SIX!

She's definitive.  Once she makes a decision she really never changes her mind.  I greatly respect this from a five year old.  I mean a now six year old.  She still loves to draw--every day in fact.  When asked what she did that day, she replies, "I don't remember," but if you ask her to draw what she did that day, you'll get every last detail down to the color of the eyes her new friend has. She loves to swim, play soccer, ride her bike, play with friends, read books, bake, take pictures, draw, and dance. Most of all she loves her brothers and goes out of her way to help ensure they are taken care of. When she grows up she wants to be a mom, an artist and a babysitter.  (We're hoping she meets a wealthy significant other if she sticks to these professions.)  Lex continues to be a joy in our lives and we adore watching her grow and discover new things. Happy Birthday sweet, sweet Lex. We can't wait to see what this year will bring you.  

 

When asked Lexi 2 months ago what she wanted to do for her birthday she said she wanted a butterfly birthday cake and a bounce house.  She asked, we delivered.  We knew she wouldn't change her mind.  She never does. The kids had a blast and we were lucky to have a beautiful Maine day. Lucky to have Trish design yet another round of beautiful invitations.

Yes, two different invitation because we couldn't choose just one.  They were too cute!

Two Cakes--one by mom and one by dad. And cupcakes to ensure we covered all our friends' dietary needs.  Everyone was all sugared up.

 

The obligatory Lennon art project...

The giant bounce house!You can see in the left corner that it was almost as tall as our house.

One thing to note is that Lexi did not want to open her birthday presents at her party.  She saved them for her real  birthday.  I have no idea where she got "present patience" from.  That clearly is NOT from me. Much love to Lex on her special day!

Three Firsts

Everyone went to new schools this year.  Lex to Kindergarten (Mabel I Wilson), Finn to a new preschool (Main St Children's Center) and Heath to preschool (The River School) for the first time ever. Lexi started her day with the bus stop gang and jumped up and down when she saw the bus coming.  Let's just say that transition went off without a hitch and she's enjoying meeting new friends and going to school all day. Finn and Heath's new experiences went similarly well.  While we had an incredible Summer, I think everyone welcomed getting back into a routine.  So Fall is officially off to a start with the kids juggling school, soccer, tennis, ice skating, swimming, hip-hop and music between the three of them. It certainly keeps them busy.

Excitement on the Cape

While we were on the Cape.  Lexi went from this....

to this...

Her first tooth lost.  All in all it was an easy transition from loose to it's out.  The story even included Dad emailing the tooth fairy to let the tooth fairy know that Lexi was on the Cape.  Lexi is already excited for her next one to come out.  She claims she has  three other loose teeth already.

Finn's Birthday Part II

After a birthday morning skype with Grammy and Pappy and the opening of all the family birthday presents, we all headed to see "Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical" to celebrate Finn's actual birthday. Mo Willems, the Author of the Knuffle Bunny books, has quickly become a favorite in our house, so we jumped at the chance to check out the musical rendition of one of our household favorite stories. The kids were thrilled, watching wide-eyed as the well-known characters came alive on stage.

Post show we headed to a local restaurant called Silly's to continue the celebration. Silly's is truly a silly and eclectic place.  A restaurant that somehow draw the hipsters, while also embracing families.  I'm not sure how they pull it off, but it was the perfect place for an out-of-the-ordinary meal out for us to celebrate Finn's bday.

Upon arriving back at home, the neighborhood kids were out in full force (as the temps were in the high 40s/low 50s).  Our kids eagerly joined them to play in the mud and enjoy the lazy Sunday. 

When I tucked Finn in that night he asked if dad could make him a Jessi cake (from Toy Story) for his next birthday. 

Happy Birthday sweet Finn!

Finn's Birthday Weekend

I am learning just how unique each of our children are.  When I asked Lexi who she wanted to invite to her last birthday party she listed four people.  Thinking this was a good approach, I made the mistake of doing the same for Finn when we began thinking about his fourth birthday party.  It went something like this...

"Finn, who would you like to invite to your birthday party?" I asked.
"Um, well the kids at my school."
"You mean all the boys?" I asked.
"Nope.  I mean everyone.  I want everyone to be there." He said with a big grin.

I haven't mentioned yet that he has 17 kids in his class.  Gulp. Not wanting to change the game on him, I decided we would adapt this year, but I can tell you what approach I will NOT take with him around this time next year.  After some discussion we settled on a dino theme for the party.  We don't generally go overboard on the theme in our house--it's more of a means of helping us decide what the invitations will look like and, most importantly, what kind of cake Patrick will create. Since I have been traveling non-stop for the past 3-4 weeks I enlisted Trish to help with the invite creation.  As an aside, have I mentioned her craftiness yet?  She does great work in case you want to hire her to create your next invites or baby announcements. No doubt, she produced some incredible invites.

The actual party was the day before his birthday.  We kicked off the party with a dino art project.

 
A display of my kids' completed dino projects
 

Art was followed by some singing and dancing fun with a local musician, Matt Loosigan.  If you haven't heard him, and you have kids under the age of 6, I highly encourage you to purchase some of his music.  He's a fantastic performer and truly has a gift in interacting with kids.  The kids had an absolute blast with him.

Homemade pizza and cake followed to tie up a  fantastic birthday party! No worries, I've included some photos of the dino cake, prepped by dad as usual. That's a rock next to the dino in case you are wondering.

Finn went to bed that night with a grin on his face, knowing that his actual birthday wasn't until the next day, and thrilled he'd have a whole additional day to celebrate again.

All update you in the next post on the fun activities from his actual birthday!

A Mixed Farewell to 2010

Some fabulous things I remember from 2010:

• Tons of great times with the Holsten/Gilbert Clan

• Getting to spend some great and very needed Summer time fun with my kids and exploring Maine

 

• Getting a new, local (so much better) job
• Running two half marathons with a dear friend and getting back to the pre-kid fitter Sura (and losing some lbs along the way)

• A fun girls reunion/40th get together with my Colby gals in Vegas!

• A vacation with our good friends on the Cape

 

In 2010 we lost:

• Gigi Funari (our kids great grandmother and Patrick's grandmother)
• Our dog, Sweet Alabama

Me miss them both dearly and talk about them often.

For the first time in awhile I am thinking about New Year's resolutions.  It's a big year for me as I turn 40 this month.  I'm feeling like setting some goals will be a good way to make sure the year is a good as I hope.

Have you made any New Year's resolutions yet?  Want to inspire me?

Numero Dos

Half marathon number two is complete.  Despite an injury, Keri bravely made the trip to Maine and we both completed the Portland course.  The course was spectacular with the leaves just beginning to change color, creating an incredibly picturesque scene.  The weather was considerably cooler (than our Chicago race)  and definitely more ideal for a 13.1 mile run.

We look pretty silly in these iPhone pictures, but I had to share something...
 

It was a unique milestone for me.  I realized just days before the race that the Maine half marathon was actually the very first half marathon I ever ran (11 years ago) when I first began running! Of course, the competitive side of me had to look up my time from when I was 27 to see how fast (or slow) I ran it then--just under 2 hours  with a time of 1:59.42. In Chicago, 13 years later, I ran a 2:00.58.  Pretty consistent for 13 years a part.  Well, as you can imagine, I really wanted to beat that 27 year old girl's time.

And I did! Running a time of 1:55.55.

Who said older isn't better?

I'm thinking my feet need a break from the running, so as my toenails recuperate, I'm looking for a new task to conquer on the exercise front.  Maybe something indoors?  Any ideas?

More Milestones

Life is crazy as usual and while I have been thinking about Blog updates, they just haven't been happening. Here's a bit of a dump of what's been on my mind. No photos to share today.

FINNY:
Finny finally decided to take the plunge and become potty trained. I don't want to jinx things, but it was seriously as if he decided one day it was time and that was that. He's really had virtually no accidents and requires no reminders, just a lot of help dressing and undressing in the bathroom. I should mention that we upped the ante from M&Ms as rewards to trucks and that may have had something to do with the ease of this process. Let's just say we went from 1 truck to 4 in a very short period of time. He's even gone straight to being like dad and standing up when he goes #1. Wow - only one in diapers. Speaking of one in diapers...

HEATH:
I believe it's long over due to mention, but Heath continues to grow. At his 18 month appointment he was off the charts for height at 36 inches. His weight was in the 90th% topping out at just under 30lbs. I know many of you have 3 years olds that are not 30lbs. Heath's favorite activities of late are cars, reading about cars/truck/trains, and coloring. His most recent favorite thing to say is "truck" but he replaces the "t" with an "f". That makes for some funny public situations.

He also likes to be on the move and climb everything. He definitely keeps us on our toes.

ALEXIA:
At Alexia's five year check-up she weighed in at 50lbs and still towers at 46 inches.

School kicked off again the week after Labor Day. Finn and Lex are both be at the same school this year, but on different days. Both are very excited to be back in school and meet new friends. While we enjoyed the lazy and sporadic Summer, I think everyone benefits from a bit of structure, so being back in school is a good thing overall.