Scout was the second student of the week in Ms. Shih’s class! And because of his new big title, we had a lot of stuff to accomplish before the week began. We had to make a poster, fill a bag of special treasures he wanted to share, and I had to write a note to him that would be read aloud in class.
Our work began last night after Sunday dinner…
Scout went around gathering up things to go in the share bag.
His list included:
Part of his cast (so he could show everyone what he lived in for 10 weeks last year)
A smashed penny (to show he likes to save his money and take it to the real bank)
His little praying boy statue (to remind him to say his prayers each night and morning)
A CTR dollar (to show he tries to be good at home and earns treats from the store)
Some sea glass (to show that he loves to collect things from the beach)
Afterwards, we got working on our poster.
I did the main stuff, while Scout filled in the blanks.
Here, he is drawing a self portrait.
Navy wanted to be the student of the week also, so she spent two hours on her own poster.
Scout was excited with the final product.
Micah said that when he took it into school the next morning, he was so proud!
At the end of the week, I asked him how he liked it, and he told me that he really hopes he gets to be it again this year.
I think he loves to show himself off.
Clearly, he has a little of his mom and dad in him!
And Navy does too.
And by the looks of how much Dash likes to be applauded when he stands for us, he does too.
We are like one big huge show-off family!
Icka loves sporting her new pumpkin outift lately.
Don’t let this sweet little innocent face fool you.
Yes, a lot of times, she is just that — sweet and innocent.
But the other times….
She can be the stinkiest of the stinkers.
But even when she is stinky — she is really charming.
Maybe because she is so advanced for her age, her stinkiness becomes impressive.
And then sprinkle in a bit of sweet into the stinky, and it all becomes charming.
For example –
Lately, she screams a blood-curdling scream that is almost painful to your ears.
When you are just about to scold her, you look in her direction.
And then you see her mouth in a very exaggerated way “I love you”.
And then, because you are her mom and have to be a few steps ahead of her, you realize that she wants you to think you went deaf.
And then it becomes funny, and because she chooses “I love you”, it becomes charming.
I guess it goes back to one of the first few times I heard the scream.
I told her that loud noises like that can make people go deaf.
Most kids might stop at this point.
Not my Icka.
That was like throwing a spark into a puddle of gasoline.
After a soccer game and Dash’s party, we headed off to our ward’s Trunk or Treat.
I kept Dash in his pumpkin costume, and on the way, he was all smiles.
But by the time we came home, he had hit his wall.
But these two — in undisclosed costumes (until Halloween) had an awesome night filled with games and candy.
And lots and lots of fun in their favorite costumes to date!
We can’t wait for Halloween!
Micah and I have been gaming it up lately.
Yahtzee has been our game of choice.
Of course we are attaching bets to every game, and lately, I have had to do a whole lot of things for him. But when the game involves me having a few minutes of peace and quiet, I magically win all of those games.
So, in honor of him honoring his bet, he was in charge of a Sunday walk with the kids.
In true Micah fashion — he made it extra fun by taking them on a nature scavenger hunt.
These weasels were wild when they came back.
They found most of what was on their list — but Navy ended up being the true scavenger by finding a $5.00 bill on the ground of the road.
But did we ever question who the true scavenger in this family was?
Fresh out of the hospital that morning, I wasn’t surprised at all to see a present for Dash from Missy. That girl is CRAZY! But I was surprised to see a batch of delicious homemade cookies for our family. Talk about one of the nicest people I have ever known. She is awesome, and I wish I could be a little more thoughtful like her! Thanks Missy for cookies and nice gesture — NO thanks for the new pet!
Dash had his very first birthday party and it was a success.
It was a mini pumpkin patch outside.
With a donut hole bar inside.
I simplified this party, and only decorated with a donut hole garland.
When the pumpkin of the hour woke up from his nap, he was put into festive gear.
Then family and friends arrived.
Including the famous Tacky, who put finishing touches on our sign — like the perfect crow.
They all picked out their own pumpkin and then got decorating for the contest.
Then it was present time!
He loves our other two touch and feel books, so I knew a third would be a hit.
He touches every animal and then kisses the animal on each page.
And when we finish, he wants to go through it again.
But what Dash really liked was donut time!
Especially off of Great Grandpa’s plate.
The finished pumpkins, and the judging.
Brock took the prize!
Then a Denison kid picture.
Navy is with the other pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.
RoRo and Grey looked pretty good as scarecrows.
After the judging, they put their pumpkins in the patch, where the cutest pumpkin of all fit right in.
And then there was this other pumpkin sporting the booby prizes for participating but not winning.
Someone snapped this picture of the party planner who was surviving off of three and a half hours of sleep.
A little more mascara might have done me good.
I am particularly fond of the one year birthday party cake tradition.
This time I got smart and covered the ground and chair in plastic.
But there wasn’t much need.
I got this spice cake from Trader Joes, and it looked the part, but might have needed an acquired taste.
AKA it was gross.
So a minute into it, he was ready to get up and go.
but not before he took a few handfuls and chucked them on the ground.
I wanted him covered, and was completely unimpressed by the lack of mess.
Ka helped him out a bit with a frosting exclamation mark on his face.
It was a fun party, and on the way out — people started getting smart and wore sunglasses to combat the bright sun.
When the party was over, my little pumpkin crawled away in a huff.
I think he wanted to live his whole life in the little fairy tale that was “Dash’s First Pumpkin Patch”.
Me too.
Happy Birthday Dash.
My one and only scarecrow!
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.
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