First let me just say that I had wonderful conferences with all of the kids’ teachers last month.
Catelin is doing great in her class – she transitions easily from one activity to another, has made lots of friends, participates in all of the songs/prayers and loves to do her art work. I was so happy to hear that she is one of the “easiest going” kids in the class – I was worried after the first couple of weeks but now she is thriving.
Historically Ty has been shy at school but apparently he has come out of his shell in a big way this year. In fact, he is considered one of the leaders in his class – he is very smart, involved in all activities (with a “take charge” attitude), and is kind to all of his classmates. I heard from a couple of the moms that if their child is having an “off day” and needs some help in class that the teacher sits them next to Ty because he is always patient and willing to help. I am so proud of him.
At MJ’s conference one of the first things his teacher said was that he is an extremely kind and compassionate child and that he was going to be her Peter Chanel award winner for the class this quarter. If you recall, MJ received this award last year in Pre-K – it is his school’s most prestigious award and is given for “outstanding Christian behavior.” I never dreamed he would receive it again this year, but now it means even more…
Because on April 10th, MJ was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. It is a condition that affects every facet of his life and will be with him forever. And instead of despising it and regretting that it is a part of his life, somehow he has embraced it with grace. Not only has he accepted it, but he has excelled in spite of it. So this year the Peter Chanel Award is even more significant… because diabetes hasn’t changed him– he is still the same sweet, kind, joyous child. Proud? Well, that doesn’t even begin to touch how I feel about MJ. Inspired – yeah, that’s a better word.
On October 29th, MJ’s grandparents joined Steve and me at the school wide mass and watched as our biggest boy received his award. And of course I cried. Through the tears I was snapping pictures and beaming with pride.
Congratulations MJ – you inspire us every day.
Love,
Mommy and Daddy
MJ turned six on November 5th. I decided to take a half day off of work so I could be the mystery reader for his class and bring in his birthday snack! All of the kids absolutely LOVED our fruit kabobs stuck in Mr. Pumpkin- and MJ was glad he didn’t have to get an extra shot of insulin for it. 
That night we had family over for his birthday dinner- he requested Los Rancheros (he takes after his daddy!) so we catered it for his special day.
He ate a ton (as usual) and then finished it off with a delicious cupcake!
MJ got his first real “pet” from Uncle Andrew – a beta fish that he named Pickles. He has actually done a good job taking care of it so far (it’s only been 12 days though so we will keep our fingers crossed!)
MJ requested months ago to have a slumber party for his birthday. I agreed to let him invite his 5 best friends over for the night (and of course consulted all of their moms first!). It was the first slumber party for all of the boys and they had a BLAST! They all came over at 5:00 on Saturday evening and thankfully it was warm enough for them to run around in the backyard and play.
We sang happy birthday, had pizza and cake, opened presents, ran around some more, played hide and seek, told ghost stories, and then put on a movie.
We took them all up to MJ and Ty’s room around 10:30. The nice thing about 5 and 6 year olds is that they are pretty independent- they all took turns going to the bathroom and brushing their teeth then put on their own pajamas and rolled out their sleeping bags. By 11:00 they were all asleep- and there wasn’t a peep from anyone until about 6:00 the next morning.
I talked them into staying quietly in the room until 6:30 AM while Steve went on a donut run…they were all so excited!
MJ lost his third tooth about a minute after I took this picture… I was so thankful he didn’t lose it the night before (we didn’t want the tooth fairy to wake everyone up!)
It was a great first slumber party for everyone- they are all such sweet boys and MJ is very blessed to have them in his life.
I can’t believe my “baby” boy is SIX…it seems like he was able to fit into my arms yesterday. Happy 6th birthday to a very special, amazing, spectacular, wonderful boy! We love you, MJ!!
I am so bummed that I didn’t get a picture of MJ, Ty and Catelin together this year! We went to Costco in late September (when they still had a good variety of costumes) and I let each of them pick their own. MJ chose Bumblebee the Transformer, Ty wanted to be the Hulk, and of course Catelin picked Minnie Mouse!
Steve worked so hard carving the pumpkins and they looked amazing! However, we did them too early and they essentially disintegrated on our back deck before we could even put them out. Next year we will do it the day before Halloween.
In the mean time, the kids had fun painting pumpkins (and faces) with some of our neighbors…
We went to the Dunwoody Country Club Halloween Carnival two weeks ago and had a great time. They had a rock climbing wall, bounce houses, a hayride, pumpkin patch, face painting and more. MJ had a birthday/costume party earlier that day and already had his Transformer face painted- I think she did an amazing job!
My daredevil boys both wanted to climb the rock wall. MJ got about half way up and Ty- well he got about a quarter of the way and then let go because he was laughing hysterically.
And we all loved the hayride.
Catelin had her class Halloween parade the day before Halloween– she was so excited to see all of her friends in their costumes!!
Ty’s parade was Friday morning followed by his class party. Apparently Batman was very popular this year with his class so he was glad to be the “green guy.”
The big school also had a parade and MJ was thrilled to wear his costume!
Our neighborhood has this awesome road that they close off each year for Halloween. It is so nice knowing that the area will be free of cars, and each family that lives on that street does an incredible job at preparing for the event (one house even had a petting zoo this year!). Last year, however, we starting trick or treating too late and it was a mad house – there were kids everywhere and since they were all in costume they blended together. All the moms in our group were extremely stressed out the whole time trying to make sure we didn’t lose our kids. And with three mobile children, I had a hard time even enjoying it…
Fast forward to this year… we were much smarter and decided to go early. It was great! The crowd was a lot smaller and it was still light outside which made everything much easier. The kids had a wonderful time running from house to house. Catelin is not a fan of candy (I know, can you believe it?!) so she was perfectly happy riding around in the wagon- which of course was fine by us!
