Grant Man Is 5!

Yes, my baby turned 5. He has been counting down the days till his birthday, and he was more than a little excited when it was finally his big day...

We woke him up with the Happy Birthday song.

He got breakfast in bed (sticky buns, of course),

and pretty soon we were all eating breakfast upstairs with him. 

We had preschool at our house, then a play day at the park with Matthew, then it was time for dinner and cake and icecream. Grant made things easy for me (as usual) and asked for Papa John's pizza for dinner. He wanted the Schmutz family to come to the party. And he wanted a Duke basketball cake. Yes, I think you can have all those things, Grant Boy.

I made the mistake of telling Grant just before bedtime that there is one thing I don't like about having my kids turn 5--it means they have to go to kindergarten soon. His face clouded up, and pretty soon he was lying in bed crying about having to leave me and go to school. I felt like an awesome mom for sure, ruining his birthday. :( We talked about how we still have lots of months left and so many exciting things to do--have our baby, move to Minneapolis, go to Utah, spend a whole summer together--before he'll start school. And I know he'll love kindergarten and all his new friends. But he wasn't convinced. He says he'll be too sad to go to school. You know what, buddy, I'm right there with you. (It's a good thing I have this new baby coming or else I would be having a major meltdown thinking about all of this!)

I love this kid.

These last few pics are from today, his first day as a big 5-year-old. He LOVED all his presents and has been so happy playing with all them: his new Duke ball, his big indoor basketball hoop, his Iron Man Legos from Nana and Popsy, his calculator from Kimball and Liza, and his cool magnet set from Nana and Grandpa, and more. Fun stuff.

Happy Birthday, Grant!

Coulam & Hansen Time!

After Juli and Taylor's trip had to be delayed two weeks because of snow and flight cancellations, they finally arrived at our house on February 25th and got to stay for a whole week. We had so much fun playing with Trace and Asher and Seth--they're all such sweet boys! And Juli and Taylor are so easy to please--they were happy whether we were touring the Biltmore or just hanging out at home in our pjs. We visited the Life and Science Museum here in Durham, Pullen Park in Raleigh, explored the Biltmore in Asheville, went to Kimball's basketball game, visited Duke campus and Duke Gardens. Juli and Taylor's little family even headed off on their own to the coast for a quick day trip. We also spent a lot of time here at our house with the kids playing Beyblades and basketball, reading books together, and yes, there were even a few Avenger fights. We ate lots of good food. Even though I was a party pooper some nights and went to bed early, there were some good late-night chats and games with the old Hill-house roomies. Very fun memories!

Life & Science Museum...

Pullen Park...

Asheville!

Sunday morning...

Duke Campus...

Duke Gardens...

Thanks for coming, Coulams! We loved having you here.

Crazy February 2014

Usually the month of February seems boring and slow to me, but this year it was crazy! During February and this first week of March, we had several days with no school because of snow, ice, or freezing rain. The weather has been so strange lately with really warm days (in the 60s and even 70s) scattered in between severe storms. Check out the pictures I took the morning after our latest freezing rain... the trees looked so cool! But the power outages from fallen trees were not so cool. It's all made for an exciting last winter season in NC, that's for sure. With Valentine's Day, gymnastics, basketball, scouts, doctors visits for me and the kids, a weekend visit from Mark's brother Tim, and the Coulams coming for a week, we've had an exciting month. Here are some pics from the last month or so... (I'll do a separate post of pics from the Coulam's visit.)

This is what happens when it rains for hours and then the temperatures drop below freezing (while it continues to rain). It was pretty amazing.

Another ice pic taken through the window.
Our power was out so I didn't dare to open the front door and let the cold air in! 

Liza's new favorite reading spot

Valentine's dinner... We kept up with our tradition of getting take-out from Cook Out (an awesome little Southern chain restaurant here) and eating at home on our fancy china. 

And of course we had to have heart-shaped sugar cookies and chocolate strawberries, some of my favorite parts of Valentines Day. :)

Kimball earning his Bear at the Blue and Gold Banquet

Liza is loving gymnastics (yes, I love it too!)

Tim came out to go to the Duke vs Syracuse game with Mark. They had the awesome tickets Mark got from the Eye Center, so they were right down by the court. And best of all, it turned out to be a great game!