Happy 5th Birthday to Soren!

Has it really been five years?  Is that really possible?  I guess it is.  If I had it together, or even had it unpacked, I would pull up all of the pictures of cute baby Soren. But I don’t. So I won’t. 

I had promised Soren for a long time that on his 5th birthday, he could have a birthday where his friends were invited. So of course, this was the year.  Boxes and all, we hosted in our new house. The backyard was awesome for a dinosaur bone hunt. The pool deck was a perfect track. And the party was a great success.  Thank you to Amy Sidell Photography for being my personal photographer since I didn’t take a single picture of the big day.  Thank you to Aunty Sharon for the awesome cake!  And of course thanks to all of our friends and family for making it a great day!

Vacation

Okay, so maybe I am not fully back to blogging…but I’ll get there…

So did I mention that we vacationed in the middle of all of this?!  Yes, in true “Us” fashion, we had already planned our annual trip to Florida before our house was even on the market. It was great. We rented a condo and were joined by the St. Pierres and Grandma. Lucky for me, they are more on top of their blogs so check them out and make sure to look at the multiple posts (http://adventuresofthestpierrefamily.blogspot.com/2012/04/winter-respite.html  and http://sidellmusings.blogspot.com/2012/05/few-florida-pictures-to-inspire-us-when.html)

Anyway, we had a great time at the beach!

We visited the Clearwater Aquarium. Home of Winter, the tailless dolphin in a movie.

 

The kids were allowed to chose one amusement park to go to and they chose Animal Kingdom.  They had a great time seeing Goofy and all of the animals!

 

 

Of course my absolute favorite part of vacation was Soren learning to swim on his back and Bodie learning to swim!

    

 

And of course, what would a trip to Florida be with out a trip to Sonny’s Real Pit BBQ?!

It was a great time and we got to do a lot of relaxing, but I certainly would be lying if I didn’t say that we were a little bit distracted…

The Peterson Power Tools load up

What is the best part about moving? Getting to ride down to the burn pile in the back of the truck of course!  

Take a close look at this picture…   And while all of the loading was happening, Soren got to spend a few last moments at his favorite (and I do mean favorite—seriously, he would spend hours there alone) spot on the yard.

Boodle turns 3!

While it seems like a lifetime ago now, on St.Patty’s day, we celebrated Boodle's 3rd Birthday! 

 

Because you can never overdo the leprechaun theme, we started the day with some rainbow pancakes.

      

We think Bodie’s Irish Luck wore off on us because over breakfast we came to a verbal agreement to purchase our new house!  After breakfast we brought the boys over to see the new house and to sign the official agreement. 

Then, we came back home to play and paint our garage! It was a beautiful March day!

 

Green pasta for dinner…

Presents…

And we topped it off with some very green cake! 

Happy 3rd Birthday Bodie!

And We’re Back…

So the whirlwind is finally coming to an end!  (Except for the fact that we just learned today that our insurance company told us today that we have 60 days to get a new roof when we were going to put that project off until next year…oh well…)  We are in our new house and loving it!  After a few minor setbacks and crises (seriously, never sell to someone who is using an FHA loan!)  we closed in Levant at 11am on April 23 and in Hampden at noon on April  23rd!  The morning of the closing, I promised the boys we could do something inconsequential, but realized that we have been promising various items, activities, etc to the kids for over 3 years!  We first put our house on the market one week before Bodie was born!  It is surreal and exciting that the day finally arrived!  So, back to the blog…I just downloaded over 1000 pictures and that doesn’t include the pics Amy took of Soren’s bday party. So let the blogging begin…again…