February 3 Brendan is NINE today

Wednesday:  It was wonderful to celebrate Brendan's birthday with him today. I was invited over to his house for present opening, dinner, and birthday cake! Yes! 

This is the picture I posted on FB to wish him a happy birthday.

 I made Brendan a birthday card which hopefully will upload right here:

This is the front of the card ...

This is on the inside top flap:

This was the birthday greeting:

This is the back of the card (a picture of Brendan and me about 7.5 years ago) ...

When I arrived at Brendan's, after picking Dylan up from work, it was about 5:30. Brendan was playing with his brand new LEGO set of Mario that does the coolest stuff.

He was explaining all of it to me ...

I gave Brendan his card to open ...

Brendan is reading ALL the details of his age ...

... and was a bit flabergasted to read that he was ACTUALLY 4,734,720 minutes! Look at his expression!

Then he opened the presents I brought--more Mario LEGOS to go with his starter set. Poor little Erin--this is too soon after Christmas for her to understand that not everyone was receiving presents today ... look at her little face. She kept saying "pwesents, gwamma?" Ouch.

Here is Brendan's birthday cake ... moist chocolate ... everyone's favorite.

The last three candles were "trick" candles that took extra effort to extinguish ... but Brendan did it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEAUTIFUL BOY. I love you so much.

February 2 Silly songs ...

Tuesday:  I can hardly believe a week has gone by once again ... and here are these THREE kiddos at my house once more!

I think we dragged out every single toy in my house at one time or another today. We had so much fun.

I find I am getting more relaxed about having chaos all around me ... it's only a few hours ... and it all gets put back where it belongs before I go to bed ...

Aidan delights in building with the magnet tiles .... he does a really good job thinking up his own buildings.

I tuned us in to Youtube and looked up the song Brendan and I sang on our ride home last week. We found a gentleman by the name of Raffi, who sang a whole bunch of silly songs! We played these songs all afternoon. Our favorite is:

"Down By The Bay" ... Down by the bay / where the watermelons grow / Back to my home / I dare not go / for if I do / my mother will say: 

Have you ever seen a WHALE with a polka-dot TAIL, down by the bay?

OR

Have you ever seen a LLAMA eating his PAJAMAS, down by the bay?

OR

Have you ever seen a goat speeding in a boat, down by the bay?

Have you ever seen a BIRD acting like a NERD, down by the bay?

Have you ever seen a BANANA playin the PIAN-A? Down by the bay? 

Ha! We made up the silliest rhymes ALL afternoon. Brendan LOVES to do this. The little kids enjoyed it too, cracking up when they would hear the rhyme.

Have you ever seen the MOON eating with a SPOON, down by the bay?

Have you ever seen a cricket getting a ticket, down by the bay?

Have you ever seen a teacher kissing a creature, down by the bay? Ha!

Have you ever seen an APE squishing a GRAPE, down by the bay?

I love these guys ... here is Brendan relaxing in my rather broken-down office chair, watching Raffi sing his songs.

Aidan was concerned (as always) about Matey: "Gwamma: Matey is eating your STWAW!!!" he says while laughing.

Aidan is the funniest little guy ... he gets SO concerned about Matey ... look at his dear face.

Erin and Aidan played "tools" for quite awhile today. Aidan did most of the "tooling" while Erin watched. She would have used more tools, but Aidan dominated the entire affair !!  I intervened when I could, but this is the way it goes when one sibling is ... rather ... dominate!

This is Brendan's very last day of being EIGHT. I reminded him of that fact quite a few times throughout our time together today. He is the sweetest person. I love to watch him play ... he is meticulous and exacting ... he does not give up ... his patience is LONG. I love his heart so much.
 

I'm sure Brendan and I will add to our silly song rhymes every time we are together. I'm going to work on some ahead of time ... because it just delights him when I do!

February 1 Trouble at Rogue River Park

Monday:  I had a few extra hours of "free" time Monday, late morning, so I quickly drove over to Rogue River Park. There are so many trails I need to explore over here!

The sunshine was wonderful! I knew I could get some good pictures today.

This is a beautiful piece of land with a lot of hills and side trails ...

This is the main path that takes you back to the fisheries ...

Isn't the snow SO pristine down by this little stream? SMART people have stayed out of this area because ... they are NOT stupid enough to go where there are swampy, boggy places ...

But as for myself? I just really couldn't get any good pictures of the stream from way back on the path, so I ventured on down, making footprints along what used to be perfect snow ...

Isn't it SO lovely?

I didn't get into a single bit of trouble down here next to the stream ... until a little later ...

Here are the fish ponds where the Department of Natural Resources raise fish.

I very badly wanted to go down a path that would take me to the shores of the Rogue River so that I could get some reflections ... but no matter which path I chose, I always ended up being a little bit turned around (imagine that) ...

 

Isn't it so nice and woodsy in here? It was about at this point that I met a nice German lady (!!) ... she reminded me so much of Angela! I asked her for directions to the Rogue and she pointed me in a direction that I felt confused about! I never DID find the river.

My time was running out, so I decided to turn around and head back the way I came. This is when I got into trouble ... In the picture below ... I got off the main path (on the left) and walked DOWN the small hill to a little crevice--can you see it? It's on the right and looks like a faint angled line. The snow was about 10" all through this area. I decided to just walk along that little crevice--NOT a good choice ...

The second step I took .... DOWN went my foot SUPER deep, through thin ice into sticky yucky MUD. And do you think I could get my foot back out? I took a few pictures while I was stuck, trying to figure out what I should do. My other leg was free but I was afraid to sit down in case my whole body sunk into the mud--but as hard as I pulled, my stuck leg was not going anywhere. 

Sigh. What to do? I began using my gloved hands as shovels and dug around. Can you see the mud that I pitched onto the snow? I worked at this for a full 10 minutes (at least) while wiggling my foot and leg, hoping to get out of there some how. THANKFULLY, I had not twisted my ankle or anything. My foot didn't seem to be in any pain--it was just really really stuck in the mud. I finally cautiously sat down and continued digging myself out, asking God for this to work ... finally!!! My foot came out. My boot was caked in mud, but they did the job of keeping my foot dry at least. 

I was so relieved to be out of that mess I had gotten myself into! NOTE TO SELF:  Do NOT walk near a bog on the pristine snow! What is underneath is UNKNOWN, you moron.

Yes, moron! Sigh. I at least got a 2.3 mile walk in ... so that was good. And I DO like some of these pictures.