Axel is 5 years old!!!!

What a great Birthday weekend Axel had. It started Friday night with daddy staying up until past midnight making and decorating Axel's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday cake. We originally planned to have Axel's birthday Saturday afternoon, but a strong rain system was expected with high winds and possible thunderstorm. We made a last minute decision on Friday afternoon to move the party to Sunday so that we could still get the jump house for Axel and his friends. 

Saturday Auntie, Uncle, Braylin and Grandma still came over to celebrate with Axel since they had their entire day planned around celebrating with Axel.

We enjoyed a yummy lunch and then some play time, while Axel opened up his gifts.

He received his sphere puzzle that he has been wanting for over 6 months now! Auntie and Uncle Ryan also bought Axel a new pair of converse. They are a little big, but we are sure he will grow into them soon.

Grandma Susan and Grandpa Brian bought Axel a super cool remote control helicopter. Although Axel did not initially receive the gift well because he was extremely into solving the puzzle, he absolutely loves the remote control helicopter.

After gift opening we enjoyed some delicious birthday cake that daddy worked really hard to make. We learned that the cake was really dense and firm because we didn't leave it out for a couple of hours before serving.

Braylin was getting ready for her second nap of the day so unfortunately our guests had to go sooner than we had hoped, but we were very thankful that they made the trek to our house despite the rain.

I had so much fun seeing my beautiful niece. I am amazed at how much she has grown and how she is already doing big girl tricks like sitting and pulling herself up to standing. I have decided it must be a girl thing. Girls just want to be more independent than boys which motivates them to reach physical milestones more quickly. At any rate, it was great seeing the Jolley's and my mom.

After our guests left we enjoyed a fun family rain walk and more cake baking!!!! Luckily, on Saturday daddy started much earlier so the project of monster truck chocolate cake was done by 7:30pm.

On Sunday afternoon Axel had the biggest jump house you could rent for his birthday party.

As party favors we got the kids cape and masks so they could play super heros.

They had an absolute blast!

They kids played non stop for almost 4 hours. Axel took a break only to eat a hot dog in 5 minutes flat and to take a quick pee break on a local tree.

We were able to convince the kids to stop for some yummy birthday cake. But after about 5 minutes of singing Happy birthday and handing out cake the kids were back at it again!

But this time the adults joined the kids! Daddy had fun being silly and doing a full on belly flop jump. Half of the reason we rented this particular bounce house was so that we all could enjoy being kids for the day :)

Here is a picture of all of the kids who came. The two all the way to the right are our buddy Mike's twins. We called them up the day of and invited them to enjoy the jump house too! They were only there for a little over an hour, but it was still great seeing them!

Besides the two Axel's having the time of their lives, Phoenix was a close second enjoying the bounce house more than I would have imagined. My neighbor got a slow motion video of her jumping. Once she sends it to me I will have to post it. I have learned the tongue out for her means she is beyond happy!

And here are the three Amigos.....Axel R. Axel S. and Rishaan. As Axel said, "I am going to have both of my best friends at my party, it is going to be hard to choose which one to play with." Luckily, as we explained to him they all played together very well. The day was an absolute success!

On Monday, daddy volunteered at Axel's preschool all day and was there to celebrate his birthday with him and his classmates. I was able to get off of work a little early and we enjoyed dinner together as a family. Axel requested macaroni and cheese and that is exactly what he ate and nothing else! He also was able to open 1 gift. He opened Grammy Carol's present which was the rainbow loom. We also let him open Annika's present (his babysitters) because we knew she got him more rubber bands for his loom.

On Tuesday, he celebrated with his friends at his daycare, because more of his friends go on Tuesdays then Mondays. We then worked on a couple of bracelets on his rainbow loom.

This morning we went to the doctor for his 5 year check up. As you can imagine Axel is ecstatic about his birthday and told his Dr. today that he had 4 parties. He had a great check up. He weighed in at 33.2 lbs. This puts him in the 4th percentile!!!! He is 39 and a quarter inch which puts him in the 2nd percentile. This is fantastic. He not only stayed on the chart, but he went up a couple of percentiles!

All about Axel......
He currently loves Mickey Mouse. He can count to 100. He loves to do simply addition and subtraction word problems, especially while we are driving. He loves being a big brother and always wants to help. He loves puzzles and doing any form of art projects. He paints, draws, does sock puppets and builds structures with all forms of toys and art supplies. His favorite food is macaroni and cheese. He really isn't a fruit person, but will eat bananas, pears, apples, cantaloupe and blueberries if convinced. He enjoys veggies more. He eats green beans, asparagus, cucumbers, carrots and broccoli. He doesn't prefer meat, but he likes beef better than chicken. He likes turkey sandwiches, and almond butter and jelly sandwiches. He loves egg burritos and pasta, especially with cheese. He is a chocolate lover like his father. He loves to read and can write and say the alphabet, upper and lower case. He can read basic words and is excited about school. We play school all of the time. He can now jump, hop on one foot, climb, run, and ride a bike. He still uses training wheels and pretends to be "flash" the super hero when he puts on his cape and slippers. He sprints around the house. He likes organization and wants everything to be clean and orderly. He color coordinates his toys and is constantly reorganizing his toys. He is a happy and loving person and we feel so blessed to have the privilege of parenting such a wonderful child. We are excited for what the future hold.......

Rain, Rainbows, Dentist and more!

Before I post our mega weekend of birthday celebrations I wanted to finish this post that I started earlier this week. It rained all day on Wednesday, although on our way home from work the rain stopped. This was the view that the kids and I saw when we turned onto our street. It was so beautiful the kids and I got out of the car to take some pictures. 

The picture taking then lead to Axel and Phoenix playing in the water.

Boy does Phoenix love the water!!!!

Can you see how happy she is. I have finally figured out the tongue comes out when she is really happy! You can guess we went straight into the bath after our fun outdoor play.

Axel and I had our bi-annual teeth cleaning. He did an amazing job. He went to the back by himself while I cared for Phoenix.

I was incredibly impressed with how grown up he has become. Usually he needs me to walk him back and be with him, but this time he didn't even bat an eye when the called him back and I was occupied with Phoenix. Go Axel!

Phoenix sat on me during my cleaning. She has been fighting a virus for over a week now and when she doesn't feel well she wants to be held. She did a great job of sitting quietly and watching them clean my teeth. Of course she warmed up when Axel was back getting his teeth cleaned. Both kids wanted to stay. It was a bit of a struggle to get them to leave. Good thing for them we are going back in 3 weeks so I can get one filling for my receding gums!

We play outside after Pheeny's nap almost every day that I am home Thursday through Sunday. This Thursday the kiddos wanted to take Louis for a walk. They did a great job walking him and then played in the park.

 This past month Axel has learned about the rain forest. Daddy wanted me to capture this picture of the rain forest that they created over the past month before they take it down tomorrow. Tomorrow they start learning about the desert. Daddy will be volunteering all day because it is Axel's birthday and he hasn't had a chance to see Axel in action at school.

 Yesterday Axel created the Mickey Mouse Club house with his play doh. He has become obsessed with Mickey Mouse over the past month by borrowing videos from the library.

 Phoenix has become more and more interested and figuring out how to walk in mommy shoes no matter what they are. She spent half and hour trying to walk in my cycling shoes yesterday.

Now time to download the birthday festivities!

Family photos and Axel 5 year photos!

We finally did it. On March 21st the Szolushas finally took their first family photo. It was a pain staking process of over 1.5 hours of waiting before and after the pictures, but luckily the 15 minutes we were taking our photos Phoenix only just began to crack from exhaustion. Unfortunately, Phoenix came down with a virus on the day before the pictures. If you look closely you can see her pink nose and cheeks. 

 We ordered the photo above to hang on the wall and a few extra to pass out to the Grandparents. Now that I look at the photo below I almost like it just as much. Oh well!

Keith really wanted to get a son/father photo. This photo makes me smile from ear to ear. I am so proud to be Axel's mom and Keith's wife. 

 They are such a handsome and charming duo.

 Of course, I decided I wanted a photo of the girls. Phoenix wasn't really interested in taking any more photos, but we managed to get these two shots before the complete melt down.

 Her innocence and love for life make her remarkably beautiful to me. I can't believe how blessed I am to have two healthy, beautiful gifts from God.

 After our 7 minutes of family photos Axel took his 5 year photos. Every year since he was one he has always brought something from home to take a picture with. This year he thought a little house of magnatiles was the perfect thing to capture in his photos. I can't believe my baby is going to be 5 years old in just a few short days. What a lovely journey and pleasure it has been to parent Axel. He has taught me so much about myself and life. I can't believe how much Axel and I have changed over the past 5 years. I am excited for what the future holds and pray and hope that God blesses all of the Szolushas with love, health and happiness.

 And the picture that will hang on the wall this year is Axel showing he is the big "5".

Fun in the Sun!

On Thursday we went to our usual story time at the local library. Phoenix is in her cute outfit that Grandpa Paul sent for Valentine's Day. She looks like such a big girl here and no longer like a baby.

Axel is sporting his Bear's Shirt and they are both excited for story time to begin!

I thought this was such a cute picture of Phoenix feeding her baby. She is finally starting to understand most things that we say to her. She is also very much aware of her surroundings and is always trying to learn from them.

Rishaan came back from a three week trip to India. Axel was so excited to get to play with him. It had been over a month since the last time they played together.

The kids played for over three hours together like the close friends they are. Rishaan grew another 1-2 inches while he was away, no joke! Axel officially comes up to his shoulders!

Phoenix has come to like the sand after observing the older kids and how to play in it. She scoops the sand to fill the bucket and then pours it into the truck.....just like Axel's does :)

On Friday we had family pictures taken. I will do a quick post on those in a few days as soon as Keith puts all of the pictures in a folder for me. It was a bit stressful and not a very smooth experience, but in the end we have one good family photo and a couple of other photos that are good of Axel, Keith and Axel and one of Phoenix and I.

Keith and I have been very lucky to have our babysitter one day every weekend for the entire month of March. Today Keith took me up on a dirt trail on top of the mountain ridge that extends from one mountain top to another. It was above the fog and absolutely beautiful up there. In the background beyond the grass you can kind of see the layer of fog.

From the other side you can see the beautiful hills in the background. It was quite the ride for me and fun to spend so much time together this month!

When we got home from our ride it was birthday time! Rishaan's 5 year party was at the park across the street. He had a clown called silly Ricky again. He had the same clown at his 3 year party and he was just as enjoyable this time. Silly Ricky loved Axel. He wanted to tape Axel's laugh and make it his ring tone. Axel really enjoyed the show. Phoenix loved it too. She lost interest about half way through, but it is funny in the beginning how she wants to be like the rest of the big kids.

Axel volunteered to help Silly Ricky hold balloons along with 4 other kids. When they let go of the balloons, Axel had the best facial expression of them all!

Axel played hard for over three hours.Phoenix also played hard the entire time as well. I tried to catch a picture of the two of them, but I can't seem to get them both to smile. Atleast Axel looks as cute as ever!

Phoenix is so much fun! You can get an idea from the next two pictures at what a tease she is.

She absolutely loves to be outside and climbing! She radiates happiness and God's grace through her absolute joy of everything she does! I wish I could bottle it up because if I could I would never forget the true meaning of life.....to love! I remember this same contagious joy for life from Axel, but after only a few years of life it is already jaded from relationships and life's experiences. You can still see this love through Axel's eyes most of the time, but the heart ache of friendships and life is already a theme that we are having to deal with in preschool.

At any rate, we have had a blessed weekend and lots of fun time together. I hope to post a blog before the big birthday party this Saturday to sum up Axel at this point in his life. Check back soon! We are really excited for the next week of events!!!!