Owen's 3rd Birthday, Second Week of School, Last Nap Time Snuggles, and Soccer Games

Samantha: 111 Months, Week 5

Aedan: 79 Months, Week 2

Owen: 35 Months, Week 5

Sunday, September 13th was the big day. We were celebrating Owen's 3rd birthday! He decided he wanted a Mickey Mouse cake, so I browsed around on Pinterest and other sites like that until I decided what I wanted to do. He wanted Funfetti and strawberry flavored cake, so that's what I made for him. We made a vanilla buttercream frosting and dyed it red for the bottom of the Mickey Mouse head, and then we made chocolate buttercream for the top of the Mickey Mouse head. Then, I put red sprinkles on the bottom and chocolate sprinkles on the top to give it more texture (and to cover over my frosting that wasn't very smooth. I thought it turned out really well, even though it took me most of the morning to cut and decorate it how I wanted. It always takes me so much longer than I think to do things like this, so I was glad that Ema and Papa were at our house for the weekend to help play with the kids and help Ben while I was preoccupied with cake decorating. I like at least attempting to make cakes for the kids, if it is an easy enough design that I can accomplish on my own. Here is the finished product, ready to be taken to the party. I was pretty proud of how it turned out!

Owen's birthday party was a lot of fun. We had three families that were able to come, and we met at Sunset Beach. The Isaacsons, the Peiffers, and the Walters came, and it was so good to see people because it had been so long. It was nice that we were outside and could spread out to make sure we were being safe. Unfortunately, a bit of a cold front had started to come through and it was too windy and cool for anyone to enjoy swimming. Even Samantha, who doesn't normally mind swimming in cold water, thought it was too cold to swim. However, the kids still had a lot of fun digging and playing in the sand, eating snacks and cake, and just having fun actually playing with other kids. Here are some pictures of the kids playing in the sand together.

Here is Owen playing with his balloons as they blew around in the wind.

Owen was very excited to try his cake, so he couldn't wait for his friends to come over and sing so he could finally eat it. He had been talking about this cake for along time.

Here are my attempts at getting a picture of him sitting near his Micky Mouse cake. He wasn't particularly interested in posing for a picture for me.

Here is everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to Owen. You could tell he wasn't sure what to think with everyone looking at him and singing for him. (And you can see how windy it was!)

Here are some pictures of Owen sitting by his cake before we cut into it.

He's such a cute little boy, even if he doesn't ever look into the camera. I love the faraway look in his little blue eyes.

We pre-packaged Mickey Mouse goldfish and grapes into plastic baggies so that way people weren't all sticking their hands into a communal bowl, and even though you don't normally see a cake with strawberry on the bottom and Funfetti on the top, it actually tasted pretty good. Owen really liked it, and that's all that mattered anyways. Here are the kids enjoying their juice, snacks, and cake, as well as everyone just hanging out and having a good time talking and catching up as we hadn't seen much of each other due to the coronavirus.

After everyone ate and the kids went off to play again, we decided it was time to let Owen open his presents. He got a Batman action figure, a large Captain America and Iron Man action figures, as well as coupons for him and me to go to Roba's Family Farm together sometime.

Toward the end of our party time, it started to get even colder, more windy, and starting sprinkling a little, so we decided to wrap things up, hand out the party favors, and let everyone head on their way. It was a fun afternoon, and I'm glad that we had some friends that could make it, and that Ema and Papa could make it, to celebrate our little boy turning 3 years old.

Once we got back home, we got everyone bathed/showered and into pajamas from playing in the dirty sand near the lake. Owen was having fun playing with his balloons in the house, and I was able to catch this video of him dancing and singing "Happy Birthday." He's so adorable, especially when he kept saying different names of whose birthday it was. Then, I asked him several questions about his birthday, and he was able to answer them really well. I was impressed with everything he remembered and how he was able to talk about it. I think he had a good day celebrating his birthday.

Before eating dinner that night, we let Owen open up his presents from Ema and Papa, since they were there visiting and would enjoy watching him open his presents. He got four new Rescue Bots from Rescue Bot Academy so he could have a set that belonged to him that were different than the set that belonged to Aedan.

His next present was a set of PJ Masks books that came with an electronic reader where you push the buttons and it reads the stories to you. He was really excited about that as well. He was a very quiet present opener, just taking it all in.

He couldn't wait to get the books out of the box and listen to the stories. I love that he loves books, and he will enjoy being able to have someone read to him even if we can't right when he wants us to.

After dinner that night, we put more candles in his cake and sung to him again since we weren't able to light candles at the beach due to the wind. We sang "Happy Birthday" to him again, and he did such a great job blowing out the candles. He is so quiet and serious during the whole process though!

Monday morning we had an interesting event take place. Ben had already left for work, and the kids were getting ready for school. They said they thought they saw the top of the grill go up and down when they were looking out their bedroom window. I thought they were just making it up, but I also thought about how I had noticed Izzy sniffing around the grill a lot the last couple of days. Samantha and Aedan decided they wanted to go outside and investigate, so they lifted the grill lid up just a little bit, screamed, and instantly dropped it back down and came back up on the patio. They said it looked mean and had big teeth. Samantha said she thought it looked like a fox, but I doubted that a fox was in our grill. However, they were correct that there was indeed an animal in our grill. Luckily Ema and Papa were still at our house because dealing with wild animals like that kind of freaks me out. Papa found a plastic hockey stick on the patio that he could use to pull the grill handle up from behind, so that way we weren't in front of the grill when the lid was opened. We didn't want a mad animal jumping on us or anything. So he pulled the lid up, and as you can see in this video, it was a raccoon! We still have no idea how it got in the grill. We cooked out on Friday night, and we often leave the grill open so it can cool off, and then never remember to close it again. So it could have been left open, attracted the raccoon, who then jumped on the grill and jostled it enough that the lid fell own, trapping it inside. Or, the lid could have been closed and it somehow lifted the lid enough to get its head in, realized it was stuck, and then couldn't get back out. Either way, it was a crazy experience, and the raccoon had probably been stuck inside for at least a day, maybe more. When I went to look at it, the grill was messed up from the raccoon thrashing around trying to get out. There was lots of poop and hair everywhere. Nevertheless, this grill was old anyways, for we got it used in Oxford when we lived there, so I think we may just put it out with the large trash items when that day comes in the spring, and just get ourselves a new grill maybe as a birthday/Father's Day present for Ben next year. Crazy, wild animals! No wonder Izzy was smelling the grill so much! She knew there was something trapped inside.

Ema and Papa left to go back home that morning, which made everyone sad. The kids love having them come to stay, and they had lots of good, quality play time with them this weekend. The rest of the morning Owen, our little peanut, and me just hung out and did stuff around the house. Owen took awhile to fall asleep for his nap, so apparently that's going to be a daily occurrence now, which is difficult because he still needs naps and is not ready to give them up yet. My next graduate class, Children and Adolescent Literature, started on Monday as well, so now I have to find time to fit in work for my class during the week. This class was recommended to me as an "easier" or "more manageable" class to take with all the craziness that is going on right now, so I hope that it isn't as writing intensive as the class that I took over the summer. Anyways, I was able to sit and read the chapter for my class while the little ones napped, so that was good.

It was a beautiful day outside, and I saw this picture that Aedan's teacher posted on ClassDojo. They are all spaced out, and she captioned it, "We took advantage of this beautiful day and did some school work outside."

This week was going to feel a lot different with school because the kids had full days of school, rather than getting home at 1:15 every afternoon. I would have more chance to get things done in the afternoons, as long as I could get Owen and our little peanut to nap at the same time. I started going through all the bags that my sister gave me to try and get clothes organized. Pretty soon I will have to switch out all the kids closets for fall/winter clothes and figure out if we have all the winter gear we need. Switching out closets is one of my least favorite things to do.

With school back in session, the kids are bringing home school work again. Here is some of Aedan's work from the first week of school. Most of this is easy review work from kindergarten, of course.

Samantha doesn't every come home with as much work from school, but here is a word search of all the names in Samantha's 4th grade class.

Even though I posted videos of us reading the first day of school letters from Ema and Papa, I decided to take pictures of them and include them so that way we can have record of them. They are always so meaningful and special to the kids, although Owen was sad that he didn't get a letter himself.

Here are more of Aedan's papers from Math where he's doing practice with addition.

I included these next two pictures because I thought it was cute and funny with his work on the front, and all the Ninjago characters on the back. He's very creative with his drawing, and I love to see his creativity come out like this.

Samantha had a soccer game that night, so here is a video of her on defense. She was very much into playing, and I love watching her.

We discovered this awesome Wolverine costume that Owen was very excited to put on that morning. I love his poses!

Tuesday was going to be a busy day because our little peanut had her 2 month well child appointment right around lunchtime. I made arrangements with my friend, Kaili, to watch Owen at Abide so I could just take Jayla to the appointment. Our little peanut's mom was supposed to meet me there, but couldn't get out of an appointment, so it was just our little peanut and me. Everything checked out well for her appointment. She was growing and developing right on schedule. She was 12 pounds, 12 ounces which put her in the 64th percentile for weight, 1 foot, 10.24 inches which put her in the 16th percentile for height, and her head circumferences was 40.1 cm which put her in the 82nd percentile. She did really well, except for the fact that she got her first round of vaccines. One by mouth, two in one leg, and one in another leg. She, of course, cried and cried, but I was able to console her by holding her close and then feeding her another bottle. The nurse remarked about how much she was comforted by me and how much she looked at me, and it was in that moment that I felt extremely attached and protective of our little peanut. I was the only one with her while she got her first vaccines, and I felt bad that her mom wasn't there with her as well. This is the hard part of foster care. We are the ones taking care of our little peanut day in and day out. We know how to comfort her and what her cries mean. We look out for her best interest, and everyone loves having this baby girl in the house.

After the appointment, it took a long time to check out because they made everyone check in and out from the same desk on the main floor, instead of allowing us to check out at the pediatrician's office. There was a long line, so we had to wait for quite awhile, and then I still had to go back and pick up Owen before heading back home and trying to get both kids down for their naps.

It was after 2:00, almost 2:30, by the time I got Owen down for his nap. He was having a hard time with coming right home and going right to sleep, but he really needed to take a nap, so I had him sit with me again and fall asleep rocking in my my lap. He didn't fight it too much this time, and I know I commented on this last week, but now looking back, this really was the last time he fell asleep in my arms for his nap. You never know when it will be the last time for things until you realize you aren't doing it anymore, so I was glad I was able to take these pictures of my little boy fast asleep in my arms, so peaceful and still. His cute red cheeks and nose, snuggled up with his blankie, and resting on my arm. Part of me really misses this time in the afternoon where we could just sit and cuddle together. Now he's too busy and independent to want to sit with me to fall asleep. My little boy is growing up, and I want to freeze this moment in my memories.

With our little peanut having just gotten her 2 month shots that day, we expected her to be fussier than usual, and sure enough, that night around dinner she was not a happy camper. I took the first picture to show her little legs with the band-aids on her upper thighs. As we were cleaning up dinner, I put her in the Ergo so I could hold her and keep her happy, while also having my hands free to keep cleaning up. She was happy with her pacifier and cuddled up close to me.

I'm trying to remember to go on ClassDojo and copy pictures that the kids' teachers post during their days at school. I didn't post this one last week, but here is a picture of Aedan form the First Day of School, wearing his favorite color, orange, and his little blue mask.

Here is a view of Aedan's classroom. You can see how they have opened up the classroom so they have more space to spread the desks out for social distancing. Aedan is in the back of the row towards the right side of the picture. Mrs. Hynick's caption for this was, "Working hard on letter review!"

My day on Wednesday was taken up by dropping our little peanut off for a visit, and then going grocery shopping with Owen while she was with her mom. It was much easier going with just Owen. I decided to start shopping at Aldi again since I'm not so afraid of shopping because of Covid anymore. Plus, it's much cheaper, and that day I only paid $143 for almost all our groceries for the week, except for a few things I had to get at Walmart the next day that Aldi didn't have. It's a little more inconvenient to have to bag your own groceries, but I like that Aldi is a smaller store, so I don't have to search through prices or brands, making the shopping experience much simpler and faster. It's definitely worth my time to save money, and Owen likes to help me go shopping by helping me put things in the cart and helping me put things on the belt when it's time to check out.

Wednesday night was the last night we were going to have a 2 year old in the house, so I tried to get a few pictures of Owen on his last night of being 2 year old, but he doesn't really like to have his picture taken, so these are what I got.

Just as we did with Samantha and Aedan, we let Owen choose the meals for the day on his birthday. For breakfast, he wanted bagels with scrambled eggs (with ketchup on his). Here is our birthday boy at breakfast that morning. He likes to make silly faces when we ask him to smile for pictures. Can't believe we have a 3 year old now!

It was going to be a nice day on September 17th, Owen's birthday, so I was hoping to take him out and do some fun things with him, even just going to a playground and getting Wendy's for lunch, since that was his request. However, our little peanut's schedule was hard for me lately, and part of me was thinking about just deciding a time that she should wake up and just waking her up every day, instead of having our whole day and schedule dictated by when she wakes up in the morning. She woke up later than I wanted her to that morning, so we didn't have too much time to go out to play at the playground. Then, she fell asleep around 11:15, which meant she would be waking up as soon as I got Owen down for a nap, which would make it hard for me to be able to work in the afternoon. It's hard when her schedule is unpredictable like that.

We ended up just picking up lunch at Wendy's and taking it to the playground to eat at the picnic tables before playing on the playground together. Here we are eating our lunch together at the picnic table.

It was such a nice day out, that I decided to lay out a blanket for out little peanut to lay on so she could look around at the sky. She's getting so big!

Here are some pictures Aedan drew, as well as the letter review pages that he was doing at school.

Once Samantha and Aedan got home from school, Owen woke up from his nap, and all homework was done, we decided it was time for Owen to open his presents from us and my family. The first thing he opened was a super hero Lego Duplo set that Samantha and Aedan picked out for him. It had Iron Man, Captain America, and Spider-Man, and he was really excited to look at the box and have Aedan tell him all about it. It was a good present for them to pick out for Owen since he has been so interested in playing with Aedan's super heroes and Legos. 

The next present was from Ben and me. It was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with all six Mickey friend characters. We thought he would really like this, especially with how much he has liked Micky Mouse Clubhouse over the last few months.

Samantha also made this little stuffed animal lion for Owen. He loved it, and he named him Cauliflower. I have no idea why he chose that name, but he felt so special that Samantha made this animal for him, and he planned on sleeping with it that night. I love his cute smile in this picture, where you can see his cute dimples and sweet smile.

In this video, Owen is opening up presents from my parents, Grandpa and Grandma. He got the Night Ninja bus, a Lego Ninjago set with a car and the ninja, Cole, so that way he has little Legos of his own to play with along with Samantha and Aedan, as well as an Avengers book set where you push buttons and it reads the story out loud to you.

After that we called Aunt Christy, Brielle, and Oliver, so Owen could open his presents from them. They got him a Toy Story Lego Duplo train set as well as these take apart trucks where you can use screws to build different vehicles, and it also came with a remote control so you can drive the trucks around as well.

We made cupcakes so we could sing "Happy Birthday" to Owen again on his actual birthday, just using some of our leftover icing from his Mickey Mouse birthday cake. We stuck a number 3 in this cupcake and enjoyed some more cake to celebrate. Happy 3rd birthday my little boy!

We didn't go anywhere on Friday morning and just had a day at home after a few busy days in a row. Our big accomplishment for the day was that Owen actually told me before he pooped that morning, said he needed to go potty, and he went in the toilet! We have not officially started potty training yet, but have started having him sit on the toilet more so he can start getting used to the idea, and I was so excited that he actually went. Yay, Owen!

That morning, as I was putting bottles in the sink, I was reminded about how Ben lovingly washed the bottles and pump parts when Samantha was a baby and I was working so that way I could spend more time with her when I got home from work. Even now, he washes our little peanut's bottles pretty much every day so I can get other things done. He is such a thoughtful and servant-hearted husband.

Here is a picture Samantha's teacher, Mrs. Gannon, posted of Samantha on the back left of the picture, sitting next to her new best friend, Cadence. They bonded the first week of school over a love of Harry Potter. They chose to sit next to each other at lunch since they have to have assigned seats because of contact tracing. Samantha is so excited to have made a friend, and they seem perfect for each other. I'm so happy that Samantha seems to have made a good friend, and it's such a big answer to both her and my prayers. She needed a good friend, and with being new last year, she never really felt like she fit in. I hope this friendship will blossom and grow, and I am so happy Samantha found someone she has so much in common with.

And here is another picture of Aedan from Friday at school. They are outside, getting some fresh air, and allowing the kids to have mask breaks since they are spread far enough apart. I'm not exactly sure why he has his hoodie on backwards, but regardless, this little boy is so cute. I just love his pants that are getting too short on him because he is going through a growth spurt, as well as his little squinty eyes when you take his picture.

That afternoon our little peanut had another visit, but since it was only for two hours, it was not really worth it to run around and go back home, so I decided to go to campus and work in Ben's office on my classwork before it was time to go back and get her.

While I was doing that, Ben had our kids shelling peas for dinner. They were happy to help and did a great job.

This may be kind of a strange picture, but on Saturday morning after I took a shower, I noticed that Samantha wrote us a note on our mirror after she took a shower on Friday night. So when the mirror fogged up again, I was able to read the message. She wrote, "Sam- I love you Mom and Dad." I took a picture of it because I want to remember these sweet things that our kids did. I want to remember that she was thoughtful and loved us enough to leave us messages on our mirror. She's growing up and getting so tall, but she is still my little girl, and nothing is going to change that.

Here is our happy little peanut that morning after drinking her bottle. I can't show her whole face, but you can very clearly see her super cute smile. She is smiling for us a lot now.

Since Samantha and Aedan are in soccer now, Saturday mornings are largely taken up by soccer games. This Saturday they had Picture Day followed by games, so it was a busy morning. Here are some videos and pictures of Samantha's soccer game. Her pictures were during Aedan's soccer game, so I wasn't able to see him play that morning, but Ben said he did a great job staying active and engaged, even running around the field acting like a ninja. I just love his little personality and how he's not afraid to be himself.

Then, that afternoon, since I knew Ben was home and could help out more. I decided to organize and put away all of the 24 month and 2T boy clothes that I had gotten out of Owen's closet. I had to separate and fold it all and then decide which bin would fit it best. Then, I had a whole pile of 3T clothes that were washed and ready to be hung up and put away. So this is a picture of what my afternoon looked like. It's a huge job, but it's such a blessing that I have all these clothes to use, mostly from when Aedan was younger, and others Aunt Christy added to the collection. It felt good when I was finally done and had completed this huge task.

(Blog about September 13-19, 2020)