Colt is 4!

Well, after a long and painful wait, Colt's birthday finally arrived and he couldn't have been more excited.  All week he asked Dash to remember to wake him up the morning of his birthday so he would be sure and not sleep in.  Immediately after waking up, he asked to open presents.  We really couldn't ask for a more grateful little boy either.  He loved everything he got, told us so more than once, and could be heard exclaiming throughout the day how this was "his best birthday ever!"  (Except for once when he fell and got hurt.  Then it was "his worst birthday ever!")

Colt opening his presents with lots of help from his brothers.

 

After lunch, we all loaded up and headed into Gillette to go swimming at the Rec Center.  The boys love the pool there and Brandan got lots of exercise walking them up the stairs to the top of the water slide and then holding them on to the tube on the way down. 
When we got home, we all enjoyed a dinner of "noodles with white sauce" and then ate cake.  Colt was very specific about his cake this year.  He wanted a Dora/Diego cake that was pink, and smelled like pink and tasted like pink.  In case you're wondering what pink smells and tastes like, it smells and tastes just like a white cake with red food coloring.

Colt and his Dora/Diego cake.

 

Because the boys had so much fun with the pinata on Brandan's birthday, Brand and I decided to make Colt a pinata too.  We wanted it to be a surprise so we had Colt close his eyes and then brought out the pinata decorated as a ghost.

Colt's reaction to his ghost pinata.

 

Colt and Sport pretending to be scared of the ghost.

 

Knocking around the pinata.

 

After the pinata and birthday baths, Dash and Colt had a slumber party out on the hide-a-bed and Dash even let Colt pick the movie, if he promised to make it a short one and then let him pick the next one.

We love our little Colty and couldn't have been happier when he hugged us goodnight and thanked us for the hundredth time for his very best birthday ever.

One very happy Birthday Boy!

 

Parties and Partial Nudity...not as bad as it sounds.

Last Saturday we invited some friends and neighbors over for an Apple Party, which was basically a get together with apple snacks.  We made apple juice, apple cider and deluxe caramel apples, cleaned up the back yard, threw some games out there and waited for our guests.  The boys had a blast running around and digging in the garden with the other kids and everyone enjoyed eating all the refreshments.

The boys and the decorated apples.

 

This last Friday, we invited Brandan's Junior High football team over for dinner.  We had our gathering right before the high school football game so the boys could eat and then head over to the game where they were honored for their great season during half time.  The players all gathered in the front yard and played some wild football while we finished cooking up the hotdogs in the backyard.  My boys loved the commotion and joined in the games like they belonged there.

Dash throwing the ball to the football players.

 

Sport is taking a break on the sidelines, but Colt is running through the middle.

 

Ever since we cleaned off the garden the boys have been using the space as a large sandbox and completely loving it.  One day after school, Dash was out "working" in the garden and took his shirt off to keep it clean.  Well, before I knew it, Colt had his shirt off and then Itty Bitty came to the back door to ask to have his shirt off.  And then the next thing I knew, Brandan was home and in the backyard with his shirt off also.  Well, what's a proud wife and mother to do, but take a picture of her construction crew?

The crew working in the garden.

 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good
A couple of weeks ago I went to Dash's Parent/Teacher Conference.  I was very, very pleased with everything his teacher had to say about him.  She praised him for being ahead of the class academically and also reassured me that he was a good kid who didn't fall into the bad habits of some of the naughty kids in his class.  She also said that she had never seen a boy his age color as well as he does.  I mentioned that his perfectionism is borderline OCD and she laughed...and then agreed.  Dash stays busy outside of school as well with various projects that he creates for himself and coaching Colt in whatever sport Brandan is doing at the time.

One of Dash's many projects was to create football gear for himself.  Notice the hip pads sticking out of his pants.

 



Conference Sunday, the boys headed out to play some football in the front yard.  This is halftime.  Dash is the coach.  Oh, and its cold outside, don't let their clothes fool you, like 40 degrees.

 

Colt is absolutely excelling in "preschool".  It took him a while to be okay with me as his teacher, but I think I'm doing something right, because he is learning his letters and counting everything and getting closer to holding a pencil correctly.  Well, a little closer.  However, even with all this academic progress, I think I may be even more excited to see him finally start to play a little more independently instead of sitting around waiting for Dash to come home.

I may not have mentioned before, but Sport had a run in with two rogue deer that found their way into our backyard and nearly trampled him trying to find their way back out and away from Dash who was chasing them.  Since that day, Sport has been terrified of deer and even the front yard, which was the scene of the attack.  It was bad enough that he would even wake up in the night crying about deer.  Happily, these incidents have become fewer and farther between and the other day we were able to point out deer from the van window without a hysterical response.  Progress.

One morning Colt and Sport dressed themselves as pirates and boarded their ship, aka the sofa.

 

Brandan's football team just finished up their season this last week.  They went 6-1, only losing to a much bigger school and they even kept that score respectable.  He did a great job and had a lot of fun.  The boys are a little sad to see the season end, but Dash is already coloring basketball pages in anticipation of what is to come. 
Brandan's also decided his carved golf ball collection was getting pretty big and so he decided to try his hand at Ebay.  He put one carving up and it sold within the week!

The golf ball carving Brandan sold on Ebay.

 

As for me, my good news is that, despite the fact that my belly is as big as ever, I have actually felt good enough to still be running.  I usually go out 4 or 5 times a week and gross out the town of Upton by jogging down Main Street.

The Bad
Last Monday I got a call from Dash' school, actually more specifically from his principal, Mr. Coberly.  While we exchanged civilities, I kept hoping he was just calling to tell me that Dash had suddenly become severely ill, but no such luck.  Dash, my kindergartner, had been sent to the principal's office!  And from P.E. no less!  Mr. Coberly was kind of laughing while he told me the story, but I'm 8 months pregnant so I had to really fight so I didn't start sobbing on the phone.  What happened was that Dash was refusing to do anything in P.E., just completely shut down.  So finally the teacher called in Mr. Coberly, who took Dash by the hand and led him into his office.  It took a few minutes, but Mr. C was able to get to the root of the problem and he was quick to assure me that he had never had a problem like this before.  Dash was unhappy about not being allowed to run as much as he wanted in P.E.  Actually, this is specifically what Dash said (I know because Mr. C quoted it to me) "I'm the fastest kid in my class so if I'm not the line leader during warm-ups than I have to run slow and there just isn't any point"!  I was mortified, but Mr. C just laughed and said he thought to himself, "well, hell, this is Brandan's kid".  Mr. C explained to Dash how sometimes we run fast and sometimes we run as a class and if everyone didn't listen to the teacher, then she would have 22 kindergartners running around the gym.  Dash's response, another direct quote, "well, that wouldn't have been a problem today because 2 people are sick so there would have only been 20 kindergartners"!  Again, I had to choke back a sob, but Mr. C said he had never had to use so much logic when dealing with a kindergartner before.  Anyway, they finally made some compromises and Dash said he would apologize to his gym teacher, but only after Mr. C promised he would take him outside and let him run some timed sprints and also promised Dash that he would periodically time him throughout the year if he would behave in class.  Well, this seemed like a good idea at the time, but that night as I was talking to Dash, we had almost come to the conclusion that things went better when we listened to our teacher when Dash said, "actually, if I didn't get sent to the Principal's office, I wouldn't get to do those fun races".  Well, crap, how do you argue with that?

No thanks to Brandan, Colt is completely confused on what is appropriate and inappropriate language.  The other day Brandan told him that old joke,
Guess why. Cow Pie.  Guess who.  Chicken Pooh. 
Clever, right?  Well, Colt overheard me tell Brandan that I didn't love him teaching the boys such ridiculousness.  Now Colt yells at Brandan every time he says "cow pie" because "Momma doesn't like that", but Colt's new favorite phrase is chicken poo.  All day long its, "Mom, I love you. Guess why. Chicken Pooh!"

Sport has hit his Terrible Twos full force.  Its a good thing we love him so much, otherwise, we really wouldn't like him.  He is a super demanding, whiny, headstrong, opinionated, fit-throwing toddler.  For instance, he has to wear whatever he picks out,including clothes from his brothers' drawers, drink from the cup of his color choice even if you have already poured his milk in a different cup, and have his blanket spread over him in a way that no one can accomplish.  Conference Saturday was a rough morning with Sport, so I was actually glad to hear that he can leave for his mission one year earlier than we had planned!

Sport splashed water on his clothes one day before lunch, demanded that we take them off, refused to get re-dressed, and then insisted he be given a bib before he would eat.

The Ugly
A stray cat has taken to hanging around our house, probably because the boys keep talking me into feeding it.  The boys love their "pet" though and I like that its not actually my responsibility.  So every time our kitty shows up the boys stop whatever they are doing to watch the mangy stray from the windows, because this is as close as she'll let them get. 

The boys eating breakfast by "our cat".  Just so you know, I washed my windows that same day.  And also, just so you know, two days later, they looked just like that again.