Jon David turns SEVEN!

Grandma and Grandaddy arrived just in time for the celebration.

On the party day, we let Jon David open a few of his presents early. Here he is opening a star wars clone wars digital watch that we found super cheap on Amazon.
And we got one for Luke, too. ;)

They both LOVED it. Luke was especially hillarious. He was constantly telling us what time it was--at times, every minute!!
And here was a highlight: new bike from Grandma and Grandaddy!!!

Thank goodness for Grandma and Grandaddy taking charge of Caleb on this day: feeding him, holding him during the party, and driving him home and putting him to sleep for us....What would we do without them??

And... when I needed "something" to occupy the boys while we finished the last minute party preparations, Don and I decided to let Jon David open one more gift early:

The Monsters vs. Aliens wii game (another gift from which Luke also benefited:) -- which we found at the gamestop web site, also cheap! Thanks for the tip, Aunt Laura!


We had the party at a local park here on Saturday afternoon. Jon David had wanted to invite practically his entire class at school! We narrowed it down a bit, and enjoyed meeting several of his class mates. Jon David had a great time. We started off handing out the pool-noodle light sabers and letting them play on the playground. They loved whacking each other and running around. (And yes, the decor was completely copied from Luke's party. It was really nice.) Don helped me brain storm about what activities to do. It was fun thinking of things together! Our first organized activity was a relay game. I called it "light saber clone trooper relay"--or something like that. I ad-lib'ed (sp??!) quite a bit. ;) The boys had to walk to a cone holding their light sabers out with a clone trooper figure on the end of them, without dropping them, of course. If they dropped them, they had to go back to the finish line. The winning team got a prize, and the losing team got a consolation prize. :)

Next was an obstacle course. Don ad lib'ed this part. By the way, Don gets the prize for making the party fun. He totally got into it. The kids LOVED it!! Don came up with this: they had to start off by whacking the trash can,

then they had to run to a volley-ball net,

throw their light-sabers over the net and catch it,

(Don, demonstrating).
They, then, had to run to the other pole and whack it (of course--much whacking, there was).
The finishing touch was a duel with Don. So fun!
(Jedi Jon David)

(Jedi Luke)

(Jedi Luke and JD's friend)


(more friends)
But the highlight by far was the final mission. Don and another parent went to their station in the woods while the boys had a snack and I played a little star wars trivia with them.

Here they are, "chomping at the bit", but willing to let me get one quick shot before the main event.

Once they found the "enemy" in the woods, they were to use their lightsabers to fight, and something else that they might find to assist them.
They were very excited to find... WATER BALLOONS!



After the fight, then there was more play time, and finally cake time!


Complements of my friend, Brandie. I would TOTALLY recommend her!! The cake was decorated beautifully, and tested GREAT! Thanks so much, Brandie--and husband, the "artist."

OK, funny story with the cake. It was so windy that day, that we literally could not light the candles. We even tried putting things around the cake to block the wind--to no avail. So we finally decided to sing to Jon David anyway, and told him to fake blowing the candles out. Hee hee.
He didn't seem to mind. ;)

This is what Jedi look like when they eat cake.
Let's just say that much testosterone, there was...
In the background, you can see the evidence of Grandaddy taking baby duty during the party. Thanks again!!
And last, but certainly not least... gifts from Jon David's sweet friends:

(above: one more from Mommy and Daddy. ;) )
And this is my famous friend, to whom (grammar? ...) I owe all of the decoration ideas for BOTH of my boys' parties -- and much of the supplies. Thanks a million!

Happy birthday, Jon David!
The day before he officially turned seven, I had said something about his real birthday coming up, to which he said "I'm so tired of being six." Ha! He cracks me up. I love you, big seven year old! Don't grow up too fast!!

play time

JD and Caleb (Caleb: 8 mo)


Caleb and little girl that I watch during the wk.

OH, and let it be recorded that we did give into the silly band craze. Jon David and Luke each got a package of 24 bands that looked like this. Can I just say that whoever thought of this was a genius? You never know what kids are gonna go for... but, man, did they go for this!

JD loses first tooth

It happened last wk. He was soooo excited. He wrote three pages in his class tooth journal. He even got an "I impressed my teacher" sticker for writing so much! I so wanted to take a picture of what he wrote before he turned it in... but I forgot.
He lost the tooth at school. He was beaming when I picked him up from school that day. The office had placed it in a cool tooth box.

We had a discussion about whether or not the toothfairy was real. He asked me, and Don and I told him the truth, but we told him that it would be fun to pretend. When he found a dollar under his pillow the next morning, he was puzzled. "Then how does the dollar get there?" Hmmm, I said, good question! "Oh, Mom" he said "now I know." "How do you know?" I asked. "Oh, you gave it away when you looked at me and said hmmm that's a good question," he said while he immitated my "wondering" smile. Ha! He cracks me up. Can't get much past that one.

May Memories

One reason I enjoy blogging is because I hope to capture some of the memories that we are making as a family. I already enjoy looking back at old pictures and reminiscing. I have nostalgic tendencies. haha.

Well, here's a memory: Jon David and Luke playing at the park with some friends. It was actually a play date with two of Luke's school friends, and one of his friends has a brother Jon David's age. So it worked out great. (This was actually in April)


First of all, Jon David is um, yea, Jon David--always gotta try to steal the show. Luke looks like he is just short of standing at attention, oddly, on the opposite side from his two school buds, and the guy in front of him? No clue who he is. Just hangin out at the park that day, needed a little picture takin TLC I guess. Go crazy dude.

Memory number two: mother's day. These pics are from a mother's day tea that I went to with Jon David in his classroom. It was really special for me. They read a poem to all of the mothers there, and they had some precious hand-made cards and small gifts for us. I relished the time with just Jon David. It is rare now that I get to do something by myself with him. I loved it.



Memory number three: a pic from Jon David's birthday party invitations this year:

OK, memory number four (of this blog post... the numbers are not meant to be rankings :)

Don and Caleb playing together on the floor: (Caleb: 8 mo). And a few more random Caleb shots.





Memory number five: the boys playing soccer. I simply love watching them and cheering them on. This year has been especially fun, because the "light" has gone off in them. They are catching on to the game. I have been known to yell from the side lines--whenever Caleb and I can make the games.
Luke:



Jon David:


Memory number six: Luke going through a similar stage as JD last year with the "light in his eyes" problem when it comes to taking pictures. Here are the pics that I received from him for mother's day (that his Pre-K teacher took): a crack-up!

Take one of professional soccer pics this yr:

And take two of professional pic:

If you look closely, you can see where he had to wipe his tears away and try to be brave right before the shot was taken. :)

Memory number seven: Don coaching Luke's soccer team this year!

Go cosmos!!

And memory number eight (saving perhaps the most memorable-- for this post at least-- for last), a throw-back: We will call this memory a before and after one. " Before", symbolizing a time--at this time last year, incidentally-- when Jon David was really struggling with having a good attitude about a number of things.

(Don't miss JD: second from the right. He is gripping his knees, trying to control his emotions... I am only now noticing this small detail. It breaks my heart, even though in the words of Don: this may have been our toughest parenting day--OK, well, ONE of them at least.)

And "after", symbolizing a more mature boy --still having moments, for sure, but having grown out of some of the fit-throwing that he was struggling with so much last yr:
Check out this handsome "after shot":

Dear Lord, help us! What precious gifts you have entrusted us with--our three precious children. May we seek you with all of our hearts!!

Caleb is crawling!!

This video was taken 8 days ago. Caleb officially started crawling at 8 months old. This video looks tentative. But he has taken off! He is now messing with cords, picking pieces of dirt off of the floor, trying to put toy darts in his mouth, and zooming for whatever Jon David and Luke are playing with. We have had to put away the little legos. He likes the dart gun and lightsaber--yes, it looks
like we are breeding another star wars fan.

The gentle, the clown, and the clean? And Pops...

Luke. Need I say more? He is such a sensitive soul. One day recently, I was talking to him about Pops, because he knows that Pops (his Great Pops) has passed away. Interestingly enough, one of the random items that has made it out of the attic onto our bookshelf in the family room is my wedding album--not "the" album, but the one with all of the snapshots. Phylis Alexander, my photographer, had taken a bunch of those that day, and I am thankful. Almost ten years later, I now realize what a gift that was. Anyway, I whipped it out, and showed him a few pics of Pops from that day. Incidentally, here they are. Priceless. I treasure these.



And below, two of my favorites, the ones that gives me a punch in the stomach with the memory of his warm, friendly face. The one that makes me remember the jokes he used to tell at dinner time, and all of the "funnies" that he used to send over e-mail:



So we start going through my album. Then we come to this pic:

I explain that Aunt Sarah and Mimomo are sad because on this day, even though it is happy that I am getting married, I won't be with them in their house anymore, that Sarah and I are sisters, and that Aunt Sarah will miss me. I look over at him, and his lower lip is quivering. I burst out with "Oh, Luke, Aunt Sarah isn't sad anymore! She is OK!" He was crying. Sweet boy, he couldn't stand for Aunt Sarah to be sad!

So Wilmore has been bursting with fuzzy caterpillars as of late. Jon David caught one, we made it a home (actually, Don caught it for him after hearing about the class bully killing his caterpillars that he caught at school one day :( . Well, of course Luke wanted one too. So we helped him with a brand new disposable tuperware container home with holes punched in the top, grass to eat, the whole nine yards. Well, the trouble came in when the boys decided that the caterpillars were thirsty. Yea... I think you can see where this is going. Sweet Luke. For some reason, he was a little more generous with the water than Jon David was. I think I was taking a nap or something, and Don was studying. By the time we realized what they had done, the poor insect had left this earthly world. Luke cried and cried. He had a hard time getting over that one.
Most recently, this past week in fact, he was pretty sick. We think it was strep throat, even though the swab came back negative. It wiped out two thirds of his preschool class. It was a nasty thing, whatever it was, and it took him the entire week to get over it. I want you to know that he stayed away from his baby brother like a champ. Even sometimes when I would say, "would you pick up his toy" or what have you, he would remind me "Mommy, I don't want Caleb to get my germs." What a kid! And believe me, Caleb really missed him. Both Caleb and I have gotten used to Luke being able to entertain him--and now we realize just how much he does!

On a lighter note, I heard this the other day:
Luke: baby toys are fun.
JD: are not.
Luke: are too.
JD: D2.
I tell you what, star wars is becoming firmly engrained into our vernacular. Jon David loves to tell jokes. He is pretty good at coming up with them, too! He laughed at me the other day, because I was talking about the Bakugan toys. I pronounced it "back-oo-gan." He said "Mom, it's "backahgahn." "Oh," I said with many different flash backs going through my head: Don recounting how his Mom used to say "Tommy Hilfinger" instead of Tommy Hilfiger (sp??); my own Mom pronouncing Paula Abdul as is she was born and raised in Nantes, France, b/c that is where she was in the eighties, when Paula made it to the top; and a number of other such mom-isms. Ha! I have officially entered those ranks.

And last, but far from least, sweet Caleb Tom Tom, as we sometimes call him, taking a bath, and clapping. Oh! And he has been "scooting", flirting with crawling too, rocking back and forth, the whole nine yards. Oh yea, life as we know it is about to change DRASTICALLY!

(Caleb: 8 months)