Mikey's 5th Birthday!

Oh. My.Word. I don't know that more fun was had by a five year old anywhere in the land on his special day. We started out with Dunkin Donuts and unwrapping gifts. Lunch was Chuck-E-Cheese, with pizza & games. Then, after dinner, we sang the birthday song by candle light. 

In previous years, we kind of did everything all at once, but it sure was fun stretching out the festivities over the whole day!

And, as for the 5 year old in question, most of the day involved looks of disbelief between his father and I. When did our chubby monkey get so grown up? We knew this would happen, but it kind of snuck up on us! He is so smart, and (most of the time) very sweet and patient with his little brother. They play together (most of the time) very nicely, and he just crushes our souls with his overwhelming sweetness. We are so lucky to have our Mikey!

Can't believe we'll have a kindergartner on our hands in just a few short months!!

Christmas

Christmas was good. This year, I really tried to focus on keeping things SANE (in regards to gifts for the boys). The sheer amount of "stuff" the boys had accumulated since moving to SC was staggering. We trashed/donated SO much 2 years ago, and all of a sudden the play room was full of totes brimming with plastic that the boys rarely played with. They would dump everything all over the floor in pursuit of one specific item, find they no longer had any room to play in, and would move base to "fort kitchen table." Then, getting them to clean up the disaster they had left behind was excruciating (for them and me) and inevitably led to time outs, and any toy I had to clean up was stashed in a closet.

It had gotten to the point that there were more toys hiding in closets then residing in the playroom. And I noticed something. The less crap that lived in the playroom, the happier the boys were to play with what was available, for longer. Go figure. The new plan is to tear through all the toys in hiding with great discrimination, and donate the bulk of it. Knowing we wanted to do that, we made sure to let inquiring relatives know that we were keeping it simple this Christmas. For the most part, it went very well! The boys got three things each from Santa (something to read, something to wear and something to play with), and then a handful of toys/books/puzzles from extended family.

Next year, I'm going to make it a point to do  more handmade gift giving (instead of the last minute amazon dash I pulled this year).

Besides all that, this year was special because Aunt Sarah brought home her special fella, and we all got to spend Christmas morning opening gifts and eating a ridiculous breakfast together. It was lovely.

And some of the awesomeness we scored for Christmas!

On the 1st Day of Christmas...

Hey Party People! I'm alive! Really!

Sorry for the blogging hiatus, but I've been really busy wallowing in the misery of first trimester crapiness. It just doesn't leave a lot of room for the other things in my life. Fortunately for my audience, I'm 10 weeks along, and supposedly this non-stop dull queasiness will ease up here shortly. In my defense, I went back through the archives of this blog, and not in one place did I utter a complaint about "morning" sickness... or nausea for that matter. I've read that the likely cause of the problem this time around is the sharp increase in estrogen from the second set of girl parts in my uterus. I'm pretty sure that is based in science, and not old wives tales, lol. Interestingly enough, the other authorities on the gender subject (babyman.net and the Chinese gender calendar) both proclaim that I'm having a girl as well. I suppose I shall know definitively in around 2 months.

But anyway - back to the story. Yesterday was the first day of December, and we celebrated by decking the halls, the walls, the counters, and of course, the rain gutters. We also allowed the boys to gallop around wildly outdoors for the majority of their day, which I believe contributed to their passing out upon their heads hitting the pillows lastnight, as well as them sleeping in past 7am this morning. Love!

Here are a few shots from our day yesterday!