Grandma Mary's Visit

Grandma Mary came for a visit this past weekend.
On Saturday the boys went and did their own thing (went to Brendan's boy's house) while us girls went shopping at a couple stores in Berkley and then to Great Lakes Crossing. Brendan got some pants for his no-butt (Oshgosh had slims that fit really well & were on sale) and some grippy socks (his favorite kind of socks) & Madelyn got a couple of outfits as well. (Got to love Great Lakes Crossing stores-there is always a great sale going on).
Here are the pictures from Saturday:
Maddie eating one of I think 4 breakfastsBrendan with his new clothesMaddie's pile of clothesMadelyn modeling one of her new outfits. We love the tights-she got a couple different kinds.
On Sunday we hung out at home and spent lots of time playing with the kids. We went to the local park to show off Brendan & Madelyn's acting like crazy kids running around craziness & went back home where we had Chef Brian grill up some steaks. Also while Maddie was napping Brian made Brendan some really cool knifes.
Here are the two crazies at the park. Brian make two of this knife.Brian & Brendan playing with his new knife set.Of course Madelyn had to join in on the fun as well.
Monday was also a kind of shopping day. While Brendan was at school we went out to Micheal's and mommy got to get some stuff as well. We pick Brendan up from school and went to the local toy store to let him pick out his birthday presents. After we went to visit with old friends & eat lunch at Olga's and were going to go to Putt-Putt but we ate too much at lunch so going home and resting sounded much better. Plus Brendan really wanted to get into those new toys he got.
I have been into bird houses lately so I couldn't pass these up.Brendan with his birthday presents.And Grandma with her grandbabies.

Boots

These boots are made for walking...
I saw these boots at Target and I just couldn't say no.
Maddie just loves them. I have to take some better pictures but I couldn't wait to show them off.

Sunday

This past Sunday we went out to a State park so Brian could go squirrel hunting. Of course given that Brendan & Madelyn were with us we weren't the quietest things in the woods. But we had a great hike.
Here are some photos:
Brendan & Daddy walking into the woods together.Madelyn walking into the woods, we had Brendan's orange vest on her for a little while but it was a little big so I ended up carrying it the whole way.Brendan & Madelyn walking together in the woods. Aren't they cute?Brian posing with his kiddies for a picture. (Mommy never gets to be in these type of pictures)

Brendan also had a 5 o'clock soccer game on Sunday. Brendan got more goals in this game, I counted 4. He did great and had fun this game too.

Brendan's Birthday Party

On Saturday we had Brendan's Birthday Party. What a party it was. Brian smoked some chickens, I had some fresh fruit w/ a dip that was just the greatest, the weather could have been a hair warmer but with the fire place in the garage we were just fine, the kids had a blast playing with all the outside toys that we have and some even didn't want to leave.

Brendan got a ton of Transformer toys, some clothes, a castle for his playmobil toys & even a slurpee machine!
Here are some of the photos of his presents:
We had a Dragon pinita which all the kids loved hitting. Brendan ended up being the lucky one to knock it down and once he did started beating it even more. It is amazing how kids know what to do to a pinita and then all pile in to get some of the candy. Even Madelyn was in on the action!
Finally it was time for cake. Brendan had wanted a castle cake pan earlier in the summer and we have used it a couple of times but this time was the first time I had to put frosting on a Castle cake. It turned out pretty good I think, Brendan even helped frost it too. It did take him a couple of try's to get all those candles.

Can you believe that Brendan is now 5! Wow.

Brendan's Birthday Day

On the 13th Brendan turned the big 5!
To make the day special we went to the mall for the kids to play, had pizza for dinner and had a fire outside.
Here is Brendan with his birthday Ninja Pizza (thanks to the TMNT all pizza's are now Ninja Pizza).
Here is a funny Brendan story:
While we were outside after dinner Brendan went over to Sharon's house (which happens alot). Sharon has a special box of toys for Brendan in a spare bedroom, so if Sharon is busy Brendan just helps himself and plays. Well Sharon had thought that she hid Brendan's birthday present pretty good, well not so good it turns out. Brendan goes into the kitchen and tells Sharon that he found his present and thanks her and is all excited and wants it now. Given that it is his birthday we can't really say no so he gets it. He forgets all about the fire and goes inside and plays with his new toy - A huge Transformer that does transform (the directions are really hard-first time took over 20 minutes & now I can get it in under4) with 2 small Autobots as well.
Okay and since I forgot-Brendan also wanted to ride his ride-behind bike to the snow hill park but it was getting late so we rode around the long way to the park that is up the street. (the one he calls the red-green park)

Brendan's Birthday

This year is the first year that Brendan was able to take cupcakes in for his class (the last two years school started the week of his birthday & it is hard to talk to the teacher and ask for that week)
Brendan helped me make the cupcakes of course & he picked out the liners that they went in, Super-Man of course. (they didn't have transformers ones) Of course there were a couple extra which Brendan, Madelyn & daddy were willing to eat for me.
Here are Brendan's cupcakes.Here is Maddie being messy while eating them.
Also yesterday Brendan got two birthday packages.
His great-Aunt Leesa & Family sent some Cars underwear & lots of books. One of them even had a story about Pirates & Cowboys which Brendan is really excited to read about.
Also he got a package from Aunt Ashley & Family, he received a Leap Frog Spelling Bee game.

Zachary's 6th Birthday Party

This past Sunday we went out to Brian's brother's house for our nephew Zachary's 6th birthday party. Brendan and Zachary are only 1 year & 3 days apart in age and get along great when ever we get together. Today was no exception.
Zachary had a Transformer's party and Brendan was all excited about going. And of course we had to get Zachary a transformer for his birthday & 2 lego racer cars.
Madelyn also like going to the party as there were outside toys to play on and with.
Here is Zachary opening his present from us.And here is Zachary with his birthday cake.My sister-in-law Nancy always does a fantastic job with the boys birthday cakes.
After cake and ice cream Zachary & Brendan played with a couple of Zachary's new transformer toys together. On the way home Brendan just kept talking about getting to share his toys & his new toys with Zachary next weekend at his party.

Camping in the Backyard

With the TeePee that we will get this spring Brian and I know that our camping cots are not going to fit in as well. So we went to the local REI store and bought Brendan & myself some self inflating camping mats. They are a lot smaller and lighter than the cots so packing them in the trailer bins will be easier but we wanted to make sure that they were comfortable enough to sleep on for a couple days.

So we went camping in the backyard. Brendan was so excited and Brian had him helping with every step of putting the tent together. Maddie even helped a little too, more in the way than helping but it was so cute.
Here are Brendan & Madelyn helping to put the tent on the right spot.Brendan and Madelyn helping to put the top poles together.Brendan helping daddy put the stakes into the ground.Brian even let me help too by chopping some scrap wood for kindling for the fire. (Doesn't he know I don't do well with sharp objects-safe to say I did not get hurt)We had a lot of fun and Brian even made us some brownies out side in his dutch oven for us.
We will go and get Brian a camping pad later in the year closer to spring when we need it and Madelyn can sleep on Brendan's old cot for a couple of years till she needs a mat too.

Brendan's Soccer

We have a couple of up-dates to put up so I should be posting everyday this week to get them all in.
First we have signed Brendan up for Berkley Soccer. His team is the LA Kings and they have had two practices and one game this past Saturday. It is a little different than Clawson's as the games are played in 6 - 5 minute time periods with water breaks in between and a little longer for half time. Also the teams each have 3 players at a time up and no goalies. (Brendan's favorite position).
Here is a photo from the first practice of Brendan warming up.Here is a photo from his first game. He got one goal & was the only player to block a goal on purpose (you could tell from watching that he was thinking of what the other team was going to do).
And we can't not have a photo of Miss Madelyn.
Here she is with her purse. She has days were she wears her purse and carries her baby all over the house.

Brendan's First Week of School

Brendan has finished his first week of school today. Quite a few funny/cute things have happened this week that I thought I would share with you.

First off- Brian walks Brendan to school in the morning, with school starting at 8am and there being k-5 all walking or being dropped off there is always no place to park in the mornings. This morning Brendan and Brian were talking about living in the city versus living in the country which got Brendan talking about the chickens at his 'boys' house which lead to his Barn Yard movie where the chickens can talk and ended with him saying "it takes a strong man to stand up for himself and a stronger man to stand up for others"

Second-his class has snack every day like last year, but this year they can purchase milk for the year if they want to. Brian and I just assumed that Brendan would want to take his favorite juice boxes again this year but for the last two days when I asked Brendan how snack time was he said he had either white or chocolate milk. Which is funny because this morning I made a point of telling him to drink his juice, his reply after school "Milk makes me feel better". So today I wrote the check out to let him get to choose everyday which kind of milk he would like.

Last-Brendan got to be the line leader on thursday. He was so excited about that that he also had to be the line leader at the library, out to lunch, everything we did for almost all of thursday. But want is also nice was when we wasn't line leader today he said that he was fine with it too. (The kids are so cute trying to walk in a straight line at 5).

Funny Kids

Here are a couple pictures from the kids playing outside this past weekend. Playing in the backyard is one of the kids favorite things to do. (Other than going for a bike ride or to the park)
This first one is Brendan likes to lay down on the driveway have has his outline of his body drawn in chalk so he can color it in. At first just Madelyn was doing this (trying to lie down I think) and then Brendan started doing it to and they just kept getting closer and closer together.

Next is our little dirty Madelyn. After a whole day of playing outside you can get a little dirty. You can't tell but her shirt was covered in dirt just like her nose. -She got a bath right after dinner.

Brendan's First Day

Well Brendan had his first day of school today I got a ton done but no resting in that time so hopefully later this week I can take a break for a while.
Brendan said that he: played outside, had snack, listened, talked, did music, had storytime & did a craft about the story, and played with his new friends. WOW a lot of stuff in just 3 hours & 20 minutes. He also told me some of the Young 5's class rules: no running inside, stand in line, you need a bathroom buddy, and some stuff that even I couldn't understand. But some of the things he will be doing this year: they have gym days, art days, computer lab days, library days, they get field trips with the other 4 kindergarten & young 5's classes.
And this year since school started early enough to talk to the teacher I will be taking cupcake to his class to celebrate his birthday on the 12th since they don't have school on the 13th.

Here are the photos from picking him up.
He had to give Madelyn a hug first.Him telling me all about his day on the walk home from school.His big heavy back pack. His teacher gave all the student a set of her favorite books & his lunch box is in there.

Brendan's First Day of School

We just dropped Brendan off for his first day of school. This year he goes everyday from 8 am to 11:20 am. It is very exciting as he has a couple of friends from last year in his class again.
Here are the pictures of him going to school. (I will put more up when I pick him up today)
Here he is going to the car.Here he is at his locker.He was the first one ready for the good-bye at the rug.He he is with his teacher & class getting ready to tell all the parents good-bye.