Happy 6th Birthday, Nate! [Part 2]

For some reason, our family gets really excited about FOOD! So we made sure to have a special celebration at each meal today for Nate's birthday, even though he was in school.

Breakfast

For the first time ever, Nate requested that Daddy make his birthday breakfast!! Greg makes a damn good french toast, so I don't blame Nate :) With lots of sausage on the side too. While Daddy put the finishing touches on breakfast, Nate got his birthday card from us with two little surprises inside: gum & a TMNT keychain!  

Then it was time for Nate to answer his birthday questionnaire, which I put in the kids' scrapbooks every year. (Click here to see Nate's answers from last year. I think it's funny that only about 1/2 of his answers changed!)

How old are you? Six

What makes you happy? Legos

What is your favorite animal? Baby tiger

What is your favorite thing to eat? Quesadilla

What is your least favorite thing to eat? Lettuce

What is your favorite thing to do? Play with Jack

What is your favorite TV show? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

What are you really good at? Riding my bike

What is your favorite movie? NinjaGo

What is your favorite color? Red

What is your favorite song? “Some Nights” by Fun.

Who is your best friend? Jack

What do you & your mom do together? Go to the park

What do you & your dad do together? Wrestle

What is your favorite sport? Soccer

Where is your favorite place to go? To the movies

What is your favorite book? Pete the Cat

What do you want to be when you grow up? A builder

Lunch

For lunch, I went to Nate's school and brought in ....what else....Krispy Kreme donuts to share with both kindergarten classes! While I'm sure Nate would prefer his birthday fell on a weekend so he could be home with the whole family, I actually like that I get to go & enjoy a special lunch with just me & Nate at his school. (Greg offered to take a 1/2 day and stay home with Abby, so Nate & I could have some one-on-one time.) Clearly, Nate was a wee bit excited that I was there.

 And it was fun to talk to his friends - old & new - and have Nate show me the "lay of the land" in his classroom & the cafeteria. I can't get over how grown-up my boy is!!! No matter how old he gets though, he will always love a donut....

It was fun to hear all the kids excited to talk to "Nate's Mom," and BOY do I have a new found respect for Kindergarten teachers. Those kids are a h.a.n.d.f.u.l!!!

 Dinner
For dinner, we wanted to surprise him one last time and Greg came up with the bright idea to blindfold Nate on the way to the restaurant tonight. Luckily, Nate went along with it.....

 .....and was super excited when he saw that we were at Hokkaido for the first time, a Japanese steakhouse!!! (Or as he likes to call it, the "Ninja Place! :)

 He was very excited when we got there but also a bit nervous when we told him the chef would be cooking right in front of us, with weapons! :)

 I knew he would be scared once the "onion volcano" was lit on fire. Classic.

 Greg caught a shrimp on the first try but poor Nate couldn't get even one into his mouth. But he gets an "A" for effort!! (And I get an "A" for this shot - look at the flying shrimp!!)

 Not super impressed with the (free) fried ice cream & singing, but that's probably b/c we had already told him we had a special dessert place picked out.

The souvenir birthday chopsticks were a hit, though I'm SURE they will never be used. Ha!

Last stop of the day: Yogurt Mountain.

It was a good day celebrating our birthday boy, and my tummy is full (but happy!)

Happy 6th Birthday, Nate! [Part 1]

Six years ago today, I became a mom to the best little boy around!!! He's been good to me from the start, and gave me a relatively "easy" labor. Click here if you want to recap his birth story.

I'm not a huge fan of the term "Momma's Boy," but Nate and I have always had a special relationship from the start. Maybe it's because we're so alike.....we are rule-followers, people pleasers, and have really big smiles to boot :)

I love how much our relationship has evolved over the years. At first, he just depended on me for milk & diaper changes & middle of the night cuddles. Then he needed me to hold his hand as he learned to walk. Or kiss his boo-boo’s. Then he wanted me to read him books in his big boy bed. And kick a soccer ball with him. And now, he wants me to be the first one to hear how his day at school was. Or for me to “oooh and ahhh” over his latest Lego creation.

I love every stage we’ve gone through together these last 6 years. Nate is such a gentle spirit, a sweet & silly boy, and I love him to pieces. Here’s a stroll down memory lane, to see how much Nate the Great has changed!

4 months old

1 yr old

2 yrs old

3 yrs old

4 yrs old

5 yrs old

6 yrs old

We have a fun-filled day planned for Nate, despite him being at school. And I'm so excited to celebrate with my favorite 6 year old! Stay tuned for "Part 2" tomorrow to hear about all that :)

Surprise, Nate!

For Nate's upcoming birthday, we wanted to surprise him with a trip to the LEGO store in Birmingham. We decided to keep it a secret until we literally walked up to the store, in order to avoid 1,000,000 questions leading up to it. (Parents of 5-6 yr old boys, you know what I mean!) He was great the whole (hour) drive there, and then I ran ahead once we got into the mall. I wanted to capture his reaction as he saw this sign:

Click here and here to see 2 quick videos of Nate's reaction. He was more in shock than anything, but his smile grew bigger and bigger as he understood what was happening and that he had his pick from everything on this wall!!

 It was really neat; he got to pick from regular legos of every shape & size, as well as from some specialty parts like steering wheels, flowers, ladders, windshields, seats, etc.

 We paid $15 and he got to fill up this "brick" container with all his pieces. He really took his time and I loved watching his little brain decide what pieces would be best for his creations. We definitely have a future engineer on our hands :)

 Once we explored the store some more, we found this little station. It was where you could "build-your-own-mini-figure!" Again, he painstakingly tried out many options and then decided on 3 people he was happy with. He got to choose their hat/hairdo, accessory, face, head, and legs. So many options!!

 Abby was VERY patient during all the building, and even contributed a few pieces to the final products. She was super happy he decided to get a ninja GIRL! :)

 Once outside the store, Abby quickly saw the train and just HAD to ride on it. Since it was "Nate's Day," we asked him if that was ok and he said yes. Anything for his baby sister!!

 Then, one last stop: the carousel in the food court. For some reason, this weekend it was free! So even Daddy got a chance to ride. Could these 3 be any cuter!?

 We topped off the day (well, the morning) with lunch at Johnny Rockets, which is like an old diner with yummy hamburgers and milkshakes. (But then neither kid decided to order a hamburger in the end. Typical.)

 I think this will be a new tradition for us, celebrating the birthday kid with their own special day. Or half day :) Nate loved being the center of attention, and he told me that this was the "most fun day ever." That's all I needed to hear. Especially b/c lately, I feel like all we do on the weekends is go to the grocery store, do yard work, and go to church. So... nothing really super fun for the kids. So it was nice to spoil them (especially Nate) for once!!

We are having a birthday party with lots of family & friends next Saturday at Krispy Kreme. So, stay tuned for that! I'm not sure who is more excited - me or Nate. Oh, how I love a donut!

Back to School

Both kids started back to school today! Abby is in the 3 year old preschool class at Holy Spirit, while Nate is in the adjacent building, in kindergarten. Yes, I said kindergarten :(

NATE

We have been building kindergarten up for weeks to Nate. He has had such a great summer with his friends, especially Jack next door. So I thought going back to school was going to be a hard sell. He did surprisingly well though, and was especially excited to wear his "new black kindergarten shoes" today. (His school has a pretty strict dress code, from head to toe. The shoes have to be completely black - even the Nike swoosh! - or completely white. Luckily, he thought they were fancy, but I have different feelings :)

Anyways, he got to meet his teacher Mrs. Davis yesterday at Open House. His class has 14 kids in it, and about half he already knows from last year. Unfortunately, his two best buds are in the OTHER kindergarten class, but once he found out both classes would have recess together, he seemed to take it in stride. Although I'm sad he won't be with A&C everyday, I am hoping he will use this opportunity to branch out and make some more friends. And what makes me even happier is that during Open House, Mrs. Davis said numerous kids saw Nate's name on his cubbie and said "Oh yeah! Nate's in my class!" :)

Normally, Nate is a bear to wake up in the morning on school days. But today, he hopped down the stairs at 6:25 am and said "Today's my first day of kindergarten!!" I was happy to see him excited, and even happier that I didn't have to wrestle him out of bed. He rushed through breakfast and then ran upstairs to get his uniform on. The shorts are a little long - again, strict dress code - but I still think my little Catholic boy looks cute! :)

 They let the parents come into the school this morning - usually we have to drop them off in the front circle - so it was nice for him to show Daddy his classroom, and watch him get settled. He found his cubbie right away, and loved the new school supplies Mrs. Davis had waiting. I am hopeful for a great year!

When I picked him up this afternoon, the first thing he said was "I saw Abby on the playground twice today!" :) The preschool shares part of the big playground with the elementary school. I love this. Then he had about 2 minutes to tell me stories of his day before we picked up Chatty Cathy at preschool. He did lots of crafts, "easy" work, ate all his snack & lunch, and had a dance party where he got to pick his own personal dance space. Sounds like a good day to me!

ABBY

For weeks now, I thought Abby would be starting school on Wednesday (tomorrow) instead of today. She is going to preschool on MWF, all day. (So I can pick up she & Nate at the same time, 3:10 pm. Hooray for me!) Well, when we met Abby's teacher at Open House, she said it would be fine for Abby to come today as well. Just another reason I already love her teacher! Mrs. McCullough has been there for 25 years and I already know her a bit from Nate being in the preschool for two years. According to her, she has a great group of kids this year, topping out at 18 students. Abby has a good girlfriend in her class, Mia, as well as her "boo" David :)

After we dropped Nate off at the elementary school, we walked to the preschool to drop Abby off. We were a few minutes late (I know, NOT like me!) but it didn't matter b/c her class was quite the chaotic scene this morning. One kid was literally screaming "MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY" over and over, and at the top of his lungs. Abby just kinda looked at him like, "What's his problem!?" :) My girl loves school and was so excited to show Daddy her cubbie, the play kitchen, and some baby dolls. I have no doubt that she will excel this year and I love that she is so social and loves being in school!

When I picked Abby up, the first thing she said was "You are late, Mommy & I had green potato chips." Clearly, it took me a few minutes to decipher all this. Apparently, the elementary school had an early dismissal at 1 pm, but NOT the preschool. Oops. So when I went to get her at 1 pm, she looked at me like I was crazy (as did her teacher). To top it off, I didn't send her napmat, since I didn't think they'd be napping. Double oops. So she spent the first hour of her naptime (12-1), sitting at the teacher's desk, coloring. And then the teacher couldn't find where I'd packed Abby's snack (in the front pocket of her bookbag, I thought this was a normal spot), so she gave Abby some chips from her own lunch. Triple oops! 

Guess I need a little more time to figure out all these rules! The carpool line waiting was 20 minutes deep too, so that's something else I need to get used to. 

Abby did say she had a good day and talked about 2 new friends, the "purple girl" and "pink girl." (She never finds out people's names, but rather, identifies them by what color shirt they are wearing)! She said she had fun "singing, playing, coloring, and eating." So I guess that's all I can hope for a first day.

So happy my kids had a great time today, and hope that this continues throughout the year!