Lucky Number Seven!!

Today is my boy's seventh birthday! Wow, where in the world has the time gone? I remember his birth like it was yesterday. My mom was visiting/taking care of me while Les was traveling. She was out on the patio deck working on some projects for my third grade class when I came home from teaching. We had just taken the TAAS test and I was exhausted. I went to the bathroom and could not stop urinating, so I thought. Sorry for so much info, but my water had broken. It was around 5:00 traffic time and my hospital was downtown Austin. My mom drove us there and was surprisingly calm. I was just surprised since Nolan was not due for three more weeks. My contractions started quickly and four hours later I was in full labor. At 10:30 pm I met my precious first born child. Sadly I don't have any pictures of him as a newborn on my computer since he was before we had a digital camera. So here are pictures of him from 1 year to seven years. My boy is growing so quickly!

One-year old: Easter egg hunting party

Two-years old: Thomas the Tank Engine Party

Three-years old: Circus Party

Four-years old: Dora/Nemo Party at a Castle Park

Five-years old: Party at the Round Rock Express Game

Six-years old: Rodeo Party

Seven-years old (wow that was hard to type!): this pic is on Easter last weekend since we have not had his party yet. Tomorrow is the big party day, check out his cute invitation that Cheri made for me:

Yep, we are having a bike party! Fun fun.

Easter Parties

Yesterday was an Easter Party day! We started with Leslie's at 10:30 in the morning. They had to bring 6 eggs with their name written on them. Due to the potential rain they decided to hunt eggs before eating. So the kids headed outside to look for the eggs with their names on them. This was quite a challenge for some three and four year-olds. However, Leslie knows her name well so she had no trouble. Off she goes!

Is this her egg? It doesn't look like it.

Is this her egg? Nope...

Now she found some!

Grandma even got in on the action and found several of her eggs. Yeah, the only problem with that was once Grandma helped there was nothing left for Leslie to do! Ooops...

She was all smiles once her eggs were found!

After a short short lunch it was time for Nolan's party at the elementary school. Once again, the students were to find the eggs with their names on them. Only this time each first grader had to find twelve eggs total! There were a ton of eggs to say the least. Check it out!

This picture really does not even show a fraction of the amount of eggs. They were all over the playground! His party took a little bit longer to say the least. We arrived at his school at 12:00 and left at 2:15. We were tired! He had fun, though.

Leslie even enjoyed playing on the equipment during the egg hunt.

Stay tuned, more egg hunting pics coming soon. We are going to a huge city wide egg hunt on Saturday morning. It will be interesting I'm sure.

I Was CrAfTy!

As I was "blog surfing" two days ago, I came across the cutest party favors I have ever seen. I have not been passing out favors in Leslie's preschool ALL year and I felt like a total slacker! To add to my slacker feeling, I was too late on signing up to bring something for her Easter party. However, I will not lie, it was nice thinking of going to a party and not having to bring anything. That all changed once I found this idea. This cookie lady, whom I will start watching for new and fresh ideas, created a precious jelly bean package and cookie recipe to hand our for Easter. No, it is not a "jelly bean cookie", just little cookies shaped and colored like a sweet jelly bean. Check out this blog titled chic cookies. If you need an idea for a shower, birthday, or any holiday this girl has got it going on. Anyway, I got crafty and decided to print off the "package" and started making what felt like gillions of cookies. As a matter of fact, I made and decorated over 135 cookies for these favors. I was really proud that I had found something different than an ordinary loot bag filled with junk and candy. Now I will have to find out if the kids even ate the cookies or threw the whole think away thinking they were jelly beans. Hmmm, what do you think?

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On top of all of this, I also got a jump start on Nolan's birthday party decorations. We have finally decided to have his party here at home again and invite as many (well almost) friends as he would like. I won't tell you the theme yet, but see if you can figure it out. I made stop signs, a U-turn sign, and an Off roading sign. Stay posted and I will reveal the theme later this week!

I Want to Be CrAfTy!!!

Where does the time go in a day? Think about it. We have 24 hours in one day and only sleep 8 of those hours. Where are the rest of the 16 hours going? Yes, I know, that at least one of my hours is spent right here right now doing what I am doing right now EVERY morning. But then there are still around 15 hours left. The point is- is that I want to craft more. I want to create some thing everyday. I can sew, so there are no excuses in that department. I am creative, EVERYONE is creative. So why don't I create? One of the blogs I adore is Elizabeth Kartchner and she just blogged about creating. I thought that was so funny because I was just telling Les this morning how I want to be more crafty during the day. She has a wonderful video clipping that explains how we humans are all creative and that we come from the most powerful creator of all. No one will ever create the same thing and each creation is unique. It is a really inspiring clip. As I was reading my blogs this morning I came across This Crafty Chick. She was making the cutest felt food for kids to pretend with. I fell in love with them and thought, I can do that. I see stuff everyday that I can do, BUT I DON'T! I just don't have enough time! Between getting the kids up and ready for school, paying bills, cleaning, laundry, playing with Leslie, grocery shopping, meal planning, baseball, dance, volunteering, party planning and so on and so on and so on. I am not complaining, so please don't think I am. As I have said before, I love my life. However, I want my life to be even more productive. Is this possible? We will see! I WILL TRY!

My Blog has been Hijacked!

Nolan has a new hobby.....blogging. He saw me blogging yesterday and asked if he could type some stuff. As you can see, he typed up a letter to Kaden. He kept asked the rest of the day if he could blog some more. Then the first thing this morning I crawled out of bed and saw Nolan over at the computer trying to figure out how to get on my blog. So, I helped him on and this is what he wrote. I explained that he could write anything he wanted, not just letters. He replied, "I know." My blog has been hijacked by my son!
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dear kaden and kensley and kohen
we sold to little pupes.they are koot.do you like pupes? yes or no you should come. i can,t wate intill you spin the night. you are my best friend. i like you. do you like me? yes or no.you are so so koot kaden.
love,
nolan

A letter to Kaden, From Nolan

dear kaden i hope you get beder soon.you are a good big broter and kooen is cute as a bug. tell kensley i sed hi.if he isnot sick we are going to the ksasl parck to day you can come if kaden is not sick.i havent seen you sins the last time you spin the night. if you can mack it i got a little sper sprise for you.i hope to see you soon.
love,
nolan

Dumb Dog!

I am a blogger slacker lately, I know! Not a whole lot has been going on since the big book fair. I have been just taking it easy and getting back to normal. Man I love my life! I love getting up and getting the kids off to school. The kiss good byes warm my heart. I love drinking my coffee in front of my computer. I love going running on our little quite country road. I love not having anywhere I have to be. It really makes me nervous, now, about going back to work. I substituted again for the kindergarten teacher that I adore and had a blast. She is so easy to work for and I actually told my mom that if I was handed a room fulled loaded just like her's and lesson plans exactly the same, I would totally go back to teaching kindergarten. My mom about threw a fit and couldn't believe the words I was saying because I swore to never teach kinder again after my first year. However that was an extreme different situation and clientele of people. ANYHOO. I am nervous about going back to work and changing my life. Oh well, I still have a year! Woo Hoo!
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Bye bye Coco!

Les and I have worked some out in the back yard and I admit that it is looking awesome. However I cannot take much of the credit because that is Les' passion. He wants our yard to be good enough for the Backyard Living magazine. He placed new mulch out in the flower beds and planted new annuals only to find our dumb dog, Coco had dug up most of the mulch and young plants. Les was irate and had enough. You see, the dog as chewed up so many things in our yard and garage that I cannot even begin to list them. He is over a year old and should be out of that temptation, but like I said, he is DUMB! So, Les threw the dog in the back of his truck and yelled "I am taking him back to the original owners!" Well, after a breather, Les asked for the people's phone number to let them know that he was coming back. Long story short, Les went to talked to the people, mind you, they have brought their entire family to see this dog since the day we brought him home. Obviously they weren't ready to get rid of him. Thank the Lord up above!!! The people came and got him on Thursday and it has been so very very very nice to not hear that dumb dog bark all night and day! We do feel bad about it, but ......... wait, no we don't. Bye bye Coco! (I know, it's sort of a confusing story, but the point is-he's gone!