Happy 9th Birthday, Parker!

Happy Birthday, Park! I can't believe he's 9!!! Where does the time go??? Parker had a great birthday this year. The best for him was going to the Blues hockey game and seeing the Dallas Stars. And as great as that was... He also loved getting presents, eating at HIS favorite restaurant, Chili's (he always gets the ribs), mom's homemade chocolate cake, and the never ending sleepover with his friends and his trademark..."midnight snack"!

These pictures are out of order, but you'll get the idea.
Grandma and Grandpa Thompson got Parker 4 new additions to his Webkinz collection.

Nanny got Parker the Iron Man DVD with bonus Ironman cartoon.

Of course a birthday would not be complete without SOMETHING new for hockey! He's been wanting this 195 Hockey stick that brother got for his birthday and has had to wait so long that he gave it a big hug and a kiss...literally! He was very happy!

The real mini hockey set or "shinny hockey" as the boys call it. Now they each have a real goal rather than mom's laundry baskets to use as goals. (Chris' fingers were in front of the flash that's why a few pics are shadowed.)

And his first present... the official NHL mini stick for the St. Louis Blues. He's wanting to collect all the NHL teams and hang them on his wall in his room. I guess we'll see. (Oh and as a side note to these pictures.... the scrape above Parker's right eye is where the puck hit him earlier in the day. They were playing outside without their helmets on and took one in the face. Needless to say...He loves it and thinks it's so cool!)

All in all, he had a great birthday! Tons of hockey stuff (stick, mini hockey, trading cards, mini stick), a few DVD's and PS2 and DS games, and as always, Parker's favorite....cold hard cash! Happy Birthday post (a little late), Parker! His birthday was on Saturday, October 25th.

It's spelled E-V-A-N!!!

I got a lesson in spelling this week. Evan was hungry and wanting a snack. So I gave him the bucket of pretzels and got back to the task at hand...cleaning out the fridge. I could hear him saying "Don't tell me I know what's next!" and start to laugh. He's known how to spell his name for years, but something got his funny bone going. After ignoring him as long as I could I finally turned around to say, "What's so funny, Evan?" I didn't think that spelling "Evan" in pretzels could be so funny...but he did! And it only got more funny for him as he then tried to spell Tanner and Parker and Mason and found out his name was the only one that looked completely normal (come on people...use your imagination and try to make a "round R" or a "curvy S" as he called them)...it doesn't work and apparently to a 5 year old... that's hilarious!

Seeing Stars???

For Parker's birthday, he wanted to go to a hockey game and see his favorite team, the Dallas Stars play. The Stars are only playing at the Blues game twice this season, so we had to go the week before his birthday. As we all walk in and are sporting our St. Louis Blues apparel (NHL Hockey for those of you already lost) or just our blue and gold...Parker has on his Dallas Stars jersey and some green mardi gras beads and is already for this game. My poor soon to be 9 years old is getting booed by random drunk guys and thinks it's great as he's yelling "Let's go Stars!" in the middle of a Blues game. (I'm not kidding...he's my wayward child, i swear!) We had such a great time though! We made sure to get some nose bleed seats so he could "see the whole game and not miss anything" and he got to bring his best bud Nick and I got a babysitter for Mason, so it really was a great evening. Of course we spent just about as much money on concessions as we did the tickets, but he was so happy....they all were really lovin' it! The sad news was that the Blues WON 6-1 and his Dallas Stars lost. He was sad, but when the Blues score 5 goals or more, you get a free blizzard at DQ and he forgot all about his Dallas Stars! Thanks for an awesome birthday party, Park!
Parker at his soon to be 9 Birthday party! He was SOOOOO happy!

Parker and his best friend, Nick at the game.

Mom and Parker enjoying some rivalry time! "GO BLUES! GO STARS!"

I wasn't kidding we were in the nose bleeds! This was the last minute of the game and where they were so far ahead, the place had cleared out, but was really full.

The 4 boys enjoying the game. Evan really got into and asked before we even left "When are we going to a Blues game again?" He's so cute!

Parker's field day to the ZOO

So only 3 days after hitting the pumpkin patch with Evan, I then was able to go with Parker and his class to the St. Louis ZOO. I get to his class at 8:30 and just as walk in, again this oh great feeling comes over me. I figured we'd each have about 4 kids to watch and I had my 4 picked that she'd give me. Of course, the worst one in class, the next worst one, Parker and then another kid who's pretty good, but COMBINED with Parker and these boys would be not so good. So before she even started telling the groups I whispered to Parker who I thought and he didn't have a clue. The teacher reads the names. All the other parents have 4 kids so I knew I was right on....or was I? Well I was hypothetically speaking because I guessed the right 4, but she gave me 5 boys! Why do teachers do this?!!! You've already given me your 2 WORST kids and then I'm the only one with 5?!! And as a teacher would say to help you feel better, "you're a mom of all boys and I figured if anyone could handle this group it would be you." Are you KIDDING ME?!!! I haven't recovered from my group 2 days ago let alone ready to deal with 5 third grade boys at the zoo where they can run wild. Luckily I had a couple tricks up my sleeve and we did see a few other groups at times that no was lost (for more than 10 minutes) and everyone survived... i hope! I'm starting to see why they only have 2 field trips a year.

We saw lots of great animals: bears, pumas, gorillas, tigers, monkeys, snakes, zebras, penguins, all your great zoo stuff.

I'm just wondering if they teach the teachers to say that or if it's the best excuse to say SUCKER they have or why they do that? I don't think they'd give the best girl in the class only the other best girls (actually, yes they would). Oh well, I do love my boys and I guess I can "handle it".
This was my group and one other group. Of course you say, "Sit so I can take your picture" and they all sit on each other and immediately have to let me know to "rock on", so here they are. Parker is on the back row in the center.

For one quick second we were able to take a picture with one of the girls groups. Parker has (and has had) a thing for Faith who is second from the left in the red sweatshirt. She's almost as tall as him and is so cute. You can see the kid top on the top right not posing...he was "buddy" all day.....allllllll day :) Love ya, Casey! (and now you're "famous like Parker")

Evan's kindergarten class at the Pumpkin Patch

I got to go with Evan to the Pumpkin Patch and I'm not sure what it is that attracts me to the "bad boys" of the class. I went with Evan's class on Tuesday and since I've volunteered in his class before, I knew most all the kiddos. Well when I get there, I get this "just give me the bad kids" feeling. It happens on EVERY field trip. I used to think it was because Parker was a little hard to handle, but by now, I'm used to it. So yep, got the "handful child" right off the bat (and no it's for sure not Evan. He's one of the "good ones".) When Evan's teacher handed me the info for the field trip and the names, I smiled and said "thanks" with one of those cheesy I know who you've given me smiles. We laughed and she said, "I figured with 4 boys you can handle him." Of course needless to say, we had a great time and he only got lost once in the maze and only had to pee like 4 times and wasn't hungry for lunch and fed "the birds", so I guess it was a success?!?! We had a great time though.
Evan thinking he is SOOOOOO big....cute!
They had this tire horse swing thing that bounced and it was really hard to get
the kids to share and get off! Stay tuned for Parker's field day post!

Cardinals Baseball Game with the boys

We took the boys to a Cardinals Baseball game the end of September and I forgot to post about it. We had a great time. Although we spent a lot of money by the time the night was over, the kiddos had a blast! We were on the 13th row between home and first base (closer to home plate though). Parker thought for sure he'd catch a fly ball :) (didn't) and Evan was infatuated with breaking the peanuts out of the shell and getting them all ready to eat for us in his cotton candy bucket. The night was awesome.... perfect weather, perfect seats, no baby to hold and fight the whole time, it was GREAT!!!! I hope the link will connect you to a few of the pics from the night. Click on each picture to get the full view or do a slide show :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/CondiffCrew/CardinalsBaseballGame#

You and me goin' fishin' in the dark

One of our boys favorite things to do is hit a pond by our friend's home and go fishing. Our friends had said they hadn't had much luck lately, but like days of old... the Condiff boys come and there WILL be some fish to catch. :) I didn't get any pics of Mason hanging out in the stroller or Tanner and all the little tiny crappies he was catching, but tried to get the majority of Evan because he was having a blast!

His poor little Pirates of the Carribean fishin' pole wasn't sure if it could handle this "BIG FISH". (Total man with his hands as far as they could when he told you he caught a fish "this big".) His award winning fish. The pole just couldn't hold the weight of this "big fish" so Chris was teaching him to hold the line.
Evan's award winning bass! Way to go, Evan!!!

Parker with a cute little one on his pole and Tanner was getting about a 5 incher off his line. It was fun and as always the boys had a blast. As you can sort of tell from the picture it was getting dark. They fished until they couldn't see anymore and until lines started to get crossed and we called it good. We're glad we've got some great friends we can call and say "WE'RE COMIN' OVER" and they're flexible enough they can roll with the punches! Thanks, guys!!!

At the carwash...

What a nice man I have to wash AND wax my van... with a lot of help from Evan and little help from Mason. (And yes, I'm sure this was his unconscious effort to get out of the dog house :) haha) It was BEAUTIFUL weather on Saturday that it was screaming water and fun. I don't know that washing the car was fun, but Evan loved it. Mason, OF COURSE, loved the bubbles and was just as happy to play in the bucket of suds. It was so clean when Chris was done, he said "Let's go sell it and get you a new one!" I laughed and said, "Are you ready to start the INSIDE?!" So, YEP! I'm still the owner of one certified M3 Vehicle.... (Mormon Mommy Minivan).

Mason's First Steps

Chunky Monkey has decided that it's time to grow up and start walking. He took a few steps when Chris was out of town last week and by the time he got home on Sunday this is what he was doing. It's so fun to see how excited he gets just standing there clapping for himself. He will walk anywhere for as long as you want him to as long as he has one finger. Once the finger is gone he'll do about 10 steps and start laughing and fall. He's growing up sooooooo fast. He is officially my slowest to walk and yet he's just past his one year birthday. Good job, Mase!!

Mason's Presents/Toys

To finish off the night, we had a few presents for Mason to open. I think he was so excited it had nothing to do with cake, he would have been happy to just go to bed (it was close to 10 pm by this point and half his problem was that he was tired). He didn't understand that he was to open presents and toys because of course they come in a square box with so many security measures to get through! I swear! Do we have nothing better to do that twist each one of those metal things on and have an average of what...10 a package? And don't even get me started on the zip ties!
He did like the wrapping the paper (after the kids gave him space and a chance to try it himself.)
Those looking onward to see what the next new toy was going to be!
Someone a little happy about that vacuum? You know you vacuum way to much when your one year old immediately knows what to do with it and the sounds it make. After Evan, Chris swore we would never have another vacuum (Evan was the only one thanks to some neighbors who had one and got Evan hooked), but I knew how much Evan loved it and figured Mason would too!
Our little muscle man. He was so proud of this vacuum that night. He didn't want to go to bed after getting this toy. Thanks to all who helped make his birthday special and thanks to our friends, the Dawson's for coming over and helping us celebrate! (oh! And introducing the vacuum and many other "girlie" items to Evan!) The End.

Bathtime AFTER the cake!

Bathtime is Mason's all time favorite thing in the whole wide world! If he's crying for any reason, he will ALWAYS stop and do a 180 and be so happy for the bathtub. How can you not eat up those eyes?!!
He loves the bath! He got more icing on his face from crying and rubbing his eyes than anything else. He loved getting all cleaned up for his "party". Bring on the fun!

Mason's 1st Birthday... the CAKE!!!

Wow things have been crazy with Chris gone over a week and also realizing it's been OVER a week since I've posted. The worst was realizing I haven't posted Chunky's First Birthday.... what a bad mom I am! So here's a few of the classic pictures with his cake:

Why is everybody looking at me?
What should I be doing with this big thing on my high chair?
Nope!!! I don't like it! It has too many calories and will make me fat!
As you can see from Parker's reaction shot in the background, we were all surprised when our Chunky Monkey, Mason, decided to chuck his cake OVERBOARD instead of eating it and playing in it like most one year olds like to do. (By the way, nice action shot, babe!)

More cake!

So he finally looked like he might just like this after all.....
As he thinks to himself... WHAT IS THIS???.... (Now starts the music......)
Oh YES he did! He hated it so much that if you notice in the picture we had cake flying everywhere! So much for trying to save "around" the highchair with a tablecloth on the ground. Ohhhhh no! We had it all the way behind him on the counters - to on the carpet ~10 feet in front of him! He went ballistic over this cake thing. (again to Chris... great action shot!)
We gave him one more shot to try to eat it or like it and he just wasn't having it.
So on that note... Birthday cake is officially over! He kept crying saying "momma, momma, Momma" and reaching for me as I was an awful mother saying in a nice motherly voice, "This is fun, Mason. It's okay, honey! Play in your food :)" Now that he's chalked me up to the devil himself, I did redeem myself by putting him in his favorite place... the bath tub :)!