Emma cried ALL the way home from the airport, Noah wouldn't stop saying that he wants to go on a plane to Grandma's house, and Isaac already did the math to figure out that it will be 58 days until she comes to visit again! The 3 of them are always SO excited when she comes, and SO sad when she leaves. It breaks my heart!
Noah had a great 4th birthday, today! Dad made him "special" (not frozen) pancakes for breakfast. He asked for candles on his pancake, so we put 4 candles on it and sang "Happy Birthday" to him (of course, we were late to church because of the "festivities", but that's OK).
After church Noah opened presents (more "Thomas" and "Cars" stuff - as if he doesn't already have enough). :)
Then he got to blow out candles AGAIN when we sang to him after dinner. He was so excited about the sorry looking cake I put together for him (I have NO cake decorating skills).
I'm so happy that we had the opportunity to celebrate this special boy today! He is such a sweet kid. He is extremely strong willed (as are all my kids), but also extremely loving and kind. I always say he's my "tender little boy". He still likes to be held and hugged and kissed. One of his favorite things for me to do is hold him like a baby and rock him while HE sings "Rock-a-bye Baby" (of course, this involves me pretending to drop him when he says "the cradle will FALL, and down will come Noah, cradle and all"). I can't believe how fast the last 4 years have gone. It doesn't seem like very long ago that I was holding my new baby boy.
But at the same time, I can hardly remember life without my sweet Noah!
Noah's 4th birthday party (and first "friend" party) was on Friday. We had a really good turnout- 14 kids including Noah. It was a WILD time, and Noah had a blast! We started out in the backyard, then moved into the garage for the games. We had "Luigi's Tire Toss", where the kids threw bean bags into the center of an inflatable tire (Isaac was "in charge" of this game, and he took his job VERY seriously!), "Ramone's House of Body Art" where David put a Cars tattoo on each of the kids, "Mater's Fishing Game" where the kids "fished" for cars, and "McQueen's Craft Corner" where they made Lightning McQueen picture frames (I took a picture of each kid, then printed it out during the party and gave it to them to go in the frame).
Then it was time for "Happy Birthday" and cupcakes! This was my favorite part because the kids all sat quietly while they stuffed their faces.
Emma was hilarious! She put her cupcake on the ground and then leaned over every time she wanted to take a bite. I guess it's fun to eat like a dog.
Then back to the backyard for the pinata. I love the Lightning McQueen pinata we had! After pinata, we all went inside for presents. Noah had so much fun opening all of them, and the kids were all excited to see him open the present they brought him! They are so sweet at this age!
I'm glad the party was a success! I love my Noah!
On Thursday evening, my mom and I took the kids to the Frisco "Fair in the Square". It was fun and just the right size fair for little kids. Noah's favorite ride was the motorcycles. He insisted on riding the back of the motorcycle, because he said it was "safer" for him there. Isaac's favorite ride was the little roller coaster. He rode it twice all by himself! I was so proud of him, and he was so proud of himself. Emma was pretty bored and really wanted to get out of her stroller, but when my mom tried to take her on the carousel, she was too scared! Oh well. It was a fun evening (and David was glad my mom was here to go with me and the kids so he didn't have to go)!
Noah wanted "spiky" hair like his big brother. I hardly recognize him now! He looks so big!
Yesterday the weather was beautiful (which doesn't happen every day in Texas), so we decided to do something fun as a family. We went to Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano (thanks SO much to Lori for mentioning it on her blog, or I wouldn't have even known it was there!!).
The kids had fun playing on the playground, walking along the trails (some paved, some not paved), and eating a picnic lunch.
When we were walking along the trails, we saw lots of these (VERY cool):
We made it all the way to the lookout tower (which the kids thought was pretty cool).
Here's the view from the lookout tower:
The most amazing thing about the day was that we had a GREAT time! No fits (except Noah crying when we had to leave - but that's inevitable), no yelling, everyone actually seemed happy. Most of our family "outings" don't go quite as well. :) We often ask ourselves why we even TRY to do fun things, because it usually doesn't end up being very fun. Now I know the answer: because it CAN be fun! Shout it from the rooftops, "The Clark family CAN go on an outing as a family and have a FABULOUS time!"
David and I are official Texans as of today. We finally turned in our California Driver's Licenses for Texas ones. It only took us one year and 4 days to get that done...
Ever wonder why there is so much Texas Pride? It's because they start 'em young! Take a look at a few of the things Isaac has brought home from school lately...
And here's a little story that'll tell you everything you ever needed to know about Texas:
Seriously though, Texas Pride is one of the things that drew us to this great state. I think it's pretty cool that it's cool to love Texas. So, don't mess with Texas!
Isaac found his lunch box at school, and he informed me that he took everything out of the brown paper bag and put it into the lunch box. I guess he didn't have to be the class dork after all.
This morning I couldn't find Isaac's lunch box, so I packed his lunch in a brown paper bag. When I told him that his lunch was in a brown bag, he asked why I didn't just have him buy lunch if I couldn't find his lunch box. I said to him, "There's nothing wrong with bringing a brown paper bag. I brought a brown bag lots of times when I was a kid" (in actuality, I don't remember what I brought my lunch in when I was in Elementary School, but in High School my mom packed my lunch in a white bag that she stamped all cute for me).
His response to my comment: "Mom. You were a kid in the 19's [meaning 1900's]. This is 2008! That was like 23 years ago [he subtracted his age (6) from my age (29) to get that number]. I haven't seen anyone in the First Grade at my school bringing their lunch in a brown paper sack."
So, I guess I'm really ancient and out of touch! Hopefully we find his lunch box soon. :)
Last Monday we had our first Tornado Warning since moving to Texas. The sirens went off and everything. We (Isaac, Noah, Emma and I) went in the master bedroom closet (first floor interior room, no windows, and part of it is under the stairs - which I guess is the safest place to be). David refused to come in the closet because it didn't even look windy outside, which caused Isaac great distress. Isaac is my little panicker, and he REALLY wanted David to get in the closet with us. Luckily it was only a few minutes and the sirens turned off and we saw online that it had been downgraded to a Tornado Watch, so we were safe to come out. It definitely added a little drama to our Monday afternoon!
By the way, the picture I attached is just a random tornado pic I found online. But it sure makes this post look more exciting, doesn't it?
In the mornings before school, Isaac usually reads with David. He gets ready, then they read with whatever time is left. The other day, when Isaac came downstairs after his shower, he didn't have any socks on. I scolded him for forgetting his socks, then proceeded to go upstairs and get some for him while he sat down on the couch and started reading. When I came back down, Emma was placing these socks next to him:
They are Noah's socks, which she found at the bottom of the stairs. What a sweet little girl! She heard me tell him he needed socks, and she wanted to help out! It made me smile. :)
Last Friday (March 28) I went on a Field Trip to the Dallas World Aquarium (with all of the first graders from Isaac's school). It's a pretty cool place, and actually much more than an aquarium (there are lots of other animals that aren't ocean animals). It was fun. We were pretty rushed, though, so I told Isaac we'll have to go back sometime when we have more time to look around at everything . I don't think he minded rushing, though. Both he and Dayveon (the other little boy I was in charge of), wanted to run from one thing to the next. They were really excited to see the sharks, and kept asking how much longer 'til we got to the sharks. Then when we got there, they just glanced at them for about 20 seconds, and then wanted to move on. Short attention span, I guess. :)
After seeing the aquarium, we all (four classes, plus an adult for about every other kid) walked a few blocks to the Spaghetti Factory for lunch. That place is HUGE! We went upstairs to a gigantic room that we filled up a little more than halfway. The food was good, and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. Isaac kept saying, "This is really fun!"
Thanks to Stefani for watching Emma, and thanks to Ally for watching Noah, so I could go on the Field Trip!
