Happy Fifth Birthday Dawson!

Dawson,

Today is your fifth birthday, which always makes me a little sentimental.  Five years old means that you are going to be going to kindergarten soon.  I'm so proud of you, little guy!  The crazy stories that come out of your mouth, coupled with your facial expressions keep Daddy and I laughing all day long.  Just an example of one of your funny little stories: recently you told us that you want to be a priest because you don't want to have any kids.  Plus you would like to have a cat so that Carter can't come to visit.

You learn very quickly and have a thirst for information, especially relating to construction and transportation.  When we go to the library you love to choose books about fire trucks, trains, helicopters and construction vehicles.   I notice that you have amazing metacognition skills:  if you want to remember a fact or vocabulary word you will repeat that word or phrase quietly to yourself.

We have been working on learning to read this year and I'm proud to report that you have been deciphering basic words and we are developing a bank of sight words as well.  You even attempted to write a sentence.  I thought you did a great job independently.  Here is what you wrote:  I C a (then you drew a picture of a car.)  Not too bad for a first attempt, we knew you wanted to communicate I see a car.  You are really interested in math especially addition, probably because you see your brother and sister practicing it so much.  It's not unusual for you to come up to me and start quizzing me on my math facts.  I like to play around and say things like 2+3=7 right Dawson?  You laugh and laugh and then correct me.

Dawson, you are so very hard on your toys.  Not because you are destructive, but because you are very interested in how they function.  You want to take things apart to see how they work, and you will use a toy in a certain manner over and over and over to determine how it works.  Unfortunately this leads to broken toys quite often.  Today you have broken two of your birthday toys!

Here is a birthday interview of some of your favorites at five:


favorite color: blue 
favorite toy:  remote controlled train and fire truck
favorite movie or tv show:  Mighty Machines
favorite food:  pigs in a blanket, chips and salsa
favorite outfit:  anything skin tight (no really, you actually said this)
favorite game:  Fishing Game
favorite art activity:  draw
favorite animal:  pig
favorite song:  Carol of the Bells by Trans Siberian Orchestra
favorite thing to play outside:  climbing trees
favorite drink:  milk
favorite holiday:  Christmas
favorite thing to sleep with:  angel baby
What do you want to be when you grow up:  a fireman
What do you like about Ava:  she jumps on the trampoline with me
What do you like about Carter:  we dig in the dirt together
What do you pray for:  my family
What do you like to do with Daddy:  I like to go golfing with him
What do you like to do with Mommy:  I like to do games 
What is your favorite book:  Otis and the Tornado

This interview reminds me of two little personality quirks!  First, you hate clothing unless it is tight and close to your body.  You have a tiny little waist, so I have realized it is vital to find pants that have drawstrings on them so I can tighten them up.  You fit in a 5T for length, but they will fall down in the waist.  If an article of clothing doesn't fit perfectly it typically leads to tears.  Secondly, you also love Carol of the Bells.  It is saved on the hard drive in the car and we listen to it almost every day when I drive you to school.  Even in August......and February........and June.  But it puts a smile on your face, so I don't mind.

As you can see, I took way to many pictures of you for your birthday.  But it was so easy to do this because we were telling jokes and I was getting genuine smiles, laughs and silly faces from you.  Dawson, we love you, little five year old.  It's been wonderful getting to know you the past five years and I can't wait to see what the future has in store.  


Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Birthday Party Fun!!!

Yesterday we had a birthday party for Dawson.  There was no school, and thankfully Daddy was able to join us.  He picked the theme for the party:  fire trucks.  

I love this sweet little smile.  But this is the silly face I typically see:

tongue out, in your face.

Ava's Happy Birthday sign

Carter's Happy Birthday Sign

(I thought those were missiles.  But they are balloons.)

Awww.  Happy Birthday Kids.

We painted fire truck, fire hydrant and fire badge sun catchers.

We ate pizza and snacks.

Of course, Happy Birthday to the birthday boy.

Five years old.

Pinatas are always a hit, plus a great way to get rid of Halloween candy.

Dawson opening presents.

Back home the first thing he opened was his Batman night vision goggles.

Some of the games the kids played at the party:  fire relay race, hook hook ladder (instead of duck duck goose) and hot fire (like hot potato.)

Dawson what was the best thing you remembered about your party?  That Emmie comed to my party.

Love this little stinker.  So glad that we did a friend party this year, so that I could meet all of your friends and get to know them better.

Giving thanks

What a wonderful Thanksgiving!  It was great to see family and friends.

 

 

 

 

All the family.......except Auntie Fishie!  We missed you, but you were busy saving lives. 

 

 

Do you wanna build a snowman?

 

Meme had the kids build a cute snowman out of marshmallows and other treats.  It was funny because Carter and Ava made cute little creations, while Dawson just had two marshmallows on a plate (he ate the rest of it.)

 

 

 

Although we didn't get to see Aunt Margie for Thanksgiving, we did travel down to her house later.  Dawson received a remote control boat for his birthday from Nana, Meme and Bob Bob.  Aunt Margie graciously allowed Dawson to try out his new boat in the bathtub.  What a great Aunt!

 

 

Although Meme and Bob Bob's road is starting to look better, there are still some construction vehicles hanging out.  So we took a walk to explore the "Might Machines."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!  We are so thankful for our family!

More from November

More pictures and stories from November:

Occasionally I can get my phone to take a picture that I really like, and this one is it.  The weather this month has been spectacular and the we have been soaking up every last bit of sunshine.

Nerd alert!  I was so happy to find this animal print sweater, which matches one that Ava already had in her closet.  We get to be twins!!

We were talking Thanksgiving, and this face depicts Ava's feelings on turkey.  She is a ham only girl!

Hooray for Carter!  Student of the month for November!  

I took the kids to the library for some new videos for our trip.  I wasn't planning on getting new books, I really didn't think we would have much time to read them with the holiday.  But they were insistent on picking new books!  I love that they can't even wait to get home, we usually spend twenty minutes or so reading at the library before we leave.

One of Ava's favorite spots:  she loves to take all the pillows off the couch and make a cozy nest back in the corner.

Our Life

 

Just some little recent stories:



 

• Our kids are up to their normal bedtime switcheroo, Ava has decided to sleep in the pink room now.  This leaves Dawson alone in the yellow room.  He hasn't been very happy about this, but it seems to be working in the meantime.  Now we have three sound machines humming upstairs and here is what you can hear:  pan flutes, campfire, rain, thunderstorm and white noise all playing at once.  It's pretty funny to listen to!
• Thankfully Carter has adjusted to his braces.  He is no longer walking around with a wad of Kleenex in his mouth, so we are making progress!

 

 

 

How about the beautiful weather we have been having?  We have been spending afternoons outside every day.  Dawson and I took Shadow to the dog park this week.  Dawson had a ball picking up acorns and putting them into a dump truck.  Shadow had a ball chasing other dogs around, she is a crazy fast runner and was leaping over other dogs that were bigger than her!

 

 

 

 

Miss Ava at her Explorer Girls meeting.  They made blankets to donate to a shelter for abused women/children.  She had such a great time with the other girls. 

 

 

 

Preschool Thanksgiving Performance

On Friday Dawson had his Thanksgiving Performance.  He was so adorable telling me "Mom, you are going to be amazed at how good I am at singing these songs."

I was amazed, he sang loudly and did all the movements.

What a little ham!  Don't you love all the cute little thanksgiving outfits?  I tried to convince him of wearing something a little more festive, but when he came to me dressed in his camo pants and said "Mom, do I look handsome?"  Of course you do little doc, camo pants it is.

If you are looking for some festive Thanksgiving songs, this little guy is your man!  It was so fun to get to see you perform!

First Confession

Today was a big day, Carter had his first Confession.  We have been preparing for this for a couple of months now and he knew his prayers by heart and we have been discussing the ten commandments and reading multiple examinations of conscience.  He was nervous before confession, but afterwards he can running over to me with a huge grin on his face.  He was so proud of himself, as he should be!

As you can see from this picture they did not use the confessionals, but instead the children sat with the priest at various locations in the church.

Later the afternoon he was speaking to me in confidence and he let me know that he confessed to the priest that he uses drugs.  "You know, like my inhaler and tylenol and epi pens and things like that."  Apparently one of the examinations of conscience had mentioned that drug use was a sin.  Then we had a long conversation about the differences between legal and illegal drug use.  I had such a hard time keeping a straight face because all I could think about was the Priest hearing the confession from the eight year old concerned about his drug use.  I wanted to share because I thought this was humorous, but please don't mention this to him because it was a private conversation between the two of us.

Carter boy,  we thank God every day for the amazing blessing you are in our life.  There was A Parent's Prayer they passed out during Confession and I love it so much I want to put it here on the blog as a reminder for me:

Loving GOD,

You are the giver of all we possess,

the source of all our blessings.

We thank you and Praise You.

Thank you for the gift of our children.

Help us to set boundaries for them,

and yet encourage them to explore.

Give us the strength and courage to treat

each day as a fresh start.

May our children come to know you, the one true GOD

and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

may your Holy Spirit help them to grow

in faith, hope and love

so they may know peace, truth and goodness.

may their ears hear your voice.

may their eyes see your presence in all things.

May their lips proclaim your word

may their hands do works of charity.

may their feet walk in the way of Jesus Christ,

your son and our Lord.  Amen