5

A week ago today, one of my very favorite little boys turned 5!

It's hard to believe this was 5 whole years ago. It seems like it was just yesterday! (It's also still hard to believe he was 8lbs 11oz at 37 weeks, but that's another story!)

 

We started the birthday celebration with a special treat at preschool.  He was so excited to wear the birthday crown and listen to Ms Dale tell a special story about him!

 

 

 

 We have been planning his birthday for the past three months...ever since his big brother had a birthday.

I have to admit, I'm actually glad it's finally over. I was getting tired of all the "Mom, for my birthday, can I..." comments!

 

Anyway, he finally decided on a soccer themed party. We made plans and sent out invitations.  And then he promptly changed his mind to a football themed party.

In the end, we stuck with the soccer theme but added some football fun in there too.

We were blessed with a beautiful fall day...perfect for a party at the park!

 

We tossed the football around some.

 

Jack led the kids in some soccer drills.

 

 

We opened presents ("Awesome!  Superhero legos!" was the comment here)

 

 

and had cupcakes.

 

 

What could be a better birthday?! (Here's the whole crew...minus a few little siblings who weren't keen on the idea of a picture.)

 

 

Oh, and we topped it off with dinner at Waffle House. 

Not the place I would have picked, but it wasn't my birthday.

 

After all this excitement, I'm glad we are birthday free until January!

The Last First...

Day of Preschool!

 

Last Tuesday morning, after dropping Jack and Melody off at school, Charlie and I headed out for a special treat...

 

 

What's the occasion?

 

It was his last first-day-of-preschool!

 

 

Charlie is following in his sister and brother's footsteps and is a Zebra this year with our very favorite teachers, Ms. Catherine and Ms. Dale.
 

 

He is super excited!

 

Additionally, since his name begins with a letter near the top of the alphabet, he was also the leader on the third day of school.  The leader is not merely the line leader, but also says the date, holds the flag while the pledge is recited, and does the weather.  The highlight of one's leader day is the toy.  The leader is allowed to bring a toy from home, show it to his/her classmates and then answer three questions about the toy. 

 

You can only image how Charlie felt on Thursday!  

(Ok, he was way more excited than that! I just think this picture is hilarious. He only allows me to take one picture before he gets annoyed and this is his "I'm too cool to have my mom take my picture" look.)

 

Yep! His last year of preschool is off to a great start.

Only 363 Days...

until I have a double-digit kid.

 

How do I know this?

 

Because, yesterday, this guy turned NINE!

 

 

Happy Birthday to my sweet Jack

 

who is so smart

 

so loving

 

so curious

 

so silly

 

and so perfect for our family.

 

The Lord knew what He was doing when he blessed us with this little guy

 

nine years ago!

 

Doesn't he look like a little Buddha?

 

I think he was mediating and trying to recover after the horrendous labor and delivery we had to suffer though. 

 

 

John Marc Powell

06.04.04

9lbs 4oz

21 1/4 inches

And it's FINALLY here...

SUMMER VACATION that is!!

The last few weeks have been pretty crazy around here.

Aside from beginning my own summer semester

We had a preschool party for this guy

It was hard to say goodbye to Mr. Mark and Ms. Erin. Thank goodness we see them at church every Sunday!

 

 A kindergarten graduation for this princess

 

Melody with her adorable bestie, Morgan

 

And an end of the year party for the almost-9-year-old dude

 

Please make sure to notice and judge me for the too short shirt and missing belt. Whatever. I'm making those school clothes fit.  And as for the belt, well, it was lost somtime in mid-March and I have a one belt per year rule.  Doesn't everybody?

 

And field day where Jack and Melody participated in the carinval acitivies and field competitions while Charlie and I ran the sno-cone station.

Ok, I ran the sno-cone station. Charlie just ate the sno-cones and sweet talked his way into line jumping on the inflatable slide. Really, though, does that come as a surprise to anybody?

Yeah, that's a lot.

A lot of FUN!

 

And now we've made our summer lists

 

and already kicked off summer with our annual pizza pool party.  This year, I've got THREE totally independent very-enthusiastic-and-brave-but-one-not-yet-independent swimmers.

My last little fish is almost there.

 

What you didn't see was him loosing his grip on the kickboard, trying desperately to get back on and starting to panic which prompted me to take a flying leap into the pool to pull him back out.

Right at that moment, one of my girlfriends, missing Charlie's mishap but seeing my swimming skills, walked up and said, "Wow, Em, I had no idea you were so eager to start swimming!"

 

Hey, might as well kick off summer with a little excitement!

6

This little princess turned 6 a few weeks ago!
 

Yes, it is hard to believe.

We celebrated last Saturday with a... 

Jewelry Craft Party!!

It was Melody's idea.  We thought of some great crafts, invited some fun girls, and had a blast!  Unfortunately, I planned the party during Alex's Colorado ski vacation.  Fortunately, Captain and P3 stepped in and saved the day!  Captain took the boys to the driving range during the festivities and P3 was my resident photograher and took amazing pictures as usual.

 

A group shot
 

 

 

First we worked hard on our crafts.

 

 

We made jewlery boxes, decorated slap bracelets, made princess crowns, and ribbon necklaces.

 

 

After all that we took a break for cupcakes and trampoline fun

 

 

and then made silly faces.

 

 

 

  

Lots of fun presents including a bitty baby and the biggest stuffed purple hippo ever.

 

 

I'd say this party was a winner!

 

It's no wonder...

the youngest of the Powell clan is always fighting to get noticed and to be heard. 

He frequently feels left out and is often found yelling over his brother and sister to voice his opinion.

And I've perpetuated this even further by failing to mention that he turned four over a week ago.

*Hangs head in shame*

Yes, my sweet litte baby Charlie is a big four year old.

In all honesty, though, I think that the reason I've failed to mention this milestone here is because I'm a complete slacker when it comes to this blog I'm in total denial.  Aside from blogging nothing about his birthday, I also bought a number 3 candle, realized it, bought regular candles when a 4 was no where to be found, and then only put 3 candles on the cake.  Thankfully someone called me out on that.

So, yes, I am not ready for my baby to get older.  But it's happening anyway.  And so here we are.  10 days past his birthday and I'm finally blogging about it.

Charlie, we love you so much and are so glad you are in our family.  I'm sorry you have to deal with being the youngest. Thankfully you have your Uncle Andy to offer you sympathy on this plight.  We love your humor (you are most definitely our Chuckles) and your energy.  Your non-stop energy.  We just love you!

Oh, yeah.  He had a first day of school too.  *Sigh*.

First day of...

Kindergarten and 3rd Grade!!!

 

Ok, the first day was actually Monday.  Last Monday.

 

But whatever.  It's well documented now that I'm a slacker when it comes to blogging.

 

To say the least, these first 10 days of school have been exciting for sure.

 

We have more firsts coming up as well.  Tomorrow is Melody first day of gymnastics.

 

Next week is Charlie's first day "Giraffe" class...aka preschool to those are are less cool and unfamiliar with preschool lingo.

 

Here's the three of them.

 

 Charlie had to be in the picture as well.  With his super-cool Spiderman lunch box.  And that expression.  Well, let's just say you can probably guess what kind of little brother he is.

 

My sweet girl is off to Kindergarten.  She has been so excited about this day.

 

 

Sitting at her desk. I was so happy she let me walk her in.  Jack told me I could walk by his classroom but not into it.  I must have looked a little bummed because then he said he might wave if he saw me.

 

 

And here she is again, two days later, on her first Chapel day.  Yes, I know the outfit is too big.  It's the smallest they make.  My girl is teeny. At least I know she'll be able to wear it for a few years.

 

 

And then again on her first day of PE in her PE clothes.  And posing. Yes, I know I take way too many pictures of her. But seriously, look how adorable she is!

 

 

I started back to school yesterday.  In a panic, nonetheless, because I had deluded myself into thinking it was next week.

 

Charlie's chomping at the bit to start.  Ok, fine, I'm chomping at the bit for him to start.

 

But even with all this excitment I'm a little sad our summer is coming to an end.

8

8 Facts about Jack

He LOVES Transformers

His favorite food is shrimp

He's an avid reader

Math and History are is favorite academic subjects

He's a very caring brother

He has the most handsome brown eyes (not that I'm biased or anything)

He a morning person all the way...for him, morning starts around 5:30

and...

He is 8 years old today!!!

Biker Babe

In the Powell house, when you turn 5, you go through a very important rite of passage...

Daddy removes your training wheels.

Last month, the day before her 5th birthday, Melody learned how to ride a two-wheeler.

 

This is about 5 minutes after she learned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqtflK8aSeY&feature=context&context=G296cf1eAUAAAAAAAAAA

And this is her just a few weeks later!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcUvOZyZK1o&feature=g-upl&context=G296cf1eAUAAAAAAAAAA

She's definitely growing up.



Glasses

As if it wasn't hard enough on my sappy heart when she turned 5...

she had to go and get glasses and look even older!

Melody picked out her glasses herself.  She chose the ones with the Princess Jasmine charm on them.  Shocker, I know.  The glasses case is fashioned like a purse with a little jewel clasp. She is in full glasses-heaven.

3

Well, since I still haven't figured out how to stop time, we've had another birhday over here.

This handsome little man

 

 

 who is so funny

and curious

and always adventurous

and often times silly

and will forever be my sweet little baby boy

turned 3.

Yes, 3! 

 No, I cannot believe it either.

Do you know why...

this handsome little man is so excited?

It's his first day of preschool!

He's been waiting a loooooong time for this.

I think I might kind of like it too.  Once I get over the fact that my baby is starting preschool! (*sob*)

A Last First and Sparkles

Tuesday was a big day for Melody. It was her last first day of preschool!  This year she is in the Zebra class and is very excited. 

The first first day of preschool... 

and now the last first day of preschool.

My little girl certainly has grown up.  And thankfully gotten more hair (although I do miss those little sprouts!)

 

Thank you all for your anniversary wishes. Alex and I went out and celebrated our 10 years by watching Captain America and...

doing a little jewlery shopping!!

My wonderful husband got me a new, beautiful wedding band in honor of our tenth.  The ring in the middle is my engagement ring and we had a diamond band placed on each side. Isn't it beautiful?!

Melody, of course, loves it as well.  I showed it to her and she asked to try it on and said, "Ooooh! It has so many sparkles and it fits just me!"

10

My husband and I have been married for 10 years today.  A decade.

I remember when we had our first anniversary and I felt like 1 year was a long time!  Hopefully, in 40 years, we will be celebrating somewhere remembering back to when we thought 10 years was a long time.

The first song on the slideshow (Songbird by Eva Cassidy) was our first dance at our wedding.  I just liked the second (Something that We Do by Clint Black). I actually almost picked Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You but realized my mother would flip if I paid tribute to my marriage with a song containing the word 'suck'.

This video encompasses the last 10 years of our lives together. It's a little long, but well, 10 years is a long time.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli