Snow Day!

So, we did end up with a bit of snow fall overnight (about 5 or 6 inches) and so we went out to the best spot for sledding in our neighborhood this morning with our neighbors across the street!
We all went inside for hot cocoa at their house and then had them over for lunch a little later. We all had some rest time and then we were out again around 4:30 pm for some sledding right in front of our house. Gabriel wasn't very fond of the snow, but he loved sledding down the hills. He just doesn't seem to enjoy being cold, so we just played inside while Ayden and Daddy finished their play time outside.
After 3 winters with at least one snow day each in NC (last year there were 2 days), I think we need to invest in some more snow gear for everyone! The kids need some snow pants and the adults need some snow shoes! I think we'll be checking out the online winter apparel sales out there soon!

SNOW!

Ok, I know you can barely see the snow on the roof outside the window in this photo, but we were so excited this evening before bed, that I had to take this photo! The weather man was right, it is snowing right now, but we'll see how much falls by the morning! :) Enough to sled in we hope! It is nearly February and this is our first snow of the winter! Thankfully, it has arrived and hopefully it will be enough for the makings of a fun Saturday. :)

Help for Haiti

Ever since the earthquake in Haiti, I've had an itch to help in some way. Our church currently serves in two different countries, Kenya and Haiti. There seem to always be mission trips planned for these two locations in the world, but the need for one has just been bumped up. Currently, a team from our church is collecting medical supplies that will be flown over soon. A table at my Mops group (mothers of preschoolers) signed up to help supply this team with what they needed and so I decided to further explain what Ayden had been seeing photos of in the newspaper. I think he is actually starting to have a worldly perspective in a way. I think he understands how a state is larger than a city and a country is larger than a state and so forth. I explained to him that a country called Haiti had a big earthquake and that some people living there no longer have their homes, food, electricity, etc. This idea was probably not too far fetched for him since I am always using that line on him at the dinner table that some children in the world don't have a warm dinner to eat, so he should eat his! :)

Anyhow, I decided that Ayden and I would go to the store and pick out some medical supplies to contribute. With most of the supplies we picked out, he had a question or a comment on why the people might need that particular item, so I think it all was sinking in. :) I truly have been waiting to do something like this with Ayden. One day, I would like to expose him to the actual real life situations out there so that he can see for himself the hardships that some people have to endure. This was a good little service project, nice to start somewhere!

We've Got Words!!

It's been a rainy and gloomy January week around here (hence the blog background!), but we've had a great week anyhow! Gabriel has had a fairly short verbal vocabulary until just recently in the last few weeks. He slowed down a little in his sign language usage and he started focusing in on actually saying some words! In the last two weeks, the words have just flowed from him! Yah! The list includes:

"boose" - juice
"crack-cows" - crackers
"goo" - glue
"gock gog" - hot dog
"pease" - please - Julio always asks him to sign please at the dinner table and in mid January, he actually said the word!!
"ap-poes" - apples
"ceck" - cake - which he quickly learned when he saw Ayden's birthday cake last week! :)
"dink"- drink
"geg" - egg
"mice" - knife

The list goes on, but instead of signing most of the time, he is now doing a mix of speaking and signing. He seems to enjoy the signing still and gets excited to sign the words that he knows and he also seems quite proud of himself and his new voice! :)

On the Ayden front, I can't believe I will be going in on February 4th to register him for Kindergarten! He will be going to the new school up the road and we are excited! His preschool classroom teachers are doing a great job of getting him ready, but I've decided that I need to do some extra prep at home and so Ayden and I put together a really simple binder of some lined paper so that he can work on spelling, writing, reading and numbers. I am going to try to do a quick lesson each day until July when the big first day will be! Today was a great start, he spelled mat, pat, web (ha,ha) and meat! He is doing really well on hearing the sounds a word makes and then spelling them.

Oh yes, one more thing! Ayden went in for his five year physical! Yikes! Can't believe I have a five year old! He is doing well and got his kindergarten paperwork (showing that he has all necessary immunizations). He is not a huge kid but is in the 90% for height and weight! He is 42 inches tall and weighs just ounces under 50 pounds! My theory is that he is so super physically active (which hasn't changed since he could move!), that all the muscle he's built up is what weighs so much. I mean, he is s thin kid, you wouldn't think he weighs that much! It won't be long before I truly cannot pick him up without injuring myself! :)

The Amazing Super Hero Cake!

My lovely friend Wendy (the same friend who made the haunted house cake for Ayden's preschool classroom back in October if you keep up with this blog) made this amazing super hero cake for Ayden's party! Isn't she amazing? You can't read it, but there is a "newspaper" on the steps of the building on the left that says, "Ayden is turning 5!" Love it! Oh and in case you hadn't noticed, the three main characters of this super hero party were Spider-man, Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, as requested by Ayden months ago!

He even had this look of rage on his face just like the real deal! :)
I was proud of the fact that I recycled this sign from Ayden's party last year! I just glued on pictures of spider-man and iron man over the robots from his 4th birthday party. :) We enjoyed some kid friendly food, which included home made macaroni and cheese, tacos with all the fixings, hot dogs, fruit, carrots, celery (with dip) and party punch. I got a little creative (and really only the parents could read them, but I made up names for the food like the tacos were called "power pockets" and the party punch was called "rocket fuel." I had found a great website with all of these ideas. :) Yep, I'm rarely full or original ideas! We all had an awesome time!
Here are the thank you notes that I am currently writing!
And with that, I am finally up to date with my blog! Yah! Hope you enjoy! :)

Super Heroes Ready!

This sign was hung on the front door as the guests entered!
This was the first game for the super hero's: pin the spider man on the web! :)
The second game: "Web Slinging!" Or spraying silly string at the targets!
Luckily, I thought ahead and put down some plastic, but here are the results of game number 2! I think it was the favorite among the super heroes!
This was game #3! Take Iron Man's "rocket launcher" and aim for the cups to knock them down!

The Culminating Event!

Here is the front of the invitation for Ayden's party that we just had last Saturday, the 16th.
The first inside panel.
The second inside panel. More about the party in the following posts! :)

The 2 week celebration continues!

The birthday celebration continued for Ayden when we got home! I decided that he would enjoy celebrating his birthday with his classmates, so I proceeded to make these cupcakes that Friday after we arrived back home. I was determined to try this frosting style that I have admired at all those cute little trendy cupcake shops. :) They turned out pretty good, although I had to fix them twice due to a transportation foul up! Good thing school started later that day than I thought it would. The school district declared a delayed school opening that day because of a "possible snow report." It was pretty cold, but there wasn't any snow. We still haven't had any and the weather today was beautiful...a touch of Spring. Anyhow, they all loved the cupcakes and so the birthday festivities (like most years with Ayden since his birthday is on a national holiday) continue!
Yum!
The table of boys!
The girls table!
Here's Ayden with one of his good friends at school. I was so sad to learn recently that they won't be able to go to the same school for Kindergarten this Summer. :( We'll have to have lots of play dates to make up for it!

Loving My Kitchen!

Look What Santa Brought!

These last few months, Gabriel would not stay out of the pantry cupboard and he also would play at anything resembling a toy kitchen or anything related. He loves to do pretend play lately and one of his favorite things is to pretend to eat or drink. So, it seemed right that Santa should bring him a new kitchen for Christmas. I ordered this kitchen online not too long before we left for California and so it arrived while we were away. Our awesome neighbors kept it for us until we got back and we assembled it as soon as we were home! I wanted to order a wooden kitchen for lasting quality and found a pretty good deal on it, although it will be Gabriel's Christmas and birthday gift combined (he will turn two in April). We've been back for two weeks now (as I post this) and he has been having a blast!

Family Photo with the Lukacs Clan!

I think it was my sister's husband Julius that came up with the brillant idea to get a photo of the whole family since we were briefly at their house to celebrate Christmas in the first part of January. I am so glad he thought of it because I don't think we have ever taken a photo of us all until now, so I am so happy to have these! :) This was take #1!
Take #2! The rest didn't turn out so well except the next one was worth including as a blooper...
It was definitely funny trying to get everyone to sit still and smile in their proper spots! :)

Goofy Cousins Together!

Even though we only seem to get together about twice a year these last couple of years, these guys always have such a grand time together! We wish we lived closer, but so glad for those years we spent together in CA...they really bonded and always pick up right where they left off! :)
I told them to give me a silly face! :)
Here is the younger batch (younger two of the five mobile boys + newborn Joey makes six boy cousins!) hanging out together in the playroom!
Ahhh...the seasoned parents take on yet another little boy (precious Joey!) It will be interesting to see their house next year when they are all mobile!!! :)
He is such a little bundle! It is crazy how quickly you forget how teeny tiny they are as newborns!

At Grandad's House!

We also went over to Grandad's house to have some dinner together and open Christmas gifts one evening. The boys opened their awesome lego sets that they loved and tore right into them to start building! We had some yummy pizza and salad and got to visit with Aunt Kathy and Uncle Marc too since they dropped in for a visit! It was a fun night. :)

A Visit with Great Grandma Jean!

Another visit we made in the bay area of CA was to Great Grandma Jean's house!
The boys had a nice visit. Grandma got to watch them roll around and wrestle in her family room and they also needed a little time outside so we explored the back yard and I told them about the tree I used to climb and the pool parties that we used to have there. Oh, the memories!!
Ayden took this photo! He did a great job, huh?

Dancing With Elmo!

Ok, I know this is sideways, but I couldn't resist! We were at Grandma Gayles on New Year's Day opening gifts and Gabriel had just opened his "cooking with Elmo" toy and he loved the toon it played! He decided that every time he pressed the button to play the music, he would get up and dance like the video shows you. You just have to check it out side ways, sorry...:)

Another City, Another Cake!

We made it down to the bay area on the first of the year and celebrated Ayden's birthday again with his other cousins at the Lukacs household!

All ready for cake! And as you can see, Ayden is especially ready!
cheese!
I had to post this, I caught Ayden in mid air while playing on the new Wii that the Lukacs got for Christmas! They all had a great time, but we couldn't stay at their house since their little one year old, Benji was sick. We found out later that he eventually got Pneumonia and Bronchilits, so it was a good thing that we stayed at my moms.

Ayden's 5th Birthday Celebration in Chico!

Ayden and his cousin Brandon waiting for cake!
We started celebrating Ayden's birthday in Chico on Dec. 31st since we were leaving the next day on his actual birthday for the bay area. It was fun to start the celebration with the Chico family!

Holiday Activities in Chico!

Here we are in Chico and celebrating Three Kings Day! This is how Julio did "Christmas" growing up. This is a tradition in Puerto Rico and they celebrate in early January. They decorated a box and left it under their bed for the kings to leave them gifts. This was Ayden and Gabriel's first time doing this since we are usually in the bay area at my sisters for Christmas. We had to switch around our visits in CA this year because of illness.

That same day, we went down town Chico to a new and awesome candy store to celebrate Ayden's birthday with the Chico fam!

Everyone enjoying all the yummy treats!

We had the joy of meeting Julio's brother Franklin's new family while we were there. Franklin is getting married this Summer to Christina and she has two 11 year old daughters, Erika and Sharon. They are twins as you can see and so much fun!