The Worst Thing About Birthdays...

"The worst thing about birthdays is that they go away," Aden said.  While this may be true, we certainly did our best to make it last as long as we could.   On February 18th, Aden turned six years old!!  It was so hard to believe that we couldn't just celebrate on one day.  He enjoyed four days of birthday events, that must have made it at least feel like the birthday that wouldn't end.

Racing around the Papachino track

February 16 - Dinner at his favorite restaurant, Papachino's.  It is not so much the food that is the big draw here (although it is very good), but the playground.  This restaurant is a "family with small kids" magnet, with all of the kid-friendly activities they have.  For starters, there is a place for the kids to make their own pizza.  They can roll out the dough, choose the topping they want, and then watch the workers put it into the brick oven.  Everything is down on a kid's level.    The playground is full of all kinds of equipment, but also has a track for riding small balance bikes.  The boys love this.  It was a nice evening, despite the rain that kept them off of the outdoor playground for awhile (but made great puddles to splash in and ride through with the bikes).

Directing the birthday medley

New Crocs!

February 17 - We knew our plans for the next day would have us gone for the whole day, so we opted to have the traditional birthday meal on the night before.  This is the meal where the birthday boy gets to choose anything he wants Mommy to make.  For Aden, It is a given that this will always be 'tortillas' with the works.  Our neighbors joined us, and we had a regular feast.  There were presents to open, the traditional birthday melody to sing, and of course cake and ice cream (Aden's favorite - chocolate mint).

 February 18 - On his actual birthday, we got him and the other boys up at 6am and put them in the car for a day's adventure.  Some other friends joined us, and we made our way a couple of hours away to Pilanesburg Game Reserve.  We spent the day in this park, looking for the Big Five, and other animals.  While we only saw two of the Five, we still enjoyed what we did see and had a near run-in with an elephant.

Favorite of the boys

February 19 - Since we got home so late from the game drive, everyone went to bed (and some were even carried in to bed), thus ending the birthday day.  It couldn't just end there though.  He never got his birthday breakfast.  Amazingly, he had chosen vanilla and strawberry yoghurt.  Easy enough.  Still not the end though, as Mommy and Daddy had still not had a chance to give him their gift.  After church, we were able to enjoy the leftovers from the birthday dinner two nights before which made it feel like his birthday all over again.  After that, he had a couple of gifts.  One was somewhat of a surprise. It was a bike helmet that he had received for a birthday gift a couple of years earlier.  While he was trying to figure that one out, Daddy sneaked outside and brought in the real gift - a bicycle.  No surprise, the rest of the day was spent riding the bike around the tennis court, bringing the birthday celebrations to a close.


Birthdays may have to end, but we made this one last for what seemed like forever to a six year old.  And of course, the good thing about birthdays (when you are six) is they tend to come back. 

The Games We Play

When Mommy recently dumped photos from her phone onto the computer, we were reminded how creative the boys are in their play.   Sure, they play with their cars and train tracks every day, but every day it is so much fun to see their imaginations come alive. These are a few of our favorites . . .

Playing with the train tracks - which Aden made in the shape of a car!

Making mud holes . . .

. . . and mud pies . . .

. . . and smashing them (missed getting photos of the boys that day, but they did get baths before noon!)

"The Loot" from treasure-hunting at the community clothesline (Mommy usually vetoes most of it coming home)

Playing tennis over the clothesline, with garden shovels and a rubber basketball

Finger - and nose - painting

The doctor is in

Stuffed Animal Family Portrait - they were thrilled to see that Camel stuck his head out between George and Cheetah

Stepping Stones

Coloring, with a shoe handy.  Noah has a shoe fetish and is especially fond of any that aren't his own

Setting up a bookstore . . .

. . . complete with "tills" for anyone ready to check out

Wiley's meeting "for everyone who wants to be a cowboy"

Third Time's a Charm

For a few months (since our failed attempt in September), Mommy has been saying that we would potty train Noah after Aden started school.  Apparently Noah was listening.  The week Aden started school, Noah began bringing his underwear to her every day, asking to wear them.  Mommy refused, realizing the new school routine was wearing everyone out.  But Noah did not give up, and even broke into tears one day begging to wear big boy pants.  Finally Mommy caved.  "Noah, if you can wait until we get through Aden's first week of school, I will put underwear on you on Saturday."  As it turned out, we ran out of diapers on Saturday, so Mommy kept her promise and put Noah in underwear.  Potty training two other boys has taught us not to get our hopes up too soon, so we braced ourselves for the long haul, pulling up area rugs, putting the potty chair in the living room for easy access, and strengthening our willpower.

When Noah had an accident early on, we left him with no pants at all, simply to lighten the cleanup a bit.  This time around, knowing what we were in for, Mommy didn't stress too much over the accidents, just cleaning them in stride and continuing her day.  She put plastic pants over Noah's underwear when he went to bed, not knowing if he was staying dry at night or not.  Generally, the discomfort of the plastic pants provides some extra motivation for kids to potty train.  But Noah's first reaction when Mommy put them on was, "Wow, Mommy!  These are cool!"  So much for extra motivation.  After his nap he didn't want to take them off, even though he was still dry.  He wore plastic pants to church on Sunday, and again for Sunday nap, then after an after-nap accident we decided to let him go with no pants at all, in an effort to lessen the laundry load.  And from that point on, Noah had no accidents at all for the rest of the day.  With just a little encouragement, he went straight to his potty whenever it was time.  With so much success on Sunday, we went with the same strategy.  Noah went naked, except for a bear-shaped headlamp hanging from his neck.  And he didn't need any prompting to sit on his potty.  He would tell us when he was ready to "peep," as he calls it.  Tuesday the trend continued so we decided he could wear clothes again.  By Wednesday, Noah was done with plastic pants altogether, and told us every time he needed his potty chair (which was now in the bathroom).  A few days later, we were eating dinner at a friend's house, and had brought Noah's potty chair along with us.  He was so proud and excited to come tell Mommy "It worked!" over and over, apparently amazed that the potty chair "works" in any bathroom.  While Noah has discovered the classic get-out-of-bed-to-use-the-potty excuse, and he does have occasional accidents, he has done a great job of potty-training himself!

Some experts may not be surprised at all by our success, but we have been utterly amazed, particularly given the determination of our other two against the potty-training process when it was their turn (even when they seemed ready).  We are proud to say that our home is now officially diaper-free!