Elijah Turns Three

 

Helping make his birthday cake.

Mom can handle this level of disaster only for the sake of a birthday.

Aaron was my awesome birthday helper.

He decorated all the balloons for Elijah's birthday.

At age three, Elijah has joined the family tradition of screens in the mornings.

Birthday cereal? Krave!

For Elijah's birthday, we decided to go on a grand adventure. I loaded him into the bike trailer, grabbed his brothers (the girls were at school), and we biked to Castle Park. Elijah was thrilled to find this bulldozer in the sand!

All the boys playing in the sandbox:

From there we biked to Burger King for lunch and ice cream.

The sweet cashier with Down's brought Elijah a birthday crown.

I didn't even know they still had those things!

After an emergency call to Jon to help with a flat tire, we all made it back home!

It was about 8 miles total.

Elijah was totally exhausted after all that riding in the trailer. 

For dinner we had noodles, which is Elijah's favorite food group.

Then it was cake time!

Decorated with love by Catherine and Elise.

I was worried he'd be upset about us borrowing all his trucks to put on the cake. Nope. In fact, he kept bringing new ones over and putting them around the side of the cake until he ran out of room. It was all very exciting.

Birthday boy and his construction vehicle cake.

Ready for the singing!

Out go the candles!

(please notice the lack of pants)

Then, still with no pants, it was time for gifts:

Pew pew guns from Aaron and Seth!

But the biggest hits were from Grandma Cathy, who loaded him up with construction vehicles:

It was a perfect Elijah birthday!

April Activities

Making homemade Oreos (Aaron's request)

Hanging out at the Patapsco River with the Oliveras during spring break:

Blake shows Seth and Catherine the ropes

Elise convinced Emma and Marley to float her down the river in their tube:

I later floated down with her and got a nice bruise on my rear from some rocks in shallow water.

Catherine found some precious treasure:

(it was some sort of building material, we think)

But my kids were mostly there to eat Marley's snacks.

Especially the seaweed.

Seth complained mightily about his boredom.

It's hard to be the biggest one with no buddies to play with.

Elijah was happy to be an excavator in the dirt.

Seth winning all the big brother points by spinning them in the tire swing:

A friend in the ward helps coach a youth mountain biking team. He emailed me with a couple of family-friendly events that we could try out. We may have stressed him out a bit by signing Elise up. She (and Aaron, actually) were quite a bit younger than most of the other riders. So the coach had his Elise (a senior and one of my YW) come along to help my Elise. Which was really something because I know how Big Elise feels about biking. But it made Little Elise soooooo happy. Big Elise said she got a lot of practice saying, "Uh huh. Yeah." on repeat while Little Elise chatted nonstop. But these bike trips earned Big Elise the undying affection of Little Elise. There have been several pictures delivered on Sundays to Big Elise from Little Elise.

Free shirts that don't fit and are two years old? Score!

And how did the other riders do? Seth apparently tried to start out leading the pack, but quickly fell behind. He's used to being the biggest and fastest one in his peer group. But he didn't feel discouraged. Instead he told me, "Those guys are really good!" 

Catherine was frustrated because she wasn't fast enough for Seth's group, but was a bit too fast for the younger group. She kept getting stuck behind slow people and having to walk up hills after losing momentum. But she loved Coach Jen (and Coach Jen loved Catherine--she's always looking for girls who want to ride!). 

Aaron rode with Jon since he was too young for the Catherine group. His comment to me when he got home was "I need a bike with gears." Surprisingly, Seth's old bike actually (barely) fit him. So now Aaron has gears for future biking use. 

Everyone came home tired, sore, excited, and full of cookies. Seth and Catherine wrote this on the floor of the garage after getting home:

"I biked myself to death! Now everything hurts."

Elise's stoned koala.

My newest favorite piece of child artwork:

Also, my dogwood bloomed and I just am in love with it every year:

(this looks oversaturated, they're really a pale pink)

Random April things:

(overheard conversation)

Aaron: "Grandpa Russell is your average grandpa."

Catherine: "That's not true!! He's like the buffest grandpa ever!"

Aaron: "That's true. He's always bouncing around and stuff."

*****

Elise keeps referring to duct tape as "goose tape."

*****

One night at Primary Activities, Aaron fell off his bike and bloodied his knee. While the leaders were taking him inside to clean it up, Catherine found out what was going on and hurried to the rescue. Aaron was pretty upset. Catherine knew just what to do: calm him down with math! She started asking him math questions, and he immediately stopped wailing so he could concentrate on the numbers. Catherine for the win!

Catherine

For Christmas my mom gave Catherine her old clarinet. We sent it in for some repairs, which took FOREVER to complete. In April we finally got it back. She was initially hesitant to use an 'old' instrument, despite me telling her that the proper word was 'vintage.' But once she got it, she liked it much better than her rental instrument and has been playing it happily ever since! Thank you, Grandma Cathy!

Music seems to be one of Catherine's loves. In addition to the clarinet, she also plays piano, kalimba, and ukulele. When our friend offered to let her borrow a trumpet to try out, she was thrilled! We've all enjoyed a bit of dying elephant noise, but she's managing to make sounds that almost resemble music lately!

Our birthday gift to Catherine was a trip to Sandy Spring Adventure Park, the ropes course Seth and I had attended with the youth last year and enjoyed so much. Catherine was super jealous and begged to go, but it is not a cheap activity. Thanks to some Black Friday deals, we bought three tickets for a decent price (meaning it was still about the cost of a theme park ticket). When the park finally opened in spring, Catherine debated mightily about which friend to take, but ultimately went with her friend Sara, which was an excellent choice. 

They were both a little nervous of the height, but ended up having a great time. Everyone came home totally exhausted, which is always what you want. 

Catherine and Seth's newest obsession is the show 'Gravity Falls'. They binged watched the whole thing, then watched it again. Now they're watching it again with Jon. Catherine has been mastering the art of drawing Bill Cipher (over and over and over and over). This chalk masterpiece on our driveway was her best one. She made me take a picture before it rained and destroyed all her hard work. 

Grateful to have this girl around! 

Timmy Party

It took a bit of coordinating with Timmy's super busy social calendar, but we managed to sneak him over for a birthday celebration during General Conference! He requested ice cream cake, which is really the only decent form of cake (besides cheesecake, that is). We even got some Knoxes to come join the fun, which always makes things better!

Paul and Timmy

Timmy and the members of the Official Timmy Fan Club (Maryland Chapter)

Out go the candles!

I can't remember exactly what candles we had (our candle collection is extremely eclectic), but I know the magical unicorn candle was the best part.  We love Timmy and are so glad we get to have him so close by. 

Co-op

I have enjoyed our little co-op so, so much this year. It's the perfect size, the perfect amount of time, and the perfect group of families. 

Recently (and without any instigating event that I can recall), the kids have all decided that they are kittens. And somehow, I became the Mother of Kittens. They will greet me with enthusiastic meows when they see me, and snuggle up for a hug, or to let me 'pet' their hair. It's kind of weird and kind of endearing and I have no idea how long it's going to last.

Me, teaching my class about optical illusions while holding Asher Kitten on my lap

The best kitten story, however, was from a couple of weeks ago. We arrived to co-op a bit late (it's intentional on my part since we never start on time). As we climbed out of the van, I saw a big group of the kids standing near the sidewalk, apparently waiting for us. It was the Kittens. And the Kittens were all meowing The Imperial March. They rushed over, grabbed my giant pole (we were planning to do the limbo that day), and marched back to the building, meowing in chorus the entire time. It was hilarious but also felt enough like a weird horror movie plotline that I was kind of on edge. But no, the Kittens did not turn on Kitten Mother. Or at least not yet.

Ah, food art.

Still the only co-op class Elijah will attend.

Aaron's class did a serious sewing unit, which he loved.

I was so impressed with Ms. Kate's patience and dedication to the class.

And Aaron was so proud of his work!

Sewing his pillow

The finished product!

He sewed on a pocket, embroidered the shape of his hand, and sewed on some buttons.

Our new weekly co-op tradition looks like this:

Why, you ask, is my poor child completely devastated and heartbroken?

Because of this:

I get to hold Marielle while her mom teaches and I LOVE it!

Elijah, not so much.

Actually, Marielle not so much either.

But she tolerates me better than the other moms.

Maybe because her mom has red hair like me?

We also started kickball this term!

Faith, Ruth, Aaron, Asher, Cole, Caroline, Caiden

Team Blue

During the first week I seriously questioned whether these kids would ever be able to play a game of kickball. It was pretty bad. But by week three they were serious about their kickball game and occasionally managing to work as a team instead of an assorted group of individual kids all trying to get an out. But I suppose that's what PE is supposed to be all about!

March

The giant pile of dirt we excavated from under our sidewalk was the hit of the cul-de-sac for the month of March. Elijah and Bennett (our neighbor) were the biggest 'pile of dirt' fans. I swear I had to change Elijah's clothes every single time he went outside this month.

One boy is crying over cars.

One is crying over geometry. 

It was a good morning at our house. 

After a year of debating what to do (and polling all my friends/sisters), I finally got our wall of baby photos and handprints hung up! It makes me so happy to see it in my room every day. I sure love all those little faces. 

Best part of working with the youth? Awesome adventures, like indoor rock climbing. Minus the part where I was super stressed about failing the belay check (passed!), I had a BLAST! I pushed myself to do some pretty difficult climbs and pulled them off (although without Everett giving me tips on the hardest course I'm not sure I would have made it. He was awesome!). 

Doing some bouldering at the end.

Many thanks to Kevin for making this photo look really impressive by not showing the ground two feet below me (my arms were so done after 2-3 hours of climbing). 

New bunk bed for the boys' room!

Jon hated how much the metal bunk bed squeaked when someone was sleeping on top. He had me check FB marketplace for a nice wooden one. This one was a steal and we were lucky we saw it in time to snag it. It did come out of a dusty, moldy basement, so I washed literally every surface before we took it inside. But the boys love it and it looks really nice! Plus now we'll have room for both boys once Aaron gets too tall to sleep sideways on the full next to Elijah. 

Elise's spring pictures.

My Little Pony dress with unicorn pants.

Perfect.

Elise is still loving school. She comes home literally every single day with a folder full of notes that say things like "I Love Mom and Dad" or are covered in hearts or rainbows. Our fridge is also full of notes that say "Elise Claire Vivi Freya Kate BFF." She loves having all her friends in class!

Catherine's spring pictures never came home from school.

But Catherine is also loving school and thriving there. Math is her favorite right now, which is awesome! But band is still her true love. I ran into Ms. Roderick, her band teacher, at the school one day. She went out of her way to tell me how impressed she is with Catherine. "She's such a hard worker and so mature. I would literally do anything for her." That is high praise coming from Catherine's favorite teacher!

Seth's potential schedule for freshman year!

We were able to attend an orientation meeting for Seth's high school program for next year. It was a little rushed, but we were able to get lots of questions answered, most important being the class options. There was much debate and compromise with Jack and Gabe about which classes they wanted to take, but I'm proud of Seth for pushing himself. I think he can do it, plus the better teachers (and peers) tend to be with the more advanced classes. Now we wait to see which classes he actually gets into...

Also, Seth managed to finish both geometry and algebra 1 in a single year! We offered to pay him the $40 we would have spent to extend the subscription to his math program until the end of May if he could get geometry finished by the end of March (when the year-long subscription ended). It was not easy. He spent 2-3 hours on math every day. But he did it!! 

And, finally, Aaron. Aaron is seriously debating attending public school next year. I'm not sure it's going to be a good fit, but why not give it a try? Who wants to be the only kid homeschooling in the family? It will be interesting to see how a boy who is literally doing Catherine's 5th grade math adapts to doing 3rd grade math with his peers.

We'll end with an Aaron quote, pronounced randomly as we were all driving somewhere together: "I've spent most of my life on a UFO." Jon and I keep laughing about this one. Never has a quote been more literally false while being so metaphorically true. 

Cake Decorating

The YW asked to do a cake decorating class. It has been probably over a decade since the last time I taught cake decorating and I was excited. But it's also a huge mess and a ton of prep work, so that's not quite as fun. Thankfully I had an enthusiastic assistant.  

This is the primary reason I don't make cakes to sell anymore.

No one wants a cake made by a toddler with no pants.

The YW (and Catherine) decorating cakes:

Another angle:

Had to make sure I got a good photo of Catherine glaring at me.

I think the girls had a good time, despite my fondant being way too soft to work with. They took so long to finish up that we were still in the gym when the missionaries and YM were trying to play basketball. Oops. 

Catherine's cake

It says, "Don't Die"

She is DYING to be in YW already.

Elijah at Almost 3

Elijah's new favorite activity?

Starting to whine anytime we drive somewhere and are heading back home.

His usual refrain?

"No go Yijah's house! Go Timmy's house!!!"

"I Cafrin!"

He actually managed to wear her boots while walking down the stairs to the patio.

I was sure he would end up sprawled on the cement halfway through.

Helping trim the bushes at Grandpa & Grandpa Bradys' house.

Scissors are very exciting right now.

One afternoon we were all driving around in the van together. Elijah was getting tired, which translated to silliness. From the back seat we could hear him repeating all his insults (in his obnoxious, imitation-obnoxious Aaron voice). In case you're wondering, here are Elijah's insults:

"Your mom!" (thank you, siblings)

"You're stupid!" (siblings again)

"Car transporter!" (pure Elijah)

I would say around 80% of Elijah's vocabulary consists of song lyrics, insults, and construction vehicles.