Happy Birthday to Miles!

Happy birthday to my big 5 year old boy. Wow, it's a bit hard for me to believe that he is 5 years old already. And he feels the same way. He has been hoping and wishing to be 5 for the last 3 years. The other night after his birthday party, he said: "I can't believe I'm really 5 years old today. Well, not really today, today was just my party, but I'm really gonna be 5!" He is just growing up so fast. He is not a little boy anymore, but a growing, smart, funny, considerate, polite, helpful boy. Everyday he amazes me with how well he speaks and thinks. I really wish I could see inside his brain to see how comes up with the stuff he comes up with, and find out how he already knows so much. He is always saying and doing something that makes me laugh. He is just a great kid all around. He just makes me so proud to be his Mom.

We had a small birthday party for him the other day. After changing his mind many times, he asked for a Buzz Lightyear birthday cake. (For those without young boys in the house, this is a character from the Toy Story movies.)


He was just a bit excited waiting for his cake:


Blowing out his candles:


He is very big into super heroes right now, and one of his many requested presents was super hero costumes. He got a plain red cape with decorations to make his own superhero, and he also got Batman:


And Spiderman:


Here's Quincy trying to be Batman:


Miles got lots of other great toys, a car kit that the kids worked for a bit to put together:


Notice here Miles is on to something else, but Quincy is trying to help:


Another fun toy was his own working blender, here are the kids making fruit smoothies, apparently the blender is a bit too loud for their liking:


He also got a model of the solar system which he loves learning about all the planets, and a fun magnet kit that he has spent hours experimenting with all of the magnets in the kit, and some superhero books. He has been excited about every present this year, and even more excited about turning 5 years old.

Family fun

Friday night was Mike's first football game, so the boys and I were there as well:

Hanging with Dad watching the football game(sorry for the sun glare):


Hanging with Dad watching (entertaining) the band:


Just hanging out on the instrument case cart:


And Saturday we all had some family time playing outside:
We've been doing a lot of superhero play lately, this is Quincy "flying" as "Super Baby":


The boys attacking Mike:


Mike getting 'em (usually they both love this, apparently something didn't go right for Miles this time):

Fun week

It's back to just me and the kids, Mike has been back in the regular school year for two weeks now. So the kids and I spent the week going out and about finding some fun stuff to do.

One day we went to the beach:


Another day we went to a local playground/park:


Yesterday, while it was raining, we spent some time playing at the mall playarea:

Quincy's computer

Quincy got his own laptop computer for his birthday, and he loves it. Here he is looking very focused on his computer, looking like a little businessman:


His brother also likes the computer, and, being the big brother, is always trying to help Quincy and show him how to do things on the computer. Quincy doesn't really like the help so much, so he found a place to play on the computer, without assistance:

Last swim class

This morning Miles had his last swim class. He had two classes a week for the last four weeks and he loved it. He got much more comfortable swimming and being in the water, and he is now a better swimmer. Here are some pictures and videos from his last two classes.

Here he is on Monday, he is so proud that he is swimming all by himself:


Just for comparison, here are a couple of pictures of him swimming in his first class, a month ago:


This picture is from today, he has a floatie on his back that you can't see in this picture, but that is it for help:


The last thing they do in class is jump from the edge to the teacher, then swim to the stairs. In the beginning Miles feet barely got any air between the edge and the water. Look at him now:


And now for some videos, these were all taken at Monday's class. In the first one, he had to throw the rubber ducky out in the water, then swim to it, pick it up, throw it, swim to it, and so on and so forth.

In this video clip, Miles is swimming with the kickboard, but look, he is doing it all by himself, the teacher isn't holding him at all:


And this final video clip is of Miles jumping off the edge to the teacher, then swimming back to the stairs. The teacher is holding him a little, but he has no floaties at all and is swimming great - such a huge improvement from the first couple of classes!


Miles loved swim class! We were so happy that he loved going every time and always tried so hard to do everything that the teacher asked. He has already asked when his next swim lessons will be.

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby.

My baby, Quincy, turned 2 years old today. He's no longer a baby. He is quickly growing up into a wonderful little boy. He says several new words everyday, he tries to help with just about everything I do around the house. He even tries to help his big brother, too. He wants to sleep in a bed, he wants to dress himself, he has an opinion about what clothes he wears. Actually, he seems to have an opinion about most everything these days.

We celebrated his birthday yesterday with some friends. The day started with Mike making and decorating Quincy's birthday cake. It was a guitar cake, and Quincy loves guitars. Quincy watched Mike decorated nearly the whole time, all the while very excitedly pointing at the cake saying "guitar, mine."


Waiting for the cake to be served:


He blew the candle out all by himself:


He loved every present he got, and played with them all. Here is one of the presents, being played with by all of the kids:


A little later I was called by one of the older kids, when I arrived I saw this: (look at the tray where crayons go)

And here is the rest of him:


This morning we have had a marching band parade through the house several times using Quincy's new marching band drum set. And the boys have been trying to clean the floor. Quincy goes around with his new broom and dustpan saying "clean, clean."

Swim lessons

Yesterday was the first day of swim lessons for Miles. We were a bit apprehensive that he would get there and then not want to participate, but he did great. He tried to do everything the teacher asked them to do, and whenever he wasn't concentrating, he had a big giant smile on his face.