~diary of a birthday kid~

He woke to find his favorite color of the traditional birthday streamers hanging from his door.  Mom had to pull the door shut to get a picture because you wouldn't want to see inside.  If you did, you'd wonder why we even left the house this day at all instead of staying home and cleaning up his room.  

But it was his 8th birthday.  

And we had an adventure planned for the day.

Be advised: photo dump, junk food, sugar, sugar, and more sugar.  Did I mention junk food and sugar? 

Yep.  Looking back at these photos I'm asking myself what i was thinking.  But we had fun.  TONS of fun.  

Just Derek and me. 

 

I told him months ago when we ran into the local gas station that he could have some of these little gems, "maybe for your birthday."

Guess what?  He remembered.  So we ran up to the store and got these for breakfast.

Later in the afternoon, we headed for the "big city" about 40 miles away to visit a few places and take advantage of some coupons. Derek's request for lunch? 

I-Hop. 

This boy loves pancakes.  L.O.V.E.S. T.H.E.M. 

He was too full to finish his plate. 

Somehow he managed to find room for the ice cream the whole staff brought out to him while singing 'Happy Birthday'.  He got a kick out of that!  But he immediately told me to get the red cherries off the top.  He's not a fan of those maraschino ones!

What would you like to do now, Derek?? 

What's that? 

You want to go ride the escalator at the sporting goods store??  Um....OK! 

(It really is the simple things, isn't it??)

I don't typically take pictures including me,

or the inside of a bathroom,

or of me and my kid inside a bathroom,

a really yellow bathroom... 

BUT

today was an exception.

First off, I hope I'm not the only mama out there who still makes her kid go into the woman's restroom with them if need be.

If dad is along or big brother, by all means... head to the men's.

But there are some pretty weird people out there.

And you just never know who's inside!!

And I can't go in to peek.  

So guess what?

He got stuck with me. 

But we thoroughly enjoyed the huge mirror and took advantage of making funny faces and weird poses and I just had to get the camera out and take a few.

(Just glad nobody walked in on us being silly!)  

I'd like to know if there are any other kids out there able to walk by one of these without putting? Mine can't.

Off to Chuck-E-Cheese to use his 20 Free Birthday tokens.

Yep... I'm that kind of mama.

You send us a coupon for something free and I'm there.

Skee-ball never gets old... no matter how old you are!

Some of my favorite photos are the sketches from this place.

We have ones of both the kids through the years but this was the first time I jumped in with him. 

I'm glad I did. I mention on my ABOUT ME page trying to get more pictures including me since I'm always behind the camera.

Slowly but surely it's getting easier.

Off to the book store to pick out a new read.

 Mama got a Grande Carmel Frappaccino, but she shared.  

Derek got his free birthday treat for being part of the Kids Club at the store.  He picked the chocolate brownie with chunks. More than half came home with him for later!

(And yes.. if you are keeping track so far we have donuts, pancakes, ice cream, frap, and brownie. Oh my!!)

We're finally back home and he can try out his new mini basketball that he bought with birthday money from grandpa.

It "works" really good!

What would you like for your birthday dinner Derek?

Red Baron pizza (don't ask!!)

Red potatoes

Frozen Red Grapes

Red Cherry Dump Cake

 It was a RED dinner, indeed.

It is his favorite color after all!

I'll always remember this day with my boy!

It was sweet! 

*************************

Disclaimer:

Not a paid advertisement or endorsement for any product, service, company, or brand.

~easy, crispy, powdery~

Yum! We added strawberries to our Powdered Sugar Crisps but they were good plain, also.  The recipe can be found here if you are interested.  This was a great recipe to use to help teach Derek fractions earlier this school year.  Enjoy!

~page 191~

Being a parent can be really hard sometimes.

We teach and guide and pray that when our children are away from the home that they make good choices.

But we never know what choices they'll be confronted with or what they'll be exposed to once they step out that front door.

That is what scares me most.



Our oldest came home from school one day last week and started telling me about a book that a female classmate was reading.

This book was on the shelf in their classroom, available for anyone to read.  As much as we encourage literacy in our own home, there are some books that are just meant for adult eyes only.

You would never find such a book offered in a school book order or even in the Young Adult section of the library.

I own a copy of the book.  (This particular author is great, but geared toward an adult audience.) 

I ran and got the book and turned to "page 191" and read the four very *descriptive* pages, just like he had at school. 

It was the longest four pages I've ever read in my life.

His wheels were turning. 

Then the questions started.

And kept pouring in...

and going on...

and on.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't mind him asking.

I WANT him to come to us with questions.

I WANT to be the one to tell him the answers.

The correct answers.

Not the "school bus version". 

What gets me was that we even had to have the conversation in the first place.

I was ready to talk, but wasn't ready for him to hear what I had to say.  We've talked before about the same things, but not to this extent.



The conversation went as well as it could have.

I stressed some important things and kept some items for a later discussion or for him to discover on his own.



Sometimes I wish I could keep them young and innocent forever.

To be able to hold their hands and give them security.

But then I remind myself that we are giving them the proper tools to make their own decisions in life.

We have to slowly let go more and more each day, trust them, and watch them grow before our eyes.

It's awesome and scary at the time.

More than anything, I'm glad we've taught them to feel comfortable enough to come to us with any questions.

 That door will always be open.

~I'm guilty...~

Don't ask me why.
I'm just guilty of doing it.
It all started in December.
And it is still happening today.
I was guilty just last night.
And this morning.
I don't even know exactly what it is that draws me so much.
Is it the variety?
The ability to do it wherever I want.
Whenever I want.
It's an addiction.
And I just can't stop.

I'm guilty of cheating on my library....

with my Nook.

I stopped into the library yesterday and you should have seen the looks I got.
The questions I was bombarded with.
The stares.
They all know.
They've heard.
They've seen my empty account in their computers.

But I'll tell you what...
No matter how much I love my Nook ,
NOTHING FEELS BETTER THAN HOLDING THE PRINTED WORD IN YOUR HANDS.
Nothing.
So, I left with my arms full.
With a long receipt that could touch the floor.
And a smile.

Anyone else guilty of neglecting your library?
Come on...
Be honest.
Fess up...

~last night~

finishing:

this book before the big brother and I have an "Adventure" and go see the movie 

missing:

 a friend who lost their battle earlier this week, as I look behind at the beautiful backdrop of my boy's practice field

wondering:

how in the heck that boy of mine is fielding that baseball and not breaking his left foot?!?!

proud:

of all the hard work, dedication, and love this boy shows towards the sport

amazed:

by the 'Spring' sunset my boy and I shared on our ride home together

Happy Spring to you and your loved ones!

XX

~thing 1 and thing 2~

Austin- March 2007 (6 years old)

Can't decide which "Thing" you want to dress as??

Be both!

Austin's Kindergarten class celebrated one day of their "Dr. Seuss Week" at school by dressing as their favorite character.  Austin loved the book THE CAT IN THE HAT and chose from it.  

He knew he wanted to dress as Thing 1 or Thing 2, but couldn't decide which one.

Solution:  A flip sign so he could be both!

To create this costume I used:

Red Sweatshirt

Red Sweatpants

Red Gloves

"Thing" Sign

 Circle Cardboard Cut Out

2 Printouts From Computer

Glue

Red Ribbon

Blue Hair

Winter Hat

Light Blue Napkins

Hot Glue

***Tip for the Hair*** 

Make this as you would like gluing little pieces of tissue paper to a project with the eraser end of a pencil. Wrap the napkin around the pencil end, apply your hot glue to your hat, then attach napkin to hat.  I used a mini basketball as a prop to hold the hat open to make this process easier.   

The whole costume put together looked adoradble, but I must say the hair was a HUGE success!  I had everything on hand except for the napkins, which were only a few dollars and I didn't use the whole pack.

 We can't leave the little brother out, either:

 Derek- March 2007 (3 yrs. old)

   

The more that you read,

the more things you will know.

The more that you learn,

the more places you'll go.

~Dr. Seuss

You can check out Derek's costume, The Lorax, from his week of celebrating Dr. Seuss by clicking here .

For more inspiration, visit obSEUSSed for some awesome ideas!

~coming soon~

Have you heard the news?!?!  One of our favorite stories is making it to the big screen March 2nd! 

Are you as excited as we are to go see The Lorax movie??

I thought I would share with you a few pictures of Derek (from Kindergarten) when he got to dress up for school in his favorite story character.  They celebrated a whole week of Dr. Seuss fun and had activities for each day. 

On this day, Derek was *The Lorax*.

We bought the bright orange fleece at a thrift store and I cut the sleeves. The hunting hat was on clearance at a local store.  We had some thick yellow yarn and felt on hand and we tied them in knots around two K'Nex pieces for him to hold for his mustache. 

It all came together and I thought it was adorable!

In keeping with the story, we decided he should hand out "Truffula Seeds" to all of his classmates to plant at home.  I picked up a variety of flower seed packets and just printed off these new labels. They fit perfect in this little wire basket for him to carry around and pass out!  

Needless to say, the costume and seeds were a huge hit with his friends and teachers.  And we had Truffula plants blooming all along the side of our shed that year!!

Do you have a costume idea to share??

Please feel free to leave a link to your idea in the comments! 

(And now you know where we'll be March 2nd...)

Linking up with obSEUSSed