Mother's Day Tea

Jake's preschool put on the sweetest Mother's Day program yesterday.  It was a special day just for moms.  As each mom walked into the room, their child was waiting with a corsage they had made ready to give to their mother, then escorted her to her chair.  The kids put on a program where they sang some adorable songs, then one by one, each child went and picked out a cookie for their mom, carefully poured "tea" (which was really punch) and gave her some gifts they had made.  It was the sweetest thing ever!

Here are the kids singing their songs:

Jake took his responsibility to pick out a cookie for me very seriously.  He stood looking at the cookies for a long time deciding which one he thought I would like the very best.

Then he very carefully poured me some punch.  He said that they had practiced this part many times in preschool using water.

Jake painted a tile with flowers on it for me.

I had so much fun watching Jake and I can't believe how fast he is growing.  It's the moments like this that makes being a mom all worth it.  :)

Our little star

The local high school recently put on the musical "Pinocchio" and they needed some extra little kids to be (and I quote) "the naughty children who turn into donkeys."  I thought to myself, I've got one of those! Haha, just kidding, but they actually did need kids to be extras in the play so I asked Jake if that was something that he would be interested in doing, and when I told him he would get to wear a costume he immediately jumped at the chance.  

Jake and the other children practiced with the high school cast every night for a week then had three nights of performances.  Jake had one word in the play - "heehaw," which was supposed to be said when he was asked what his name was.  The first time he practiced, he refused to put on his donkey tail and ears and when he was asked what his name was, he answered, "JAKE!"  I asked him later why he didn't put on the costume and say "heehaw" and he told me it's because he didn't want to be a donkey...he wanted to be a good child!  I explained to him that it was just pretend, and that he was really a good child even if he was pretending to be a naughty donkey.  After that he played his part without a hitch!  

I wish I could say that the play was a huge success but in all reality, the show was saved only by the adorable children who knew all their parts perfectly.  The high schoolers should have taken a hint from the little kids because, unlike the older lot, the children knew exactly what they were doing.  Lest you think I'm being too harsh, I'll post a link when the show goes up on youtube.  I think you'll find I'm actually being rather generous.

Even though the play wasn't as polished as one might expect from a high school, I was so proud of Jake!  He was thoroughly and sufficiently embarrassed each night by my raucous applause.   I wasn't allowed to take pictures or video because of copyright constraints, but as I mentioned before, the show will be going up on YouTube in a couple of...well...actually I don't know how long it's going to take, but it's going to go up.  I'll post the link when it does!  

So proud of our little naughty child!  :)

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!

Terrible twos for REAL

I swear, the moment Eli turned two, he transformed from a sweet, innocent, cherubic baby into a whining, crying, tantrum-throwing monster child.  Ok, it wasn't the moment he turned two, but it was about a week afterwards.  I'm telling you, this kid has it in for me!  Let me illustrate for you.

Eli wants to do EVERYTHING that Jake does.  And he doesn't just want to do what Jake is doing, he wants to do it BEFORE Jake can do it.  i.e. saying the prayer at dinner time, reading a story on my lap, having a snack, etc.  The other day, Jake and Eli were playing and Jake chucked a ball really hard at Eli's head.  Eli started screaming (don't even get me started on the screaming...) and I told Jake he needed to go sit in time out.  However, as soon as Eli heard that Jake was going to be in time out, he immediately decided that HE wanted to sit in time out, not Jake.  So he started running for the time out chair to get on it before Jake could.  Then he sat his little derriere on that chair and folded his arms indignantly and gave a little "hmmph" sound.  You know the one.  The sound that makes it very obvious to everyone around that you will NOT be moved, so just try.

When I calmly went up to him and explained that he didn't need to sit in time out, that Jake was the one who had made a wrong choice, Eli immediately threw himself into the biggest temper tantrum I've ever seen.  Head back, arms flailing, tears streaming, all out tantrum.  He started yelling, "'MOUT!! 'MOUT!!!" ("timeout, timeout" for those of you that don't speak two-year-old toddler tantrumese.)  I just sat there baffled for about two seconds before, sure enough, he got his wish.  Yikes.

Eli doesn't talk a whole lot, but he sure knows how to get his point across abundantly clear.  Don't let this sweet face fool you.  

Ok, you can go ahead and let it fool you.  I mean, who wouldn't, right?

P.S. Have you noticed Eli's squinty-eyed picture taking pose yet?  As soon as I say "Smile" this is what I get from him.  Cracks me up every time.

Visitors!!

We had such a great weekend!  We had some of our best friends from dental school  (the Rasmussens and the Whiteheads) over to our place for a few days, and we had a blast!  I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to get together with people that you feel so COMFORTABLE with, and who also happen to be my kids very best friends as well.  And what’s more, we actually have room to accommodate everyone now!  When I look back at pictures like this one:

I am truly amazed that we fit so many people in such a tiny apartment.  But I seriously miss those crazy days with everyone and those awesome people.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time with our friends in town.  I got basically zero pictures of the weekend because we were having too much fun letting the boys go crazy in the basement while the adults stayed upstairs and played games, watched movies, and just enjoyed being together.  However, I did take pictures of the kids playing in the snow.  We had just had a bit of a snowstorm and the boys (+ Mackenzie) were all enjoying it together.

The kids took turns having Joseph pull them on the sled.  As you can see, our backyard is as flat as they come, so this was the closest thing to sledding that the boys got.

 Joseph is such a good sport!

 When the kids were done outside, they came in for some hot chocolate made by yours truly (and Swiss Miss).

It was a whirlwind and we loved every minute of it!  Apparently, in the heat of having all our guests, we forgot that Eli needed to go down for a nap, so he went ahead and put himself down:

Yep, he fell asleep while getting on the computer chair.  I try to remember to keep the computer mouse and keyboard out of his reach because Eli is known to get on the computer without my knowledge and look up Mickey Mouse videos on YouTube or play on his favorite starfall.com website (both of which he can navigate to himself).  I must have forgotten to put them up and he seized his opportunity.  He must have been so exhausted that when he was trying to get on the computer chair he just zonked right out.  And that right there pretty much tells you exactly what a great weekend we had.