Stretch Marks?!

A few weeks ago, I noticed some reddish horizontal marks on Kendall's lower to mid-back, around his spine. I asked him what happened and he thought maybe they were scratches or something. Last night, I noticed them again and thought aloud, "Could those be stretch marks?" He went and looked in the mirror and said that's what he thought they were--he said his friend has a ton of them. I've never seen stretch marks around someone's spine before. I guess that he grew so fast in such a short time that he got them. I wonder if they'll ever go away...

Happy 9th Birthday, Jarren!!

Yesterday was Jarren's 9th birthday. He was soooo excited!! He was very particular in what he wanted--he had me take him to the store a few times in the month before his big day, pointing out different things that he wanted. Then he told me that he wanted a few surprises too.

Popping balloons and reading the clues to find the gifts.

Silly gifts.

Yikes. I thought it was kind of funny---he had a lot of packages, but they were things like new socks, a new water bottle, a new card game, new shorts, a new t-shirt, etc. He was wondering what was going on.
 Then he got some new Beyblades and some accessories for them and a Perplexus--a fun game.

See his face? He was sooo excited to finally get something he really wanted.

Beyblades!!

More Beyblades!!

He was thrilled!!! He was also particular in his cake--he wanted a Reese's cake, but that's what Kristen had, so we had to change it up so he wasn't copying (her words, not mine). We made a peanut butter cake with a peanut butter filling and then topped with with fudge frosting and chopped up Reese's peanut butter cups. It was way good and probably sooooo fattening!

Yummy Reese's cake!

Gifts!!

All in all, his day was great and he was a very happy (but tired) kid!!! I sure do love him! Happy Birthday, Jarren!!!

The Farm

Feeding the ducks some grain

Mother goose and baby goslings

Two cute kids!

The favorite--one of the many horses

Cute, but stinky, pink pig

A rainy, fun day

Jenna's Kindergarten class went on a field trip to a local historical farm yesterday. I was lucky enough to go along. Enough parents volunteered to go that each parent only had 2-3 kids to be in charge of. Jenna's buddy was a girl from the morning class (she's afternoon), so we didn't know her. We got to explore and then had a tour (complete with a wagon ride) and then had lunch. She's sold---she definitely wants to move to a farm now!!

Flashback Babies

I've been wanting to put black and white pictures up over the downstairs mantle of my babies (haha) since we finished the basement. I finally got around to doing it this week! Wow--what flashbacks. It's crazy to see how they've grown up--still looking like them, but older. Sooo cute. My brother took the one of Jenna when she was about 2...or was it 3? I decided that I wanted them to all be about 2 or 3 years old in their pictures.

Kendall--almost 3

Kristen--just over 2

Jarren--about 2 1/2

Jenna--2 1/2

Two Weekends

This is what a scout looks like by the end of two weekends in a row of camping. Kendall was sooo tired out that he just crashed (and not even all the way on the couch!) and it was hard to get him to wake up enough to go to bed. :)

200 Years Too Late!

Profile

 I think in some ways, I was maybe born 200 years too late. I love the Regency Period (think Pride and Prejudice--1800-1820). My two friends met an author at a book signing who writes books set in the Regency Period that we love. When the author mentioned that she has numerous dresses from the period that she's recreated, my one friend said that we should do a party at one of our book clubs. That lead to an invitation to this author's annual Jane Austen Tea Party. The four of us set to work, sewing fancy dresses and getting sooo excited for this big event. We thought there would be others there like us, but no. It was the four of us and about 12-15 AUTHORS!! I was almost star struck--because I love to read and have read almost all of these authors books! Wow. It was sooooooo much fun. We took pictures, mingled, had musical selections, and a real little tea party with our own antique tea cups that we each brought--herbal tea and hot chocolate; cucumber sandwiches; bite-sized truffles, cookies, etc; berries and chocolate covered nuts. Afterwards, my three friends and I did our own photo shoot close to home. We had a blast!!! We're already talking about next year. :)

Front view

Mid-twirl

Back view

Opposites

Jarren has a really, really good friend, Noah. They have been friends since Kindergarten and are in the same class together this year. They get along so well and I think it's because they are total opposites. They do have some things in common--Mario, tag, etc to name a few. But where Jarren is soooo loud and talks soooo much, Noah is the total opposite. He doesn't talk--at all! He's in therapy to help him, so he's actually said a few words to Jarren lately, but I think one reason they get along so well is Jarren can be as loud as he wants and talk and talk and talk to his heart's content and no one interrupts him or stops him. And Noah's as happy as can be because he doesn't have to say a word. They sure do have fun together.

Happy 6th Birthday, Jenna!!

Happy 6th Birthday, Jenna!!!

 Jenna's 6th birthday was yesterday. The poor girl has been counting down the days for months now! She was soooo excited and then didn't even get to open any gifts until about 7 pm (between everyone's school,work, and Jarren's scouts (they went on a nature walk) schedules, it was crazy). I asked her what kind of cake she wanted and she said, "Vanilla!! And I want the bread part vanilla too." Hmmm....since when is cake just frosting? She wanted me to decorated it with a frosting Littlest Pet Shop horse. Uh, yeah. Me--the most artistic mom in the world--NOT! I tried. 

LPS Horse Cake

She looked at it and said, "Mom, that's pretty nice. But maybe we should have had Dad do it." Hahahaha!!! She wanted a turkey dinner, but then changed her mind and decided on omelets for dinner. She LOVES scout omelets (in a bag). She got a lot of LPS (Littlest Pet Shops) and animals. 

The LPS collection she was dying to have!

Fun gifts.

 That's all she wanted. Of course, we did the balloon hunt to draw it out.

Popping balloons to get the clues.

Opening gifts.

  She was so excited to finally get her new birthday toys, that she didn't even want to eat cake and ice cream!! She really had a great day.

Blowing out the candles.

Having fun with her brother!!