Five Years Old

This big girl is five today.
 

Miles decided to photo bomb this shot. 

Yep, that's right, Jaycee is five years old now.  My where has the time gone?  It seems like only a short time ago that we were celebrating her 4th birthday.  She is growing and learning new things everyday and keeps us young (although we don't always feel young).

When she turned three, I started a birthday interview that was very basic.  I figured that I'd continue with the tradition.  Here is the interview I had with her this afternoon at lunch.  The red answers are from last year when she turned 4, and the blue answers are from this year.  I wrote down the first answer she told me and how she said it. 


Birthday Interview - Five Years Old
                                                     
 1.  What is your favorite color?  blue      red                
 2.  What is your favorite toy?  soccer ball        horse
 3.  What is your favorite fruit?  oranges     orange
 4.  What is your favorite TV show?  Clifford     Cat and the Hat
 5.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Mac & Cheese     sandwich
 6.  What is your favorite outfit?  pink Animal Dress     dress
 7.  What is your favorite game?  Toy Story Matching Card Game     Candyland
  8.  What is your favorite snack?  cookies     Peanut Butter on a spoon
 9.  What is your favorite animal?  bear     zebra
10. What is your favorite song?  Overcomer by Mandisa   The King is Coming by Newsboys  
11. What is your favorite book?  Diary of a Fly     Berenstein Bears
12. What is your favorite movie?  Tangled     Shark Tale
13. What is your favorite cereal?  Peanut Butter Balls (Generic Reeses Cereal)     Cheerios
14. Who is your best friend?  Corbin     Erikya and Corbin
15. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  chalk     chalk
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas     Christmas
17. What is your favorite drink?  milk     milk
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  cereal     toast
19. What do you like to take to bed with you?  bear & dog     horse and dog
20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  I don't know     a Big girl


Some things haven't changed really that much at all, but she sure has.  We've been blessed to get to share the past 5 years with her.



Newborn

 

 



 

 

One year

 Two years

Three years

Four years

Five years
 

 

Construction Birthday

Miles turned one a couple weeks ago, but we've had some other things happen that left this post being a little late getting out. 

We decided that since Miles is always knocking things over in a destructive way we would have a construction birthday theme for his first birthday.  I found some awesome decorations from Hobby Lobby, and along with the help of Pinterest, we had a theme on our hands.  Tom also helped too.  Most of the time he just lets me plan it out, since it's kind of my thing, but this time since it was more of boy thing, he felt like he had some great ideas to contribute.  I was glad for the help.

I got a lot of ideas from the internet, and chose to do a simplified form of them.  I wanted to do more, but this was his first birthday and I really didn't have the time to go all out this year.  His first birthday kind of snuck up on me without me realizing it.


This was the dresser and decorations that I bought at Hobby Lobby.  I chose to do cupcakes this time and made a small cake for him to dig into.  I found some black buckets at the Dollar Tree and kept the drinks with ice in them.  I used a solid color plastic tablecloth and stapled it to the top of the wall as a background.  Most of the decorations I found at Hobby Lobby and used solid color plates, napkins, and spoons.  It was a lot of fun.

 

 

Tom had a sawhorse in the garage, so we used black posterboard and put a caution sign from the construction pack I got and the added some old tools from Tom's dad.  It was kind of bittersweet that we had Miles' birthday party on what would have been his dad's birthday.  So Tom wanted to incorporate some of his things into the party.  They made a nice addition.

We had another sawhorse on the driveway so that people would know to go in through the front door, along with a balloon bouquet.

My favorite thing to do for birthdays it to make my kids' cakes.  My dad did it for us, and I guess I want to continue the tradition.  I chose to make cupcakes for everyone else and a baby truck cake for Miles to save myself some time.  I cut a regular sheet cake into the shape of a truck and used cupcakes for the tires. 

We decided to strip Miles' down and take off his shirt for the big event.  He has never had cake before, so it was quite the treat for him.

He's got a look as if he's wondering what we are going to do with that thing.

YUMMMMMM!!!

Jaycee had to join in the fun too.  She loves cupcakes.
 

Sticky fingers

This was what was left of the cake after Miles was done with it.
 

Tom threw him in the tub, high chair and all.
 

Opening gifts.  Not sure he was really into this part of the party, I think he was still in a cake coma.
 

Our family
 

Playing with his new toy.
 

There's a smile.

We went outside for a bit to let the kids run off the sugar from the cupcakes.  Miles decided that sitting in our crunchy grass was good enough.  So we started singing and clapping with him.  Gotta love this guy.

After his birthday, we decided to take a quick trip to see some of Tom's family and friends near Joplin.  We ended up having to cut our trip short b/c Miles has some problems with high fevers.  But I'm so thankful for this little guy and the added blessings he has brought to our family. It has been fun to watch him grow, learn, share, and play with his sister.  I love watching his face when he is trying to figure out how things work and roaming around the room looking for the next tower, building, or blocks that he can knock down.  We call him Destructor around here, but we love him.  It was a lot of fun celebrating his first birthday.


the Ehrlich's

One



Today Miles turned one!!!! 

 

 

 

So, I'm a little late getting this post out, since his birthday was actually Tuesday.

 



The time has really gone by too fast.  I can still remember going to the hospital and checking in for a C-section.  I remember being really scared and completely at peace all at the same time.  There must have been lots of people praying for us.

Miles has definitely brought some changes to our lives.  There were many days when I had forgotten what it was like to take care of a newborn, and now he is all over the place walking, crawling, and looking for any open door or gate. 

For his birthday, I thought that we should do something a little out of the norm for the day.  I've learned from experience that life is so precious, and I want to make the most of the time that I'm given.  So we loaded ourselves up and headed down to Watson Park.  We are so lucky to live in a city that has so many fun things to do, and places to visit.  After living here for the last 13 years, I still think there are places that I haven't explored yet.  This park has a lot of kid-friendly activities, and we ventured to enjoy them.







This was the train that we rode.

 

 

 Jaycee & Miles on the train.

 

 

 Miles found a tic-tac-toe game that he could play with.

 

 

 

 Miles started walking a couple of weeks ago.  Of course we had to follow the yellow brick road.

 

 

 Jaycee wanted to show me her dance moves.

 

 

Then we checked out ponies. 

 

 

Later that day, we went to The Donut Whole.  This is a fun place where they make specialty donuts.  I discovered this place last year before Jaycee's birthday, and I think it might be an annual tradition I do with them.

 

 

Gotta run.  But we are having Miles' birthday party on Saturday.  I'm hoping to keep things simple.  Check back later for more pictures of our little man's first birthday.

 

 

 

the Ehrlich's 

Four Year Old Birthday Party

 

 

This year, I decided that we would try something different for Jaycee's birthday.  I thought that with having a newborn, it wouldn't be the best idea to get our house all ready and it was stressing me out a little to even think about people coming over into our chaos. 

So we decided to have her party at Acrobatic Academy.  It is a tumbling/ gymnastics place that I drive by a lot on our way to Bible Study Fellowship on Wednesday mornings.  Since Jaycee has so much energy, I thought this might be just the place for her to celebrate her birthday.

It was a short, sweet, and fun birthday.  The kids all had a great time!!!  Thanks to all of you who came to her party and helped make it a fun day for her.


the Ehrlich's