The cake

Definitely not my best cake effort.  The cake and frosting are all ok, but all of the tubes of colored frosting I had for writing were too hard, even after lots and lots of kneading, that I had to resort to sprinkles.  It was very hard to aim them.  Oh well, it'll still taste the same and luckily, kids aren't as discriminating as us adults!!

Caleb's birthday lunch - complete with crown

The crown came from preschool yesterday, where he refused to wear it.  Today, though, he is getting a real kick out of it, especially here at lunch.  

Caleb is trying to eat his strawberries without laughing at me and blowing them out his nose.

Sissy makes Caleb giggle.

Adjusting his royal crown.

Studying the truck stickers on the crown.  

He then discovered there are many ways to wear a crown!!

Open gym day for Molly

Molly loves her gymnastics class and about every month to six weeks, parents are allowed in the gym to see what they are working on.

Molly does her X and I (jumping jacks) and perfects her form.  (Molly is in the long sleeved black leotard)

After doing her straight jumps, Molly does an excellent 'frog it'.  It is sort of how you learn to stick a landing.
Running across the gym at full speed, up the ramp, and doing jumps into the foam pit.  
This was another dive in the foam pit, horrible lighting in the gym makes some pictures awful.
With help from the instructor, Molly does a forward flip over a huge foam octagon on the obstacle course.  

Birthday - early morning installment

This morning started off early, with Caleb opening a couple of presents with the other kids before Potter headed out to school.  He got a few new shirts for fall and winter, and then he opened a new Bob the Builder workbench that his siblings gave to him.  They had a great time playing, despite the fact that the drill doesn't work.  We'll head to Target later to get a new one, but they had such a good time wearing the goggles, using the flashlight, and pretending they were carpenters.  

No pic - more pee

I just have to say how well Caleb is doing with sitting on the big potty.  He LOVES to do this.  Tonight, he did a couple small pees, but then he did a BIG pee and earned his final pee pee prize.  Tomorrow there will be a trip to Target to get some more prizes for him.  While I don't think we are close to underwear, this is really important for him to be doing.  Yay Caleb!!!!!!!

Caleb's progress

This evening, of his own accord, Caleb willingly sat on the BIG BOY TOILET for about 10 minutes.  Over the course of the 10 minutes, he successfully had two separate pee occurrences, of which we were all totally proud!!  Potter was taking the photos while I was holding onto him, to prevent him from falling into the toilet and thus, removing all progress of sitting on the big toilet.   He very reluctantly got off to get into the tub.  I am hoping that he will get on again soon.

Kids are back in school

The kids are back in school now, Potter in 3rd grade and Molly and Caleb both in preschool.  My opportunity for candid kid shots is now very limited.  Hence, you don't see too much on the blog.  I am sure that one of my kids will bring home a Picasso soon that they have done at school, and that, my friends, will grace these pages.  Until then, it will be radio silence.  Or something like that.  

Caleb and Molly's first day of preschool

Today was the first day of preschool for Caleb in the 2 year old class and Molly is now in the 3 year old class.  They were both very excited to get going this morning as evidenced by the photos.  Molly decided it would be a good thing as big sister to help me take Caleb to his class first.  Let's just say that Caleb had a bit (ahem) of a separation issue with Mom.  After a few minutes, Molly was impatient (rightly so) to get to her class, so we had to just leave Caleb with his teachers in a crying mess.  Molly happily went into her new classroom, prepared me a plastic food meal, and then didn't even really notice when I left.  I went back to Caleb's class and could hear him shrieking and wailing 'mama, mama, mama'.  I waited a little bit longer, he calmed down and I was able to leave.  I did get back early to pick him up and learned that other kids had been picked up MUCH earlier and that overall, he did ok, but he did start crying again the moment he saw me.  We talked at lunch and he, when asked, agreed that he would like to go back again.  We'll see what happens on Wednesday!  

Halloween mobiles

We made some Halloween mobiles this weekend since it was rainy, hot and humid and couldn't get outside to play.  The kids had a fun time decorating the ghosts, pumpkins and witches hats with stickers and markers.  

Caleb's mobile
Potter's mobile
Molly's mobile

Basement is open for the winter season

This past Saturday was spent cleaning up and putting away things in the basement, getting it ready for our hibernation down there all winter.   The kids were so excited about this, we ended up spending most of the weekend down there (that, and it was so insanely humid and hot here all weekend) and hanging out.  As you can see, they ate dinner at the bar, this time with Caleb being big enough for one of the bar stools and eating with the big kids.  He was in heaven!  They also had some time watching a movie and eating popcorn.  When we turn the lights all off, Molly declares "it is just like a movie theatre!"  

Potter and Molly in 'Trend'

The kids and I have been faithful pickers and weeders at the garden at Potter's school this summer.  One of the last times we went before school started, Potter's first grade teacher (who got the grant money to construct the garden) was there, took some pictures, and managed to get Potter and Molly into the Trend magazine, which is the publication for our school district that gets mailed to all residents.  They are having their 15 minutes of fame right now!!  

Not a good blogger lately

I have been slack lately with updating the blog.  I have a few things that I need to get posted up here that will end up not being quite so timely.  The little kids start preschool tomorrow, so I will have 2 1/2 hours to do whatever I want (which part of the time I am going out to breakfast with a friend) before I have to be a proper Mom again starting at 11:30.  

Be patient.  My goal is to get some things up with pics soon.  :)  

Caleb's accomplishment

Today, as we were doing what we normally do before bath, Caleb took the opportunity while we read a book to PEE ON THE POTTY!!!  It was accidental, but as we all know, that is the way that it starts!!!  So he got a pee pee prize for in the tub and we went on our merry way.  Now, we saved it to show Dave when he got home, but I did not take pictures.  I have to say, though, that Potter did go and take pictures after dinner, so I may need to post that to appease him.  

We are all very happy for Caleb and hoping that this means the end of diapers is soon to come.

Molly's alphabet

Today, Molly wrote out the entire alphabet, in order, and the only letter I helped with was 'U'.  I'm not sure when Potter was able to do this, but I was impressed and wanted to share it.  We are working on all the numbers..........

Mimzy's house

This morning, Molly built a little house of blocks for her bunny, Mimzy (the name is from a movie called 'The Last Mimzy'  where a girl has a stuffed rabbit named Mimzy too; if your kids are Molly's age or older, they may like this, Potter really enjoyed it) and I told her I would photograph it and post it.  What a masterpiece.

Caleb and the crown jewels

Caleb loves to play dress up, mostly with all of Molly's jewelry, so I got some candid shots of him the other day.  Not to be outdone, Molly had to wrangle some of her stuff from him so that she could have her princess picture taken.  

Potter's first day of 3rd grade

Caleb is 23 months

It isn't like we don't take enough pictures of the kids anyway, but here are Caleb's official 23 month photos.  Sadly, next month when he turns 2 will be the end of the monthly photo shoots.  This saddens me as a parent, but makes me happy that he is growing up to be such a great kid.

Slip and slide!

We busted out the slip and slide over the weekend.  These are not the best shots, as it was getting very shadowy in the backyard when Potter was playing and then I didn't get the camera out when all the kids were slipping and sliding.  It was more that Dave was hurling them down the yellow path at breakneck speed.  I may try to get some more shots today or tomorrow of all the kids.  

More blueberries

The man at Green Brothers told us that this was most likely the last weekend for blueberry picking, since he will be gearing up for apple picking in a couple weeks.  We couldn't resist going out one last time and getting enough berries to enjoy now and freeze for later.  It was such a pretty day outside and the view from up there is fabulous!  There are many candid shots of the berry pickers and one of Caleb stealing the berry bucket.  He wasn't as into picking this time as he was into the eating!