Happy 6th Birthday Kevin! (And other fun too)

This turned out to be a really great week. With Derek still gone on his internship, I have been pretty lonely. My sister is awesome, and she decided to come up and visit for a couple of days. She came up on Tuesday with her little boy, Levi. My kids love Levi and Levi loves them. (OK, Jared is iffy when it comes to Levi, but Kevin and Jenna LOVE him. Jared likes him sometimes, but gets very jealous of him easily). Rachel was a great help! I was able to run without having to push a jogging stroller the two mornings she was here. She watched my kids for me a couple of times. She kept me company in the evenings (the loneliest time of day). She helped with Kevin's birthday cake. She made Kevin's day by being here for his birthday. She is the best! Thanks for coming, Rachel and Levi.

Levi and Rachel - the proof that they came. :)


Kevin turned 6 on Wednesday. Where did the time go? I am going to ask that every birthday that every one of my kids has. It really does go fast. Anyway, he is 6 now. He had a great birthday. I took cupcakes to school for his class. We talked with Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma on the webcam during the celebration, so that they wouldn't miss it. He got awesome gifts, all of which he was very excited about. It was actually really fun to watch him open them. He has used all of them, except the two that require batteries. Hopefully I will get batteries this week. He reminds me multiple times every day that he needs batteries. :)

Kevin wanted a cake with motorcycles on it. Rachel came up with the design (OK, she borrowed it from someone else's blog). :) I put it all together. It was so easy, and I thought it turned out well.


The cake from another angle.


Kevin with his cake.


Jared, Kevin and Mom with the lit birthday cake. You can see Jared waiting there anxiously. He blew out half of Kevin's candles before we could stop him.


Jenna, Kevin, and Jared with the cake. I love this picture.


Kevin with goggles and snorkel. This was one of his presents. Lookin' good buddy!


Kevin got a Lego Stars thing for his birthday. Kevin has just started to really get into Legos (mostly because with other small children, I didn't keep any in the house). He had a great time putting this together. It was really fun for the two of us (I helped because he is new to this and would often put the Legos on backwards). I think I am going to let Santa know that Legos would be a great gift for him this Christmas. :) It rained all day Saturday because of Tropical Storm Bill. That meant we couldn't go swimming, but the kids didn't mind. Instead they stayed inside and worked on Legos. They are the perfect rainy day toy.

Here is Kevin working intently on his Star Wars Lego ship.




Kevin with finished Star Wars Lego ship. He was really proud of this. He has played with it quite a bit. Unfortunately, Jared has broken it a number of times too.


Jenna trying to figure out how to build a lego house.


Jenna with finished Lego house. We had fun building this too. I think I may let Santa know that Legos would be good for Jenna too.


Unfortunately we don't own any of the little kid Legos. (You know the ones that are really big, so you can't swallow them). That meant that Jared had to watch Kevin and Jenna play with Legos. He was a good sport. I had to get after him a few times for touching the Legos. He wasn't actually touching them (as he pointed out), he was ramming his UPS truck into them. :)

Jared smiling for the camera while watching Kevin and Jenna build things with Legos.


Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the two other highlights of the week. Derek has been gone finishing up his internship for the last two weeks. He doesn't actually finish until this Friday. On Saturday afternoon around 2p there was a knock on my door. I peaked out the window to see who it was. I thought "that looks like Derek." I glanced to the driveway and saw his car there. I was so excited. He drove home for a surprise visit! He was here less than 24 hours (he left right after church today), but it was so nice to have him here. The kids were so clingy to him, but that is to be expected after not seeing him for two weeks. I will be very happy when he comes back for good next weekend. I miss him a lot.

Derek couldn't have picked a better day to come home. Last night at our church activity Kevin was eating dinner, and realized that his tooth had gotten very loose (it has been loose for a while). He said he thought we could pull it out when we got home. I looked at it, and it was very loose. We got home, and I told the kids to floss and brush their teeth. Somehow while flossing, Kevin got the floss stuck under his loose tooth. Derek came up to help him, and ended up pulling out the tooth. It was a bit more painful than we had hoped, but Kevin was so excited to have lost his first tooth. He was even more excited when he woke up, and found that the tooth fairy had left him a whole dollar. I told him that when I was little the tooth fairy only gave me 50 cents. Lucky kid! :)