s i x

two days of partying has come to an end. . . cole turned s-i-x with a bang! as soon as school was out on friday he had 5 friends {we missed you, derek--hope you are feeling better!} over for a "bears vs bengals" football party. the boys were so sweet and such a good time together eating, playing games and making a football craft. this is just a little reminder of how blessed with such good friends cole has been this year.
mr. cole is extremely!! social. . .there are very few afternoons there is not a playdate scheduled. the more he has to do, the happier he is. i love to hear his contagious laugh while he is playing with friends of his brothers. there's also a stubborn streak that i sure will take him places when he is older; this streak is counteracted by his generosity and tenderness. he has a heart for anything fuzzy or under the age of 1!


we were thrilled to have a house full of family to celebrate today! We had homemade Qdoba {cole's favorite restaurant!} and plenty of cake! It was a super relaxing day of hanging out together. every present that cole got was a thrill--this is still such a great age that kids are appreciative and never disappointed!!
happy birthday BIG boy, we hope you had a super day!! we are so thrilled that God gave you to us!

what am i nervous about?

terry is out of town and before he left the boys planned to eat dinner "out" at mcdonald's one night. our sweet neighbor down the street gave each of the boys mcdonald's gift cards for Christmas that they have been quite anxious to use. this is a super lesson in value. . .before we left they got out the coupons that came in sunday's paper and made a plan as to who was going to use what coupon so that they could get the most for their money! I was impressed--they ended up with 2 big macs, 1 hamburger, 1 small fry and 1 large fry for $5.50--not bad.
AND, yes you read that last sentence correctly. 2 big macs. l and g both downed a big mac with no problem. this wasn't the first time. grandpa introduced the big mac last month. what am i nervous about? the fact that they are only 7 and 9. . . what are 14 and 16 going to look like?

argh!! those DARN clippers!

so. . . i cut the boys hair--always have--probably will until they are old enough to tell me that i "don't do it right!." i have been doing this since terry and i got married and he begged me to cut his hair so he didn't have to go somewhere to get it done. i had no experience, but after 11 years and what seems like hundreds of haircuts i feel pretty confident in my male hair cutting skills.
confident, that is, until this year!
we have a set of clippers with an adjustable guard, which is great because then i don't have 10 guards to look through. this summer, i took the guard off, cleaned out the hair, put it back on and started to cut some more. before i knew it--terry had a bald stripe up the back of his head. ALL the way up the back of his head--oh my. . . .so off went the rest of the hair to make it look like it wasn't an accident.
today--i had a repeat incident {what is going on with me??!!}--this time on cole and i caught it somewhat early!! oh, do i feel awful--a bald spot on the side of my 5-year old's head. terry said to cut it all to match--i could not bring myself to do that!! not so bad from the front view:
but the side tells all!! poor kid. . . and he didn't even get upset with mommy! now, how sweet is that? after his haircut he look in the mirror like it was no big deal. his only comment was that i did to him just what i did to daddy! thankfully, in about 2 weeks, he'll be back to "normal!"

a great decision

i found this picture on my camera. . . taken by kiddo #3! i'm not quite sure when he did this, but it's a bit of a reminder to me that the choice to "agree with Santa" to bring us a puppy for Christmas two years ago has been a good one. the boys treat the dog like their 4th brother~~as you can tell from the picture! cole put him on the couch {at least he obeyed the rule that he is not allowed on the couch unless you are with him AND he is on a blanket} and offered up his DS. . .now that is some puppy♥love!

popcorn!

i don't really have a good heavy pan to pop corn on the stove, so we have always just done the next easiest solution: microwave popcorn. it changed this week when i broke out one of my Christmas presents--a popcorn popper--and were the boys ever excited to see it in action. so fun to watch their eyes light up at such a sight--something we all grew up with. and the taste--mmmm. so much better with fresh butter and salt. good-bye microwave popcorn!