3 Siblings

I know I need a better picture. But we will always be able to say that Sadie was front and center at Andy's 3rd birthday.

My 3 Year Old Boy

My big man turns 3 today. I can't even believe it. Where has the time gone??

Of course, he is the sweetest, most aware and caring 3 year old I have ever met.

We were so excited to celebrate him yesterday.  He had been saying for months that he wanted a "woody buzz" birthday. But as it drew near, and after I bought everything for a Toy Story birthday, he switched to Thomas the Train.

So we went with it. He got to pick the cake.

 And what a cake it was!!

 Unfortunately, we got few pictures of all the guests, but here is one good one.  Aunt Joanne and Cousin Lauren.  Lauren was such a great sport, being passed all over the place! She loved it.  She even tried to eat my sandwich!!

 Fortunately, we did get some great pictures of the birthday boy.

 He was being so cute and coy while we were singing to him. It was amazingly adorable.

 The great/terrible thing about the cake, you could tell everyone who ate it by the amount of blue all over them. My fingers are still blue from cutting it!!

Case and point, a beautiful great grandmother with blue teeth!

Present time is always tough at this age, he wanted to open and play with every gift right then and there. But he had fun and he is such a loved (we are going to use loved instead of spoiled) little boy.

And he got excited about everything!

And was happy to model his new hat.

And his other new hat. This is the one he chose to wear today.

And after the guests all left, he tried on and played with all his other gifts.

And eventually, the birthday boy conked out. He had a great party, a blast with his friends, gifts galore and more blue cake than any boy should eat.

Today he got to hang out with Daddy and Sissy all day. They came into my work and he got some extra love from all my "work friends" (as Julie has dubbed them and fits perfectly!).  Then we went to lunch. After naps we hit the park and came home to make cupcakes for his class tomorrow. 

So a very happy birthday to my big man.  You can brighten any day and fill any heart with love.

Proud

Tonight my mom received her 25 year pin.  That's right, 25 years working her rear end off at same place.  She has had a few different titles and lots of different responsibilities.

The Assistant City Manager said many nice things about her. And then the Association President came up and said more nice things. And presented her with flowers. She is the first one to work at her department 25 years.

I am so proud of her. I think it is easy to find a new job when things get stagnant, or personalities clash, or you get overwhelmed.  It takes a lot to have dedication, perseverance and loyalty. These are things that my mom has. Absolutely.

We are all proud of her.  Go Memere!!!

Soccer Game!!

Today Julie had her first soccer game. She has been practicing for the last 2 weeks, but honestly hadn't shown a whole lot of interest.  John and I didn't know what to expect and were just hoping that once she got there she would go with the flow and get into it.

Well, she did!

 Her team has 8 kids on it. They split the team into groups of 4 and each group plays on a separate field for a half hour. Then they switch and play the other half of the other team for half an hour. That means all the kids play the whole time. The coaches are out there as "referees" but mostly as coaches, which is great at this age. 

 There are no goalies, they all just run around after the ball.

 This was at the first break. She ran over to give us high fives and she was happy but she said, "Mommy, they are not giving me a turn!"  I explained to her that she didn't have to share, she could just go up and kick the ball, she didn't have to wait for a turn, she could just take it. Her response, "Can I push the other kids down??" Ummmmm, No.

She got much more aggressive after that little talk.

 And she scored a goal!!! (If you click on this picture it will make it big and you can see how excited she is!!)

 Also post-goal.

 She is enjoying us cheering for her.

 This was on the other field, and after I took this picture, she broke away and scored another goal!!

And after that, another!! That's right, 3 goals!!! We were so proud of how much fun she was having. She smiled the entire time she was out there, and she never stopped running. She was exhausted after!!

Looks like the start of a great season!!