The Yellow Chair

This will officially be my last "yellow chair" post. I think I started taking pictures of Ethan in this chair with his stuffed animals because I needed somewhere to prop him up. Although I have thought about doing it several times, I haven't taken his picture with the lion and zebra in over a year! I know it is silly to get emotional over a "thing," but giving this chair away is a reminder that my babies are growing up. I have spent countless hours rocking, feeding, reading, comforting, and even playing in this yellow chair, but now it is time for someone else to enjoy it.

Ethan has decided in the last few months that he does not want to rock before bed and that he wants a room without a rocker in it. I don't blame him really, he is almost four! Kaitlin moved out of the "baby room" when she was 2 because we had to make room for Ethan. I guess that is what happens with the youngest in the family, we just try to keep them from growing up. So, Keven is busy building a new, very cool bed for Ethan's room and Ethan is super excited about it! The yellow chair is going to be getting lots of use because we are giving it to some friends who just had triplets! I hope they make lots of fond memories in it as we did.

I decided to do one last photo shoot in the chair of our big boy Ethan with the lion and zebra. And of course I got some of Kaitlin and both kids together. Every time we've taken these pictures of Ethan when Kaitlin was around, she insisted that we take some of her too, so the only right thing to do was to get some pictures of the first grade Kaitlin as well!

Here is a slideshow of past pictures. I didn't find many pictures other than the stuffed animal pictures, but that's OK. It just means we haven't spent the last six years in the "baby's room." Some of them will make you say "awwww" and some will definitely make you chuckle! They are not in any sort of order because I had a massive headache after scrolling (quickly) through six years of pictures on my computer and well, right now I just don't feel like doing it!

New York City Marathon 2013

Well, Keven finally got to run the New York City Marathon! He has been planning to for five years! They did have a lottery to register and if you did not win the lottery for three consecutive years, you were automatically in the fourth year. He was supposed to run it last year (2012), but unfortunately, the race was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy. We took the kids and met MomMom and PopPop there. It was lots of fun! We went to the race expo, had lunch at Carmine's, went for a carriage ride in Central Park, rode the Ferris wheel at Toys R Us, had dinner and cheesecake at Juniors, and went to American Girl Place where Kaitlin bought a new American Girl doll, Kit. She has been saving her money for several months and we are very proud of her! The highlight of the trip for me was seeing some old friends from high school. My good friend Kristin and her family came over from Hoboken, NJ and Keven's good friend Annie brought her family to visit from Connecticut. We walked down to Central Park and let the kids run around and climb on rocks. We hadn't seen Kristin and T.W. since their wedding over 8 years ago so it was really nice to see them. We also met Annie's girls for the first time. Kaitlin and Adenine were fast friends! Kaitlin was so sad that she had to leave her new friends for lunch.

Halloween 2013

Spider Girl and Sponge Bob.

Kaitlin's 6th Birthday

Kaitlin decided to have a pool party on her birthday this year. Since her birthday was on a Friday, we thought we could make that work. She came up with a lot of the plans herself, including a pinata with dive toys in it. It was difficult to find reasonably priced dive toys that were small enough for a pinata, but it was such a fantastic idea, that I decided I just had to make it work! She is at an age that she thought she should be able to make all of the decisions about her party, but we had to veto some of her ideas. For example, she wanted to have half the party at the pool and then move to our house to eat dinner and have cake. That would be a logistical nightmare! Even though the party got cut short because a storm blew in, it was a lot of fun! The kids got to swim for a little while, then did the pinata and swam a little bit more. When the thunder came, we decided it was time for pizza and cupcakes!! Kaitlin really wanted everyone to come back to our house to open presents, but because it was the end of the first week of school, everyone was really tired and went home. She still had fun opening presents with the family.

First Day of School 2013

Wow! Kaitlin is in first grade! We can hardly believe it. She started first grade at her new school and is really excited about it. Ethan is in the three-year-old preschool class at our church. He had a rough time transitioning and told me every school day that "I don't like school" for at least the first month. He seems to be enjoying it now!

Small Fry Tri

Kaitlin and Ethan participated in the Small Fry Tri today in Opelika. It was a fantastic event for kids ages 2-5. They started with a run, then a bike ride, and a run through the splash park. It was lots of fun! Kaitlin was so touched that they gave her a cup of water after her run, that I had a hard time getting her to her bike. I was helping her and taking pictures and she moved so fast once she got on her bike, that I never even got a picture of her riding her bike. (Actually, I got a great picture of another little girl but didn't realize it until we got home.) Keven ran with Ethan since he was a little too young to do it by himself. He did a really great job! He had one little mishap when he started to fall on his tricycle and when Keven reached down to right him, he accidentally poked Ethan in the eye. But our tough little guy calmed down, got back on his bike and finished the race! We can't wait until next year to do it again!
 

Kaitlin at the start line.

Sharing a pre-race snack.

Kaitlin running.

On the water slide!

That was fun!

Ethan running with Keven.

Ethan on his tricycle.

Post-race

Cool medals! 

(Yes, this was the best picture I could get!)

Kaitlin loves playing with Aubie! 

Post-race treat!

The Joys of Home Ownership

So...we got a letter from the water company saying that we have used way more than our share of water in the last two months and that we should check for a leak. We weren't sure exactly where to start so Keven posted something on a handy social networking sight and someone gave us some direction. We contacted a leak detection company and they came out and listened for a leak. After an hour and a half or so, they "thought" they had found it, so they put a square of tape on the floor of the piano room and told us to call a plumber. Well, the plumbers were here for about 4 hours today and this is what our piano room looks like:

They did not find any water. They did not find a pipe. They did not find a leak :(  All they found was an old rotten root. So....the leak detection company is coming back tomorrow to see if they can hear the leak more clearly. Kaitlin thinks it's cool that there is a hole in the floor and she decided to study the hole after school. We measured it and discovered that it is 31 inches long, 17 inches wide and 30 inches deep. There are rocks in the bottom and there is a large pile of dirt next to the hole. Here are her notes.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ethan's 3rd Birthday

I really can't believe Ethan is already 3 years old!! He is growing up so fast! We had a fun day celebrating his birthday. We started it off by having grits for breakfast, followed by a second breakfast at the Waffle House with Daddy. I took cupcakes to his class at school which was lots of fun. He was upset when I left, so his sweet friend, Sydney, brought him a book and sat with him. Who knew a three-year-old could be so thoughtful! Then, we ate lunch with Kaitlin at her school. For dinner, we ate at the kids' favorite restaurant, Moe's! They were very excited that our friends Trent and Sarah joined us for dinner and then came back to the house for chocolate cake. Ethan even got to open a few more presents :)

Ethan's Dinosaur Party

Here are some pictures from Ethan's birthday party: Ethan decided that he wanted to have a dinosaur birthday party this year so I went to work making some decorations. I put the first few dinosaurs on the mantle while Ethan was napping. He noticed them right away and asked if we could put more dinosaurs up there! We ended up with a very colorful Dinosaur parade! We got a really cool dinosaur cake at Publix. When Kaitlin and Ethan saw it, they both said it looked like Elliot, the dragon in Pete's Dragon. Ethan has been slightly obsessed with that movie since Christmas, so he loved it! I put brown butcher paper on the tables with some crayons and dinosaurs for the kids to use as stencils. It was a big hit! Ethan wanted his friends to go outside, so he yelled out "Hey, everybody, come outside!" and everyone got up and went outside. It turned out to be a beautiful day and everyone had fun playing outside on the zip line, the playhouse, and the sandbox. When the party was over, Ethan told me that he wanted to take his dinosaur shirt off. When I asked him why, he said "because it's not my dinosaur party anymore." He is such a funny kid! I hope he enjoyed his party!

Ethan's Checkup

Everything went well at Ethan's 3-year check up this morning. He was as usual, his charming self. He let the doctor examine him without any problems and told him all about his dinosaur birthday party. When we went to Disney over Thanksgiving, we thought Ethan must have been standing on his toes when they measured him for Goofy's roller coaster (you have to be 35 inches to ride), but the nurse measured him today at 35½ inches! He weighed in at 28.4 pounds. Poor little guy is in the tenth percentile for height and weight. What he lacks in size, he makes up for in personality!!