We are in countdown or is that up?

Well it's only two days until Monkey turns 5, he is in countdown to the BIG day! Tomorrow we take heavily frosted and sprinkled (thanks to Monkey) funfetti cupcakes to share with his preschool class...I apologize in advance to all the mommies who inherit those sugar laden preschoolers tomorrow! So as Monkey is in countdown all my mind keeps thinking is FIVE...how did we get to FIVE years old? So in my head I keep trying to add up how we got here so fast.

Last Friday was my turn at school to volunteer and be the librarian for the day, it is a day that I enjoy immensely especially when Monkey's class arrives and I get the most excited "hi mommy!" and a GREAT BIG HUG in front of all of his friends...I know it will end so I am enjoying every single one!

Anyway...the story I was reading to the 3 classes last week was All By Myself. It was about a baby elephant who wanted to get his leaves to eat all by himself without his mommy...well any of you who know or love a preschooler know that they want to do everything "All By Myself". I am just reviewing in my head how I went from the mom who just prayed for the day that Monkey could hold his head up by himself, and roll over by himself, and crawl and walk by himself to now being the mom who has the preschooler who declares he is big enough to be dropped at the preschool door all by himself and head into school all by himself.

I have great joy in how Andrew is learning and growing these days but sure wish I would have videotaped every moment of the last FIVE years so I could do a review and figure out when did I push down the "fast forward" button of life.

No doubt there will be more posts this week of all the fun festivities...including the first big friend birthday party on Tuesday....anyone want to help me corral the 5 boys on Tuesday...awwww come on! Anyone? Actually I am probably more excited than Monkey right now and I just hope he has the best day ever! Here a reminder from where it started.....what an amazing gift and blessing he has been from the very very very beginning...I love you Monkey!

Fishing...well sort of!

So on Saturday we finally had a sort of not so busy day and Daddy has been promising Monkey that for his birthday he would buy him a fishing pole, so off they went to find the perfect pole. They returned with a fabulous Lightning McQueen fishing pole which of course needed to be initiated...however the only trouble was that Monkey was insistent on needing to go fishing with Uncle John! We think not only is it because he enjoys his time with Uncle John but also because he owns a boat which Monkey thought was necessary for fishing! After much coaxing Daddy and Monkey set off to a couple local spots to see what they could catch...however the first spot proved not a good location and the second probably would be better at a future date, so according to Monkey they caught "Zero" but he is anxious to try again! I sure hope for my sake they continue to pursue the catch and release plan for fishing!

Grandma's Quilts

Well Monkey has been privileged since birth, well so am I to be perfectly honest! He and I have always slept with homemade quilts either made by my Grandma O or now by Monkey's Grandma O (which he refers to as Grandma Ginnie). Grandma Ginnie has kept up an important tradition of homemade quilt making and Andrew is the proud owner of a few already. Well one of the nights prior to our Disney trip as we were tucking Monkey into bed and trying to make sure he was warm enough that he would sleep all night (not requiring Daddy to visit shortly to recover him so he would go back to sleep)...we decided to pull out the heavy guns in other words pull out a full sized quilt vs. a kids quilt in hopes the extra coverage might work. The quilt we grabbed is one made by Grandma Ginnie and is pink and green to match the Laura Ashley comforter that used to adorn my full bed...so I thought there might be some protest over this pink quilt but the reaction was quite the contrary. Monkey's reaction filled my heart and my tear ducks both, Daddy spread it out over the bed and Monkey said "wow look at that it's beautiful!", "Did Grandma Ginnie make this new quilt for me?" I told him no it was a quilt she had made for me but that he could use it. I asked him though if he wanted Grandma Ginnie to make a new big quilt for him and he emphatically said "yes!" I love that he values the tradition of the quilts in our family and even more so that he loves Grandma Ginnie for her talent and love in her quilts! Monkey then pulled the quilt right up almost over his head (just like Mommy) and exclaimed "oh it's so cozy". How very very sweet it was!

Disney!

Well this year proved that last years fabulous trip to Disney was no fluke! We all had a wonderful time, we just wish they could turn down the outside thermostat about 10 degrees so we wouldn't be quite so toasty while we were there. Monkey was of course entertaining while being entertained! He surprised us by loving Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (if you look at the ride you can see them coming around the bend), he is definitely a roller coaster fan! There were many "firsts" this trip including meeting Buzz Lightyear and Woody from the movie Toy Story. There was no need for Monkey to be told to "smile" for these photos he was thrilled and it confirmed that his birthday party these of Toy Story is right on track for this year! Another first was riding the Star Wars ride with Daddy (not really mommy's kind of ride...too many flashing lights for her...of course Monkey thinks it's because she is scared of Star Wars). As like the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad the Star Wars ride was not just a one time thing but instead multiple trips were involved to ride both. Yet another first involved the water slides at the resort this year Monkey graduated to the BIG water slide that is a tube slide in the dark and as you can see it is quite lengthy, if asked he will tell you this and the airplane flight were his favorite parts of the trip. Both Daddy and I were a bit concerned when Monkey asked to go down the slide ALL BY HIMSELF...which meant he wanted no one to escort him to the top of the slide, or wait with him...it was agonizing waiting at the bottom of the slide for him with no real indication of when he would shoot out of there but indeed he did it ALL BY HIMSELF! And he was more excited than I think I have EVER seen him, he was literally spinning circles in the water repeating "I did it, I did it, I did it". It was fun to see him conquer yet another big milestone! He of course spent alot of time enjoying the other water slide but this year with a new twist NO LIFE JACKET! I don't have pictures of that because it was after I put away the camera besides it was too much fun watching him come down, goggles on, nose plugged (well all the way until right before he would go in the water) and then plunge all the way in, swim up and swim over to us - thank you swimming lessons you have totally paid off!
So yet another first was something Monkey has requested since we were at Disney last year and that was to attend the fireworks, frankly last year we were all so beat by the heat that we weren't awake nearly long enough to stay up for fireworks but this year we not only went to Magic Kingdom for the Wishes fireworks but also Hollywood Studios Fantasmic fireworks - what a wonderful time we had especially when the lit up Tinkerbell went right over our heads at Magic Kingdom - memories we will NEVER forget!
So just a few more cute pics from our trip! Including Monkey acting with the Green Army Men from Toy Story...what a riot to see our sweet boy having fun with the entertaining Green Army Men!