Happy 5th Birthday Gavin Thomas

Happy 5th Birthday to the most amazing little boy I know and LOVE, my son.  So hard to believe that this guy is FIVE years old today.   Mommy is a little behind and has not had professional pictures taken yet, but our amazing photographer will work her magic next week (meanwhile you get me and this cutie!)

 

Seems like yesterday we were awaiting the arrival of our bundle of joy, time has flown by so quickly.  Five, five, five ~ how are we here?

Gavin is such a happy little boy, full of life, always on the go, never meets a stranger, loves life to the fullest, has an incredible imagination, dreams big, is often in character, always ask for hugs, a hand holder, expresses his feelings no matter what they are, keeps our house full of laughter and is ALL boy.

 

His big eyes tell a story and are truly the window to his soul.  The boy is obsessed with E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G  Lego right now and his 5th birthday has centered around his love for the little colorful blocks.

My love for this kid is unexplainable and I am so PROUD that I get to do life with him.  Being his Mommy is a new adventure every single day and I am so incredibly grateful that God picked me to be the one.  He blesses me daily with his attitude and prospective on life, often encouraging me to slow down and enjoy the little things.

Gavin Thomas, it has been so much fun celebrating YOU turning FIVE and just spending quality time enjoying everything about YOU.  Thank you for making me build Legos with you, it has been a blast watching you create and bring your Star Wars Legos to life.

Life with you is so much fun and just keeps getting better and better as the days go by.  I love you more than all the Legos in the world, YOU will always be my "Piece of Resistance"!

Gavin's "LEGO" Birthday Weekend

We have just returned from Gavin's weekend birthday celebration to LEGOLAND.  We took off early Friday morning and headed to Grapevine to celebrate our little boy turning FIVE!

 

 

Gavin chose to have a family party and a trip this year, I am so thankful for his decision.  We stayed at one of our favorite hotels and had a good ole time. Thought it was only fitting that we shared the LEGO version of The Gaylord.  It was such a blessing to get away for the weekend and just enjoy each other while we celebrated a special little one.

 

We decided to enjoy a cookie cake that we picked up when we got into town, gotta love the Great American Cookie Company. 

That is suppose to be a Star Wars Tie Fighter you see, use your imagination folks.   The "5" candle broke when we were taking it out of the package, so Daddy repaired it with toothpaste (love that man!). 

 

Opening more birthday gifts from us, can you guess what it might be?  Daddy got him all the micro fighters that were recently released and a couple of other cool Star Wars sets.  It was so fun, we spent time as a family putting 8 different sets together in our hotel room.

 

Gavin was so excited to get to LEGOLAND and so were we, he talked about this for a month and it did not disappoint.  We went midday on Friday and we basically had the entire place to ourselves, awesome!

 

 

This boy is in his element when he is building, designing and creating.  Such a fun place to celebrate his birthday and we are looking forward to taking him to the LEGO Theme Park soon.

Cute little LEGO City police cars that Emma and Gavin got to take a ride in, so nice that they had the entire city to themselves.

 

As hard as it was to not run to The LEGO Movie the day it hit the theatre, I am so glad that we waited and incorporated it into his birthday surprise. This experience was a first for all of us and it was wonderful.

 

 

Look real hard and you will see my "Piece of Resistance" in there!  So happy this little boy finally got to see this movie.

 

We decided to see The LEGO Movie at a Fork and Screen theater and it was awesome.  Big leather reclining chairs, a waitress, great food, a service button, only about 15 people in the entire theater and a fantastic movie. Love, love, love this movie and this boy.

We also visited an Aquarium and Gavin was in his element.  He loves all animals, constantly reads books about them and talks about them nonstop. 

 

We got to see a baby Octopus on our visit and it was tiny, so cute (first time for all of us).  The kids enjoyed all the exhibits and the hands on encounters with the starfish and sea urchins.

This weekend was all about Gavin and he kept reminding his big sister, "it's about me, Emma".  We also spent time at Bass Pro Shop, eating Gavin's favorite food, enjoying ice cream, dinner at Papadeaux's, visit to Starbucks, a big pancake breakfast and much more.   We planned on visiting the Dallas World Aquarium today, but the weather got bad in Grapevine and we were afraid to stick around (temperature dropped to 13 degrees quick).

We had a wonderful weekend embracing all the things that Gavin Thomas loves and it was such a treat to be away and just be together.   It was bittersweet when I tucked by baby boy in bed tonight and prayed with him for the last time as a four year old.  So hard to believe that when I wake up in the morning my baby will be FIVE years old.  We are BLESSED!

Emma's First Dance Convention

A couple weeks back we attended Emma's first Dance convention for the weekend and it was a blast.  These girls were beyond excited to get inside and work their little "bee hives" off in intense dance class all day long. They attended a ballet, jazz, hip hop, lyrical and tap session.  They gave them 3 minutes in between each class to take a water break and change their shoes.

 

 

I was a little concerned about their endurance level for the day, but they were all TROOPERS.  We had about about 65 girls from our competition team attend and 15 were in Emma's age group (the little ones only attended 1 day of workshops).

 

This is the only picture I got inside one of the classes, I was quickly reminded NO CAMERAS allowed (oops)!

 

 

The girls at the end of day back at the hotel room getting their goodies from one another.  We had the best roommates of all.  

 

These three have become connected at the hips. Emma loves Rheagan and Addi, I happen to love their Mommy's too.  Talk about fun, we had a blast and are still belly laughing about the weekend when we see one another.

 

We went to dinner with 5 other families that evening and then headed back to the hotel for the girls company party put on by our Dance Studio in one of the ballrooms. While these girlie's were partying it up, us Mommas got to have some fun too.

 

At the end of the night we invited Reese to come and stay the night with us too.  We had two adjoining rooms, so our motto was...the more the merrier.  These girls jumped on the beds, ate candy, giggled like crazy, watched a movie, ding dong ditched other girls rooms, ran up and down the hallway and screamed like crazy. We put 4 of them in a queen size bed side ways and it worked out perfectly.  Hmmm, never thought we would get a noise complaint with a room full of 6 year olds but WE DID! 

 

These three...this picture says it all, personality galore!  So thankful that Emma gets to dance with such amazing little girls.  I have learned to keep an extra booster seat in my car because one of these kids is always making their way home with us or Emma is heading home with them.

 

Dance convention was a huge success and we are quickly approaching contest season.  Emma is on the "Minis" team and they have come so far and worked so extremely hard.  Looking forward to the remainder of this dance season and recital in June. 

Gavin's Lego Birthday Party

Hard to believe that our baby boy is almost FIVE years old.  This year he opted for a simple little family birthday at home and a long weekend getaway to Legoland. 

 

If you know me, you know I love parties so sometimes it is hard for me to accommodate the themes and ideas my kids have. I realized long ago it is about them, not me and I have allowed them to choose the plan since their 2nd birthdays. 

 

 

It was no surprise this year when Gavin said he wanted a "Lego Party", the boy is obsessed with e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g LEGO!  His favorite are the Star Wars Legos and he has established quite a collection so far and knows every character by name.

 

We asked Gavin who and what he wanted at his party and he did not hesitate to name the guest and the menu.  I love our cake place because it is YUMMY and they have great handwriting (ha ha).   This little Lego cake put a smile on my Lego-loving boys face.

 

 

No party is complete without cupcakes, right?  He was not happy that we used his real Lego's as toppers.

 

"I want Lego cookies too Mommy."  I do not blame you Son and I will make that happen for you, sweet boy.  Did I mention that we have an awesome cookie lady too?

 

While it is super hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that this boy will be FIVE in a couple weeks, he has fully embraced it.

 

It was so fun to watch him open all his Star War Lego sets. Gavin is a little embarrassing when it comes to opening gifts.  If he loves it he will scream, jump and run circles around the room and make you feel like you have given him the most amazing gift ever.  If he does not like it, he is going to tell you and has no filter whatsoever.   He likes to say things like, "I did NOT ask for this. What is this? I do not want this!"  Talk about crawl under a chair, I want to every single time it happens. I have talked to him over and over again but it happens every time.

 

 

Studying all the mini figurines in the set, he loves them all. Look at that sweet face, he makes me happy, happy, happy.

 

 

My favorite pictures of my kids at every party are them blowing out their candles, LOVE!  It was a sweet celebration with Gavin and our immediate family.  Looking forward to celebrating the big FIVE with him this weekend. 

Valentines 2014

Our Valentines week was jam packed full of activities and we were in survival mode all week long with swim party, dance party, school party and company party.

 

 

We decided to celebrate as a family a couple days before with a simple little family dinner and sharing our love stories with one another.  We had pizza, cupcakes, ice cream, chocolate covered strawberries and vitamin water in goblets.  My kids are just like me and love any reason to decorate and celebrate.

 

Gavin gave his buddies at school these Yoda valentines with glow sticks and Star Wars fruit snacks.  I forgot to take a picture of Emma's bookmarks and candy.

 

Thankful once again for a boss that values family and allows me to attend all my kiddos stuff.  It worked out for me to attend Gavin's party on Thursday and Emma's on Friday. 

 

 

This is the only picture I got at Emma's party because I was helping set up, pass things out and clean up.  Always fun to see Emma with her classmates, especially Ellie and Maria.  These are her 2 best buddies at school.  Maria joined swim team this year so her and Emma love to jump in the same lane at the pool too. 

 

Still blown away that I have managed to attend all of Emma and Gavin's school/MDO events over the past 6 years and balance a career, such a blessing and one I will NEVER take for granted or forget. 

100th Day of School

100 days down and 87 more to go until SUMMER!  Daddy and Emma decided to work on the 100 day project together.  Curtis went to Wal Mart and found Emma a shirt and decided to buy a Bedazzling box kit for $10.00.  About 2 hours into the project he was wishing he had just bought some paint. 

 

 

He sat at the kitchen table for 4 hours trying to make this shirt for his baby girl and eventually stopped using the machine and started installing the brackets and jewels by hand (he declared that the machine was JUNK).  Talk about hysterical, it was some kind of funny and Emma was cheering him on.  Need I say, he will NEVER agree to a project such as this again.

 

 

Emma was so proud to pick out her outfit of the day (it is crazy some mornings ya'll) and sport her 100 day shirt that her Daddy made for her with love.  Best part was when she got home that afternoon and about 40 jewels had fallen off and she threw the shirt in the trash.  Thank God for an amazing Daddy that is always willing to step up to the plate and for the 100th day of school that promises us that SUMMER is on its way.

Little League Tryouts

The littlest Frazier had Little League tryouts today and we were so incredibly PROUD of this kiddo.  He walked out on that field as a four (almost 5 year old) and he delivered.  It was so fun to cheer him on and his big sister was so encouraging too. 

 

 

We have been in the great debate around here as to what this boy was going to get involved in and to be honest, we have tried it ALL.  So when it came time to register for baseball we gave Gavin the option of swim team or baseball and he quickly chose baseball.  I signed him up and we started buying all the gear, then he started saying he did not want to play baseball (Baskin Robbins might have been involved in the conversation too) . Due to the weather tryouts continued to be pushed back, but today was finally the day.   After church we changed this little stinker in the car and started talking it up. 

 

We showed up to the big boy field in search of Field #13 that was waiting for all the 6U boys (6 and under).  We walked out on the field and had no idea what to expect, so we stood in the long line and waited our turn. We were about 30th in line and it took about an hour and a half for us to have our turn.  While we waited Daddy threw the ball to Gavin and he rolled around on the field as if he were playing a mixture of football and baseball, the crowd found him quite entertaining.

 

The closer we got up in the line, we could see what was going on and these coaches were serious.  There were about 8 coaches sitting between 2nd and 3rd base with notepads.  There was another coach on the mound pitching and each kid got 3 chances to bat and on the 3rd one they ran to first base.  Afterwards they moved to short stop and fielded 3 balls throwing them back, good stuff.

 

When it was Gavin's turn, the coach at the plate shouted, "Gavin Frazier, #33, birthday is correct, 4 years old and will be playing as a 5 year old this season."  Gavin jumped up to the plate and I will admit I was a bit nervous because we had only practiced with at tee.  Up until a week ago I really thought we were playing tee ball and had no idea it was coaches pitch.   Goodbye YMCA and hello Little League, we got this.

When Gavin got up to the plate he looked at the coach that was pitching and pointed his two fingers up to his eyes and then pointed those same two fingers towards the coach (you know, the I'm watching you sign) and the Coach said, "I'm watching you too buddy" while the coaches outfield all laughed hysterically.  This kid is something else I tell ya, figure that gesture right there might make him go pretty quick in the draft (ha ha).

This boy worked hard, was so proud, did not let the balls get by him and his throws were pretty darn good.  We need to work on making contact with the ball since the "tee" is out of the question (silly Momma!).

Today was a super proud Mommy moment for me and I can not wait to cheer for this little boy and his team this season.   

Snow Day 2014

Last Friday we had the day off due to inclement weather and these two kiddos were super sad when it did not snow.  Today we also had the day off and things turned out a tiny bit different.

 

We did get a few snow flurries and my kids were screaming at the top of their lungs.  After they unglued their faces from the windows, they ran to their rooms and started getting dressed.  I think they thought they were back in Steamboat about to hit the slopes.  Seriously, they put on all their ski gear and headed out the door.

 

They were able to enjoy an hour of snow flakes falling and some ice on our playset.  It was so much fun to see them so excited about something we do not see to often where we live.  It was a nice little break from school and extra curricular activities.