Third Best Friend

How many best friends can one boy have?

Well, if you are my Ben, you attract a lot of best friends.  One of his strongest abilities is his ease in making friends.  He loves everyone and it seems everyone loves him as well.

I remember his kindergarten teacher last year telling me that she finally had to set up a rotation system during "circle time" so that enough kids got the chance to sit by him.  Too many arguments were erupting at story time.

This year, yet again, we have a brand new location, brand new school, brand new teacher, brand new friends, same old problem: too many kids want to be his best friend.

This was humorously pointed out at his birthday party last weekend.

I know it is not always done to open presents during the birthday party, but Ben insisted this be part of the "schedule" of his party, so the shirtless and soggy boys (shirtless and soggy from the fairly intense water fight they had) all crowded as close to Ben as possible, each shoving their presents in his face, encouraging him to "Open mine first, Ben!  You're going to LOVE it!"

The gifts were all perfect; just what a 7-year old boy dreams of: transformers, legos, light sabers, and spy gear.  He was quite pleased with the loot.

What really got to Matt and me though was one of the cards.  It read

"Dear Ben,
Happy Birthday
Your third friend
Jake"

When we saw that card, Matt and I just laughed.  I asked Jake what "third friend" meant and he clearly explained that although Mitchell is his "first best friend" and Luke is his "second best friend," he proudly boasted possessing the title of "third best friend!"

At this point, the other boys chimed in with their placings:

"Yeah!  I'm his 5th best friend!"

"I'm his 4th!"

"No you're not, I am!"

Clearly, they have all sorted this out before and most of them have no problem with their standings.  Each are pretty happy just to be in there somewhere.

The Fun is in the Wrapping!

My big boy just got a whole year older! It's true! He aged a year overnight! He went to bed only six years old, and woke up a 7-year-old! Pretty sure that is the way my kids picture getting older. It's a fun notion.

I just have to say, that although Ben loves his birthday - the attention, the gifts, the cake and ice cream, just "feeling special," I think Mitchell might love his birthday just as much!

All throughout the week leading up to the big day, Mitchell was busy busy. Finding treasures and wrapping them up. It was sweet that he was picking out treasures from his collection, but the ways he wrapped them was so cute! He used cardboard and colored paper; paper plates and napkins; electrical tape and about an entire roll of scotch tape.

When gift opening time came, these gifts had to come first. He just couldn't wait to deliver them to Ben. We had to go all over the house, retrieving the gifts from their hiding places he stashed them in. He had so many hidden that we even missed one. I just found it on my shoe shelf in my closet.

I am so thankful my boys have brothers. I pray nothing ever comes or stays between them.

BMOC

Mitchell has a tshirt that reads "BMOC" on the back and he has taken quite a liking to it. It is his favorite jammy shirt and often ends up sneaking back out of the laundry and back on him after I have already put something else on him. I am not sure why he likes it, other than it is soft and comfy, but he likes to have me remind him quite often what the letters stand for "Big Man On Campus." Who knows why Mitchell is what he is and likes what he likes. He just is :)

I have been thinking about his love of this shirt today as I reflect on the fact that he is almost five now! This doesn't shock me or make me wonder where the time has gone. In fact, he has seemed five for some time now to me. He just has an "oldness" and a "coolness" about him, I think. Five suits him well. It's a good age for him.

In true "cool" Mitchell style, he easily accepted and dealt with the fact that I would not be able to be here on his actual birthday. Perhaps it was so easy to accept because it meant he got to have his party a few days early.

Although we have all been battling sickness all week long, we went ahead with the party and everyone had fun. We made our own ice cream sundaes with more toppings than ice cream, painted robots (and the floor and the walls, and Jack's tummy, and dad's shoes...), and, of course, opened presents! He even got to get up early and go out with dad and pick out his own new bike!

Happy birthday, my Middle Boy! You bring humor and laughter and joy to my life every day! You are truly my "Dude-style" dude and I love you!

As cool as he was with me being gone on the real birthdate, I'm pretty sure he is holding out for some special "dude time" on his actual birthday. What that will consist of, I can only hazard a guess...

A BMW named Mater

My BMW-loving 2-year-old finally got one of his own.

He cruised around on this bad boy all afternoon yelling "Watch out! Here comes the W! Here comes Mater!" Why not... Mater's a pretty cool character and at least he didn't name his car Moto Moto the hippo.

Happy birthday, my littlest big boy! So excited for you to be a 2-year-old finally!

We'll Just Ignore Him For A While

Sometimes, Jack just doesn't want to cooperate with the family. Last weekend, we were celebrating Matt's birthday, enjoying a nice BBQ out on the patio - well, I should say, attempting to enjoy the BBQ. Jack was not happy about something and once he was told "no" one too many times for his liking, he lost it.

Now what do you do when your baby won't stop crying, simply because he isn't getting his way? Well, I don't know what you do with yours, but after attempting appropriate distraction without giving in to his demands, I knew we were just in for a little fit.

Now, as he was sitting right next to Matt this evening and he was being quite loud, Matt had the great idea to just turn his chair around to face away from us and ignore him until he could calm himself down and stop his silliness.

Once again, my blogging obsession took over and rather than being heartbroken that my poor baby was upset or annoyed that my child is acting embarrassingly and never admitting to such things in my own children, I ran for my camera. Seeing Jack turned backwards at the table, facing away from the action while the rest of us went on with dinner as usual, pretending we could not hear him was just too funny to leave unrecorded. So.... I snapped a few shots.

(I will admit that I felt a little badly taking pictures of him in this state; not out of embarrassment, but out of fear of what my little guy must be thinking of his evil mother for making a joke out of his ordeal.)

As you can see from that last shot, his dislike over being excluded from the action dried his eyes and he just stopped the crying. After a minute or so of peaking over his shoulder at us, we turned him back around and he was ready to rejoin us! Of course, the arrival of birthday cake may have had something to do with his change of mood...

Dragon Makes a Friend: A Play For Dad

My handsome hubby had a birthday this weekend! While I personally am not one to make a huge deal about birthdays, my boys are just crazy about them - their own, each other's, mine, Matt's, really anyone's as long as they get to be a part of it!

The boys woke up bright and early, eager to FINALLY give dad their present they were so excited about and that we had all wrapped up (and then rewrapped after Jack thought it was for him) the day before. As happy as Matt was to receive his thoughtful gifts from his sons, (Mitchell wanted to keep wrapping up more and more of his toys to give him, plus they both made him 3 or 4 cards each, plus the knife) I think the boys might have been even more excited. Mitchell's feet were just dancing around all morning. He just could not stand still and was hopping around and spinning and grinning and... just being so Mitchell.

After the presents, it was time to get down to the entertainment: the play they worked so hard on all week! Remember my fairy wings? Well, it was time to get them out of hiding, get them on, get costumes on, set up the stage, get the props, and paint Mitchell's face! It was like a party around here!

We had a blast. Ben remembered every one of his lines, Mitchell looked fabulous as Jack Skellington in his tuxedo, the sets turned out so nice, and our front porch was just the perfect stage as daddy and Jack and Uncle Carl sat down below in the audience, cheering us on.

I am so proud of my boys. They love their dad so much and were so excited to do this for him. They are already planning their next production and I have heard rumors of a space theme with an astronaut dog and a space alien. I wouldn't be surprised if a dragon or skeleton made it in there too somehow...

Secrets

Matt's birthday is coming up. For the boys, this momentous occasion is only slightly less exciting than their own birthdays. We love sitting around while Dad is at work, talking about him and what kind of things he might like as presents for this big day.

This year, the boys have come up with some good ideas: a motorcycle, a bicycle, a helmet, weights, track shoes, a sword, and a space ship (Mitchell is quite mad about outer space right now...)

The boys and I decided that they could chip in some of their own money to get dad a pocket knife (that's almost a sword, right?) and I ordered one online. Today, it arrived.

I wasn't thinking when I opened up the package (if I had been thinking, I would not have opened it up in front of them) but when they saw what was in there, they were beside themselves with excitement! Three reasons why they were so excited: 1. a package came in the mail, 2. it was dad's present, and 3. it was a knife!

They wanted to hold it and "try it out" and open and close it. They wanted to carry it around in their pockets. Jack just wanted to get a turn to hold it (yeah right.) They wanted to wrap it and give it to him as soon as he got home!

I convinced them that it would be more special if we wait until his actual birthday to give him his gift, so we put it away somewhere secret and swore to each other not to talk about it at all to dad. This is where Ben gave Mitchell a stern look and with an even sterner voice said, "Mitchell, you can't spoil the surprise! You can't talk about it at all! You can't ruin it! Do you even know how to keep a secret?"

Well, half way through dinner tonight, Mitchell started to leak. It was just too much to keep quiet. "Hey Dad! We got you a birthday present but I'm not going to tell you what it is!" This is when Ben started evil-eyeing him. "We got the packadidge today, but we hid it away and it's a secret!" This is where Ben told Mitchell to stop talking.

I am sure Mitchell thought he was changing the subject here and wasn't spoiling anything, but his next comment made Matt and me laugh, and Ben punch him in the arm. "So maybe when I'm a man, I could have a pocket knife too?"

Matt pretended to be none the wiser and we eventually got Mitchell to start talking about something un-knife or birthday related, but it must be heavy on his mind because it came up again later, when he and dad were having some "dude time" doing a project together down in the basement. "Dad, we should get some knives to work on stuff together... But I'm not going to tell you what we got you for your birthday!"

I wonder how often "knives" will come up in conversation in the next couple weeks...

Did You Eat That?

Matt's family made a birthday dinner for me with chocolate cupcakes for dessert last night. It was all quite delicious, but no one thought it more delicious than Mitchell, apparently.

Today, Grandma gave him a leftover cupcake for a snack. When I saw Jack wandering around with the cupcake, leaving a trail of chocolate crumbs in his wake, I had to check with Mitchell to find out why he had given it away.

When I asked him why he gave it to Jack, he said, "Oh, I ate the yummy part and gave Jack the rest! I ate that paper part around it!"

I didn't quite believe him at first, but I searched for some time and could not find the wrapper. He actually ate the paper wrapper and gave away the cake! Oh, he makes me chuckle...

Sent from my iPhone

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

Today is Jack's birthday!  I am tempted to say "I can't believe he's one already!" but I actually can believe it.  He seems "one."  It is a good age for him and we in the Norquist house are loving each new phase he grows into, each new skill he masters, each wobbly zombie step he takes as he crawls less and less.  Gone are his infant days, and while they were special in their own way, I am not missing them too much.  What a little character this guy is becoming!

As I sit thinking about his birthday and wondering what plans to make for this special day, I am left in a quandary over what to give him as a gift, as he has everything he could possibly need handed down to him (and sometimes NOT handed down, but taken anyways) from his older brothers.  He really doesn't need anything, and I suspect any toy we buy him, will not be played with any more than the toys already littering the house.

The more I think about it though, the more I am able to come up with a list of his favorite things:

A pot of dirt

IPhone (NOT to be confused with an older, unused, but working phone!)

Working TV remotes (NOT to be confused with any with the batteries taken out!)

Small pieces of bark from the ground outside

Any trashcan full of trash

Toilets (preferably with his brother actually using it)

Newspapers and magazines

My favorite coffee cup, full or empty

His brothers' water bottles

My laptop power cord

Christmas tree ornaments on the tree (NOT to be confused with ornaments already taken off!)

Beer bottles

So it appears I don't even need to go shopping for him!  I actually already have all of his favorites already on hand!  Now, how to wrap up a pot of dirt...

Happy birthday, my littlest big boy!  I love you so much!

Daddy's Ice Cream Cake

I'm not sure who to give credit to for this yummy ice cream cake recipe, but is delicious and very simple to make!  We call it "Daddy's Ice Cream Cake" because he is the one who came up with the recipe (or maybe got it from someone else) and also the one who usually makes it.  The boys and I made it this time though because it was Daddy's birthday!

It has 4 ingredients - ice cream, Oreos, a little milk, and chocolate syrup (optional.)

1. Crush up most of the pack of Oreos into the bottom of a baking dish.  Add a little milk (about 1/4 of a cup little by little) until the Oreos are wet and clumpy and will smash down into a crust.

2.  Scoop a whole container of your favorite ice cream on top of the Oreos.  This works best if you let the ice cream melt a little first so that it will smooth out nicely.

3.  Squirt chocolate syrup all over and crumble up the remaining Oreos on the top.

4.  Put it in the freezer so the crust can harden and then eat it!  You can do it Norquist boy style and just dig it right out of the dish, or you can do it the more traditional and civilized way and use bowls and spoons.  Either way, it is delicious and pretty tough to stop eating until it's gone!

 

 

This is a really fun cake to make with kids because, well, it is yummy to eat while making it mostly, but also because it is fun and easy for them to crush and scoop and squirt.  Ben and Mitchell were so excited to tell Matt that they actually made his cake for him - almost as excited as they were to eat it!