Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!!!

Another Easter is in the books. We had a great day at church and spending time with family. 

Caleb's Easter basket

Jansen's basket o goodies

That silly Easter Bunny left out a bunch of eggs

My boys were so excited!

I cannot believe how quickly these two are growing. They are almost the same height and they are two years apart!

After church, we headed to my parents' house to spend time with family and have a quick egg hunt. Caleb changed into some shorts and grabbed a Walmart bag for the hunt. He and his Pops spent time hunting all the eggs down!

From our family to yours, Happy Easter!

I have a 10 year old!!!!

Dang, this makes me feel old. I have a child that is a decade old!!!!! 32 isn't that old right??! Anyone? No? ok....

This morning I woke up at 4:45 when my husband left for work and got started filling balloons. When I turned 10, one of my mother's very good friends brought be a bouquet of 10 balloons with money attached to each one. I remember loving that idea as a kid, so that is what I did for Caleb this morning. 

He lives on next to no sleep, so I had to get up super early to make sure he wasn't already awake yet. But by 5:00am, I had filled 10 balloons and had attached money to each one. I set out all my breakfast stuff last night so it would be quicker this morning, and I got started on pancakes. 

Party Pancakes!!!!

Caleb LOVES pancakes. Pancakes and cinnamon rolls. Pancakes, cinnamon rolls, and donuts. Pancakes, cinnamon rolls, donuts, and kolaches. Basically any breakfast food, he loves, although he is an incredibly picky eater. 

Caleb got dressed and I took the boys to school to drop off cupcakes.

 Then I ran to my study group at 8:30, ran a ton of errands and stopped by Chick fil A to get Caleb, myself, and my mom lunch. We met up at his school to enjoy a birthday lunch. 

Tonight we will be headed to dinner...Caleb's choice. I love it, because I don't have to cook! 

I love this kid with my heart and soul. He is so complex and simple at the same time. He continues to progress day after day....showing everyone that Autism is just an aspect of him....it does not define him! Happy 10th Birthday Caleb!

Easter egg dying...2013 edition

It has definitely been a tradition to color Easter eggs the week before Easter. The kids seem to really enjoy it and we will keep doing it for as long as they are interested. 

Each year we do a different style egg, and this year the boys decided to go back to basics. No marbeling, no tie dye, no sparkles, no stickers...just basic, bright, and bold! 

Caleb was in the driver's seat on this one. Jansen being the strong willed child that he is, was not interested in dying them, but once he saw us, he didn't want to be left out. Aren't we all like that?! I don't want to do it, but you can't do it either! Yup, I have issues. :)

Caleb was able to read the directions and follow them and made the decision as to hold low to leave them in the coloring. They turned out to be beautiful neon colors. 

The only one I wish was a bit brighter was the orange one. How come all of the rest of them look like the Radical 80's....and the orange ones look like a creamsicle??? Caleb kept checking and checking it and finally just took it out. Jansen was in charge of the lime green ones...which he was the most proud of. He LOVES lime green. He was very particular about achieving the perfect shade of lime, hoping it would match his shirt. It worked!

Come on sweet little Easter bunny! We have some cute projects to work on. Tangent...I feel like I am running out of time to do these kinds of fun things with both my boys. I will probably be more disappointed than they will be when it is over. It makes me happy to do these kind of things with them. 

Caleb's skating birthday party

Because Caleb's birthday is next week and Easter is next weekend, we had his birthday party this weekend. I am pretty sure this will be his last party. You know, once they get into junior high, they don't really do any of that classroom stuff anymore. And let's face it...my child will be in junior high in August. At 10 years old. Junior High! I don't want to talk about it. 

Anyway, one of my very good friends is a photographer and she was wanting to get some practice with a new camera flash, so she graciously took a bunch of really good pictures at the party. It was a good thing too, because my basic point and click camera didn't do very well in a dark skating rink. 

He was excited! We kept the party small and only invited about 12 kiddos. He did really well with all the people, lights, and music at the rink. 

by the way, this is my favorite picture of him!

It was really nice to have a party that was really relaxed. We weren't in a hurry, the kids could skate as they wished, those who didn't want to skate could play in the game room, and we could eat then skate and eat again. 

I only had to provide the cake and cupcakes. It was great. Thanks to all the friends who came to help us celebrate. I cannot believe my oldest is 10!!!!

Ninjago cake and cupcakes

Thursday, my friend! My day off. The day when I do nothing whatsoever for college. In reality, that doesn't mean I have the day off. It's the day I get everything else I can possibly do done. 

On the agenda today, is Caleb's 10th birthday cake and cupcakes for his party at the skating rink tomorrow night. Because we were gone the week before, I needed to give a really easy party. This is it! All I have to do is provide cupcakes and goodie bags. 

Caleb asked for his own cake, and I was just not up for making a big cake and then having to cut and serve it at the party. It is way easier to just give each kid a cupcake and say "Have Fun!"

We compromised and I made a small cake just for him. He may or may not eat it, but I hope he likes it. 

His theme is Ninjago this year...probably his last year for a "party". The big 1-0. I can't believe he is almost 10!!! AGH!!!

Here is what I came up with for the cupcakes....

Who knew that a snowflake cookie cutter will make the perfect shuriken!?

And here is what I came up with for his little cake....

We will see if Caleb likes it when he gets home. I like it!

Linky parties:
Inspire Me Please
Chef in Training
My Girlish Whims
Ginger Snap Crafts

Disney Cruise Day 6: The Final Installment

I will never again wait for someone to take my bags off a cruise again. This was too easy. 

Friday morning all of us woke up to brown water. Brown water=Galveston. Ho hum, we were back. 

We are morning people (I have learned to accept that everyone else is but me) so we were packed and ready to roll down to breakfast by 7:00am. 

I almost forgot to take down the fish extender....had to double back and collected most of it on the bed to pack. Here is just a couple days worth of fish extender gifts....

What....what??!!!! Good gifts!! That was a fun thing to do during vacation!

On the way to breakfast, I rolled over the heel of my flip flop but somehow I kept walking and broke my favorite pair of dressy flip flops. "I blew out my flip flop....stepped on a pop top." There was no pop top, but at that point, I had to dig....IN THE LOBBY....in my huge suitcase for another pair of flip flops. Luckily I pack a zillion shoes ( I need choices), and another pair was right on top. 

We ate one final meal with our new friends from Longview, grabbed our luggage they stored for us at the door, and rolled off the ship. I tried to burn the memories of the trip and all the hidden Mickeys in my head as we walked through the line. 

A quick trip through customs and we were in our car leaving the port by 8:15am. 

Caleb said something that all of us were thinking but no one said, "My heart is sad but I still feel happy." That's when I knew he thought the vacation was awesome. Two snaps and a shimmy for Mom and Dad, who planned a successful family vacation and we all came back alive. That, my friends, is the sign of a good vacation.

Here are a few of the "professional" pics that the  cruise photographers took of us. Some of them I really wanted when we took them...Caleb's eyes were closed, or Jansen was frowning...so I was only able to buy a few. And...my scanner is being wonky and wouldn't scan these. While I will keep trying, I at least snapped some photos of the photos on my iphone. And dang it, now it won't upload 4 of them right...oh well,,,, here are my kiddos!

This, my friends, is the end of our Mickey journey. It was 8 months in the making. Eight months of paying, planning, creating, excitement, hopes, dreams, anticipation, packing, unpacking, and repacking. We are super blessed to be able to provide opportunities like this for our kids and for each other. It truly was magical and we would sail with them again ( as soon as possible, please!).