Happy ?? Birthday Monica!

Why hello!  We had a birthday in our house last week, and it was Monica!  It was a stellar day, and I was even able to surprise Monica a time or two!  It was a pretty busy day with school and dance class, but we enjoyed our time we had together and made the most of when we could.  Here we all are at the end of the day after just having brownies and ice cream, so of course it was easy to get smiles!

I don't know if I mentioned this ever, but they repaved our neighborhood, and Monday was the day they redid in front of our house.  Those roller cars that flatten the road are SOOO loud!  When they'd roll by you could hear that the whole house was shaking.  It was especially loud down in the basement where I was working.  The new road is nice, and it was exciting while it was happening, but I'm glad they're done!

Grayson loves climbing into the blanket basket.  No, we didn't get rid of a bunch of blankets, the kids always dump it all out.  This past weeks edition of the basket was wiggly feet.

Speaking of Grayson, he also loves pushing the toy shopping cart around, and this past week was parking it under each chair around the kitchen table.

For Monica's birthday I made German pancakes for breakfast.  The sides apparently stuck this time, which resulted in mountain ranges.  Never seen this before, but it was pretty cool looking.  It ended up being a lot denser then usual, and we're guessing it's because the sides didn't go shooting up.

Monica opened presents at breakfast.  Here she is rocking her new neck pillow.  I'm honestly surprised this hasn't stayed on her day in and day out for the last week.  She also got a blanket thing for our bed, and new shoes!  Surprise 1 - I put the wrong shoes in the present, so she was surprised to open those shoes!

Monica made mint brownies in place of cake, and we had that and ice cream after Brooke's dance class.  Of course we all sang happy birthday, and then we all enjoyed the treats!

Grayson was being a cutie, and while he was jumping on Monica's lap he was singing Baa Baa Black Sheep!  The kids got a bit wild that night and were running around.  Couldn't be sugar related.  Anyway, Grayson was darting around singing Happy Birthday to mommy!

One day Winry asked Monica if she could make a car for Grayson with a box we had in the house.  So she took some tape and the box and got to work.  She needed a steering wheel and asked to use another package, and here's the car!  There are also twine seat belts, and Grayson actually loves to sit down and "drive" it.  It's both a car and a trolley, because I was given a trolley ride on it.

I took Jelly to the vet last week and it was pretty rough on her, so we decided to put a better effort into getting Jelly more comfortable going places, and outside.  We got a harness and Jelly's already liking to go outside.  She'll sit at the back door and meow and meow and meow sometimes wanting to get out.  She has snuck out a time or two without her harness, but I'm trying to teach her it's not okay without it, but it's fine with it.  We're still working on it.  Brooke LOVES to take her out, and want's to go out with her every day!

Here's Winry heading to preschool.  She was pretty nervous before the first day, but she is absolutely loving it now.  Also, Monica got Winry this new dress at a consignment sale, and she absolutely loves it!

Oh my... Grayson is such a stinker.  When he's in the backyard he mostly just plays, but he'll happily go check the strawberries all on his own.  For Grayson, ANY strawberry is a good strawberry.  That one he's eating has red spots on it, but was also VERY white, but he sure didn't care.

Before Brookes soccer game on Saturday they took team pictures!  Here she is with her whole team.  Brooke has been loving playing soccer, and it's SO fun to watch her.

Winry came with me to her game.  She brought some activities to do, but the sun was too bright in her eyes, so she actually sat backwards away from the field.  She did a great job cheering for Brooke, and even turned around and watched the game at times.

Here's Brooke out on the field.  She's number 5.  Of course I also got a video of the game as well.  I will say I wasn't watching the game on my phone while I took the video, so sorry for the times I missed things...

After Brooke's game they had a team party!  I don't know if this is just for picture day, or if this is going to be a new thing, but it was great.  Here's a booth packed with her teammates.  We went to place called Fuzzy's Tacos, and it was pretty good.  We've never been before, but everyone loved what they got.  Winry and I sat together at the table next to Brooke, and Brooke really enjoyed sitting and chatting with her team.

I think that's everything for this week.  I got started a day early this week, so maybe I'll have an update tomorrow.  I've got quite a headache tonight, so I think I'll call it here.