Ian's Take On School

Ian started Pre-K3 this week. On his first day, Wednesday, I was prepared to have an emotional child putting a vice grip on my thighs, but he walked right into class and was ready to get to work. I gave him his "Kissing Hand" sticker and thought to myself "like he even needs this." Then I gave him a hug and kiss, walked out of the room, and there standing across the hall in the doorway of his classroom stood Ayden, with the saddest pouty face imaginable. He came running to me crying and said he was going to miss me all day. So, in a nutshell, Ayden cried on Ian's first day of school. Are they stereotypical first and middle children or what?! On Friday morning, however, Ian clung to me a little before I left him. I think he's processing the fact that school is going to keep happening and he'll be away for a while when I drop him off. He didn't cry though. He's so tough! On Friday afternoon Ian gave us his official report on his school experience. He said, "Hey Mom! You know about school? I have no idea what's going on!" I kid you not. We burst out in laughter. What a NUT!

And.......exhale.

Our two boys' birthdays both try to take away our romance-Ayden being born on our 4th anniversary and Ian on the day after Valentine's Day. Luckily, we find ways to celebrate for ourselves and the kiddos. This post shows our celebration of Ayden's 6th birthday.

On our way to bring cupcakes to Ayden and his class.

Ian smiles for the camera now!

Meet Brainstorm. Ayden's current favorite toy.

I love his expression here. Pure joy.

On Saturday, we had his party at the Crawfish Aquatics swimming pool. We had a great time!

This huge slide was the center of the party.

Robin had the ingenious idea to slide with the gators.

Ayden found a way to get under the slide and splash around on the mesh underneath, which all of the kids ended up doing after they wore themselves out with the sliding. We had a pretty laid back lifeguard that didn't mind.

Talk about fun!

Check out the gifts and make note of the lego cake I made with frosted marshmallows.

I didn't show a close-up b/c it's pretty messy looking.

But it sure tasted good!

My mom made the invitations and ordered this lego man mold,

which I used to make lego crayons. Then I found some coloring pages and Robin printed out little Lego logos for me. I think they turned out to be nice parting gifts.

One happy six-year-old! We love you, Ayden. We are so proud of you!

Thanks to all of our friends and family who came to celebrate with Ayden. Also, a big thanks to Mom and Robin for helping out so much with it all. And the biggest thanks to my Joshy, who was patient with me and helped out tremendously with preparations, kid watching, anniversary neglect, etc... on top of his day/night jobs. Now we have some normalcy and we might muster up enough energy to finally go see "Inception" together. I hear it's a great movie. Love ya, babe.

10 Things I Love About You

A tribute to my hot wifey on our anniversary. Get your cheesy meters ready everybody. I've jotted down one attribute for each year that we've been married:

10.) I love the way you always seem to make the best out of any situation.

9.) I love the way you allow me to always be myself.

8.) I love the way you SMILE : )

7.) I love the way you always consider the feelings of others.

6.) I love that you try and live a simple life and keep things real.

5.) I love that you're a super deep thinker stating random things while stopped at redlights like, " What if that homeless guy over there is Jesus in disguise testing us to see if we'll give him a handout." (Josh thinks to himself, "Hmmm, interesting thought," as he proceeds to hastily pull out his wallet as to not disappoint his wife or his maker.)

4.) I love your spontaneity and the fact that you see LIFE as an adventure to be had.

3.) I love your enthusiasm for the often mundane events in life.

2.) I love the way you LOVE, CUDDLE, SNUGGLE, INSPIRE, UPLIFT, TEACH, EMBRACE, LEAD and GUIDE our 3 little angels.

1.) And finally, I love you just the way you are and I always will.

*We have a TRUE and CLEVER love and I look forward to spending eternity by your side.

HAPPY DECADE MY LOVE!!!

Below is a video tribute of our High School Song. This song always brings me back to the innocence that we shared together during that time. Times have changed perhaps, but my feelings for you have only deepened over the years. I do LOVE YOU ALWAYS FOREVER.

Galveston Report

I don't know where to start with this post. We visited my sister TJ and her two kids Jessica and John for four days. TJ hooked us up with a great beach house and one free night at a bed and breakfast. I'll just show a bunch of pictures and explain a little. We did so many fun things, it would take me forever to figure out how to report on it all. So, here's a little taste of our feast of adventures...

Moody Gardens rainforest-

Moody Gardens man made beach-

Random shot of Afton being adventurous at the beach house.

On our last night there, TJ and Jessica watched the kids at the beach house while Josh and I celebrated our 10th anniversary at a Bed and Breakfast. We ate at a delicious greek restaurant downtown close to the cool shops and fisherman's wharf. Downtown Galveston Island is beautiful. It reminded us a lot of New Orleans.

Me and my lovah. 10 years and counting!

I didn't have my camera for the first day. TJ took pictures when we visited the Rainforest Cafe. If you've never been to one, you have to try it! There you have it. We hope to be able to visit again in the near future.