Grand Slam Birthday Party!

Before we went to Caleb’s birthday party, Mom, Mr. L., Jan and Bill came to the house to give him their gifts.  (We asked for no gifts at the party.)  Caleb was thrilled to get a new “big boy” bike from LaLa and Pops.  He also loved the bow/arrow set, water gun and bug vacuum that he got from Grandma and Bill.  (Yes, he usually has to wear a helmet on the bike!)

We hosted Caleb’s 5th birthday party at the NWA Naturals Game on Friday, May 6th.  We invited 3 friends and his cousin, Gabe to join us.  We let Caleb choose his guests and he chose 2 boys from his class and his t-ball team (Michael and Conner) as well as his daycare teacher and her son (Kaleb).  We weren’t about to try to take all of those boys without an adult, so we paid for a parent to come with them.  The kids got a ticket to the game, a wristband for the kids’ zone, a hot dog/chips combo and an ice cream.  We were even able to use the ice cream as the birthday dessert and didn’t have to mess with a cake or cupcakes.  At the end of the night, the boys got to be on the scoreboard screen, which they loved.  The kids had a fabulous time and the adults were completely worn out when it was over.  I’m not sure any of us actually saw any of the game, but the entertainment was the 5 little boys running like banshees all over the place, having the times of their lives!  Here are a few pictures from the party.  (The rest are on Shutterfly…)

Kaleb, Conner, Michael, Caleb & Gabe

Playing in the kids’ zone:

Hanging out with Strike!

On the big screen:

My birthday boy and me!

Halloween Home Run!

I picked up Caleb from daycare just as his Halloween party was ending. He was already pumped up about trick-or-treating. We managed to kill a little time by straightening up the house while we waited for Mom and Mr. L. to get to our house and for Rudy to get home. It was a little tough to figure out the logistics of it all, but we managed. After dinner, we suited up our little man in his baseball costume. (We are super-grateful to the Heidi and Ian for letting us borrow the costume!)

As soon as we got the costume on him, he started to throw a fit. My Halloween nightmare was coming true! We had been prepping him for it for a while and every time I mentioned it, I was met with whining and "no costume, Mama!" We even had a dress rehearsal in the living room one night where Caleb put on his costume and said "trick-or-treat" to Rudy. Rudy was pre-armed with a sucker, which he promptly gave to the whiny 2-year-old. We immediately praised him and pointed out that when you wear your costume, you get candy. He wasn't buying it. So, I spent the week leading up to Halloween thinking that it was going to be a total bust. Sure enough, the costume went on and the fussing started. Pops tried to convince him that he looked cool, we all tried to take pictures and Caleb just scrunched up his face and tugged at the costume. I wasn't letting that stop us. We loaded up in the wagon with the Elmo bucket from last year and headed across the street to the Colemans. Caleb wanted Pops to go with him, so they slowly crept up the sidewalk to meet Mrs. Angie. Caleb immediately covered his face with his hands and wanted nothing to do with it. Again...I wasn't giving up. We plopped him back in the wagon and headed for more houses. At the next stop, I went to the door with him. Illustrating that he didn't really get the concept yet, Caleb tried to give his candy to the lady that answered the door. How cute is that? Once he realized that he was GETTING candy, not giving it away, he was the king of the trick-or-treaters! As soon as the door closed, he turned around, ran toward everyone waiting at the end of the driveway and yelled, "I got candy!" This continued until the poor little guy was just so tired he could barely say, "trick-or-treat." He sure did like having Pops here to trick-or-treat with him. A few times, he decided that he wanted to go to the door by himself and told Pops and me to "stay there." That didn't really work out so well, because when the people would answer the door, he would freeze up and we'd have to come to his rescue. My favorite moment of the night was when one of our new neighbors tried to put a full-sized candy bar in Caleb's bucket and he gave it back to her and told her, "It's too big." I told him to just say thank you, but he was worried about it fitting in his bucket. He needs to learn that we are lucky to live in a town full of WalMart vendors who give away things like full-sized candy bars at Halloween!In the end, Caleb loved Halloween and he got lots of oohs and aahs over how cute he was in his costume. He was definitely the only baseball in HearthStone this Halloween. Amidst a lot of animals, cartoon characters and ninjas, our little baseball was an all-star! Rudy and I even got in the spirit of it and wore our Cardinals jerseys! When we got home, we dumped all of Caleb's candy out on the floor and let him have a few pieces, then we watched his Elmo Halloween movie and it was time for him to go to bed. The little one was exhausted, but still talking about trick-or-treat! He enjoyed answering the door and giving out candy a couple of times after we got home, too. It was such a fun night!

Saturday morning, Rudy cooked a yummy breakfast for us and then he and Mr.L went to Fayetteville for the Razorback game. I was supposed to go with Rudy, but really just wanted a relaxing day at home with Mom and Caleb. That's exactly what we had. Mom and I did laundry and straightened up the house. She did a little shopping during Caleb's naptime and I did a little relaxing. When the boys came home, we got ready to go to dinner at the Monte Ne Inn chicken restaurant. We ate until we were all sick and then came home to just spend time together. It was a great visit from my parents! I'm so glad they came up this weekend!

The Hogs won yesterday in their game against Tulsa. We were all glad about that! Wins are few and far between this year!

Today, Rudy has gone to scout for deer and spend some time in the woods, enjoying fall. Caleb and I ran errands this morning and now he's taking his nap. I have tons of work to do, but wanted to get all of this written first. It was a great weekend - one I definitely want to remember!