Five

Because the giant "pause" button in life continues to elude me, Charlie turned 5 on December 3rd.  His birthday fell a few days after Thanksgiving so we ended up having a family celebration while we were back in Cascade over Thanksgiving and a friend celebration the weekend after his birthday.  Sprinkle in his actual birthday on that Wednesday and it felt like we had a whole week of birthday celebrations.  I kept reminding him that despite the week-long festivities, he was not a Kardashian.  He finally asked me what a "Kardashian" was and I was stumped to explain phenom that are the Kardashians.  One of those pathetic mysteries of our times.  Anyway, on to the birthday celebrations...

 

Charlie - you're a "whole hand" old now!

 

An attempt at a family photo before the family party began at Steve and Jan's house.  The nice problem about having both grandparents within close distance of one another is that there is never a shortage of volunteers to host various get togethers, which we always appreciate.

The theme of his family party was Legos so we had some brightly colored decorations and Nana Jan did an awesome job making this Lego cake.

Knowing how much our Charlie loves "cupcapes", we had plenty of desserts to enjoy!

A wide-angle view of the cousins and aunts (also godmothers) in attendance.

Charlie excitedly showing off some of the dinosaurs that Aunt Jenn gave him.

And the cool truck and horse trailer from Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Bill.

As always, Charlie received some great gifts - a Lego table, doctor costume, Toy Story toy and Lego "zombie".

A little shy while we sang "Happy Birthday" to him, but he was ready to blow out the candles.

Enjoying a cupcake - my boy loves him some chocolate.

Birthday photo with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Bill,

and a giggling photo with Papa Steve and Nana Jan,

and his two godmothers (Aunt Jenn and Aunt Molly).

Uncle Randy kept Crazy Lucy entertained.

On Charlie's actual birthday, he took cupcakes to day care, chose to eat at the local noodle place and came home to open his gift.  The "before" photo -

and the "after" photo.  We gave him a Lego Chima set and a Star Wars Stormtrooper gun.  I have no idea what I was thinking when I picked up the gun.  As I opened the box I told him that the rules included with the box were that if he pointed it at any member of his family, then the gun would be taken away for 24 hours.  Ten minutes later, the gun was placed in my closet for it's first (of many) lockdowns.

The following Sunday, we invited the kids from Charlie's current day care class and a few other friends to Pump It Up for two hours of high-energy, inflatable fun.  The kids seemed to have a great time but I'm still overwhelmed by the volume and bright colors.

We celebrated with a Chima cake for the kids and two Advil and a beer for mommy (hours after the party - when I was no longer responsible for supervising children).

A final shot of the birthday boy sitting on his birthday throne.  We asked that his friends come and enjoy the party but to refrain from bringing any gifts and I'm so glad that almost all complied - we have some very generous family members so to spend the Sunday afternoon focusing on having fun with his friends rather than opening gifts was (necessarily) nice.

With the start of kindergarten on the horizon for the next year, five seems like a big year.  Charlie's already asking questions about kindergarten and seems pretty interested in learning the sounds associated with letters and basic arithmetic, but I'm glad that his primary focus remains on having fun.  He can turn a trip to Target or the grocery store as an opportunity to play a game or race.  While not always the safest or most efficient choice, I'm trying to be more appreciative of his ability to have fun in the most unlikely of situations.

For Charlie's physically touch demeanor, he has a pretty sensitive heart about himself and others.  He still seems to make friends pretty easily, but his preferred playmate of choice seems to be Lucy.  Even the daycare teachers seem amazed that when the classrooms are combined at the end of the day that the two of them prefer to play with each other.   I know that the tide can turn at any moment, but I'm appreciative of his tolerance of her and her two-year old craziness. 

In some ways, it seems that he has grown a lot in the last year, but in other ways (he wants to be Green Lantern when he grows up, prefers noodles over any other food and his preferred place to sleep is our bed) he is still the same little boy and I'm grateful.

November

November was a big month for us.  Most importantly, we finally said good-bye to Lucy's pacifiers.  Since she was about 1.5, Lucy's use of the pacifiers was pretty much limited to bedtime, which made made bedtime awesome because she would ask to go to bed and then hold her two beloved pacifiers (one blue and one pink) in her hands until she fell asleep.  I kept telling myself that we were going to get rid of her pacifiers but I was frankly too lazy.  I finally decided that early November was reckoning day.  I took the picture of her below on her last night with her pacifiers...she clearly had no idea what was about to happen.  

 

The next morning I cut the tips of both pacifiers off, making it impossible for her to actually keep them in her mouth.  The next few nights were spent in a serious grieving/mourning period.  We would rock and then she would look back at me, telling me (in disbelief) that her pacifiers were broke and every time that I confirmed the horrible truth, she would break down.  It was pretty sad and I'd be lying if I wasn't tempted to go the 200 yards to Target to buy new ones.  I fought the urge and we've been pacifier free since then but we've also been "Lucy asking to go to bed" free since then so kind of a wash.

Around mid-November, we surprised the kids with a trip to Disney World.  We talked about taking Charlie some time before he starts kindergarten next August and planned to leave Lucy with family.  After talking about possible dates, deciding to make it a quick, 4 day trip, and having my sister and her family join us, we decided to take Lucy. 

We kept it a surprise from the kids until the morning that we left and I think that the excitement that we had in surprising them outweighed any part of the trip.  We wrapped up a Micky and Minnie mouse to give to them and Charlie excitedly told Lucy that they should hold them while they watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  I told him that would be fun but what would be even better is if we took the stuffed mouses on an airplane to the real Walt Disney World.  Charlie screamed with excitement and Lucy, oblivious to what it all meant but happy because Charlie was happy, asked him for a high five.  It was great!

Our Magic Bands arrived a few weeks before our trip and they worked great for our Fast Passes and room entry.

I was so happy to have captured Cinderella's castle at the exact moment that the Christmas fireworks exploded.

 Who am I kidding?  The above photo came from Disney.  The photo(s) that I took of the castle had more tourists than actual castle in them.

Look out Charlie and Lucy - Zurg from Toy Story captured you!  We loved the Toy Story rides because all 4 of us could ride them.

We also loved the Dumbo ride because all 4 of us could ride it.

Charlie meeting Belle...

 All of us meeting Goofy...

Aunt Molly and Lucy meeting Chip and Dale while the rest of us were on a ride...

And Pluto...

 The four of us getting to meet Jake...

A slightly terrified-looking Charlie on Space Mountain (he loves thrill rides but not so much "dark rides")...

 And the 3 of us barreling down Splash Mountain (You will see my nieces Emma and Claire behind the 3 of us with my brother-in-law Mike and other niece Hannah behind them - it was so great to have them on the trip with us and a huge help to take Lucy at certain points)

Charlie and I taking one of the Toy Story rides very seriously...

Our photo from the Tower of Terror.  We're in the back row with BJ looking nervously at Emma while Charlie is panicked between BJ and me.  Bad parenting moment in that we may have caused Charlie irrevocable harm.  He was fine with (and liked) the plunging part of the ride but the dark ghost story leading up to the drop?  It will come up during therapy in his later years, I'm sure of it.  Weeks later, he still reminisces about how fun Walt Disney World was, but is quick to remind me that he didn't like the "scary" rides (Space Mountain, Tower of Terror and this historical ride through the movies that featured a staged gunfight that was very realistic to a four-year-old).  Oops.

 BJ and Charlie taking their Toy Story ride pretty seriously too.

Our last night leaving the park - we were happy but exhausted.  It was a great, quick trip and I'm sure that we'll go back in the future...after we take a few vacations with little more sand and sleep and less Fast Passes and monorail rides :).

We ended November by celebrating Thanksgiving in Cascade with our families.  It was a great way to end the month and we headed right into someone's 5th birthday!

October

I have 10 days to sum up the rest of 2014 before I recommit to regularly blogging in 2015, so here it goes.

 

 

We enjoyed the warm temperatures of October and even conned Charlie into pulling the wagon during some of our many trips to the neighborhood park.   

 

 

 

The Hulk helped us celebrate Halloween,

as did our little donut.  Lucy's costume was perfect that night because it was warm and when she fell (2-3 times) it was like she landed on a pillow.  We'd yell "donut down" and quickly put her back on her feet. 

I tried to convince Charlie that it would be really funny if he dressed up like a glass of milk but he didn't take the bait. Maybe next year I'll succeed in my goal of having the entire family dressed up as a coordinated theme. BJ will be thrilled.

 

We tried on our hats and wore them around, inside the house until we were sweaty and our hair was crazy.

We enjoyed 3 trips in 4 days to the pumpkin patch.  I was able to chaperone both Charlie and Lucy's class trips and then we went as a family that weekend.  I'm all pumpkin patched out until next October.   

Charlie checking out the Farmall at the patch,

Lucy checking out the teeter-totter.

Charlie (in his daycare bright orange shirt so that no one was lost...something that I appreciated as a chaperone) feeding the goats,

BJ helping Lucy enjoy the teeter totter with Charlie without flying off into the sky.

Silly times with each other.

So happy to find a feather - much more exciting than a pumpkin!

October was fun, but November was even better.

September



September was pretty low-key, but we soaked in some end-of-summer fun by going to Adventureland for the day.  Confession, I purchased discounted tickets through work back in May and when I finally found them in my  "junk" drawer, I realized that there was one weekend before Adventureland closed for the season.  The bummer was that BJ was out of town, but I'll remember that next year and let him take the kids by himself :). 

 

It turns out that September was an awesome time to go to the amusement park.  There weren't any crowds, and except for a little rain shower, the day was close to perfect.

 

Genuine smiles while waiting for our train ride.

 

Enjoying the carousel...

Waiting out the rain while Charlie searched for the hidden treasure on the Adventureland map - we never found the actual treasure, but I found a Diet Coke for me and ice cream for the kids, so pretty much our version of a treasure.

Charlie was a pretty good big brother to ride some of the "baby" rides with Lucy.  In turn, Lucy was pretty patient while Charlie rode a few rides that she wasn't able to...admittedly, I'm not sure that she will ever be tall enough to ride most rides because she is so short.

It's no secret that I'm technologically-challenged.  While waiting on the giant ferris wheel to start, I learned how to take a selfie.  I never knew that you were able to "reverse" the view from your cell phone.  All this time I wondered how people were able to take selfies.  Mystery solved but I still think that most selfies are silly.

Anywho, a post-rain selfie.   

We saw Bernie, the Adventureland mascot, a few times throughout the day and finally captured a photo. 

At the end of the month, BJ and I headed to Kansas City for the Chiefs-Patriots game.  I was able to see some old friends from work during the day and meet Catherine and Nick's beautiful and sweet daughter Claire before the game.  The company, weather and company were all great - a really fun and quick night away. 

My friend Betsy (in the unfortunate Patriots attaire) was a lot of talk before the game . She was pretty quiet the rest of the night :).  As always, it was great to see Catherine, Nick and Gavin.

I proudly showed off my selfie-taking ability.  I don't think that anyone believed me that I just learned how to do this.  Anywho, see the gap between Nick and Gavin?  That is where BJ was supposed to be, but we couldn't find him and time was of the essence for the selfie  [I promise to never write the word "selfie" again on the blog, I've annoyed myself.]

Happy fall y'all!