Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Jarem is 6!

Yesterday Jarem turned 6! It is a very busy week and we talked to Jarem about our schedule and gave him some options.  He decided to have a small family party on his birthday and then invite a few friends for a playdate next week. We asked Divya and Pramika to stay since they were here playing with the girls and Jarem really likes them. They are good to him. They always try to include him if they invite the girls over because he doesn't have any friends in the neighborhood and always feels bad when the girls leave and he doesn't have anyone to play with. In fact, one time last year he told me that Divya and Pramika were his best friends.

Our kids get to choose their favorite meal to have on their birthday.  Jarem wanted a combination.  So he got all of his favorites: Mac n cheese, baked beans, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and ham/pineapple pizza.  He loved it!


The group: Alex wasn't there because there was a varsity game that night for soccer that he was required to attend but wasn't playing in.


Jarem knew what he wanted.  He wanted those Lofthouse frosted sugar cookies for his class (which I didn't get pictures of).  I found some with blue frosting.  When I brought his snack to school, he asked me if I had started making his monster truck cake yet.  I didn't even know he wanted a monster truck cake, so I got busy.  It turned out so cute!  He was very happy with it.  My favorite part of making it was softening 4 Starbursts and rolling them out for the windshield.



His stash...it was a crazy assortment of bags, Christmas wrapping paper, and the like, but he was happy.  He is holding one of two books that he got from Grandma and Grandpa Ricks.  He was excited about both, but especially this sticker book.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!  He was also excited about his money for Grandma Cindi! Thanks Grandma Cindi!


The girls both got him sets of cars.  They scoped out what he wanted before we went to the store.



Jesikah always draws great cards for each of us on our birthdays.



Eric bought him 3 sets of Lego City vehicles.  He scoped those out first by finding the rectangular boxes.  He was very excited about those.  And within two days he had built them all.  Some of them completely by himself.  It is nice that he is getting to the point that he can build them on his own.


He loved this hotwheels racetrack...the girls have enjoyed it too.

Eric bought him Star Wars the Clone Wars sheets and comforter for his bed.  I wasn't very happy about it because I am not a fan of character bedding.  However, I was going to go with it just because I knew that Eric had that bedding when he was a boy and it was a sentimental thing for him.  Jarem really liked them, but unfortunately Eric got a twin instead of full size, and they didn't have another size.  So, I'll be taking them back.


Everyone helping him open this one

This is a car rug patterned after the Cars movie.  He really liked it.


As soon as the presents were opened, he and the girls were ready to play and build.  No one even wanted cake, so we didn't even have him blow out the candles until the following night.



Below, Jarem is blowing out his candles on Wednesday night before eating cake and ice cream



We are so happy to have Jarem in our family.  He is a loving and happy boy.  He has a fun sense of humor and a contagious laugh that can make everyone laugh.  He has little hand signs that he does to tell everyone that he loves them. He is a worrier, and is always so worried if Eric and I leave that we won't get home safely.  He wants to go everywhere with us.  He is currently very excited about reading and doing very well. He is a friend to everyone in the family and we are so grateful to have him in our family.   

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Happy Birthday Jarem

For each of my kids birthdays, I want to start adding some pictures of them when they were young so I can include these in my books too.

Happy 6th Birthday Jarem!



























Sunday, April 3, 2011

Nashville Zoo

I love going on field trips and this year has been even better because I don't have to arrange babysitting.  I got to go to the Nashville zoo with Jarem on Friday, April 1st.  We had a lot of fun.  His teacher assigned me to keep track of Jarem and two other boys.  They are the ones you see in the pictures below: Carson is the redhead and the other is Justin.  Justin's mom was also with us.
Jarem and I riding the bus up


First stop by gibbons


Anaconda (I think?) The snake area was probably the boy's favorite.  Jarem loves me to read his snake books and the others were just as fascinated.

Clouded leopard was also a favorite

Jarem had flamingos fresh in his mind from Disney

Gibbons: cute blonde adult with black baby

brushing the goat

And petting

Iguana

Indigo macaws


Lemurs


Meerkat

Owl: I especially loved the redbud tree blooming in his cage

Spotted stingray...I'd never seen one that is polka-dotted.

Red panda...this one is endangered.  Jarem chose a red panda webkinz as his as his gift at Disney so it was really cool that we saw one in real life.

Ring-billed stork?

Tiger

Toucan...they look so funny when they fly with that big beak straight out in front of them

Zebras

Last stop: wallabies

We didn't have a lot of time to look around, but we saw a lot and had a good time together.  That was our first time to the Nashville zoo.  I'd like to take the other kids back this summer.  They had some unique animals and they looked healthy and well-cared for.  But, best of all, I got to spend time with my boy!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

April Fool's Day

Happy April Fool's Day! For the first time, I decided to make some whacky April Fool's food just for fun. Jesikah was on cooking duty this week and I knew she would love to help with something like this. She was excited, so when she got home we kept everyone else out of the kitchen and came up with the following:

 Dinner of spaghetti and garlic sticks or is it?  Really, it is a cake with yellow frosting piped, strawberry jam for topping, and whoppers on top with shortbread cookies on the side.

Dessert: cupcakes or is it?

 Actually, it's the main course.  These colorful morsels are really meatloaf in muffin cups and colored mashed potatoes on top.  The kids were so excited to have cupcakes first.  I enjoyed seeing their faces as they discovered what they were.  I think they were a hit though, regardless.  Alex loved them!  He had about 10.

Jesikah is perfectly satisified because she helped me make dinner and we kept it a secret from the other kids so she already knows what's up.  Tessa, on the other hand, is closely investigating her ...cupcake.