Five Years Old

We can hardly believe our baby is five years old!  He loved being the center of attention today with his "Happy Birthday to me" shirt that made people he didn't even know tell him Happy Birthday at school and at the park.  Bryson went to school this morning and his class sang to him twice and enjoyed mini cupcakes for his birthday.  He had his favorite foods throughout the day (French toast, grilled cheese, and tortellini pasta) and got a bike that he loves to ride.  He also enjoyed the happy birthday goblet that he drank from every chance he got and liked going to the park with a friend.  He had a "great birthday" and wants to have another one "soon."

At five, Bryson is very active and is constantly learning and doing.  He likes to run, climb, and ride his new bike, and he is constantly on the go.  One of Bryson's newest pastimes is building with Legos and when he's not doing that, he's drawing "monster coloring books" or pirate maps or doing some other type of art project.  He is always asking questions and has an impressive vocabulary (using words like "magnetic," "impressive," and "interact" correctly).  He can read simple sentences and easy reader books, knows all the letter sounds,  can count to 100 and is working on counting by fives and tens, and is also becoming quite the writer. Bryson is also "too chatty" at school (does that surprise any of you since Jarom and I are his parents?) and really enjoys being with his friends at school and Church.  Bryson is a joy and we are so thankful that we're this five year old's parents!

Spring in The Emerald City

Bryson and I visited my family in Seattle the last half of March.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone, especially my new niece Ivy.  She's adorable, and Bryson said that holding her made him want a sister . . . until she cried, then he said, "Never mind."  Our activities included playing with Zoey, feeding the ducks, open gym, swimming, gymnastics, and going to the beach at low tide.  Zoey liked paling around with Bryson and even spent two nights with us, sleeping next to him on the air mattress and she enjoyed wearing Bryson's clothes to bed.  

We celebrated Easter there as well.  Bryson decorated about two dozen eggs and got an Easter basket loaded with goodies before going on an egg hunt in my parents' backyard.  We also went to a company Easter party at Brent's work with Becca's family.  Bryson liked sitting with the Easter bunny, going on the egg hunt, and hanging around with Zoey who he continues to tell me he misses now that we're back home.  Below our pictures of Bryson and I in our Easter best.  Bryson also had a fifth birthday party there and got lots of fun presents.  He absolutely loves the Legos Grandma Joy got him and told everyone about the bunny cake she made for him.  We thoroughly enjoyed our trip (especially because it got us away from our noisy neighbors for a little while).  The only thing missing from the trip was having Jarom along.

Another Coupon Plug

Many of you know I am a huge couponer and hate to pay full price for everything.  While I am not a person you will ever see on TLC's Extreme Couponing, I do have really good trips where I save 85% or more.  But I wondered how all those people get just about everything on their lists free.  I figured out at least one way. ..  I just went through this list from a couponing site to email companies to get coupons for their products.  Boy did it pay off.  For those of you who want to save a little money and even get some free product coupons in the mail, it's worth it to just write and tell the manufacturer your thoughts ("I love your organic lemonade" or "Those flushable wipes were way too perfumey and gave my son a rash)."  Here are a few pictures of the spoils I got for doing just that.  I'm excited to use them the next time I go shopping.

Adventures in Babysitting

This past weekend, I watched my nieces and nephews while Allie and James went to San Diego to scope out a job opportunity and housing possibilities.  It was a huge change to go from one to five children, but I am proud to say everyone is alive and well and we didn't run into any issues once we tracked down their missing Sunday clothes.  I kept them busy with a trip to Home Depot to build cars, the park, reading, a trip to Lakeshore Learning for a Dr. Suess birthday party, Sunday crafts, and bowling.  It was a lot of fun, and we'll be sad to see the Thornbrues go wherever they end up.  We've liked having cousins for Bryson to play with and having family gatherings with them.