Carter's 6th Birthday

It's about time I post about Carter's sixth birthday!

We have done a party for his first five birthdays but we decided to keep it simple this year since we were unsure when Grayson would arrive and didn't want to be stressing about a party.  We actually gave Carter a choice - he could have a party out of the house or we would give him $200 and he could pick out any Lego sets that he wanted.  It took him a few weeks to decide but he finally decided to take the money for Legos.

Carter's birthday was on a Saturday this year so on Friday night I put up banners I had made for his previous parties.

2nd Birthday:

3rd Birthday:

5th Birthday:

When the boys got up, I made blueberry muffins - Carter's favorite food.

Carter wore his birthday crown from school that he'd gotten the day before most of his birthday.

After breakfast Carter opened up his presents from us.

We limited the number of Lego sets we gave him since Carter would be picking out more in the afternoon.

Carter had basketball practice and then we let him pick out where he wanted to eat lunch.  Brian and I have taught him well - he picked Bojangles! :)

Then it was finally time to head to Toys R Us to pick out Legos.  I thought it was going to take FOREVER for Carter to pick out $200 worth of Legos.  Brian had gone ahead inside with the big boys while I fed Grayson in the car.  It only took me 10 minutes and Carter was almost decided when I got inside.  After about 15 minutes, he had made up his mind.  Amazing.

Carter picked out 3 big sets and 1 medium set.  He also got a free little bag set.

Brian picked out a small set for Rylan so he wasn't left out (and he got the free little bag set as well).

Our next stop was Sweet Cece's for ice cream - yum!

After a light dinner at home, I took all the boys to Harpeth Gymnastics for Maddie's birthday party (Carter had his party there the year before).  So even though he didn't get a party, Carter got to see a lot of his friends on his birthday.

Carter's school does a lot to make the kids feel special on their birthdays.  One thing we have the option of doing is donating a book to the library.  I think it cost $15 and the kids get to pick out any book they want from a cart of pre-purchased books.  Carter picked out this book.  He said he picked it out because he loves dogs.

Inside the book is a sticker with Carter's name on it.

Carter was the first person to check out his book and now anyone can.  The librarian sent home this card with a picture of Carter holding his Birthday Book.

The picture of Carter holding his book is also posted outside the library with all the other kids and their birthday books.

Carter's teacher gives the kids a twisty straw.  It seems so simple but Carter was talking about it for days before his birthday.

And of course a crown that Carter wore for days.

Carter got a note from the principal too wishing him a happy birthday.

We aren't allowed to bring in any food or treats for our kids' birthdays but we can supply goody bags (that don't include anything edible) for the kids to take home.  Carter decided he wanted to give his classmates stamps so we found these fall themed ones to give out.

It was weird to not have a party this year but Carter didn't seem to care at all about that.  He still got lots of special attention and seemed to have a fun day!

Target Toy Clearance

Grayson had to put up with this first big toy clearance at THREE Targets this morning.

Brian was nice enough to take the big boys to school for me this morning so I could shop.  I may have spent over $300 :)

Recent Pictures

Before Christmas break, Carter's school had Parents & Pastries one morning.  We got to come in before school and have breakfast with our kiddos in the cafeteria.  I brought all the boys and we got to enjoy some yummy doughnuts!

I took pictures of all the kids in Rylan's class for their ornament craft they made during their party.  Since I had pulled these two out of class at the same time, I got a picture of them together.  Rylan and Radnor were best buddies their first year of school.

Over Christmas break I think we went to the Adventure Science Center three times.  It was been cold and rainy a lot the last few weeks and there just aren't enough indoor places to go sometimes!  During the break, they have their 12 Days of Science with special events going on each day.  On one of those days the kids got to test out some new toys.

Rylan liked the Wubble (which the boys ended up getting from my sister for Christmas).

The new temporary exhibit is all about rivers.  Carter did a little catfish noodling :)

Keeping all the boys together can be hard now that I have Grayson in a stroller and can't really follow Rylan up the spine :)

Wouldn't trade it though - sweet boy holding his doggy's paw :)

I had Missy's kids over for a playdate on Friday.  Luke came dressed as Spiderman so we got out our costumes for everyone else (Rylan is also Spiderman, Will is a mad scientist, and Ellie is just Ellie).

And a sweet picture of our 3 boys ...

Rylan's Christmas Party

Rylan's class has three parties this year that the parents are running.  At orientation I signed up to help with the Christmas party.  Unfortunately I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to do some really cool things at the party but it still turned out really good.  Julie (Kennedy's mom) and I planned it and had a couple of other moms help us by bringing in a few things.

We decided to start the party with pizza this time.

In addition to pizza, the kids had applesauce, juice boxes, Christmas cookies, and these string cheese snowmen I decorated ...

After lunch the kids played "Pin the Nose on the Snowman".  I was about to make my own snowman when I found the game left over from Carter's party that I did last year.

Rylan could totally see under the blindfold so I made him do it again and held my hand over his eyes.

He was not happy with me when other kids "cheated" and put the nose in the right spot.

Next the kids did their ornament craft.  I took photos of the kids a few days earlier and then Julie glued them inside foam wreaths.  We had the kids decorate the wreaths using Christmas colored pompoms.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture and Rylan's has already been packed away with the Christmas stuff.

After the craft it was time for another game.  Julie's game choice was musical chairs.  NEVER DO THIS GAME WITH 4 YEAR OLDS.  I think we had half the class crying when they got out by the end of the game!  Rylan quit midway through because he didn't want to lose (I let him because I didn't want to deal with his possible meltdown!).  Fortunately I had brought the music and was controlling the CD player so I didn't have to deal with the crying kiddos!

To try to calm the chaos, we decided it was time to just read some Christmas books.  Luckily, that seemed to help!

After the stories, our hour was up and the party was over!  We gave each of the kids a small goody bag with some candy and things like pencils and bouncy balls.  Other than musical chairs, it was a success!  It was basic but the kids had fun and that's all that matters!

Sweet Smiles

I can't get enough of these sweet smiles!

Report Card

Carter received his report card for the second quarter today. He's doing great!

Regarding the grading structure, here is the summary I included in my last post:

Kids start getting letter grades in 3rd grade. Before that they receive a number rating between 1 and 5 (5 being the best). In kindergarten, 5's are not given. According to Mrs. Colasso, a 3 is the rating that you want your child to receive. A 3 means "the student has been introduced to the standard and is making expected progress toward mastery". She will give some 4 ratings, but they require that the child never makes any mistakes in the area rated and has 100% mastered everything about the skill.

Christmas Playdate

I hosted a Christmas party for a bunch of our playdate friends again this year back on December 15th.  Since the party was on a Monday, Carter and the other elementary-aged kids didn't get to come but we still had plenty of kids to fill our house!  Including us, there were 8 families with 18 kids.  Still not sure how I pulled that off with a 6 week old!

The party was very similar to last year with ornament decorating in the dining room and gingerbread house decorating in the kitchen.  However I took almost no pictures :(  And I have no excuse - Grayson slept through the majority of the party!

For the ornaments this year, I ordered wooden ones from Oriental Trading Company and then bought jewel stickers, Christmas stickers, and glitter glue to decorate them.  I was much less stressed out with those options than I was last year when I had the kids paint ornaments.

I also made food for the adults since we never seem to eat when we all get together.  We had potato soup, chocolate covered pretzels, hummus, cheese, and crackers.  My friends were also nice enough to bring a few things to snack on (as well as all the candy for decorating the gingerbread houses Brian and I assembled the day before).

The party was a success and lots of fun for all the kids.  Only about half of our toys got pulled out, but, again, my friends are awesome and picked up almost everything while I was nursing Grayson.

Here are the few pictures I did take:

Rylan and Will decorating ornaments ...

Rylan decorating his gingerbread house ...

A full table of kiddos ...

Laura's boys - McCabe & Cole ...

Jen's twins - Reed & Mae ...

Melanie's boys - Colson & Brooks ...

Missy w/ Luke, Ellie, & Will ...

Happy Rylan :)

Rylan's completed gingerbread house ...

When Carter got home from school, he decorated a gingerbread house too ...

I love having this party every year.  It's so much fun to get to celebrate the holiday with our friends!

2 Month Checkup

Grayson had his 2 month checkup today.  He was a happy baby while we waited to see the pediatrician!

As these pictures prove, Grayson is a big baby!  Here are his stats:

Grayson's 2 month stats:

• Weight: 14 lbs, 11 oz (94th percentile)
• Length: 23 inches (50th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 41.2 cm (97th percentile)

This guy has grown a lot in the last 7 weeks!

Grayson's 2 week stats:

• Weight: 9 lb, 2 oz (68th percentile)
• Length: 20.75 in (61st percentile)
• Head Circumference: 14.7 in (89th percentile)

Here are the other boys' measurements at 2 months.  At least Grayson isn't as big as Rylan was!

Rylan's 2 month stats:

• Weight: 15 lbs, 12.5 oz (98th percentile)
• Length: 23.5 inches (66th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 41.5 cm (81st percentile)

Carter's 2 month stats:

• Weight: 11 lbs, 6 oz (45th percentile)
• Length: 22 inches (22nd percentile)
• Head Circumference: 40 cm

My only real concern was discussing the amount of spitting up that Grayson does.  He is very similar to Carter so I'm not worried but I wanted to get this pediatrician's take on it.  Grayson is obviously keeping enough down based on his weight.  When I told the pediatrician that I only feed Grayson on one side every 3 hours and that he usually only eats about 5 minutes, he said that my let down must be really quick and that I'm probably drowning Grayson.  He's getting so much so quick that his tummy is full before he even realizes it.  I can try to feed him less at each feeding but increase the frequency of feedings, keep him still after feedings, try burping him even more, and just keep lots of extra dry clothes on hand :)  We agreed that Grayson doesn't seem overly bothered by the spitting up so acid reflux medicine wouldn't do much for him since he'd continue to spit up just as much (the medicine only takes away some of the burn).

Grayson got 3 shots and an oral vaccine today.  He was way more upset about the oral vaccine than the shots.  He did cry during those too but stopped as soon as I picked him up.  He wasn't any more fussy than normal today from his shots but he was running a fever (100.3F the last time I checked).

The pediatrician didn't have any concerns about Grayson's develop and said he looked great.  Grayson goes back in another two months for another checkup.