Josh's 6th Birthday!!!!

This past weekend was Josh's 6th birthday!  I can't believe it has been so long. 

It seems like just yesterday I was hoping not to go into labor during the Super Bowl since it was in Houston and Justin was there watching and really didn't want to have to leave his Pats to meet meet me at the hospital! 

It seems like just yesterday I was checking into the hospital at 7PM and being put on the IV and epidural only to be told at midnight they were just going to wait until morning (try and get some sleep, uh-huh,  riiiiiight....). 

And it seems like only yesterday that I frantically woke Justin up at 2 AM and told him he better the get nurse that the baby was about to fall out!  And then it was 3:30 AM and there was Jake at my bedside to see his new brother.  No, that wasn't on purpose, but he was woken up when the phone rang and insisted on coming!

And then there is Josh, my little sweetheart!  He still loves to snuggle, doesn't like to go to school because he would rather stay at home with me, and eats anything anyone offers and likes it!

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So, in Houston in February you never really know what the weather will be like and now with a baby, I really don't want to have to do a lot of work to have a birthday party, so again this year we went with the indoor, destination party!

It was at Biron's Gymnastics over on Dairy Ashford.  The place has been around since 1972 and we all grew up going there for something or other, classes, parties, haunted houses.  The boys had each been to a party there a while ago and they had fun, so we decided to go for it.

The kids had an absolute blast and were worn out!  Here are some pics below.  Excuse the graininess or blurriness.  The lighting in there was so bad that action shots were grainy for lack of light and regular shots were blurry waiting for a flash!

The kids huddle up to get instructions before going to the first activity.

 

Josh leads the way over the obstacles in the obstacle course.

 

Josh swings on the ring across to the other side.

 

Jake launches off the trampoline into the foam pit.

 

Jill has some fun of her own in the barrel.

 

The kids wait for instructions on the rope swing into the foam pit.

 

Then a foam pit fight!

 

Josh blows out the candles.

The birthday group.  Josh's classmates from his Kindergarten class plus our neighbor MaryAnn and cousin Owen.

 

And finally, Josh gets to leave his handprint to mark his birthday party.

Josh's 100th Day of School

So being the perfect and wonderful mother that I am, I completely forgot that Josh had his 100th day of school parade yesterday. 

He had told the several times the week before and we talked about it over the weekend, and his teacher even sent emails home!  Thankfully it wasn't until Tuesday, so when I remembered at 5 am Monday morning, (no I didn't go back to sleep after that) I panicked!

I spent Monday morning before a summer league swim team meeting (yes already!) trolling the aisles of Michael's begging something to jump off the shelf at me so I could glue it onto a shirt.

I had considered pennies (since he LOVES money), but wisely changed my mind when I realized 100 pennies can make a shirt pretty heavy if you are 5 (almost 6).  I thought about stickers, okay, or those fuzzy balls, so-so, but then I finally found it, google eyes.  What 5 year old doesn't love google eyes, especially 100 stuck all over his shirt and moving and making noise?  I brought it home and Josh loved the idea.  He was so pumped to have his google eye shirt to wear to the parade.

Score one "save" for the forgetful mom!

Josh's Thanksgiving Performance

Josh's Kindergarten Class had their Thanksgiving performance today.  This is my favorite part!  It is just a short clip of a much longer song, but it tells the story well.

I totally cried listening to those sweet little voices singing America The Beautiful.  For a moment all seemed right with the world...

Book Character Parade

At Rummel Creek this morning, the Pre-K and Kindergarten classes had a Book Character Parade.  Each kid chose his favorite book character and dressed up for a parade around the school.  It was super fun for the kids as all the other grades lined the parade route to watch and cheer.

Josh went as Scaredy Squirrel (if you have never heard of the books or read them, my family highly recommends them!!!).  The main problem was that, despite the fortunate timing, there were no squirrel costumes to be had this Halloween.  So, we made our own. 

The name tag and "air freshener" are part of the book, so read it!

Josh and the other "animals" in his class.

The whole class.  There were some Darth Vaders, a Batman, a Harry Potter, a Merlin (Josh's best bud and right next to him), a Wolf (from Peter and the Wolf - my fave- thanks Grammy!), and a few Fancy Nancys.  Very cute!

Josh's Crazy Dance

This was too good not to put on the site!

Oh What a Day!

Today started out like any other. Jake got on the bus, I dropped Josh off at school, and Jill and I went to run some Easter errands. Well then I get the call that every mom dreads, "Mrs. Hyland, you need to come to school, Josh had an accident on the playground and we think he needs stitches." So, you tell the checker at Randall's to hurry since your 5 year old son is hurt at school, you drive like a maniac to the school and run into the office, with your baby swinging wildly in the carrier, to get your kid. Then you calm down a little and realize he isn't going to die, and take your groceries home and toss all the perishables somewhere in the fridge while calling the pediatrician to fit you in.

So, Dr. Cohen sees Josh and tells us we need stitches. He sends us to the ER with a request for a plastic surgeon. We do all that stuff and are still waiting when Dr. Cohen comes by to check on us. He learns we have no idea who we are going to see and that the ER staff hasn't even requested a plastic surgeon. The wonderful doctor then tells the ER staff who to call, in order. His first choice agrees to take us, but at his office. Luckily, across the parking lot!

Then we meet Dr. Barrera (I have all his info if you need him) and he is wonderful. He has us in and out of his office in 10 minutes and managed to get Josh to cooperate like a champ (the previous visits with Dr. Cohen and the ER nurses were not so good). The nurse told me he was the best patient she had seen in 15 years of working there, adult or child. He didn't even freak when he got the numbing shots. We go back Monday to get the stitches out.

And by the way, he was playing at recess and fell off a Razor scooter and landed on the handles. The redness around it is the scrape from the end of the handle.

And SUPER THANKS to Grandeb for coming along to keep Jill while I did all the Josh stuff. And also to Auntie Courtney who brought french fries and Root Beer at Josh's request to the ER for our "lunch."

So here are pics of the fun...


Josh before with his open wound.



Josh after. He didn't want to take the pic so I told him he could do big eyes.




More Josh after.

Dad's Night

Tonight was Dad's Night at Josh's school. Justin and Josh went to his classroom from 6 to 7 to participate in all the fun.

Shown below is a "Biography" the kids filled out in class this week for their dads. The teacher reads the biography out loud and the dads have to guess which one of them it is. I just thought it was too cute to not put up. I like how he got the age right! And it should say Monster Jam!

p.s. click on the pic to enlarge it so you can read the form.

Josh rides the mechanical bull at the Rodeo!

Josh, not wanting to be outdone, decides to ride the bull also. He had a blast and really got into it as you can see! He also wanted to go again and again.