Durham Bulls Game

Lucas E's dad, Mr. John, gave us tickets to the baseball game tonight.  I love baseball games!  One of the things I miss the most about living in Atlanta. 

Play Dates this Week

I should say "every day" where Finn is concerned.  We have gotten into a fun routine with our next door neighbors where we practically have a revolving door on our house and their house. Lucas and Finn will play some days for 3-4 hours at a time.  We always watch to make sure they enter the other house if they leave one house, but we also use texting to ensure their safe arrival.  The only issue with this is that sometimes Ellen gets left out.  For awhile they would play a game where she was the monster and they would run away from her.  She liked it at first, but then felt left out.  Ele is great to include her if she invites Lucas over for dinner, but then I feel bad about having both my kids at her house.  On the other hand, Finn is closer to Ellen's age than he is Lucas's.  So if Lucas is not around, he and Ellen play really well together.

We also has Henry over for a play date this week. 

Writers Wall of Fame

This month Lucas's "story"on Cooperation made the Writer's Wall of Fame.  Lucas wrote, "I help wash the dishes." as his story.  And then he illustrated his story.  I was surprised to see this for two reasons.  1) It was just chance that I saw it in the hallway one morning because his teacher hadn't told us yet and 2) He doesn't help wash the dishes.

I was even more surprised to see that Blane made the wall for "helping to feed his dog."  Blane doesn't have a dog.

I laughed about this with his teacher at lunch that day. She told me that they have quite an imagination at this age! 

In addition to his work being displayed on this wall in the school lobby, he got to read his story on the school news this morning.  Check it out below.  On the way to school this morning he was whispering in the backseat, "My name is Lucas Schroeder.  I help wash the dishes.  My name is Lucas Schroeder.  I help wash the dishes."  He was nervous, but did really great!

A bike just like Daddy's

Ellen propped her bike up next to Jeff's today.  She can't wait until she can go riding with him.  Today he was going for a run and she begged to go with him.  He indulged her by running a couple of blocks while she rode beside him on her balance bike.  Super cute : )

Straight Hair

Lucas got his hair cut by Mr. Joey today.  Joey is always so nice to let Ellen sit in the chair for a few minutes while he trims tiny pieces off the ends and then styles it.  Today he blew out the curls.  Too grown up looking for me!

Tay-la

Here is the lady, all ready for school and ready to listen to "Tay-la."  AKA, Taylor Swift.  While we were in ATL she listened to "Mine" in Aunt Jenn's car with Mary.  They call the sign "uh uh uhhuh" - which are the opening sounds of the song.  Jeff programmed it on my phone, so she often has it in her  hands.

Let's see, what else can I say about these pictures. 

She has on her new white sandals, which she wore for 5 min and then said they hurt her toes.

She is making her silly picture faces again.

She has her baby doll and her wipes in her arms.  Bun Bun now stays home, but her baby gets to go everywhere with her.  And she always has a pack of wipes, just in case she goes pee-pee or poo-poo.

Happy Birthday, Christopher!

Man, there are a lot of spring birthdays!  C celeberated his at the bowling alley today.  Lucas was there too, just not in photo range I guess.

So Long, Lincoln!

Lincoln and Kelly came by today to tell us good-bye.  They are moving to Ohio this week!  Lincoln told Lucas that he'd be back in October for Halloween.  Kelly didn't know about that : )

Pullen Park

The park that we visited when Lucas was little has recently been renovated. Today we visited for Kate's bday party.

Here is Ellen's silly face:

And her crazy hair:

And my sweet Lucas with Griffin:

Our gift to Lucas...

Lucas saw this costume last Halloween in a magazine.  It was his only bday present request.  He didn't want a puny one with just a plastic mask and cheap cape.  It had to have boots, gloves and a Darth Vader sword.  Happy Birthday, Lucas!

In a moment of weakness, Ellen was able to take him down : )

Birthday Dinners

Last year we took Lucas to Khank*, a Japanese Steak House, for his birthday dinner.  It's one of those places where they cook in front of you with fire!  Lucas liked it last year, so we did it again this year.  I loved it again this year and am looking forward to going back next year!

Ellen was in silly mode.  She talked to the chef the entire time.  She kept screaming, "Excuse me Jeffrey!"  She thought it was neat that he had the same name as her Daddy : )

Here is Lucas as they are singing happy birthday to him... a little embarrassed!

Lucas's 6th Birthday Party!

For months and months Lucas has been saying that he wants a Ben Ten themed birthday party.  I am not sure why since he doesn't regularly watch that (we don't have that channel) or doesn't have but one BT themed toy (that he doesn't play with.)  But he had it in his mind and stayed with it.  At one point I thought it woud be fun to hire a magician to come to our house.  When I ran it past Lucas he said it was fine, but could we have BT plates?  I realized that Lucas is pretty easy going and would enjoy anything, so I decided to just have a backyard party at our house.  Pin the tail on the donkey type party.  If he will like anything, why spend $250 on a magician?  Then my friend told me I was crazy to have 20+ kids at my house, so we decided on a park party.  We have done park parties since he was 2yrs old, so it made sense and we all got excited!  But I had to work in the theme.  So we planned on having everyone hunt for aliens, since BT is an alien hunter.

When the guests arrived, they received this:

Once they went on the hunt and captured the two aliens and the four gold coins, they got an ice cream pass!  Let the hunt begin!

It worked out pretty well.  Was enough to get them excited, and then they just played for an hour...

Until it was time to sing the happy birthday song!  Since we planned on having ice cream, I just took one cupcake for Lucas's candle...

After that we screamed, "GO GET SOME ICE CREAM!"

After the ice cream party, there was a little more playing...

It was a SUPER DUPER GREAT birthday party!  We got lucky with a cool, sunny spring day and everything went as planned.  HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY LUCAS B!!!