Upon you turning Five

Today you turn five years old. How does time go so quickly right in front of me?  You were just a tiny baby just a few days ago right?

 And now look at you!

  You are an amazing little boy and there are so many amazing things that make you so special.  You are a sensitive soul. You have empathy beyond your own understanding.  It can be for your family, your Eddy, your  friends, and especially your stuffed  'friends' who are taking over our house. You will tell me you love me more than infinity and beyond.You are kind and loving.  You love your Eddy and are kind and gentle with her. When she is frustrating me you will tell me to be patient with her.  You will watch Tangled or Princess Sofia with the same enthusiasm as when watching Spiderman Batman, or Power Rangers.  When we are watching a superhero movie and a part will come up I don't like, you will pat my arm and say, "It is OK, it is just pretend. You don't have to watch this part if you don't want to." You comfort me and while it shows just how caring you are, I laugh because you are comforting me over a movie!   You are bright and creative.  You started a new preschool this year and after many months of adjustment you learned to enjoy it.  You still love being with your moms but you always say you have a good day.  You are learning quickly, you play well with the other children and now you even get into trouble like the other kids!  You are still one of the good kids, but you are getting into age appropriate trouble. Which is a good thing because you are around adults a lot and being with kids is wonderful for you.  You are bashingly loud and destructive in play. You love to build things up and knock it right down. You  make giant messes and then tidy up without being asked. You want to be a farmer when you grow up.  When we drive somewhere and there is a poo smell in there air you tell me that you love that smell because it is a farm smell.  You enjoy seeing tractors and combines working in the fields.  You have a wonderful out look and when things are not going your way, you are more apt to say Ok, or Who Cares and go on than to throw a fit about it. You hate it when I say keep moving forward but  you live that motto every day.  We have a lot of adventures that we enjoy but you are just as happy to stay at home.

Before you were born I listened to a lot of children's CDs to learn songs to sing to you. Most were fun and some really spoke to me.  One that really did was an Elvis song on a lullaby album. "Love Me Tender" brought me to tears every time it came on.  The lines in bold I embroidered and hung in your room because they were so true to me. 

Love me tender,
Love me sweet,
Never let me go.
You have made my life complete,
And I love you so.

Love me tender,
Love me true,
All my dreams fulfilled.
For my darlin I love you,
And I always will.

Love me tender,
Love me long,
Take me to your heart.
For it's there that I belong,
And well never part.

Love me tender,
Love me dear,
Tell me you are mine.
Ill be yours through all the years,
Till the end of time.

(when at last my dreams come true
Darling this I know
Happiness will follow you
Everywhere you go)

You, before you were even born, were my dream come true.  I did not know anything about you at the time I was crying through the lyrics on my way to work in the morning but I knew I loved you more than anything I have ever loved before.  And from the moment you were born, my love for you has just grown. 

 I was blessed the day you were conceived. I was blessed the day I found out I was pregnant. I was blessed the eight and a half months I carried you and helped you grow strong. I was blessed the day you decided it was your day to arrive. I was blessed throughout your delivery and every day since I have been blessed to have you in my life.  You are my everything, the center of my universe and I cannot imagine life without you in it.  I love you my son, my heart.  

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Pumpkin Chunkin 2013

The Jacks have been sitting on the table since the Tuesday before Halloween and they finally started to show their age this week. I rather like how Scary Jack was becoming more menacing and Happy Jack was cuter.  But it was nearing the time if we left them there much longer there were going to liquefy!  

Just two days later.  

We mined the remaining pumpkins for their seeds and loaded everyone up for a trip to the creek bank.  Country living has its bonuses!  

Baylor had two hair cuts this week. One at a Holiday Hair and another the next day at a barber to fix the Holiday Hair horrendous cut. He said it was very uneven all around and to even it it up, there was not much left. But I like it and he looks great.  

On the way to the bank he picked some dandelions for me. 

And then it was time for chunking. He chunked the first one before I was ready but I got most of the rest of them.   Going, going, gone!  

One was stuck at the top just over the drop and you can see the remains of another at the bottom.  He loved it.  It was a good thing! 

Fall happens in about five days in my back yard

The leaves are all down now.  And they are slowly drying up and blowing away.  No raking around here! 

The Sunday after the party (behind I know) Baylor had fun playing in the ice leftover from the cooler.

The plan is in a few weeks we will be adding on to the back of the house.  So I walked around taking photos of the way it was.  

Halloween Party 2013

I was off work for three days to get ready for the Halloween Party we were having on Saturday November 

2nd.  Mom and Dad were in Vermont from Monday to Thursday morning and arrived around 5:30 on Thursday, in time for dinner and to see Baylor off to Trick or Treat.  I worked on the several treats for the party on Wednesday and Thursday and saved some for when Mom was there to help.  Baylor's favorite treat to take to school is a large marshmallow dipped in chocolate and sprinkles with a pretzel stick handle.  I really wanted to make marshmallow monster face pops but with the pretzel handle.  I had to give that up because the pretzel could not be in the pointing down position but sticking up. Then I did not have to worry about paper sticks everywhere also.  I really did not take a lot of photos because I was too busy with the prep and with Baylor.  He went to school in the mornings for the lessons but we picked him up after lunch every day.  Of course he wanted someone to play with all the time, which I cannot blame him. He is a good kid and was patient for the most part to wait until I was done with a project. These he helped with of course.  

The treat table. 

Oreo truffle ghosts made with both vanilla and chocolate oreos. I dipped with the fussy white chocolate and  Mom eyeballed them.  

Witch fingers (softened caramels molded into knuckles on a pretzel rod, dipped in chocolate with an almond fingernail), Frankenstein fingers (green candy coating with an almond fingernail and knuckle wrinkles scored into them) and pretzel rods dipped in chocolate with sprinkles, marshmallows and whatever else I could find. 

The finished marshmallow treats. And carrots with ranch dip because we needed something healthy.  They were actually quite popular!

Sean and Jason were the first to arrive.  They are two of Sarah's boys and Sarah is the preschool teacher at Mrs. Mary's (and Mary's daughter) Baylor and Sean are cut from the same sensitive boy cloth and get a long so well.  He had a boy scout badge quest at noon and then was going to his dad's for the weekend so they were early.  We worked on getting stuff ready while they were there but it was all good.  

I had the craft table in the back with the scratch decorations, foam candy corn magnet frames, and color yourself pumpkin frames.  The food table had meatballs with sauce on the side, hot dogs, rolls, cheese for meatball sandwiches, mac and cheese, caramel dip with slices apples, hot cocoa, coffee, cider, water, and juice boxes.  

I made a photo booth at Baylor's garage and bought some masks, glasses and cheap wigs.  Heather arrived later and brought all her dress up items.  Sarah and the boys were the first to use the photo booth. Her husband apparently has photo issues and would not join her and the kids but that is his loss. I did not get too many photos of people using the booth, it was hard to be everywhere! And I usually did not have my camera on me anyway.  But I stole a few from Facebook!  And I did not get Baylor even near the booth to get one of him.  

Danielle, Addy Leigh, Addie Marie, and Megan. 

Amy, Julie and Cullen. 

Brigid and Connor  

Mandy, Natalie, and Vanessa. 

Robin, Ethan, Kristia, Gavin, Steph and Robin. 

This year I also had a bit of a schedule of events because we had a few special games and events  and I wanted to spread them out during the party.  We had two pinatas and two peanut tosses. Other people took photos during these so I have more photos!   We did the ghost first because he had more girl items and the girls were all leaving soon. I think it took two rounds of whacks to even make a dent in it.  Finally Riley broke it off the hanging strings so I had to rip it open and fling then goodies. 

His ghostly tatters were hit about as much as his paper mache head! 

The peanut toss was a game Lynda did at our family reunion. I had a bucket of peanuts with two orange painted jack-o-lantern painted peanuts.  There were two ways to win, find an orange peanut and pick up the most peanuts.  And why yes, I had purple hair. 

On your March (as Baylor says it), get set, Go! 

Amy came running through and I had to tell her she could not help Cullen. He could handle this. It is a Mom thing I know but it was only a peanut toss after all.  

Sad face was because he did not find an orange peanut and would not look for any more.  You win some, you lose some I suppose was that lesson. 

Edwin, Oliver, Trisha and Cecelia counting peanuts.  

We did the pumpkin pinata second around 3. The kids all took their turns and Tamela's son Santos took a turn.  He thought he would be the big teenager baseball player and whack it open. Not so much on the first try!  But eventually it flew apart and candy went everywhere in the leaves!  

Tara has a lot of photos of the games but I do not.  For posterities sake, I will try to remember them all!  The spider toss had three gold chargers with webs painted on them.  The trick was to throw the spiders on the webs.  

Ring toss, which we did at the Apple Festival. 

Water Squirt game: use the water guns to knock off the eyeball and pumpkins ping-pong balls.  We also had the bucket toss, pumpkin and bat tosses from last year. And a ghost toss with sand balloon ghosts.  We had a plate toss and a scarecrow/hoop toss.    A witch pitch with paper mache witch hats and hoops.  I also had a gourd scavenger hunt with a lot of plain gourds and three covered in glitter.  They were hidden pretty well and I had to give hints to help people find them.  The rule was you had three chances to find the glittery gourds and once you found three you were done.  Robin was trying to get around it by taking other people out to find them with her.  It was cute but again, win some, lose some. 

Lucas found a hat in the booth bin and rocked it for most of the party.  He was playing a magician because he was making himself disappear.  

We also had color your own cookies. We frosted them with royal icing which dries rock hard and it not tasty at all.  But it is a great canvas for food color pens.  I did mine as a sugar skull as it was also Dia de Los Muertos and I am a newly found follower of that special holiday. 

But the best thing we had, at least in Baylor's opinion as he rarely left it was the bounce house.  I rented it for the day and it was delivered on Friday and was staying until Sunday.  It was used well all three days! Thankfully there were not disasters and other than a few scrapes and bumps, all the kids had a good time on it.  

Somehow Baylor was able to tear himself away from the bounce house to play with Lucas in the leaves at the 'doghouse'. They were soo cute!  

And then they piled the leaves on the slide and had so much fun sliding down through them. They did it over and over again taking turns piling it up for each other to slide through. 

And then they doubled up for extra fun!  

Stacey, Marshall and Ian came around 4 and they boys had fun in the leaves too.  

Baylor was good at playing with all his friends and had a wonderful day.  And with all the work, I did too.  I really wish I could have sat more and visited with everyone but the trouble with being the hostess is one is always walking around chit-chatting with everyone and making sure there is food and drink and things are going well.  And I think it did.  

He crashed within minutes of going inside and I wish he had a good night's sleep but while his body was tired, his mind was going crazy apparently.  He woke up several times screaming and asking for his mommy.  I would tell him I was there and he said he wanted his real mommy.  It was long night but eventually he settled down for a good sleep.  I asked him in the morning if he had any bad dreams and he said yes.  I told him about what he was saying in his sleep and he said that was not what he was dreaming about.  He was dreaming about the lobsters hanging from the spider webs and them dropping down.  Weirdo!