A few weeks ago, I slapped some postage on these pumpkins, and sent them trough the mail.
I’ll admit, I thought they were mighty cute invites.
Fast forward to two days before his party.
I knew I had to get this thing pulled together. So I had Micah go with me to Home Depot to buy some wood. We stopped by Tacky’s house for a little artistry. And then dropped it off at Micah’s parent’s house for some holes to be cut out.
After celebrating Dash’s birthday, I spent that night outlining and painting. About half way through, I talked Micah into helping. And three hours from the start, we had this little beauty.
Because what pumpkin patch doesn’t have one of these?
After we finished, Micah and I just looked and looked at our masterpiece. We were pretty stoked on the outcome. But then we started in on the detailing. Patches here, pumpkins there — and we kept adding and adding. By 3:00 am, we made ourselves stop admiring our work and finally go to bed.
Because we couldn’t be shoddy workers at Dash’s First Pumpkin Patch!
If so, we would NEVER get word-of-mouth advertising!
Unbelievable might be the word!
I don’t know how an entire year passed from the day I gave birth to the cutest baby in the world!
Well, 365 days later, I couldn’t be more pleased on who was sent into our home.
The happiest, nicest, sweetest and cutest baby in all the land.
The morning started off with me hearing some ruckus in the pantry.
Of course it was awesome Scout making breakfast in bed for the birthday boy.
But I had him beat, because Micah and I got donuts for the kids at Universal City Walk the night before.
So Scout and I plated them up with a candle for Dash.
This little boy got serenaded with “Happy Birthday” in English and Mandarin.
He smiled the whole times, and LOVED his donuts.
Then he sported his Happy Birthday headband for a few minutes.
He will usually keep it on to get a round of applause, and then takes it off.
But then puts it back on for more applause.
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We had school and errands to do all day, so our real celebration started at dinner when we went to Riptide for Sushi.
Of course Dashy was obsessed with the soybeans.
In fact, look at the shear anger he displayed numerous times when Bella’s hand was in the way of his food.
We were cracking up as he used every muscle in his body to force her arm to move.
After dinner, I attempted to get a picture of the kids.
Thank goodness my one year old was decently cooperative — minus him trying to remove his second birthday headband of the day.
(Just like some people like to have wardrobe changes at their weddings, I like to do headband changes on birthdays.)
He was mesmerized at the flame on his birthday candle when his dessert came.
And in honor of the first birthday tradition of eating cake with your hands, Tristen let him take charge of his ice cream.
At first he was trying to spoon feed himself.
Then he ditched the spoon, and went for the gusto.
And was loving life.
I mean L-O-V-I-N-G life.
Until he got a brain freeze.
So we disrobed him, and sent him with Tristen (the reason for the mess in the first place) to get cleaned up.
Look at those bright red fingers from the cold ice cream.
The poor guy cried the whole way to the bathroom because he wanted the last bites of vanilla that were just sitting on the table.
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It was a happy day today — and 365 days ago.
Dash — you are one in a gazillion, and we all absolutely love and adore you.
But who wouldn’t.
I mean you ARE the “cutest baby in the whole world”!
You know that I felt challenged for “Crazy Hair Day”.
But I also didn’t want to pull out all the stops this year.
I had to go big, but not too big that I couldn’t outdo myself next year.
I was also limited on time and energy.
Micah and I went to Universal Studios the night before, and were wiped from haunted houses.
So in about 10 minutes flat, this is what Scout and I came up with…
The “Stegosaurus”.
You like?
Obviously Mr. I’m Cool did as he looked at every angle of himself in the mirror for three minutes straight.
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I volunteered in his classroom later that morning, so I snuck up on him during recess.
When he saw me, he ran over yelling, “MOMMMM! I LOVE when you come to my school!”
(Pretty sweet!)
I asked him if people liked his hair.
He said, “Everyone is trying to touch it. People are telling me it is the coolest hair they have ever seen!”
I asked him if he was glad we did it.
And he told me, “Yeah! I tell everyone my mom helped me.”
Then he kissed me, and I made my way to the library to get ready to read to my best boy and his buddies.
Scout has a way of making me feel like a million bucks.
On Tuesday nights, I am taking a Mandarin class. I have to leave before the kids are in bed by about an hour. Before I left this past Tuesday, he said, “Mom, are you going to Chinese today?” I told him I was. Then he said, “Mom, I hate when you leave. It’s never any fun without you. I am really going to miss you.”
I don’t know that I really buy the whole things, but it did make me feel really good all night.
And then, the next morning, when I heard running feet and a five year old boy cuddle next to me while I was still half sleeping, I really felt good. Because to solidify what he told me the night before, he said, “Mom, I missed you last night. But tell me, what did you learn in Chinese?”
And then we conversed in Mandarin for the next 30 minutes.
For red ribbon week, day two was “Mix Up Day”. They sent home a note that if you would like to participate, wear different shoes and socks. Well, like a boy after my very own heart, Scout likes to go big or go home. So on this morning, he wore a backwards, inside-out shirt, different shoes, different socks, and a half-flat-and-half-crazy hair do. I love the creativity. I love the confidence. But mostly, I just love this boy!
To say that Navy was excited to go on her first field trip is a complete understatement. As we were leaving, she ran into Bella and Nonnie to invite them to her “very first field trip EVER!” Then, as we were leaving the house, she said, “Goodbye house, I am going to miss you. I wish you would come with us.” She was completely giddy all morning long.
So off we were to the farm…..
When she saw RoRo and Grey arrive, she ran to them with her arms out, and they all hugged for a while.
She paid excellent attention to the instructions her class received.
All three buddies crammed into the engine of their choo choo train ride.
She got to go on the pony ride very first — and was obsessed!
Then it was off to her own personal “Happiest Place on Earth”.
This girl - the youngest in the class, was gathering all of the guinea pigs for the other kids to hold.
She had her own personal collection, and would lend them out until she decided that she wanted them back.
She was literally hilarious.
Nothing scared her, and she was a natural.
And so was Dash.
You know - the cutest kid on earth!
I think his philosophy was “When in Rome…”.
Or in this case….”When in Rabbitsville…”.
And he took that philosophy and ran with it — or crawled with it.
All the way to his scared little buddies.
No wonder — he looks massive against them!
But I think he rethought the whole thing when he felt like a caged animal.
Because there wasn’t a huge fight when I put him back in his stroller.
And as a side note – Thank you farm for having hand sanitizer everywhere.
Because even a little bad-tasting sanitizer wouldn’t take these two fingers away from this mouth.
We took a break for a bit to decorate pumpkins.
And hit up the corn pit — where she went kamikaze style.
And thief style.
I made her empty both pockets of hundreds of kernels of corn.
Then it was back to “Sienna, the most specialist guinea pig in the universe”.
They really were like bosom friends.
I was almost guilted into getting her a pet.
But then I came back to reality.
And came up with a great business — RENT-A-PET.
Any takers?
Dash got to join in on a sister date to Sushi.
It was my mom, all sisters (minus Ash) and Dash.
Guess who got all of the attention.
Like my other two kids, this boy LOVES Good Choice.
If the world ever comes to an end, there better be sushi in our food storage!
But unlike my other two kids (and just like uncle Seth), this boy doesn’t swallow as often as he should.
Just like a chipmunk, he stores his food in his cheeks for the winter.
(Micah pulled meat out of his cheek, about 20 minutes after dinner a few days ago.)
We were all cracking up.
And when he would laugh back at us, you would just see mashed up green in his mouth.
He was on a soybean kick.
When I tried to get it out, he pursed his lips, and shook his head no.
And then included his latest trick — he swatted my hand away!
Luckily Tristen came up with a fantastic solution.
She tickled it right out of him.
Slowly and surely, that green soybean paste just oozed right out of him.
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This kid is going to be crazy!
He is hilarious and wild.
I originally thought we had perfection.
I am now convinced that we actually have perfection with a twist of lime.
Yesterday — I was a failure as a mom.
It was crazy hat day at school, and somehow, we ended up at school hat-less.
I tried to manufacture one of Dash’s blankets into a turban, but Scout wasn’t going for it.
I did try to make up for it.
As soon as I dropped him off, I ran over to Summer’s house and got a pumpkin hat from her and took it back to him.
He was happy, but I wasn’t.
I have an AMAZING collection of hats for my kids, and a pumpkin just wasn’t up to par.
Just last week, my mom and I got matching hats for Dash and Scout.
Dash is modeling them below:
Scout would have looked amazing in his viking beanie.
But nothing would have compared to the lumberjack hat!
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It is a crying shame!
I need to organize my life!
But that would mean going 100% against my nature.
And what really is more important?
Crazy Hat Day — or living an authentically honest life?
Dang….
Looks like I better invest in a calendar!
Guess who got an Email last night?
Guess who was up early this morning getting “talked to”?
Guess who spent his morning rewriting the above letter?
Guess who swallowed his pride in front of all his his guy friends and delivered this letter to a girl?
Hint: He said sorry in Mandarin.
Dash took his first steps!
He was standing and balancing, and the saw me.
And just as strong as ever, our magnetic connection drew him towards me.
And three steps strong, he made it!
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And thus begins a whole new world….
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