Brady is 5!

Brady is officially 5! He had a great birthday that started at home with his WWE champion belt. It ended Saturday with a party for him and Max with the cousins. SOO much fun! I wish I could say the school thing is going better, but it is not. Trying to figure that one out. He is very glad to finally be 5. His little brother has adjusted to the terrible twos too well. He has started sticking his tongue out at me when he is unhappy with me. It is so cute I have a hard time keeping a straight face. Lauren has started officially cheering for YMCA football games and loves it. The side effect is that all the cheers get stuck in my head. For some reason the cheers are not as cute when I do them. Go figure. Walker is taking on football with the same drive he approaches every sport. He has made a buddy and he ended up taking Walker to the Airshow this weekend. It was a very memorable experience for him. It was followed up by the age old whining from the other two "how come we never get to do anything special?" Ahh the lesson of "life is not fair" is rearing its ugly head.
So that ends the month of birthdays here!
BTW, there is a picture of Brady's two oldest cousins and their aunt. Cannot believe how tall and grown up they are! Great babysitters too!

Max is Two!

Well, the first boy of August had his birthday on Sunday. He had a blast opening presents and eating cake! He got the traditional underwear to kick off the idea of potty training. He got cars which he LOVES and a cute outfit. Just enough for a two year old. Walker (and I as managing baker) baked him a butterscotch cake (recipe courtesy of Mrs. Wendy Rathje). While we are not really butterscotch people, this cake is yummy and a family hit! We had pizza for dinner which is Max's fave dinner. Walker and Lauren helped wrap presents. They loved putting on a birthday for him. All in all it was a nice day.
Brady will have his on the 25th, but he is running out of patience for it. I do have good news on the Brady front. He went to school today in his shirt that looks like daddy (a long sleeve oxford type shirt Doug got him on clearance at Walmart, on a 90 degree day) and didn't cry AT ALL! What a major improvement from last week! Whew! The catch is that he says he will only go two more days then he is done. We'll see about that.
We also got cards today from grandpa that make music when you open them. What a good idea! The boys loved them!
Here's hoping tomorrow goes as well as today for the drop off!

Back to School!

Well, the three big kids (or shall I include Doug and say 4) started back to school yesterday! Day one went great! Walker and Lauren catch the bus right outside our house. They were nervous but excited and say that they love riding the bus! Then Maxwell and I walk Brady to school. He had an awesome first day! We buttered up each of their teachers with candy and nice notes so hopefully this set them out on a the right foot. They sure were tired when they got home. I made choc chip cookies from scratch (move over Paula Deen!) and they fought it, but all were asleep by 8:45 pm. I do have to say that it feels weird being home with just Maxwell. He did look for his brothers and sister, but enjoyed all my attention. The true test comes tonight as I go back to work for the next four nights. Kids also have practice tonight, so we'll see how they do.
Day 2 was surprisingly rougher. Walker found himself a bus buddy, but Lauren does not have anyone to sit with. Then when she got to school there was some confusion about breakfast and she had a meltdown. I think she got herself together and pulled through the rest of the day. Brady thinks kdg is just too long every day. He wanted me to ask if I could come get him at rest time. He got teary as I dropped him off (not at all like the first day) and begged me to come back and see him. That was pretty rough, but it sounded like all the little kindergartners were having buyers remorse about kdg as there were loud sobs in every classroom as I walked out. I hope he is not mad at me when I pick him up at normal time! We shall see what the rest of the week brings as I work nights, Doug has class Thurs, and 2 kids have practice Thurs. Any volunteers to take a kid to soccer or football practice? Come Saturday we will probably running from game to game, but that's ok with us. Let the fun of fall begin!