Sally Says

Charlie's Long-Overdue Birthday Post

Charlie is a 5-year-old!  He had more than a week of birthday celebrations, and enjoyed every minute of it.  I think Charlie is my kindred-spirit when it comes to birthdays.  We LOVE making a big deal out of our own birthdays!  Tommy and David start feeling a bit embarassed and sheepish if others make too much of a bid deal over their birthdays, but Charlie and I don't!

This year...

• Charlie got to open his present from Grammy Nancy and Grandpa Wayne early
• He had a pajama/movie party with Grammy the weekend before his birthday
• Daddy stayed home the morning of his birthday, and we all had birthday pancakes and watched Charlie open family presents before school
• I went to school with Charlie on his birthday.  We brought cupcakes for the class, and then Charlie came home early with me (because he was recovering from a cold) and got to play video games all afternoon.
• We had a birthday dinner out  that same day at "The Pizza Place With Ms. Pacman."
• His birthday party for friends was at our house on the Saturday after his birthday.
• He went to Target with David and Tommy the day after his birthday.  They all pooled their allowances, lunch money, birthday money and assorted gift cards and managed to come up with enough to buy themselves a Kinect for our XBox.  Actually, they were $2 short, but I made up the difference even though it went against the fiscal-responsibility teacher who lives in my head.
• Finally, he's been building the Lego sets and playing the video games that he got for his birthday all week. 

And now for the pictures...

A Self Portrait (taken of himself with my phone)

Opening presents super-early the morning of his birthday.  Look at how long his arms are getting!

Birthday pancakes

He was so excited to get two Ninjago sets for his birthday.  He and Tommy made a big display of their entire collection on the fireplace for his birthday party.

It was a beautiful day, so the kids stayed outside for most of the party.  They came inside to play the Lego games that my three big-kid helpers (Tommy, Claudia & Vivien) coordinated for them, but then they ran back outside to enjoy the sunshine.  We even ate the snacks and Baskin-Robin's ice cream cake outside.

They came back in for present opening, but then ran back outside again!  It was probably the easiest birthday party we've ever had, making me envious of all those spring, summer and fall birthdays that can just be planned as outside parties.

Hooray for Charlie!

Basketball Cutie

Isn't he cute?  Tommy's really been enjoying basketball this winter.  He has one game left and his kind and supportive teammates have decided that their collective goal is to set up a scoring opportunity for Tommy.  He's a little freaked out by their efforts.  He's perfectly happy running from one end of the court to the other, occasionally adding a modern-dance twirl for effect, and handling the ball as little as possible.  I can honestly say he's had great fun and that this non-competitive, churchy league was the best possible introduction for him.

At the very least, he will now have some incentive to spend time dribbling and shooting hoops with David at the park.  I think we should also start watching a bit of basketball on TV.  There was a game on the TV at the pizza place we went to last night and the boys thought it was football.  Um.  No.  That's basketball...the game you've been playing for three months.

Sometimes it's comforting to know that one of them takes after me.

(By the way, I do realize that yesterday was Charlie's birthday.  I'll do a post about his birthday after his party on Saturday.)

Untimely

It snowed last week.  As usual, the snow did not last.  That means these pictures are completely irrelevant...but they're still cute.

My car is cooler than your car

Matching Fuzzy Clothes

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope there's as much love in your house as there is in mine.

And that you also have parfaits.  Everybody loves parfaits.

 

What are our weekends made of?

Neverending jokes, of the boys-under-ten variety...

Guess what?

Chicken butt!

Guess who?

Chicken poo!

Guess where?

In your hair!

Everybody works on something...

Scenario One: Tommy wrote thank you notes, Charlie worked on valentines, David did Work-work, and I put away clean dishes, did some dinner prep, and helped Charlie.

Scenario Two: David cleaned the fishtanks with Charlie's help, Tommy practiced piano, and I worked on the week's menu and grocery list.

Outings and activities...

Tommy had a big series of tests for the gifted program Saturday morning, and qualified for the program with flying colors.  He got 100% on one of the critical thinking tests and 99% on the math test.  The four different tests were supposed to take three hours, but he finished in 75 minutes, so he was very excited to have time to go to dance.  He danced while Charlie and David did Tae Kwon Do.  I read while waiting for everyone to finish.

Everyone relaxes...

Charlie asks every day "when is the weekend?" because he knows he only gets to play video games on the weekend.  There would be mutiny if we didn't let them play video games on the weekend.  Therefore, we all played video games for a few hours this morning, lounging around in our pajamas and eating pancakes until 10 am.  We also spent a lot of time just playing without screens.  Tommy tried out his new Phineas and Ferb Drawing Book and did a big Lego set that he got for his birthday.  Charlie ran around and played with sticks...or something...I'm never quite sure what Charlie is doing when he's playing.

A bit of a treat for everyone...

David brought us all Valentine's Day chocolates when he came home from work Friday evening.  Also, the boys' beloved babysitter is coming this afternoon.  David and I are going to go talk to the mattress people (no, we haven't yet concluded the New Mattress Saga) and then go out for a Valentine's Day dinner.  The boys are planning to play games with Ms. F., eat roasted chicken, roasted beets, and freshly baked buns for dinner, and then wind down the evening by watching Lady and the Tramp with her.

And that's what our weekends are made of.

Charlie says

Charlie wanted me to show you his new boots. He also wanted me to tell you that this is the BEST afternoon because he's getting to have Starbucks lemon pound cake for a snack, we're buying new UNO cards because somebody lost all the wild cards out of our deck, and he gets to buy new pants because he's grown. Also, "tell them I'm skinny-butt strong." I have no idea what that means.

Confessions

1.  I vacuumed on my birthday.  In my defense, my birthday present from David was a new vacuum, and it is full of the awesome.  Vacuuming with a GIFT totally cancels out the negative connotations of doing housework on my birthday.

As an added bonus, the new vacuum is very lightweight, so I can now tell the boys to "go vacuum up the sand that you just dumped out of your shoes" instead of doing the work myself.  Score!

2.  I have started playing Words With Friends (like Scrabble) with lots of different friends on my phone.  I think I am currently playing 18 games.  This is not the confession.  If I've been playing against you, then you may have noticed that I play more high-scoring words late at night.  This goes against all logic, as it is commonly known that I turn into a pumpkin after 8 pm.  You should know that it wasn't me.  David wants to play too!  I'm the mediocre player who plays during the day, and David is the high scoring player who plays at night.  He's much better at that game than I am.  He does have a smart phone for work now, but all apps are absolutely forbidden.  You don't mind letting David play too, do you?  I might even occasionally win with his help.

3.  Speaking of phones and apps.  I must confess that I'm a bit of a hypocrite.  I mentally rolled my eyes when Cindy's kids got their own iPad Touches for Christmas this year.  (Sorry Cindy!)  Then I got my phone, and realized how many cool and wonderful apps there are for kids out there.  Interactive books!  Math games!  Phonics games!  National Geographic puzzles!  Photo mosaics from the American Museum of Natural History!  Angry Biiiiiirds!  Then my mom offered to give her hand-me-down droid-based Galaxy Tablet to us.  The boys spent the early Sunday morning hours playing on my phone and the tablet while David and I sleep in.  I've been converted.  I'm probably going to get tired of sharing my phone, and many of the best apps aren't available on the  tablet, so I suspect we'll be looking into getting the boys their own iProducts next Christmas.

4.  We will probably be out shopping this afternoon instead of watching the Super Bowl.  I think Tommy might want to see a bit of it, just to see what all the fuss is about, and so he can speak knowledgeably about it on the playground tomorrow.  However, we have a ton of gift cards to spend.  The boys still have two big ones from Christmas that they need to spend, and Tommy got SIX gift cards as birthday presents.  I make no apologies for choosing shopping over football.  Besides, it's not like we'll be spending the grocery money.