Birthday #7....LEGOS!!!

Reed's growing up.  I can't believe he's 7 this year.  He had a rough week with an ear infection so he didn't feel great on his actual birthday but with meds he recovered in time to still have his birthday sleepover.  He is starting to really get into Legos so we decided to do a Lego theme.  I really had fun with it.  Reed came up with lots of ideas too.

Happy 7th Birthday!

When each kids arrived "we" assembled a Lego car. I say we because this was really harder than the kids could handle.  Wes has gotten pretty good at it though.  :)

Then it was off to the races.  I found this piece of vinyl siding with 3 "lanes" at Lowes and it was perfect for our track.

I was so excited about how the cake turned out.  Store-bought cake modified with Legos.  Lego guys holding the candles.  The kids all loved it.

Liquid Legos...Reed's own "creation."  He came up with the formula himself.  ;)

While waiting for popcorn the kids stopped to watch Wes play Angry Birds on his phone.  Ha ha. 

Lego movie: The Adventures of Clutch Powers

There was the usual sword/light-saber battles and baseball games played throughout the evening.  Sadly one of our sweeties had a baseball injury that required stitches.  He was so brave and I'm very proud of him.  Just sorry he got hurt.  His mom says he's doing well now and it even looks like it's already starting to heal. 

We love you Reed.  Can't believe you are so grown up.  You bring so much joy into our lives.  Your passion for life is contagious.  Can't wait to see what God has planned for your future.

He did it!

My boy has been content to ride around with training wheels and never seemed motivated to do anything else.  He's not naturally a risk taker so our few attempts to push him in that direction just ended in frustration.  After a little research, I decided to try taking the pedals and training wheels off his little bike and have him push it around and try to balance himself.  After a few minutes of success we put the pedals back on and away he went!

Then we took the training wheels off the bike he got last Christmas and gave that a try.

It worked and he loved it!

He was grinning from ear to ear and said, "This is better than baseball!"

Whoa!  Better than baseball?  That's the highest praise coming from my big guy.

Way to go son.  So proud of you!

Class of 2023

Reed's kindergarten graduation was so sweet. 

We are so blessed to have this little guy.

Mrs. Z was the best kindergarten teacher we could have asked for.

Publish Post

Reed wanted to go to a "fancy" restaurant so he chose Fazoli's.  Ha ha.

All I want for Christmas is my...

 One week ago today Reed lost his first tooth while at school.  It was a little unusual because he lost his top tooth before losing a bottom one.  The Tooth Fairy brought him a nice shiny silver dollar.

Today when I picked up Reed from school he had lost another tooth!

Now his top two middle teeth are missing.  It's so adorable.

As I look at my son and we celebrate losing his first teeth, my love for him just grows.  He's beautiful.  He's perfect.  He's just the way God made him.  Then I think about a place in Africa, where children who get their top teeth first, even if it's their permanent teeth, are labeled "mingi" or unclean.  If Reed had been born to one of these three tribes, this would be a death sentence.  He would either be thrown in the river to drown or left alone in the bush to die.  A ministry called Drawn From Water  rescues these children.  I can't imagine how this can happen but thought if I spread the word then we might be able to make a difference.

First Day of School Pics 2010

Cate was supposed to start school the day after we arrived home from China. But since Wes and I had not seen her in 2 1/2 weeks and we didn't get to bed until after midnight we kept her home to love on that Monday. So her first day of school was the 2nd day of 2nd Grade. She has a great teacher and we are excited about the year. She's growing up and it's so fun to watch but a little sad because she's still my sweet little girl.

Since Reed went to Kindergarten Readiness last year he actually is starting Kindergarten this year. Kindergarten phases in slowly after the rest of school starts. We are looking forward to this year. I think we will really see how sending him to KR last year pays off. He has experience working for him this year. In some ways he seems so grown up but in other ways so young.


I pray this is a great year of learning and exploring for these two precious one. I pray they grown in knowledge, are brave socially, set good examples for others, make lasting friendships and love learning.

Team Bats got a Win!

Isn't this just a precious bunch of boys? They are so excited about playing ball.

Reed's showing me they got their first win.
21-12 against the Muckdogs. Don't you just love the names of the teams?

After the win, Reed was jumping up and down with his arms in the air saying,
"we won, we won our first game!"


Reed got the game ball signed by the coaches!

He hit two pitches and one off the tee.
And got a triple, scored a run, fielded well.
It was a proud moment. sniff sniff

Tuckered out, probably dreaming about the big game,
and yes he's sleeping with the ball.

Let's Go BA-ats! CLAP CLAP clap clap

Reed had his first ever real baseball game under the lights on Friday night.

He played Right Field with as much spunk as anyone could.
Lots of balls came his way and he really hustled to get to the ball and throw it in.

Reed's warming up on deck.

It's #9 Reed Thompson at bat. They pitched 3 to him and he missed. Then they brought out the T. You have 2 tries to hit off the T. He missed the first one. I'm biting my nails. He connected with the 2nd....he runs...gets a little tangled up with his bat...they throw him out at 1st. He handles it with grace. I'm so proud.

We lost 18-9.

But does it look like they are worried about it?

Watching your child play a sport can really be hard on the nerves. They were just adorable out there in their uniforms. Reed was grinning ear to ear. The coaches are so good to him. They make a point of telling him what he did well. They really seem to be a good fit for our first try at team sports.

Fun in the snow

Having some sledding fun. We have 4-5 inches of snow. Unfortunately it iced over last night. Sledding today was kind of scary. We made the kids go to a smaller hill because everyone kept zinging across the road. It was like a sheet of ice. There was just no way to stop yourself. We had grownups lining the road to catch the kids. The smaller hill wasn't so bad.

Reed and mommy sledding before the ice hit.



Back home now. Warming up. Safe and sound.

DoNUTS

Yesterday on the way home from sledding we saw a guy on a four wheeler racing up and down the street and spinning around in our cul-de-sac. I said something about him doing donuts.


When Reed came downstairs this morning Wes asked him if he was ready for breakfast. Reed asked, "Is that guy still selling donuts?"

Solid, Liquid or GAS?

So we're sitting around the dinner table enjoying our bowls of leftover chili (with beans) and quizzing the kids on solids, liquid or gas. We would call out something like water, table, milk, ice... and the kids would see who could guess it first. Then all of a sudden Reed's beans kicked in with a distinctive roar from the rear end and we all said... GAS!

We're all laughing our heads off when Reed said I'm gonna do it again. I said no don't do that you might have an accident. Wes said ask Uncle Clay what it's called when that happens. Reed said... SOLID!

Reed Quotes #14

We were looking at cards with the days of the week written on them.

I held up THURSDAY. Reed said, Fursday. I said, th...th...THURSDAY. He said, fff...ffff... Fursday. I said, Th, Th, Thursday. He said, That's what I said!

Reed Quotes #13

Drip drip. When I go potty I always drip at the end.

Ramblings of a boy.

Reed comes in the house with a chunky rock. He took in the bathroom and washed it. Then he said, "my rock is all clean for the contest." "What contest," I asked. Reed said, "The rock contest. You know the one in Nashville where Bon Jovi is going to be. I'm going to take my rock to the contest. And Bon Jovi is going to be there and well maybe I shouldn't take my rock because someone might get hurt at the contest, right momma? Maybe I won't go to the concert. I might get a headache. We could just have a concert here on my birthday when I turn 6. We could have the rock contest, then Bon Jovi could sing, then we'll eat cake and after that we'll eat lunch...then it will be dinner time. Then I will get my pigeons and we will have a pigeon contest. Right momma?"

Reed Quotes #12

Picked up the kids from school. As soon as we walk in the door Reed heads straight to his little bag of Halloween candy and picks out a yummy chocolate. He says, "mom, can I have this, huh mom, can I?" I say, "I thought we were going to make popcorn for a snack." He says as he is opening the candy, "you can make it while I eat this."

I love that boy.

Reed likes 80's band

Well I may have introduced Reed to Bon Jovi. We did an air band version of You Give Love a Bad Name. Then he wanted to watch some videos on youtube. I went to get dinner ready and he drew this picture of a concert.

Chick-a-dee-dee-dee

The other night we were reading Reed's bird book. I was telling him about the chickadee. It said they were friendly little birds and if you mimic their sound they might fly closer to check you out. When I said that you could just see the wheels in Reed's head turning. His eyes got big and he started talking. "Tomorrow at school when I go to out on the playground I'm gonna say Chick-a-dee-dee-dee and they will land on my finger. I'm going to show him to everyone because they are so cute. When we get home can be build a cage for him? Hmm, can we mom...Mom can we?" He was so disappointed the next morning when it was raining because he thought they would go outside at school. He was still talking about it today.

Reed's Drawing

Reed has finally gotten interested in drawing. I wondered if it would ever happen. I just had to share this one. The flowers are buttercups but they don't want to wake up because it's cold. That's Reed standing next to the tree and there's an earthworm next to him. You might think that thing on the tree is a branch, but it's a pteranodon hiding behind the tree. Then there's the possum on the side of the tree. There's a nest of baby birds on top of the tree and a bee hive hanging on the right side. The things flying under the sun and cloud include a flying beetle, a dragonfly, butterfly and some stinging bugs. You don't want to touch the ones that sting. I think that covers it.

Reed Quotes #11

Me: Reed did you have sweet dreams last night?
Reed: Well I was having a good dream but then Cate woke me up. I wish she didn't wake me up because I wanted to see what happened in my dream. I was eating tomato juice and drinking it too.

Reed Quotes #10

I heard Reed's voice coming from the bathroom and thought he was telling me something. When I went to investigate I found him sitting on the pot singing one of his new color word songs... B-R-O-W-N (to the tune of BINGO). From the smell I would say he chose the right color song.

Reed Quotes #9

We had heard about a martial arts class at the local church and wanted to see how Cate and Reed liked it. I tried to call the guy in charge but didn't hear back from him so on the night of the first class I told the kids we were going to check it out. Right before we left the guy called and told me that they no longer take 5 year olds in the class. When I told Reed we couldn't go to the class he said in his sad whiny voice, "Oh no. I wanted to break some bricks." I guess he thought that's all they do.