Cal's birthday celebration!!

Cal's 2nd birthday was a blast! I spent the night before decorating - balloons, birthday sign, and hanging streamers from his doorway and the hallway (got a kick out of watching him run back and forth through the streamers yelling, "tunnel")! Birthdays make me super excited and I like the day to be planned exactly how that person would want it, so I tried to spend the day doing all the things that Cal loves best!

Waffles for breakfast . . .

Then onto present opening - what Cal was most excited about (he's been begging to "open presents" all week)!

We got him a tee ball set, and two new trains for his collection - Percy (or "Peece" as Cal calls him) and James. Gram and Papa got him a new rug to drive his cars, trucks, and trains on. Gram Rox got him his new Thomas trike! He was thrilled with everything and spent the morning playing with all his new toys!

For lunch we headed out for a picnic at the park:

We brought Cal's new trike along . . .

I totally forgot to bring Elle's scooter and she was feeling sad about not having something to ride around on. Cal's a terrific sharer and gladly agreed to get off and give her a turn. He just chased after her, laughing his head off!

After the park we dropped Elle off at preschool, then headed home for stories and naps!

Later in the afternoon we played in the backyard with Cal's new tee ball set.

And what a fun surprise to get a birthday card in the mail from his buddy Houston!

Spencer surprised us and came home early from work - just as I was frosting Cal's cake. Thank goodness for Spencer's artistic decorating - turning the number 2 into a train track!

Cal was definitely pleased with his daddy's creation!

Boppi and Grandpa Al joined us at 6pm for dinner (pizza and salad), cake, ice cream, and more present opening! So grateful to have them here to celebrate with us!

Happy HAPPY Birthday sweet boy!! 

The Birthday Boy!

Height: 36 1/2 inches (95th %)

Weight: 31 lbs (90%)

My baby boy turned TWO today! Happy Birthday Calvin! Words truly can't express what a sweet, kind, obedient, loving little guy Cal is. I've been trying to remember to take more videos lately. I just feel like the days are flying by much too fast. I never want to forget this stage of life.

I took Cal out back this afternoon to snap a couple pictures and his personality shined right through:

So sweet . . .

Pretty much always happy. . .

Super silly . . .

Very obedient . . . This was what Cal did when I said, "show me how to be reverent". This is what he does every time we tell him it's time for prayer. Totally cracks me up!

He sat there for a good 5 minutes while I snapped picture after picture. He's not usually very patient, but I do appreciate him understanding his mama's need to document all his cuteness on this special day!

Before I document all the fun we had celebrating Cal's birthday (will have to be another post), I want to include a few things about Cal now that he's two. 

Favorite show:  Super Why
I guess he and Elle designated each of the characters as themselves. When the main character (Wyatt) comes on, Calvin will yell, "There's Calvin!!"

Favorite book: He's obsessed with Thomas the Train right now and that's the section of the library he always runs to first. He gets crazy excited when he finds the Thomas books, then while holding up a book in each hand he'll shout, "Here's Thomas!" He freaks out if I try to put any of the books back that he's loaded into our stroller. Cal also loves any book on trucks or trains. His books are usually the first thing he requests to look at in the morning. I always read him stories in the afternoon (before nap) and Spencer is usually the one to read to him before bed.

Favorite toy: While he loves trains, trucks, and cars, he's usually outside wanting to ride a bike or scooter. Probably why he was so excited about the present that Gram Rox sent!! No more pink and purple bikes for Calvin - he's got his own rough and tough Thomas trike now!!

Favorite foods: all fruit (apples and bananas are the regulars), salads, yogurt, raisins, fruit snacks, goldfish

Favorite song: Every night before bed Spencer sings "I am a Child of God" and "I Hope they Call me on a Mission" and now Cal sings along with him. Cal's picked up quite a few songs this month like, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", the color songs - (learned from his sisters), and the ABC's which he'll get up and perform for us now!

Cal knows all his letters, some of his numbers, a couple shapes, but no colors yet. I'm getting excited for "school time with mom" next year when both sisters will be in school!

Cal's good at remembering his manners - he's got the pleases and thank you's down. I was happy to hear from a friend who watched him that she was super impressed how he'd say "thank you" anytime she gave him anything.  He's just as good at home too! Love it!

Couldn't love this little boy more! I love that I'm usually the one he wants to fix it or make it all better. An owie is easily healed by a simple kiss from mama. A big squeeze can make all the tears go away. Several times a day he'll run up and throw his arms around me in a gigantic hug for no reason at all! Hope he stays a mama's boy for many more years to come!

Kindergarten Ready!

 

We turned in Elle's kindergarten registration papers last week. It's been bittersweet thinking of Elle heading off to kindergarten in the fall. Boy am I going to miss her here at home! She is such a huge helper and more importantly - Cal's little buddy. Elle can keep Cal entertained all morning long. She reads him books, sets up his train tracks, plays trains with him, then helps him clean everything up afterwards. They eat snacks "picnic" style while playing outside. They ride bikes together, and run around the house chasing each other while laughing hysterically. And not only is Elle super helpful with Cal, she also helps me clean up the house every morning. I'll usually mention something about how messy the house is and how much we have to get done before we can leave for the park (or something like that) and by the time I'm out of the shower, dressed, and ready, Elle will have made beds, cleaned every room, and put all the toys away. She loves surprising me and hearing me gush about what a super helper she is.

She's definitely ready for school though. Every Monday she's sent home from preschool with a packet of homework, and without fail, Elle immediately heads to her desk when she walks in the door and does nothing else until the entire packet is finished! It's pretty incredible to see her focus and motivation. I'm so used to homework being dragged out for hours. This has definitely been a refreshing change.

So until September, I'm going to make sure I enjoy every second of having this sweet girl home in the mornings with me.

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

I love how kids can make a not very exciting holiday (in my opinion) into "the best day ever" (words that came from Elle's mouth today)!!

Madi's morning journal writing at school today.

I had no intentions of doing anything spectacular to celebrate today- school teachers usually do a great job taking care of that, but when I saw the girls writing letters to "Lucky the Leprechaun" last night, I started thinking I ought to at least recognize the holiday. SO . . . this morning I got up and made green pancakes for breakfast. It was good, but not magical enough. I heard the girls talking about the letters they'd written to Lucky- the ones they'd hidden under their pillows- and were going to go check to see if they were still there. Luckily, "Lucky" made it to the letters before the girls checked. They could hardly believe the letters were gone! When had Lucky come? Where had he put the letters? The girls spent the next 15 minutes searching the house for clues. They found a mess in the playroom and were sure Lucky was the one who had made it. Then they started checking for anything out of place or out of the ordinary. I stood at the griddle, flipping pancakes, totally laughing at their conversation. Elle couldn't believe that our pancakes were green and kept asking me HOW they turned green. WHO did it? I played along as best I could - especially when Elle found the letters to Lucky hidden under a book on my bed (a big time close call - one I barely talked my way through, and thankfully her 4 year old mind didn't read too much into it)!

Then it was the rush off to school. I dropped Elle and Cal off at a friend's while I headed to class with Madi for reading. Totally forgot to get a picture with all 3 kids in their green (outfits they'd all layed out the night before). Snapped this one while I was listening to one of Madi's classmates read. Madi kept that Shamrock headband on all day!

It was a busy afternoon (Costco run, Elle to school, visit from the plumber to fix a running toilet and dripping shower, then a PT conference with Madi's teacher) and when we finally got home at 3pm, the girls were shocked to find notes from "Lucky" (written in green paint with little green footprints all over them) sitting on the kitchen table!

I'm sure Lucky couldn't resist writing back when he finally read the letters they'd written to him:

I love the magic that simple holidays bring to little kids! 

Such a FUN St. Patrick's Day! 

Today

It was a big Sunday for our 3 kiddos!

Madi sang a solo of "Teach Me About the Temple" in sacrament. She did a beautiful job! Aside from looking down at her sheet music (which she didn't need at all) a little too often, it was perfect! I love how excited she was on Monday when I told her she'd been asked to sing that coming Sunday. She wrote about it in school the next morning:

Elle had a talk in Primary. Unfortunately she chickened out and just stood there all shy, forcing Spencer to give the talk for her. Crazy how two siblings can be so different!

Calvin went into nursery without crying AT ALL!!! He's been doing well for awhile now, but he always cries when we first drop him off. So this was huge!

After such an exciting Sunday, I naturally wanted to take a picture of the three kids together when we got home from church. Unfortunately, they were all being silly and only gave me a couple seconds to attempt it. If only Cal had given a smile . . .

RAIN!!!

All the rain we got last month was SUPER exciting for all of us! Last week it rained Wednesday night, Thursday, Friday and Saturday!! Friday we had nothing going on, so I figured I should let the kids enjoy it! So I sent them out with an umbrella and they had a grand time!

The umbrella was quickly ditched, cause who really needs an umbrella!

Elle was getting so wet she decided to loose the pants and boots and decided barefoot would be best! And of course Cal wanted the bike and helmet!

It rained off and on all morning - stopping long enough for us to run to the store, and then picked up pretty heavily during nap time! There was just a light sprinkle when we picked up Madi from school at 2pm.

The kids played inside after school. Then around 4pm, I saw sun pouring through our windows - totally knew what that meant! I ran to the garage, yelling for the kids to go look for a rainbow, and sure enough - there it was!! A gorgeous double rainbow! I'll forever think of this guy every time I see a double rainbow.  :)

It really was so bright and vivid! All our neighbors were coming out of their houses to take pictures. 

It started to fade pretty quickly, but after that kind of excitement no one was ready to head back inside!

Then the next thing I know, Elle's out in her swim suit jumping in puddles!

It was starting to get chilly though, so I gave her just a minute before we headed in for a warm bath!

What a prefect end to our rainy day!!

Wacky Wednesday!

This past Wednesday I taught joy school. My letter was "W" and we had all sorts of wacky fun!! The kids were told to wear something wacky - I loved the mismatched socks and/or shoes, clothes on backwards/ inside out, wild hair, etc. etc.

During circle time, the kids took turns finding and writing w's in our morning message:

I had lots of "W" books but "Wacky Wednesday" was definitely the favorite! Everyone took turns pointing out all the wacky things on each page. 

I planned out centers that the kids rotated through - which was trickier than I thought it would be, but we kept it moving fast and everyone had a grand time! They counted watermelon seeds and matched them to the correct number (I had 2 of these folders) . . .

They walked the letter W:

Then walked up the lines with wide legs. At the two back tables we used Madi's globe to study the world, and also practiced writing W's on a white board.

Another center was looking at our W books on the rug (2 people could be at that center).

I served banana muffins with walnuts, and we also made waffles and ate them with whipped cream!! Yummm. . . . 

We learned about the Water Cycle, but I ran out of time at the end and didn't get to teach the water cycle song (which I was bummed about). 

It was a pretty wonderful Wednesday if you ask me!