He's Home

After several delays in the day he was arriving as well as several changes in the time, James is home.

Macen was thrilled to see him. He kept saying before the soldiers marched in that this was going to be cool and then as each group entered the gym, Macen excitedly clapped with everyone. After a prayer from the chaplain and a 10 second speech from the boss, the soldiers were released. James didn't have too much trouble finding us this time. We had an obnxiously large guitar shaped balloon for him to identify us. (After James' 1st deployment, him and I spent a good 10 mins searching for each other in a large gym filled with many soldiers and family members. I wasn't going to let that happen again). The friends we sat with also had an off the wall balloon leaving us the only people in the gym with balloons that weren't 'Welcome Home' or red, white and blue. No way could he miss us.

We are enjoying a few days of quality time before James starts reintegration and then eventually work.

School Program

Macen's school had a program/fundraiser last weekend. They have been working on a theme of "A Trip Around the World" for several months now. The kids were divided into groups and represented different countries. Macen was in the group representing America so he was a firefighter for the his part of the skit.

Macen's group sang along to a song about firefighters. He did a great job!

After the program, there were activities set up for the kids. One of which was using a fire hose to knock over some cans. This one was a huge hit with all the kids. Another one was painting a snake on the kids arm/hand. Macen also loved this and named his - snake-co. He did not want to wash him off that night so it took some convincing. As I tucked him into bed that night he stated he missed snake-co and the next day Macen noticed we didn't get all the paint off the side of his arm. His reply was that snake-co was coming back to see him.

Outdoor Fun

One of the neighbor girls got a slip n slide and Macen took a chance on it. Enjoy the pics because it's not likely he'll be doing it again this summer. He had orginally went down on a portion if it with jean shorts and didn't slide well so I got his trunks. The first pic is where he started getting scared of it. And since he is the weight of a feather you can imagine how he flew over the bump and then past the end. It was placed on a steep hill so all the kids were sliding close to the sidewalk. As soon as he stopped he started crying because it was scary. I knew he was going to be mad but all I could do is laugh.  I was shocked he wanted to actually do it and then to watch him go through it was too much.

Macen got a bubble gun for his birthday and it is a huge hit. It has become a neighborhood fave since several kids have them.

The kids have been dragging hoses from the houses on the other side of the playground for a couple of weeks now to play in the sand and this weekend they realized it would also reach the slide.

Party Time

We went with a Pirate party and it was a lot of fun. I made his invites on regular paper then soaked them in tea to discolor them. Then I put them in the dryer for a few minutes to stiffen them up and when they were fully dry I took a lighter to the edges. I rolled them like a map, wrapped them in twine and hung them on the invitees doors. Super easy and they turned out great!

The tent was a fun for them but it was really windy so it was blowing over at times. Evenutally it got cold enough we took the party inside.

We did a treasure hunt with nursery rhymes.

*Clue #1 - the itsy bitsy spider went up the ____ _____. They found a small treasure chest with empty goody bags and eye patches.
*Clue #2 - one, two buckle my shoe. three, four open the ____. They found rings and bracelets in this chest.
*Clue #3 - jack and jill went up the hill to fetch a _____ of water. They found a mardi gras beads and the final clue here
*Clue #4 - baa, baa black sheep have you any wool, yes sir, yes sir ____ ____ ____. They found 3 "treasure chests" pcitured above full of goodies to put in their bags. There was some pirate stuff in there but mainly it was Macens faves like pez dispensers and fruit snacks.

We had to light his candles inside because the wind was so bad. He wanted them lit over and over :)

And I need to show off my pirate ice. Too cute!

Everyone had a great time and Macen loved having his friends at his house. As I tucked him into bed tonight I told him he was four now. He laughed and said "Maybe tomorrow I can be 5".

Happy Birthday Macen!

Our little guy isn't so little anymore. He is the big 4 now! When I told him it was his birthday this morning he responded with "You're so crazy!" Here he is with a gift from us. It was a huge hit! He played with it most of the morning.

We love you Macen!

Egg hunting

We had a neighborhood dinner and egg hunt for the kids. There is an egg hunt on post but it is mass chaos with so many kids and I didn't want to deal with it. Good thing because they didn't have near enough eggs for the amount of kids that showed up. The egg hunt we did was perfect because there were only 7 kids, 3 of which were older and helped the younger ones while still hunting for some themselves. The kids had a blast and loved it!

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny visited Macen leaving him goodies and hidden eggs. He loved the drink, Toy Story kinderegg and fruit snacks in his basket.

He had no problem finding the hidden eggs and even managed to eat all the hershey kisses inside them within an hour. I think it's time the Easter bunny steps up his game. Macen was hopped up on sugar all day long between the kisses and the fruit snacks. Thankfully he did share the box of fruit snacks with all the neighbor kids but he still managed to devour a few packages on his own.