Half way there...

Well, he's officially potty-trained, half-way at least!

While that probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense to some of you, to others you've been there! He's wearing his "unnerwears" every where- to the stores, school, zoo, pool, etc. He isn't having accidents. He's running to his potty and even going all by himself. Half-way there!

We are not changing wet diapers anymore. (Are you starting to get it yet?) However, we are still changing the bad stuff! Whenever it's time for that, he asks, "Am I wearing unnerwears?" To which I reply, "YES!" Then, he proceeds to get his pull-ups and refuse to use the potty!

So, as I said before, he's officially potty trained, but only half-way!

Any advice to get him all the way there? (I've already tried bribery and shameless begging- to no avail!

And since it's no fun to just read, here's a picture of my cutie! I had to crop it at his waist because he ran out from using the potty and forgot to get dressed below! I guess the half way thing is just his style!

I guess even Darth Vader himself has to pee sometimes!

A day in the mountains

After seeing beautiful photos on my friend's blog, we decided to head up to Burning Bear Creek. It's about an hour away and was rated as an easy hike for kids. We were hoping to see some of the beautiful fall leaves, but we were a little late as most had blown off. We did see a few. Even without the leaves, it was a beautiful hike along a creek and in and out of the trees. We hiked about an hour in and an hour out. The kids really liked our adventure. There was constant commentary on the cow poop that lined the path and at one point, we actually had to move out of the way for a small herd of cows! It was the closest my kids have been to cows before! We found a teepee and had to explore. Took at snack break by the river and the kids enjoyed throwing sticks and rocks. All in all, I'm glad we copied our friends and spent the day in the fresh fall air! We'll be doing this more often for sure!

At the trailhead

 After about an hour in, I finally found my fall leaves!

The teepee we found

 Throwing sticks into the river.

 We explored a little waterfall. I'll have to admit that the little guy makes me a little nervous around water and rocks!

 Big brother took this!

One of the cows that crossed our path! 

6 going on 16!

This boy, this one here.....

is breaking my heart! He's growing up faster by the day.

I am not ready for all the changes and growing up that is happening each day around here! I'm used to picking his friends, knowing their parents, dropping him off (or staying!) for playdates with people I know well. I'm used to knowing many (probably too many) of the details of his day. I'm used to wishing I had a little more time to myself. 

But, as I sit here and write, this boy was picked up by a mom I barely know to play with a boy that I barely know at a house I have never been to before. It's killing me! But, he was so excited, so proud, so responsible (even packed himself a snack to take!) 

And, to top it off, he'd rather go to his friend's house than with me to the zoo tomorrow. What is happening?!?

He did make my heart smile when he told me he was "so lucky to come home every day for lunch and to be with me, instead of go to enrichment like the other kids." 

I guess I'll take him when I can get him! And, to be honest, I am proud of the boy he's becoming, proud of his reaching out and making friends, proud of his hard work learning at school and proud of the caring  brother and son he is.

Pictures Galore!

Here are a few of my favorites from my attempt to get updated photos. I didn't intend to do family ones, but we set up the timer and shot a few anyways! We are having a friend/photographer do some family ones in a couple of weeks. These were cute enough though!

Little Brother had just fallen and scraped his knee- thus, the weird pose in the photo above!

Love this one!

One of my faves!

(Family- if you want any copies, let me know what size and which photo. I'll be happy to order some for you! I already have some printed and ready to hang around here!

Preview

This is a quick preview of a "photoshoot" I did with the boys tonight! More to come later this week...

"See" 3PO and a funny cake story...

This really shouldn't be another Star Wars Post, but I couldn't help but share what little brother said to make us all laugh today.  Big brother was doing his "Sight Words Flashcards" and correctly read "See" and little brother immediately said "3-P-O". Sometimes he's hilarious without even trying!

In other news, I got a new lens for my camera. It's called a "nifty fifty". Anyways, it's a low cost fun little lens that can get up close and give those fun blurry backgrounds. Here's a trial I did of little brother the other night while resting from riding his bike...

I did a little editing. Here was the original...

Besides removing the leaves from his face, you can probably see a difference in the tone of his skin. I warmed it up, softened the skin in some areas, and sharpened his eyes and lips and hair. I don't edit all my photos, but this one was way better for doing a quick edit. Thought I'd share...

I promised a quick story about the Death Star Cake from last weekend's Star Wars Bash. So, here goes! 

I woke up was awakened by a sweet little boy before the sun rose. By 6:30am, I had already baked 1/2 of the cake. Feeling pretty productive, you know! Took big brother to school, rushed home to work on the surprise bedroom for the few hours I had. I put little brother on my bed to watch a show (well, a few shows). I was amazed at how good he was while I was preoccupied with my project. About 5 minutes before we had to leave to pick up brother from school, he came in, mouth full of chocolate, mumbling "I found birthday treats". I said calmly, "Is that Brother's birthday cake?" 

(Okay- I freaked out- not really a time of calmness!)

To which he cried and screamed and dripped chocolate saliva-covered chunks all over my bathroom. After getting him cleaned up, we came downstairs to leave and I found this:

and this:

and many more crumbs mashed into chairs, couches, and carpeting. We ran out the door and headed straight to Chick-fil-A for lunch. I couldn't bare another mess. Once I got home and could see the humor in it all, I snapped the above pictures. If only I'd seen the humor sooner, I could have shared the chocolate mess that occurred upstairs! 

It's a good thing he's so cute!

This was taken helping me bake the new cake!

So, lesson learned, TV is not a good babysitter!

Happy 6th Star Wars Birthday!

It took a couple of days to recover, but here are the photos from the big day on Saturday.

It turned out to be a great day and I think the kids all had a lot of fun! Until next year! 

This was the invite I made. I blurred out my personal info since this isn't a password-protected site!

It was nice for his birthday to fall on a weekend. He opened family gifts first thing in the morning and played until party time! The 2nd photo is showing off some karate moves after the party.

He started a tae-kwan-do class with Kevin, too. He was the only student this week and got a lot of attention. So far, he likes it. We thought it might be a good intro to see if he wants to try it out.

The party clan!

Daddy was a good sport and let the boys fight off Darth Vader. It got out of hand quickly. Good thing these were inflatable swords!

This pretty much sums up the party. Lots of little boys dualing with their light sabers. 

More party fun. The pinata was a bummer. It cracked after one small hit from the birthday boy. Nobody else even had a chance.

Little brother was intimidated by the big boys, but found some fun of his own. A few Star Wars gummy snacks always cheer him up!

The death star cake Kevin and I "created". Not amazing, but did the trick! A story to go along with this later in the week!

Lots of fun gifts and generous friends. 

If you're interested in more details- see below. If not, thanks for all you did to make his day so special! Once I get the house back in order from a couple of weeks of neglect, we'll be getting our official thank-you notes out!

Inflatable Lightsabers from Ebay

The party spread

Star Wars gummies and the goodies the kids left with (a personalized Star Wars notebook, chocolate covered pretzel "lightsabers", and candy from the lame pinata!

An example of the notebooks. Each one was a little different, but same idea!

Had the idea for edible lightsabers. We bought blue and red chocolate (Wilton) and melted them. Dipped in our long pretzel sticks. Wrapped the end in foil and there they were! Tasty too!

This was a first ever in the 15 years I've known this man! Decorating cookies. Had to prove it with a picture. He did all the stormtroopers and darth vaders. Pretty good! I told him he could be the baker over at King Soopers.  :-)

A close up of the cookies. (Star Wars cookie cutters are from Williams Sonoma)

A banner I made to string along the awning of the shelter. Just a bunch of star wars papers strung up on some rope- but turned out cute!

It was fun to see the boys having so much fun. Until next year. I wonder what the theme will be for number 7?