Birthday, Birthday, Birthday

Wow...Brookston sure did get to celebrate his 4th birthday. Over and over and over again!

First, it was his birthday party at "the jumpy place"....

He's in the turquoise blue shirt, there's a group of them doing the hokey pokey in the middle, following the 2 party coaches in the neon green shirts! :)

Nana had Sutton while he napped. He took a great nap during the party!

The awesome chair for the birthday boy to open presents!

Watching the opening of presents!

Papa and Sutton during the party

Opening more presents

The cake

Another view of the cake. Brookston wanted a racetrack with Lightning McQueen, The King AND Chick Hicks. This was my first "free handed" cake. My others were always done by a shaped pan. So, I was pretty pleased with the outcome! And of course most importantly, Brookston loved it!

Then there was his actual birthday.

Presents at home!

Sutton really liked the balloon!

Brookston took cupcakes, cookies, juice and treat bags to school!

He only stayed at school until right before lunch. We took him out to lunch and sang to him before eating bagel pizza!

The went to Chuck E Cheese that night!

We sang to him again...and again in PIZZA! My oh my, lucky 4 year old, right???

And do you notice that sign behind Brookston's head in the picture above. It says "follow me for Free Tickets". Ummmm, yeah, the kids had a blast, but you'll see below the tickets...

First it was dancing and cheering with Chuck E

Then there were tickets....all S-I-N-G-L-E tickets! I was joking with the woman that these were all the tickets they didn't want to deal with...she admitted that yes, they were!

Because we had to put each one individually into the ticket counter! Don't get me wrong, it was awesome to get hundreds of tickets...but OH MY!!!! It was a long, long LONG process!

The evening wraps up for this lucky little 4 year old! It's hard to believe it's been 4 years. Four wonderful years! Happy Birthday Brookston!

Nana and Papa visit

Nana and Papa came to town for Brookston's birthday and party. And of course we had lots of other fun while they were here. These are the pictures from their visit, non birthday related.

Nana painted Kaisley's toes (this was a first for her!)

The kids enjoying a new park

Papa and Kaisley at the park

Nana and Sutton at the park

Sutton loving the fresh air

Kaisley got pigtails every day, done by Nana!

We went to Brookston's soccer practice and the weekly dinner out after practice with friends from the team. It was Nana & Papa's anniversary, but evening practice means we need something quick for dinner. So they celebrated their anniversary at a pizza buffet, they're such troopers! :)

Then there was the actual game! Go Yellow Jackets!

Kaisley got new dresses. The pigtails, bows, dress, and shoes...she was LOVING life! Twirling in her dress, bobbing her hair, tapping her shoes! :)

Nana, Papa, Brookston & Kaisley went to see "Rio" (the movie)

We went to Kaisley's Little Gym class

Sutton enjoyed Little Gym too!

Quick recap

I got a little behind in April, so here's a quick recap of the second half of April.

There was a field trip to the LSU farm. I was very sad to not be able to go, but I didn't think I'd be very helpful with a 5 month old and 2 year old in tow. Luckily, the mom that was in charge of Brookston sent me about 12 pictures, so I got to see all about their day. The recap was, the kids had a blast and the highlights....they got to see the cow poop and then later they got to eat ice cream. Talk about 3 & 4 year olds perfect day! Ha!

Throughout the week they talked about bike safety. Then that Friday they had a trike-a-thon to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

Their school had a family fun day...I was rather impressed. Each classroom did a booth, along with a jumper, a fire truck, a boat, a cop, and a few other fun things. Our kids had a great time!


We had an Easter Egg hunt and social with our Sunday school group.

Brookston had an Easter Egg hunt at school!

Then on Easter morning the kids followed my childhood tradition of hunting jellybeans in the house...

Followed by enjoying their Easter baskets full of goodies!

Easter afternoon was a crawfish boil at Grandpa's house

Cousins

Kaisley on the final hunt of the season

Brookston taking advantage of the eggs that led him up a slide on his hunt

And of course our precious boy the day he turned 5 months old!

Next up: Pictures from Nana and Papa's visit, Brookston's party & birthday!

Mother's Day at school

This morning the Moms at Brookston's school were invited for breakfast. In addition to breakfast we received a little flower arrangement, and some homemade cards along with a printed card of "one thing I love about my Mom" and "How much I love my Mom". Brookston's responses:
One thing I love about my Mom:
Making cakes together
How much I love my Mom:
8 long

Ms. Katie (his teacher) explained to me the "8 long" came from his showing Ms. Katie how he loved me "this much", as he stretched his arms out from end to end. Ms. Katie asked if he could put it into words, so he went up one arm and down the other...1(fingers), 2 (wrist), 3 (elbow), 4 (shoulder), then down the other arm. So he decided that was 8 long! Love it!!!

Okay, this is an email from my phone, let see if it will post my picture??

Family Easter Pictures

I have a number of posts I've been wanting to make, but things seem to have gotten a little chaotic lately...so, hopefully posts will be coming soon about Brookston's trike-a-thon at school, his first school field trip, their Easter egg hunt, Easter, and so on. But for now, I at the very least have a new family picture. I decided it was waaaaay past time to update the picture at the top of the blog. And while this pictures isn't the best (poor Sutton isn't even looking), the previous picture was from LAST Easter and baby Sutton wasn't but the size of a lima bean! So...here's our family...Easter, 2011!

Boots, dos, tres

Dora (and boots) must have something to do with Kaisley telling me, "I'm counting! It's Spanish! Boots, dos, tres!"

Then she tells me she learned it in school. (She doesn't go to school!)

We were however talking about Brookston having Spanish at school. But we weren't saying numbers at all. We were only talking about "transportation".

Too funny that it's Boots though. When I said uno, dos, tres. She repeated, "boots, dos, tres, it's Spanish!"

Everyone wants a turn!!

It's been long overdue, but Sutton finally got to enjoy his exersaucer this week! He really loves it, afterall, he's plenty strong to hang out in it and can reach for his toys...so, he's doing great!

And he of course loves when he gets attention from his siblings!

But, we can't pull out a new "toy", without big brother....

and big sister trying it out too!!!

3-4 year old soccer

Brookston started soccer with the YMCA this spring. SO CUTE to watch 3 & 4 year olds playing soccer. It's actually a lot more "organized" than I thought it would be. Of course the goal is only to kick the ball. There are no positions and there's barely an understanding of not stealing it from your own team for some kids. Or, mine we need to work on, don't just let the other team pass you by! As sweet as it is to see, this isn't a game of taking turns! :)

For the first game, Brookston was a part of the coin toss!

One of his best friend's from school was on the other team

I find this picture hilarious...to me it looks like all of the kids are just looking at the ball, not a single one appears to be going for it!

Before the second game, we had team pictures...here they are, in all their cuteness!

My soccer playing boy!

And here he is in action!

Room transitions

Until recently Sutton was perfectly happy in our room and it was going well. Mostly because he was not a fan of sleeping in long stretches, so mommy liked having him right there! But a couple weeks ago, not only was he not sleeping in long stretches, he just plain old wasn't sleeping!

Something needed to change because mama was lucky to get 3-4 hours of sleep, broken up 6-8 times in an 8 hour stretch. So after 2 weeks of that, we decided to make the big room transition!

So...here's Sutton happily wrapped like a burrito in his crib!

But, in order to get Sutton into the crib we had to get Kaisley into the BIG GIRL bed!!!!

And she's doing great!!! Not only is she in her big girl bed, but she's also in Brookston's room. Honestly, this was a huge, scary step for me. I pictured the worst and what do you know, it's been amazingly perfect. (Knock on wood!) They've shared their room all week and so far, they've only needed a few gentle reminders that it was time for bed, not play!