50 years, Yard Work, and parents' day off!

I had a little BBQ for Bentley a couple weeks ago for his birthday. He turned 50! We had some food in the backyard and had a few friends and family over. I am realizing now how small my family is, and how far away all of Bentley's family is! We wish we could have spent it together, but he got a phone call and happy birthday wishes from everyone....very nice! I'll be planning a little party for Jake's 6th birthday next!

Bentley and I finally have a weekend off together coming up! Since he works Sunday to Thursday and I work Monday to Friday, we only ever get Saturday off together. Well, I took Friday and Monday off and he took Sunday and Monday off so we will have a four day weekend together for the first time in a long time....not counting my maternity leave of course. So we tossed around a bunch of different ideas about what we were going to do on our long weekend. Daytrip to Bellingham? Overnight in Seatttle? Maybe Vancouver? What did we decide? You guessed it...yard work. It has to be done. Bentley has got a good start on it. He and our neighbor shoveled about 10 yards of topsoil into the yard today. Bentley then smoothed it out with a board and then rolled over it with a heavy roller that he rented. Then he seeded it! Hopefully we will have a nice lawn where a stinky pond used to be! I can't wait to see how the grass grows. This weekend we will just have to seed a couple of other small areas, move some trees and plants, and plot out where we are going to build a patio. Who knew owning a house was this much work? Once it's all done it won't be so bad. The majority of the work will be done, and it'll all be minor maintenance after that. We're also going to be getting a swing set for the kids. Bentley doesn't think we should, and I do....I wonder who'll win that one...:)

So our Mr. Jakers is almost done Kindergarten. Only one more month to go! He got a visit from a firetruck today at school. He just thought that was the coolest! He got to sit inside the truck and learned all about fire safety. We now have to plan out an escape route! He just loves school. I am glad for that. It makes it so much easier when they are eager to go and are excited about learning. He is quite a challenge right now though. I think this age is harder than any age so far....terrible twos/threes was nothing compared to this!! Temper tantrums and defiance all day long....how many time outs can one kid get in day? The neighbors must think we're awful....Pretty soon he'll have no toys left either...lol. Everytime he behaves inappropriately, we take something away. It is exhausting...but hopefully will be worth it in the long run.

Amy is walking...and practically running sometimes too. My favorite thing to watch her do is carry something while she's walking. I love it when she carries her sippy cup around under her arm...just keeping it close in case she needs a sip! She is just the cutest little thing....and very loud! She is always screaming and can say quite a few words. She is proving to be a real girly-girl. She tries to put her own shoes and socks on, she likes to brush her hair and she looooves to talk on the phone. She puts it to her ear and says "Ello?, Hi! Hi! Bye Bye!" We just love both of them to bits!

Time flies!

I can't believe how fast Amy's first year went. She is pretty much walking now. She still crawls a little if it's easier to get where she's going, but she's walking most of the time. She can even walk while holding a large item in her hands...which I think is just adorable! She can also get into a standing position now without using a piece of furniture to pull up with. She just puts her hands down on the floor and pushes herself up. She has 6 teeth and her hair is starting to get curly at the ends. It's actually looking a bit like a mullet right now, but I don't want to start cutting it yet. I think I'll let it get longer first and then tame it from there. She's just the cutest little thing! We love her to bits! She says "Hi!" when you walk into the room and says "Hello?" if the phone rings (or even if you're just holding the phone, for that matter). She says bye bye, night night, mama, dada, brother, baby, puppy (and will make a barking sound if you ask her what a puppy says). We think she's the smartest baby alive!! Ha ha...of course we do.

Jake is student of the month at school. He was a very good listener at school the last few weeks. We are so proud of him. I'm amazed at how fast the school year has gone. Jake did really well on his second term report card and his teacher says he's doing great! I can't believe that in two months, Kindergarten will be over forever! (sniff sniff). He loves to play outside and can't wait to go knock on the neighbors' doors to see who can play. We've had to limit this a little as I think he was forgetting he has his own home. I guess everyone else just has cooler stuff than us!

The backyard pond is now just a big disgusting hole. The previous owner came and removed all the water and equipment for us. We have a guy coming with an excavator next week to fill in the hole and level the yard out. We'll have to let it settle and then we'll plant some grass. I want to get a swing set out there for the kids and just make it more kid friendly. Hopefully Jake will want to play at home more often. I'm still not giving in on the video game issue. I don't think a 5/6 year old needs to sit and play video games. He has one racing game for his Wii and the sports games that came with it, but he's only allowed to play once in a while and for no more than an hour. I just think he can find better things to do! Now if we could just get Daddy off the couch a little more often...we'd be good. I must admit though, I do enjoy my tv time...but there's a big world out there beyond the couch!

Jake has stopped going to TaeKwonDo. It was too expensive and he wasn't really excited to go anymore. He liked it, but not enough to make it worth $110/month. We'll start swimming soon and play outside this summer a lot and see what he wants to try in the fall.

Time for bed...5am comes early and I have a bad headache that only sleep can cure...:)