It was a great time!!

We enjoyed the Chester Family YMCA Picnic and a movie on the front lawn afterward

We won the grand prize at the picnic!

Fun with Bea

Last weekend Will and I went with Erin and Bea (in their car!) to the new Children's Museum in Chesterfield.  The kids giggled away just being with each other in the car.  Will loved the bus, the art station, and the train ride.

We joined the Fords for a cookout Sunday night.  Will was thrilled (and so were we!) to be going to Bea's house.  I think he woke up early from his nap for that very reason!

Summertime.  Kiddie pools.  Moscato and Shandy.  Blowing bubbles.  Hot dogs and hamburgers.  Fire pit.  Smores.  Strawberry shortcake.  Coloring.  Doggie kisses from Scout.  Friends.  Hugs.  Lucky.