This picture conveys the feeling of this past week. After a great Thanksgiving with family and friends, we anticipated a low-key Christmas. In fact it was a season of sharing as we passed the same illness from person to person. Everyone has had a turn now. Sara's came late Christmas eve as we prepared for Santa to visit. She was able to get up for the kids to open presents, but then was back to bed for the full day.

We celebrated Boxing day by getting everything but the Christmas Spirit boxed up for a season of storage. Saturday took us to the Ritzman's for an evening of dinner, games, and movies. You can see that Amy was too tired to make it up the stairs. Incredibly temperatures hit 75deg. We referred to it as a cold summer day.

There are many pictures that exist of me and my siblings lined up on the stairs ready to descend on Christmas morning. I've posted two of my children in the same pose. Paul felt that I exceeded proper decorum by taking more than one, and displayed his frustration.

Sara is mostly recovered, the house is mostly in order, and I am mostly ready for the last week of this year. Time to start settling on some resolutions and a path to their fulfillment.

Paul started Nursery today as an official 18mo old. It meant that I didn't spend 2 hours in the foyer with him. Strange sensation to sit through classes-- all but the last 10 minutes when Paul required some special attention. The church dumpster says specifically 'No Hazardous Materials' but I threw the Diaper in anyway.

3rd hour left me pondering the question-- what is the distinction between faith and hope?

As a parting shot-- I think this is my first official post to this blog. Hopefully it will trigger some friends and family to revisit their blogs and provide some updates. The holidays can be a tricky time.

Christmas Snow

Yes, Santa does visit Ohio, the kids were relieved to find out! They had a fun Christmas watching new movies, playing new games, & enjoying the day.
Brian made sure everyone had a wonderful Christmas, as I had to celebrate with the family the next day being too sick on Christmas Day. Unfortunately we missed Christmas dinner at the Winn's, but they so graciously brought of left-overs the next day. What caring friends!
Today we opened the plethora of gifts the girls had wrapped. Most of them were just wrapping paper--the presents had fallen out already. I received Amy's pencil (the one that she wrapped for Maggie), the family got bookmarks, & pictures.

My favorite was Maggie's gift for Amy: a snowball fight. It was many small pieces of paper wadded up into "snowballs". "So we could have a snowball fight inside."--Maggie





We wish you all a Merry Christmas!!

Big Words & a Trip to the Doctor

I ended up taking Paul to the Urgent Care last night. He had been wheezing & coughing all day & seemed to be having a difficult time breathing. I was grateful that it turned out to be not serious enough for extra medical treatment, just a little TLC & extra rest. As long as he stays a "happy wheezer" he should be just fine, and today he was doing much better.
I think also the extra crying helped open his lungs, which he did whenever anyone tried to listen to his breathing, take a temperature, or look at him--not to mention the 5 or so minutes of wriggling & screaming when they gave him an albuteral treatment to make sure it wasn't asthma related. (You try keeping a breathing mask on a 27 lb. toddler.) His thumb got plenty of sucking; his blanket got plenty of hugging; he got plenty of mommy loving.
While we were waiting in the lobby he was intrigued by the paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. Pointing crookedly with his chubby finger, he smiled and said snowflake ("no-fake"). I was pretty sure he was saying snowflake, but he wouldn't do it on command, so I started questioning what I heard. Then today he said candycane "ghan gane" (I had witnesses this time--Scot & James). My son won't say one-syllable words like ball, mom, dad, cat, dog. Oh, no, he has to skip right to the multi-syllabic ones! Paul, what do we have in store with you?

Happy Birthday, Maggie!

Maggie woke up so excited and happy on her birthday that I was confused when she suddenly had tears in her eyes and a frown on her face. When I asked what was wrong she replied, "There aren't any presents!" Knowing it was her birthday she expected to wake up and be surrounded by gifts or at least discover a well placed pile downstairs. She felt much better after I explained that she would have gifts to open after her birthday dinner & cake.

At church the primary children sang happy birthday to her. The music leader asked her what type of cake she was going to have. She responded, strawberry shortcake, and everyone ooh-ed and aah-ed. They didn't realize I'd bought a cake from Walmart that had a picture of Strawberry Shortcake on it!








Maggie enjoyed opening presents (finally!) after her request of hamburgers and fries (this was her back-up request since we couldn't go to McDonald's on Sunday). The first gift: a surprise gift from James of James. He put himself in a box, had Scot tape him up, and then popped out when she opened the box. Actually, popped is a little too energetic of a word. The box was a little small and he was slightly cramped and gasping for air.



















It didn't help that Scot used the big box for his gift (picture left) of a bookmark, sucker, & glow-in-the-dark bouncy ball or that we had to push James (in his box) from the front room to the family room because we decided to change the gift venue (Brian had built a lovely fire for a very chilly evening).






Other gifts she opened were hair accessories and a Wall-e Leapster game. Three other packages/cards arrived the next day from Grandma & Grandpa Nielson, Great-Grandma Nielson, and Grandma Charlotte.




Paul, of course, wants to grow up to be just like his big brothers and sisters.

Santa's Lap

We had two fun Christmas parties this week. Wednesday was the UC Foundation's Holiday Party at the Cincinnati Zoo. In spite of being cold, the kids had fun making craft santas, jingle bell necklaces & eating fun desserts. We've decided we need to come back in the daytime--the only times we've been there so far it has been after hours & dusk.

Our other party was the ward Christmas party on Saturday. The primary children put together part of the program showing the symbols of Christmas & singing carols. I'm going to have to start paying attention to what's going on. I've been called to be the 1st Counselor in the Primary presidency.


Enjoy these pictures of the kids on Santa's lap! Paul's is classic Santa phobia.

The Spirit of the Season: Singing & Giving

Today we are (hopefully) finishing our Christmas decorating. Monday night for FHE we found our tree, but we haven't had time to actually decorate it. Last night was Scot's chorus concert & I spent most of yesterday practicing (I accompanied a few of the songs). We all went to watch. He & the rest of the 5th/6th grade chorus did great. There were traditional Christmas, Hanukkah, & Kwanzaa songs. One of my favorite was about the fun of winter (making snowmen, etc) with a second part singing the misery of head colds. Very cute--all the kids pretending to sneeze. Even Scot in all his professional seriousness wiped his eyes & held his aching head. We may have video to share after next week's band concert.

Both Maggie & Amy have been busy the last two days wrapping presents. So far they've been through 2 rolls of paper.

I can't say what Maggie has been wrapping since they are "special projects" she has worked on at school & at home, but this is what I caught Amy wrapping this morning. It's for Maggie.




As the Christmas story goes (we've been doing the 24 Days of Christmas)...
I wish I could be a sister like that.

Thanksgiving Thanks

Yes, I know December came more than a week ago, but we've been reveling in our Thanksgiving holiday and it's been hard to move on. We appreciate all the family and friends that were able to join us. You all made it so easy to host. Anytime you want to do all the shopping, cooking, babysitting, house rearranging, and entertainment, we will provide the place to do it!! I guess we did pitch in a little:)

Our Thanksgiving highlights included:

• geocaching
• Jungle Jim's
• playing "Ticket to Ride" & "Settlers"
• making & eating way too much food
• candy making (key lime truffles & white chocolate gingersnaps were incredible additions)
• making & decorating gingerbread houses
  
• not having to play Wii on the 7" TV
• Christmas dresses:)

I know I'm forgetting lots...mostly inside jokes which will be remembered only by tender memories of awesome family and friends. Thank you for being the reason we give thanks!

Quick Post

I wanted to get a quick post in today. I'm spending a delightful afternoon with Paul--he's playing in the family room while I work on the computer; the girls are playing "My Little Pony" in their room with the door shut (Paul is never allowed when they are in serious pony play, and from the looks of the Crystal Castle covered in accessories, this is serious play). Paul is being very sweet, feeding me goldfish and giggling. He looks very babyGap with his hair trimmed in the back and front swept to the side. The babyGap thing stops with his hair. He's still wearing pajamas--a too small pj shirt & Amy's pajama shorts. I'm doing laundry today as well. In fact, we are in serious clean-up mode getting ready for family & friends. So between e-mail clean-up and desk organization I'm doing laundry, making beds, doing dishes, plus planning some of the details for a very anticipated Thanksgiving week. We are all so excited, and no one can think of anything else!

November Weekend

A few highlights from this weekend (or lowlights as they may be):

• Brian home again from a trip to San Diego (yay!!)
• Mom watching Nim's Island with the kids, after attending a ward baptism
• Paul semi-miserable with molar teething
• chocolate chip-peanut butter-oatmeal cookies (thanks Scot)
• putting up pictures/decor ("Mom, I really like the bathroom; it's beautiful"--Maggie)
• the boys donating 15,000 grains of rice at www.freerice.org
• Paul spilling a whole pitcher of orange juice on the floor
• Amy's maniacal laugh after dinner (scary because it simply came out on its own)
• "inch-hits" from Dad (imagine James being sprawled on the ground)
• Scot & James teaching Dad "tic-tac-toe...I win, you lose, now you have a great big bruise" (Brian can attest that he does have a great big bruise)
• Maggie continuing to plan her birthday party (decorations are beginning to appear)
• waiting for Grandma & Grandpa, Andrea, Lauren & Ryan & Annie to come for Thanksgiving
• getting compliments on a new haircut
• wearing a new skirt to church & then having Paul leak through onto it (do you notice Paul is getting all the lowlights?)

Congrats!!

The kids were so excited to learn that they have a new cousin. Congratulations to Lauren and Ryan on the arrival of a baby girl!

Proudly Cincinnati

I felt immersed in UC (University of Cincinnati) culture twice this last week. It started last Saturday with the public campaign kick-off. Brian and I attended an incredible dinner with entertainment at the 5/3 Event Center. The basketball arena was transformed into a starry banquet hall--the walls were starlit, overhead huge stars hung, candles lit the tables. Over 1,000 people attended. The brass section of the marching band announced dinner. Speakers were all encouraging the support (mostly financial) of UC. The tag line was "Proudly Cincinnati," and it was amazing to hear the different leaders of the school and community show their pride in this amazing university. I was awed by Ohio's Governor Strickland and Olympic Gold Medalist, Mary Wineberg, and inspired by the marching band which marched right into the room and played the school alma mater. After dinner (3 ethnic buffets) there was dancing and dessert. It was a lovely evening, and I am grateful to have shared it with Brian.

A more fun even for the entire family (although what's better than having a babysitter?) was the UC vs. USF game the night before Halloween. Brian picked us all up after work in our new black UC sweatshirts so we would "black out the stadium" (Amy, Maggie, & Paul were red accents). The kids had a great time cheering for the Bearcats. Too bad we had to leave early, but the kids did have school the next day. It was a fun game to watch, and it's a good feeling to belong to an incredible university.

Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Here are some pictures of the kids getting ready to Trick or Treat. They had such a fun time, and it is a whole neighborhood celebration. From 6-8pm all the adults (or those who aren't following their kids around) sit in their driveways (most of them with a beer close by) giving candy to the kids walking by. Very efficient!

Brian set up the camp chef in the garage & fried up scones for any parents walking with their children. This was a new delicacy for most of our neighbors, and most were willing to try our treat.

As you can see, Maggie changed her costume to a butterfly, and Amy changed hers to Tinkerbell. Paul loves wearing his elephant costume & defending the candy buckets (even if they are not his). I especially love his elephant tale that waddles back and forth when he walks.

Hope you all had a spooky Halloween celebration.

Aw, Nuts!

This isn't the post I was wanting to write about Amy, but I wanted everyone to be aware of a new health issue for her. After a skin prick test, she showed definitely positive for a tree nut allergy, especially almonds. This doesn't mean that she'll have a serious reaction every time she's exposed, but it is possible. She is also allergic to cats & dogs. (Sorry, Scot & James--this means no pets for a while.)
So we'll have to watch out for nuts and read more labels. Peanuts & peanut butter are fine, but she shouldn't have peanuts that have been processed with other types--no picking peanuts out of a mixed nut jar.
Mostly we'll take a preventative approach, but we do have an epi-pen and an inhaler just in case she has a serious reaction. Hopefully we'll never have to use them!

Trunk or Treat

We had fun at the ward's Trunk or Treat party last night. We (I say we because it was a group effort to find everything) came as a elephant, candy corn, cheerleader, pirate, and spy. (Thank you Grandma Nielson for years of recyclable costumes!) The kids had fun playing games in the cultural hall. They packed in a full house! While I helped the kids play, Brian set up our trunk for the treating. I didn't get a picture, but it turned out pretty good. We took our theme from Charlie Brown and invited the Great Pumpkin to visit our small pumpkin patch. Brian had the movie playing on his small projector screen. A red doghouse (that Maggie and I made that afternoon) with the flying baron Snoopy atop was on the ground. And the pumpkin patch was made from small pumpkins each of the kids decorated. I couldn't believe we barely had enough candy. It makes me nervous for having enough for the real night. We are used to only having 4-5 kids show up. Of course, we never complain having left over candy.

Amy showing her decorated pumpkin for the pumpkin patch.

Official First Word

While Paul has been able to babble "mamama" or "dadada," and respond with a grunt which sounds similar to "ya," he never says anything on command. But today eating his dinner (while we were going crazy getting ready for the Trunk or Treat party) he sayed in his politest voice, "please may I have another bite so I can slurp some more spaghetti?" OK, so really what he said was "gee"--meaning please--but I know what he was really trying to say.

Primary Program 2008

This past Sunday our primary gave their annual Sacrament Meeting Presentation. What a privilege it has been to be the primary pianist here in our new ward. I love listening to the lessons and inspired songs each Sunday. It is amazing what our young children know about the Gospel.
The kids all did great, of course. I made minimal mistakes (phew!). Scot was a part of the group that began the program with "I am a Child of God" on wind chimes. Two other highlights were Maggie's singing and the final song. She has a great gift for lyrics. Sometimes she'll only hear a song only once or twice and she'll be able to sing the whole thing. Amy is the same way; I'm amazed at all the songs they both know (including verses and verses of "Follow the Prophet"). For the program Maggie worked really hard on singing her best (translated: her loudest). She wanted her daddy to hear her, all the way in the back. Brian says she succeeded.
The final song was "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus". The primary sang the 1st verse, and the congregation joined on the 2nd. It was overwhelming to hear everyone singing such a beautiful, simple song about following Jesus. I had to remind myself to keep playing. Now I have a whole year to practice playing without crying.

Stats

I thought you might find the following stats interesting from the check-ups yesterday.

Amy: 2'11" and 28 lbs.
Paul: 2' 7" and 25 lbs. 10 oz.

Isn't it interesting that even with a whole 2.5 pound advantage, Amy still needs help getting her toys away from Paul?

By the way, Paul has now lost his roaming privileges in the house. He may not go into any room unattended.

Scot's First Band Performance

James and I attended Scot's first band performance, FHIMA's Meet the Teacher Night @ the high school. The band teacher explained how the kids learn to play their different instruments and, then they performed a few songs. Some of you might have asked, "where are the earplugs?" but, as a mother of young (often wailing) children, I found the cacophony of the budding instrumentalists rather soothing. I can honestly keep encouraging Scot to continue practicing, although I rarely have to do more than remind him. He really enjoys it and using SmartMusic on the computer helps keep it fun.

Brian stayed home with the girls & Paul so they could get to bed early. Both Amy and Paul got shots today at their check-ups. Amy cried way more than Paul did--until she remembered about getting stickers. Even though I just wanted to hug and comfort her, I couldn't help laugh at her stilt-like walk to the car. She found that not bending her knees helped her thighs not hurt as much. Also, Paul may be banned from any future outings until he learns some self-control. (I would take any level of self-control, especially the not-flinging-yourself-in-and-out-of-the stroller-willy-nilly type or the pull-every-book-off-the-shelf-then-throw-it-at-you equivalent.)

Post Script: James' hightlight of the night was watching the pencil that was stuck in the ceiling tiles directly over Scot's head and hoping it would fall. ("You mean high schoolers would actually throw pencils at the ceiling??")

If you look really close you can see the pencil. Sorry about the poor photography :( I know how important it is to get good pictures of ceiling pencils...oh, and your own children, of course.

Following Up

I know I said the next few posts would be about Amy, but so much has happened this last week there may be a small flood of posts all about various events.

I did send Amy's hair today to Locks of Love. Everyone really likes her short cut, and she adores the attention. The only thing she misses so far is flipping her hair over so I can button her dresses. She does it anyway, and then realizing she doesn't have any hair to flip she bursts into giggles.

The girls and Paul helped pick out pumpkins today that we'll carve and decorate for Family Home Evening tonight. Paul helped get the insides of his pumpkin all mushy by dropping it repeatedly from the shopping cart.

Our neighborhood has the Halloween spirit. There are lots of fun decorations surrounding us, and the Phantom Ghost has been leaving treats mysteriously on front steps. So far we've been unsuccessful at catching the ghosts in the act, but they are usually not too bashful to share who they've visited with the school bus the next morning.

The scariest thing about our house is the dead plant beds in the front yard. That should be remedied soon (isn't the snow supposed to cover up that sort of stuff??). I'd be pulling the plants up today, except we're getting rain. I'm counting on the pumpkins to help with our fall decor.

And finally, Scot reminds you to trick or treat and smell his feet.

Grown-up Amy

The next few posts will be about Amy. We have a lot of fun together while the others are at school. And while her 3-year-old-ness seeps into all she does, her love and sweetness expands way beyond her few years.

Today we went to the salon.

The stylist was able to cut off just 10 inches of wavy brown hair, which we'll send to Locks of Love. Now my long haired, blue-eyed baby girl (which I would never say to her directly because Paul is obviously the baby) is a short-haired with one dimple little girl. I think it's adorable, but my heart nearly fell to my feet while I watched all that hair being cut off. I had to remind myself that cutting it wouldn't be any good if we couldn't donate it, and I think Locks of Love is a great organization.

We haven't had a chance to style her new 'do yet, but here is the first picture of her with short hair. It's fun to see her hold her hair like she's trying to figure out where it went!

Fall Fires

We spent a nice weekend working on the house. Our goal? To say we've officially "moved in." The kids rooms were thoroughly cleaned and rearranged (the boys got the huge bookshelf--they both go through about 5 books a week; the girls got the playtable). After a drop off to Good Will we visited the local library. The boys have been so anxious to get their own library cards. Apparently one (school) library is not enough.
The weather has finally turned chilly, and Brian has enjoyed building a small fire in the mornings. I think we both love the fall: sweaters, leaves, crisp air, a peaceful rest from the labor of the season.

To Utah and Back Again

The last week has been filled with family for me, and I'm very grateful for Brian and good friends who made it happen. Last Thursday Paul and I took a flight from Dayton to Salt Lake City leaving aroung 4:30am from our home and arriving at my mom's near 1pm (which included a 2 hour time difference). Paul did pretty good on the flights (we had a 2 hr. layover in Minneapolis), napping in between and for the last 10 minutes before landing in Salt Lake. Luckily we were sitting next to understanding and patient individuals who appreciated Paul's good behavior and tolerated his bad. Needless to say, we were both fairly exhausted upon arrival and had a good rest that afternoon. The rest of the day was spent visiting with my mom and preparing for my niece's wedding, which was the real reason we made the trip.

On Friday, Erin, my brother, drove my mother, Paul, and I up to Logan were the wedding was scheduled in the Logan Temple. Talk about a brisk morning! Up in the mountains you realize that fall is finally here. With plenty of time to spare, we waiting in the visitors room for our babysitters to arrive (which turned out to be Rachelle, my 2nd oldest niece). It was a beautiful ceremony and made me miss Brian (*sigh*). Through the last few ceremonies we've attending, I've realized that I really like weddings, probably because I can think about what the sealer is really saying, or maybe because it's much more fun to think about being a newlywed and not actually be one .

And so it was my great privilege to watch Melanie Thornton marry Geoffrey Joosten and become Melanie Joosten. I'm so excited for them, and hope that they will be happy as they figure out how to be married to one another.


(Her flowers were so beautiful!)



Between the wedding and the reception we ate lunch at The Bluebird, then drove down to Brigham City were my Aunt Shirley and Uncle Cal are living in an assisted living home. It was nice to see them again and remember all the nice things they have done for our family.

After that we went over to the Bear River Bird Refuge and walked through the visitors center. I now know slightly more about migrating birds than I did before.



Back in Logan, Paul and I had the time to take one last walk around the temple before the reception. Wrapped up in the stoller against the cold, Paul (and I) really enjoyed the beautiful flowers and fountains around the temple. What a peaceful and serene place, truly a House of God.
















The reception was lots of fun, and we got to see the rest of the family, nieces and nephews. Paul especially enjoyed the cheese cubes and lemonade. Plus I could tell he really missed his brothers and sisters because he loved playing with Grace and the other kids. I realized how much I depend on Scot, James, Maggie, and Amy to entertain him!

We got back late that night, slept for a few hours, then got up early to head back to the airport. This was a lot easier flight for me, though, because Mom came back with me. Yea!! We had a great visit here in Ohio: church, Graeter's, Juilf's Park, Imaginiff... Unfortunately we had to take her back to the airport today and say good-bye for another while.

It was a nice whirl-wind week. I wish I could have seen more of our family and friends while in Utah, but for now I will relax here in Ohio with good memories and incredible autumn leaves.

Neighborhood Games

I love that my kids can play football in the street!

Traffic Jam

Our street, especially in front of our house, was so crazy this morning. Water Works came to fill in the concrete they tore out yesterday to fix the water leak, plus the tree cutters came to finish taking down our neighbor's trees that were injured in the storm. Luckily the windshield I had ordered for Brian's car didn't arrive until this afternoon because I'm not sure the school bus could have manoeuvred past all the vehicles and workers.
I didn't have time to watch the school bus anyway. I had to get Paul and Amy over to a friend's house so I could volunteer in Maggie's class for a couple hours. It was really fun watching all the organized craziness of kindergarten. Maggie has a great teacher who seems to really know the ropes. My favorite activity was "Hickedy Pickedy Bumble Bee, Won't You Say Your Name for Me?" I'd never heard that rhyme before. After the person says their name, you repeat their name 4 times: repeating, w/clapping, whispering, then just clapping the syllables. It was really cute. When it was Maggie's turn she got all shy and could only whisper her name. I guess I didn't need to worry that she would be way too talkative!

Solution

After waiting 8 days for the water company to fix the water leak near our house, we decided to fill up our emergency water barrels with the free-flowing water. Last night Brian bought a water pump on the way home from work, hookup up the portable battery, and voila!, water storage. Unfortunately we ran out of time and battery power to fill up all the barrels, but all least we got a good start and saved a fraction of the water from going down the drain. (Pumping 50 gallons in 10 minutes (and not affecting the water drainage, I figure at least 300,000 gallons have leaked during this last week--and that is a very conservative estimate.)


Rigged strainer to keep debris from being pumped.






Scot getting making interesting flow designs. Get out of the water Scot!!

James mesmerized by watching the water drain into the storm drain. This has been a favorite pasttime of all the kids on the street.

This is how far the water drained each day. At the top of the picture you can see our white van in front of our house.

Post Script: The water company fixed the leak this morning. For a while we had mud flowing instead of water, but don't worry, they used more water to wash away the mud.

All Cleaned Up

We finished the last of the piles of our downed tree this evening. Hopefully the town's crew will pick it up tomorrow, as advertised. We now have a hefty stack of firewood waiting to cure for next year. We'll still buy more wood for this season as emergency heat supply and ambiance. The kids keep saying that now Santa Clause can come since we have a fireplace.
With some of the older, dead twigs we made a small fire for our family home evening "treat". Maggie wasn't so convinced that it could substitute for a real treat, but she made do anyway.
We are also hoping that the water company will fix a leak that has been spurting up from the grass for a week now. We could have filled up our emergency water barrels many times over with all the water that has run down the road into the storm drain. It is almost painful to see all that water wasted, especially after been through such tough droughts in Colorado and Utah.

Cincinnati Zoo

We had a great time Saturday night at the Cincinnati Zoo. It was a special event for UC staff, students, alumni, and the perfect chance for us to finally get there. Highlights were the carousel, train ride, Dippin' Dots, but I think the best sight was Amy's look of amazement at the first animal we saw. I don't really remember what it was (maybe the white lions?), but her jaw dropped, her eyes widened, and she couldn't move for sheer amazement. So adorable!

The night got late quick, and we ended up happily exausted. Brian and I had to put off preparing our Sacrament Meeting talks for church until Sunday morning (which was probably going to happen anyway).

Happy Birthday to James!

After a crazy week (the kids didn't have school Monday or Tuesday because of the power outage--as of Sunday there were still people in our ward without power), we finally came to the grand celebration of James' birthday. I made a cake Saturday night. James requested a lemon cake with white frosting, coconut sprinkled on top, and a mini car cake surrounded by candles. Everything came out just as he requested except for the coconut. Who knew that coconut was so flammable when being toasted in the oven?? I must admit, I did not respond well to my first kitchen fire, small as it was. It was good that Brian had the common sense to take the tray over to the sink and douse it with water. In my mind I was wondering, "where is the baking soda?" Anyway, we now have a sure knowledge that the smoke detector works in the kitchen.
Sunday, the "big day," we made James wait until after church and dinner to open presents and have cake. His birthday dinner was tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. As dinner was getting cleaned up, we noticed Paul was wandering around the dining room with what looked like butter all over his hands and mouth. Alas, the cake was not high enough to escape his outstretched hand, and we realized it was frosting and not butter all over him. (Now, every time he sees the cake he stretches out his arm and whines for a piece.) So, unfortunately James did not get the first bite of birthday cake.
James got some fun presents: cards and money from G.Grandma Nielson and Grandma Charlotte, an imaginary paint set from Maggie (it's a paper brush and paints colored on paper--Maggie told him, "you can use it to color on anything"--James colored more chocolate chips on the cookies he took to school today for his class); zoo tickets for Saturday from Brian and I; Scot make him a laminated writing board for their closet; and Paul gave him an i.o.u. for a scorpion puzzle at the scout office. Amy had started drawing him several pictures, but apparently none of them were worthy enough for the birthday boy. The best surprise by far was Grandma and Grandpa Nielson's gift. James loved the card with silly birthday jokes and was so excited for the sport stacking cups set. The boys are getting pretty good, but I think it'll take a while of steady practicing to challenge the record holders.
I think James had a great birthday. He practiced hard this week while school was out to learn to ride his bike up and down the hill, and now he goes out practically every day after school. Now when it's raining he can practice his speed stacking instead. The only downside to his birthday being over? Maggie asking how many days it is until hers!