HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOYS!!!

We had the boys' birthday party the other week. This year we just did one party for the both of them since they're birthdays are just a couple weeks apart and since we'd be inviting pretty much all the same people to both parties... Plus with Easter to plan around it was just too much. They wanted different kinds of cakes though so we had 2 cakes and we sang "Happy Birthday" twice.

First was all the prep and luckily my mom came early in the week to help me with everything. I couldn't have done it without her!!! First we had to get everything ready for the goody bags. We personalized some Hershey miniatures with a special think you from the boys:


Then I printed out some coloring pages with the boys' favorite characters on them and I wanted to include some crayons with them. Also wanted to include some sidewalk chalk since my boys LOVE that. But I didn't want to just throw the crayons and chalk in the goody bags loose, so I put them in bags with topper that match the mini candy bars. One side of the topper is a message from Owen and the other side is from Riley:


After that, the bags were ready to assemble with pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers, stickers, small homemade coloring book, crayons, sidewalk chalk, and mini candy bars. Tucked it all in a brown paper bag that I'd stenciled each kids' inital on and Owen decorated (with my mom's help) and then tied the bags with some jute. I wanted to do something to add a little more color to it, but we just didn't have time so they're a little "Uncle Knit Knot"-ish.

It was a little warm in the sun, but we had the canopy set up and it wasn't too bad in the shade.

The kids had fun driving the cars around:


And Eric's boss loans us his small bounce house every year for the party but now that the kids are getting bigger we thought we needed something more so we rented a large one to go with it so the little kids could be on one while the big kids were on the other.

Then there's the gift that keeps on giving (don't ask!!):

Riley's cake request was originally for a Buzz Lightyear cake. I'd looked and looked online for some ideas for this but was really not feeling creative about it nor looking forward to it. Then he came up with the idea of a Frank cake. For those of you who have not seen the movie Cars 8 billion times, Frank is the combine tractor that chases Lightning and Mater out of the tractor field when they go tractor tippin'. My mom helped me out with this and luckily it came together very easily and turned out pretty much just like I imagined. And Riley loved it, so that's what mattered.

Owen wanted a Star Wars cake. It HAD to be blue with stars all over it. I took the easy way out and just bought some Star Wars people to go on it, so it ended up being a cake and present all in one! Owen can be a little picky about his cakes and tends to get upset if it doesn't end up the way he envisioned it, so I was a bit nervous with this one. Turns out he LOVED it! Yay!


All in all, it was a good day. Owen even said it was his best birthday ever (and he had a firetruck at his 3rd birthday party so that's really sayin' something!).

A few extra pics of the birthday boys:

The BE5K

So almost a year ago Eric decided, on a whim, to run a 5K. Our church was sponsoring it and the proceeds go to missions, so it's for a good cause. Little did we know this one simple run would get him hooked. I'm not even sure how many 5K's he's run in since then but probably somewhere around 15-20 of them in the past 10 months. I've also started running although I didn't catch the running bug the way he did. I have more trouble getting motivated and prioritizing my time to fit running into my already crazy schedule. But Every couple of months I'll run in a 5K and about once a week I'll run in our neighborhood or at the track (with Riley in the jogging stroller) or on the treadmill.

I was very excited when the day after Christmas I ran for an entire mile... without stopping... for the first time EVER in my life. Sad, but true. I've just never been much of a runner. That Saturday I ran in my 3rd 5K and my sister-in-law, Whitney, and her husband, Nathan, ran in it as well. Nathan finished just a little bit ahead of me (probably 30 seconds or so). I knew about 6 weeks later we were all going to be running in the BE5K in Birmingham which is hosted by BE&K (where Nathan works). Since I had come SO close to beating Nathan in the December race, I decided I would train hard and beat him in HIS race. But then I had PRK eye surgery and was out of commission for 2 weeks and then Riley had his eye surgery and, well, I know it's just excuses, but I only ended having one week to actually train for the race. Not looking too good for me to beat Nathan.

The Thursday before the race, I did finally break my previous record of running 1 mile without walking. See, usually, as soon as I hit the 1 mile mark I CANNOT make myself run another single step. I HAVE to walk. But that Thursday, I ran 1.5 miles without stopping. I was so proud and excited. I know, pride isn't good, but in the grand scheme of things, I'm still going at a snail's pace so I figure it's okay to proud of yourself for being mediocre. :-P

So race day came. And I ran. I was watching my time hoping to reach the 1 mile marker in less than 11 minutes, but 11 minutes came and went and I didn't see the mile marker. Then 12 minutes. Then 13. At that point I was still running and I was pretty sure I HAD to have gone a mile already. It was a pretty big race so I thought maybe I was in a crowd when I went by the 1 mile point and just didn't realize I had passed it. And I had no way to know when I'd been 1.5 miles, but I decided I'd run for 16 minutes before allowing myself to walk. This turned out to be right at the water station which turned out to be... right at 1.5 miles! I guess I should have known. So anyway, I walked and ran the rest of the race. There was an out and back part from about 1.5 miles until somewhere around 2.8 miles which was kind of nice because I was able to see Eric (and cheer him on!) and I knew he was doing well and way up toward the front. And then I saw Nathan and cheered him on as well which he said was a real motivator because he was about to start walking but decided to run one more block after hearing me yell at him. ;-)

I was finally getting near the end of the race. There was a couple of turns right at the end so you couldn't see the finish line until you came around the last corner, but a block before that they had the road all blocked off to keep spectators out of the street so I knew I was getting close and I poured on the heat. There were a lot of other runners around me and ahead of me but I sped up and passed at least 2 dozen of them before crossing the finish line. Boy was I glad to be finished. Unfortunately I didn't meet my goal of finishing in under 35 minutes, but I was close. And I'm pretty sure I'll make that next time. We didn't get any pics of any of us running (although there are some from the finish line at brightroom.com) but we did get a pic after the race. **Please pardon my brother-in-law for the shirt he's wearing. No one is perfect.**

And did I mention how awesome my husband did? He finished 4th in his age group out of 56 runners! How amazing is that! And he was only 11 seconds behind 3rd place so he ALMOST got an award. He was 54th in his division (men) and 61st overall out of over 1100 runner! Can you tell I'm proud of him? ;-D My brother-in-law, Nathan, did really well also. He finished in just over 30 minutes (more than 5 minutes ahead of me!!!) and was 32nd out of 57 in his age group. And if you care, I was 45th in my age group out of 81. That sure beats my usual LAST place in my age group finish I always seem to have at all of the local races.

Valentine's

I helped Owen make his own Valentine's for his classmates this year. We did monster-tines and he got a little creative. I found the idea on familyfun.com but it only had one-eyed monsters. Owen couldn't stick to just one eye, so we did 3, 5 and even 7-eyed monsters. And I loved all the logic behind deciding who got which monster (the seven-eyed monster had the smallest eyes so it went to Blake "because he's little"). And for what it's worth, I tried to think of something a little more clever to put on the paper the monster's holding but I was tired and couldn't think so we just used the suggestion given with the instructions. :-/



Coming soon: The BE5K and this weekend's trip to Birmingham.

I'm Baaaaaaaccccckkkk! Again.

I swear this darn computer spends more time off getting fixed than it does here working. But it's here and working... for now. There's been a lot going, but I won't take the time now to fill you in on all of it. The most recent craziness has been eye surgeries for both Riley and me.

I had PRK laser surgery to correct my vision 4 weeks ago. It's kind of like LASIK but in PRK they don't cut a flap on your cornea but put a contact in to act as a bandage instead. They say the recovery is a little longer than with LASIK (supposed to be 4 days instead of just one day of discomfort), but my recovery was much longer. It took a full 2 weeks for me to reach the point where I could function anything close to normally. I'm not sure exactly why it took so long. I do think that on days when I'd start feeling better I might have over done it a little but who knows for sure. Luckily my mom was able to come down and stay for 10 days, then came back for a couple more days. I could not have made it through it without her! I'm doing fine now. My eyes are slightly sensitive to light, but other than that I'm doing great. My vision was 20/15 at my last check up! I guess it was worth it all.

Then fifteen days after my surgery, Riley had surgery. His was for his nystagmus. Nystagmus is a condition that makes his eyes wiggle side to side. Some people with nystagmus have a null point where their eyes wiggle less and therefore they can see better. Riley's null point was the extreme right corner of his eyes so when he wanted to see something clearly he would always turn his head to the left so he could look out of the right corner. So his doctor cut the four eye muscles on the sides of his eyes and shortened the left muscles while reattaching the right ones in a more relaxed position. The surgery went well and he was playing with Owen that very evening and the next day. But then, for some reason, he decided to keep his eyes closed for two and a half days! He finally decided playing would be more fun than sitting with his eyes closed and he opened them. He's been doing fine ever since. He does have what his doctor just referred to as a "raised area" on the sides of his eyes. I'm not sure exactly what is going on with that but she did say it's possible for a cyst to form at the suture site so we're still praying for continued recovery for him.

Here's a pic from the fall where you can see the way he looks out of the corner of his eye. Most of our pictures have his head turned like this. You have to kind of catch him by surprised to get a straight on shot of him.
Owen finally started back to school this week for second semester. I LOVE his school, but the one draw back is they don't go at all in January. The plus though this semester is that they're staying for a longer day. It's 8:30-1 now instead of 8:30-11:30. I have to pack his lunch each day, but I think it will make the transition to full days a little easier in the fall. Riley's not too keen on the longer days without his brother though and asks me a dozen times a day if it's time to go get Owen yet.

Hopefully, if my computer doesn't quit on me again, I will be on here more.

On a lighter note...

Woman on Lindor Truffles commercial: "Do you dream in chocolate?"
Riley: "Yeeaaaaaaahhhhhh."

Me too, buddy. Me too.

A day of mourning.

I'm sure it's not normal to have such strong feelings about a restaurant, but my family just adores eating at McAlister's Deli. For 13 years we've been loyal customers. As we've moved from Alabama to Mississippi to Texas to Arkansas to Georgia, one constant has been McAlister's with our only hiatus being when we first moved to Texarkana. Oh the joy the day we realized the restaurant being build across from the hospital was the exact shape of a McAlister's! I couldn't believe our luck! Eric dared to joke that they might not serve sweet tea at THAT one but I just laughed and said they'd never do anything like that. I can't even begin to count the number of times we ate at that McAlister's. I do know Eric and I ate there before every OB appointment throughout my pregnancies while we were there. There was just something comforting about eating there and having a place we could depend on for good Southern sweet tea.

Living where we do now, McAlister's is a bit of a drive so we haven't been able to eat there as much as we'd like, but it is still one of our favorites and our kids enjoy it as much as we do. Until today. Both boys had already decided what they were having for lunch (Riley a hot dog and Owen a turkey and cheese sandwich) and I was planning on doing their new "Choose two" combo with half an Orange Cranberry Club and half a Spud Ole' which is exactly what I had a couple weeks ago when my boys and I ate there after our trip to the pumpkin patch. They've made a lot of changes at McA's lately and although we haven't been too thrilled about some of them, we could still depend on them to have our favorites.

Immediately upon entering the restaurant, I noticed the menu was very different and my eye went straight to the kids' portion. Oh boy. No hot dog! And no PB&J! These are the boys 2 favorites (Owen had only agreed to a turkey sandwich because Eric bribed him with cookies for dessert). I pointed it out to Eric and then, just to be sure I wasn't overlooking something, I ask an employee about it. Nope, no hot dogs and no PB&J. Riley was NOT happy. And as a matter of fact he proceeded to pitch a fit that lasted pretty much the entire time we were there. Then I noticed the Spuds section of the menu seemed a bit shorter than it used to be. Only four spuds to choose from. And one of the ones they eliminated... my favorite, the Spud Ole'. I knew right away this wasn't going to end well and quickly started scanning the menu for other glaring omissions. The Orange Cranberry Club. The Chili Nachos (a meal in themselves). The Muffaletta. The Pot Roast Spud. All missing. Then Eric noticed one of his favorites, soup in a bread bowl, was missing as well. Eric joked that maybe they had gotten rid of the sweet tea. This time I wasn't laughing.

So I finally settled on the half Turkey Melt with half of a Spud Max (**sigh**), Owen still had the turkey and cheese, Eric didn't eat, and Riley wouldn't stop crying long enough to pick anything he wanted. All he kept saying was he wanted "nothing." He did finally change his mind and agreed to some Mac and Cheese but Eric had to pick him up and start carrying him out to the van before he finally agreed to calm down and eat. The food was still good, but under those circumstances, I left with a bad taste in my mouth.

As I walked out the door one final time, I couldn't help but think there should be someone there playing taps as we said good bye to a dear old friend.

Halloween

I've got a lot of pics to post from recent activities, but I'll start with the most recent and work my way through them all.

Owen decided quite a while back that for Halloween he wanted to be "that thing that's wrapped in toilet paper." I couldn't see buying a mummy costume, so we made it ourselves. It was pretty easy really. I looked for some good ideas online and decided to learn from others' mistakes and NOT just wait and wrap him up each time he needed to wear his costume. I mean, he's good at holding it, but he's still going to need to use the little boys' room at some point. So I wrapped the gauze around his pants and a turtleneck and he was able to pull them on and off whenever needed. It worked really well and he loved it.

Riley still doesn't quite get the whole Halloween thing, so Eric and I picked his costume for him. He loves sharks right now, so that's what we went with. I couldn't find a shark costume though for less than about $40 (TOO MUCH!!!) so I made it for around $5. I think it turned out pretty good and he LOVED it, so that's all that matters, right?

Anyway, here's the pics...

First Owen had Trick or Treating at school and a little party there with his friends on Thursday. Riley and I came for the party and Ry had a great time.

On the way to school...

Party at school... (L-R: Will, Nolan, Jack, Blake, Owen, and Riley)

That afternoon was our MOMS Club Halloween party.

Shark Attacks Mummy...

Riley and Julia


Then Friday night we went to a friend's house for TorTing in their neighborhood. Let me say Owen LOVED it. Here's some pics of the boys with their friends.

(L-R: Will, Brady, Owen, Bowie, Riley)


(Will, Cloe, and Owen)

While out TorTing we ran into some other friends. Here we are with Jenni and her girls, Anna and Emma. BTW neither Jenni nor I live in the neighborhood we were TorTing in. I guess we're just a bunch of moochers.