Happy Birthday Part 2....

William started the morning out right by opening all his presents...

He got his first RC vehicle from Grandma...he loves it!

We gave him a large Marble Run set.  He had a small one, but it is pretty limited, so this was great!  He and Charlie love it!

Will had the breakfast of champions on the way to the Metro station... Krispy Kreme!

The building museum has a new exhibit which is right up a little boys alley... Huge blue blocks which you can build an infinite number of things with!

Daddy, William, and I built this castle, there was a secret way in and it actually withstood quite a few kids playing with it!

Happy 5th Birthday William!

William woke up early, in true birthday fashion, and wanted to open his presents.  He got a really nice variety.  Lots of Lego sets, 2 shirts, a puzzle, a Volcano experiment set, lots of books, his marble run set, a RC monster truck, a Batman City Jail, and a new dinosaur to add to his collection.  He also got some money and a new sled, which ironically looks like it will come in handy tomorrow!  We left Charlie home to hang out with Grandma and went in to the city on the Metro.  Will loves the National Building Museum so we headed there for a few hours.  He had a good time and it was nice only focusing on one child.  I think this is going to be the new birthday tradition.  We had lunch out and then played a while longer, and hopped the train home.  We had Noodles and Co. for dinner, which is William's favorite.  He had a cupcake with a candle in it and we sang one more time.  He got to pick a movie to watch, and he picked Peter Pan, one of my favorites!  We are supposed to bring cupcakes to preschool tomorrow, but with some major snow in the forecast, I am just not sure what will happen!  I am looking forward to his 5 year well child to see how much he has grown.  I know he has gained a lot in height!  I can't believe how quickly time has passed!  I am glad I was able to give him a great birthday despite all the craziness we are experiencing right now...I hope all his birthdays are as happy as this one!

Happy Birthday William! or How to make a BirthDAY into a Birth Week...

Posing for the official, forced 5 year old picture...

Another attempt at the picture...

I ended up liking this candid one better than any of my forced ones!

William was kinda wierded out when being sung to...

His big moment!

We then headed out to beat up the pinata...William was pretty disturbed by us beating up his dinosaur...

Whitney (William's future wife) knew what she was doing and kept whopping that sucker!

Sweet little Stella, who only weighs about 25 pounds, was very good at smacking that T Rex!  The women ruled!

Charlie gave the pinata a few good whops, while William played the classic brother and blew raspberries...

Taylor gave it all it she had!

Finally, the kids got the sucker open and the candy party began!

Poor thing was left hanging in the tree...

William made up a whole story for Uncle Solon about the dinosaur...He looks captivated!

This represents Part 1: The Party.  It was a great big crazy loud wild bash.  Everyone had a great time and William got a goody bag, which seems to be the most important part to him.  He had 8 kids and 10 adults so we had a full house!

Zoo Day...

Technically this isn't from the zoo, but we did bring the sand table upstairs onto the deck so Charlie could use it more often. 

Will watching the sealions...

Clearly, this is the saddest child ever to ride this Fenec Fox...

Will and Charlie laughed every time the otter pushed off the window. 

The new carosel at the National Zoo is really great.  It's got lots of interesting animals to ride...

Charlie seemed to think this boulder wasn't placed properly...

I was really needing to clean the floors for the birthday party on Saturday so Jason offered to take the boys to the zoo.  I am so, so thankful that he did!  I hate these wood floors with a passion!  They are so much work, and they get gross so fast.  I feel like I could sweep them 100 times and day and then I still have to mop!  I loved carpet! I miss just being able to vacuum and then steam clean 2 or 3 times a year.  Anyway.  We are all set for what seems to be William's Birthday week.  He is having a party tomorrow 8 kids, his actual birthday on Tuesday, when Jason and I will take him to the Building Museum downtown, and then out to dinner at Noodles, and then Wednesday he has a class party at school!  Way more than we got as kids!  Such is modern life.  I can't believe how fast these 5 years have flown by.  I love seeing him grow though and he says such funny and interesting things... like "Dad, is this book Fiction?" and " Where is the chapstick that has our flag on it from when we had a king?" (The tube of chapstick has a British flag on it.)  Oh, William.  I have no idea what we did with our time before we had you to entertain us!

Another Belated Post...

Sorry these have been so few and far between.  I am done working full time again, but life just doesn't slow down.  Things were recently complicated by my illness.  I had a case of Pancreatitis that landed me in the hospital followed by a series of Dr visits.  The boys have been fine through all of this though, and thankfully I have Jason and my Mom to fall back on.  We still have no idea what is happening with Jason's job, so we have no idea if and or when we will be moving.  As a family I feel like we have hit the lowest spot we have ever been in.  Stressed to the max with no end in sight.  The kids are pretty much unaware of it however, and life has changed very, very little for them.  I am trying to cling to the pluses of our situation, like the fact that we have lots more time together, and my illness came at a time when it wasn't difficult to figure out how to manage the kids.  We are gearing up for the two big birthdays coming up.  William is turning 5 in a little less than 2 weeks!  Shocking!  Charlie is turning 2 a month from tomorrow, which is depressing.  My baby will not be a baby for much longer.  He is already changing so much each day, and I know that it will only speed up as time goes by.  Will has decided on a Star Wars theme for his big day and I think we will do Jake and the Neverland Pirates for Charlie.  Will's parent teacher conference was a couple of weeks ago, and we, along with the teacher have decided that he will benefit from one more year of Pre-K.  He really needs to get a little more mature before he can manage all that is required in Kindergarten.  It is such a different place than it was when we were little.  It's full day here, 5 days a week, with ONE recess of 20 minutes.  He is just not mature enough for that much time sitting yet.  We are going to focus on getting ready for it this year and try it for the 2014 school year.  I was kinda shocked by the idea at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I could see that it was a good idea.  We shall see.  So many of these things you just can't know which way is the right way to go....All we can do is make the best choice we can at the time. 

Busy Busy Boys...

Charlie loves to swing, so much so that we keep him from seeing them as long as we can, because once he sees it, he wants to do nothing else!

One day Charlie went up to his room and was unusually quiet, and this is how Jason found him...Poor little man!

Charlie has discovered the joys and challenges of going UP the slides, just like his brother...

Here they are teaming up for the ascent!

This picture reminds me of Will, at this same age, in the same coat... ( :

Will is desperately trying to learn the monkey bars...

All the worlds a STAGE!

Charlie is such a little Simmons.  I see very, very little of my side in him...

But William is almost entirely my side! I will have to find the pictures of me at 5 and compare...

We finally got some snow!  Will threw a snowball just as I was taking this picture!   He is wearing his new glasses in this picture, and his new Minnesota level coat...

Charlie was ready to play in the snow, and was very upset when we finally made him come in.  He and Will slid down the hill over and over on the sled.  It made me so happy to see them playing together.  We are seeing more and more of them being "brothers" and I love it!

Bits and Bots...

Uncle Solon and family gave William a "Make your own racecar kit" for Christmas, and he had a great time making it!

We had a little bit of snow, still not enough to sled in, much to Charlie's dismay...

Will made the most of it...

He even ended up taking a snowball in the eye in a tough match up against Daddy...

A tiny little snowman with glasses ended up on the porch.

At Target they have this kit that makes water turn into this thick goop.  I have seen it and thought it would be fun to try, but at 9 bucks, I have always turned away.  After Christmas they had a small version from the stocking stuffer section on super clearance for 89 cents, which meant we had to try it!

Will clearly enjoyed it.  It was a huge mess by the end and I don't think we will be doing it again!