Videos: A Talented Bunch

First up, we have Livy playing Hot Potato with Grandma and Cody. I love her big laugh.

And then we have two videos of Cody boxing. I know you've seen pictures of us playing Kinect Sports, but until you watch it in action it's just not the same.

The final video is Kylee reading with her sunglasses on. In the video she is just pretending to read (which she does all the time), but she's actually becoming quite a good little reader these days. It must be because she wears those sunglasses to see better. :)

A Studly Second Grader

Yesterday Cody started Second Grade!

Last Friday we met his teacher (Miss Miller) and saw his new classroom. He gets to sit right by a friend that lives in our neighborhood. When we got home he wanted to know how many more hours until Monday when school starts. This kid loves school.

While we were at the school we stopped by Mrs. Chun's classroom (his teacher from First Grade) and said hello. She said she couldn't wait for the day when she'll see Cody on the news for something cool. She said she will never forget how his face would light up when she would teach something complicated.

Well, 67 hours later it was finally time for school. So we snapped some pictures and then he hopped on  the bus before I could even say goodbye.

Second Grade!

 Being silly...

 and cute.

When Cody got home I asked him how school went. He shrugged his shoulders and said it was boring because all they are doing is reviewing stuff from First Grade for the first week. :) I told him if that was the worst of it he should count that as a great first day. She could have probably taught the same material but prefaced it by saying the word "complicated" instead of "review" and he would have LOVED it. :)

It'll be a great year!

Cody's 7th Birthday {Best. Day. Ever}

As usual we have been counting down (with a traditional construction paper chain) to Cody's birthday for over a month. We were all getting pretty excited for his lego birthday party by the time it finally arrived.

The night before his birthday Steve was baking giant cupcakes (Cody wanted Steve's yellow butter cake specialty) and I worked on getting the house gussied up for our favorite Cody.

Just like every morning he came in at the break of dawn to sweetly say good morning and then run off to play with his legos in the loft. Only this morning, after I sleepily whispered "happy birthday Cody!" he said, "I already practiced the piano." I told him thanks and then let him know that he could have the day off today from the rest of his jobs. He said, "Wow! Thanks mom!"

Man, he's a cool kid.

Then we went downstairs to eat birthday waffles.

Steve had to work a half day but the rest of us played around the entire morning (no housework for me--woo!)

It was actually the first time that Cody, Kylee, AND Olivia played all together (not just by each other). Hospital is what they called it I think. Or maybe it was Surgery. They went upstairs and dumped all the stuffed animals out of our bin, stacked 2 or 3 pillows in the bin, and then laid Livy down on the pillows. Livy was the patient and Cody and Kylee pushed her around and rubbed her head and took care of their patient. When I checked on them 30 minutes later Livy was still chilling on her gurney loving every drop of the attention she was getting. My bedroom was a mess, but I didn't really care. They were playing so well together and having so much fun. (I wish I could have gotten a picture but I was being a super mom and charging the camera battery so that we could take pictures of the festivities later on.)

Then we decided to play Kinect Sports and had a blast...

throwing the javelin...

(you like the test paint color on the wall? soon the walls will be a different color!)

running track...

hurdles...

volleyball...

boxing...

and then Steve came home for lunch.

And then it was time for presents, cake, and more fun!

First, he opened a present from his sisters...

light sabers for his lego guys!

Settlers of Catan (his favorite game on Earth) from Steve and me.

He's only been talking about it for 7 straight months.

From Grandpa Airplane and Grandma Tammy: a calculator and sunglasses...

lego watch...

puzzles and a cool calculator riddle book...

and some books.

From Grandma Ellen and Grandpa Dean: transformers...

lifesavers...

sling shot airplane...

and a baking mix.

From Brooke and Tyler: a 3D coloring book...

complete with glasses...

and crayons.

P.S. Thanks for the catalog Brooke! :)

Livy had fun tasting the merchandise.

And she spent a good 10 minutes trying to put Cody's sunglasses on.

She never really got them on her face. But she had fun trying!

Kylee had fun with the calculator and riddle book. (You read the riddle and then it gives you a math problem to plug into the calculator. Then you turn the calculator upside down and it spells your answer.)

Livy is still working on those sunglasses.

And a few presents from Grandma Ellen and Grandpa Dean that they left here from their visit a few weeks ago: Lego Mouse Trap

and a mitt and ball.

Livy loved the calculator too--she kept using it as a phone.

Then it was time to frost, decorate, and eat our giant cupcakes. Over the past few weeks Cody has been setting aside the lego guys he wanted to put on his cake. And he wanted to decorate it himself. So we made little cakes so we could all decorate our own.

And we also made chocolate legos to top the cakes. Each of the lego guys had a light saber thanks to Kylee and Livy.

Those little light sabers are pretty cool. They even cut through giant chocolate legos.

And then we spent the night playing games together. It was the best.

(And thanks to all those who called Cody and Skyped him and sent him cards--he loved it!)

That night, Cody told Steve that it was the best day ever and that he didn't want it to end.
Soooo glad he had fun!

***************

P.S.  Let me just say this little blissful day was amazing thanks to a miracle. The entire week leading up to Cody's birthday Kylee was green with envy any time we talked about birthday plans. She kept saying "I'm going to stay in bed all day until it's time for cake." I hoped and prayed that Cody would feel special all day and know that we loved him. Well, I am happy to report that Kylee was an angel all day long. Not only were we tantrum-free, but Kylee went above and beyond her normal pleasant self. Letting Cody say the blessing on the food for every meal and letting him sit by Livy at the dinner table to name a few--without any coaching at all.