My Big Boy

Today was Reed's 6th birthday.  He came home from school yesterday because he wasn't feeling well and had a fever.  After a trip to the doctor, it was confirmed that he had strep throat.  He started his antibiotics and after a fairly rough day yesterday he woke up feeling great and ready for school.  The doctor said he wouldn't be contagious, so if he felt like going, that would be fine.   A friend of mine mentioned that she had a friend who let her kids eat cake for breakfast on their birthday and I knew Reed would love it.  Here he is this morning with his chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and chocolate milk. :)After breakfast, we left for school a little early for an errand.  On their birthday, the kids are able to have a birthday snack brought to school in the afternoon.  Up until this point, every child has made the obvious choice of cupcakes for their birthday snack. A couple of months after school started, Reed decided that he wanted me to bring donuts on his birthday.  I thought he would change his mind, but his decision stuck.  So this morning we headed to the newest donut store in town that has huge donuts (hey, if you're gonna do something, you might as well do it all the way, right?).  He picked out the donuts he wanted and as we were checking out, the lady handed him a GIANT cookie - without even knowing it was his birthday.  I guess that's what buying $16 worth of donuts will get you these days.  :)  Anyway, I made him hold it up by his head just to show how huge it was. (Check out those glasses - this one's just too cool for school, people!)

This afternoon when I went up to pass out the birthday snack, I walked into his classroom and that kid had on one snazzy hat...
Here is is eating his precious birthday donut sandwiched between two girls - this kid of mine is always surrounded by girls! Oh, the things we have coming in the teenage years... :)After school, we headed to Fort Worth.  Reed had some birthday money that was burning a hole in his pocket so we made a quick stop at Wal-Mart then onto the movies. We went to see How to Train Your Dragon at the movie tavern.  The movie was in 3-D so we were rockin' our glasses...

It was a really cute movie and Reed loved eating in the theater - I could tell he felt pretty special.  We stopped by my parents' house to pick up Hudson - he had been there since Wednesday morning.  I was going to pick him up yesterday, but then Reed got sick and I wanted to make sure that it didn't get passed to Hudson.  Anyway, he had a great time playing with Mimi, Pepaw and Uncle Brandon, so the ride home proved too much for him.
Yes I gave my child a Route 44 at 9:00 at night so he wouldn't scream on the way home.  I'm fine with that. :)

Happy Birthday, Reed!  I can't believe you are already 6!  You are such a blessing and absolute joy - I am so proud to be your momma!  I love you little man!

What it would be like...

Sometimes I have wondered how I would handle having more children.  Well, today I got a very small glimpse... 

As I type this my sweet friend, Melissa, is in the hospital in labor so I've got her kiddos.  Caleb is 4 and Hannah is a few months younger than Hudson.  Melissa and her hubby dropped the kids off a little before 1:00 this afternoon.  We played on the trampoline and spent a lot of time outside. Brian was home around 1:30, so luckily he was able to pick up Reed so I didn't have to pile 3 other children in the car. :)  After Reed got home, it seemed to get quite a bit noisier with the two older boys playing swords, running in circles, etc.  Brian was outside finishing yard work, working on the garden and then had to run back to the shop for a bit, so I was on my own.  Making dinner was a challenge - watching all four while trying to prepare dinner.  I got 4 little plates fixed and 4 little mouths fed (Caleb cleaned his plate TWICE- I was super impressed!). We had a cookie for dessert and then it was off to baths.  I put Caleb and Reed in the shower in the guest bath and Hannah and Hudson in my bathtub.  I ran to check on the boys and came back to our room.  I heard Hudson say "Ewwww." from the bathtub and went in to see that Hannah had pooped in the bath.  I got her out, wrapped her in a towel and went back to get Hudson and he had thrown up in the bathtub!!  (He is perfectly fine now, so all I can figure is that the child has a weak stomach.  You remember the silly string incident at the birthday party?  I think some things just make him sick - like the poop in the bathtub.  I can see it now - years down the road, he's going to be the kid that his friends do whatever they can to try to make him puke.)   After the bath incident, I stuck my head out the door at Brian while he was in the garden and yelled "I need HELP!"  He came in and helped me get everyone ready for bed and down for the night.

It's now 5 minutes 'til 9 and the house it quiet.  So, what's it like with 4 kids?  

Whew. 

Our turkeys

For the last few weeks, we've had some visitors in our back "yard".  One Sunday morning I was in our bathroom putting on makeup for church and everyone else was still asleep. The house was oddly silent and I heard  a "Gobble, gobble, gobble".  I went to the back door to look and sure enough there were a couple of them strutting around right outside - about 5 feet from the back door!  From what I can tell, there are 3 of them that visit sporadically .  The one in the very last picture is massive.  I wish I could get a picture of him next to one of the others just to show his size - it's pretty amazing.  (Maybe the smaller two are females and the huge one is the male?  I have no idea...)

Another reason I love living out here!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:

• hearing my almost 6 year old tell his brother that he loves him while they were playing together.
• a great allergist that we had an appointment with today.  I'm changing up Hudson's allergy medicine and truly believe that we won't have to deal with tubes again.
• a strong body to make it through another tough workout this morning.
• my husband and his willingness to listen whenever I need him to - regardless of how uninteresting the subject matter may be. :)

Blevins Carnival 2010

What a great day for a party!  Saturday was mild and beautiful - perfect for an outdoor birthday!  

I had a lot of help decorating and it really turned out cute.  The downside was that since I had planned the party on Easter weekend, a lot of people ended up not coming.  The upside was that I planned a lot of things that Reed liked and after all had calmed down on Saturday night he told me it was the best party he's had.  :)  That's ALL I needed to hear.  (Yes, it was a joint party for the boys, but Hudson is two.  All I would've had to do is give that boy a cupcake and he'd have been tickled pink.)  Mike and Susan kept the boys for me that morning so they could walk in on the party and be surprised at how it looked.  Here they are getting ready to head to the back yard.  Reed was "helping" me by getting Hudson to look at the camera. (Side note: Here's a big thank you to my sweet friend Becky for all the pictures!  She took hundreds...literally!  I had so many to choose from for this post.  My slow internet was about to make me crazy, so I just did a few of my favorites...)
Reed has been wanting a pinata for a while and I just keep forgetting!  So I decided this year would be a good year to do it.  I have video of it that I'll try to post later...pretty funny stuff.

Grabbing the pinata candy!

I was planning on doing a big carnival/circus type cake, but Reed asked for his own Star Wars cake.   So he got his beloved Star Wars and Hudson got his Wow Wow Wubbzy.  You can see my 'popcorn' cupcakes in the background... that turned out so cute, too!  To see a closer picture, click here. The messed up polka dot on the front of Hudson's cake it where he crammed his chubby little finger into the icing before we got around to cutting it. :)

Having less labor intensive cakes really took a lot of stress off of my shoulders, so it really worked out for the best. 

Opening gifts...

We were able to borrow a popcorn machine and cotton candy maker!  Here I am trying my hand at the cotton candy...

It wasn't pretty, but the kids evidently enjoyed it - they got out of the trampoline long enough to wolf some down. :)

When I was at the dollar store picking up some things, I came across this...

and I knew Reed would love it.  I bought 12 cans and it turned out to be so much fun!  We ended up having a mini silly string war.  The next picture cracks me up (you may have to click on it to enlarge it).  Hudson didn't like the silly string at all. It was either the smell or feel of it that he hated because every time we sprayed him he would gag.  At first I thought he was sick from eating too much junk (cake, popcorn, cotton candy, etc.) but it was only when he got the silly string on him.  It was HILARIOUS!!!

A few more pictures...

Bean Bag toss

Labels for the water and lemonade

The kids favors

We had a great day and the boys had so much fun.  I am so blessed to be the mother of these two precious boys.  They are so different and they complement each other in such an awesome way.  Reed is the best big brother - he watches out for Hudson, holds his hand in the parking lot, tries to explain things to Hudson that he doesn't understand, shares his stuff with Hudson constantly and truly loves his little brother.  On the flip side, Hudson adores Reed.  "Bubba? Where you?" is a phrase often said at our house - first thing in the morning when I get him out of bed and all day while Reed is at school.  Hudson squeals with delight when the school comes in to view in the afternoons when we pick Reed up.  Hudson wants to do exactly what Reed does - things like wearing the same kind of shoes and eating the same food.  They are such great friends as little boys and I hope their relationship continues to grow and mature so they will be great friends as men.  Happy Birthday to my sweet little guys - I love you both to the moon and back!

Getting ready to PAR-TAY!

I decided to do a joint birthday party for the boys this year.  I figured that because of their ages,  this might be the last year I'd get away with it.  Hudson's birthday is February 5th and Reed's is April 30th, so we decided a happy medium would be April 3rd (this was before I knew it was Easter weekend - Oops!).  We're doing a carnival theme and I have spent a lot of time on the internet searching for ideas and boxes have been coming in the mail with filled with favors and decorations! {Squeal!}  The best part is that this evening I found out that I will have access to some pretty awesome items to help make the party SO cute!

The down side to all of this? I have a 10 day weather forecast on my phone and I've been watching the weather and of course rain in predicted on Saturday.  Boo.  Luckily, we have the studio!  It's essentially a large open room (with some closets and storage spaces here and there) and right now it's serving as the "man cave" (as Brian and Reed like to call it).  I have to get it cleaned out this week so we can decorate. I'm looking forward to a great party!

Reed's First Field Trip

Today I went with Reed and his Kindergarten class to his first school field trip.  I was very excited about it because I don't like missing 'firsts'.  Especially with my kids - that's one of the main reasons I stay home with them!  Anyway, we went to the FW Zoo and it was SO much fun.  I asked for a season pass for Christmas and this was the first time we had been.  After today, I promised myself that we would go a lot more often.  The kids rode up on the school buses and we had drive our own vehicles.  My mom and Hudson rode along with me and they went and did their own thing while I helped chaperone.  Reed's class has 20 kids and there were 14 chaperones!  Wow!!! So I only had Reed and a sweet little girl named Sydney.  They were both so well behaved and we covered a lot of ground!  Here is Reed with the flamingos.  I tried to get him to stand like one - balancing on one foot with the other leg bent, but he was having none of that.

Sydney and Reed checking out the elephants

The kids in front of the new reptile house which I have to say is amazing.  They have a place to sit and eat that has large glass walls and you can see a huge crocodile, turtles, fish and all kinds of stuff swimming around while you eat.  It was so cool!

Reed and the Komodo dragon

Reed riding the alligator

When 1:00 hit, I had to take Sydney back to the zoo entrance to ride the bus home. I signed Reed out and we met up with my mom and Hudson and we spent another 2 hours walking around and checking things out.  This is me and the boys on the train.  With my membership, we got the train fare for 1/2 off!  Awesome!  (Check out their dirty faces!  I guess dirty = fun!)

Turtle sculpture in front of the reptile house

This is looking out one of the windows of the cafe I was talking about above.  This crocodile was HUGE.  I tried to get a picture of the boys by it to give a little perspective, but it still doesn't look as impressive as it did in real life!

Here we are outside the reptile house.  We were all starting to fade a little at this point... :)

Reed wanted to go back to see the birds and buy a seed stick.  (We were instructed not to buy anything for the kids we had in our groups to insure that no one got any special treatment, so I had to wait until Sydney was on her way back to the school.)  Reed loved it.  He quickly learned to walk very slowly up to the birds to get them to eat from the stick.

I got a bird to actually step on the stick and then I handed it to Reed...

Hudson was mesmerized...

A couple of girls squealed when the birds whizzed by their heads, so Hudson started to squeal, too.  The bird freaked out and I was afraid it would get scared and fly off so here's me telling Hudson not to scream like a girl...

A pretty turquoise parakeet

We had the best day.  It definitely made me want to go back again soon!

Just some tidbits

On Tuesday, we attended a retirement reception for Mike at the plant. It was from 10:00 - 12:00, so we decided it would be easier for Reed to not go to school at all instead of going for an hour, picking him up and then going for an hour at the end of the day. I really didn't feel bad about it since it was only the second day of school he's missed all year. It was a great little party and I was glad that Reed was there so he could hear the great things that were said about his DadDad. Anyway, last night at church, Janna (Reed's music teacher and a dear friend of Gammy's) told me that when Reed saw her at school the next day he informed her that "Yesterday I was at a retirement party for DadDad... just in case you missed me." Oh, that kid.

I could tell that Hudson got used to having Reed home over Spring Break. He would get up in the morning and when he saw Reed he'd say "Hi Bubba!" On Monday, he walked around the house all day saying "Bubba... where you?" and then all the way to the school to pick Reed up. As soon as we turned on the road to the school, he sucked in a sharp breath and squealed "Dere is!" It was pretty sweet. I love how my boys are with each other (most of the time)! :)

Lastly, today I am going with Reed's class to the zoo for our first field trip. There are 20 kids in Reed's class and 14 chaparones are going -WOW!!! I thought it would be me and like, two other parents herding all 20 of these kids around! I need to get in the kitchen and start lunches for the boys. I have to drive my own car, so my mom is going to go and take Hudson around the zoo while I'm with Reed. I'm so glad that I get to enjoy being with my son on his first school field trip. I'm looking forward to a great day.

Finally!!

Hudson is finally calling me Momma.  He has been calling everyone "Da" up until the last couple of weeks.  Not only am I now being correctly called Momma, but Reed is "Bubba', my mom is "Mini" (aka Mimi), and my dad is Papo (aka Pepaw).  He's been calling Mike DadDad for a while, but he hasn't said Gammy.  Frankly, I think the only reason he says all of the above is because we force him to - and maybe Susan is the only nice one. Hmmm...  :)  

I'm not really one of those moms that worries too much about things like early talking - as long as he's healthy, the rest will come.  Well, it's coming now. :)  I'm getting to where I can't get the kid to hush and I'm lovin' it!  I think toddler language is one of the cutest things ever - especially when I can understand it.  :) Other words he's saying that I want to remember:

Coke - Drink

Boo - Blue

Mounce - Bounce (on the trampoline)

I Dit ooo - I get you (when he tickles me)

Nack - Snack

Zesh - Yes

Yet's doh - Let's go

Wow Wow - What he call Wubbzy

Wahden - Walden from Wow Wow Wubbzy

Wee-jet - Widget from Wow Wow Wubbzy

Mouz - Mouse (usually when he sees Mickey Mouse)

M-ow - what he calls a cat

Something else he does that is too cute - when he accomplishes something (putting his shoes on or whatever) he raises his fisted hands over his head and says "Woo Hoo!"  Too funny!

Lost Tooth

Reed went on a little trip with Gammy and DadDad this weekend.  He has had a loose tooth for a couple of weeks and I knew it should be coming out ANY time.  Friday night we got an e-mail from Gammy that it had finally come out!  At first I was a little sad that I wasn't with him to witness him losing his first tooth, but I got over it.  :)  Here's my big boy, minus one teeny tiny tooth...