Owen's 6th Birthday

Owen's birthday was Friday and his party was on Saturday. Friday we took him to Bob Evan's for lunch, let him rent a couple movies, and had cupcakes and ice cream. We gave him the gifts from us, and later my parents and grandmother came with gifts too, and we had cupcakes and ice cream again. I made the cupcakes in ice cream cones, we all love that. If you haven't tried that, you must! Just make a cake mix from a box, and fill ice cream cones about 3/4 way full. Bake, then use icing for the tops. (Best eaten the same day you make them, or they get too soggy.) So good and kids love them (and so do I)!





Making a wish:









Chloe made him this sweet game:


He asked for Screature, and Mom and Dad got it for him. He loves it!





Saturday was Owen's party at McDonalds. It was the first McDonalds party we've had, I always plan a big party on the kids' birthdays, so it was kind of strange not to this time. It's what Owen wanted to do because he'd been to his friend's party there in the winter. It was a good day for a party and the kids loved playing on the playground there. Owen said it was the best day of his life.










Happy Birthday, baby boy!

Bikini Bread and other ramblings

Dad has zucchini ready in his garden now. I love zucchini from his garden. Love. It. Today I made zucchini bread with chocolate chips (with chocolate chips because I was dying for chocolate). Phoebe helped and told everyone she was making Bikini Bread. Not suitably named because you can't wear a bikini after eating two loaves of it like I am going to do. (Recipe from Paula Deen here.)


To update you on weird things found in my fridge, I found a Lego today along with a tomato with a bite out of it. The other day I found a diver "guy". The trend of toys found in the fridge leads me to believe the culprit is Owen. (The tomato incident though has Phoebe written all over it.)


(BTW, the pink stuff in the pitcher in the pic above is my Crystal Light raspberry lemonade that I totally love this summer.)




Chloe and I got our hair cut yesterday. I like hers a lot. Mine, not so much. It's the first time Chloe has ever had bangs in her life. They are long side bangs and she got some layers around her face, and about an inch cut off the length.

And finally, six years ago right now I found myself in the hospital ready to give birth to my baby boy, Owen. Chloe and I had been at the pool all day with my friend Mindy and her daughter Camryn. That was back in the day when we only had one girl each. Those girls would swim for hours and we'd kick back and gossip the afternoons away. That day was very hot and the pool was busy and rowdy. All day I told Mindy I was having contractions. It was June 25th and my due date was July 7th. I knew I was in labor. I oddly didn't panic. I knew it would take forever to have him, as it did Chloe. So we swam. When we were about to go a lady asked if she could have my chair. After I rolled myself out of it, I said sure we were leaving. She said I looked like I was about to have the baby any day. Why yes, I was. I told her I thought that day was the day.

I went home, took laundry off the line, cooked dinner, and got Chloe ready to go to my parents. I told Danny we would be going to the hospital but he stayed on the computer and took his time reading whatever it was he was reading while I scurried around. So that evening we finally made it to the hospital. I was dilated to 3 or 4 (I can't remember which now). The dr. on call sent me for an ultrasound and thought the baby was big (he wasn't, but bigger than Chloe who I barely had)and we should go ahead and do a c-section. I was worried about that because I didn't have one with Chloe. He called my dr. and my dr. said to wait until morning and he'd come in. They gave me cervidil and a sleeping pill. By morning I was ready to have Owen. I pushed for 2 hours and nothing. They were thinking I'd need a c-section so they gave me an epidural. I hadn't ever had one before and found it blissful. Finally after much drama that I won't bore you with, they wheeled me in for a c-section. He was facing up, instead of down like he should have been to be born, and he had a big cone head from being stuck so long. My first boy (as he likes to call himself) was born on June 26, 2003 at 5:37 pm. He was 7 pounds 9.4 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long.






What a joy he was then, and now.

A gripe from the movies

Last night I took the kids to see the movie UP. My friend Anna and her kids met us there. First, we had a great time, the movie was good, and Phoebe made it through the whole thing just fine.

However, there are two things still bugging me this morning. The ticket prices aren't cheap, but not too bad either, so I'm not complaining about that. ($7 for me and $5 for Chloe and Owen, and Phoebe was free, so $17 for tickets.) It's the cost of the snacks that have me over the roof. Chloe, Owen, and Phoebe each got a snack pack which consisted of a pretty small bag of popcorn, a tiny drink, and m&ms (no substituting the candy). Each of those was $4.50. I got a small popcorn which was $4.50, and a small diet coke for $3.50! So I spent $21.50 on snacks!!! Unbelievable. I mean, $3.50 for a very small diet coke? To spend more on snacks than the price of admission is absurd.

My other gripe is how freaking cold it was in the theater. Let me just say, I am never cold. I'm always hot. Always. Just ask Danny. Well, I was a popsicle at the movie. Poor Phoebe said she was "freezing to death" and pulled her shirt down over her knees, and tried to huddle with me for warmth. The other kids were saying they were cold. When we got out to the lobby people were shivering. I was never so glad to get outside in the heat in all my life. I didn't even use the a/c in the van on the way home. It seriously had to be 50 degrees in there. Once Phoebe said she needed a blankie.

Anyway! There is my gripe for the day. Now, our electric company is having a scheduled outage today from 10:00-1:00 on a 90 degree day, so I may be begging for 50 degree a/c this afternoon.

She needs trained

Yesterday Phoebe and I were writing and coloring. She is getting better at writing her name, her P and O are great. She loves to spell her name and is so proud when she spells it for us. Owen was watching her write and said she couldn't write her name because she hadn't been trained.

We were swimming and Owen said it was hard to walk through water because it was so thick. He also thinks swimming takes the place of a bath. At the pool today there was a water battle going on between Owen and the girls (all my friends and family have girls) and they said it was girls against boy.

Things are busy with summer reading at the library yesterday, a sleepover here last night, swimming at the pool today, haircuts and going to the movies tomorrow, and all the usual stuff too. Owen told me today I looked tired which can never be good when a five year old tells you that. Then he promptly told me to carry him to the porch.

Father's Day and First Day of Summer

We had a fun day on Sunday. We went to church and in the afternoon we celebrated at Mom and Dad's with a cookout and swimming. My Dad assumed his role of King of the Grill (as his apron says)and made us his famous fries. He deep fries them outside on a huge fryer. I'm lucky to have the best Dad in the world, and not just because he makes great fries. We camped out in the backyard on Saturday, so we were tired and napped some after the cookout. A great day. Too bad every day isn't a Sunday.

Food confusion

Owen has had some trouble identifying food. When Dairy Queen opened for the Spring (it's one that just serves ice cream so it closes in the cold weather months) I told the kids we'd go. They were excited and telling me what they'd order. Owen said he wanted banilla (notice the b) ice cream in a cup with a lid and a straw where you drink it. Oh, a milkshake!

Last week there was a sale at Kroger on all the Cheetos and Fritos. We got chili cheese Fritos (my fav!) and two kinds of Cheetos. The puffed kind and the crunchy kind. Because I'm all about healthy snacks. One evening Owen asked for some Cheetos. Then he said the kind that are a line, not the curved. Oh, crunchy!

Yesterday (a mere five minutes after dinner) he asked for those little square brown things in a bowl that he thinks are called Golden Grahams. Oh yes, Golden Grahams!




Totally off subject, but it's 11:00 and I am already totally stressed out. The two classes I'm taking are A LOT of work and requires more thinking than I have done in 14 years. I have fought with my computer for days to get important things to download and I just this morning FINALLY figured out what was wrong. (No thanks to the two computer tech people I've talked to for hours. Thank the Lord and Google for me figuring it out.) I have laundry and dishes to do, the kids are all in their swim clothes wanting to go to the pool, I need to do class work, and the house needs cleaned. So, I better get to it!

AND! Happy Birthday to my friends Rosie and Nellie!! Have a great day girls!

Who cares??

Phoebe was putting her shoes on to go outside. She started out the door and I told her that her shoes were on the wrong feet. She said "Nobody cares!" and went on out the door. Today we went to swim at my mom and dad's house. We had lunch on the porch. Mom asked her if she wanted more cantaloupe and Phoebe said "I'm not sure". I think because sometimes I will ask if she is sure that she doesn't want more of something.

My friend Sherry and I have being doing the 30 Day Shred workout dvd. (It's killing me, by the way.) I walked in the other day to find Phoebe in the living room like this. She said she was doing the 30 Day Shred.



Owen went with Danny one day last week to the auto parts store. While he was gone Sherry and I did our exercise. He was so disappointed when he came home and had missed it. It is quite the show I guess.

Chloe has some bug bites on her back and is certain she is going to get the West Nile virus. She gave me a long lesson this evening on all the facts of West Nile virus. She gets all kinds of information from a website called Brain Pop. This evening she brought in a pair of ugly turquoise socks that I am sure have never been worn. She wanted to know if she could cut them up and make Barbie clothes. She's a big fan of doing that. I said yes because when is she ever going to wear turquoise socks? The next thing you know she made arm socks with a thumb hole instead and she is wearing them in bed asleep right now.

I was trying to do some of my class work on the computer a couple days ago for one of the online classes I'm taking. While I was doing it Owen brought me a can of chicken noodle soup about 24 times so I'd make it for him, and Phoebe was in the bathroom a little too long. I went to check about her, and the bathroom sink was full of bubbles and water. There was a Barbie in it. I asked Phoebe what was going on and she said "I'm making a Barbie hot tub". Oh well, nobody cares.