Soccer at 34 degrees

Yes, this is what soccer looks like at 44 degrees and a wind chill of 34. Oh, let's not forget about the interminent rain and wind throughout the games! Today was Chet's new team's first two games. We are playing a tournament this weekend and it is COLD! We lost our first game this morning (it was only 33 degrees then!) and won our game this afternoon. (Easier to work the camera when my fingers weren't as frozen!) Chet has been playing defender and I have to say he's pretty good at it. He had a lot of "touches" on the ball today and defended his goal pretty well! Look at all those layers! Chet is number 31 on this team and is the one wearing the grey sweats and black hat. He played his little heart out today and said the rain this afternoon gave his team the advantage because they are the HURRICANES! Two more games tomorrow and hopefully it will be warmer! GO HURRICANES!

I love you!

So, Ethan last night pulls my face real close to his and says,

"Mommy, I love you...............................in my heart."

Awwww! I love you, too, Pumpkin! (Notice his nice dramatic pause for effect!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

What a fun and busy day today! Volunteered in the library this morning and on to Ethan's Valentine's Day party. Coloring, cookie decorating and general organized chaos! He has such a small classroom that most of us moms spend most of the time trying not to get in the way! Ethan did a great job of decorating his cookie, but possibly too good because then he didn't want to eat it! After his party we rushed home to make cookies for Chet's party! With fresh cookies in hand we were back up at school at mere three hours later. Chet's class is so cute, because they actually READ their valentines. They laugh about what each valentine says and what it means. Someone gave out Shrek scratch-n-stink valentines! So everyone was walking around going, "Eww! Here, smell this!" It was quite fun and I thought Chet did a great job decorating his bag and his cookies! Then silly me had poor Chet scheduled for a dentist appointment today! Oh well, he survived! Anyway, it was a pretty happy day here and I hope a happy day for all of you too! Happy Valentine's Day!

Ethan turns 5!!!!!

How cute is this little guy!? Of course, he's not very little anymore, but he sure does keep getting cuter! My baby is five today! Wow! I mean seriously where does the time go? It certainly doesn't seem like 5 years ago when I almost gave birth to him in Monday morning traffic!

Anyway, we are just three quarters of the way through his birthday weekend! It started Friday with cupcakes in his class at school! Note the birthday crown in the first picture! While at school, his teacher put on this cute little birthday song for him to dance to and be the center of attention and my little crazy boy, who just the night before was rocking out with his brother to some cartoon theme, just stood there as shy as could be! And let me tell that class of 20 four year olds was QUIET the whole time I was in there. Even through cupcake eating time. I don't know what she gives those kids, but I need some!

And quickly getting off topic! Today was a "great birthday" according to Ethan. He was pretty excited that he got to pick everything today! (He will not be so excited when his brother gets this privilege in 6 short weeks!) But he got to pick breakfast, lunch and dinner. We made homemade pizza. He put the sauce and the chees all by himself! We put candles in his slice and sang to him! He liked it so much that he asked us to sing again when he ate his last little cupcake! So, it all ended on a good note with much to look forward to tomorrow-Pump It UP!

Chet!

Well, here we are beginning Ethan's b-day weekend and I still haven't gotten in a decent blog entry about my sweet oldest boy! I've been meaning to get these pictures of the chess tournament up but "meaning to" and doing are two totally different things! This was two Saturdays ago. The chess tournament was held by the Broken Arrow School District Gifted program. So, most of the students (K-12) were gifted kids. Yes, they were all playing CHESS! How well they were playing I don't know, but they were out there giving it their best! I don't even know how to play so I was duly impressed with the 300 or so kids playing in the tournament. Chet played 5 rounds and had two losses and 3 draws. He was okay with it until he lost the last one and then he was kinda upset over the whole thing. I told him I was proud that he just learned this game and here he was competing in it! I will have to get him to teach me so I can help him practice! The boy who won was in their class and told Chet that was the kid to play if you want to get better!

My big boy also came home with straight A's for the second time this year! His teacher says he doesn't even really have to try to get such good grades, of course, he does need to finish his work and turn it in, but he's getting better about that! I asked why he wasn't getting his work done and he said he was distracted by the people he was sitting with and wanted me to ask his teacher if he could sit by himself. She said it was the first time she had been asked by a student to sit by themselves! It looks like it's working - he says he gotten all his work done this week and he even got to go the library this afternoon because he was done with his work! He was very proud of himself. He really is such a good kid. He is in the middle of reading Harry Potter right now. Yes, HE is reading it himself. We read some of it together at bedtime, but all his reading time for homework he spends reading this 400+ page book by himself! Amazing to me! HE is amazing to me! I feel lucky to have such a great kid!

Snow!

It snowed today!!! Unfortunately for Chet, it didn't snow until midday so he still had to go to school! Ethan was lucky enough (?) to be sick with a fever today. So, he and I cuddled on the couch most of the day and watched the snow fall and movies on TV. (After hearing the movie "Cars" literally a hundred times in the car, I actually got to SEE it today! Amazing what Pixar can do with their animation!)

Anyway, when Chet got home from school, the boys went out to play! It was the first time this season they got to play in the snow. Our big storm in December was all ice and while there has been flakes here and there, this is the first time there has been enough to play in. Lots of snowballs, some shoveling and a few snow angels later, they came in for the best part-Hot Chocolate!

So, it's a lot prettier here now with all the white covering all the dead and dormant trees and grass. We're all hoping for icy roads in the morning and an early start to our weekend! Enjoy the pics! We'll keep you posted!

The Medical Oddities of Little Ethan

My poor little guy! Check out that lip! He had a cavity filled at the dentist, which went surprisingly well, I must say! Well, his lip was numb, of course, and he started playing with it and chewing on it! I warned him. The dental tech warned him. But apparently he chose to learn this lesson the hard way! We hadn't been home more than hour and his lip was swollen to five times the size and bloody. Yuck! Poor thing's had a fat and nasty looking lip for several days now! The swelling is mostly gone today and it just needs to finish healing. His dad and I are going to add this picture to his other oddities, like the big fat ear from a spider bite a few months ago. (The top picture) So, add that to the broken arm at age 1 and the scarlet fever at age 3, Ethan is going to have a nice big scrapbook of all his medical oddities! So, while most parents will be showing their kids' dates naked baby pictures, we'll be showing Ethan's all his crazy medical anomalies! (Don't worry, I'll throw in a couple naked baby pictures, too!)