Micah's 5th

We became a clown family to celebrate Micah's 5th birthday! I imagine I'll be able to post better photos of the party as I receive them, but as I'm in my 3rd trimester, I am trying to stay on top of things! We can always count on Drew and Peyton to be good sports and join in on the silliness!
Noah is showing off his mom's cheek artistry, while Micah and two of his friends from Community Preschool (Abby and Ava Grace) display the latest in clown fashion.
The whole reason for the clown theme was because Micah chose to have me make this clown cake and he wanted to be silly and funny. I'm really glad that he had a day of silliness, since he is the same kid who takes reading so seriously that his "sight words" include pharmacy, precipitation, and kindergarten. He also seriously took his calculator ("My favorite toy") to school for show and tell on Wednesday; while he was excitedly showing his friends how 7+7=14, his teacher said, are you sure you are turning 5, Micah?
We kept to the idea of inviting the number of friends equaling his age, but invited their families as well. Line up: Paul, Abby (preschool), Micah, Sylvan (Math department/music class), Noah (church), and Ava Grace (preschool); Owen (preschool) couldn't come. I think making a pinata together is becoming another fun pre-birthday tradition!

Yes, the silliness Micah hoped for came out! The children's jokes and mimes (aka charades)were hilarious and Micah and Paul both displayed their fearlessness on the stage! As seen in the video below, the children made puppets; Micah was able to lead part of a clown song (even though he had planned some elaborate puppet show storyline), while chubby-handed Paul's puppet seemed to lead the clown dance.

Micah's Fifth Symphony

Here are the photos of Micah's party from my mom:

Boys, Boys, Boys

What better way for us to announce that we are having another son than to show a photo of Grandma Bev with four out of her five grandsons? Remember, also, that Grandma Jo now has four grandsons. Boys, boys, everywhere! Anthony has taken a liking to saying "Boys R Us" when people ask if we've found out the gender of our third child. Yes, on all three ultrasounds, he has shown us clearly that he will fit right in with his big brothers and cousins. I, personally, am really happy and relieved that this little one is a boy. All of this boyhood doesn't keep us from dancing to the pipe organ music of Father Bach! Joey, Charlie and Scott came to visit us for a fun weekend.
I am not the only one who really enjoys building and playing with stereotypically boy toys; Grandma Bev is a skilled contractor.

Returning to the tallies, my Grandpa Smith now has five (including "El Skippito" -- affectionately named such by his big brothers Micah and Paul after their favorite literary Siamese Cat who pretends to be a Chihuahua) great-grandsons and zero great-granddaughters.
Great-Aunt Karla, who knows how much fun sons are, sent a box of books for our three boys. As you can see, the reception was exciting!! She had books signed by Derek Anderson for Micah, Paul and Baby Tongen, which Micah thought meant the Tongen boys are famous.

It had been too many years since I had indulged in a green frosting cake for my birthday, but we all enjoyed celebrating this year!

Snow Days

Today is a SNOW DAY! Micah and Anthony don't have school today, so they are skiing at Massanutten. Therefore, I'm motivated to catch-up on our snow day pictures! The picture above is of the route that the Lacey's GPS directed Sarah, Paul, Joey and I to get to Snowshoe Mountain over New Year's.

Sarah's reward for getting us there safely was great snow for skiing/boarding with Micah (the short one) and our cousins Will and Doug.

It was uncanny to me how much my brother looked like my dad when he was teaching
Charlie to ski like my dad taught me.

Our lodge is behind Scott and Charlie -- thanks to Doug, Aunt Elaine and my mom, ski-in-ski-out was the way to go!!

Micah and Anthony had an awesome time, with perma-smiles on their faces whether they were skiing the easy greens . . .

the more challenging blues . . .racing Scott and Charlie . . .

or skiing into streams!

It felt so great to be on skis, but it is a challenge to ski with someone in your belly and someone between your skis; I was snowplowing for three!

The review from today (they don't have the camera with them) is that Micah is getting so good at skiing the green slopes on his own that he didn't need to be between Anthony's legs today!

At Snowshoe over New Year's, Paul mostly hung out with Grandma Bev (thank you, thank you) and Joey, but he got in over his knees in the snow, too.

I think Grandma Bev and Granddaddy agree that the cost of four books was priceless, when it meant they had enough peace and quiet to hold hands for a few minutes! Too bad the photographer was so tired from snowplowing for three that she didn't get far enough back and cut off their heads!

No, Paul's three stitches in his head were not a ski injury; he just tripped and bumped his head on a door frame at our house.

It took a month, but Micah (with help) finished his 350 piece raccoon puzzle!

On the other snow day this semester, Paul and Ben hung out with Peyton while Anthony, Drew and I helped Noah and Micah ski. Thankfully, Peyton did a great job of documenting the day at http://bridgewatermiller.blogspot.com/

Super Bowl Sunday: Paul (aka "Paul-a-lulu" or "Paul-a-mom-lu") and Bill Thompson were matching Polamalu Steelers fans. Clearly, in the midst of these snow days, Kasey and Riley didn't need jackets that day! In the meantime, Micah was striking out on his own by cheering for the Arizona Cardinals, team of his birthplace.

The snow returned for a couple of sledding days!

I couldn't resist having the boys stand under a snow-laden tree for a good shake!

After Paul stunned us by going down this pretty steep hill on his belly solo, we let him go down with Micah and they had a wipe-out! Both tough boys got up laughing! :)

They had dad keep them steady the next time down, though!

Tradition: A photo of Micah hugging one of his two snowmen.

I took this picture of our two old men sipping cocoa on the front porch through our window, so as not to disturb their conversation.

Micah is really excelling at reading; Grandma Jo and Grandpa Doug joined Paul in humoring him. His preschool teachers think that when the kindergarten-entrance tester holds up some sight words, Micah will read the directions to him/her. Micah is excited to read to his new baby like he does for Paul.

"Do-si-do and away we go!" We took Sylvan and Camille Martin to our church's square dance for a lot of fun one evening.

Micah is taking an art class and a PE class at the Redeemer Classical School enrichment program and is loving learning how to draw dragons; someday maybe he'll catch up to my friend Dorothy Scheel!