Zekie’s 5th Birthday!

Zekie’s 5th Birthday Party

Is that not the coolest Halloween birthday cake you’ve ever seen?  Our fabulous neighbor Aubree made it for Zekie, complete with rice krispie fondant ghost, double layers of halloween funfetti cake, and lots of Zekie’s favorite candy year round…CANDY CORN!Zekie Peekie Bachman turned 5 whole years old on October 18th.  Zekie, the lucky ducky that he is, got to celebrate his birthday over 3 days.  On the Saturday before his birthday he got to have his very own friend birthday party…vs. the last minute family get togethers we usually do.  We were host to 12 kids plus our 3 making it a very loud and wild party.  Rob and I pulled the whole thing off all by ourselve and swore next time to majorly recruit crowd control.  The festivities included making dum dum ghosts, having a dance party, destroying a pinata, eating cake, and finishing off with a treasure hunt.  Madness.  I assure you.  PURE MADNESS.Why would we attempt to throw such a party?  Only for the pure satisfaction of our super social Ta-Zekes.  Later that night we got to go to a recruiting event at BYU and see a Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband concert.  Zekie decided he should clearly be the star of the show and for the last song (I Play The Banjo) his personal favorite…he ran up to the front and danced a wild frenzied footed dance as hard and fast as he could infront of a 300 person crowd.  He was literally in the spotlight and received cheers and pats on the back from many a stranger.  He also was personally complemented by the band at the end of the show and got a signed copy of their CD made out to him.  It was most assuredly the crowning moment of his life thus far.On Sunday the Primary sung Happy Happy Birthday to Zekes and he received a special birthday candy from the Bishop.  Later in the evening Rob Sr. and Grandma came and played games, brought cupcakes and gave him the coolest train whistle blowing bank you’ve ever seen.On his actual birthday, we went down to my parents and hit ANOTHER pinata and opened lots of presents including a huge blow up Christmas Thomas…Wooooo Wooooo!! Thanks Nani and Gong!  Aunt Kelly was in town from Idaho, so it was especially fun to celebrate with her and cousins.  So there you have it.  The many celebrations of our wonderful Zekie boy turning five.

The Glory of Preschool

Do Rob and I have goofy looking kids or what?  This is what Zekie came up with when I asked him if I could take a nice first day of preschool picture.  Caleb of course wanted to be in the picture too, so there you go. Because we snuck Zekie in a year early into preschool this will now be his third year in preschool.  He has started at Learning Dynamics or as Caleb calls it “The Apple Preschool.” Since it’s his 3rd year we wanted somewhere that was a little more academically advanced and spent some one on one time with the kids for their level of reading.  Since Zekie’s now reading at a 2nd grade level that was a big plus for us. Zekie’s teacher’s name is Mrs. Groves and she seems like a great fit for Zekie.  He always lets me know he’s having fun and can’t wait to show me what he’s done that day. AND Ella from church is in his class.  Score!  Zekie was nervous about making friends and then he saw Ella and was soo happy he already had a friend…as am I for all the carpooling and playdates that come along because of it :)

And then there’s a Squeaks…who I guess is growing up now.  Here is my big boy Isaac at his very first day of preschool.  He was also a little nervous about going until I showed him his daily schedule which involved arts and snacks.  He asked if he got to have “Little Nemo” fish crackers and I assured him he would and he was sold. Behold Isaac’s full class and Ms Holly!  Isaac had a great first day.  Ms. Holly said that Isaac has awesome coloring skills for a 3 year old and he reported that “We had a YOT of fun and Ms. Holly is reeeeally nice.”  He is definitely the artist in the family.  Unfortunately after that first day he promptly got sick and has missed 4 days since.  Ms. Holly came by and brought us all of Isaac’s school papers from the days he missed, and stayed and visiting with both Isaac and Zekie for a looong time.  Ms. Holly is the greatest!Oh sweet Caleb! He was sooooooo convinced that it was his first day at Ms. Holly’s too.  He jumped out of the van with his blue backpack on, yelled “Ms. Holly!”, and ran and gave her a BIG hug.  Then he kept trying to get in all the group class pictures.  He also started tugging on Ms. Holly and said “C’mon Ms. Holly. Let’s play with toys!”  He then ran into her house and she retrieved him and promised him a treat when he came to pick up Isaac.  Caleb is soooo ready to be off at preschool…just like his brothers.

The Davis County Fair

Rob’s sister Kim invited us to come to the Davis County Fair.  We decided to brave it and go.  We had a wonderful/terrible time depending on the current moment we were in.  The following are a few highlights in both categories:

Terrible: 1) Zekie having to wait at the top of the bounce slide to let the boy at the bottom have some privacy as he was peeing off the slide. 2) Isaac telling us that the “hamster”/rabbit in the prized animals area was sad and wanted to get out of his cage. 3) Caleb locking the cash register key inside of the cash register. 4) Kim wanting to “stab Mark in the heart next time she saw him”, after Mark disappeared minutes after arriving.  Good thing she’s a nurse and could administer to him after inflicting the wound.  Not to worry.  Mark redeemed himself by taking care of a very tired Ryker the rest of the evening. 5) Feeling guilty for sneaking into the pony ride after they’d already closed off the line…Kim was clearly saving our spots.

And now for the Wonderful: The boys thoroughly enjoyed the kiddie rides.  Motorcycles, cars, boats…it was a little boy’s dream come true.  Even the pukey twisty ride that my tall baby technically qualified to go on.  As it started he said “Whee” then it got up to full speed and he started yelling “ALL DONE MAMA!!”  Shortly after as it slowed he said “That was fun”.  I wonder if they take requests to do half speed…too bad I don’t know how to say that in Spanish…Rapido Media?  Isaac and Zekie loved the bounce house.  Our little gymnast Isaac especially had a hey day.  Rob said Isaac’s finale bounce house performance was running full speed into the corners and catapulting himself back to the middle.  Such a Squeaks.  Which reminds me of one of my favorite interchanges with Isaac lately:

Katie: “Quit being such a Squeaks!”     Isaac: “But I is a Squeaks!” Caleb thought the tractors were by far the BEST thing there.  I gotta find him a John Deere T-shirt.  I seriously debated letting the crusty grandpa farmers in charge of the tractor area, babysit him the rest of the night. Caleb’s new best friend.  The hand sanitizer just didn’t quite cover the whole *hugging* area. Behold our “inkblot test” family.  Can’t you just imagine folding this picture in half and then telling the psychiatrist what it looks like?All in all THIS is what we come for…the look of pure happiness in our children’s eyes.

The Dogs Days of Summer

Why call them the dog days of summer when it hasn’t even gotten that hot yet?  Well because my boys smell like puppies.  That’s why.  And act like them too for that manner.  Case in point: While carrying Caleb home from church Rob was receiving an abundance of kisses on the cheek from Caleb and he said “Caleb! You’re giving me big slobbery kisses.”  Encouraged, Caleb full on licked his father up the cheek…several times.  What’s better or for that matter messier, than spending all day long running around outside with your twin?  Umm… I don’t know.  Eating a popsicle?!

The 7 Year Itch

Today Rob and I celebrate our 7 year anniversary.  Last year my Dad jokingly warned us of the impending “7 year itch” which according to WikiAnswers is “, after being married for seven years or just being with someone for that long, you start looking at other options. Hence you have an itch to scratch. In layman's terms, one is expected to leave/cheat at this time.”  Well…hmm…NOPE! Rob is a fabulous husband and I’m sticking with him.

We sat down with the boys and looked through our wedding album and they decided that Rob looks the same and I look different.  I guess having 3 boys will do that to you.  On the other hand apparently I’m aging quite well…atleast according to some random guy on the street that yelled to Rob when we walked by “Hey Bro.  Next time you’re going to cheat the stork, bring me along.”  Cheat the stork?  Ummm? Was he trying to say “rob the cradle?”  Apparently I need to sophisticate my look a little.  Anyways, we rounded the corner and arrived at our Anniversary dinner location of Bombara.  Soooo delicious!  We had blueberry lemonade, wheat sourdough bread, corn bisque with crab meat soup, orange vinaigrette salad, incredible halibut, and melt in your mouth bison.  We were beyond stuffed but just had to have dessert too.  Ice cream filled profiterole cream puffs drizzled with hot fudge.  Who knew anniversaries could taste this good?

 

I’m so grateful to have such an amazing husband.  Rob is my best friend, a great communicator, helpful around the house and with the boys, the best Dad, a wonderful and righteous example, an awesome provider and hard worker, entertaining, caring and loving.  I’m so lucky to call him mine and am in love with him and our forever.  Cheeeeese end.

Day Out With Thomas!

Zekie’s been anticipating this day of all glorious days for months! Day out with Thomas…a little boy’s dream come true.  “Mama, you thought Thomas was a just a cartoon didn’t you? But, I knew he was for real.” We caught the train and had a dandy time singing and dancing to Thomas tunes, sneaking peaks at all the interesting passengers, and of course enjoying the beautiful rolling hillside.Caleb was a little leary of Sir Topham Hatt.  I just hope that guy’s got some sort of air conditioning going on in there. All the boys thoroughly enjoyed the imagination station.  Isaac stamped it up, Zekie made the rounds, and Caleb had no qualms with hard core train playing with hoards of complete stranger toddlers inches away at all times. Isaac decided to get his Thomas tattoo on his shin…and I think it may just have been to get a better look at his gorgeous blondie tattoo artist.  I have no idea what her name was but I’m pretty sure it must have been Ashley.

Wouldn’t you know it they had a miniture golf course.  I think they must have set it up for the Dads that were taking their sons to Thomas instead of golfing.  Isaac happened to be playing next to another little boy named Isaac and they both thought was so cool that they were playing well enough to have both their parent and a complete stranger saying “Good job Isaac!”

We were just about to leave and I forced Rob to stay an extra 15 minutes to get pictures with Thomas.  You can see how well the boys will smiling for a picture I’m taking vs. the one the stranger took.  So much for my big speech to Zekie before hand on where to look when someone’s taking your picture :) Happy Thomas Day or as Caleb would say “Namaste”.  The Thomas in me salutes the Thomas in you.