4th Birthday and Questions

Today was Archer's 4th Birthday!! He kept saying, I'm still the birthday boy. He didn't quite understand that his party was Friday and his birthday was today, but it was cute that he was hanging on to his birthday all weekend. I like having a birthday week too, so can't say that I blame him. :) 

His teacher sets it up so that their birthday is their assigned snack day, so we took cupcakes and juice. I didn't get one of him looking, but here he is at school! 

We had his party on Friday, but today we had a little celebration at home, just us. When he came in from school he was surprised with his presents. 

Then we had lasagna for dinner, not his request but something he always eats well. And since his candle blowing at his party didn't really work out (too windy), we did it again at home and sang happy birthday. He loves being sang happy birthday to. :)

When it was bed time Mommy read him 4 of his new books, snuggled, and sent him to snuggle with Daddy since he leaves tomorrow for work. But just before bed, I asked these birthday questions. I found these after his 3rd birthday but I asked them this winter so that we would have something to compare to this birthday. It is so neat to see the difference just a few months made in his answers. 

1. What is your favorite color? Red, blue
2. What is your favorite toy? The dragon and the knights
3. What is your favorite fruit? Apples
4. What is your favorite tv show? Pocoyo
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Raviolis
6. What is your favorite outfit? Batman
7. What is your favorite game? Hide n Go Seek
8. What is your favorite snack? Grapes
9. What is your favorite animal? My sheep (when asked for a "real animal" he said, A real sheep)
10. What is your favorite song? Imma Be
11. What is your favorite book? Batman
12. Who is your best friend? Rysen (Brysen)
13. What is your favorite cereal? The one with marshmallows in
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Slide, play in my sandbox too
15. What is your favorite drink? Tea
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Georgie
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Oatmeal
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Cake
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Superman
21. Who is your favorite superhero? Batman

Happy Birthday to my big boy! Mommy loves you so much. :) 

Party Time!

Today was Archer's big 4th birthday party! He had so much fun and I'm relieved baby brother didn't interrupt our party plans.

This year we had a superhero theme. I didn't do nearly as much as last year, just a few balloons and primary colors everywhere.

The cupcakes were banana flavored with banana cream cheese icing (which melted with the addition of the food coloring) and funfetti with whipped icing. The toppers were little rings. It was super messy. lol

We only played one game this year, which was spray the bad guy. The kids were rounded up and sprayed cartoon villains with silly string. I found the idea on a blog and pinned it here. It was a little difficult to maneuver with a ton of kids, my advice would be to use water guns and laminated pictures and make it a race or something. But we had lots of littles, so I just let them share the silly string and spray at random.

The party was fun, stressful, and not something I ever plan to do 9 months pregnant again. I love going all out for birthdays and I just didn't have the energy this year. I wanted to do so much more game wise and decoration wise, but Archer was thrilled. My mom picked him up from school and he walked up to the party just a few minutes early saying, "It's Archer's party day!" Made my heart happy.

We're going to have another birthday bash at home on Monday with a few presents and his favorite dinner. It was a great day and this pregnant momma is worn out. More later. :)

Archer's 4th Birthday Plans

I've had a few people ask, so I'm making a list of things Archer might enjoy for his birthday. 

Fall/Winter clothes (size 5 pants, slim if possible; 4T shirts)

New superhero or any boy dress up stuff

Coloring and preschool activity books

Crayons/markers/supplies

Art pads

Play-doh

Paper Jamz guitar

Big dinosaur figurines 

A boy "La La Loopsie" doll

Age appropriate Wii games

Fisher-Price Imaginext Batman action figures

Fisher-Price Imaginext Eagle Talon Castle action figures

Books (Mercer Mayer "Little Critter," Berenstain Bears)

Board games (Hi ho Cherrio, Chutes and Ladders, Jenga, Trouble etc; We have candyland already)

His room is decorated with sports stuff. He isn't really a fan of toys with lots of pieces or parts and I would prefer not to have toys with super small parts just in case baby brother finds them. He enjoys legos some but gets frustrated with them easily if he can't build with them. 

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's the 25th, which means my birthday has come and gone. 

It was a quiet affair this year. After last year, I just wanted something simple. You see, last year I wanted to lessen the blow of turning 25 by having a little party and I asked for a really pretty cake. That was it. Well, the people invited to the party blew off my birthday, which really, really hurt my feelings. And Chance sort of screwed up the cake. In the end, we spent my birthday alone at home watching tv which was really depressing.

This year an awesome friend planned a dinner for my special day with some of our friends. We had sangria margarita swirls (awesome) and she got her dinner free because it had a bug (disgusting). But we had fun, that was the most important part. 

Chance got me some really great gifts, something different this year since we're actually not poor like we usually were in the past. :) Can I just say how much I love amazon gift wish lists? He got things directly off my list like the smart man he is.

Now it's back to the usual grind of massive amounts of homework, a hectic work life, and keeping track of a very busy three year old.

That's All I Want to Hear About Casey Anthony

I'm sure I'll be slammed for my opinion on some level, but I'm so sick of hearing about the Casey Anthony trial. I haven't watched a single minute of trial coverage and have only read an article or two.

It was a tragedy that a baby died like that, won't deny it. But the only reason people care is because of the publicity level. So many children are treated this badly and worse on a daily basis. There is so much public outrage and anger over something that no one can do anything about, for Caylee, yet there are children being abused and witnessing abuse on a daily basis. Where are the cries for injustice for the children who suffer in silence. Depending on your religious beliefs, Caylee is no longer suffering, and possibly even in a better place. But what about the little boy who was in the news recently for being beaten, tied up, and prostituted out for his mother's drug habit? Not only did he suffer for so long, but the physical and emotional repercussions of that incident will torture him for the rest of his life. That to me is much worse than being in a place of no more pain. Where is the outrage for him?

Next on my list is, if there wasn't enough evidence to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, the burden being 100% on the prosecution, how can someone blame the jury? Juries must be unbiased and they must be able to make a decision based on what is provided in court. I've seen so many posts blaming the jury, but they only make decisions with what they are given. The prosecution can say that they "knew the truth" but they didn't, and they didn't prove her guilty. I know so many people are upset at the decision, but I would much rather live in a country that demands the innocent be proven guilty than a place that doesn't even allow us a trial to prove innocence.

Last thing, facebook is currently littered with posts about God being the one who will take care of Casey. But, in all honesty, if Casey is a Christian who has repented her sins, all she has to do is ask forgiveness. Sure, God will provide some punishment, but if she is saved and has repented, she will not "rot in Hell."

The Bible states: “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation” Mark 3:28-30 Which I interpret as the only unforgivable sin is blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, which means that even murder is forgivable.

So really, this was just a soapbox post for me, but I really needed a place to vent my frustrations at my newsfeed. Feel free to agree or disagree; just know this is all I have to say on the matter unless you can provide me with necessary reasons as to why I should change my stance.

Water, please.

Lately, I feel like this is the place I come to vent my opinions and get on my soap box. That was never the intention of this blog, so I hesitate to do it. BUT, here it is.

CNN recently posted a story about what doctors recommend for kids to be drinking. While I realize from the article that they are including teens as children, I have to sit here and think, DUH.

Doctors have recently recommended that the primary drink of children should be.....water. Really? Never would have guessed that. I never buy juice or soda for Archer. He really only likes apple juice because that's what he has at daycare, so I'm not giving him more. It's just so much sugar. His sweet treat drink is chocolate ovaltine, and he gets that once in the morning and once after dinner, which is probably too much but it's the only sugar he gets at home other than grapes. I don't buy cookies or snacks often, and when I do it's 100 calorie cookies and he gets one pouch. He thinks the best sweet snack is honey on whole wheat toast.

I don't worry so much about the milk because, at almost three, he's still only about 27 pounds. But I want to set a precedent that sweets are just for moderation. I occasionally let him have soda at a restaurant, but only because he doesn't like anything sour like lemonade and most kool-aid type drinks, or even clearer sodas like ginger ale or sprite. He will drink root beer, but nothing like coke that's really carbonated.

I didn't drink soda until I was much older than he is, only ever water. I still love to drink water, but my body craves the sugar and soda. A nasty habit I need to kick. I lost 20 lbs in college not drinking any soda, and I wish it was that easy for me now. I only had caffeine free soda during my pregnancy, and relied much more on green tea and juice for my sugar fix. I wish it were that easy when I didn't have as much motivation to do so.

Anyway, I guess the point of my soapbox is, sugary drinks are not for kids. Limit juice, gatorade, kool-aid, etc and give them water. There are lots of flavored waters out there if that's what it takes, but really, teach them to love water. It will make their weight management later in life easier, lower their risk for diseases like diabetes, and make them healthier people overall.

Facebook, you homewrecker!

My local news station is doing a piece on how facebook ruins marriages. There are divorce attorneys coming on using statistics like social network sites are involved in 50% of divorces.

It’s not really the story that bothers me, but the message it sends. Facebook is an incredible place to catch up with people you haven’t talked to in a long time, or leave a short note for your mom telling her you love her. It’s a place to share photos of your children with family members who live far away. It’s also a place that people are catching up with high school sweethearts, college lovers, and that person in the workplace you once had great chemistry with. Is that a bad thing? Possibly, if you’re married or in a committed relationship. Is facebook to blame? No. They don’t force you to message that person you know you shouldn’t. They don’t force you to then meet up with them or pursue any kind of relationship, emotional or physical.

One thing I've heard of a ton of couples doing is creating a couples facebook page. One pastor is even suggesting his congregation do this. Can I just say, I have no issue with that. If you want a couples page, that's fine. But please, don't think for a second that if you have a spouse who would use facebook to cheat won't find some other way to cheat. Don't think they won't (ps, I know that's a double negative, but I like how it sounds) create a page and keep it a secret.

This is a bit of a soapbox issue for me, but honestly, it’s not acceptable to blame someone/something for your personal decisions. If your relationship is causing you to seek out someone else, talk to your significant other about it, not someone else. Seek counseling, not another person. I think our current society, one in which the most pleasurable thing that you can get the quickest, we go after those quick fixes that make us feel good. I wish that we, as a race of humans, instead weren’t so proud to ask for help when we need it, for ourselves and our relationships.

I have, fortunately, never personally been in a situation of infidelity, but I mostly just hate hearing people blame a social networking site or other third party cause for something so complex as a marriage. There are so many other factors involved that you cannot put it off on something so simple as facebook.

I found this very insightful article when searching “Facebook Ruined My Marriage” (which is what the local news article searches for info on their article). It has basically the same tone as this blog, except with a first hand account from a woman who actually cheated on her husband of 20 years after reuniting with her long lost high school sweetheart. Thought I would share for anyone interested.

Happy Birthday to the Hubby!

We kicked off the Birthday Month today with my wonderful husband's birthday. He turned 25 today also, we are 17 days apart. He's concerned about being old, but not nearly upset as I was/am/will be. Twenty Five!! Eek. We went out to eat (on an actual date) on Saturday while my little sister babysat. We both had great food at Johnny Carinos and we both had dessert. Last night we went to his favorite Mexican place after work, very spur of the moment.

Today on my way home from work I stopped in the grocery store and got some cheapie cakes and candles. I generally always make him a cake, but that's when I'm not working 40 hour weeks, driving 2 hours a day, and going to school 6 hours a week on top of that.

So, since I know you sneak and read my blog, Happy Birthday Babe. I love you. Hope you had a great day!

He thought it was his birthday and kept saying, "Mine?"

Poll: Birthday Cake

Birthday Post again!! In honor of my 25th Birthday, I have asked my amazing huband (whose Birthday is today actually) to order a professional cake for me. I told him to pick out the cake, and decide what decorations etc.

I love anything coconut. I also love German Chocolate. I'm a big chocolate and peppermint fan, so maybe cake people do things like that? I don't know, it's not up to me.

Poll Time:
What's your favorite cake? Flavors, layers, professional, home made, etc?

Survey: Best Gift Ever

In the weeks leading up to my birthday, I am planning what to ask to get as gifts for my birthday. My question is, what's the best gift you've ever been given?

Party, party!!!

Archer's very first birthday party was great!

We ended up having about 40 people, close friends and family. We had it at an outside pavillion in the park. The weather was perfect, but slightly windy. Archer has several cousins who all spent their time playing happily while the adults visited.

Arch loved when everyone sang Happy Birthday, and he LOVED his cupcake! He just shoved it right into his little face! : ) Daddy gave him some ice cream and cleaned him up while Mommy got all the presents rounded up!

He was so cute with the presents. He tried to pull the paper off my BFF's present when we rode with her in her car, so I knew he wouldn't have a problem opening them! He just ripped right into the first one, and opened them all the way to the end. And, man were there a TON of presents. He got several books and outfits, a hat, a dump truck, a wagon, some little cars and toys and 2 (got that), 2 trains.

One is an alphabet train, that he loves, although he does sit on the attachment and not the actual seat. And the other is a Thomas train. He's not really feeling the Thomas train much, but I think he will once he's a little bigger.

His favorite toy today was a music table my SIL got him.

All in all, it was a great day!

48 cupcakes later, I'm exhausted and going to bed!!

Getting Ready to Party!!

I have all the supplies I need: plates, cups, napkins, silverware.

I bought the cake mixes, because I'm a cheater. And I have the ingredients for the frosting. I bought a few trays from walmart to put everything on.

There isn't really a theme, but everything I've bought so far is green.

My best friend is coming early Friday to help me set up and I haven't seen her in 3 weeks, so I'm ready!!

Lastly, our backyard is a wreck! We had been saving our old couch to maybe give to my nephew or use in case of an emergency, I don't really know what we were thinking. But, with the prospect of birthday toys, plus the ones we have already bought, the couch is getting trashed.

Chance carried it out Sunday, but has yet to take it to the city dumpsters. We also have a dryer behind the garage that went out last week that needs to go to the dumpsters too.

The entire yard needs mowing, and the front needs weed-eating. My tomato plant is in shambles and needs cleaned up too.

Everything else would be great if the stinking, dying neighbor cat would stop getting it's nastiness on everything. Both of our lawn chairs have been scummed up with nasty hair, and then flies just swarm to where the hair is, it's really gross.

I've been trying to clean a little each day, so that just in case anyone wants to come hang out after my entire house will be nice and clean! Ready for it to be over with!

Grrrr

The toy we ordered for Arch's birthday is supposed to be delivered today.

It is on the UPS truck according to Amazon.

So here I sit, waiting, clothed, while my bath is waiting for me because it's raining and I don't want the stinking UPS guy to leave it on the porch.

Should have used FedEx. I know the FedEx guy, I would trust him to put it between the glass and the other door.

But no, now I have to wait.

ETA:
Toy came at 4:25, now my bath water is cold.

Archer enjoying his NEW TRUCK!

My dad left Archer's present, a tonka dump truck out the other night when we went out, and he just flocked to it. He loved it soo much, he just kept pushing it around the whole time we were in the house!

Operation Toybox Clean-up has Begun

So far, I KNOW that Archer is getting a few large toy items.

We got him a tricycle that he can use until he's big. He loves it, he's already pushing it around and driving it like a big boy. He even tries to use the pedals.


My parents got him a big Tonka dump truck that he fell in love with instantly. The first thing he did was push it around as soon as my dad took it out of the box. My cousins who are 3 and 5 have one each, and all the kids at my Poppy's love them. They even put the little kids, Archer mostly, in the bucket and drive them around.



And we also ordered that Playhut Mega Playland thing, it's like tunnels and a ball pit. It's supposed to be arriving today. It's 10 total feel long, but the good news is that you can use as many or as few of the tunnels that you want.

His mom said she is buying him a rocking bull. We just don't have room for big toys like that, but Chance's mom always buys things that are useless. I registered for a Bouncinette, and they bought this hideous rocker that didn't match anything we had. Chance wouldn't let me take it back, he said they didn't have to match. It's currently in the closet, Archer has never once sat in it.

So, since the birthday is tomorrow and the party is Friday, it's time to start getting rid of baby toys no longer played with and make room for the big boy toys!

ETA:
Chance's parents have changed direction and got Arch a wagon. Thank the lord.

Birthday Party Invite!

This is the electronic version of Archer's birthday party invitation. I'm not one to spend a lot of money on invites. I've called everyone and sent this via email to everyone who has email. This will just have to do. I'd rather spend our small budget on presents for my sweet boy! : )

Archer's birthday bike!!!

He loved it. He climbed right up to it, swung his leg over, scooted his little butt center on the seat, and took off pushing it with his feet. Then, he started trying to push with the pedals, but his little legs aren't long enough.

Sorry guys, have been trying for an hour and a half to upload a video, but it's just not happening! : ( Guess I'll have to send it to YouTube tomorrow.

Present Idea?

Since Archer could crawl he has been crawling under anything that looks like a hole. You can't prop you head on your hand without him trying to crawl through the nook that is made by your arm and head. Chance suggested he needs a tunnel of some kind, so, after searching, I found this.

It suggests that you can add balls, so I'm sure Archer will love that too! : )

Archer's birthday cake!!

So, I'm totally not a baker, at all. However, Chance's boyfriend had a peanut butter grooms cake. Oh. My. Goodness. It was the best cake ever. It was a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, but still. Awesome. I've been thinking that I wanted to have that same lady make me one, but now I'm thinking I should just make one myself. So, that is the plan.

I found this recipe and a really cool blog and I'm going to try it out this weekend. Here's the cake:

And here is the recipe and blog.