MicahJoy is 4, and every bit of it!

Today our "baby" Micah Joy has turned four years old.  Wow!  The other day, due to an injury from a year ago, she had her front tooth pulled and was drugged.  Today she turned four and I think she is still high on the gas because all of a sudden she is more boisterous and more dynamic and more dramatic and more chatty...did I think any of that was even possible?  No!  But here we are with this kid that doesn't stop.  She has truly been a total joy to us all.  She has been making us laugh since she was around 6 months old and I don't see her stopping any time soon.  We have been so blessed with her and by her and we are excited to see what the future holds with her in our family. Thank you God for placing her in our care.  You couldn't have been more right.  Grin.

Happy Birthday, Micah.  We love you so so so so much!!!

Eden is 7!!!

Now that everyone is up to speed on most of the goings on around here (at least for now until I slip into another blogcoma), I can post an event that just happened.  Not one that is over a month old.  A for-really-real current event.  Shocking.  That's an event of its own, I know, but I digress.  Eden's birthday.  Now, she turned 7 last Tuesday (not completely current) but we celebrated her birthday last night (about as current as it gets anymore).  It's always interesting to me, as a mom, to watch my kids open their gifts and I have come to notice a vast difference between Eden and the boys.  I will have to see about Micah before I call it a girl thing, so for now, it's just Eden.

When the boys are opening their gifts, first of all, there are a whole lot fewer gifts because theirs are always more expensive (Legos are not cheap, plain and simple).  Then, when they are opening gifts, they couldn't care less about a card unless it has money in it, and they never get money, so they don't care about cards.  They are forced to endure going through the formality of opening them first in order to give the proper person thanks, inevitably directed by a "now what do you say?"  Even Elijah, after 10 years of training needs to be reminded to say thanks sometimes.  Seriously.  That drives me nuts!  Once their gift is opened and the mandatory "thanks" has been thrown out there, they are off to the next one as the previous gift is shoved to the side to make room.

Eden is different.  She will get several gifts mostly because her gifts aren't that expensive and she will be antsy excited to open them, but she will calmly sit and wait until the go-ahead is given.  She will sweetly get a gift and make sure to find the card.  If, for some reason she doesn't see one, she will ask everyone who's gift this is to see if she should be looking harder for the card.

Once she finds the card, she painstakingly opens the envelope, pulls out the card and proceeds to read everything inside of it aloud, including any of the personal notes to her, pausing only for help on an occasional word.  That part is really cute.  After the card is read, she opens the gift, loves the gift and hugs the gift giver.  VERY different from the boys for sure.

Even the kids got hugs for the packs of gum and travel office supply kit they got her!

When Eden is done hugging the generous gift giver, she will even stop to pose for a picture for her mommy.  Here is an outfit she got for her Madame Alexander dolls.  This birthday was all about them.  The three dolls she has got a Red Racer wagon, the outfit you saw above and they each got a twin bed that all bunk on top of each other.

Naturally the dolls would want to sleep comfortably, so I made these three reversible comforters and matching pillows.  Unfortunately the beds won't be here until tomorrow, but how much fun we will have putting it all together "for the dolls."

I think Eden made out like a bandit and I know she loved everything she got.

 

I should have gotten her some pony tail holders, right?!?  She wanted a DQ Blizzard cake again this year, and since she got a pink one last year, she decided to get an Oreo one this year.  Mmm.  Mmm.  Good!

While there was down time, grandma snuck in some reading to some of the kids, 

 

and not one to miss a beat, Levi was sure to entertain with his antics.

Thanks to everyone, even Kevin, for making Eden's birthday a fun night together with [most of] our family.  (We missed you Uncle Phil, Aunt Shelley, Nadia and Wesley)!!!

Elijah is 10!!!

Yep, you read that right! Elijah is 10. Some of you are laughing right now. Why? Oh, you think it's funny that Eden's birthday was Tuesday and Elijah's birthday was well over a month ago. Yeah, well, it's busy in this little abode of ours; laundry to my knees, yard work on a 3 1/2 year neglected yard and consequently I end up with house work on a very neglected house, I clean 2 houses twice a month each (no, not mine) and I am trying to run a few times a week. Oh, and did I mention that the kids are home for the summer...that automatically makes everything weeks behind any would-be schedule. Somewhere in there I need to remember that I am an active neighbor and friend, we have been in the midst of Little League and are now starting All Stars, I have to make dinner every evening we are home and still have some resemblance of a marriage too, so fine, laugh, but I gave up the quest for Superwoman a long time ago. You can have it!

Now, where was I?  Oh yes, that long-ago birthday.  It was good.   Elijah got to drive down to Indianapolis for an eye checkup for the happy day! (All was deemed well for Elijah and his eyes and he even can go without his glasses for sports if he wants to)  Lucky for Him, he also had a party that night. 

 He is getting so big I can hardly believe it!

We love Legos around here.  This was the birthday gift of choice this year.  This and to go to a White Sox game.  Lucky kids that we have, he got both!  Tim and I decided to take him to a game and it happened to be a night game.  Doubly fun.  He couldn't wait, though secretly he hoped to miss school to go to it!

On White Sox game day, our friend Chris got us front row seats (technically 5th row) that were right behind the White Sox dugout on the third baseline.  We used the dugout as a footrest, perfect spot for a 10year celebration!  The journey getting there was ridiculous for sure!  Let me tell you all about it.

So I look up "Southshore Train Schedule" online and the first option gave me a schedule.  Rather than looking at all that schedule said, I looked for what time I needed to be at the Portage station and called it good.  It's not like I am a train regular, so what would I know about the possibility of there being "weekend" schedules?  I picked up Elijah at school and we moseyed on to Starbucks where he enjoyed his very first iced coffee (and might I add only for his birthday will he get one until he can buy them from money earned from his own job) and we headed for the train station.  We got there with what I thought was plenty of time to spare.  Wrong.  Remember the possibility of a weekend schedule?  Well, of course I was looking at the weekend schedule when I planned my trip and the train had just come and gone, little did we know.  The next one wouldn't come for another hour.  For pete's sake.  Really?!?

I decided I would try to make the train at the Gary station, knowing that the idea was for Tim to pick us up at the station downtown so that we wouldn't be taking 2 cars to park at the stadium.  If I make the Gary station train, we will be just fine.  Here's the trick.  I haven't a clue where it is.  I called Tim and just like Chloe would dictate a route to Jack Bauer, Tim showed me the way.  In some parts of Gary, as one might imagine, there are little to no street signs and because of that, I missed the turn to the train station and had to go around the long way.  I finally get to the other entrance of the train station but couldn't get in...because a train, my train, was stopped on the tracks, picking up passengers.  Dagnabbit.  If the first turn was more than a back alley entrance to a station, I may not have missed the thing.

So now what?  I thought I'd speed my way back to Portage and catch that train, plus then I wouldn't be in the heart of Gary after the game to get my truck.  I headed back and Tim said that I probably wouldn't make it.  I practiced submission you all, let me tell you, because every fiber in me said I could get there in time, no matter how long it took the first time and no matter what Tim said.  Good thing I listened, I suppose.  We had to change where we met Tim, but in the end, we made it to the park with time enough to spare to wait in the long line to use the bathroom.

Because we were so close, every time the Sox ended an inning while fielding, they would run in to the dugout and toss the fans the balls they had.  Twice Alexei Ramirez caught an inning-ending line drive to short and twice he tossed the ball to Elijah on his was in the dugout.  He was excited!  Can you tell?  Yeah, not so much, huh?  I guess he has a little of me in him after all!!! 

It was no picnic for me to get our boy to this game, for sure, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves once we got there and were glad to take our first "double digit" kid out for a special night, just the three of us.  Happy birthday, Elijahboy!  We are so blessed to have you in our family.  You have brought us 10 years of smiles and laughter and we can't wait to see what you have in store for the next 10 years!  We love you!