Darin's Birthday

Before Byron turned 5 Darin turned 35.

Most of his celebration revolved around food.

The boys and I picked him up to have lunch at RICE. 

The boys were not interested in the sushi but both of the loved the soup. That worked out well for Darin and I, we didn't have to share the good stuff!

I made Moqueca de Peixe and Miriam assisted me in making an eclair cake.

Look how ecstatic Darin looks there with the kids!

Perhaps he is just perplexed from the candle math we threw at him.

We actually kept his birthday pretty casual on purpose this year because we had a trip planned that weekend.

A trip to here:

to hike here:

and see this:

HUGE mega thanks to my sister-in-law Cristin and all my nieces and nephews who watched the kids during a very busy weekend.  Also, my sister-in-law Lisa and brother-in-law Craig for the stay at their gorgeous cabin! This was one of those "together moments" we will cherish forever, and we couldn't have done it without help.

The boy who turned 5

Sorry about that title.  I FINALLY saw the last Harry Potter movie today.  I cried and cried and cried.  How I adore Neville Longbottom, and Severus Snape. 

But....not as much as I adore this guy!

Byron's favorite book is whatever I am reading the kids at the moment. Last month it was Twenty-One Balloons, this month it is Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

When we go to the library he quickly passes the picture/story books and heads to the science section. Insects, Animals, Dinosaurs, Space, when he and I read together it's always a scientific discovery book.

Bub's favorite food is probably rotisserie chicken.  He is a total grazer, can't eat large amounts of food at a time but asks for food about every hour and a half....except when we have rotisserie chicken.

He seems to eat as much as Darin on those nights. This may sound gross but he loves to see the chicken bones, and wants to keep them IN HIS ROOM! Which I don't allow.

Favorite Song:  He gravitates toward anything with a good beat, especially classic rock since that is what his Dad listens to.  He doesn't really enjoy to sing himself, but every once and awhile in the car, when a particularly masculine heavy drum-line song comes on, he will bob his head and say "I like this one!".  He wants to play the guitar.

He likes Ninjas too.  He likes flipping around doing "Ninja moves"

Byron's self proclaimed super powers are 1. Going Dino  2. Reptile skills  3. Controlling the wind

Byron is usually easy going, and not a crowd follower.  Although he loves to play with friends, he is happier being alone than with a huge group.  This sometimes worries his social butterfly Mom, but it also seems keeps him immune from peer pressure. He plays well with both boys and girls and has best friends of both genders.

He isn't very excited to be going to school next year,  he would be happy to stay home with Soren and me as long as he could play with friends at some point during the day. I already know it's going to be MUCH harder to walk away from Byron next August than it was Miriam.

Byron is not an attention seeker, which means he can easily get looked over.  Unless you stop and pay attention, you don't know how funny and clever he is.  This makes me a little sad, but he really prefers it this way, in fact, if lots of people do pay attention to him he turns stoic and scowls. 

He is basically the opposite of me in almost every way.

But so much like his father.

So we make a good team.

When Dad came home we hit the Yogurt Stop

The kid's creations always gross me out!

 Bub spent the rest of his evening playing paleontologist with one of his favorite gifts.

That's one of his future career choices, along with entomologist, or zoo worker.

We love this boy to pieces!

Bub Turns 5

 Dear Byron,

You delight me.  You always have. I laughed my way through your delivery, was laughing the very moment you were born, and even today when I should have reprimanded you for "Going Dino" on me, I laughed instead!  At the tender age of 4.9, you don't always like me to laugh because sometimes you are dead serious when you say things like "Mom, you don't know this, but I mostly stay awake all night because I am nocturnal".  Or when you were explaining your powers and defenses, ("Going Dino", lizard skills, control of the wind to name a few) the wind blew and you said "Feel that? I did it", I can't help but laugh and you furrow your brow at me.  There are other times though, when you try to make me laugh and you are thrilled when it works. Which it almost always does, because as I stated, you delight me.

When Miriam turned 5 I blogged about where she got her name, so even though it's fairly obvious, I thought I should document why we choose Byron Lawrence for you.  You were named after some of the most important men in our lives.  Grandpa Byron, and Grandpa Art, (whose first name is Lawrence).  Byron Lawrence is a very regal name for a little man, and just like your Grandpa's you are a laid back easy going guy so a nickname seemed appropriate.  Grandpa Lawrence was and is"Art"although some of his sisters call him "Larry", Grandpa Byron was once called "Bub" and since he doesn't use that name too much anymore we thought we would borrow it. In giving you these special names we wanted to honor our fathers, and our Grandfathers (or Great Grandfathers) whom they were named after. It's a long legacy of creative, intelligent, hard working men.

I can already see some of their genetic goodness has been passed down to you.  As I mentioned, your laid back temperament, as well as your calming peaceful nature, your curiosity, and of course great sense of humor.   I hope, as you grow, you will be able to recognize some of their accomplishments and strive to acquire them as well. Here are just a few of them:

Both your Grandfathers (and Great Grandfathers) have a love of music and they share their musical talents with others.

Both Grandpas (and your Dad) have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.  They are not content unless they are learning and growing.

Both Grandpas are adventurous.

Both Grandpas are extremely hard workers.

Both Grandpas are fun loving.  They have cultivated intelligent witty senses of humor.

Both of your Grandpas, and Grandmas love you.  They are a wealth of wisdom and encouragement just waiting for your to ask for it!  As you grow up, I hope you will take advantage of such a wonderful resource in your life.

Your Dad and I, Miriam and Soren love you too!

Happy 5th Birthday, my little man!!

Love,
Mom

And now, a stroll of cuteness through the life of Bub......

Just another similarity between you and your Grandfathers......you are super handsome.

I want to ride my bicycle....

May is National Bike month!

Darin has ridden his bike EVERY DAY to celebrate.
I am doing errands on our bike at least ONCE A WEEK.

I can't tell you how much running errands improves when you do them on a bike.
All the sudden they are an adventure, and people are SO FRIENDLY when you are hauling your youngins' around by your own muscle power. It makes you feel like a kid I tell ya. A kid and a super hero all in one.
The boys notice everything around them....quails, dragonflies, dead snakes squished in the road (true story).   I LOVE IT!

I am thankful each and every good weather day that my kids can ride bikes (or walk, or scoot) to and from school.  I am not sure I can give that luxury up, it may be a high priority when we need to find a new place to live. Then again, last time we bought a home I gave up a lot of "high priorities" so maybe I won't bank on that. Better just keep loving the situation while we are in it.

It seems that in my area there is this misconception that in order to ride a bike you have to wear spandex, and be tracking your MPH.  Not true my friends! LOTOJA is not the only reason to climb on a bike, you can wear whatever you want, you don't have to record anything.

Try it.
You won't regret it.

Painted Ladies

The kids received 5 caterpillars for Easter this year.

It was so fun to watch fat fuzzy caterpillars munch and much all day.  Then to watch them turn into tight shiny chrysalises, and then emerge into butterflies. The most amazing thing for me was watching the chrysalises shutter as the caterpillars were doing their transformations. It all happened so fast, we had to check on them multiple times a day!

In fact, we didn't get them into the butterfly house until the first one started to emerge.  Darin wasn't home when it happened, so Bub and I had to transfer the one which was already halfway out and the other 3 chrysalises by ourselves.  It seemed to go okay, but I did bump the new butterfly which caused me to worry.

All the butterflies did fine, except for that first butterfly, one of his wings was bent a bit so he couldn't fly. I'm not sure if it was because of the transfer or not, but I couldn't help feeling responsible.

Bub named him "Hurt Wing", Miriam tried to change it to "Crook Wing" but we all called him "Hurt Wing"  (Bub has a stuffed Dolphin named "Dolphiny" and a cat named "Catty" he is a very literal kid:).

Because he couldn't fly, the kids could let him crawl all over without fear of losing him.

When Tatum came to visit we decided to let them free with the idea that we would keep "Hurt Wing".

3 of the butterflies immediately flew into the air, and just like we suspected Hurt Wing did a fluttering hop but he couldn't fly away.  Darin decided to try and push his wing behind the other (the way it was suppose to be). I figured we didn't have much to lose since he couldn't fly as it was.

I couldn't believe it when, after Darin pushed the little wing back Hurt Wing took off into the sky....higher than any of the other butterflies had gone! 

  I burst into tears, it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

I was so happy for the little thing!

The Graduate

 My little brother isn't so little anymore.

Well, he hasn't been little for a long time, but graduating college takes it to another level!

We are so proud of you Mark!

After Nap Surprise!

Miriam spent LOTS of time after church blowing and tying these balloons for Soren.

Soren loved it!

We threw them, ran through them, static clinged them, popped them with our bottoms, and then Soren popped every last one with scissors, squealing with delight at each and every pop.

We sang "Happy Birthday" one last time.

Twirled Miriam's jacks into each other (remember doing that??)

and then took a family bike ride (with Uncle Mark) to lizard park.

Happy Day Renny-boy!!