Happy Birthday To Him

Today is Chad's 36th birthday!  Here are some highlights of how he spent his time on his special day:

Gift time!

BBQ in the rain time!

Chad's quote of the day, "Necessity is the mother of invention."

(I'm pretty sure somewhere amidst all his hunting gear, he probably has a waterproof coat.  I'm just sayin'.)

Snuggle time!

Play time!

We love him so much!  Happy Birthday To Him!

Signs of Spring

The flowers are blooming! 

Cole suggested we call these little flowers in our frontyard "ring-a-ding-dings" because they look like bells.
 I totally see it!

The boys made me my first "flower" arrangement of the season from the backyard.  This one was delivered to me yesterday, and is just the first of many I'll be displaying around the house throughout the spring and summer.

Spring season also means Popsicle season!

Welcome spring and sunshine...we've missed you!

Happy Birthday, Grampa!

We celebrated Grampa's birthday today!

We hope you had a great day!  We love you, Grampa!

Saint Patty's Day Dash 2010

This year I participated in the Saint Patty's Day Dash with my Shanna love.  Our adventure began with a registration party a few weeks prior to the race at River Rock Grill and Ale House. 

If only my skin weren't so paste-y white (some might call it vampire-white), we could totally be twins.

We spent the night before the race in downtown Seattle, and may I just publicly proclaim that Shanna did a fabulous job of driving us through Seattle.  Excellent work, Shanna!  You drove like a real vampire.  (We also saw Remember Me that night with Robert Pattinson, thus all the Twilight references...Edward is just so fresh in my mind.)  I didn't get any pictures from this day, but my sister did --- and has very graciously NOT posted a video of me dancing in the party store in ridiculous St Patty's Day garb.  Thank you, Marla.  I know it's hard to resist the temptation; you're showing Cullen-like restraint.

Race morning we were up bright and early to hit the mean streets of Seattle.  I didn't want to run with my camera, so this picture is pre-race documentation of our Children's Place hats (yes, we really got them at The Children's Place), our matching green shirts, and our glittery clover face stickers...so festive!

After the race, we managed to find Chad and Grampa amongst the 15,000+ runners,

so Chad took some pictures of us reenacting our big finish!

The Dash always emails pictures to the runners a few days after the race, but this year Shanna and I didn't receive any. Grampa and Chad did though, and here they are in their running glory.  Way to go, Boyd men!

So...The Dash didn't send us any pictures, but this picture was in the Seattle PI.  Yes, that's right...the Seattle PI...AND WE'RE IN IT! 

I wonder if RPattz ever reads the Seattle PI.

                                                                              ^        ^

                                                                              |         |

                                                                              |         |

                                                                              That's us!

                                                                             In the Seattle PI!

                                                                            We're almost famous!

My next organized running adventure is going to be the 8K Torchlight Run at Seafair.

http://www.seafair.com/events/torchrun/  Grampa, Chad, Shanna, Molly and anyone else....care to join me? 

Erin Go Bragh!

We celebrated St. Patty's Day with Ethan, Carys, and Molly; and as the luck of the Irish would have it. . . . .a dinner made 'o green!  We had honey dew, green pancakes with shamrock-shaped whipped cream atop, and green vanilla yogurt topped with green sprinkles (green food coloring and I were special friends today).  For dessert, we had a magically delicious treat I referred to as Pots o' Gold - halved orange peels filled with "gold" (yellow jello squares) and garnished with gold coins (chocolate Easter candy).  As for beverages, we drank Sprite (complete with ice cubes made of green Sprite to properly color our drinks without watering them down...nobody wants a watered-down drink on St. Patty's Day).  It really 'twas so much fun to get into the spirit of the holiday; I'm pretty sure that I enjoyed it more than the children - as usual.  Let me just say this, there 'twas A LOT of extra brushing and flossing before bedtime to try and counter balance the sugar fest that 'twas dinner. 

Sidenote:  hopefully this fantastically festive feast made up for the fact that I didn't dress Cole in green for school because it was picture day and I wanted him to look classy.  Oh man...he was none to happy when he got to school, saw many of his classmates dressed in green, and realized that I neglected to properly adorn him for the holiday.  He doesn't really own any clothing that is both green AND class picture worthy, so I opted for the outfit that we will want to look at in years to come.  He'll thank me for this when he gets older...maybe.

These are my favorite pictures from the evening. Caden kept poking at his jello exclaiming, "It wiggles, Holly. Holly, it wiggles." He was actually talking to Molly. All of my children thought her name was Holly at one point in their lives...I love that.

Happy Saint Patty's Day, friends!

February P365 Pictures

Dearest Friends, Family, and Followers,

My February pictures have been uploaded to my P365 blog for your viewing pleasure.

Yours,
Holly

Chart Art

My charts are becoming real pieces of art these days.  My most recent work is the Gumball Chart, inspired by Chase's deep desire for a gumball machine in the house.  My kids don't chew gum at this point in their lives unless it's a special treat from Gramma, but I'm liking the idea of having one in the house for the sole purpose of rewarding super excellent behavior.  So, once all three of the gumball charts are filled, we'll head to the store to find a real life gumball machine of our own. 

I consider these charts actual works of art because the first one took me almost all day to create.  Seriously!  I'm completely aware that it doesn't look like something that should take all day, but there were several drafts involved including experimentation with different mediums until I got it just right.  (My perfectionsism finds strange places to land at times.  If only it could find its way to the pile of laundry waiting to be folded, or the bathrooms needing to be cleaned...)  But doesn't the glitter glue make them just so sparkly-pretty-perfect?

Poor Caden hasn't achieved any of his goals yet, thus the empty gumball chart.  I think it may take quite a while for all three of the charts to be filled.  Good luck, Boyd Boys!  Your future gumball machine awaits!

Hey Mom, Look At This!

If I had a dollar for every time Cole said the above statement to me, well, I'd be a lot cooler than I am now.  Here are some recent "look at this" moments Cole has shared with me:

"Hey Mom, look at this!  I'm wearing tiny Lego sunglasses!"

"Hey Mom, look at this!  I decorated your chandelier!"  (He actually thinks this is a chandelier,
and promises to buy me a better one when he grows up.)

"Hey Mom, look at this!  I'm ready for bed!"

"Hey Mom, look at this!  I'm uncovering the mysteries of math!"  (I thought this was quite clever!)

"Hey Mom, look at this!  I can jump down from my bed!"  (He requested that I get 

a picture of him in mid-flight.)

"Hey Mom, look at this!  I made Shrek!"

Cole is constantly amazing me with his creative and funny ways!  If only I could figure out a way to actually get paid for every time I heard "Hey Mom, look at this!"

The End Of Upward

The Upward basketball season came to an end yesterday with a truly magnificent award ceremony.  It was really more of a "bash" than a "ceremony", with music and screaming and excitement literally filling the gym.

The bash kicked off with all of the kids running up on stage when their name was announed NBA-style to a thunderous round of applause and cheers. It really was the cutest thing ever.

And in a super proud moment for me...

I debated about posting that picture of poor Cole, but I think it's clear that he's comfortable with himself.

The ceremony included a really funny ventriloquist that I'm pretty sure I enjoyed as much (or maybe even more) than the kids. He had a great little message about loving each other, especially our siblings...perhaps this resonated with Cole...I hope!

Here is the last picture of the season. I think it's only appropriate that it ended with Cole and Carter donning their awards - Upward backpacks. I was worried that both Cole and Carter would be a little bummed that they didn't get trophies, but apparently Carter actually prefers a backpack because it's more functional than a trophy. He is so insightful! Cole was disappointed that he didn't get "some kind of a toy or something", but this morning he quickly abandoned his Spiderman backpack in lieu of this one for school today.

Cole's basketball stats: 
attendance at games and practices - 100%

shots attempted during game time - approximately 2397

actual baskets made during game time - 3

I absolutely LOVED this program, and am so grateful to be a part of a church that does so much to enrich our kids' lives.  I can't wait for next season.  (Chad will be coaching again...I'm pretty sure he CAN wait for next season!)  I'm so proud of Cole (in spite of the very public nose/finger incident), and so thankful to Chad and Grampa for all their hard work coaching these kid, and to Gramma and Gammy for watching the little boys so I could pay attention to Shanna, er, I mean the games.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOO CHEETAHS!

Amendment

Dearest Readers,

Thank you for being so patient while I fitz and fuss with my blog.  I want to amend my last post where I stated that I added a "page" for P365.  Thank you to Miss Andrea Bell for telling me how to install a blog within a blog...now you can see my P365 pictures by clicking on the P365 icon (not the words as previously stated in previous blog) at the bottom right hand side of my page.  This way I can catalog my photos by month, instead of asking you to scroll through every picture to get to the most recent ones.  Quality doesn't come easy, people, and that's what I'm striving for...blog perfection.

Sincerely yours,
Holly

Project 365

I've added a page to my blog so my loyal and lovable readers can look at my P365 pictures.  Just scroll down towards the bottom of my blog and click on "Project 365" (the words, not the picture) located on the right-hand side to take a peek at the daily lives of Team Boyd.  I'll try and keep it updated as I work on my P365 project.  So far I'm enjoying this project a lot and staying on top of it!  I'm really proud of myself because my past efforts at scrapbooking haven't yielded much success.  But P365 is all-inclusive and super easy.  Therefore it's right up my alley!