Merry Christmas!

All dressed up for the Christmas Program at school. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures or videos there. Which is really too bad, because I would love to be able to show you how he was singing and rockin' out on stage! He is quite the performer. Maybe I can get a copy from someone else. He really put on a show. I could hear him clearly among the other kids.

Here's our beautiful Christmas tree.

We need to eat more carrots......

We got a note from Ry's school the other day saying he had failed the vision test. They had done a hearing and vision screening and said that Ry needed further testing. So I set him up an appointment at an optical center.

The doctor put the letters up on the board and asked Ry to read them after a few minutes he turned to us and asked, "He does know all his letters, Right?" He was not doing so well. Initially I thought maybe he just wasn't cooperating when they did the screening at school. Nope, the doctor said he needs glasses and he is to wear them all the time. Plus he has a stigmatism in both eyes.

We finally picked them up today. When he put them on for the first time at the store, I asked him how they looked and he said wow, it's so clear.

He looks pretty handsome!

Trick or Treat!!

Last night was Trick-or-Treat in our neighborhood. Ry's still prefers to give out the candy instead of actually going to get candy. We made up 225 candy/glow-sticks to give out and then I had another 2 bags of candy bars, about 50 pieces, so about 275 total. Gone in about 45 minutes. It's amazing how many kids (and I use that term loosely, as the age range that came to our door was between 0 and 65) showed up.

Ry was dancing to help advertise that we had candy

Notice Chica in her lobster costume. Always a big hit with the crowds.

We did finally go to a few houses, but not many. He got his fill of T-o-T pretty quickly.

He's almost 6....

Today I am taking cupcakes into Ry's kindergarten class to celebrate his birthday. Here are the cupcakes I made.

I am pretty pleased with the end result. I only had a few minor issues that no one but me would even notice. I can't say I am a pro at making the chocolate frosting for the cupcakes that W posted on the cooking site. My frosting turns out really crumble-y and doesn't stick to the cupcakes very well. Fortunately with these cupcakes you cover them with dirt (aka cookie crumbs) so you can't tell, and it tastes good so that's what really counts right?

Anyway, hopefully the kids will like them.

Hot Air Balloon Festival

We went to a Hot Air Balloon Festival this weekend. It was so great! It was a local event so we didn't have to drive far to get it. While I think they had a good turn out, we don't like big crowds and while we were there it was not overly crowded.

They had tethered balloon rides


We only had to wait about 20 minutes


Here we are going up...

It was scary, loud, fun, exciting and hot!

We went up about 100 feet and I was pretty freaked out. Our Pilot said it gets better the higher you go becasue you lose your perspective of the ground.

You can really feel the heat when they flame the balloon. It's really only a few feet above your head. I was surprised how close it was.

We all loved it. I would love to do an actual balloon ride, but that was alot more $$$.

Best 5th of July Ever!

We had a great 4th of July, except we did it on the 5th! Daddy had to work on the 4th so we had our celibration a day later. I'm sure my neighbors really appreciated it. The kids loved it!

mmmm chips!



He loves it...

He's not so sure..

He loves it....
It's loud....
Daddy safely extinguishing all fireworks!

Climbing trees!

Isn't he getting tall!!

Home Improvement

Look at the beautiful pergola we put up on the back porch. We are still looking for some patio furniture to put under it, but even now it's such an improvement from the nothing we had out there before. Since we are not great at the do-it-yourself stuff, we feel pretty proud of this project. What you can't see is that the concrete pad was pretty chipped up so C had to use concrete patch to try to even out the concrete. That was quite an ordeal, I'm so proud of him for all his hard work.

Look Ma no training wheels!

(Okay, I think I am finally caught up. This post actually happened this weekend. June 12, 2010)

Daddy took the training wheels off Ry's bike about 2 months ago. They spent about 5 minutes that day trying to ride with out the t.w. and Ry quit. He said it was too hard and he has not wanted to try ever since. I tried to talk C into putting the training wheels back on because I felt so much safer with them on. (Over-protective much? yeah, I know) But, he wouldn't, said Ry was ready. C just kept asking Ryan if he wanted to go out and practice, to which Ry would say "No thanks, I want to ride my scooter. He's gotten really good at that scooter, which actually I think helped give him that sense of balance.
Saturday early afternoon after a little extra coaxing C talked Ryan into going out to give a try one more time. I kid you not, fifteen minutes later he came back in and said they had something to show me. I was so impressed. He totally got it. He was so proud of himself, and we were too!

Next up teaching him to tie his shoes....

The kids put on a little presentation for all the parents as an end of year celebration. It was really cute. They sang some songs, the teachers spoke and there was a picture slide show. Ry was so funny singing the songs, he was dance and really getting into it. Such a showman!

Ry, his best friend and Mrs. Scheaffer, his teacher

Ry and the two assistant teachers Ms. Laura and Ms. Gina