Our Days of Late

We've come out of birthday season another year older, fully celebrated, and ready for another year!  We're enjoying longer days and signs of spring everywhere!  And as much as I want to get out my shovel and start planting things, I realize there are at least several more snow storms in our future--March is the snowiest month in Colorado, after all. We've got our sights set on one more ski day, maybe two.

Here are some things going on in our world these days:

Jacoby had to have endocrinology testing done at the end of February.  Several recent blood tests came back showing low morning cortisol levels, which raised some concern among our doctors.  Our tough guy handled getting an IV on his own, followed by about 90 minutes of periodic blood draws.  And in the end, it all came back perfectly normal.  It's just a tad frustrating he had to go through the whole thing in the first place, but we never complain about normal results!  We went to the Lego Movie that afternoon, which we all really enjoyed, and it chased all our testing blues away.

Morgan is the master builder behind many forts and various creations using all of the living room furniture.  Don't plan to sit down at our house if you visit.  (:

And lest you think Justin was forgotten on his birthday, he was celebrated with a special dinner, cake, and new pull-up bar thingy.

 

I have enjoyed beautiful sunrises on my long, early morning runs.  These, along with pounding out many miles of pavement under my feet, have been my sanity-savers of late.  However, nothing has tested my sanity more in the past 10 days than this deplorable rash covering 85% of my body.  TMI?  Let me just say after literally wanting to peel every inch of skin off of my body, I have a new-found sympathy for those who struggle with chronic skin issues.  The diagnosis: atopic excema.  Really?!  That's just fabulous.  I finally got the prescription today and am hoping to finally sleep without the aid of expired children's benadryl and maybe wake up feeling like a more normal human being tomorrow.

On a much brighter note, the boys and I visited our favorite garden center this last weekend to pick out seeds for our garden.  I'm hoping to grow flowers from seeds this year too and plan on trying out DIY seed tapes.

The boys, very delicately handling the seeds.  They definitely know the drill now that we've done this a few years in a row.  We have lots of bulbs coming up all over our yard and the grass is turning green.  I love these early signs of spring!

Here are our mini green houses

Jacoby loves to read.  We are so, so grateful for this.  Morgan cannot wait to be able to read like his brother.  He's already doing it a fair bit with small words.  That boy is definitely ready for school!

Jacoby has run 50 miles in the 100-mile club!  He earned a special pencil.  

Best conversation this week:

Jacoby: "Mommy, what are the small guys called, the ones that are green and are about 2 inches tall?"

Mommy:  Huh?

Jacoby:  "Oh, I know!  They're leprechans!  They came out last night while we were asleep and left cookies for our class on Ms. O's desk.  And they knew about me, Mommy, because they left one of my special cookies for me."

Mommy:  Sniff.  Tears.  Sniff.  Note to self: write a thank you to the teacher for doing such a good job with Jacoby's allergies this year

I forgot to post Morgan's birthday interview last week, so here it is:

What is your favorite thing to do?  Play with Legos

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A Jedi

What is your favorite food?  Cookies

Who do you like to spend time with?  Mommy (:

What do you really do well?  Build with blocks

What makes you laugh?  Doing something naughty with Jacoby

What is the best time of day?  Afternoon and going outside

What are you afraid of?  Zombies, monsters, and vampires

Who is your best friend?  J, G, and L (preschool friends)

What do you like to do with your family?  Go camping

What do you love to learn about?  Rockets

Where do you like to go?  Montana

What is your favorite book?  Star Wars

If you had one wish what would it be?  To have another Lego set

Are you excited for Kindergarten?  "I want to be in first grade with Jacoby"

Morgan E. is Five!

 Well, friends, my little one is five years old.  Can you believe it?!  He's a special kiddo and we love him to pieces.  His birthday fell on a preschool day, so he received lots of special attention.  He also brought Lego crayons and notebooks to school, which were a hit.

 Legos were on the top of the gift list, and Morgan was proud to finally receive a couple of his own "big" sets.  Big Brother did a lot of helping and instructing as Morgan put the sets together.

 A camping, cookie cake

Then we invited our esteemed guests over for a camping party today

 No party at our house is complete without cake pushpops...these were s'mores.  Yum!

 The tent and a few trees came out to create Camp Morgan.

 All set to paint bird houses for one of our activities

 One happy, five-year old, camper

 Cake pushpops, roasted marshmallows, and popcorn for treats

 Busy campers at work

 Morgan brought out his fishing pole and showed M. and A. how to catch the magnetic fish.  They set up camp and were cooking fish over the campfire for quite awhile.

 We roasted marshmallows, which was fun and dangerous all at the same time!

We went outside for a nature scavenger hunt. Party favors were binoculars, collapsible canteens, and chapstick.

 The four friends

Love this pic!

Jacoby and Morgan's birdhouses.  These will find a home in our garden this spring.  Morgan says a blue jay will probably live in his blue house.  I agree.

And that, my friends, concludes the 2014 birthday season.  

This mama is on her way to bed for some recovery.  Over and out.

Jacoby is Seven!

We had an awesome day celebrating Jacoby's seventh birthday.  To say the last seven years have flown by would be an understatement.  We are so proud to be the parents of this boy and love watching him grow, learn, and become his own person.

So, on to the day:

Our theme was Legends of Chima by Lego.  Yes, technically our second Lego party, but a much-loved activity in our house.

 Jacoby invited two friends from school.

 Building Chima speedorz was our main activity at the party.

 Birthday treats were cake push-pops, popcorn, blue jello 7's, and blue punch.

 Busy building their speedor racers.

 Racing their speedorz

 And having a great time!

 Ready to eat and celebrate!

 Opening presents 

 Trying to get four boys to pose for a picture...hmmm.

 Playing our favorite Lego bingo game.

 The birthday boy and his latest Lego creation: Cragger's Commandship (Lego Chima set)

 He's quite the master builder.  This was not the only set he received today, and he did manage to complete 2 out of the three before and after the party.  I asked if his brain hurt, but he said no.  (:

Lego crayons and notebooks are going to school tomorrow to serve as our birthday favors for the class.

Birthday Interview

1.  What is your favorite thing to do? build with Legos

2.  What do you want to be when you grow up? be a Lego instruction maker

3.  What is your favorite food? pizza

4.  Who do you like to spend time with? A. (friend from school and party attendee)

5.  What do you do really well? I play and build things with Legos

6.  What makes you laugh? Morgan

7.  What is the best time of day? evening and playing with friends

8.  What are you afraid of? nothing

9.  Who is your best friend? L. (friend from school and party attendee)

10.  What do you like to do with your family? play games

11.  What do you love to learn about? dinosaurs

12.  Where do you like to go? Montana

13.  What is your favorite book? Yoda Chronicles

14.  If you had one with what would it be? build all the Lego sets on my wish list

Happy Birthday, Jacoby!

February Happenings

Our days have been busy.  Warmer temps have come and melted the snow away, so we've been enjoying some much needed time outside.  The boys are doing really well.  We had a good parent/teacher conference with Jacoby's teacher.  He's doing great in first grade and we're really pleased with his teacher and progress.

Justin continues to work extremely hard on his dissertation.  He's hoping to have it mostly completed by the time he starts teaching his graduate course at the end of March.  I'm working hard to keep my head above water.  I found out on Friday that I'll be able to stay at home on Tuesdays and Thursdays this summer with the boys.  So looking forward to it!
   

 Jacoby's Valentine's Day box

The boys' Valentines

 Always doing art projects...

 I found winter coats and boots for the next few years at the thrift store...all for $17!

 We've been watching the Olympics, and sometimes we have picnic dinners too

 The boys got a Lego table (my first Ikea hack) and small Lego sets for Valentine's Day

 We spent a lot of time outside, enjoying the beautiful weather.  The piles and piles of snow have melted, for now.

 Jacoby has been saving his allowance for weeks and did some extra chores to be able to make a special purchase

 And here it is...he's been talking about this set for awhile.  He put it together all by himself.

 Snack at the park

 Enjoying the three-day weekend...a typical morning at our house

 An upcoming event next weekend...Jacoby invited a couple of friends over from school.  We're excited to celebrate his special day.

A Ski Day & A Birthday

We went up to Winter Park for the day to ski.  The boys took a half day lesson, so Justin and I got in a few runs on our own.  The mountains have gotten a ton of snow, so the skiing was great and the boys had a lot of fun too.

They were the only two kids in their lesson, so they got a lot of one-on-one time with the instructor. They went on the chair lift and skied the green runs.

It was a beautiful day in the mountains...I heart Colorado (even when our team doesn't bring home the Vince Lombardi Trophy)!

 When we picked them up, the boys wanted to show us what they had learned.  Word on the street is that Morgan E. likes nothing better than to point his skis straight down the hill and let 'em go!  This should not surprise me in the least!

 Jacoby is more cautious and controlled (thank goodness one of them is!) and he's ready to start making turns, etc.

 Did I mention that Morgan thought he was going to be taking ski jumping lessons?!  Guess I know what we'll be watching on the Olympics!  They were pretty whipped by the end of the lesson.

 

In other news, the boys sleep together on the weekends.  They are still crazy about Legos and incorporate them into all aspects of their play.  School is going really well for both.  Jacoby just started the 18th Junie B. Jones book (she's now a first grader too!).  We finished up Freckle Juice and are reading Paddington Bear together.  I think we'll move back into the world of Roald Dahl this spring.  

 

I had a terrific birthday.  The boys spoiled me with picture frames they painted, a cactus, a laser level (sweet!), flowers, and a lovely dinner.  They made the day very special.