Weekly Update 10.31.10

Happy Halloween! I'm going to start off this post with a pic from last week's fundraiser. I love pictures of Henry with his buddies. Okay, now on to the week....Henry got to wear his costume to school twice this week. Here he is with his friends Ellie and Sophia. Sophia is not feeling it. And then there's this...hum......
The weather has been amazing and Henry has been up for some super long bike rides. For a kid that just started riding his 2-wheeler two weeks ago, he blows my mind. He loves riding along the levee because he can make skid marks in the gravel. He also likes to go with no feet. And it's extra fun because every mile or so he says, "Man. This is awesome. What a great day." Last night we carved the pumpkins. Henry was the designated scooper. He got creative with it. Henry designed his own pumpkin: 3 eyebrows, 1 eye, 2 mouths. Papa did a Decepticon symbol. Henry saw it, gasped and said "Oh Papa. It's so beautiful." Henry was a Transformer for Halloween.

We went around the neighborhood and came home with quite a loot. At one house I overheard Henry say, "I'll pick this candy bar because it is my Mom's favorite." Then he came over to the sidewalk and gave it to me. Such a sweet little guy.
We've got an easy week ahead of us. Wade is playing music and Laurie is going to classes, but midterms are over (whew!). Parent teacher conferences are coming up soon as well as Henry's school pictures, which I'll be sure to post. The little man turns 5 in just a few weeks. Time goes by so fast, friends. Make the most of it.

Hope your Halloween was exactly what you wanted it to be. Have a great week.

Weekly Update 10.24.10

Busy week, friends. This post is going to be quick.
This weekend we headed out to the pumpkin patch. Henry took his pumpkin' pickin' pretty seriously. He found the perfect one....or make that three. I hope Papa has been working out his forearms because he is going to have a lot of carving to do this weekend.

On Sunday LCNS has it's annual fall fundraiser benefit concert. Wade's band played. The kiddos watched. I now understand the origin of the mosh pit.

Uncle John really needs to work on his silly face.

And this pic is from a show Wade had last week. It's a good one so I thought I would throw it into the mix.

These are more picks from the butterfly bio dome.

Hope your week is going well. I have an exam tomorrow and then midterms are officially over! I promise a better update next week.

Quotes

I've been cleaning out my computer this week. I have a document that I saved that I would use to keep Henry quotes. I think he must have said them in the last year. Hopefully they are not a repost.

"What this Mama, I'm incorporating some danger into my dance moves."
"Do cat bottoms taste good? Is that why they are always licking them?"
"Why did Santa make germs?"
"How do I get my nails to shoot out like cat claws?"
"Dear God, please make the Earth healthy. Please help it stay green. Please make tailpipes that do not release CO2."
"Stop at this station Papa. This music is nice. It makes me feel good. It smells sweet, like flowers."

Weekly Update 10.17.10

This is big time folks. Henry is riding his bike without training wheels! Just last week we were talking about giving it a try and he was still feeling pretty nervous. I figured we would go for it next spring. But on Friday, when I pulled up at Henry's school, I saw a tall blond boy ride past the front of the school on a bike with no training wheels. When he rode by again I realized that the boy was my boy. I asked him, "Henry, did you realize you are riding a 2-wheel bike? No training wheels?" "Oh, it's Braden's," he said. Like that made a difference. We went home, called 10 people to share our news and then headed outside to remove the training wheels from his bike. He is so excited about it and I think he actually likes riding more now. Every day this weekend we went for at least 1 bike ride.
Sadly, except for the bike riding and spending some time playing today (Sunday) I haven't gotten to spend much of the weekend with my boys. I worked 10 hours on Saturday and late in the evening on Friday. Today we put a lot of time into picking up the house and we made a long trip to the library. I'm afraid that the next 2 weeks I may be too busy to make a post. Midterms are coming at me rapid fire and I am feeling a little unprepared. I'll try to squeeze something in but it may be like this post: very few photos, a little boring, and short.
Have a great week friends.

No training wheels!

Weekly Update 10.10.10

A self-portrait by Henry B Kelly.

Happy 10-10-10 blog friends. This week and weekend were jammed packed again. But that's okay, we had a great time. The week was busy with the normal shenanigans of the Kelly household. Laurie worked 12 hour days to close month end and survived another week at school. Wade put the final touches on his EP. Henry had fun at school and with Gigi and Grandpa. Overall, I'd say we were a pretty productive bunch. But then the weekend came and the fun really began. For starters Mama and Papa went on their first date in 4 years. It took a little while for us to get the hang of it. We had a few moments where we slipped into Parent Mode and started talking about schedules and winter clothes...but for the most part we kept the conversation "date-ish" and by the end of the night I think we both felt rejuvenated and ready for the next date night. Hopefully it will not take another 4 years. Henry got to spend the night at Gigi and Grandpa's, something that he has been talking about doing for months. I hear he had a great time. I know he ate pizza and stayed up until 10. I imagine there were some sweet treats in there, but I've learned to not ask too many questions :) He suggested that he spend every Friday with Gigi and Grandpa. We haven't heard back from them about that...humm... Anyway, Saturday morning Mama worked, Henry played and at noon we headed to the LCNS FALL FESTIVAL. Which is basically a mini-carnival. Our school is the cutest school on Earth already, but with balloons, well it's just almost more than I can take. Henry helped make the signs and was very excited about the treasure hunt. It was our first stop. I think he walked away with 3 spider rings, 2 pumpkin erasers and a page of unicorn stickers. Not a bad haul. After that we headed to get his face painted. He requested a tiger. And not just a face on his cheek, he wanted to be a tiger. Julia's Dad did an excellent job. Unfortunately, a tiger face is no match for 2 hours in a jumpy castle. But before we got busy jumping we picked up a green balloon dog and a green sprinkle cupcake.

And we got busy dancing to the Minivans! (Henry isn't actually in this picture because he will not dance in public anymore. Very sad. But he was still feeling it, even as a wall flower.)


I love this picture because Rachel is actually down talking to her preschooler and playing the guitar at the same time. Ahhh parenthood. Personally I'm amazed she could do it. If only we could all be so talented. Next stop, the bouncy castle. It took some persuading to get Henry in there because just as he was taking his shoes off a little girl climbed out crying. He thought that kids were going in healthy and coming out with broken limbs. But we finally convinced him and I have never seen a mind change so quickly. One jump is all it took. This picture looks incriminating but I promise Henry did not just knock down those kids. The tiger face post 2 hours of jumping. Henry closed the place down in that bouncy castle. (This picture also reminds me how tall our child is. Now I know why people don't believe me when I say that he is 4.)
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Today was equally as fun. Henry, Gigi, Kelly and I headed out to Pendletons to check out the butterfly Bio-villa. Like any good trip to a farm, there was a hayride. Henry, once again, gave me the one eye smile.

Then we headed inside the bio-villa. Lots of butterflies. The yellow ones were Henry's favorites.
The obligatory photo opt. Henry's head has been too big for these things since he was about 3 years old.
Next, the cool stuff. Like riding tricycles that can go off-road and ram into things.
And Aunts that will play along.

And a little squash catapulting. Way more fun then you would imagine.
After that it was back home for a long soccer game with Papa while Mama went to work AGAIN and a spaghetti dinner followed by an early bed time. Next week is going to be a busy one. Wade helps at school on Monday and I get to do field research in a stream. Tuesday is our 8 year wedding anniversary which we share with the birthday of my beautiful Mom. Wednesday Wade has a show in KC. On Friday we are going to an amusement park with Kelly and Cooper. And then on Sunday we are all going to poop out and be lazy all day long. Yeah right. Anyway hope your week is great. Henry should have some school pictures to check out pretty soon. And we have some great pictures from John and Lydia's wedding a couple of weeks ago. The little man managed to not give the photographer the squint eye. So grateful for that :) Click here if you want to get a preview. Anyway, have a great week!

ps I apologize for my inability to remain consistantly in either the first person or the third person for an entire paragraph. I also apologize for my lack of commas, not using spellcheck, and other grammatical mishaps. I'm throwing this post up at lightening speed so that I can get back to studying.

Weekly Update 10.04.10

I thought that the end of wedding season for the Kelly's would mean easy, relaxing weekends but boy was I wrong. This week and weekend have been crazy busy, and sadly not in a fun way. I have been at work every day for 3 weeks straight. I have been taking work home to do it in the evenings as well. How do I do my school work when I am spending all my free time doing my work, you wonder? Well the answer is, I don't. So now I am feeling behind at school and at work. Plus I have this great kid that I don't get to hang out with. Bummer.

On Friday I picked Henry up from school and had to chuckle at the group of boys lined up along the railing of the tree house. They just looked like trouble up there. I tried to take a picture but they are just too fast. I was able to take a photo with my phone on my walk to school. Those honeysuckle bushes smell so good. On Friday, after dinner, we packed up a few cupcakes and rode our bikes to the Train Park, which is the perfect park for a game of soccer. We ran around until it got so dark that we couldn't see the ball and then rode home eating our treats. It got chilly quick and has been cool all weekend. Wonderfully cool.

I worked all day on Saturday, which means that there is not photographic evidence of what they boys were up to. I hear there were bike rides and soccer games, and I got to sleep in the incredible fort that they built.

Since I was gone all day Saturday, Sunday become sort of a make up day. We cleaned, we shopped, we had a lazy morning. Henry learned how to spin a top. The first thing he said on Sunday morning was, "Can we see Gigi today? I miss her." I missed her too. We hadn't spoken to each other on Friday or Saturday, which is unheard of for us. So Henry and I called her while we ate our waffles and made a plan to stop by in the afternoon. When we got there Henry hopped on his scooter and we went for a walk and then came home to play ladders. Henry is still learning how to be a good sport. There were a few mini tantrums when his score was the lower score. But he is learning. I took some pictures of him playing with Gigi.

I know the coming week will be busy. We have school and work, like always, but we also have the Fall Fundraiser for LCNS over the weekend, which should be fun. Hope your week is excellent.