My Sixth Birthday!!!

This morning, Pat woke Aidan up by wishing him a Happy Birthday.  I re-woke him up by singing Happy Birthday to him.  He woke up smiling both times. 

He picked his clothes and his breakfast and after getting dressed and eating, we did his homework for the week.  All with a smile on our faces.  Awesome!!! 

Pat and I met at Winwood this afternoon and brought afternoon snack of Hostess cupcakes for the children to celebrate Aidan's birthday.  I think they all enjoyed it!!  And, while we were there, we discovered that a little boy Aidan was in Daycare with back when he was two--the first place we had him--is now in his Winwood class with him!!!  Cool!!!

And then the fun began!!  We decided to go to Blue Ridge Grill--okay so Mama and Daddy had a little bit of strong arm opinion about it, but Aidan fell in line quickly!--and Aidan ordered a half rack of ribs. . .for the first time ever!!!  and ate it all!!!

What a surprise!  I would never have thought he would order ribs and then he actually ate them all!!!  My baby is really growing up. . .

When we got home, we had cake and then opened presents. I am pretty sure Aidan liked it all!!  First, it was the cake that he loved. . .

The cake Mama made

Aidan with his cake and presents

Monster Truck!!!

From Aunty Amy, Uncle Todd, Kendall and Tyler. . .A Teows jersey!

And a BlackHawks Zamboni!!!

Mama and Daddy got me a One Timer machine to use on the driveway.

From Erin's Grandma, $5.00!

And Grandpa Dave, a Target gift card!!!

Mama and Daddy also got me a Wii Hockey game with a hockey stick!

And a Stick and Shoot pass!!

Grandma and Grandpa got me a new Graphite Hockey stick!

And a Holtby shirt!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Woo Hoo!!!

This is going to work well on Sunday at my game. . .

Nana got me a great stick for practicing on the driveway!

Nana also got me a Water bottle for hockey!!

Cmbining gifts. . .

And usng my new One Timer machine!!!



All in all, a really good birthday.  It's going to be hard to get back to normal tomorrow. . .

But, wait!!!  There's more!!!

The day ended even better because Mama got us, as a family, a pass to get an autograph from Braden Holtby.  What fun!!!

And thus ends my Sixth Birthday celebration!!!  But, it was so much fun!! 

Birthday Party Happenings

Aidan's birthday party was a huge success.  We arrived a little early and were able to get the gift bags onto the table at each place.  I wonder if the room has been painted since last year because I hadn't noticed the wall before:

The calm before the storm.

The table cloth also had hockey sticks and pucks on it. 

The children arrived and had pizza and cake:

Aidan changed his mind at the last minute and wore his Alex Semin jersey and then wore his Ovi jersey later.

After cake, the children went onto the ice for a half hour lesson.  I was amazed at how much they all progressed during that half hour.  They were falling down and all over the place at the beginning and skating around the ice for the the reamining hour of free skate.

Aidan showing off for his friends.

The children even progressed enough to go around the cones!!!

After the lesson was over, we were able, after a lot of coordination, to get a picture of the children all together.  This wasn't easy, though!!!

More birthday in a couple of days!!!

After the party, we came home and I fixed a nice Mexican dinner for our friends who came over.  Unfortunately, Pat had to leave to go back to the hospital.  This time for Dad, who is doing okay now.  And Mom is actually on the mend too!!  Thanks be to God.  I think we are finally going to start getting on an even keel. . .

Unfortunatly, also, the Caps lost.  Ah well.  There's always next year!!!



Hospitals and Birthday Parties

Pat's mom woke early Wednesday morning with severe stomach pains.  After being taken to the hospital, it was discovered that there was something going wrong with her gall bladder.  It was decided to go in and clean it out.  After that was done, they kept her overnight for observation.

On Thursday, she was told that the gall bladder would need to come out sometime in the next four weeks.  She decided that since she was already there, they should do it now.  Thank goodness she decided that!!  It was taken out in the afternoon and it was discovered that, although it had not burst or anything, it had a very bad infection that had already gotten into her blood.   She was then told she would stay in the hospital at least until Sunday.

Apparantly, she got progressively worse throughout Friday.  By the time we got there to see her, she had a fever and was very weak.  I'm afraid that as much as she wanted to see Aidan, he kind of stressed her out and then we tired her out even more.  She is a very sick lady.

I'm very worried about her.  Please pray with us for her healing.

On a lighter note, and a much needed distraction for Daddy, today is Aidan's 6th birthday party!!  His birthday is this coming Tuesday.  Today's party wll be held, once again, at the Ashburn Ice House.  This year we invited just boys from his Kindergarten class and from Winwood.  Should be fun!!  : )

There will be pizza, cake and then a 1/2 hour lesson followed by an hour of free skate.  The boys will have a blast!  I found goodie bags at Party City for NHL and have filled them with papr Goalie masks, black gold and silver noise makers, NHL whistles, NHL tattoos and some mints.  There will be a hockey puck provided by the Ice House that I can also put into each bag.  I'll post pictures tomorrow. . .

Tonight some friends are coming over for dinner and to celebrate Aidan's birthday.  I'll make tacos, tostadas, Mexican rice and Refried beans--and likely some Quesadilla's for the kids.  I'll also make some homemade salsa and Queso.  All of this is in exchange for our friends suffering through us watching GAME 7 of the Rangers Caps series!!!!  Go Caps!!!

I think our friends will survive.  : )

Tomorrow is Mother's Day.  I'm not sure if we will celebrate it at the hospital, at Pat's parents house, or even at all.  We'll see.  It will all depend on how well Mom is feeling.  As much as I love celebrating Mother's Day--didn't get to for so many years--I'd much rather see that Mom is on the mend and feeling better.  Please, I pray.

My Sweet And Sensitive Little Man

Aidan is a very caring, gentle and sensitive little guy.  As tough and aggressive as he can be on the ice is as gentle and sensitive as he can be off the ice.

Over the past two or three years, we have had lots of discussions about God and Heaven and God's house and when and why people/dogs/cats/bugs go to live with God.  He understands that when a person/dog/cat/bug goes to live with God, they are in Heaven and that we, here on Earth, can no longer be with them until it is our turn to go and live with God.  He also understands that we all do eventually go, but that we live here until it is our time and God wants us with Him.

Aidan loves to look at pictures of our old dog, Brutus.  He asks lots of questions and it ultimately comes around to the fact that Brutus is now living with God.  He died before Aidan was born, an old dog of 12 1/2 (big dog) and he was also kind of sick and couldn't run or even walk anymore.  I've explained that Brutus is now happy and running and playing ball every day in Heaven.  This always makes Aidan happy.

My Grandfather died the day after Easter.  It's sad, but Poppy was 96 years old and sooooo ready to go.  He kept telling my Mom he wanted to move.  When asked where, he would give the address of the cemetary where my Grandmother is buried.  For more than a year he kept talking about how he wanted to go and be with his Princess.  Now he is finally there, dancing with his Princess.  Aidan and I will go out west later in June to help my Mom with his Memorial service.  It will be a time to celebrate Poppy's life and remember all the fun times we cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. had at their house in Southern California. 

Along these same lines, my Mother-in-law fell a few weeks ago and popped one of her hips out.  She is recovering, but it's taking a bit of time.  One of the things that my Father-in-law did, with Pat's help, was to go to the furniture store and get her a really nice lift chair.  I haven't seen it yet, but I hear that it has been a huge help.  Awesome! 

That evening, Pat was telling our neighbor about the lift chair and Aidan was close enough to hear.  The neighbor asked Pat how his Mom was liking the chair and Pat answered, "Mom is in Heaven!"  Well, needless to say, Aidan was sooo upset thinking his Grandma was now in Heaven!  It took a bit of explaining, but I think he now understands that that was just a figure of speach.  Grandma is still here with us on Earth. 

My sweet, wonderful, loving, caring and sensitive little guy!!!  I love him so much!!!

Weekend Review of the Week

Blink!!!  and a whole week just went by! 

Seems like yesterday we were at the Ice House watching Aidan play and now we're getting ready to go tomorrow fo the next week of games.  Well!  Time is flying and we're having some fun!

In the next few pictures, Aidan has an Orange sweater on and yellow socks. . .

At Center:

Gearing up to score. . .with a one time, no less!!

Ready for the puck to drop. . .

Daddy as the Bench Boss. . .  : )  So cute and so fun!!

The week progressed into Monday, as expected, but it wasn't so great.  I had a call late on Monday evening that our house cleaning lady was cancelling on us for the week. . .3 days notice!!  Yikes!!  Okay, I know it is a luxury to have a cleaning lady.  But really.  I love having that free time with Aidan.  Especially when Pat works--like he had to today.  And, I'm sorry to say, I can not let the house go.  Drives me bananas to have a messy house!!  So, I cleaned house today.  For the first time since last June!! 

And I discovered several areas that my cleaning lady has not been keeping up with.  And I was not happy about that.  And Aidan said, "Mama, the house smells really good today!"  And I realized that I haven't noticed that it smelled really good for a long time now.  And I think I may need to have a discussion with our cleaning lady. . .

Our house really does look and smell good today!  : )

Today marked the very first time I took Aidan to a birthday party and then left him there. . .not comfortably, but I did it.  It was okay.  Aidan did fine.  And we survived.  It was a right of passage, I think. 

The Caps won today tying up the Series 2-2!!!!  Woo Hoo!!  Way to go Caps!!!

Pat and I had a date night last night.  Our neighbor, Ava--love that girl--came over to watch Aidan while we went out to dinner and did birthday shopping for Aidan.  I'd tell you what we bought him, but then I'd have to. . .well, anyway, I think we'll just wait to share that until after he opens his gifts!!!

Our house looks and smells really good today!!!  : )

The other day at dinner, Aidan told us he had read "Go Dog Go" and "Green Eggs and Ham" to his class before Announcements at school.  He announced this achievement as though it was something really special and I definitely took it as such!  So, at bedtime, I had him read me "Green Eggs and Ham."  Absolutely perfect!!!  OMG!!!  When did my baby become such a great reader!!!!  Seriously folks, I knew he could read well, and we work with him daily, but really.  I had no idea he was this good!  I am feeling like such a proud Mama. . .

Today was Cinco de Mayo.  In the tradition of a former Southern California girl, I made homemade Tacos and Tostadas for dinner.  While sipping a Margarita, of course.  My boys enjoyed it and I taunted my baby sister, who went out to dinner for Mexican food, with a great picture:

Yes, I even make my own taco and tostada shells.  So much better.

Have I mentioned how great our house looks and smells today???

And so, tomorrow is Sunday.  Church and then we're meeting friends at the Ice Rink for Free Skate and then Aidan plays his hockey games and then we'll have dinner at the rink.  Fun Times!!

The Caps play back in New York again on Monday and then come home for Game 6 on Wednesday.  Go Caps!!!

Whew!!  I'm exhausted from making our house look and smell so good. . .time for a Baileys and then bed!