A Birthd8 Miracle

Sometimes birthday wishes DO come true. I saw the light from our family room TV glaring around 6 a.m. this morning and automatically assumed it was Matt. He is usually up early and getting ready to leave for school. I would've never dreamed it was Isaac--my late sleeper.  He was snuggled up in the La-Z-boy watching a show.  I said, "buddy what are you doing up so early?'  He said, "I wanted to see dad on my birthday before he left for school."~ sweet! I paused his show and checked the news to see if schools were canceled.  There was an expected ice storm moving through our area late night/early morning.  When I saw the school closing(s) ticker, I KNEW we had to be out.  When Warren County popped up, I told Isaac, "school is canceled today."  He excitedly replied, "my birthday wish came true."  

Isaac has brought so much joy to our lives.  When we started talking about his 8th birthday, immediately after his 7th, he really wanted to have his birthday party at Stakz Frozen Yogurt.  Although I agreed that would be a fun place to have a party, I told him that we could do something even more special like go to Opry Mills and the Lego store in Nashville and maybe even spend the night since his birthday fell on a Friday this year.  I was actually surprised by how much convincing it took--I mean fro yo for the Lego store--is that even a contest?  He sure does love the orange sorbet.  He finally relented, and I started planning for his special night at Opry Mills.   I decided to look into parties at Rainforest Cafe and The Aquarium Restaurant.  Since we've been to Rainforest a handful of times, I decided we'd try The Aquarium for the party place.  The package is actually really cool.

The package includes:

o   A Party Favor (Plush Sea Animal) for each child.

o   A balloon Bouquet for the birthday child to keep.

o   Choice of an Aquarium’s Kid’s Meal

o   Unlimited soft drinks in a Sharkey character souvenir cup for each child.

o   A Sharkey character kid’s plate for each child to take home.

 I knew his party would be simple, in that we wouldn't have lots of attendees, only family which is actually quite a few attendees by itself =).Since I didn't have to make many invitations, I wanted to make something extra special and unique.  I decided to do Isaac's own personal messages (or invitations) in a bottle.

I picked up some clear, corked bottles at Hobby Lobby along with some blue sand and seashells.  After carefully funneling in the sand, I sprinkled the shells on top.

I made the invitations with a brown lunch sack and scroll print out.

I cut the invites fairly small, rolled them up and secured them with a rubber band.  I slipped them into the bottles, added some twine at the top and seriously how cool are these invitations!?!?  They were so fun to make!

Isaac was born at exactly 7:11 p.m. on Tuesday, January 25, 2005.  It was love at first sight, for me and Matt and for Karson.  He was the best baby in the world--very relaxed.  I remember him sitting in his carseat in his bedroom with Karson playing around him.  She'd pile up loads of Little People in his lap and try her best to involve him.  He just looked at her in awe.  She was the coolest being on the planet in his eyes.  Karson was the best big sister always trying to help swing him in the battery-operated swing--she needed him to go a little higher (and faster) than the swing allowed.  She'd help feed him and give him baths.  She loved her little bud as she liked to call him.  Isaac has spent the last 8 years following in his big sister's footsteps.  He's incredibly smart, talented, well-liked, creative and entertaining.  His comment this morning "my birthday wish came true" is classic Isaac!  He's a lucky one.  I've come to realize that luck surrounds Matt and Isaac in many ways .  You know how some people are just lucky or seem to be luckier?  Well, we have two of those in our family.

~ AN ICY MORNING ~ as luck would have it, schools were canceled today due to icy roads.  However, I had not one but TWO cakes to pick up, both at 10 a.m.  I was to pick up one at the mall Cookie Store and another one a Wal-Mart.  I wasn't sure how driving conditions would be, but it's usually easy to tell living next to Plano Road--a main artery in our area of town.  Cars and trucks were buzzing by at normal speeds so I felt pretty safe getting out.  I made it to town safely around 10:30 to pick up both cakes.


The cookie cake was supposed to go to Plano Elementary this afternoon so Isaac could celebrate his birthday with his classmates.  The beach/ocean cake was going to come with us tonight for his party at The Aquarium.  I want you to look carefully at both cakes and see if you notice any error(s)? I didn't notice until I got home.  Okay, I'll tell you...the lady forgot to cross the 't' in Birthday on the Wal-Mart cake.  It actually didn't have any writing on it at all when I picked it up.  In fact, the bakery clerk almost seemed perturbed that I was there to pick up the cake I had already ordered days prior.  I also told her how to correctly spell Isaac to which she misspelled Issac and then had to scrape it off (can you see the bigger 'a' with white behind it).  Sheesh.  Thankfully, I had palm trees and had made Isaac a seashell #8.  I also asked her to add a sunshine to the top.  It was just to plain for me.  It needed some polishing up (and the clerk did too).

The kids are used to posing for my numerous pictures.  I love Evan's attempt to "jazz up" the picture by spreading his arms out wide!

Since we had the afternoon free, we decided to head on down to Nashville around 2 p.m. with the Maglinger's.  We made our first stop at The Aquarium to drop off our party supplies and see the place. 

We had a fun afternoon browsing through the mall shops.  We had to make a pit stop at It's Sugar.  The kids were amazed by the JUMBO sized candy.  I think Isaac could put away that Laffy Taffy in no time.  He's a sucker for the banana flavor.

We finally found The LEGO Store.  Isaac had one mission, spend every single dollar he'd collected for his birthday on Lego's.  He managed to come up a little short (thankfully).  Karson is my saver. Isaac is my spender.  I may sneak his extra cash into his savings account.  Don't get me wrong, I am glad we now own six Lego Factory Heroes, but I do think he'll thank me one day for saving his money.  Granted, that day may come when he's 16 years old, but I'm willing to bet he'll be glad.  After Lego, the boys and girls split up.  I needed to go to Banana Republic and pick up some perfume.  We also wanted to stop in some girly shops like Justice and Claire's.  The boys decided to head to Dave and Busters for some arcade action.  I'll pass, because....is there anything more fun than girl-time in an accessory store???  I think not.

The most beautiful DIVAS in Nashville!

We did end up at Dave Busters as the party time rolled around and the rest of the party goers were arriving.

Miles had the most luck at D & B's.  Matt said he hit the 500 ticket jackpot twice.  Wait, maybe we have three lucky fellows in my household?  Humph?

We got to The Aquarium right around 5:30 and were seated.

 

Isaac was anxious to open his presents.  He got a Wii Resort game and controller from Pops and Meme.

He got some BB's from Pap and Nana but was kind of confused about the gift.  We tried explaining to him that they had gotten him a BB gun but couldn't really bring that into a restaurant.  Isaac + a BB gun should be very interesting.  Well definitely need to purchase Ralphie some safety glasses ASAP.

Can you spot the diver in these pictures?  While we were there, divers went in to feed the fish.  

It was really cool.  Isaac was so amazed by that.

We are so proud of our little birthday boy!

~ The kids and their stuffed fish swimming in the deep blue sea ~

Singing "Happy Birthday" to our birthday boy!

The kids all got to decorate their own sundaes.  I think that's about the coolest, most entertaining dessert ever for a kid.  Well, it's 11 p.m. and I need to wrap this up and call it a night.  I just wanted to do this post on Isaac's actual birthday.  I am one blessed Mama!  Thank you Isaac for being such a blessing!

The Disciplined, the Explorer and the Charmer

If any of my children holds true to the birth order chart, it's my Karson.  She is a take-charge, loads of confidence, incredibly disciplined, natural born leader.  Here is Karson's weekly schedule as a 10-year old (by choice):  7:30 a.m. Monday and Tuesday morning quick recall practice along with a Thursday afternoon practice.  She typically has 1-2 basketball practices a week along with quick recall matches at other schools and basketball games every Saturday morning.  The girl stays busy, and we are constantly chauffeuring her everywhere. What's even cooler is that I never hear her complain.  If anything, she's trying her best to boost confidence in herself talking about ways her teams both academically and athletically can improve.  Her report card came home this week--straight A's--100's in five subject areas.  She recently won her class spelling bee and participated in the school-wide one.  She told me she almost beat the third runner up but missed the word "ditto".  Her drive and passion for family, friends, church and school are what make me admire this child, not only because she is my daughter, but simply because she is one cool kid.

Is it possible that my 2nd grader is actually smarter than me at age 35, sometimes I wonder? Isaac loves reading my mom's world book encyclopedias and devours anything non-fiction. I emailed his teacher today because he hasn't been keeping up with his daily reading log.  I thought it was time I wrote her and told her why I don't push reading on him constantly.  Isaac is not only a talented artist but also a writer.  He carefully crafts books on a daily basis, lots of them he considers chapter books and has multiple series on the same characters.  I can't keep enough paper in the house to accommodate his desire to write.  His teacher wrote back and stated the he is the strongest reader in the class and "As long as he is reading a book now and again for inspiration I feel that he will continue to get stronger, it is just important that he is reading on his instructional level so that he can continue to grow.  With gifted students such as Isaac, everything comes easy - however, we still want them to grow.  Each time we take the STAR Literacy Assessment we look at a growth score.  Even though Isaac scores high, we want to make sure his growth score increases as well."

 Isaac had a PR score of 98 which means he reads at a greater level than 98% of other students nationally in the same grade.  He also tested at 80% proficiency in reading fourth grade words and books.  His math scores were just as high with a PR score of 99%.  Although Isaac doesn't have many interests outside of his iPod touch and ping pong, I am confident he will do some amazing things with his life.  He begins the Junior Naturalist Program at Lost River Cave this weekend.  This program has meetings every other month and is all about discovery and adventure.  This Saturday he will learn about habitats, water cycles, organism relationships and begin a nature journal.  We're proud of sweet, middle, care-free child!

Yep, this picture pretty much sums up Miles's -- CHARMING!  Miles is Mr. Popular.  None of my children were invited to the amount of birthday parties in their kindergarten year(s) as Miles has been.   In fact, I got an email from a friend last week, who's child attended preschool with Miles and told me her son's only request for his birthday party was that Miles would be there.  He has one incredible personality and is super cute (and has two girlfriends).  I am shocked by how much he loves going to school.  I am convinced it has nothing to do with the academic part, my little socialite, although he thoroughly enjoys doing homework and rarely gets a warning stick.  Miles is working at grade level for his age and quickly becoming a more advanced reader.  Shoot, with that smile and his stellar personality, I imagine he'll be in politics.

A Picture Perfect, Sad, and Noisy kind of New Year

 PICTURE:  We had family pictures taken at Olde Stone the weekend before New Year's.  Matt's aunt and uncle organized a photo session for the entire Bradford family.  All the adult men were to wear black and khaki, and the women were to be in solid black.  I have lots of black in my wardrobe but had trouble with a solid black outfit that worked in the middle of winter.  Thank goodness for T.J. Maxx and their LARGE selection of black tops.  The kids could wear whatever they wanted.  I went with Christmas red on the kids and borrowed a red bubble bib necklace from a friend to accent their color.  I hope to post pictures soon.  After the photo session, we ate lunch there as well.  The kids were so well behaved and cooperative.  It made the day very easy.

Have I mentioned that we own hermit crabs?  Idk, but we do.  I was ecstatic to finally be pet-free when the kids (through my prompting) decided to let our wild-turtle go free back in the early fall, see Good-Bye Green Jill.

I got the tank all cleaned out and put away.  The kids were good with it, and I was happy to no longer have that responsibility.  Weeks earlier my dear mother, aka MeMe, had taken Karson and Elizabeth to the mall one afternoon where they saw the mall hermit crabs, you all know the ones I'm talking about.  These crabs are usually in a central location at the mall at a kiosk with lots of brightly colored containers, shells and all the goodies that go with these UH-mazing pets.  Well, one thing led to another, and viola both girls came back to MeMe's house with hermit crabs.  I think mom had planned to keep them at her house with the agreement the girls would take care of them when they came over.  This lasted a few weeks, but after fall break, mom had had enough of the crabs, and they were sent home with the girls.  Karson was ecstatic to have her crab HONEY come to our house.  Meanwhile, we had inherited another crab from Destin, Florida named TOBY (Isaac's new crab).  I got the turtle tank out of storage and created a habitat for the new crabs.  Hermit crabs truly are low maintenance pets.  However, much like the turtle, there's not much you can do with a crab besides get pinched =/.  The kids grow tired of them easily.

SAD:  We noticed a few weeks ago that Karson's crab Honey had molted.  I had no idea crabs even did this, but Karson did and told me she (the crab) was very vulnerable after molting.  Honey stayed tucked away in her shell for about two weeks.  I was doing my daily spraying of the tank (a crab's tank must stay humid and moist) on Monday when I noticed what I thought was another molted skin, possibly Toby's.  After examining it closer, I noticed it was actually Honey, Karson's crab =(.  Karson was pretty torn up about the loss of Honey.  I was sad for her.

 However, Miles was more than happy to help me with the burial.  He's the happiest mortician I know.  We placed Honey in a matchbox, and with Miles's help, we buried her in the backyard.  We still have one crab left in the tank.  I hope it doesn't meet the same demise as Honey, but I have to admit, I wouldn't be sad if it did.  AND, I don't think Miles, the undertaker, would be either.

NOISY: I am on Bridgestone Arena's email blast list and should probably unsubscribe if we ever want to save any money--HAH.  I want to see almost every show, concert and event they have.  Prior to Chrsitmas, I noticed that Monster Truck JAM would be there this weekend.  The tickets were fairly inexpensive, and I thought they would make fun Christmas gifts for the kids.  We've been to Monster Jam once before (sans Miles) when Isaac was around 2 or 3.  He LOVED Monster Trucks for the longest time, and we still have quite a collection.  I told my sister and my friend Lisa about the event, and they purchased tickets as well.

Friday night in Nashvegas and we are ready to RUMBLE!

A necessity at any Monster Jam event is proper ear protection.  We were two rows back from the action--close enough to have dirt flung on us.  It was super loud.

Miles and his buddy Samuel loving some Monster Jam.  Miles also had a school friend there.  Matt took him to see his friend during the "intermission" of the show.  He's my social butterfly and must make his rounds even in Nashville.

Snow Cone = $12, Cotton Candy = $15

Making fun memories with my adorable kids = worth every penny.

Grave Digger is the crowd favorite.  This truck comes in to the song "Bad to the Bone".  The driver crashed the truck almost immediately which was a bummer.  I wasn't sure if we'd see it again, but he made another appearance later in the show.  Everyone went WILD!  Monster Jam was the perfect end to our  New Year's and Back to School week.