Peyton graduated from Kindergarten!!

Ok, so I almost became one of those moms that cried during the entire assembly at Peyton’s kindergarten graduation.  I really hadn’t expected to be so emotional at the small half hour presentation, but I had to hold my breath quite a few times just to keep the tears back!!

Everyone marched in and found their spots.  Once Peyton eyed Jaxson in the crowd he was VERY happy and was pointing him out to all his friends.  They sang the ABC song, but even better they sang it forwards, backwards and also did each letter in sign language.  What an amazing thing to teach these kids at such an early age!  I hope it only reinforces the value of acceptance of others.

They also sang a second song of “First Grade, First Grade” to the tune of “New York, New York” and we had a full blown Broadway number with high leg kicks and everything!!  The girls wore glittery head bands and each of the boys got a top hat with a glittery stripe.

I’m not sure if I can really post the picture of Peyton with his teacher, Mrs. Brown, but it is very cute.  I absolutely LOVED his teacher this year and hope she’s there to have Jaxson too. 

So, here’s my brand new 1st Grader!  I know it’s just the beginning and it was a Kindergarten graduation, not high school, but I couldn’t be prouder of the young man he is becoming.  I love you to the moon and back Peyton!!!

Dutch Wonderland

What an unbelievable day!  Ok, so we missed out on the whole weekend part and Chocolate World, but Saturday at Dutch Wonderland and the chance to meet so many of our POLP friends and families was incredible!!!  Hopefully if we make this a yearly event, Jaxson will be old enough to handle the whole weekend next year!

Peyton made a new friend in Trace’s older sister, Taylor.  He was so excited that there was going to be someone there his age and they seemed to have a good time together.

 

Peyton had a blast riding all kinds of things.  Together we rode roller coasters and anything and everything that would spin really fast!  Unfortunately since I was riding, there aren’t many pictures, but I loved being able to have so much fun with him.  Here is one from the swings and come on, who doesn’t like the swings?

Jaxson unfortunately did not like any rides.  I’m going to take the blame on this one and say I traumatized him on the very first ride.  I loved the tilt-a-whirl as a kid, but I gotta admit Jaxson is probably too young to enjoy it.  Anyway, we all four rode it together and Jax HATED it.  After that I thought ok, we’ll try the carousel.  Who doesn’t like the carousel and it can’t be that bad, right??

WRONG!!!

So sorry Jax!  He did enjoy his day being strolled around in the stroller and sipping lemonade all day!

While waiting to get the group picture taken and ride the train, we came across Duke’s dance show so we decided to take a little break and let the kids watch.  Duke is a huge purple dinosaur and he had two people dressed as jokers dancing with him.  Peyton once again had a good time and even danced a little….

This was him “shakin’ his tail feathers” during the chicken dance!!

I think Jaxson was a little weirded out by the jokers and their dancing…..

And here was one of my favorite parts of the day…….Everyone got together and we tried very hard to get a group shot of the kids.  Let’s just say Jaxson was on the move.  He was so happy to be out of the stroller that he kept walking off.  Oh well, here’s a few of the shots I got……

It was so nice to meet so many POLP families.  We are very blessed to live in an area where Jaxson has the chance to grow up with this many friends close by.  Many thanks to Jenn Greene for organizing the whole thing and we can’t wait to connect with many more people in Nashville!!!

Blue Angels

Wow, what an amazing day!  Saturday Jason and I took Peyton to see the Blue Angels.  It was a joint open house day at the airforce base so not only did we see the Blue Angels fly, but there were all types of other planes in the airshow and parachute jumpers. 

 

This is “Fat Albert”.  It’s the plane that is used to carry all the supplies for the Blue Angels.

We had an absolutely amazing time!

Ice Cream Cake

Sorry it’s taken me so long to get this recipe posted, but it’s been quite hectic and I just haven’t had a chance to sit down to type it.  Anyway, I think I got this from a Kraft magazine:

 

1/2 Cup fudge ice cream topping, warmed

1 Tub (8 oz) Cool Whip, thawed and divided

1 pkg (4 serving size) Jello-O Chocolate Instant Pudding

8 Oreo Cookies

12 Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches

Pour fudge topping into a medium bowl.  Stir in 1 cup of the whipped topping with a wire whisk until it’s well blended.  Add in the dry pudding mix; stir 2 minutes or until well blended.  If mixture is too thick to spread easily, stir in 1/4 cup of milk.

Chop Oreo cookies roughly into chunks.  Stir into pudding mixture.  Arrange 4 of the ice cream sandwiches side by side on a 24 x 12 inch piece of aluminum foil; top with half of the pudding mixture.  Repeat the layers.  Top the pudding mixture with the remaining 4 ice cream sandwiches.  Frost the top and side with the remaining whipped cream.  Bring up the foil sides.  Double fold top and ends loosely sealing the packet.  Freeze at least 4 hours before serving. 

Peyton’s 6th Birthday

 

Ok, when did a birthday turn into a birth”week” or longer??  I guess it’s always been that way at our house, but wow, this has been exhausting, although a lot of fun and Peyton has really enjoyed himself!!

Last Sunday was the start of everything.  We planned a birthday party and a little cookout for Peyton’s family birthday.  All of our families came over and helped us celebrate.  I really enjoyed having everyone here, although the kids spent most of the time outside and I don’t really think anyone saw Peyton except for presents and cake time! 

Peyton was very happy to get a ball bag for all of his baseball gear from his mom-mom and pop-pop.  I think Jason and I are equally as excited since it’s now much easier to carry all that stuff across the field too!

Here’s his birthday cake for this party too.  I know it doesn’t look like much, but it  is the best and easiest ice cream cake I have ever made.  It’s made with ice cream sandwiches, chocolate pudding, crushed oreos and cool whip!  YUM!!!

Peyton’s actual birthday was the 21st.  Although he had school that day he got a couple of presents from us that night.  As soon as I walked thru the door from work he wanted to know where I hid his presents!  Just look how nice he was to allow his little brother to help open them.

 

He also got to pick what he wanted for dinner.  Of course, it was not for mom to cook, but rather his favorite pizza place!

And FINALLY, we had a little party this weekend for some of Peyton’s school friends.  He invited a few friends from school and we planned to roast hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire pit.  I didn’t really plan any games or activities for the kids and it’s a good thing because they spent the entire party chasing each other around the yard!  Boys can be sooo easy at times!!!

One More Appointment to GO!!!

Jaxson had three doctor appointments on Tuesday.  We went back to Johns Hopkins for a follow up with Dr. Tunkel about the ear tubes and a hearing test.  Since we were already going to the hospital I decided to make an appointment with the ortho doctor for Jaxson’s checkup so we finally got to meet Dr. Ain. 

All of the appointments went very well and we were very pleased.   Dr. Tunkel is happy with the placement of the tubes and the hearing test showed improvement in Jaxson’s hearing so it looks like the tubes are doing their job! YEAH!!!

Dr. Ain was also very nice.  We didn’t really spend a whole lot of time with him since Jax is doing so well and we didn’t have many questions.  He watched him walk around the room a little, checked his back and his hips.  Now we only need to see him once a year!!!! 

We have one more appointment coming up with Dr. Hoover-Fong in a couple of weeks to go over Jaxson’s overall care for his achondroplasia.  After that we shouldn’t have any more appointments for at least 6 months!  God, that will be so nice.  It’s great living so close to these absolutely amazing hospitals, but I’ll be happy to not have to make that drive for a little while. 

Happy Easter (a little late….)

Ok, so it’s been quite a while since our last post and I’m really running late on the Easter post, but life is just CRAZY!  I was going over the calendar of everything we have going on and I honestly don’t have a free Saturday between now and June!  GEEZ!!  Life is good though, even though we are very busy it’s mostly fun stuff we have scheduled. 

Anyway, Easter was great.  We couldn’t have asked for better weather around here.  I actually got my first sunburn of the year!  Not that I ever get anything else being so fair skinned, but hey, it was great to sit outside at with my inlaws and again with my family to enjoy all of the Easter Egg Hunts and time with our families.  Here are a few pictures of our day.

Peyton and Jaxson had a great time dyeing Easter eggs.  Oh and Kim, we did get lucky enough to get the wax crayon so they could write their names of the eggs, but we only got 3 colors.

 

And of course, the Easter baskets……..

Can you tell Jaxson was really excited about his new Elmo coloring book?

The Easter bunny finally found some new hats for Jaxson that fit.  And Jax was nice enough to share that prized Elmo coloring book with his brother!

Here is one of the three, yes three, Easter Egg Hunts the boys had.