Caleb's b-day and Eli's b-day catch up

Caleb just turned 5.  Again, just crazy how time flies.  He has been so excited to turn 5, but says he already misses being 4.  He asked if I missed him being 4 too.   His b-day wish list this year was a cotton-candy machine (so funny), an army tank shirt, an army tank toy, bouncy shoes (like pogo ball type things on the bottom), and a spider man alarm clock.   He got the clock & camouflage shirt from us, toys from grandma and grandpa Farr, a learn to read CD rom from Grant and Azucena, CARS coloring pages from Bryan's family, and some super cute clothes from Vicki & her family.  We also got him this pretty fun little toy truck thing that we saved from the lot of Christmas presents that were given to us this past year.    My mom is planning on taking Caleb for a special outing just he and her. He wanted a TANK cake, so we did that.  We ate chicken nuggets for dinner-Dinos for the kids and and homemade chicken tenders for the adults.  We are headed this coming Saturday as a family and probably Hudson and perhaps Rachel too, to this fun little place called Adventure Playland, in Berkeley.  We haven't ever been, but have heard amazing things, so we're excited to go. (see photos below)

Eli turned 6 this past January.  He wanted to go miniature golfing and we had some buy one get one free tickets.  My dad and Merle were here the weekend after his b-day so we went with them, Vicki & Rachel, and of course, their best buddy, Hudson. They came over afterwards for a little cake and a few presents. We turned some music on and danced to what Ian had playing through the system, "Spotify".   He got a pogo stick for his birthday from us along with a remote control spider from Randy, et. al, a tranformer thing from the Driggs, a playdough set and mini robot bug from poppy, another robot bug from Hudson, Vicki got him a much needed outfit (super cute, as always), and Uncles Christian and Collin took both he and Caleb out to lunch and to a movie.  On his actual b-day we ate dinner at Ian's parent's house with Randy and Jessie here in town.   My mom took Eli out for a special, one on one, outing to the Exploratorium in SF.  He loved it.  They took BART and the bus (which ended up taking a lot longer than expected).

Caleb will color for a long time and loves it.  He loves when I give him activity pages where he can trace letters or do mazes, or do color by numbers.  When Eli brings home the mini books he makes and reads at school, Caleb likes to read those.  He's learning to read well and quickly.  It will be fun to see how well he does in Kindergarten.  He doesn't have a best friend his age like Eli does.  Eli had Josh Huseboe when he was younger, then went straight to Hudson.  Caleb has always just played with Eli's friends up to this point. I have been trying and trying to get this other little boy to play but his mom has been really flaky about bringing him over to play. BUT, Caleb does go over to his house with Ayla too while I volunteer in Eli's classroom on Mondays. So that's something and I hope it's enough right now to help him socially before Kindergarten in the fall.
Preschool was full again this round so we have opted to have him put into gymnastics twice a week and tennis lessons on Saturdays for a bit.  He's really sad to miss out on preschool, but gymnastics was just the thing to distract him from too much sadness.  He loved gymnastics last year and is excited to go again.  Eli wishes he could quit school so he could do it with Caleb.

Ayla's pretend peeing & b-day

Ayla is now 2 years old.  It's so hard to believe how time's flying.  Today on our walk home from taking Abby and Eli to school, Caleb complained a couple times about needing to go potty.  Ayla turned to me and said, where's Caleb? ...going potty?  I wanna go potty.  And she turned and faced the bushes and lifted her shirt and stuck out her tummy.  She did that for a part of a block, turning and pretending to pee like a boy into the bushes.  Funny.

Ayla can climb out of her crib now.  I went away for the weekend a couple weeks ago.  When I got back, she was a totally different girl.  She used to go to bed so easily at night.  It just so happened that she got a bad cold that last day I was gone, but apparently she cried and cried the weekend I was away.  Ian took the kids and himself to stay at his parents so that he could have additional help.  Me being gone plus sleeping in a new place, while getting a cold didn't help things.  Anyway, when I got back she kept climbing out of her crib.  CRAZINESS!  She is so tired in the afternoons but she fights and fights being left alone in her room/crib for her nap too.  I guess she's growing up!

Ayla can also sing the whole song of I'm a Child of God.  Most of the words are jumbled, but she has can carry the tune of the song the whole way through.  She will also sing Jingle bells, but only part of it before repeating parts over and over.  I'm not positive if I've mentioned in early posts about how she loves the Gummy Bear song.  It's a Youtube thing and she loves to sing it.  She started singing it back in Oct or November?

A recap for Ayla's b-day party.  Her b-day was on a Thursday and it was a busy day.  I had to work for Auntie Flo's, Abby had her first basketball practice, and then we had to race to the kids' school for Open House.  So we only did a breakfast thing in the morning.  It was a funny start to the day because the kids sang happy birthday to her first thing in the kitchen, but Ayla didn't like it.  She ran over to Abby and went with the intent to hit her.  She later calmed down.  We tried to teach her to answer the question, how old are you? by answering, 2.  She refused.  She would only answer, "Grandpa".  EVERY time. After a couple days she stopped responding that way and is now responding by saying "no".   We have no idea where she got the idea to answer how old she is by saying, grandpa.

Caleb's preschool was all full so we couldn't get him back in for the last semester.  It was/is such a bummer.  We have decided to put him back into gymnastics a couple times a week and he seems to be ok with that as a replacement.  He says he misses Miss Laurie though!  We are putting Eli and Caleb into tennis as well, but on Saturday afternoons.  Caleb turns 5 this Sunday.  He wants a tank birthday so we are having a tank cake.  What he's been saying he wants is a cotton candy machine for his b-day.  What a funny request!  For Christmas, he asked Santa for a popcorn machine!  It was a surprise to me.  He's a very unique little kid.  He's growing up so fast.