Birthday and camping!

 An exciting week for us here!  Hyrum's birthday week finally arrived.  He was so excited all week for his birthday.  It fell on Wednesday this year and in his heart of hearts I think he wanted to just stay home the whole day and party, but not so.  He is learning what it means to grow up...life moves on no matter what is happening.  We still made it plenty special for him, but more on that later.

Tim finished up nights on Tuesday morning.  It was a more difficult transition for him again.  Luckily, he only has one more week of nights in residency.  He had the rest of the week off, so he was actually home for Hyrum's birthday.  We frequently don't celebrate on the actual holiday or special day.  We just do it on the day that works best with his schedule.  Tim decorated Hyrum's birthday cake and I thought he did a great job.  Hyrum specifically requested that his candles by in the shape of a six...well that wasn't really working out for me.  Tim stepped in and worked some magic.  He kind of enjoyed it and thought that he might like to decorate some cakes in the future.  I'm down for that.  I bake and he decorates.


Tuesday after school I took Hyrum to pick up some cupcakes to take with him to school for his class.  He was super pumped and knew exactly which cupcake he was going to choose, because birthday kids get to choose first.  I think it was a great day at school for him on Wednesday.  He did better this week with going to school.  I still drove him most every day, but we some days that gave me hope for the future.  He woke up bright and early on his birthday to eat some pancakes that Tim had made the night before.  We also did our tradition of decorating his chair.  After school he ran to get started opening his presents without us.  We told him we would do it right after school and when we all got in he was already at it.  I was smart and hid the big one upstairs.  We got him some crafting supplies that were his.  I always have to get on the kids about not using tons of tape and glue (they get a bit excessive), well he has it own that he can use to his heart's content.  We also got him a new two wheel scooter.  He old one broke and he was really too big for it.  For dinner we did pepperoni pizza.  Out of all the times I have made pizza this was the first time I made pepperoni.  It's not my favorite, but it was requested so I bit my tongue and made it.  He enjoyed his rainbow cake with blue frosting at well.  Liam also enjoyed it, but discovered that eating ice cream with your fingers is really cold.


With his money he chose to get wait for it...LEGOS!  As if we don't already have a giant box of Legos, but it's his money and if he wants more Legos to create then so be it.  He's had a blast creating and building this weekend.  One nice thing about new Legos is that we are guaranteed several hours over the next couple of weeks as he builds, takes apart, and rebuilds. 

Liam is hitting the truck stage.  The two most exciting times of the year at Lennox are when they mulch and when the goats come to eat the evasive plants.  It's mulching time, so we spent a while watching the trucks bring in and dump the mulch.  The next day we just followed the big bucket loader around as the workers put mulch everywhere.  Exciting times!
It's also exciting that Liam has decided that he wants to feed himself all the time and walk down the stairs like an adult.  He is certainly forming his own opinions and shares them in an assertive manner.  He does reasonably well with handling utensils and and getting food into his mouth.  He also decided that he didn't want to go down the stairs on his belly.  He just decided one day to start walking down the stairs, and my heart about stopped when I turned around to Lila telling me to look at her helping Liam down the stairs.  He actually does a surprisingly good job of rail holding and steps and will go down beside us without holding hands.  He is also getting lots of new words and basically keeps us on our toes. 

Lila has almost made it through the alphabet.  It's hard to believe that we are almost done with her first year of preschool.  She has come a long way and had learned a lot.  She has also started making her own sandwiches.  Sometimes I forget that she is only three.  Hyrum is six and whines like the world is ending when I ask him to make it own sandwich.  Lila is all for anything that will gain her more independence.  I also started her on our training knives.  She has cut her own apple a couple of times and it so proud of herself.  

I think what the older kids were most excited about was the camping trip.  Tim took the older two camping while I stayed with Liam.  He picked up Hyrum from school and they left shortly after they got home.  Neither had gone camping before, so it was very exciting to have hotdogs and smores and stay up way past their bedtime.  Tim took things in stride and said they did well.  There were some times when he wished there was a second adult like when Lila needed to go potty and dinner was on the fire and said dinner was a little over done when they got back.  And that time when he needed to run back to the campsite to get wipes and clothes to clean up an accident.  They all said they would go camping again, which is good because the ward campout is at the end of this month.

Liam and I chilled at home.  He got my full attention, didn't have to fight over toys and had so much time after dinner that he got to take his first bubble bath.  Super sad that it's happening at almost 18 months, but what can you do when you are competing with two older siblings.  It was a blast!

My big events of the week were helping a sister work out some complications with her new job.  I also took her to meet with the bishop to get her temple recommend.  We recently finished teaching her temple prep, so she should be going next week to do baptisms for the first time.  Getting ready for the campout was a lot of work too, but it was super nice to have only one kid to tend to and worry about.  It's even nicer that this kid will sleep in until 8 most mornings.  Blackout curtain plus no noisy kids in the morning equals extra sleep for mom!  I continue to worry about primary.  Our ward is very transient and we are loosing about 22 families.  I will be only primary presidency member left.  The president leaves at the end of the month, so change will be happening in the next couple of weeks.

Until next week! 

Comments

Holly H said…
Pepperoni is not my fave either, though I don’t mind it if it is one of several toppings rather than the only topping. Hooray for some extra sleep!