An Easter visit

On Thursday at noon I texted my dad and said, "Hey, I know you have tomorrow off of work, how about you take the afternoon off today so you and mom can come visit us for the Easter weekend?"  To my utter surprise, about an hour later my mom called me and said they were on their way!!  In a matter of minutes they had dropped everything and made the ten hour drive to visit us in Iowa.  I love those guys...

Anyway, we packed our weekend with fun activities for everyone.  We started with an egg hunt with a bunch of friends from church. 

 Eli enjoyed having Grandma help him find a few eggs.

The kids and all their loot. 

Loving us some Grandma and Grandpa time.

Next we went to the American Gothic house in Eldon, IA, which is about 15 minutes from us.  It's shameful that we haven't been there yet.  They were having an egg roll and a bunch of other Easter activities, so we decided to check it out.  Due to weather, they had to move the activities inside the library.  By the time we got there, Eli had fallen asleep in the car so he obviously didn't come inside.  Jake only wanted to do the egg roll.  He whacked his egg as fast as he could across the line, won, got his loot, and wanted to leave immediately.  Alright.

 Even though the weather was bad, we at least wanted to check out the American Gothic museum.  By the time we had been through, the weather had cleared up a bit and I convinced everyone to dress up and take pictures!  (It wasn't hard to convince my parents.  Joseph, on the other hand...well, he was a good sport.)

Did you know that the original was meant to depict a father/daughter?  How do we compare?

My dad missed the memo that this was a smiley picture. 

 We also went to a few other parties, had Easter dinner, bought and built a bunk bed for Jake and went to church.  Whew!  We loved having the too fast visit, and can't wait for another.  

Turning 30 - dun dun dun....

It's birthday month at the Dougherty household.  Joseph hit the big 3-0 milestone this weekend!  For weeks I've been thinking about what to do for his birthday and I wasn't having much luck.  Finally, a friend reminded me that Kansas City was hosting a bunch of the the NCAA March Madness games over his birthday weekend.  I called my sister-in-law Eliza and we hatched up a plan to surprise our husbands with a trip up to Kansas City to watch the games.  We dropped off the kids at our besties house in St. Joseph (thanks again, guys!!!) so it was just the four adults.  It was a BLAST!  The guys were so surprised.  We had so much fun together, and what better way to spend your birthday than with the one you've shared it with from the beginning?  

At breakfast the next morning:

Of course, we didn't get any pictures with all of us together, but isn't that how it usually is?  The more fun you have, the less pictures you take.  Anyway, Happy 30th birthday, boys!!

How is my baby 5 already?

Guys, how did this happen?  I feel like someone is playing some sort of cruel joke on me... As I’m sure you can tell by the title, Jake just celebrated his 5^th birthday!  I am still coming to grips with the fact that I now have a five-year-old.  I feel like I need to start gearing myself up mentally for him being a teenager right now because at this rate, I'm going to wake up one day next week and he'll be 15.

Jake really wanted to have a pirate themed birthday party.  It worked out really well because there's a show on TV right now called "Jake and the Neverland Pirates." (I think that's what it's called.  I'm not positive because Jake has never actually seen the show.  We only get 6 channels and 3 of them are PBS.)  Between that and pinterest, it wasn't too difficult to come up with cute decorations and ideas for Jake's pirate party.

BTW, that is not a cake in the middle of the table, it's just one of Jake's pretend pirate ships.  One of my friends walked in the door while dropping off her daughter and said, "Oh my gosh, Angela, did you make that cake?" Haha!  Umm...no... but I'll go ahead and take it as a compliment that she assumed I did.  :)

No, I totally cheated and just made cupcakes instead.

I told Jake that he could invite 5 friends since he was 5 years old.  It's a good thing we put a limit because it was starting to get a little crazy with just the 5!  

First, I read the kids, "How I Became a Pirate." Then we made pirate hats and went on a treasure hunt to find the treasure chest full of goodies and treats.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the mayhem caused by digging through the chest.  It was pretty epic.

Next, we played Pin the "X" on the Treasure Map.  It's a good thing I had Kennedy there to help me out!

Then we had pizza, cake, and ice cream, sang happy birthday, then opened presents.

The kids had a great time, and best of all, we got to celebrate Jake and the wonderful boy he's turning into.

So, in honor of Jake's birthday, here are 5 things we love about him:

1.  Jake is very thoughtful.  Today when we were leaving church, everyone ran to hop in the car.  When Jake saw me walking by myself he stopped, turned around, and came back to hold my hand so we could walk to the car together.  So thoughtful.

2.  Jake is extremely smart.  He has a knack for picking up on things and memorizing facts quickly.  He has picked up on reading very easily and often recites interesting facts he's learned about space, bodies, animals, or any other subject that interests him.  (For example, the other day Jake came up to me and said, "Mommy, did you know that the rings around Saturn stay there because of gravity?")

3.  Jake is an excellent big brother.  Eli is his best buddy and he is always trying to make him laugh or smile.  They play together every day.

4.  Jake is very kind.  Eli has been known to hit me while he's in the midst of one of his epic temper tantrums.  When this happens, Jake is quick to run to me and give me a hug, lest I think all my children hate me.  Of course, he may do this simply because he wants to be the favorite child and he knows his chances are best when Eli is a terror and he can be incredibly sweet.

5.  Jake tries hard to be obedient.  He is not always completely successful, but he really wants to do what's right and has a very good heart.

Happy Birthday, Jake!!  We love you so much.  Thank you for being such a wonderful boy!