"It's weird, Mom."

Five minutes ago, Alexander walked up to me and this was our conversation:

Alexander:  "It's weird, Mom."
Mom:  "What's weird, Alexander?"
Alexander: "I don't know. I can't explain it."
Mom: "Use your words.  What's the "it" that is weird."
Alexander: "I don't know.  I can't find the words."
Mom: "You have the words.  Tell me what "it" is."
Alexander:  "Life is weird."
Mom: "Why do you say that?"
Alexander:  "So many people live and so many people die.  Every day."
Mom: "That is true.  And that's weird because..."
Alexander: "The flag should always be at halfmast, but then people are born so the flag goes back up."
Mom: "That's true.  We should celebrate life, and death is a part of life."
Alexander: "See, that's weird.  We can't keep the flag at halfmast all the time."
Mom: "Right.  How do we make sure we live a good life?"
Alexander: "Live a good life by playing good, be fair, and love your friends."

I love how his wacky little mind works.

Alexander turns 7!

  How is it possible that our little boy turned 7?

Life is moving entirely too quickly.

Yet, there is so much to enjoy about 7.  

You love history.  Events like World War II and the Titanic fill your brain with the thrill of the past.

You love to play basketball.  You love to go to school and learn.  You love to talk in Spanish and laugh everytime I tell you to stop using your Harry Potter wizard spells on us.  You love everyone in your life.  

Your enthusiasm for life is contagious.  You greet each day with a smile.  Literally.  You wake up happy and ready to go.  And until your head hits the pillow at night, you live each day to the fullest.  

Oh, how I hope this continues for the rest of your life.  

We started your birthday with our awesome tradition of opening presents at midnight.  We gave you Legos.  Imagine that.

Umma visited the next day to celebrate the birthday boy!

 

Thanks, Umma!

I love you!

After Umma's visit, we headed to a basketball game and then it was time to bowl!

After the celebration, the party kept going back at home!

But, the partying didn't stop there!!

The next day, the Seahawks were playing the 49er's in a game to determine who would play in the Super Bowl two weeks later!

We had friends and family join us for the party.   

And, it was one heck of a party!

Everyone had assigned seats and we took this game very seriously.

Nancy kept herself busy with the puzzle

and we all drank and ate too much during the tense game.

Perfect shirt for a BFF to wear, right?

The Seahawks won!  The boy turned 7!

It was a great weekend.

Welcome 2014!

We rang in the New Year with our best friends.
 I think we actually made it to 11pm this year.  

The kids played video games and made bracelets upstairs, while the parents played Cards of Humanity downstairs.

Happy New Year!

We still had a few more days at home to play.

 Mommy couldn't wait to head out and meet this little guy!

C was born right before Christmas and it was AWESOME to meet him!!

For Alexander's birthday party, we started kicking around ideas and landed on bowling.

Only Alexander had never been bowling so we had to try it out.

Any game that brings out that must enthusiasm in a 7 year old is a must!
He loved it and the party was booked!

January brought the third year of playing basketball.

It was a like a lightbulb clicked on for him and this game.

His skills improved each week, but more importantly, so did his love for the game!

Alexander brought a couple of friends to help the big kids with a fundraising event for the American Heart Association.

 You're never too young to be a service leader and help others.

Next up: Birthday Weekend!!

And, I just decided I am going to make the celebration it's own post.

The end of January brought us a surprise shot of sunshine.  We took full advantage of it!

Crazy Cat

We interrupt our regularly scheduled flashback posts to share a story about our crazy cat.

When searching for a photo of our cat on my phone, I found one of him hiding under our Christmas tree. 

 Let me know if you find this photo as ironic as I do, after you read the story.

We have an indoor/outdoor cat.  One who typically sleeps all day and explores at night.

On July 5, he headed outdoors around 11PM, which is normal behavior.
Around 1AM, Eric called to bring him back in.  

And, discovered he had climbed a tree.

A REALLY BIG TREE.

125' fir tree in our neighbors yard, to be exact.

We spent Sunday calling to him and boy, he would talk right back. He sounded scared, it was 80 degrees, and EVERYONE could hear his cries.  We're pretty sure neighbors were kept up at night, if they kept their windows open.  Each time we checked, it appeared he kept climbing up;  not down. We think it was to avoid the birds (dumb crows) that were dive bombing him. You may be asking yourself how he got up there  In talking with the neighbors who own the tree, they saw coyotes in their yard and we suspect the pack treed Guybrush on Saturday night.  It was a long day, waiting to see if he would work his way down that tree.   

Finally, we couldn't stand the suffering.  We called a cat rescue company.
Did you know there were cat rescue companies?
Neither did we.

This is what the rescuer found at the 120' foot mark.

Eventually, they landed on the ground 

and we were able to take our sweet boy home.

Safe and sound.

The End.

December '13 Flashback

December starts with Daddy's birthday so we headed out to Red Robin to celebrate!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

The next weekend, we headed to school for decorating.
Which I've come to realize means
 "Alexander finds two kids to play with and the everyone else will decorate".

I'm really happy one of my kids captured this series of awesomeness.

For the second year in a row, we spent an afternoon with Auntie Kimmie and Lorelli to decorate Umma's Christmas tree for her while she was in Florida.

We visited Santa.  Alexander was barely settled on Santa's lap before he started reading his list to Santa.

We gathered with our friends for a holiday party.  Sadly, Daddy was home sick and missed the fun.

And, the day before Winter Break began for Alexander and Mommy, it SNOWED!  

Mommy had the day off, but the boys had to hike on to school.....and were back within two hours.

We quickly embraced winter break with puzzles and games.  

And, then the holiday season was upon us!

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandma Great's.

Hours of the Mexican Train game

and playing with cousins

made for great family fun!

Only one word sums up Christmas morning after Santa visited Alexander...

LEGOS!

After a few hours of playing, we moved over to Umma's house for yet more holiday fun!

It was a very Merry Christmas!