Food store

Van got a cash register from his little friend Connor for his birthday. I thought it would be cute if I got the play food out (even though you could use real food I guess) and play grocery store with the kids. I set it all out on the table and I ran the cash register while they 'shopped' When I put all the food in the food bags for them and told them to have a good day, they went right over to the fridge and put everything away. I thought it was pretty funny. I few hours later, I found the banana in the fruit basket too. :)

Happy Birthday Adam!

I now have a four year old. There is something about being four I think that seems like a full fledged kid. I mean when you're two, you can be a baby, a toddler, still a little person. At three, still I think, pretty small, still kinda a toddler. But four, you are now a kid. I guess a pre-schooler they characterize you right? Definitely not a baby, definitely not a toddler, but a person that has entered the 'kid zone.'

Ahhh... my dear Adam. What a great kid he is. I am really blessed to have him. Chip and I will often say something like, 'Adam? Oh we don't need to worry about him. We trust he won't do blah blah blah.' For example maybe running out in the middle of the road. Or not getting into something when you are in the shower. I don't know if it is the age, personality or a combination of both. Actually, I think it is a combination of both. He is a very cautious and pretty obedient child. He always tries to please, whether it be us, a peer, or another adult. He'll often ask after he does do something wrong, 'Are you happy at me?' Which I think is adorable. And I realized the other day, it is the same phrase as 'Are you mad at me?' So I am sure that is where he got it from.

I realized the other day that I often have the opionion of myself on two different extremes. When I was teaching I would think sometimes that I was a really great teacher, and other times, the worst in the world. I feel that way about being a parent and a wife too. Sometimes I think I try to do everything right, make all the right decisions and do the best job possible. And then other times, I think I need to be reported to CPS. OK, maybe not that bad but still, definitely not a top notch parent. With that said, lately I feel like I have had higher expectations for Adam and I sort of feel bad for him. He is the oldest and I do expect things from him that I don't of his brother. So sometimes I feel like, hey, he's four he should be able to do such and such on his own with no extra help and I expect him to do. And then other times I think, man am I being too hard on him? So I don't know. I sort of feel bad for him having this huge 'big brother' role and requiring things from him that may or may not be age appropriate for him. I hope I am not going to turn him into an angry child!

We got the letter for pre-k last week. I knew the time was coming and I am looking forward to it but when I got the letter I thought, holy cow, this is reality. I am sure most of you reading this are like, are you crazy? He's four years old, it's only 2 and 1/2 hours a day, time to cut the cord lady. But I don't know. This is a big step for him and for me. He's starting school now, there's no going back. Once you start, you won't stop.... for a long long time none the less. And I am just sort of afraid for him. I think he is very naive and innocent. I have tried to protect him for the last four years. As silly as this sounds, I try to only let him watch nice little shows like Sesame Street, Curious George and Clifford. I don't want him to start the spiderman batman thing yet, and he has. It's not the end of the world I know but I just want to keep him four for as long as I can. When my nephew came over Adam got his precious Elmo out and asked him if he loves Elmo and my nephew said no. He said, I like him a little bit. And I just thought, what if someone at school teases him because he likes Elmo? What if someone makes fun of him because he has a truck on his shirt or something? I am sure every parent goes through this but I just want to keep him small and innocent for as long as I can. He has the rest of his life to grow up.

With that said, it is fun to see things click with him. The light bulb has gone on with some school concepts that we have been working on for a while. It's fun to see his independence with things he can do on his own. He is a great little boy and I cherish him.

Birthday Party

I like that it looks like my nephew is dipping his fry in his chocolate milk. And if you notice, my kids are the ONLY ones that got soda. What a bad mom I am. But I figured, it was their birthdays.

Yesterday was our big birthday bash that we did at McDonalds. We started out with about 22 kids that were coming. But then only ended up with nine. 'Tis the season for lots of colds and sickness so what can you do. But the kids really had a blast. Adam was soooo excited yesterday morning. It was cute, I explained to him that we had to go to the barn, have a little lunch, take a nap and THEN it was the party. So he pretty much wanted to take a nap at about 11:00 thinking then he could go to the party. When it was nap time, of course he didn't nap. But he was fine anyway. Some days he naps, others he doesn't. I stopped taking naps around his age as well.

This was our first McDonald's party that we have ever been to and personally, I highly recommend it. I thought it was great, they decorated, gave party favors, had the hats, roped off an area for us by the playland, did the food, cake and ice cream and I just showed up. I went home a clean house, or at least as clean as it was before we left! There was absolutely no stress involved for me, Chip loved it and the kids had a grand ol' time.

Sunshine Cake

Here are some pictures of Van on his real birthday. We had family over for dinner and cake and he opened a few presents. I will post the kid birthday party and Adam's family get together a little later. This post is basically about this cake.

This is a Furman tradition. It is called a sunshine cake and everyone has gotten one for every birthday for the past few generations. The Furmans love it. I think it is OK. I think that it is a family thing for them so it has meaning but the actual taste of the cake is just OK to me. I mean, I will eat it, don't get me wrong, but I don't think it is the best thing in the whole world. It is baked in a tube pan and is sort of like an angel food cake but denser. I have never made one, my mother in law wanted to make this one and that is OK by me. I will make one eventually though. So the cake is the sponge cake and then there is this butter cream frosting that goes over that, and then there is this semi-sweet I think chocolate glaze that goes over the top of that and is hard. It's funny to see generations of Furmans in the family album with pretty much the same picture as I have posted above. I remember one year my mother in law made one for my birthday and for whatever reason I wasn't around, my sister in law and her family are always down for Christmas and they ate the entire cake! I was OK with it but a few birthdays back someone didn't get a cake and my sister in law asked where it was, my mother in law said, well that person wasn't here, I didn't see the point in making a cake, and my sister in law said, I thought it didn't matter if the person was here or not, we established that back when we ate Julie's cake a few years ago! Funny! I am sure the boys will grow to love sunshine cake as a family tradition as well.

Happy Birthday Van!

I decided to post today because with the busy weekend, I don't know when I will have time to post again. This is what happens with your boys' birthdays are 3 days apart! Tomorrow is Van's real birthday- his dad comes home from being away for the week (basically the last 3 weeks), I have a Dr.'s appointment, and we have family coming over. The next day is the big kid bash, and the day after that we are doing a birthday party with the family for Adam. So, I want to get this post done while I can!

The above pictures are some of my favorite pictures of Van throughout the year. I just loved his bleach blond hair this summer and hope it comes back, he has lost most of it. My baby is two years old. Usually I get upset around this time of year but this year I am not really that upset about it. I have been referring to the boys as 2 and 4 for a little while now. I will talk more about Adam in the next few days, I really want to focus on Van for this post. I think I still treat Van as a baby. Actually I think most of my family members do. We call him baby actually. My sister in law said this past week, you know he isn't a baby anymore right? But I still think of him as a baby, until the baby comes probably.

If you haven't been able to tell, I absolutely adore this boy. I have since the day he was born. He had such an easy going personality, and now I just think he is a riot. A lot of times when family members talk about him, they just let out a little chuckle afterwards. He is a very funny child. I think it is because he thinks he is a big deal. He thinks he can do whatever his brother does and usually tries. For example, as I am posting this, he has asked me for scissors and wants to cut scrap paper. I don't think Adam even held scissors in his hands at two, but since Van has seen Adam do it, he wants to do it as well. And he is cutting away actually.

I have enjoyed every minute of the last two years with this little boy, and I think he has a little bit of attachment to me as well. He loves Daddy and Mama and Papa too, he always asks for them. But if I disappear for a little while (for example to finish this post) he will come and find me. If I try to put a quick show on, just so I can take a shower, that only lasts for a few minutes and who comes and peeks in the shower curtain but Van. He cracks me up and I just love him to death. My sweet sweet precious boy.

Discovery Center

The bottle return

Grocery Store- my personal favorite

the 'real' firetruck

an airplane.... I think

water play

Last Thursday we went to visit my good friend Beth and her son in Binghamton. We went to the Discovery Center which is their children's museum. Here is their website if you are interested:

http://www.thediscoverycenter.org/

To be honest, I really don't think the website does the place any justice. I have been to three Children's museums- the one in Poughkeepsie, one and New Jersey and this one. This one is my favorite by far! Everything seemed so... new to me I guess. The exhibits just didn't seem old, they seemed up kept and modern. The other two need a little life brought back into them compared to this place. And it was really really clean. As I mentioned above, I think my favorite was the grocery store. You can sort of see how all the food is on the shelves for the kids, they had shopping carts, a whole register system, the bottle return and an ATM, it was really cute. They also have this really big tree house/ run-around-maze-thing that the kids really liked. Also they had some big area set up where you could ride bikes and little ride around vehicles, but they closed off that area just as we were going to go into it for some group or something. It is in the same parking lot as the Binghamton Zoo as well. I totally want to go back when it gets warmer. The kids had a blast and it helps to have a good friend to visit too. :)

Comparing pregnancies

Not the best shots of me but that's OK. In the first picture, I am pregnant with Van, with one month to go. Actually, he was born 20 days later. In the last picture I am pregnant this time, I have a little over 10 weeks to go so that is 70 days... look at the difference in my belly size. I honestly don't think I have really become round in the sense that I have just packed on a bunch of pounds, actually at the last appointment I still gained less weight than I had with Van. We'll see what happens this time around. So I wonder if I am going to have this huge baby girl or something? I doubt it. But I still will be anxious to see on Wednesday if I am measuring large, or packed on a bunch of pounds. I think it is just interesting to compare the pictures. I am still feeling great though, no complaints. That picture above was the last pregnant picture I took of myself with Van. I will have to snag at least a couple more this time around.

Valentine's Day

I was going to post next week because I intend on making some cookies with the boys and doing some holiday projects but it turns out, we have already started. I get the magazine Family Fun, I don't really like it, I don't think I am going to re-subscribe because I think it is a little beyond us at this point, it is mostly activities and crafts to make with your school aged child. But in this month's issue, they had this valentine 'favor' I guess. I thought it was really cute but then I thought, man, that could get pricey if you had to make 20 for a class. It is a little car made out of a small box of those conversation hearts, with recess pieces on the side for the wheels, and then the miniatures on the top and front for the grill and top I guess. When we went to Child's Play Tuesday, the boys got some little 'favors' from the teacher and she said we can exchange in a few weeks because next week is Open house. Since there are only 8 kids in the program, I thought I would make these. And, when I got the boxes yesterday, they were only a quarter so it's really not that pricey anyway. I think the boys will enjoy handing them out. I stuck the stuff on there with double stick tape and it worked wonderfully.

These crafts are from my favorite website, no time for flashcards of course! She has a bunch of Valentines things on there. The boys painted the hearts yesterday, the big one and then there are small ones for the hands as well. Today, they cut and glued the rest together. Adam did all the cutting on his own, I am very impressed with his cutting skills. Van LOVES to paint, he did a pretty good job as you can see and I love the 'mouth' he drew on his. Adam also decided to show the football we made in the beginning of the week. That was like a 3 day project, paint the football, let it dry, glue the 'stripes?' I don't know what you call them but we used Elmer's glue so we had to wait for that to dry. And then stuff and staple. They really love doing crafts though. And with that website, it is so easy.

Baby Bedding

I said I would post the baby bedding when I ordered it and I just finished ordering it today! I really like this set. I think it is feminine without overdoing the pink. I am anxious to see it when it comes. I ordered the curtain to go with it, it is a 'drape', and when I get a good look at the bedding, I will determine which colors to paint the walls as well. Our crib set isn't white though, but I am sure it will look fine anyway. I will post pics when the room is in order, but that may be a while.