6/4 - Sunday school party & the cousins

On Saturday afternoon after Aiden's party, we had a sunday school party to go to. The kids were allowed to wear their bathing suits to play in the kiddie pools. Both of the boys wore their suits and I brought extra in-case the cousins wanted to get wet too but they decided not to change into suits. Here is Eli in the red swim trunks trying to fill up a water gun thing.

Here is my dear friend Stephanie. I can't believe she is going to be moving to Texas in less than a week. I'm pretending like she's not really moving yet though. In case I haven't mentioned it, her family is moving to Houston, TX to plant a bilingual church. They are not bilingual (yet) but have been taking spanish lessons for the past 6-7 months. God is going to use them in amazing ways. Their church is called Advanced Church of Houston. Please pray for them as they start this new journey.

OK. Back to the party. The cousins were pretty worn out from getting up really early to drive to Jax for the party and from playing so hard during the party. In fact, they all fell asleep on the way to the sunday school party that started at 4:00pm. Aiden fell asleep in the car too since he didn't take a nap. It took the cousins a while to wake-up but once they did, they were having a good time.

Grayson was helping Aiden and Eli and showing them how to put water in the guns and squirt them. Aiden even "washed" Grahams feet off with the water. Once we all ate, we inflated the bounce house and the kids had lots of fun playing in there. Poor Grayson was such a good sport. He was mobbed by all the kids but he was still playing with them all. Look how red Aiden's face was after the bounce house. It's a little hard to see but it was actually bright red. He rehydrating with daddy by drinking some water.

We came home and my boys went to bed right away and the cousins went to bed not too long after that. On Sunday morning, the cousins were playing while we got various kids ready and got things packed up. They played so well together at the train table. Aiden and Eli don't play well with other kids at the train table .... except with their cousins. It was quite amazing.

After church but before nap time, we blew up the bounce house. This thing weight 175 lbs and Brad was such a trooper for setting it up again. We also needed to set it up so I could clean/sweep the inside of it though. Daddy and the boys played for a bit and it was fun to watch.

Eli loved running over to Brad and tackling him. He had the cutest, most determined look on his face too. It was adorable.

The boys actually did well chasing each other too. It was a good way to burn some energy right before nap time.

In this last picture of the boys, the were about to gang up on daddy and try and catch and tackle him. They were all having fun.

I decided to flip around for a bit too. It's been years since I've done anything but I did some backhandsprings and some back flips too. These first two pictures are as Aiden says, "flips with my hands" and the last one is a "flip without hands."

It was fun to play around for a bit. We had a great time with the bounce house and thought that for $120, we got our use out of it since we had it from Fri late afternoon to Sunday late afternoon. :)  The boys went to daycare today and I've been busy working on a few projects. I need to go help Steph move and get a workout this morning before Aiden has his feeding and speech therapy later this afternoon. 

6/3 - Aiden's 4th birthday

Aiden turned 4 yesterday at 2:20pm. I can't believe it's been 4 years. We decided to get a bounce house for this occasion. I really wanted the monster truck bounce house since that was Aiden's theme this year but it wasn't available so we settled for the crayon bounce house. The first two pictures show the boys helping daddy put in the stakes to hold the bounce house in place.

The party started at 10am and Aiden was pretty excited to wear his crown that he got at daycare. He was also excited to jump in the bounce house with his friends.

Here is his monster truck cake:

It was great for Papa to drive up with the cousins. Here are Graham and Aiden playing together in the bounce house. They played so well together and had so much fun.

Aiden worked up a serious sweat before it was time for cake. Here he is cooling down and excited that he gets to blow his candle out.

We got a family picture. I'm determined that next year we'll be able to get one with both kids looking at the camera at the same time. No promise of normal faces and/or smiles, but at least eye contact with the camera is what I'm hoping.

I even got in the bounce house and played with Aiden for a bit. He was having lots of fun.

He was excited to open his presents and had lots of fun with his friends around.

Aiden got another surprise when Mrs. Lisa stopped by his party to say hi (his former OT). He has a special bond with her and trust with her that's pretty neat.

I tried to take a picture of the entire group but I kept cutting just one child off so I've just included 2 pictures to make sure I got all the kids. They had fun and so did Aiden = successful party. Back row: Sydney, Alyson, Kyleigh, Graham, Grayson, Eli, Raymond, Aiden; Front row: Maddie, Logan, Lilly, Blaise and Jordyn.

Aiden was so excited to have his cousins come that he couldn't nap. I was sad for that because he played hard but I don't blame him for being excited. In the afternoon, we had a sunday school party to go to but I'll update you about that later.

6/3 - An update since Disney

I can't remember if I posted about going to watch Clifford, but we took the boys to see Clifford the Big Red Dog. This picture is classic and I am in love with it. The look Eli is giving me is priceless!!

We got to go to a friends birthday party a few weeks ago and the boys had lots of fun with their friends. I haven't taken many pictures lately but here are a few from the birthday party. These two of Eli are just too cute not to include.

Let me explain Aiden's shirt. I forgot his so we had to borrow one because he's so fair skinned and would have burned.

Here is a group shot of all the kids. Aiden didn't want to look up at the camera. Eli wasn't happy but at least he would look up.

Here are a few random pictures. The boys playing at the train table and some iPad time (yes Eli is naked; fresh from the bath). We've been working on potty train with Eli and he does a great job if we take him to the potty. He doesn't tell us if he has to go yet, but he'll go if we take him to the potty. It's a work in progress but is going very smoothly so far.

We also had a girls night out for Stephanie before she leaves. It was a fun but somewhat sad night. She'll be here for one more week so I'm not going to be too sad yet. The last picture is the majority of the group that went to dinner.

Aiden started feeding therapy 1.5 weeks ago. It was very interesting and it's a work in progress. He is doing better at daycare and hopefully that will translate to progress at home and less struggle at meal time. I'll post soon about Aiden's birthday party that happened yesterday. Trying to play major catch-up is tough,