You see, Sunday was Grandad’s birthday. We had planned to go out to lunch with him & Grammy, but Grammy hadn’t been feeling well. Grammy is battling ovarian cancer (you can read about it here) and her new meds were giving her some … shall we say .. intestinal issues. When I spoke to Grandad Sat evening, he said she wasn’t feeling well enough to make lunch.
So.. Sunday morning, as we are in the car, we tell the kids about Grandad’s birthday and how we are going out to lunch after church. They ask if Grammy is coming and I say, “No, Grammy is sick.” We’ve now arrived at church and are trying to get everyone in the door. Silas says, “I want to pray for Gwammy.” And he proceeds to put his little hands together and bow his head in the back of the minivan. Sweet boy! He looks a little unsure what to say so I give him some words, which he then prays, “Dear God, Pwease help Gwammy feel better so she won’t be so sick. Amen.”
Wesley also wants to pray for Grammy, and decides to hop out of the minivan and runs the opposite direction of the church doors towards some bushes. We say, “What are you doing?!?” She says, “I’m going off by myself to pray.” Guess somebody has been listening to her Bible stories. She puts her hands together and says a little prayer and then comes skipping back.
We go to church and I was delighted to see Grammy in the pew with Grandad! She was feeling better and able to join us for lunch. She’s still got some issues, but it was great that she could join us and wonderful for the kids to see her after praying for her.
We thank God for Grammy and are grateful that we got to enjoy an afternoon with her and Grandad.
Happy Birthday Grandad!
All week, Wes & Si have been taking swimming lessons. Wesley took some last year, but this was Silas’ first time. She loved them and did great, he was a bit more tentative. See for yourself:
Today was the last day, so Daddy came to watch too, along with cousin Owen.
Wesley has also had fun playing in the pool after lessons. This is her best buddy C. and her big sister:
So, I like themed birthday parties. We’ve done construction, butterflies, ladybugs, and monkeys in the past. I’m not big on commercial themed parties (ala Disney Princesses or Dora, etc.) and I like the challenge of using my creativity to come up with fun tie-ins to theme. With that in mind, I’m sharing the following, in case it helps anyone else out there looking for frog party ideas.
Usually I start my party planning by searching the web to see what others have done. Some of my favorite sources are usually: Family Fun and Coolest Kid Birthdays. Sometimes I find inspiration on Martha’s site too (tho she’s usually too complicated for my taste).
Now that I’ve armed you with the knowledge that none of my ideas are original, let me share what we did for our party.
We celebrated Silas’ 3rd birthday today with a Frog Party. They were calling for chance of thunderstorms and we were planning a backyard BBQ, so I was worried. But, praise the Lord, the weather held and we had a great time! It was attended by family and friends from the neighborhood, church, and preschool. I had a lot of fun planning it, so it was fun to see it come to fruition. I’ll save all the juicy details about the making of a frog party in another post.
For now, enjoy the pics via the slideshow below, or check out the birthday album.
DON’T try and make 2 batches of frosting when your mixer is only big enough for one. For the record, 6 cups of frosting do NOT fit in a 5 quart mixer (unless you like your kitchen to be dusted in confectioner sugar).
DO marry a man who will stay up til midnight and help you ice and pipe cupcakes and birthday cake, even tho he thinks the whole thing is “a bit much.”
Wesley & I were out the door to a birthday party when I looked back and saw my two men vacuuming in tandem.
Party preparations are underway here for the Frog Extravaganza, which I will chronicle after the birthday bash.
Aren’t I lucky to have such dedicated workers? I say that jokingly, but truly, Silas really is a hard worker, just like his Daddy. (Wesley seems to have inherited the slacker gene from her mama). The other day, I opened the dishwasher, with plans to unload it, but got sidetracked with something else. Silas spied the silverware basket and came over and wrestled it out of it’s spot and carried it over to the silverware drawer and proceeded to put things away, unasked. You can be sure we praised the heck out of that behavior and prayed it will continue for another 15+ years!
Poor ole Logan, all he ever hears from me is “Drop that Logan!” or “Logan drop!”
You see, he’s a bird dog and he’s “mouthy”. As a result, whenever anyone enters our home (friend, foe, or family), he immediately finds something to pick up with his mouth and proceeds to wiggle around said person for about 5 minutes.
He has been constantly grabbing the kids stuffed animals or toys and is constantly being told to leave them alone. I finally realized the reason he always grabs the kids toys is because he no longer has any toys to call his own. So today, at Tar-jay, we picked out a few new “lovies” for Logan. I’m sure they will be destroyed in less than a week, but for now, he’s “lovin it”.
(ignore the pants a certain son is flapping in the background)
Let me just say, nothing is more mortifying than receiving a call from your daughter’s preschool teacher that goes like this,
“Hi, this X from Wesley’s preschool. I .. um … did you know she didn’t wear any underwear today?”
Oh no! This is not good news, especially considering my DD (darling daughter) wore a skirt today. The kind with no built-in shorts or liner.
Apparently this revelation occurred during circle time, when Wesley lifted the hem of her dress to nibble on it or something. Zoiks! Thankfully the teacher had a spare pair to dress her in for the rest of the day.
It seems my daughter has a growing interest in skirts and a waning interest in underwear. We had a little talk about it so hopefully she got the message (and I will be doing a more thorough check before we leave the house!)
Speaking of underwear…
Silas is .. I would say 90% potty trained. He pees and poos on the potty pretty consistently, not withstanding the occasional accident. He *usually* wakes up dry from naps and bedtime, but we still keep some pull-ups on hand for bedtime.
Lately, however, he has been preferring to wear pull-ups instead of his underwear. I am not happy about this b/c I think pull-ups make it too easy to fail. At first, I thought Mike was dressing him in pull-ups and I said, “It’s like handing a kid a condom and telling him to not have sex.”
Then, this morning, I was overseeing the dressing of the children and realized it was Silas who was insisting on the pull-up. I tried to talk him into “big boy underwear”, but he was having none of it. Finally, in desperation, I said, “Would you like to wear some of Wesley’s underwear?” She was most agreeable to share. “Yeah, Silas, you can wear some of mine!”. He thought that was a good idea and readily agreed.
So today, my boy AND my girl were decked out in “big girl” underwear.
And thankfully, everyone stayed dry and everyone’s private parts stayed private.
