Happy Birthday, Sully! and more

Sully man had his birthday our first Saturday here in town. I was a little worried he would be disappointed in the festivities, so I actually planned a little harder than I normally do for his festivities. Guthrie and Addie went with me to the store the day before and they picked out a Cars bicycle with training wheels for him. They also picked Crayola 3D chalk, a little fishing game, and a green flute/recorder thingamabob (Addie's pick, of course). We stopped by the dollar store on our way home for some wrapping essentials and picked up a little "grow dinosaur", as my kids call it. You put it in water and it "grows". It actually creeps me out a little, reminding me of what a human body would look like if it was left to rot at the bottom of a river and get all bloaty and slimey. . .but they seem to love it. Blech.

Sullivan was so excited the night before that he could hardly sleep. Finally he dozed off - but then wandered into our room around 4 or 5 in the morning. I let him climb into bed with us and when I thought he was asleep I got up to use the bathroom (joy of pregnancy, right?). When I returned, he was lying in our bed staring at the ceiling. I think he just could not WAIT for the fun to start.

I snuck out of bed early and started to get breakfast ready with Guthrie and Addie's help. They wanted to take Sullivan breakfast in bed, which I thought was adorably cute and sweet of them. Unfortunately, Sullivan heard the commotion and couldn't contain himself any longer, so it ended up being breakfast at the table. . .but we tried.

Next came the presents. When Kyle was putting the bike together the night before, I suddenly had this realization that a bike was NOT was Sullivan would want and I told Kyle I was pretty sure he was going to be disappointed. Sadly, I was right. It turns out that the dollar store "grow dinosaur" was the toy that he raved about to my mom on the phone when she called to wish him a happy birthday. I should have known better than to try to deviate from his standard dinosaur obsessed present wish list.

At first he was REALLY not too sure about the whole bike thing, but we made it a family affair and we all gathered around to help and watch him. By the next day he was going "so fast" and actually seems to enjoy it. Unfortunately it has rained nearly every day since then so we have only been out a few more times, but hopefully the chance to ride is right around the corner.

Not sure what he's doing there. . .but it kind of looks like what a certain mother might do to a certain little boy's cheeks when she's trying to get him to make eye contact in a certain difficult moment. Not that we ever have that happen over here at our house or anything. ;) I'm guessing it really just had to do with the sun and him trying to force himself to look at the camera at my request.


We weren't sure what to do in the evening, but our dilemma was solved when we had surprise visitors stop over. Our new friends, the Gasall Family, remembered it was Sullivan's birthday and came over with a cute little dinosaur movie and *another* grow dinosaur. How did the new friends get the birthday present request better than his own mom did?? Of course he was THRILLED with the present, though I think he did say, "I hate Wubzy, but I love dinosaurs!" (It was a Wubzy dinosaur movie.) He requests it often now, so I think *hate* was a strong word.

(I did take a snapshot of the Gasall's singing happy birthday with us, but I decided not to post it because Charity's eyes were half-closed and she was in the middle of saying something. . .and well, I think unflattering pictures on my blog would be a really quick way to kill the friendship, so we'll try again next time they come over :p )

The rest of these are not birthday related. . .just funny.

Kyle is a sucker for a massage, so he's been teaching the kids how to rub his back and then trading massages with them. One evening we were sitting around our furniture-less living room and Guthrie decided to give Truman a back massage. It was too funny that Tru just laid there and let him massage for a while.

Cupcakes on the deck.

Mom's vibrating toothbrush on the deck.

The kids enjoying the sprinkler on the new trampoline. Kyle just finished mowing the back and had moved onto the front. They couldn't wait to get out there.

We were pretty sad when we pulled up to our house to see that the once green, lush lawn was now pretty straggly, weedy, and dry. We bought a lawn mower a few days ago and a sprinkler and we're trying to get it back into shape. I use the term "we" loosely, of course. Thanks, Kyle.