birthday

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Dear Jack: Our Blue House Is Being Painted/Our Last Week In Our Townhome

4 years.

Dear Jack: Our Blue House Is Being Painted/Our Last Week In Our Townhome

Dear Jack,

This past weekend, immediately following your 4th birthday party on Saturday, we led my side of the family in a caravan (your Nonna and Papa, along with Aunt Dana, Uncle Andrew, and cousin Calla) to see the progress on our new house we’re building.

As we drove near our cul-de-sac, Mommy yelled with excitement, “It’s blue!”

We had learned last week that the siding is actually made out of wood, and that it would be painted eventually. Well, the painting has definitely began.

2014 Scion FR-S back seat

Mommy was also very happy to see that our marble countertops are in; as well as the kitchen’s bar.

I was particularly happy to see that our garage doors are now in, along with automatic garage door openers; considering as long as Mommy and I have been married and lived in our townhome (over 6 years), we’ve never had a garage for our cars.

Dear Jack: Our Blue House Is Being Painted/Our Last Week In Our Townhome

Each time we visit our new house, I become even more satisfied with our decision to buy it, and therefore, to move out of our townhome.

Which, speaking of…

2014 Scion FR-S back seat

This apparently is our last week to live in our townhome! Mommy and I bought it brand-new in 2008, when we got married, but now it’s time to move out and move on.

Last night as I was saying goodnight to you, at your sleeping bag on top of a foam mat, I explained to you, “Jack, this is our last week to sleep and live in this house, because we’re going to be moving into the new one in January, in a couple months.”

2014 Scion FR-S back seat

At this point, other than mats to sleep on, in addition to enough food and clothing to by this week, our house is empty.

Papa helped Mommy and I move the rest of it to the storage facility over the weekend. Mommy had to secretly pack up two of your favorite stuffed animals in a box: Puppa the puppy and Cheaty the cheetah.

I had the opportunity to see if I could fit in the backseat of the 2014 Scion FR-S that I was reviewing for your birthday week. (I could.)

2014 Scion FR-S back seat

This coming weekend we’ll move our few remaining items in our personal vehicles to our friends’ house where we will be staying until January when our new house is ready.

Exciting times…

Love,

Daddy

2014 Scion FR-S back seat

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Dear Jack: Practicing For Your 4th Birthday

3 years, 11 months.

Dear Jack: Practicing For Your 4th Birthday

Dear Jack,

Today was “Mismatch Day” at school, so you and I decided to take some fall pictures real quick in front of your school, while you wore your Ninja Turtle pajama pants.

Once we got inside, we saw your friend Madison. She had prepared a drawing for you along with a set of fish stickers, which you immediately implemented into artwork once we got home.

She’s the one who you were worried that she will get you a girl’s birthday present next week for your party. Based on the fact her Daddy replied with, “Jack, I hope you like Ninja Turtles,” I’d say you have nothing to worry about.

Dear Jack: Practicing For Your 4th Birthday

We were so pleasantly surprised by Madison’s kindness that I had reached the front door to leave, while holding you, when you looked at me confused, saying, “Daddy?”

Today made the first time I’ve ever forgot to actually leave you at school while dropping you off there. Had it not been for you bringing it to my attention, there’s a good chance I would have starting driving to work before I realized I never actually dropped you off at school, though we had both just walked in.

4th birthday

Times are good. I am loving the anticipation leading up to your 4th birthday party next weekend!

Last night Mommy even brought you home a cupcake to eat after dinner, to help you practice eating fun treats like we’ll have at your party.

I think we’re going to have a lot of fun next weekend; and not just you, but truly our whole family.

Not only am I excited for you, but I’m excited with you. I feel like I’m actually equally as excited as you are!

Your party is going to be a blast… given none of your girl friends give your girly gifts!

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Making Cool Party Favors By Baking Crayons In Lego Man Molds

3 years, 11 months.

Making Cool Party Favors By Baking Crayons In Lego Man Molds

Dear Jack,

In addition to making you feel special by taking you to go get tater tots at Burger Republic back in September for the “The Great Food Truck Festival”, you also had a lot of fun that same weekend by helping Mommy and me make some of the party favors for your upcoming birthday party in just two weeks.

For your appropriately themed Lego party at Bricks 4 Kids (A Lego-themed party place), we are giving out homemade Lego Man crayons as part of your party favor bags.

Mommy found the Lego Man mold on Amazon. From there, we found a few boxes of old crayons; some of them having been baking in our cars for the past couple of years!

Making Cool Party Favors By Baking Crayons In Lego Man Molds

My main job was to take the knife and cut off the paper wrappers. Your job was to organize the crayons by color (which you did with great pride) and throw away the wrappers for me after I cut them off the crayons, which was actually very helpful for me.

From there, Mommy crushed them and fit them into the molds, baking them for a little while. After that they went into the freezer to cool off.

Making Cool Party Favors By Baking Crayons In Lego Man Molds

Too bad we only had one mold tray, which yields 8 Lego Man crayons at a time. Mommy was basically baking batches for about 6 hours straight in order to produce a total of about 64.

So as you can see, as long as you use as least 2 different colors of crayons, each Lego Man crayon is guaranteed to look unique, like a snowflake or a fingerprint.

Making Cool Party Favors By Baking Crayons In Lego Man Molds

My favorite one looked like the Earth. I named him Captain Planet.

Without surprise, you immediately chose your favorites to put in your own goody bag.

Making those Lego Man crayons was definitely a fun family activity for us. Granted, Mommy’s role was the most tedious.

Making Cool Party Favors By Baking Crayons In Lego Man Molds

But we all a great time. It was such a unique and “Pinteresty” thing for us to do.

I guess we get cool points now or something…

Love,

Daddy

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Shopping For Birthday And Christmas Presents: Done And Done

3 years, 10 months.

Shopping For Birthday And Christmas Presents: Done And Done

Dear Jack,

Your birthday (November 16th) and Christmas are just a little more than a month apart. So all year, Mommy and I have been preparing by secretly scouting out the clearance section at Target, as well as and Amazon.com for ridiculously good deals.

Over all, we only paid a fraction of the cost of what your birthday and Christmas gifts should have amounted to.

For the past several months, these mysterious brown boxes have been waiting for us on our doorstep when we get home…

This week, Mommy and I finally laid all your upcoming gifts out on the floor to evaluate the situation, officially verifying that we are now finished with buying both your birthday and Christmas gifts.

I am so excited about you opening these! I can’t wait to be able to sit down with you and play.

Let’s talk about that anteater…

As I recently mentioned, you have a peculiar fascination with anteaters; as seen in your picture of the anteater who ate a monster. (I love how the monster who was eaten by the anteater is just as happy as the anteater who ate the monster!)

Shopping For Birthday And Christmas Presents: Done And Done

You have been asking for an anteater stuffed animal for quite a while now. So Mommy special ordered one of the Internet. It looks so bizarre!

But I’m confident to believe you will love it. Mommy and I wondered if your anteater will end up in the same privileged category as Ellie the Elephant and Pandy the Panda Bear, who get to ride in the car with you and wear your underwear to school.

These Are The Days Of Stuffed Animals Wearing Underwear

We also wonder what you will name him/her. My guess is “Anty.” I guess we’ll see in about two months for your 4th birthday.

Anty very well could be wearing your underwear to school.

Love,

Daddy

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3rd Birthday Monster Truck Road Trip: Build-A-Bear

November 25, 2013 at 11:41 pm , by 

3 years.

Dear Jack,

As promised for part of your monster truck road trip for your 3rd birthday, we drove the Toyota Tundra to the Build-A-Bear at the Hamilton Place Mall in Chattanooga, TN.

I can’t take credit for the idea to go to Build-A-Bear Workshop, just the truck ride idea.

Mommy cleverly thought of going to Build-A-Bear as a way to celebrate with not only my parents, your cousin Calla, Aunt Dana and Uncle Andrew, but also your great-grandma, who you’ve only met a few times.

Like any man shopping, you immediately identified the animal you want to stuff, a red panda, and got to work.

Sure, you were impressed by the fact you got to pump the stuffing into your red panda by pressing a foot pedal. And by getting to place the heart in your red panda yourself.

But mainly, you just wanted to build your red panda, whatever steps that entailed, to ensure the red panda was officially yours.

Meanwhile, your cousin Calla enjoyed the journey, evidently impressed by the many potential accessories that were available to her pink penguin.

(She ended up getting her a tutu.)

You didn’t care about clothes, scents, or sounds. You just wanted your red panda.

When it came time to name your new friend, you decided to keep things simple:

You named him “Panda.”

Sometimes when your parents plan a seemingly good idea, it doesn’t quite work out as well as it did in our minds.

However, this actually went the way it was supposed to. It was appropriate and a lot of fun.

Not to mention, it wasn’t really expensive and it was an extremely unique experience for a 3 year-old boy and his girl cousin who is 7 months younger.

From Build-A-Bear, we loaded up in the truck and made our way towards the canyon, as you snacked on some delicious sour dough bread from the Earth Fare near the mall.

And of course, “Panda” was there the whole ride across the state lines of Georgia and Alabama.

To be continued…

 

Love,

Daddy

 

Disclaimer: The vehicle mentioned in this story was provided at the expense of Toyota, for the purpose of reviewing.