Birthdays

Since Leah's birthday back in March, we've celebrated a few more.

I turned 33 in May, which so far is a great age. I've really enjoyed the 30's. I may not sing the same tune in those upper 30's as I approach 40, but for now, no complaints. We had a nice dinner at home and then cake with Anna, Steve and their kids.

June 26th, Jeremy turned 32 and Elliot turned 3. Here's Jeremy opening his new ax for splitting wood.

Or putting?

Breakfast for the birthday boys. Elliot got to eat on the red plate! Of course, he had to wear an orange shirt for two reasons: b/c it's just like dad's and b/c orange is his favorite color. Although, since then he says he likes black better.

Elliot loves legos too and building things. Here he is opening a legos fire truck.

It was shortly before his third birthday that we finally transferred him from his crib to the big bed in his room. It seems weird that we waited so long, but he's not that heavy and seemed to like the crib. Plus it kept him contained during nap time. He loves his big bed now and since it's a full, he has room to park all his trucks at night or line up his favorite stuffed animals in the bed next to him. :-)

Elliot's 3 year stats:
Height - 37.25"
30 lbs even
BMI 15.4
Blood Pressure 90/62

Carter turned 7 on September 22nd, this year the day before the first day of fall. We had the family over on his birthday for dinner and cupcakes.

Carter loves legos!! He also loves riding his bike and spends hours each week riding. His favorite gift was a new bell for his bike from Great-grandma Evans (Jeremy's grandmother). So cool!!

Carter's 7 year stats:
Height - 48.25"
Weight - 56.3 lbs.
Blood Pressure - 99/60
BMI - 17.1
For Carter's birthday party, he invited his class to Patterson's fun fest, which I've posted about in years' past. They didn't have school the Friday after his birthday, so we thought it would be the perfect day for his party, avoiding the weekend crowds. We hoped for sunshine, but instead got driving rain. I mean pouring!!! I emailed the parents the night before and said if it's not a thunderstorm we're going to go on with the party, only because rescheduling would have been difficult. When we arrived the next day in the rain, one of the employees told us out of 7 parties we were the only one that didn't cancel. So, I was thinking either we're troopers or we're just crazy!

I really wondered if the kids would show and they all did. Sporting mud boots and coats, they all came. It ended up being a fantastic party, full of adventure! We had the entire place to ourselves and the kids ran around and made the most of things. It was impressive. Surely the chocolate cupcakes and pizza helped. We were able to use the barn since none of the school parties came. The staff was great and even took the kids on an extra tractor ride to pick apples.

It kind of looks sunny in this picture.

Some of the girls in Carter's class. Ellie, Bridget, Ellie, Alyssa & Bridget's sister Mollie.

Carter and his great buddy, Damian.

More good friends, Gavin and Jake

Driving in the rain

Brooks, chowing on pizza.

Cupcake time

Leah, playing on the fire pole and hay bales.

Our good friends the Fitzmaurices came for some wet fall fun and to help out with all the kids. Thank you, thank you!

Aunt Maggie and both grandmas came to help with the party too. Here's Aunt Maggie keeping Leah and Elliot warm!

Apple picking in the rain.

The tractor ride back to meet their parents at the end of the party.

Happy Birthday!! Here's to a great year ahead!!!

Life in the Kler house

Hello to All!! It's been forever. Thought I would post an update and re-enter the world of blogging since last spring. While I've really slacked on my own postings, I have however been reading all of your posts.
I enjoy them so much. Would love another trip somewhere with all your families or even just a girls' getaway!

Much has happened and I will begin posting on some stories soon. The kids are great. Kindergarten and 1st grade are well underway. Leah is getting settled into her new school and loves to be with her big brother. I coach Carter on holding the door for her and walking her to class in the morning. You'd think this was a major chore since when I remind him he rolls his eyes. He does it though and then quietly tells me after school when Leah isn't around that he checked in on her during his bathroom break (kindergarten is next to the bathroom). He just wouldn't want her to know he cares. He says, "she's doing fine Mom".

Carter loves 1st grade..if I could just get him to work as hard on reading as he does on soccer or riding his bike. He guesses. If he gets to a word he's not sure about it, he just picks another word that starts with the same letter. So, it takes ten years to get through a book! I started to make him spell the words he guessed yesterday. This of course takes longer but it makes him think twice about guessing. Slowly as we approached the end of the book, he started to sound out the tougher words. We're getting there. He still loves science, gym class and the money parts of math. :-) I'm hoping the other subjects will come along soon.

A quick tidbit: This morning while I was packing lunches, they decided to get Brooks dressed for me. They came down stairs with chests high boasting that they'd gotten him dressed, even changed his diaper! I should have taken a picture. Brooks was wearing a dark red and blue striped shirt with light blue and orange plaid shorts. Carter gets his dressing habits from his dad! kidding! I didn't even check his diaper for fear of bursting his bubble and just celebrated their helpful effort and told them how much I appreciated it. Later I changed Brooks's diaper and noticed it was on backwards...I'm not even sure how they did it. He must have been standing or something. At least he didn't pee on the floor. So, Carter is maturing and is such a great kid, helpful and kind.

Elliot is loving life too. He loves soccer and waits till it's "his day" at school. Now that both Carter and Leah are in grade school, he misses them and wants to be off to school too. Each morning he asks if it's his day, meaning his day for pre-school, which only happens on Monday and Wednesday mornings for two hours. So more often than not, the answer is no. As much as Elliot loves to go to school, we're trying to scale back pre-school a bit. Three years of it seem a bit much so we're just going to do two mornings this year. It's so nice being home with both little ones on the other days. We don't have to run around as much. Elliot is starting to play with Brooks more and they are becoming good buddies since it's just the two of them.

Brooks is getting so big!!! Every day it's something new, a new word, a new skill, just something. He follows the pack and can pretty much hang with them during most activities. He runs around now and is getting fast, loves to dig in the dirt or jump in the leaves and his favorite thing is sitting on Jeremy's tractor. Lawn mower is his most often used word. :-) He carries around a stuffed animal a lot of the day. His lambies are his favorites and he still sucks his index and middle fingers while holding his ear with the other hand. He loves hugs and rough housing and playing with dad. He sprints accross the kitchen when Jeremy arrives after work.

Here are some recent pics...

Carter and Leah on Leah's first day of school. Carter started the day before. The kindergarten had a staggered start during the first week.

This is Elliot one night we put him to bed and he said his stomach hurt, so we gave him a bucket just in case. Apparently, he just needed a helmet b/c this is how we found him later that night.
Leah, with her new cousin Charlotte "Charlie". she's so beautiful and Leah is thrilled to hold her any chance she gets. Leah said to my sister in law the first time she held her, "I hope Charlotte's not hungry because I can't feed her!!". I guess she's starting to understand nursing. Cute.

Brooks eating breakfast. He's even starting to sit in the wooden high chair that scoots right up to the table and drink from cups with no lid. He wants his own silverware too and insists on feeding himself most of the time.

Leah Turns 5!

Leah turned 5 on March 15th!!! She suddenly seems like a big kid too. She's maturing into a sweet little lady who loves fun, laughing, talking, singing and running. She's a mover and a shaker. One other favorite is tv. We do our best to limit her, but out of all the kids she's the one that loves to watch a show whenever possible. Her favorites are Tom & Jerry, Jake and the Neverland Pirates & Little Einsteins.

We had my brother and parents over one night during the week of her birthday for cake.
She wanted a pony cake for the second year in a row. Grandma baked this one.

Opening new pink summer clothes including a bathing suit, which she really needed!!!

G-ma is becoming a talented pottery maker (what would you call that?) and she made Leah a tea set for her birthday. It is adorable and so special b/c G-ma made it. Leah's friend Molly came over to play on her birthday and they had a tea party with the new set.

Brooks joined them too, at least for the snacks.

Leah, eating dinner on the special red plate

I made her another pony cake on her actual birthday.
Leah, Elliot and Erin (Molly's sister)

Little with her little buddy Brooks! She's always trying to help him learn to walk.

G-ma came over a few days after her birthday to bake with the easy bake oven and have tea party!

This time they invited Elliot :-)

I'm stealing the interview idea from my fellow bloggers....

Leah
How old are you?
Five

What's your favorite thing to do?
watch tv

What's your second favorite thing to do?
Play a game with Mom

What's your favorite thing about school?
Playing with the kitchen

What's your favorite thing about being home?
Playing with mommy and taking walks (I promise these are unprompted! It could be that I was the interviewer :-))

What's your favorite place to go?
The fair, where there's lots of games and lots of candy

What's your second favorite place to go?
Ice cream store, Mitchell's

What's your favorite color?
Pink...and purple....I mean the whole rainbow.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A policeman, so I can shoot people's tires so they can't drive anymore (no idea where she got that)

Where will you live?
South Carolina

Who will you live with?
Carter and I will have kids

What will there names be?
Lena, Stinky do, and one will be Baby Bear

What color will your house be?
Pink and my windows will be pink and we'll have our own room and it will be green.

What's your favorite song?
Twinkle twinkle little star

What's your favorite thing to do outside?
Go in the woods with Dad

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?
No

Happy Birthday Leah! You are so fun to be with. Your laugh is contagious and we love the way you always sing and love to take care of Brooks. You are a fantastic sister to your brothers. We love you to pieces!!!

Hiking in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Carter didn't have school a few Fridays ago and we had a break in the weather, so Jeremy took the day off and we went hiking in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It's about a 40 min. drive south. We left right after breakfast and started hiking by around 9. Jeremy and I had mapped out a few "kid friendly" hikes the night before, recommended on the website. It looks cold in the pictures but it got up to about 60. We had obviously had a bunch of snow right before that, which made it a little slippery in spots, but also minimized the mud since it hadn't all thawed yet.

Carter wanted to cross this log too, but it was on the first trail and I didn't want him spending the rest of the day wet!

It was really quiet. We only passed a few people along the way. The kids loved exploring in the woods, finding sticks and rocks.

One of the trails has a waterfall that was really gushing due to the thaw.

Jeremy found this hollowed out tree and everyone had to look up inside, imagining what animals were living there.

After two trails, we took a break and had lunch at the Winking Lizard. The kids loved seeing the real live lizard. The food was great and the Stella on tap even better!

After lunch, we hiked one more trail along the river and saw some of the old Locks, shown below, where the boats used to pass through.
No joke, Jeremy found 20 dollars on the ground and Carter yelled, "Let's get ice cream!" So, we did. It was pretty funny.

Last stop was the covered bridge on the way home.

We had the best day together and can't wait to go back. Beautiful scenery, fresh air and exercise shared with the kids is so much fun. They love the outdoors and we plan to bike the Tow Path with them there this summer. There are a few places to rent bike trailers for Elliot and Brooks. Now, if we could just get some more warm weather and sunshine! I'm so ready for spring, even if it means the muddy season!

Leah gets a haircut

Leah would cry just about every day when I'd comb her hair, but insisted that she wanted it long. I negotiated with her several times but never could get her to agree to go to the salon. Finally, Aunt Anna came to the rescue and offered to come along. This made it more of an outing or girl's night. Another friend suggested donating her hair since it's so long. I told her she could help someone else and explained how a wig works, a new concept for a four year old.


She was so quiet and serious during the haircut. We went to Starbucks afterwards for some chocolate milk!




It turned out really cute and is much easier to take care of. No more crying when I brush it. She still gets bed head and we wet it down in the morning, but it combs right through and is much faster. The barrettes stay in now too b/c it's not so heavy.