We kicked off the week with our new Monday split evening routine, Dean and Evan go to swim lessons and Graham and I go to TKD. Graham worked on his free sparring for the first time and so that was neat to see. And, Evan had a good swim lesson.

Graham finished up all his medicine and ear drops (which he was such a little champ for) and we headed back to the doctor on Tuesday for her to check out his ear. The infection was mostly gone, but she was pretty sure she saw part of the tube still in there with the ear drum grown around it, so that means a trip back to the ENT to have him look at it and more than likely it will have to be surgically removed!!!! Luckily, we got an appointment on Wednesday, so we wont have to wait to long to learn what the verdict is. We didnt say anything to him yet about the surgery, we will just wait and see what the doctor says and go from there. He is not complaining with it at all, so that is good atleast.

We have all been fighting head congestion and such and so in addition to Graham taking zyrtec, she added flonase nasal spray and said we could give Evan the zyrtec as well. Then, I ended up at the doctor on Thursday evening for a sinus infection and got meds for me!

On Thursday and Friday night, very out of character, Evan woke up and was awake and raring to go for hours (from midnight to 4am and then 2am to 5am), NOTHING that usually works to get him back to sleep was working and more than anything, he just wanted to be awake and playing!!!! It was quite exhausting, but he didnt act like anything was wrong at all and played and was happy the next days!

His appetite has started to slow down some as well, so not sure if the eating and sleeping changes are due to something in particular or just a phase of some sort! He is definitely learning and changing tons, he is talking like crazy and has discovered the world of POOH and just like Graham at this age is totally in to all things POOH! It is really cute and of course Graham still loves Pooh, so he is enjoying it as well.

The other big excitement is gearing up for Halloween. For the first time, Graham picked the costumes out, they are going to be Buddy and Tiny, the dinosaurs from Dinosaur Train. Graham loves his costume and Evan does at first.....so it will be interesting to see how trick or treating goes! We will be making our annual visit to my office and Graham is most excited to see all the spooky tunnels and get all the candy! My parents came by on Sunday afternoon and we did some pumpkin carving as well. Last year, Dean's finger was injured and so we just drew on them, but this year Graham has been asking and asking to carve them, so we decided to give it a try!

We had another jam packed week of activities and work and school. Evan is continuing to make real progress at his swim lessons and Graham is on his third stripe on his senior orange belt. He is working hard on perfecting his form. Graham had his dentist appointment this week - his regular six month checkup. He was of course very proud to show off the two teeth he had lost and the new ones that are coming in. She found several others that were loose and gave him a good report. She was going to try to flouride for the first time, but he wasn't too sure about that, so we said we would talk about it for next time and try again.

On Friday night, we took advantage again of Parents Night Out at First Baptist. Graham calls is play night at school and loves to go, a couple of his classmates were there as well and some of their regular teachers were working it. Both boys did great and Evan fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept all the way home and straight through until the next morning. On Saturday, we headed to swim lessons and then ran some errands and headed home with Evan asleep.

Graham and I headed out to another birthday party while Evan was still asleep, an indoor pool birthday for Noah from his class. We played games, had cake and then hit the pool for some splashing fun. There was a big curly water slide that Graham wanted to go down, but you had to be 48 inches tall or pass a swim test. Graham really wanted to do it, so we went and talked to the lifeguard about the swim test. He needed to swim the olympic lane lap, about 20 yards, all the way from jummping in to the end, mostly on his front. I explained to him what he needed to do and he was up for it. He jumped in and took off, his best swimming ever. The lifeguard commented on how good he was and asked about his lessons! So, he got a special wristband so that he could go on the big slide as many times as he wanted, so that was very fun! We headed home to tell daddy and Evan all about it and we were all super proud of Graham!

On Sunday, we went back and visited a church that we had been to back in the summer, we really liked it again and the boys did great. We got some lunch and headed home with another sleepy Evan and had a low key rest of the day!

The big news of the week was Graham's five year appointment. He was 40 pounds and a few ounces (44th percentile) and was 43 and a half inches tall (61st percentile), did good on his hearing and eye test, and all looked good, other than a NASTY ear infection.......meds for 10 days, drops for 5 days and a recheck in 2 weeks to see if there is any repair that needs to be done to his eardrum post tubes.......so hoping that once the infection clears up, things look good and we are not headed back to the ENT! He has been so much healthier than when he was young and had not complained of any symptoms related to his ear. She talked to him about his eating and how he needs to try new things so he can get stronger and he was most proud to show her his missing teeth. The only shot he had to get was his flu shot and he was champ, got it in his arm and didnt even cry!

On Wednesday night, we headed to the Skate Center in Salem for the Taekwondo ceremony and Graham got his senior orange belt. He was very very proud! After the ceremony of all the belts being presented, the kids got to play in a big bouncy jumping house and then there were cupcakes to celebrate, which of course, Evan loved that part!!! (see below!)

Graham and Evan had school pics at First Baptist this week, it was the first time they have been at the same school for pics so they got pulled out of class and got their pics made together. I will be most interested to see how those turn out!!!!I did my part and dressed them alike in fall colors, we will see what the photographer accomplished!

Evan made major strides at swim lessons this week, the instructor actually flipped him over in the water and he had to come back to the surface of the water and flipped himself on his back and put his little hands behind his neck! It was wild to watch!!!! Graham had not even started lessons until he was two, so Evan is much further along than he was at this point!!!!

On Saturday, we hit swim lessons and again continue to see great progress in both boys, it is so exciting and makes it all worth it. We ran some errands and then hit Chick fil A for lunch and played in the playarea with a couple of the boys' friends that were there too. Then home for a quick nap for Evan and back out again. We went to Emma's 5th bday party at the Vinton Skate Center. Graham and I rollerskated and had great fun. Graham really started to get the hang of it (and it eventually came back to me!!!) There was also the bouncy climbing house thing and Evan wanted to get in it so bad, I finally took him through it, he loved all the climbing for sure! Evan and Gray hung out too so that was fun! Both boys were quite tired when we left and had their bellies full of pizza and cake!

On Sunday we visited the last new church on our list to visit, now we will start making some repeat visits to some of the ones we really liked. Graham continues to impress us with how good he does in all the new situations and Evan doesn't fuss at drop off like he used to, so that is good.

Sunday afternoon, we went over to Tyler and Bobby's in our Christmas outfits for a shot at our family pics. We got some cute shots, but it remains to be seen if we got the one. It was fun none the less, and we stayed for dinner and the kids had a fun time playing during and afterwards!

We started off the week still very tired from all the birthday hoopla, it was quite the weekend! On Tuesday, Grahams's K class had their first fieldtrip to the fire station across the street from First Baptist and I joined them. The firefighters were great and told the kids all kinds of neat things and worked in some great safety and educational messages. Graham has loved fire trucks for a long time, so this was quite the treat for him!

Graham's big week continued with his testing ceremony on Wednesday night at Taekwondo for his senior orange belt. First, he had to do his 24 step form and then put on his sparring gear and do his one step moves / sparring combinations. He did a pretty good job, other than he goes really fast on his form. It seems that if he slows down he stumbles more and we can actually see him saying the names of the moves to himself! We left Evan to hang out with Josephine and Vivienne because he would have had a very hard time being quiet and still through the whole ceremony! Then, we have to wait for the results until next week! We are very proud of how hard Graham has worked and how he has stuck with it!

On Saturday morning, we headed to swim lessons and are very glad to see that Evan is about to have that big breakthrough. He is floating unassisted for several minutes at a time now and so the next step is for him to do it without screaming about it! But, clearly he gets it!!!! So that is very very exciting! Graham is continuing to work on his strokes and breathing.

We left swim lessons and headed to our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. Kenneth, Danah and Lillian joined us and we has the best weather and just had the best day. We had lunch first and then headed out on the hayride through the patch. We played around in all the pumpkins and of course took lots of pics. Then, we headed back on the hayride and hit the pony rides. Graham of course wanted to get on the biggest pony, since he is an old pro. I wasn't sure if Evan would do it or not, but since I walked right along beside him, he was okay with it and seemed to enjoy it. Lillian wasn't so sure about it but she watched the boys and waved.

We had some ice cream and kettle corn and hit the petting zoo next. Then, for our last stop, Graham and Lillian rode in the little carriage pulled by a little pony. They were super cute riding in it. We left there and stopped by Dean's parents house for dinner, so that was a nice way to round out the day. They had yummy hamburgers and treats for us. The kids had one last burst of energy and then were super tired when we left and headed home.

On Sunday, per Graham's request, we visited First Baptist. We certainly knew our way around and Graham and Evan went to classes right by their normal classes and we even saw a few familiar faces. We headed in to service and it was the biggest we had been to yet, over 1000 people. Graham and Evan had lots of kids in their classes as well. We enjoyed it and it was nice to see how the church runs since that is the foundation for their preschool, but we are going to continue to visit a few more. We went out to lunch and then called it a day and headed home with Evan falling alseep on the way home as usual. Then, we spent the rest of the day at home.

Evan is really starting to grow his vocabulary so that has been exciting. He will repeat about any word that you say and he stringing two and three words together and saying new words all the time. He continues to be fiesty and loveable. Everyone talks about how sweet and loving he is. He is a big hugger in his class, just like Graham was. He also continues to have a great appetite so hopefully that will stick! Graham heads to the doc this week for his big 5 year appt!

What a busy week of birthday and activities!!!!! On Monday evening, we headed to a double dose - first stop Taekwondo for Graham and second stop - swim lessons for Evan. It was the last week of classes before testing, so we wanted to get an extra day in. We hit another class on Wednesday night as well.

On Thursday, it was Graham's official 5th birthday! So hard to believe!!!! We woke him by singing to him and then he got his birthday shirt on and we took some pics and headed to school. I went and had lunch with him and took cupcakes and goodie bags for his class. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved them. I got red icing for Graham's fave color. After school, we went to his final Taekwondo class before testing and they said he was all set for testing next week. We headed to Ruby Tuesday for a birthday dinner and then home to open presents! Graham loved all his dinosaur train goodies from us and Evan and needless to say he was up late playing!

On Friday, we took the boys to school and then we both had the day off to prepare for the big 5th bday party bash! We spent all day prepping the inside and outside and running last minute errands. Graham was most excited by the time Friday evening rolled around!

On Saturday morning, Dean took the boys to swim lessons and I did last minute party prepping. We were expecting 29 kids (under the age of 8) plus three babies and around 20 some adults! The party was dinosaur themed in the backyard and we set it up with stations. We had an area with totes of sand and fossils buried in the sand and the kids could dig for them. That was by far the biggest hit of the day. Of course, the playset was a big hit as well and then we had hoola hoops, jump ropes, bean bag toss, horse shoes and toy dinosaurs. Once everyone arrived, we lined everyone up and had a dinosaur egg hunt. I had hidden 210 dino eggs all over the backyard (they had tiny eggs inside them) and once we said go, the eggs were all picked up in literally a couple minutes! It was quite the site to see. Next, we had icecream and cupcakes and then more playtime. It was a fantastic afternoon other than the fact that it was 55 degrees with 25 miles per hour wind gusts!!!! The kids didnt seem to mind, they were running all around, but the adults were a little chilly and the babies had to stay inside!!!

After most of the kids left, we carried in all the presents and Graham opened them, he got lots of dino goodies, legos, puzzles, crafts, educational sets, clothes, and just an overall load of neat stuff! My family stayed for dinner and Graham enjoyed digging in to all his new toys! We stayed in on Sunday and Graham played with all his toys and we cleaned up the party aftermath!

I flew out to Minneapolis bright and early on Monday before any of the boys were out of bed! Dean and the boys had a good week. They went to Evan's swim lesson on Monday evening and Graham's Taekwondo class on Wednesday and Thursday night. I found out on Thursday that I was going to have to stay over an additional night, so to help out, mama came down early Friday morning and the boys stayed home with her. Dean went on to work and that way if I got further delayed, he could still work late like he had planned since Mama had the boys. I got in around 5pm and they were very happy to see me. I brought them back some goodies as always and was just glad to be home after a whole week away! That was the longest trip I had taken in quite a while and the longest that Dean had kept both boys himself too!

On Saturday morning, mama headed out with us for a full day of adventures. First, we went to swim lessons for both boys and then we headed to Chick-fil-a for lunch. Graham LOVES to play in the playroom there. Then, we went to Olan Mills to get Graham's 5 year pics made. Graham did really good and so we decided to stick Evan in for a couple of them. He did okay for the first couple and we got one decent one of them together. But, mainly it was all about Graham and it was wild seeing him sitting there with that big number 5! We left there and headed home! Dean had been working in the yard all day and mama headed back home. Again, we were just so glad to be all back under one roof!

Graham is weighing in at 40.2 pounds these days and Evan is 28.2 pounds, so they are both getting bigger and bigger! Graham still loves his Kindergarten class and continues to tell us all about it. Evan is saying just about any word that we ask him too and starting to put a couple words together here and there, so that has been really really fun!