Ellis' Balloon Party!

Can you believe that this little boy is FIVE years old?  He is just eight days late for the Kindergarten cutoff, so here he is on his first day of preschool.  His face in this picture is so classic Ellis, and it reminds me that four has been a really good year for us.  A year of progress.  I will be the first to admit - three was hard.  Over the past year, he and I have arrived in a much better place.  I can now honestly say that this unique, clever, adorable, stubborn-as-a-mule boy now brings me joy every single day.  Not every single minute, but where would the challenge be in that?  I think I have learned most of my parenting skills because of this boy!  I really, truly, absolutely love my Ellis. 

 And as you know, I express my love in the form of sugar!  

Ellis (thankfully - life is crazy right now) chose to have a "Balloon Birthday Party," which is a repeat from Henry several years ago.  But instead of balloon cupcakes, Ellis wanted cake pops.  Who wouldn't?

The boys helped me put together favor bags with even more sugar.

 Cute, yet simple.  You know what I mean?

Our screen porch had its very first party!  I've decided we need twinkle lights out here for the next party. 

 Let the party begin!  We started out with a reading of "The Lost Balloon" by Ben.

The book was from the Cheerios box!  It is about a girl who lets go of a balloon with a message attached to it. 

 So naturally, we had to make enemies with our environmentally-friendly neighbors by sending off our own balloons.

 But look!  The kids loved it!

Ellis requested a repeat of the great COLOR CHANGING WATER trick from last year's party.  That trick is always a hit!  And yes, this is our babysitting co-op group, so we served chicken nuggets and grapes for dinner (Ellis' choice). 

Balloons on the wall contained the name of each activity:

 Rocket balloons

 Water balloon toss

 (which turned out to be a water balloon fight, to Ellis' delight)

There were more activities: 

Punching ball dance

Balloon stomp (with balloons tied to their ankles)

Hot potato

500 with a water balloon

"keep it up" (don't let balloon touch the ground game)

 Then we went back into the porch for cake (through the doggy door, of course.  What else would we do?)

 Cake pops all aglow

 And the five-year-old wishing away

 Seriously.  Ellis is such an important part of my life.  I don't think I would be who I am without him.  He brings laughter and life and energy into our home.  He works hard and is always a finisher.  And he helps me remember the names of all the people we are meeting - at church, school, the soccer field, etc.  

And isn't he adorable too?  Happy birthday, Ellis!

Latergrams: In which summertime ends with a bang and we start becoming real parents

 Meet Sam, King of the House today!  He chose to have his breakfast (Apple Jacks) in the jogging stroller.  #samkingofthehouse #oneboytorulethemall #andanolderbrotherwithpowerissues #worstdayeverforellis

The King's activity of choice: sprinkler time with the brothers!  He requested to wear "only my feet" today, meaning no shoes or socks.  #samkingofthehouse 

The Coughrans win the prize for being our first visitors! They have a wedding in the area and get to stay with us for two nights.  #bostonfriendsforever #iforeseeagamenight

Swim Camp = swim lessons for slacker moms who waited all summer and now need to knock out all the lessons in one week (or maybe two?)  #bigblue #happyboys #firsttimeforellis 

The School District's version of the RMV/DMV.  We waited for 15 minutes before we heard a single number called.  And the number she called was 6.  #thiscouldtakeawhile #redtape #waitingwiththreekids 

Not quite Russo's, but I think I may have found a new happy place.  #thefreshmarketwilmette #theclassicalmusicgotme #nostalgicforrussos #beautifulfoodgavemechills #pricescouldbebetter 

 Happiness is . . . discovering neighbor kids (finally!), and - Ellis' dram come true - a water balloon fight!  #happyday #thisissummer

 Who knew we had so much music?  Now we have a lovely little place to put it!  #musiccabinet #aplaceforeverything #ilovetarget #threshold #livingroom

 After six months of saving, begging, pleading, and eating cereal with milk, Henry and Ellis accumulated $150.  Meet the world's newest, happiest, proudest Wii owners!  #wiiconvert #neverwantedgaming #inmyhouse #embracingtheboy #happiestboys

Sam getting in on the action.  #threecoaches #malebonding #wiiboxing 

 A new, slightly more tyrannical king.  #elliskingofthehouse #naturalruler #chooseschildrensmuseum #andlotsofwii

The real question is, Lou Malnati's or Giordano's?  #chicagotastetest #giordanosnexttime #thisplacehasitsperks #anditsownspeciesofpizza 

 Just finished this little BBC mini series, "Little Dorrit," and loved it!  Think Dickens getting in touch with his inner Jane Austen.  #littledorrit #charlesdickens #ilovebbc #andilovethatbenlovesbbc

 So I'm pretty sure Ellis is in love with his swimming teacher.  #littlebitflirty #cutestteacherever

 Garbage truck knocked over this heavy basketball standard . . . right in the spot where I used to park our car.  I started parking it 15 feet back last week.  #tendermercy

 Triathlete in training.  Henry jogged with me this morning, then had swim lessons, then practiced his bike riding.  I'm pretty proud of this boy who would normally rather stay inside and read.  #bookwormturnedathlete 

 Tell me, friends, how long does it take to get used to wearing these things?  I'm on my third day, and it feels like I'm chopping onions every time I wear them (and for hours afterward).  And now I have a huge headache.  Is this normal?  #firstcontactsever #sensitiveeyes 

Rainy day activity.  #moneyboxes #woodburning #summervacationbucketlist #henrycraftoftheday 

 Me.  Driving in downtown Chicago for the first time.  And my heart rate only went up about 10 beats per minute, as opposed to 100 when I first drove in NYC eight years ago.  #utahgirl #bigcitydriver #whoknew?

 Still remembering last night's beignets.  It was a lovely first date night in Chicago, courtesy of Kara and Dave.  #grandluxcafe #graduationpresent 

 Wouldn't want to get labelled as the "normal" new kid.  Second graders like kids who stand out . . . right?  #firstday #backpackonhead #headpack?

 One of the most awesome features of our house.  #puppydoor

 Since I didn't get a picture of my overturned shopping cart, I offer you a picture of the treat I used to console myself after a nightmarish trip to Trader Joe's.  first, I trusted my stupid GPS and spent an extra 45 minutes in the car looking for a store that doesn't exist.  And then after shopping and getting the kids buckled in, I backed up and tipped over the shopping cart I had forgotten to unload.  Wish I had a picture of my watermelon rolling across the parking lot!  #adayinthelife #worthitforthechocolate

 Look who's having lunch with me!  #lunchwithmom #amazingburgers #butcherandtheburger

 Needless to say, I totally lost.  #scrabblenight #undefeatablemom #scrabblelegend

 One happy preschooler; one sad little brother at home.  #brotherlylove #beingyoungestisrough 

More and more lately, Ben is starting to remind me of a "real dad." #soccercoachpreview #takingthisseriously

San Diego

We spent almost a week in San Diego with Ben's family for the big reunion.  We stayed at a ranch in Escondido, and we drove to several destinations together:

Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center.  This is one of the most entertaining and well-done Church history sites I have seen.  It was way cooler than I expected - it had almost a theme park feel to it (probably all the California influence rubbing off on it).  Anyway, we really enjoyed it, and I was able to find information about a few of my ancestors who were in the Mormon Battalion!

Legoland!  Heaven on earth for the boys in my life.

Sam had no fear of the characters - even of Darth Vader (although Ellis was not so sure of him).

It was fun to be there with cousins.

 And more and more cousins . . . and aunts, uncles, and grandparents!  It was kind of an embarrassing amount of people trying to be together in a theme park, but it was definitely more fun than we could have had on our own!

Disneyland set our standards pretty high for rides, so we weren't blown away by any of them.   But they were cute and fun.

 Mostly, I got a kick out of all of the structures made out of Legos!  Look at New York City!  They had all of the major areas of the United States, all made of Legos!  So inspiring for a young, creative Lego enthusiast.  It would probably cost millions of dollars to buy all those bricks though...

 They had lots of fun things for kids - like this train that the little kids could ride ALL BY THEMSELVES!  They were so proud.

 And this play area where the boy cousins chased each other and locked each other in jail.  They did this for over an hour and didn't want to stop!

Um, we went to Sea World too.  As you can see, we rode on Shamu (just like my family did when I was 14 and wearing super cool overall shorts).  You know, tradition! 

The kids who weren't tall enough for some of the big rides made some rides of their own!  Grandma Iverson had a wheelchair because her back is really killing her.  But she was willing to share her sweet ride.

 U.S.S. Midway - aircraft carrier 

 Henry was thrilled about this.  Ben (Top Gun fanatic of old) was probably the most thrilled.

Luau back at the ranch.

The whole gang in front of the sand castle we made!  We love these people and are so glad we got to spend some dreamy summer days together!