Happy Birthday Jackie Paper!

Believe it or not but Jack turned 4 today. Tuesday is a big day this year. Not just because it is Jack's one and only 4th birthday, but Jess is also making her confirmation this evening and it is also my first day of rehearsal for The Witches. I have made arrangements to scoot out of rehearsal and get to the church in time for Jess' ceremony. I knew there wouldn't be time to celebrate Jack's birthday so we decided to do that this past weekend.

Initially, Mom was supposed to host a seminar at the house Saturday afternoon and then that evening we were going to have Jack's party at the park. KFC, swings, slides, feed the geese...My sister Melanie had plans to come to Mom's seminar and she was going to bring a cake. (She is developing a passion for baking and she loves to do fun and interesting cakes. She was going to make a Thomas cake for us.) Well, the seminar was cancelled due to weather. Mel cancelled due to weather (Mel - I do not mean for this to make you feel guilty - I would have cancelled too.) So John and I were trying to figure out what to do for a cake at the last minute. We decided to do KFC on the dining room floor on blankets - picnic style. And I thought about trying to ice some twinkies and attach oreo wheels so they would look like trains. I headed out to the store after my Friday night show and picked up some angel food cakes, black licorice, rollos and icing. (Ironically, this wound up costing less than a cake from the bakery...) It was maybe 10:00/10:30 when John and I went to work. We cut the cakes in half for the train cars, laid down licorice for tracks, cut oreos in half for the wheels and used the rollos as domes and funnels. When we were done, we had quite a few oreos left over and John suggested we ice them and spell out Happy Birthday Jackson. The next dilemma was where to hide the cakes so the children would not plunder them before the party. John had the excellent idea of covering them with foil and hiding them in the oven. Great thinking!!! I think the whole thing came out GREAT!

Well, the kids loved eating on the floor. (It was a difficult concept for Wyatt to grasp: He kept trying to lay down on the floor and cover up with the blanket.) Jack wanted nothing to do with a drumstick. He insisted "I want a big chicken." Who knew a big chicken would be half the size of his head? He refused to eat the mashed potatoes until I removed all traces of gravy.

But most importantly, Jack loved his cakes. (The blue one is Thomas, the red one is the mail car and the yellow ones are Molly and her tender. Jack must have thought we did a terrible job on Molly because he kept calling her something like Hanny- who isn't even a train by the way...) Jack also let me know that my representation of Thomas was incorrect. You see, Thomas has THREE sets of wheels. I only included TWO sets of wheels. Jack repeatedly informed me of this discrepancy. I showed him a picture of his cakes today and he immediately told me "Mommy, Thomas upposed to have FREE wheels."

Before Jack even finished eating his cake he was asking about his presents. One after the other he was tearing paper saying "Oh, I wonner what it is?" or "Where could it be?" and "What is inside there?" In addition to the predictable train gifts, Jack was on the receiving end of a folding rule, a level and a pair of binoculars. Every 4 year old needs binoculars, ya know...

Believe it or not, Wy would have nothing to do with the cake. He was all about the cookies. While the rest of the kids tore into the cake, Wy was demanding "Cookie! Cookie! Cookie!" Here he is with his little oreo face.

On to the every day!

Devlyn was throwing a fit the other day and Poppy made her sit down in the living room with him. He told her she could get up when she stopped pouting. She continued to put out some serious pout. Finally Poppy asked mom and I to come in and take a picture because Dev made such a great pouty face. Time out turned into a photo shoot which helped Devlyn drop her 'tude and we got a few funny shots. This morning she and Jack were playing with his trains and she suddenly said to Jack "You are Uncle Doug and I am Aunt Beth." A little while later she came into the kitchen crying. She said "I hurt myself..." I said "Did you say 'I'm sorry?' to yourself? She walked off. Then from the living room I heard her say "Sorry." Mom and I had a good laugh over that one.

Monday is my usual grocery day. I am thinking of changing that to Sunday evening because doing the grocery with 3 kids in tow is no fun. So far the best solution I have come up with is to put Wy in the seat of one cart with the groceries in the back. Then Devlyn and Jack go in the back of a 2nd cart. They are not very hip to this arrangement. They really want to push the carts. I have found though, that if I let them 'push' the carts, they wind up running around the store like banshees. And so, in the cart they go. This is not a great solution either, as they both have melt downs over being in the cart. I go between the two carts pushing Wy and pulling the kids, list in hand, pen in mouth and we're off. Then of course half way through the store with a nearly full cart, Devlyn has to go to the bathroom. Does she EVER have to go before we actually leave the house? No. She has to go when we reach the frozen section. Then of course we have to get to the bathroom, get everyone out of carts, into the bathroom as a group, prevent children from crawling under the closed doors of occupied stalls, deal with fits over the autmatic flushing toilets which are so loud the kids have to cover their ears and cry. Then I have to remember to have a firm grasp on Wyatt BEFORE we step out of the bathroom because the second I open the door he is half way past the pharmacy like a race horse. Of course he looks over his shoulder and laughs at me the whole way because being chased by mommy in the grocery store is HYSTERICAL. Especially because mommy is issuing "DO NOT MOVE" orders to the other 2 children who are not yet in carts - thus qualifying themselves as free roaming agents in a large open building that feels like a race track. Let me tell you, small children who do not wish to be caught are very fast...

As you all know, we have been having trouble getting Jack to sleep in his own bed. Early last week I had the BRILLIANT idea to put Wy in bed with Jack. I got them snuggled in then sat down beside them and read a few short books. We said our bedtime prayers, then I hugged and kissed them and told them I would be back in a little bit to check on them. I walked out of the room ready for the crying to begin and there was nothing. Nothing as in not one peep. There was no talking, there was no crying, there was no playing. I was shocked. I poked my head in and there they were, snuggled up together, eyes closed trying to go to sleep. WOW! YEAH! 3 nights in a row of utter success! Then the 4th night Jack decided to sleep with his head at the foot of the bed and Wy wouldn't stop kicking him. Wy thought this was hysterical. John finally had to separate them.

Not sure when if I will have a new edition this week or not. As I mentioned earlier, I start rehearsals this week and this show is one that will keep me busy. Love, blessings and promises of more to come~

The gang at Owenland Park.