Ok, seriously, I am too lazy to write a long post about the boys’ birthday party, so here it is in (very few) pictures with commentary:

This is one of my new favorite pictures - on the left is Ryan - my brave, strong, awesome cousin who, within the space of a few weeks, was diagnosed and operated on to remove a brain tumor after a freak seizure. His recovery has not been easy - on him or our family (especially his parents), but on Saturday it was almost like we had our old Ryan back. He’s smiling easier, he laughs again, and his sense of sarcasm and the absurd is firmly in place.  It was nice to be able to catch his eye and see him grin again. He’s back to work as a firefighter, and while he’s not the big, muscular guy he was once, I have no doubt he’ll get there again. Next to him is Delaney (you may know her from here) who absolutely adores her Uncle Ryan (pretty sure the feeling is mutual), and her daddy, Todd.  I am so proud of both of them - they’ve become amazing men.

This is one of the pictures of Preston that captures him the best from Saturday’s party.  Around a lot of people, he tends to take awhile to warm up and when the attention is on him, he’s pretty shy.  This is him opening cars (what else?) - the look on his face says “i’m cool, this is nice” but I’m fairly certain that he was thinking MORE CARS!!!!

Matt, like me, never seems to know where to look when people are singing happy birthday to him, so he tends to look around. Preston, again with the shyness…we’re actually really happy he joined Matt, since he originally said No.  They each blew out their own candles to much applause and cheering.

This is the very essence of Matthew - a totally goofball.  And he doesn’t need a birthday hat to make a silly face or be that happy.

Finally, a goofy picture of Preston.  By this point, most of our guests had left and he was getting his second wind and thought it would be great to use this collapsible bucket as a hat.  He was right.

Lastly, a picture of Daisy getting into the drink bucket.  Hey! Dogs get thirsty, too!  (She was actually chowing down on the chunks of ice, but she did break open a Coke at one point).

Finally, an end to a very long week of party prep, cleaning and organizing.  (Coincidentally, the closing ceremonies for the Olympics is on right now).

Let’s see, in order of things last week forward:

• Matt’s first soccer practice was successful
• My carpets were all cleaned, and actually stayed clean for 2 full days!
• Matt’s birthday and first trip to Chuck E. Cheese was good.
• Major issue with the dr. that works for me - big, hopefully quickly fixable, but problem nonetheless.
• 3 yards of mulch, moved!
• Read first two Twilight series books - now must run out and get 3rd and 4th.
• Birthday party quite successful

Now, very tired, very much behind in blogging, blog reading, twittering and twitter reading. 

So I’m going to bed.

Tomorrow, I’ll start re-joining the real world (well, real and virtual).

G’Nite!

Matt is currently, seriously, right this moment reading, reading! Hop On Pop.

Reading.  He’ll be five on Thursday.  Two weeks after that he starts kindergarten.

(honestly, if we weren’t sucky lazy busy parents, he probably would have started reading a few months ago…)

We went school clothes shopping last week. School clothes.

We met his soccer coach on Saturday and bought him soccer cleats on Sunday.  He’s on a soccer team.

In as many ways as he is still little, he is getting ridiculously big.  These days are filled with moments of him being our baby followed immediately by him getting himself dressed or playing a video game. This is such an amazing time for all of us - watching him struggle for his independence and still need us nearby; hearing his speak so well and still make up silly sounds and words. Dealing with his fierce need to do things for himself and still being close by when he changes his mind.  It is an exhausting and amazing age, this turning five.  I can only imagine how much he will grow and change as the school year progresses; I can only hope we all handle it smoothly and happily, without too many bumps in the road.

Our cuddle time is less frequent, the screams for mommy in the middle of the night come only a few times a week instead of a few times a night. He loves to go on adventures with his babysitter, spend the day at Nina’s and go out and about with GramBo.

He’s trying to learn about money - what it means and how much they’re worth.

My boy? Getting big.  He’s unstoppable. I hope I can keep up.

Meanwhile, my 3 year old is trying to get a coin to stay in his hair as he runs around the kitchen.