The Boy is Turning 5!

I can't believe Henry is going to be 5 tomorrow.... here are a few pictures of him through the years.

April 17, 2003

Sometime in 2003 - is it bad that I can't find a picture of him from his first birthday?  I think I used a real camera as opposed to a digital!   What was I thinking!!!

April 2005 - ignore the beer can in the background.  This was actually taken at his birthday party for the family... right before he had a meltdown from sensory overload and I had to put in a Thomas video & feed him french toast!  Good times.

April 2006 - his baby sister was only 5 weeks old and asleep in her car seat.

April 2007 - spent at Disney!!

Fizzy Tub Colors

So last week, I bought some new Elmo Bubble Bath & it came with 3 "Fizzy Tub Colors."  The tub colors come in red, yellow & blue and are these big tablets that dissolve in the water, and turn the bath water into whatever color you want to make.  My kids LOVE these things!!!  Every night I ask, "what color bath do you want to take today?"  We've made purple, green, orange plus the primary three and they are beyond excited to pick out their tablets & drop them in the water! 

I took a few pictures of bath time today so you could see - tonight was blue.  

The last pic was taken at an angle to avoid any inappropriate nudity!  :)

So then I put Kyra to bed.  Our routine is that we read a few books while sitting in the rocking chair together, and then we turn on our Baby Einstein Classical Music and "snuggle" for 2-3 songs (ie., I rock her).  Then I put her in her crib (awake mind you) and out I go.  Tonight after we turned on the music, she said, "Put Kyra in bed."  I said, "You don't want to snuggle?"  And she said, "No.  Put Kyra in bed."  

My heart as you can imagine, was broken... she didn't want to snuggle with me?  How is that possible?  She's only 2!  Or was this a sign, I wondered, that she was ready for a big girl bed?  She is after all, 2 years old & still in a crib!  As I put her in the crib, and covered her with the quilt that Mrs. Withee had made for Henry over 5 years ago, she said, "Kyra nuggle Mommy."  Then got up and reached her arms out to me.

And the world was once again as it should be!

Monkey Joe's

Today we had Henry's birthday party at Monkey Joe's for 10 of his closest friends!  If you've never been to MJs, well, you're lucky.  

It's an indoor bounce house!  A bunch of inflatable slides, and things to jump on, crawl through and jump over.  I do hope all the kids had a great time - I know Henry did and he was SO EXCITED when Monkey Joe himself showed up for some cake... Even Kyra enjoyed the festivities!

Mommy Weekend

So this weekend, Brad went up to the mountains with some friends to play golf and it was just me & the kiddies.  We had an interesting weekend to say the least.  It rained all day Saturday and that evening, Henry's friend from pre-school & his parents came to visit.  We ordered pizza as we all know I don't cook well... the visit turned in to Henry's first sleep-over as Jeffrey's dad fell down the stairs in our house & had to go to emergency to get checked out!  Thankfully, Steve was all right!

Sunday was much nicer of a day and after we all took a nap (Saturday was a late night and even though Henry fought me like I've never seen, even he feel asleep for an hour), we went outside to ride bikes.... well, some of us rode anyway.  Kyra was VERY happy to see her Daddy as you can see from the last picture!

Chip off the Ol' Block

Earlier this evening, Henry informed me that I fed him too much & that his stomach hurt.  He then said that he was going to need to go to the bathroom.  Imagine my surprise when I found him a bit later reading the Sports Illustrated?  Brad was beyond proud!!

Easter at Last

So I think Henry was more excited for the Easter Bunny to come than Santa Claus!!  So excited in fact, that he went to be at exactly 8:10pm with no argument AND drew the Easter Bunny a picture & left it on the table for him.

At 6:30 this morning, he woke me up to inform me that he thought the Easter Bunny had been here & could we go see.  I sent him to the spare bedroom to wake up his Dad (remember, it was Saturday, so we were snuggling) and off we went.  He looked for his loot by the fireplace, which I thought was cute as that is where Santa normally leaves stuff.  But he found his basket on the table and was most excited by the note the Easter Bunny left (you can see it on the table in front of the baskets, in the first picture) and of course, by the UNC Tar Heel T-Shirt he received.  I think next year, I'm going to talk to the Easter Bunny about leaving so much good candy.... because I fear I will be eating most of it!!

Then we went up to Ammy & Paw Paw's and had lunch, an Easter Egg Hunt and had the pleasure of watching Davidson College beat Georgetown... I think I got some good shots of all that action!

Play Time

We spent our morning playing today.  First Kyra let me play with her hair (notice the beautiful up-do that actually lasted much longer than I anticipated).  Then we went outside & played with bubbles, side walk chalk and the swing! 

I am bound & determined to figure out a way to post a video of them on this blog, but I am not having much luck.  I took a video of them on the swing, but with my digital camera & try as I may, I can't figure out how to download it (so many error messages!).  But the kids were squealing with delight while on the tire - saying "Whoa!" and "Yikes!"  It was too cute!  You'll have to settle for action shots for now!

Birthday at Biltmore

This past weekend, Brad & I had the opportunity to get away, sans children!  We dropped the kids off on Thursday eve, and then Friday morning, drove to Asheville & spent the weekend on the Biltmore Estate.  The Inn at Biltmore is very beautiful!  We were able to check in early & our room had a gorgeous view of the mountains & the Biltmore House.  Look hard & you can see it in the first few pictures!

We headed off to our first tour - the Behind the Scenes Tour at the House.  It was very interesting - I'll be honest, I'd hoped for a bit more gossip behind the scenes, but instead we learned how the house had running water, plumbing, electricity and refrigerators - which of course, not many people had in 1895.  It kept Brad entertained anyway.

Then we headed off to the winery, which used to be a working dairy!  I bet you didn't know that.  I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable as to George W. Biltmore history now.  Did you know that he built Biltmore when he was in his 30's?  And originally owned 125,000 acres of land in Asheville?  He died at the age of 51 in March after an unfortunate appendectomy surgery.  After his death, his wife Edith & their only child Cornelia, sold over 100,000 of the acres back to the government & that is now the Pisgah National Forest.  There, now you've learned something today.

OK, where was I - the winery - yes, it was cool.  On Saturday, we took a tour of the House - that took over an hour & a half!  It is HUGE - there are four acres of floor space in that house, 33 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms (none of them working, FYI), 3 kitchens and an indoor swimming pool.  After our tour, we headed back to the winery and had lunch at the Bistro and then took a rather disappointing tour of the winery (there were only 3 things to see)... but at the end, did another wine tasting , which confirmed that I do NOT like red wine.

We got home about noon today, to mow the lawn (Brad of course, not me) and do laundry.  As soon as the Tar Heels win the ACC Tournament (God help me if they don't), we are headed up to pick up the babes.  I miss them and can't wait to see them!!!

2 year check-up

Today Kyra had her 2 year check-up.  She weighs 28lbs & is 34 inches tall (with a body mass index of 57%).  Dr. Mange was most impressed with her vocabulary but I don't think he believed me when I told him that she knew her colors, shapes, could practically count to 10 and could say about 80% of the alphabet.  Would I lie?  He quizzed her on her colors, which of course she knew.  Silly man really shouldn't doubt me.  

Then nurse Jill came in & gave Kyra FOUR SHOTS!  Why so many you ask?  Seems as though we were supposed to have an 18mth check-up.... honestly, without the reminder w/ Dr. Mange's picture on it, I probably would have forgotten about this check-up!!!  Kyra was a trooper though - she watched the nurse give her all 4 shots - only crying at the last one.  

Boys Vs Girls

Today Kyra attended her very first bridal shower... Brad's cousin Kim is getting married next month, so the Drum women got together to celebrate.  I was put in charge of nuts & fruit and my fruit tray was beautiful if I do say so myself.  This first picture is Kyra all dressed up to go to the bridal shower (I love this outfit)!!

While Kyra & I were at the shower, Henry & Daddy went to a birthday party.  Henry was a bit shy - he only knew the birthday boy but loved the dinosaur cake & was most excited to go to KFC afterwards, for a late lunch with Daddy!

Everyone took late naps, except Mommy, so that we can all stay up to watch the Tar Heels... while we wait, Daddy, Henry & Kyra are all shooting hoops!

Evening Fun

During the week, bath time is not always fun time... it's late by the time we get home from work, the kids are hungry, and for the most part bath time & bed time become a race and more often than not, there aren't many winners.

Baths on Fridays are different because there is no rush - I let the kids stay up later, stay in the tub longer, and goof around more.  Tonight's festivities started with some Tub Paints - I was asked to draw a bird & a traffic sign (don't ask) and then they did some finger AND feet painting!  I got out the camera because Kyra REALLY wanted to help me put some lotion on Henry... but he didn't want her to and he ran from her... this made her cry & me laugh!!!  

The rest of the pictures were taken at Henry's request - especially the one with the baby dolls... but can you guess which one is my favorite??  

Baby Doll

OK, so early today I mentioned how Kyra got a new baby doll for her birthday right?  Well, later this afternoon, Henry asked if he could have a baby doll!  I said yes, because I didn't want to get into "dolls are for girls, how about a truck" discussion and quite honestly, I thought he was maybe just feeling left out.

We spent a few hours at Birkdale today, showing Mema how pretty it is there.  We had lunch & then dropped her off at the airport.  When we got home, Kyra wanted to go outside to play and Henry asked about his baby doll.  So we went outside, where he played basketball for over 30 minutes.

I decided then that my son was a well rounded, caring boy & if he wanted a baby doll, I had to get him one - I mean, I had said yes, so I couldn't go back on my word either.  We went to Target & I chose a boy doll... he said no because it didn't have a bottle.  I then reached for a cabbage patch doll & he said, "Ewww - no, Mommy - I don't want THAT one!"  We settled for a girl baby doll, who was wearing purple.  He was VERY excited... Brad couldn't watch.  He went to the automotive section of the store.  When we got home, Henry proceeded to feed his baby.... and now, he's back to playing basketball.

The Birthday Bash

Yesterday was Kyra's family birthday party.  Mema (my mother) flew in from Rochester, Ammy & Paw Paw (Brad's parents) came over as did Aunt Cyndi, Uncle Graham & cousin Jessica.  I'm pretty sure my kids were most excited to see their cousin Jessica!!  She's 7, almost 8, and to them, the coolest little girl in the world.

Brad, yes Brad, made a very good dinner - all from scratch!  Shrimp Scampi over linguini and home made ceasar salad (complete with anchovies, which were well received by all except Mema & Ammy)!  It was great!!

After dinner, we enjoyed a beautiful Winnie the Pooh birthday cake & then opened presents!  Kyra's favorite gift was her new baby doll - her first baby doll actually... a gift from cousin Jessica.  She LOVED putting her on her mat, giving her a bottle and carrying the diaper bag... oh the Tiara from Mema, Princess backpack from Mommy & Daddy & the Magnetic Dress up Doll from Ammy & Paw Paw were a big hit too!  

Dare I say that this morning, Henry took a rather fond interest in dressing up the magnetic doll & then asked me if he could have a baby doll????  Don't tell Brad...

And Then She Was Two...

Happy 2nd Birthday Kyra... here she is on:

- March 1, 2006

- March 1, 2007 and 

- March 1, 2008!