The daddy of the house had a birthday today and turned a year older, 35!! He spent most of the day golfing with Zevlen, but we celebrated him this evening with fourwheeling at the farm, out to eat with family at Turner Hall, and home for presents and cake, a.k.a. tower of cookies. Daddy doesn't like cake so we went with a tower of cookies instead, a tower that a sweet two year old bit into before the celebration started.
One present was Burt's Beeswax, Jamie and Hudson's favorite. Hudson was telling him that since there's two in the package, certainly that means they can each have one.
This was supposed to be the nice picture they promised me in order to get to do a silly one next.....
We spent the weekend of the 4th at Maddi and Zevlen's house and lake. The weather turned out to be perfect, and by some miracle, the mosquitos and gnats stayed away and we came out of the weekend without a single bite! We really couldn't have asked for a better time, lots of fun on and off the lake making memories with family and friends. So a HUGE thank you to Maddi and Zev for hosting us and for providing so much fun for our three kids. And to Grandma and the aunts for helping with those three crazy kids, and for making lots of yummy food to eat all weekend long.
Harlow started out a little nervous on the boats. She sat on my lap and squeezed my hands, wrapping her legs around mine, a little tighter when Jamie would drive faster. But she kept saying she wanted to stay on and that it was "pun" (fun). She got more comfortable as the day went on, going from boat to boat, and eventually even getting in the water with her brothers. The boys loved everything about being on the lake! They loved riding fast in the boats, they loved swimming, tubing, and just floating around.
Off the lake we spent a lot of time on the four wheelers. Maddi and Zev have one and Grandpa also brought his. I think that was probably Paxton's favorite thing to do. As soon as anyone sat on one, he was asking to ride with.
Fireworks was Hudson's favorite thing. Well, I should be more specific, attempting to start fires or things on fire with sparklers. We realized we might have a little pyro on our hands. He was warned over and over again not to start the grass on fire, the box on fire, the tree on fire, himself on fire!
Aunt Vicky made Harlow her own personal pool with a cooler filled with (ice cold) water. She spent all afternoon in that thing and loved it!
Thanks again Maddi and Zev!!!!! We love you and appreciate it so much! See you next year.....
The boys have always loved mowing the lawn with Jamie, but Harlow's been a little fearful, up until now! She hops right on and takes over. And she doesn't just want to ride along, she wants to take over, steer and drive! And those head phones, pretty sure they're bigger than her head!
Same goes for her Jeep. We got it for her birthday and she was more content just riding around with her brothers. But one day she decided to hop in on her own, and now she drives around like a mad woman! Still needs a little practice on watching where she's going and steering, but she looks pretty darn cute in that thing!
I took a lot of pictures with my phone this weekend (which is not any different than most weekends), but it seems like we packed a lot in on a weekend when we really had no plans at all. So here it is, Saturday and Sunday in pictures.....
The kids rode around in the church parking lot on Saturday morning. We were thinking we'd spend as much time outside as we could before the rain came (but it never came).
Harlow talks on that play phone constantly. She keeps it in the trunk of her bike and is always calling Grandpa. The conversation goes something like this each time, "Hi Papa! You in your tractor? Is your porn (corn) still down (drowned)? Yea, okay. Bye Papa!"
We sent a silly snap to some friends. I'm sure we made their day with those faces!
They rode and rode and rode some more!
With the pending thunderstorms that were expected to reach us by the afternoon (again, they never came), we opted for some indoor swimming at Vogel. Even though I think they're more excited for the vending machine snack after swimming than they are about actually swimming, all the kids have fun there. We were a little disappointed to find out that they've changed the rules since our last visit and you now have to be 6 years old to be in the hot tub. The lifeguards didn't question Paxton, but they did ask how old Harlow was. That conversation went like this, "Excuse me ma'am, how old is she?" I answered that she is 2 years old, to which he said, "Oh, well she has to be 6 to be in the hot tub." Really?!?!? Was it necessary to ask me how old she was if she needed to be 6?? Does she look anything close to 6? I think I was just frustrated since this is a new rule and the hot tub is the kids' favorite place to be. Harlow was a rule breaker for the rest of our time there and still stuck her feet in.
Isn't she the cutest TWO year old you ever did see?
I mean seriously!!!!! Look at that face. I think I tell her how beautiful she is a million times a day.
All the kids had their pictures taken with Marsha on Sunday morning at Schell's Brewery. They did such a good job, we were so proud of them. Those professional pictures will be posted on the blog once we get the disk, but the sneak peek was adorable!
They were all bribed and promised a toy if they did a good job at pictures. We walked in to Target and the boys ran straight to the $1 bins. Jamie turned to me and gave me a thumbs up! Best thing Target ever did for parents!! Instead of buying three $20 toys, we got out of there with two $1 bird houses to paint and $1 animal crackers. It was no surprise that Harlow picked food as her toy, but she was NOT happy when we got home and the boys were both painting their bird houses.
We had a picnic lunch at the park, again spending as much time outside as we could because of the thunderstorms that were heading our way (which never came again!).
Once we realized that the clouds weren't coming, Grandma came in and we all headed to the kiddie pool. Jamie decided that he could handle the kiddie pool too as long as he could sneak beer in. Rule breakers at yet another pool!
A couple videos....The first one is kind of long, but wait it out, Harlow falls at the end :)
Watch for me accidentally hitting Harlow on the head with my phone when I try and push her. I wasn't sure if I really hit her when it happened, but watching it back now, clearly I did! She didn't even notice.
At six years old, Hudson finally learned to ride his bike without training wheels. And it probably never would've happened had a training wheel not broke off. He tried to fight it, saying he didn't want to ride his bike, he had better things to do, but I got home from work on Wednesday afternoon and there he was, over in the church parking lot, barely moving as Jamie ran behind him holding him up, begging him to keep pedaling. Hudson could only stay stubborn for a little while, I think he realized pretty quick that he could do it, it wasn't that hard, and it was actually pretty fun. Before we knew it, he was off! Taking laps up and down the parking lot, a little cautious at the turns and stopping but that will all come with practice. My favorite part, the smile he's trying so desperately to hide. He's too proud though, that smile shines through. And we're so proud of him!! Let's hope his 6th year brings many good things!
(Please try to ignore the whining little orphan child in the video!)
How is it that every year our babies get older?!?! And why is it that it never seems possible?!? How could our Hudsy be 6 years old?? SIX!!!!! I posted a "last picture at 5 years old" picture of me kissing my 5 year old the night before his big day, along with 6 reasons why I love this kid.....
1) He is capable of having a mature conversation wise beyond his years.
2) He is extremely detail-oriented; with his stories, how he likes things, his memories.
3) He grew out of his rude, bad attitude, snot phase (thank God!!).
4) He is great at playing with Paxton and always willing to include Harlow.
5) He has a kind, sympathetic heart and believes in fairness.
6) He tells me he loves me out of the blue.
Per tradition on their birthday mornings, they wake up to balloons. The night before I asked Hudson if he still thought he needed balloons now that he's six. He thought he'd still like them and then offered to help blow them up. Apparently at 6 years old, the excitement of waking to a house filled with balloons has worn off and you just do things yourself. So out to the garage he went with his dad and used the air compressor to blow up his own balloons. So no surprise the next morning when he woke up and found them right where he had left them. For his birthday breakfast, Jamie suggested a blueberry muffin from Perkins, so the two of them headed out in the morning for a half dozen muffins. Harlow and Paxton sang to him and each took a turn blowing out the candle (video below). When they were done, Harlow looked at me and asked, "Harlow's birthday over now?" The girl is obsessed with her birthday and I think with celebrating Hudson, she finally realized that her special day was over. Time to get over it Harlow!
Aren't they the sweetest?!?!
And the silliest!!!! I absolutely LOVE this picture!!
It was no surprise that Harlow started crying when I told her all of the presents were Hudson's. And of course, it was no surprise that Hudson let her open almost all of them. I actually had to stop her and remind Hudson that its his special day and he should get to open at least some of his own presents. He did and proclaimed that he loved them all! And I have to admit that I was pretty excited and proud of myself that each gift was thought out and right up his alley! The best being a ghost and werewolf costume for the boy that LOVES Halloween and spends most of his days in costumes.
And jelly beans, more specifically the Jelly Belly Bean Boozled game. You spin the wheel, eat that color, and its either a delicious jelly bean or a DISGUSTING one! I knew he would love this, and would love trying to trick people, which he did! He got Zevlen, Maddi, and Uncle Arnie. I think Maddi ate barf, Zevie ate toothpaste and stinky socks, and Arnie ate booger. Harlow ate a handful of all of them and wasn't even fazed by it! I had to hide them from her on top of the fridge! She had the worst canned dog food breath!!!! They are SO GROSS! Beware if Hudson offers to share his candy with you.
One of the gifts he asked for was dinosaur bones. He and his best friend Eli pretend to dig for dinosaur bones at school, so I knew he'd love this fossil. He dug and found teeth, bones, and fossilized poop!
Happy Joe's was his pick for supper with the family. For the games of course, not the food. Him and cousin Carson shared their tickets and he was able to get the police light he's been wanting. Thanks to Carson who gave him over 1000 of his own tickets! (Love that boy so much!)
Hudsy and his godparents, Maddi and Zev.
Back to our house for more presents, cake and ice cream. He's excited to light those fireworks from Logie at his big party!
And a half orange and half purple cake, per his request.
Happy 6th Birthday Hudson Alexander!! I couldn't love you any more than I do today, but tomorrow I will!
