Happy Birthday, Hunter

 

So we finally celebrated Hunter's birthday Saturday evening.  As mentioned before he wanted a Dukes of Hazzard theme, which really just means the cake and a few other little odds and ends. (We keep it pretty simple usually).  We had to put his party off a week because we got him a really big surprise that wouldn't quite be ready in time for his actual birthday.

Hunter and Buster

This was a total surprise for Hunter because he has wanted a dog for so long, and we (meaning Dad) have said no.  It's a yellow lab - no surprise if you know me- and the smile has not come off Hunter's face all weekend.

Thanks, Amy

Hunter decided he wanted a"Dukes of Hazzard" party for his 7th birthday this year. I was really having a hard time finding any party supplies at local stores or even online. When talking to my sister Amy, she said just make something up on the computer. She got me thinking so I had to blog the cup labels and treat bags that we made, plus a couple pictures of the cake. And just to say thanks to her, I included a picture of her favorite nephew baby. Thanks, Amy, and stay tuned for more birthday pics.

Aren't I just the cutest?

A few pics from our celebration of Resurrection Day.

Sorry it's a little blurry but the smile was just too cute!

Last Day of Kindergarten

Today is Hunter's last day of Kindergarten, and he is actually sad about it (yay)!  He has had a wonderful teacher, and though it took him a few months for things to really click, he has progressed a lot.  I was looking at a writing sample from the first of the school year and a recent writing sample.  I can't believe the difference! 
Since it is the last day, his class was going to celebrate all of the summer birthdays.  So while he wouldn't let me take a last day of school picture, here are some pics of the cute pirate cupcakes, he is serving to celebrate his summer birthday.

Also had to throw in one pic of our girl in pigtails.  Even though she HATED having them put in, isn't she cute?!

Nothing Quite as Cute...

Yesterday morning before church, my friend Toni (link) texted me that her first sow(mama pig to all you nonfarmers) was in labor.  Now there is nothing cuter than little baby pigs, so I took the kids up yesterday afternoon to see the newest additions.  The piglets were adorable, and the mama was very laid back and patient with all of us playing with her new babies.

the itty bitty babies

Leah showing Shelby her favorite piglet (the runt, of course)

Hunter holding a little buddy

The Quilt

So it has only been 3 years...not so bad right?!  I decided when we were  moving Hunter into a "big boy room" that I wanted to try my hand at quilting and make a tractor quilt for his bed.  That was the winter he was 2.  Now he is 5, and it is finished...by the dear little old ladies in the quilting group at our church.  I got the top done and even started the hand quilting.  Then along came our approval to adopt Shelby, and the quilt was put away.  So this is really to brag on the beautiful job that those ladies did.  I'm so excited every time I see it, and Hunter loves it!

Spread out on the couch so Hunter would see it when he got home from school

It's all tractors of course.

He loves it (and now even makes his bed in the morning)!

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

What kid hasn't grown up having Suess books read to him/her?  Yesterday, March 2nd was the great Dr. Seuss's birthday.  So, of course, kindergarten must celebrate.  Hunter's teacher told the students to dress as a Seuss character and be ready to make whamburgers for snack on Friday.  At first, Hunter wanted to be the 10 footed lion from If I Ran the Zoo.  I was so stumped as to how to do that one that I suggested he choose a different one.  Thankfully, he chose Max the Grinch's dog from How the Grinch Stole Christmas... much easier.

Yes, it was a real deer antler which made it all the more cool in his mind and brought the boys running over to check it out when he walked into his classroom.

Taking his own picture showing his sad puppy dog face.

Winter Fun

These pictures are a blend of the last two snows.  The first one wasn't very much...just enough for the kids to get out, eat a little snow, and get cold.  Last night, though, we got a good 5-6 inches of super fine powdery snow.  Poor Shelby can hardly walk in it considering it is up to her knees.  Scott packed her a snowball which she carried around licking while Scott and I shoveled out (and shoveled and shoveled since the snowblower has a major flat tire!).  Since this snow wasn't really sticking together for snowman building, Scott hooked up the sled behind the lawn tractor and pulled the kids around. 

Shelby's first snow; looks like she is a fan.

Making a snow angel

The nicest finished angel

Hangin' on but havin' fun

Don't Forget the Lyrics

I don't journal or anything like that.  I know that's pretty obvious since I can't even  blog weekly.  However something funny happened with Hunter that I didn't want to forget, so I'm putting it here.  He is a pretty verbal child and rarely makes mistakes anymore with words.  There is no more baby "dutchiness" as my family as called it, and I miss those cute endearing mix-ups with language.  Two nights ago, I was finishing up supper preparations and setting the table.  Hunter was sitting at the table already in anticipation, I guess, and he was keeping a running conversation going with (and kind of without) me.  At one point though, I realized he was asking me a question.  He said something to the effect of "That is wierd, huh Mom, that that guy would worship a flower with all of his golden might?!"  Yes, you can bet, I was confused.  I said, "What do you mean?"  He replied (with a little 5 year old exasperation), "You know,  that song where he says poor flower; how come he says that anyway?"  This really cleared things up for me!  I answered, "Was this in Sunday school or on a video?"  He said, "No, on a cd;   I will worship you with all of my golden might - poor flower!"   By this time, my brain was churning, and the oven timer was going off.  I ran for the oven as an excuse to by me time, and as I did something subconscious took over, I guess, because even though I still didn't know exactly what he was referring too, I started humming a worship chorus by Michael W. Smith.  I was humming that part that goes more love, more power, more of you in my life...I will worship you with all of my heart....   Hunter, still sitting at the table, says, "See you do know it!"  and that is when it all clicked.  I just started laughing!!!!  This response was apparently not what he had been looking for by the frown that was growing on his face.  I quickly got myself under control, set the hot dish on the table and told him the words.  He said with all the expertise he could muster (remember he is 5), "Nuh-uh, the words are I will worship you with all of my golden might, poor flower."   With a straight face, I told him the real words to the song again and told him we could listen to it on a cd.  I said it is hard to understand when people don't speak clearly, and when we sing, especially to God, we often use a lot of feeling in our voice, and since we are trying to fit the words to the music, our ears sometimes don't understand them correctly.  I assured him this has happened to Mommy many times, and I have had to look up the written words so I knew exactly what the person was singing. 

To my amazement, he started laughing at how funny it was that he thought the guy was worshiping a poor flower.  We both laughed about it off and on all during supper.  I was thrilled by his ability to laugh at himself and have others laugh with him too.  For those of you who know him, he is very competitive and almost always thinks he is right.  This is the first time, he has been able to laugh at himself and have mom and dad laugh with him over his own silly mistake.  It was a big step, and if you are wondering, I made sure to tell him after supper how proud I was of him that he could laugh off his mistake and let others laugh with him instead of getting embarassed and mad at getting "made fun of." 

The Frog Prince

Hunter has been insistent that he wants to be a frog this year for Halloween, and of course, with all of the dress-up clothes we have, we don't have any kind of frog costume.  Then a note came home from school a week or so ago stating that today is the Kindergarten fall party, and all the kids can dress up as long as it is as a fairytale or folktale character.  They could not wear any masks and must be able to go about the day independently to recesses, bathrooms, etc. with whatever costume they wore.  This makes it a bit harder.  However I thought I  ought to be able to figure out something.  Since Hunter still wanted to be a frog, I googled the story of the frog prince and read it to him.  I actually liked this original version better (and so did he) because the frog gets the princess' ball out of the deep pond, so she lets him sleep on her pillow for 3 nights.  This breaks the spell and turns him back into a prince.  No kissing involved which made the 5 year old boy quite happy. 

So I just searched through his everyday clothes to see what we could find.  With some styrofoam balls, felt, craft foam and lots of pins (so we didn't have to sew and ruin the shirt or hat),  he and I put together this outfit for the day.  I must say I thought it to be quite cute!

The pink pipe cleaner is his tongue with a fly on the end.

Every frog needs a good pair of feet for hopping.



He really loved the whole outfit.  Just hope the kids on the bus don't tease his enjoyment away!



The Smell

This morning as I got Shelby out of her bed, it dawned on me.  She smells like my child!!!  To most of you, that is probably the wierdest statement you have heard in quite awhile, but I was so excited.  Let me explain because if you have not adopted you may have never thought about this.

When we brought Shelby home and for many weeks afterward, she smelled strange to me, often in a bad way.  No, it wasn't messy diapers all the time, although, believe me, they ARE BAD!!  It was just a smell her body had, and it didn't smell like us, our bodies, our home, etc.  Like, you know when you stick your nose in the back of your child's neck as you are hugging them and your mind says, yep, that's my kiddo (even if it is a stinky boy who has been playing, ie sweating, outside).  Well that was not my reaction when I picked her up, trust me.  Until this morning, when I realized that she doesn't smell strange to me anymore.  She smells like my little girl. 

I'm probably explaining this badly, but it was a nice little "Thank you, God." moment.  I know that most of you adoptive moms that check in are sitting there, grinning, totally "getting" what I am talking about while the rest of you are just grinning because I'm making such a big deal out of a little smell like I'm going crazy or something.  So glad I could give you all a smile.

On to pictures, which I put last today so you would at least skim my thoughts.  These are a few weeks old on the last couple of hot days of summer.  I realized I had not taken any swimming pics all season, so I got a few.  Both kids love the water.

Goofing around on the ladder

Mr. Tough Guy getting ready to jump in.

a crazy jump

Mom and Shelby (photo taken by Hunter)

First Day of School

Wow, it has been forever since I posted!! Family came to visit and garden and fruit needed harvesting.  I do have to mark this momentous day in history though.  It was Hunter's first day of Kindergarten.  Last night we went to the open house.  We got to take his supplies in and find his cubby and his desk.  One of his best buddies from church is in his class, and while we were there L walked in and said, "Hi, Hunter!".  From that point on, there was nothing but excitement.  I got a little teary-eyed as that big yellow bus pulled away with my little guy waving out the window to me.  I'm so excited for him, but, man, I will miss him a lot, at least for awhile until Shelby is able to carry on a conversation.

Going to Open House

Yes, this was the best shot - crazy kid!

Waiting for the bus

Tractor Pull Surprise

On Friday, we went to a tractor show about an hour away from our house.  Since Hunter is such a tractor NUT, it is one of the things we have started doing occasionally as a family.  We like to look at all the old tractors and vehicles and see if we can find any bargains at the flea markets.  This show even had a really old two seater Harley Davidson and an old fire engine.  During the afternoon, many of these events have some games for the kids and a pedal tractor pull.  Hunter really enjoyed the games, winning a prize in the water balloon toss and finding lots of coins in the straw during the treasure hunt.  He also competed in the pedal tractor pull.  He did much better this time than when he tried it for the first time at a show last summer because he was not first and could sit and watch some of the other kids.  Although he didn't say anything, I could tell he was disappointed after his pull because he had seen two other kids before him go farther.  I just told him good job doing his best and having fun doing it.  At the end of his "class", the announcer said that they were handing out trophies and third place went to Hunter Schaetzle.  Boy was he surprised.  I wish I had known that was coming and snapped a close-up of his face.  I don't think he knew they even awarded trophies, and I know he didn't think he placed.  It was a fun surprise for him.  Of course he acted all cool and macho and wouldn't smile for the camera when we were taking the pictures, the turkey!  He is kind of in a "I don't want you taking pictures of me" phase right now, but he really was excited.  The trophy is made out of a cedar board that they cut with the old steam engines there at the show, and Hunter keeps talking about how nice his trophy smells.  He even keeps trying to get Shelby to sniff it.

The top 3 pullers with the tractor and weight sled behind them.

Family Day At the Zoo

Mom wanted to get out of the house and spend some fun time together as a family.  So for that reason and partly to celebrate Shelby's birthday, we took a trip to the zoo today.  The day was beautiful, even if it was just a tad bit hot.  The zoo had misters going all over the place, and both Hunter and Shelby enjoyed walking s-l-o-w-l-y through them to keep cool.  As you will notice from the pictures, I didn't take very many of the zoo animals, just pretty much my own two.  Most of them were lazing in the shade anyway.  Some of the more interactive and favorite exhibits included the river otters, the Great Barrier Reef (Sharks, Mom!), the giraffes, and the train, log/river, and carousel rides.  Hunter was also pretty fascinated by the Komodo dragon, an elephant skeleton, and a tank of moon jellyfish which made him a little nervous at first.  Probably just too much Finding Nemo recently, but he made Mom touch the glass first to make sure she wouldn't get stung through it.  After that he was ok and really intrigued by how they moved through the water.  Shelby was pretty much just along for the ride.  Her favorite part was probably the carousel ride which produce lots of laughter, bouncing, and squeals.  Dad can't wait to get both her and Hunter to Cedar Point, although that may take awhile for her since she's such a little squirt.

Walking from Franke Park where we had a picnic to the zoo entrance

Riding the tortoise - not very quickly of course

Feeding the geese, ducks and catfish; Shelby is wondering why Dad turned her around so she can't see.

Betcha didn't know that I hatched my kids from an egg!

Riding the endangered species carousel; both kids loved it; Hunter was sure his black panther was the fastest, and Shelby just kept squealing and grinning the biggest grin.

Hunter got to feed the 18 ft. male giraffe some lettuce.  The giraffe is on the ground and we are standing on an elevated platform.  As you can see the giraffe could easily reach over the railing.