Easter 2011

Alex told me this past Saturday that Easter is almost better than Christmas! Wow! That's pretty big! We had a really fun Easter this year. I think what made it extra special was having Grandma and Papa there this time. We also had Aunt Patty and Uncle Michael, who we haven't seen since Christmas. Truly, the more the merrier, especially in our family.

Easter Eve, Alex wanted to leave carrots and water out for the Easter Bunny. So we had that all ready for EB. Easter morning, Alex kinda squeled with excitement when he woke up and discovered that the EB had eaten the carrots! After the initial excitement wore off, we got ourselves ready for church. After church, we headed to Grandma and Papa's house for Easter lunch and of course, the EGG HUNT!!!!

The kids are all ready for the Easter Egg Hunt! So exciting. The Garden of Eden, what we affectionately call my mom and dad's yards, was covered in Easter eggs!

And she's off!

And she's eating!

Alex was super serious about his egg hunting!

Woa, the EB was generous this year!

We really enjoyed our Easter. After the egg hunt, we pigged out on a super yummy lunch before Grandma and Papa headed back to Chicago. What a great holiday we had!

Good Friday 2011

Alex has been asking me for WEEKS to dye Easter eggs. He loves, loves, dying eggs. I kept telling him we'd do that on Good Friday, since he was out of school. He'd even asked me earlier in the week if he could do it, like on Tuesday or something, saying Friday was too far away. My sweet, patient red head! So I went ahead and bought two dozen eggs just to dye: one dozen for Alex and one dozen for Addison. And when Good Friday was finally here, Alex was good and ready!

I was so proud of Addison because I wasn't quite sure how she'd do with the dye. But she was a crafty trooper! She sat right down, grabbed a spoon and started dying the eggs. Caitlin didn't fair quite as well. She tried a couple times to drink the dye. Tamara was a little frazzled by the time we were done.

Alex with his finished eggs. He blew through all 12 of his eggs in no time flat!

Addison with her finished eggs. Note the color theme...PINK! I barely managed to talk her into doing a few eggs in other colors.

"Show me your hands!"

Sometimes, your hands just work out better! To my surpise, Addison did really well with the dye, and managed to keep herself fairly clean, with the exception of her hands. And the hard boiled eggs didn't all go to waste: Aunt Patty took a bunch and made a ton of deviled eggs. Yum!

More Birthday Fun

This year for Alex's birthday, we decided to scale back a bit on the birthday party. Birthday's are a big deal in my book, so this was a little hard for me. But being in kindergarten, and not knowing a lot of his classmates very well, I think this was the right decision for our family this year. So instead of a big party, we took Alex out the the "race track" aka Putt Putt in Hurst. He LOVES going out there. And we took Cadence, so he had at least one friend there with him. He did all his favorite things...race cars, played minature golf, and also rode in the bumper boats. I think that was the highlight of the day for Alex and Cadence. They had a ball in the bumper boats!



One of these times, I'm going to get to ride in the race cars! This time, I was watching Addison.

Here the boys are playing golf. I think Alex just hit a hole in won..you can barely see that he's jumping up and down!


While we were waiting for the bumper boats, I tried to get a quick shot of Alex and Addison.

The bumper boats moved around in this pool, and you could also shoot water at the other people in the boats. The boys had a blast soaking each other!

After the bumper boats, showing off their wet shirts. Good thing we had really warm, beautiful weather!
When we were done at the race track, we headed back to my parents house for dinner. We cooked up some kabobs for dinner, and Great Grandma and Aunt Mary joined us for the party. Alex had a second round of presents, and a second round of cake. I think for not having a big party, he had a good day celebrating his birthday.

The Big 6

Alex turned 6 last week! I can't believe how fast the years have gone...it seems like just yesterday I brought this tiny baby home from the hospital, scared to death and clueless! Six years later, he's grown into a smart, funny boy. The night before his birthday, we were having dinner and Alex was not too happy about going to school on his birthday. Roger and I laughed! We tried to make it a special day despite having to go to school. He was thrilled to wake up to some presents. We even let him open one before school. He is really into Sonic x/Sonic the Hedgehog. And he's been telling me for months that he wanted this Sonic Underground movie. I lucked into finding it at Target, and for only $5! Later that day, Roger and I went up to his school to have lunch with him. He was thrilled!
Alex eats lunch at 10:35 in the morning. So we can't really pick him up anything fun or special for lunch. So we brought him up a pizza that I cooked at home. We'd also picked him up some chocolates from Godiva. He was so happy! It was really fun! After school, Aunt Tamara, Cadence and Caitlin stopped by to wish Alex a happy birthday. They brought cupcakes, so we sang happy birthday, opened some gifts, and had an after school snack.

That night was also Alex's school play. It was called Bugz, and it was the cutest show ever! I mean, kindergartners are pretty funny and cute as it is. And this play really highlighted all their sweet, funny talents! Alex played an Army Ant, and during their song, he said "Two-Three-Four!"(think "hut two, three, four") He was so into his part! And it was so funny! He had participated in several little musical programs while in preschool. And he was never really into singing the songs and doing the hand motions. So you can imagine how surprised I was that he was so into his play. I was so proud of how well he "performed" his part!

I was so proud of Alex. He was truly one of the stars of the show! And phew! What a fun, busy birthday. I think he had a really special birthday. I mean, for it being a school day and all!

Who is Six Year Old Alex?

Alex turned 6 last week! I'm still wrapping my brain around the fact that I have a six year old. I can hardly believe how much he's grown. The other night, Alex and I laughed as I told him all about going to the hospital to deliver him. It was fun to share those special memories with him. As I look at him today, I'm amazed at the kid he's growing into. I don't want to forget anything about him at this age, so here are some highlights:



*He still loves all sports. Hockey is still his number one favorite, with soccer and baseball tied for second. He started playing soccer this spring, and he is so naturally talented at it. He has played goalie, and does an amazing job!


*He's very interested in planets, space, and the world in general. It's fun to see his mind opening up to the knowledge of new places and different countries.



*Alex has been blessed with something we fondly call "The McNiel Gift of Gab." He enjoys talking, sometimes more than I enjoy listening. But it serves him well in making new friends. Anywhere he goes, he can find someone his size, play with them, and be their friend.



*Speaking of best friends, he still loves hanging out and playing with his cousin, Cadence. I know not far in the future the age difference between Alex and Cadence will catch up to them, but for now they are best buds!



*As we are nearly finished with the school year (just 6 weeks left!), we have really developed a morning routine. We still, however, have to set a timer in the morning to keep Alex on track while eating. Otherwise, he dilly-dallys away the entire morning. I don't know where he got that from!?! [Yes, me]



*He comes home every day with a green smiley face on his behavior log from school. I tend to think that his teacher is a little on the generous side, but also hope he really is being pretty good at school.



*Believe it or not, his favorite part of school is PE and recess. Surprise, surprise!



*Around spring break, I started reading chapter books with him at night. I remember my mom reading to me when my siblings and I were little. I think this really instilled in me a love for reading. I'm hoping it will do the same for Alex. We're working our way through the Junie B. Jones series. I think he really enjoys the stories and the time we spend together.



*He still loves everything Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic X). He told me the other day his name was really Sonic, and Alex second. He also has a vivid imagination.



*He still has his favorite handful of foods. But he's added some new foods to his repertoire, such as chocolate milk. Yay! His favorite food though is still cheese pizza.



*Alex is still a very kind and compassionate boy. He also has surprised me with how passionate he is about doing the right thing. And it really upsets him to see others breaking the rules, or not playing fair. Wonder where he got that from!?! (Not me!)





*I still lay down with him in his bed for about 5 minutes every night. I remember when I was pregnant with Addison how much I dreaded lugging my big ol belly up on his bed, and then lugging my big ol' self back off. I kept saying, he's too old for this. But really, deep down, I love those few, quite moments we share talking every night before he drifts off to sleep!

Soccer!

The spring is always a crazy, busy time around the Lee household. In addition to the Lee birthday season (Roger, Alex, Addison, in that order), it's also time for sports! Alex decided that he wanted to play soccer this spring. I think he really wanted to play because his cousin played last year, and is playing again this spring. Regardless of why, I was happy to get him into a sport. He is so naturally talented in sports, and I really want to help that talent flourish. And not to sound too much like a proud Mama, Alex is really good at soccer! His coaches really love the sport, and their passion is contagious! The kids work really hard and have played extremely well. They usually play Alex as the goalie. He is so good! When he's down in the goalie box, he is intense...watching the ball, moving with the ball, always staying in front of it. And stops nearly all the shots. So impressive! Who knew? Soccer. That's what's currently happening around here.