happy 6th birthday little russky!!!

i have a ton of catching up to do on this here blog, but i couldn't think of a better time than now to get a jump on it.  i can't believe the little dude is 6 already...and almost finished with kindergarten!  where the heck does the time go?!

we were all set to start out his birthday with a bang...

...hanging out with some church friends for lunch at the park since there was no school today, then dinner with our good friends the dutton's tonight.  well...nick's immune system had another plan...a fresh batch of strep throat.  really?!  grr!!!  i hesitated taking him to the dr since his symptoms weren't really full blown, but he was cranky and refused going to the park.  what 6 year old boy doesn't want to go to the park and run around like a banshee with his bff?  soo very glad i ended up taking him since he was, indeed, the sick.  {saying "the" in front of "sick" makes it so much more dramatic, dontcha think?}  unfortunately, we had to push our dinner with friends back a bit, but at least we'll get to enjoy easter since he's on some antibiotics to kill the darn bug that took the fun out of his bday!

we assured him he would get to eat his favorite food {pizza}, and still be able to open presents, and once again, all was right in his world.

check out his awesome cake {baked by one of kris's fellow firemen's wife}...

blowing out the candles...

check out all the birthday loot a 6 year old can handle... {minus a few lego sets that he already opened last weekend from his nana & pop, and some cool light-up shoes & clothes from his gg}...

a big box of legos from granny & poppa... {can you tell there's a theme going on here?}

a hat, ball, and set of pj's {not wearing} also from his granny & poppa...

a fire fighter dress-up costume from his great nana...

a police officer dress-up costume from us parents...

lego ninjago spinners, books, sticker book and fangpyre mech {again from us parents}...

 {maybe someday he'll let us take a picture of him & the gifts without having to tell him to move it out of his face a million times...}

lego batman pj's...

and the piece de resistance...the winner of all gifts received today...the only thing to hold his attention for more than 15 minutes all day... hexbugs from his uncle brent, brenden, emily and vivvy...

maybe now he'll stop digging around outside playing with all the ants, bees, wasps, roly polies, worms - the list goes on and on...

here's oliver supervising the bug situation...this little doxie makes sure the house is bug/worm/lizard-free!

thanks to everyone who helped make nick's birthday special...we wish you all could've been here to help him celebrate!

xoxo...liese :o)

Nicky Turns 5

 nick's 5th birthday was a two-fer.  we decided to forego the big, hoopla-palooza big bash style favored by so many of his classmates, and instead did the old school down-home family style version.  uncle brent flew brenden and emily down to nana and pop's for the celebration, and to make it even better, we kept it a surprise!  brenden and emily helped decorate nana & pop's and nana made a fun pirate-themed birthday cake.  

 we kicked off the celebration with lunch at the rainforest cafe...

 ...then a boat ride downtown on the river.

 later that day we had the extended family over for a big dinner and...yummy cake...

 ...the opening of presents...

...and a little calorie burning fun on the trampoline.  

unfortunately...nick did suffer a minor leg injury and we ended up at the ER monday morning :o(  {not that it was uncle brent's fault or anything...just happened to be a fun pic!  nick says it happened when daddy was jumping with him, and daddy has since been banned from the bouncing ballyhoo}

thankfully, there wasn't anything major wrong with the little dude's leg and a nice ace bandage did the trick!

part deux of nick's birthday was a month after the fact when we went to the great wolf lodge with our good friends the dutton's.  here's nick and his partner in crime trevor just after the fun began...

 we went last year just the 3 of us for daddy's & nick's combo birthday, and yay for nick - he grew and was able to go on more of the slides this time!  not to mention, having a friend to run around and play with there was a bonus! 

 sweet blair bear enjoyed herself as well.  she was pretty funny trying to walk in the water with water shoes on...she kept lifting her feet up as high as possible with each step!

 we had a yummy pizza dinner and hung out in our jammies...

 ...then all went down for the evening story time in the hotel lobby where the kiddos all got to meet wiley...

 they say it's a balmy 80 degrees inside the water park, but it's a little teeth chattering for me...and nick agreed.  shivers or not, we had to drag him outta there kicking and screaming for more!  we had so much fun, we've decided to make it an annual event with the dutton's and we're going back in january for trevor's birthday!

Birthday Booty

Nicky's 4th birthday was a huge success...as evidenced by the loot he received!

Good thing we have a playroom to stash all the stuff and good thing I'm anal an organized, because our house would be over-run with toys for sure!

Here's Nicky giving his GG (great-Granny) a big hug after getting a cool new truck.  The day after Nana, Pop and GG left, Nicky told me "i wike gg.  i pway wif her again!"  That just melts my heart, because that woman has such a special place in my heart!

Nana and Pop got Nicky a cool new train set that attaches to a smaller one they got him at Christmas.  He's played with it non-stop since Pop and Daddy got it all set up for him on Sunday!

The only thing Nicky asked Kris and I for gift-wise was an ambulance.  He actually asked for it at Christmas, after we had already spent a ton on other toys, so we figured we'd better oblige him on his birthday.  He pulled the tissue out of the bag (because, let's face it, I can't be bothered to actually wrap a gift!) and his face was priceless!  I wish I had caught it on camera.  He immediately started to play with it and open the doors to see what all it entailed.  We had to remind him that he still had more gifts to open!  The ambulance now "rescues" the train engineers.
 

Granny and Poppa couldn't join us, so they sent Nicky a few small items...

...and some cash-money for Nicky's 1st big-boy bike!  He ran outside to it and climbed right on.  He still has some practicing to do, but he's getting better.  The peddling/steering/braking is a lot for him to handle all at once...not to mention actually paying attention to where he's going while doing all that!  I'm sure he'll master it in no time.
 

Thank you to everyone who helped to make Nicky's birthday so much fun!  He was definitely a very happy little guy!

Backyard Barnyard Ballyhoo

Nicky has quite the love of animals, so for his first big hoopla of a birthday party, we decided to have a little petting zoo of sorts come to the house, and we invited a bunch of kids from Nicky's preschool.  Momma stayed up late the night before the party prepping the cupcakes, and Daddy stopped at a feed store on the way home from the fire station to pick up the hay for which the kids could sit...and later walk and jump on...who knew something so simple would turn out to be such a fun game.  Kids can be so easy at times!

Here's a picture of the birthday boy as he waited for his friends to arrive...

The backyard all decorated...we started at about 9am...it was finally ready around 1pm!  Sheesh...all that work to just be cleaned up in 30 minutes!

Stephanie, the lady from Grisham Farms was great - if you live in the DFW area and are looking for a fun birthday party idea, I highly recommend them.  She tooke each animal out of its cage and talked about each one before letting them all take turns petting them.  She was very patient with the kids and new exactly how to talk to them and keep things under control.  I was also quite impressed with the restraint the kids showed and how well they all waited their turn.

I will speak for every mom there when I say "Aw!  I want one!!!"  This little guy was soo cute and Nicky thoroughly LOVED feeding him his bottle.  Stephanie told us although he is a baby pot-bellied pig, he's actually too old to still be eating from a bottle, but it's just too adorable to watch so she keeps doing so...and I agree!

After the presentation, several of the animals were allowed to "roam free" for the kids to play with.  I asked Kris if we could have a "duck and chick" ala Chandler and Joey from Friends, but sadly, he said no.  Can you believe that?!  How can you say no to such cute little critters?

Here's Nicky with one of his countrymen...a Russian tortoise.

A bottle of hand sanitizer later...we had some yummy cupcakes (if I do say so myself! I suppose I should thank Pillsbury, but I'm the one that did the mixing and baking, so I'm gonna take some credit!)

Blowing out the candle...4's just too many for a little cupcake...

We I filled Nicky's sand/water table full of oatmeal, barley and quinoa - all nice and grainy feeling things and stuff I thought might be appropriate for farm animals to eat.  It was the hit of the party!

Not to be outdone was the walk along the hay and jump off game.  It's just like kids to find something fun to do out of nothing much at all.  We definitely got our $28 worth out of those things!

Little by little, the kids left with their little goody bags and we cleaned up the carnage and headed off to dinner.  If the fact that Nicky slept until 9:30am the next morning, and only woke up then because I woke him up, is any evidence that the party was a ton of fun, then I'll take it!  He says he wants to do the same thing again for his party next year...only with cows.  Um...we'll have to think about that one!