Party's Over

This past week we've been partying like it's 1995. Not really, but we've had our share of fun moments. On Tuesday evening, we picked up Andy's parents @ the airport. The next morning, on Grace's bday, she wanted to open presents first thing. Can't say that I blame her.

I was contemplating on just splurging on a cake for Grace, since we weren't throwing her a party. So I went into a local bakery to inquire about one of those barbie cakes. You know which ones I'm talking about? It has an actual barbie doll surrounded by a beautiful, elegant dress made of the cake and frosting. I about died when they told me that it only cost $80! So I decided to splurge on a very well-crafted, beautifully made, homespun cake. And she was just as happy (priceless)!

Next on our agenda for fun was visiting the Natural History Museum (Grace's pick). Here are my two little statues posing (it was my favorite exhibit).

During the rest of their stay, we had grand plans-o-fun, but alas...Grace's cough turned into a fever, which we are still battling. So we spent a lot of quality time at home, watching movies and playing the wii.

side note: before Grace got sick, Kathy and I got to go to a taping of the Ellen show (sorry no pics). It was so fun to be able to spend the day with her w/o little interruptions (thanks to Dan). And I swear I burned 500 calories just from all the dancing (before the show, during commercial breaks, and after). If anyone caught Friday's show w/ Jimmy Kimmel we were the ones in the very last row in the top right corner. Did you see us?

Here we all are capturing our last few moments together. Thanks to Grammy and Grandpa for a fun-filled week! You will be missed (and your iphone too:)

Let the festivities begin

Grace will be turning 5 this coming week. Instead of a big party, we decided to keep things small and simple this year. She really wanted to go bowling...again. I'm not sure if this is going to be a tradition with her, but we were happy to oblige. This is actually the first time going bowling here in CA.

Grace chose to have her good friend Selah join us. Good choice Grace! These two are 2 years apart, but you would never know it (well, except for the height difference). They get along so well!

Clark got to try his hand at it. He's got great potential. Go Clark!

And here I am holding my bowling ball with my ever-growing belly. I was trying to think of a clever caption for this one, but it just didn't sound right.

p.s. I don't think I ever posted the due date: Aug. 1st...our first summer baby!

Attached

That's the word I would use to describe this boy. He cannot (or I should say 'does not') go to bed without these three items: his binky, monkey, and blanket. So when we have tried (unsuccessfully) to lose the binky, people will ask, 'so he doesn't have anything else to soothe him?'. Yes, he does. Not that I'm complaining, I think it's rather cute that when I see him first thing in the morning, he's armed. And something else he is attached to is the tiny tag on the blanket. If you squint really hard, you will see that in the photo he is actually playing with it. But the thing is so small, most of the time I have a hard time finding the darn thing (especially in the dark!). As soon as I hand him the blanket, he's asking for the tag. There's more. He's also very attached to his cars. We got him some of the cars from "Cars" for Christmas, and he hasn't been without. The boy cannot go anywhere without his Lightning McQueen, Chick Hicks, and Mister the King. I'm sure other mother's with boys can relate. And he is constantly playing with them. Anywhere there is a flat surface, about his height, you will find him playing with his cars.
Hopefully in a few years I won't be complaining about having to pull him away from all his favorites just to go to school...wish me luck!

Kindergarten

Over the past couple of weeks, I've begun the kindergarten registration process. It's hard to believe my little girl is already at that stage in life. I didn't realize that I would be signing my life away just to sign Grace up for school, but I guess it comes with the territory. It's a small price to pay for my child's education. The one part that I truly did not anticipate being the most difficult of all, was the doctor's visit.
The visit itself was actually a great experience. For the first couple of years in her life, anytime we had to go to the doctor's Grace would scream, and that was just when they had to measure her head. So now, to have her be a willing participant, was quite pleasant. Even better was when Clark wanted it to be 'his turn'. Which was great since I had also scheduled his 2 year appointment.
Everything was going great until the first poke came for Grace. They had to get a bit of blood, and it all went down hill from there. Even right before that part she seemed happy to be getting shots, just because she knew she would be getting a sucker after wards. But all that bravery went out the window once that first prick was pricked. Can't really blame her, I'm a wimp when it comes to that stuff. So to see my little girl scream and shriek in shear pain and terror, it was a little more than I could handle. I found myself crying right along with her. The nurse could see that I was having a difficult time and asked if I needed a moment. I just didn't anticipate how much she would hate it. I had a vision of how it would be: that she would say how much it hurt, but that she would be brave...this was in-between each shot. Not so.
I'm just grateful it's over! Now life should just get easier from here on out, right?