Josh, Jenn, Ashton, Emmy and Ethan…

Have you noticed the CRAZY summer of birthdays we have in our family????

Emmy – July 13th

Ethan – July 20th

Josh – July 25th

Ashton – August 10th

IT’S WIIIIILD!!!!!

Anyhoo, HOW IS MY BABY BOY FIVE-YEARS-OLD?!?!?!?  I cannot express the love I have for Ashton.  I truly cannot begin to tell you how amazing this little guy is.  I’ve started typing several sentences but they sound so lame compared to my feelings for this boy that I just delete them.

Ashton requested a “REAL” birthday party this year with FRIENDS.  He made several other requests, mostly things he had experienced at other friends’ parties.  (Thanks a lot all you amazing moms who are completely creative and have way more energy than I do).  Ashton told his friend’s mom all about the LEGO BATMAN cake he was going to have for his birthday.  Luckily, she mentioned it to me a couple days before the party so I could actually make it.  Blame it on all those cake shows that make it look sooooo easy to make incredible cakes…The night before, I was up trying to figure out how to do fondant.  I ended up with a big glob of gray that I was going to just throw away.  At 11 PM, I told Josh to go laugh at my lame attempt at a real cake before I threw it in the trash.  He was sooooo tired but he could see some potential and helped me finish it.  Can you believe what a sweet husband I have???

We had a party for Ashton at Jumpin’ Jacks.  We told his friends to dress up like their favorite super hero.  It was THE BEST!  We had tons of little super heroes literally bouncing off the walls and it wasn’t IN MY HOUSE!  So perfect.

Ashton and Emmy were in the Fiesta Days Children’s Parade for the Primary Activity on Saturday.  Ashton didn’t even want to go and Emmy wasn’t really old enough to be there, but they ended up having such a fabulous time.  I was PLANNING on riding in the trailer with Emmy and Ashton, taking it easy, but Ashton decided he wanted to ride his bike since his pal, Mac, was riding his.  So I walked along with the adults to make sure Ashton was staying with our group.

Emmy had a blast waving at everyone and throwing candy with Druw

Emmy taking her float-riding responsibilities seriously…

After the parade, there was a big party at the library park for the kids.  Here is Steph keeping the kids busy with Duck Duck Goose until all the parents came.  She and the Primary Presidency did such a great job with this activity.  It was a scary undertaking, if you ask me.

Ashton in line with some of his cousins for the bounce slide thing

No matter what Ashton is doing, he is humming a song.  If he is playing with his toys, his humming is mingled with sound effects.  If he’s dressed up and running around as a superhero, there is DEFINITELY a song being hummed.  On his bike…humming.  Walking around the house bored..humming.  It’s so cute, I love it.

Ashton LOVES to color and draw.  If he isn’t playing the Wii or with his friends, he’s up in the kitchen drawing.  And I STILL don’t know if he’s right-handed or left-handed.  He usually has a different color in each hand and will alternate hands depending on which color he wants to use.  It’s WILD.  Anyhoo, I can ALWAYS tell what he is drawing by the song he is humming.  For instance, he’s sitting right here next to me drawing as I blog and he is humming the very intense Danny Elfman “Batman” Movie theme song as he draws Batman.

Joker: He’ll hum the circus song from “Batman”

Superman: John Williams’ Superman Theme

Star Wars: There are MANY Star Wars songs depending on the character or the scene he’s drawing

Darth Vadar: Imperial March

Princess Leia: Normal Star Wars song

Ewoks: Yes, the Ewoks have their own little theme song and he knows it

Spiderman: Spiderman theme

Most of the songs are by John Williams.  Of course, I love John Williams, but have you ever tried to hum Star Wars without it turning into Superman or Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones???  It’s really hard.  Well, Ashton can distinguish between all of the songs within the first couple notes.  It’s amazing.

PS: I was wondering last summer if only little boys love to pick flowers for their moms.  Well, that little glass is full of flowers Emmy picked for me.  They BOTH love to bring me flowers accompanied by kisses and hugs.  Am I lucky or what?!?!? I LOOOOVE IT!

After becoming a champ on Lego Star Wars, Ashton was ready for something new.  A few months ago when Ashton was shopping for my birthday present at Best Buy, he spotted the Lego Batman game for the Wii and asked if he could have it.  We usually say “Yeah!  You can have that for your birthday!” but this time he told Josh he didn’t want to wait for his birthday….DANG IT!  He’s growing up.  It ALWAYS worked before.  Anyhoo, Josh told him he could EARN it by helping out around the house and that I would make a chart for him.  I am pretty O.C.D. and didn’t really want to relinquish any of my household duties so it took me a while to come up with things he could do.  I finally made the chart and Ashton worked sooooo hard to earn his game.  He was a little discouraged after the first three or four days but pressed on.  He’s such a good little (BIG) guy!

I’m relieved that his crush on SLAVE Princess Leia seems to have diminished SLIGHTLY since Cat Woman entered his life.

We spent all of yesterday’s perfectly gorgeous hot and sunny afternoon running errands and going to my baby check-up appt.  Every time we got into the car, Ashton would say, “Mom, it is soooo hot!  We should go swimming!”  So I PROMISED him that we would go today.  Welp, wouldn’t you know it, the skies were cloudy and the wind was a’blowin’ all morning, though it was still hot and sunny every once in a while.

Josh and I always make sure we do whatever we say we will do, especially pertaining to our kiddos.  So after lunch we went swimming.  I thought we’d drive there, have it start raining and then just come home but hey, what else would we do all afternoon???

Even though we had more clouds than sun, it was still warm and we played for two hours!  We left just as the last sunshine of the day was swallowed up by storm clouds.

Cute boy with clouds looming in the distance…that hair needs Kassy baaaaad!

The very sad thing is that this was the second time we’ve been to the pool this year!!!  I was SUPPOSED to be spending EVERYDAY at the pool until this baby comes.  Grrrrrr.