First bike ride, last preschool program

As mentioned in a previous post James got a brand new bike for his birthday. He decided to take it out for a spin this last week to see how it worked. 

 James loved it the first day. When he got on the next day however it was all tears and screams that echoed around the neighborhood and later appeared in stereo as we attempted to teach Eve to ride without her ever faithful training wheels!

It was a big week for James. In addition to his bike riding experience it was also time for his last preschool program.

I have a confession to make here- I extremely dislike attending preschool programs. I also dislike attending kindergarten programs (we sat through one twelve hours after James' program, it was like being caught in one of the circles of hell). Yes the kids are all cute and and they try to out "scream" each other while singing. There is nothing like hearing "If we hold on Together" being belted out by five years old boys, each trying to see who can be the loudest.

James was super cute though and I was very grateful the show was just his class and not the whole preschool as it has been in times past.

 Here he is getting ready to sing Proud to be an American.

I did have one complaint about the program. It started at eight o'clock. Who starts a program for preschoolers that late. There were a few kids breaking down in tears half way through. Who could blame them it was past bed time!  James held strong though and smiled his way throughout.

Just a little picture here to show that somehow this child inherited my dancing skills.  He kept looking at his friend Henry (the little boy in the red striped shirt) to find out what to do. Of course James would then do it with the wrong foot or step the wrong way. I found it to be adorable.

After forty minutes of singing, dancing, and retelling of The Three Little Pigs, they brought on the finale- Black light where they sang and hummed Octopus's Garden.

The next day we headed off to Kindergarten orientation. I think this kid is growing up way to fast!

Easter Weekend!

We had a busy Easter weekend and a ton of fun! There was egg hunts, yummy treats, lots of grins and smiles. 

We started out Saturday morning with a Bradley family egg hung organized by Michael and Mel.  The kids had so much fun looking for the brightly colored eggs and the adults also enjoyed looking for the harder camouflaged eggs. 

 James looking for more eggs.

 Laine hoping that there was an egg in the tree.

 Eve with all her brightly colored eggs.

Later that evening we had Grammy and Poppa over to dye Easter eggs. Everyone had a lot of fun and we only dropped one!

The next morning the kids were excited to look for their eggs. They got up super early and had to find their assigned colored eggs. Matty's was right in the middle of of the floor. I put him down on the floor in the hallway and he took off as soon as he saw it. He then spent the rest of the egg hung pushing the egg around the floor.

 James had a lot of fun searching for his eggs. Some were easy...

 ...and others were hard.

 James was actually really nervous that one was hidden in the fireplace. He was concerned that we might have started a fire in the fire place and the egg would have burnt. Funny thing is, we've never had a fire in that fire place in the two years we have lived here.

Then it was the moment I was most dreading and anticipating of the holiday- picture time.

There needs to be a little history here.  Two years ago was our first Easter as a family. Christian and I had gotten home from our honeymoon the day before. There were no Easter clothes, plus it was also General Conference so no church to attend to buy Easter clothes for. So no picture. Last year when I tired to take Easter pictures it was a horrible experience. We couldn't get one picture and it ended up with several of us in tears.  So this year I was super worried, turns out that I didn't need to worry about it.

James was so super handsome in the suit he picked out himself. We kept telling him he looked like Uncle Adam when he goes to work.

Eve loved her butterfly dress we found for her. She loved that it twirled.

 Laine decided this year she was too old for frilly dresses and so I took her to Old Navy where she picked out this very pretty ensemble.

I had the hardest time finding an Easter outfit for Matty. Everything was pink and purple and just not what I was looking for. I found this outfit tucked away in a back corner! He looked stellar in it, he looked even better later in the evening when he had pink marshmallow all over it.

Happy late Easter everyone! 

James turns five

We had a big birthday in our house on Monday. James turned the big five.  He is a delightful smart little boy.  He is reading third grade books before entering school. He is writing very well (except that he can't seem to remember that the same word should fit on the same line and words should have spaces between them) and his teachers have been working with him on basic math. He is also a very funny boy. He goes around the house all the time saying "I'm silly." and then he will do something very silly.  He is my big helper around the house completing chores and shadowing me. He is also the best big brother always making sure his little brother is taken care of and loving to be with him. 

James started his special day insisting that I take the a picture of what he calls his monkey statue.  Below is the picture of James as the monkey statue, 

James got to have whatever he wanted for breakfast (chocolate cereal), for lunch (McDonalds, they have a playland), and dinner (spaghetti and meatballs).

He also decided that he wanted a Cars strawberry cake.

 We had a small party. James picked two friends that he wanted over. I was so happy that he chose his cousins Atty and Boston. I love that he is close friends with his cousins.

 He got some great presents including the bike he had been asking us for the last two months.

 He really liked the light-up Spider-Man helmet too.

James is a bright happy boy and we are so lucky and grateful to have him in our family.

Matthew- 9 months

Time just flies by and I now have a this three toothed, crawling, standing, edging his way around furniture baby. He is also eating big boy food. The way that kid piles away bananas, grapes, meatballs, french toast, puffs, cheerios, blueberries...well let's just say that he eats a whole lot. He loves spaghetti and meatballs though, fits right into this family with that love. He also got his first taste of watermelon on Sunday and thought that was probably the best thing he ever ate. 

He is growing quickly and is always on the move. I don't think he can sit still for even one second. It has been fun to watch him grow and discover new things every day.

Of course this growing and moving has made it difficult to take his picture so after many attempts we finally had to put him by his current favorite toy the plastic eggs to make it work. 

Matt also enjoys many other things. He loves banging on the piano and will stand up on his tiptoes and reach for the keys. He finds it even better when his sisters will lift him on the piano bench and he can properly reach them.

I say that he is our big boy but he is still very little when compared to averages.  We took him for his nine month check up and though his is in great health he has only gained a half pound since his last appointment. He is now sitting at  17.12 lbs and 26.75 inches putting him in the 5 and 7 percentiles respectively. So I am wishing I had his metabolism and torn between hoping that he will grow and relieved that I don't have to buy him new clothes anytime soon.