Pax

Saw this and it really epitomizes what I think of when I think of Pax. He just really enjoys taking his bathroom breaks outside.

Hot for Teacher

Well, it was back to school a couple weeks ago. But before we did that, we kind of rocked out the St. Helen Carnival. And by rocked out, I mean Dad got up on stage with his friends - The Chris's - and brought all my friends and me on stage, and we sang Twenty One Pilots "House of Gold."

And then people started getting crazy and coloring their hair.

And this is Pax and his best friend Vivvy. They have been friends for a couple years now, and now they are in the same preschool class. They play together every day, pretty exclusively, and had an amazing time at the carnival riding all the rides together for hours on end.

Then it was time for the first day of school.school. The day started with Hutch waking me.

It was old hat for me. Mae finally went into school without crying, after 2.5 years of going to St. Helen. And Pax was the big story as he entered his first day of school ever.

Zero hesitation. Off he went...

Into class. No issues. Just a big "goodbye mom and dad" and a kiss and he was off to spend his day with Miss Eva.  Even gets a nice big fat nap in every day.

But here was the big money shot for the first day. School Selfie!

Who's Comin' With Me?

So if you don't know that line from a famous movie - one of my all time favorites, Jerry Maguire - then you should. Tom Cruise gets fired after he's screaming "SHOW ME THE MONEY!" Then he gives a rousing speech to everyone about integrity, grabs a fish bowl and wants to know who's coming with him, and it turns out Dorothy (Renee Zellweger) is, in fact, coming with him.

So Pax, you are not Tom Cruise, and I am not Dorothy, at least last time I checked.

But you, my friend, look like you are headed to Hilton Head, South Carolina for two weeks of beach fun, pool fun, cousins fun, Smores-roasting fun, and a whole lot of other fun so I am, in fact, coming with you and Mabel can play the part of the gold fish because, well, she is too.

LET'S DO THIS!

The Little Duck Turns 3

So there's a lot going on in this next batch of photos. Let me lay it out for you:
1. Pax actually has something on that is not a t-shirt and sweatpants on, Juliana was able to get him looking nice for his big day.
2. Pax actually has a shirt on, at all.... not very common as I might have told you.
3. Pax actually was posing for pictures, so as you'll see, we just took big advantage of it.

Without further ado.

Oh, and this is Juliana, not sure if I've ever introduced her to you all. Pax started just calling her Julie out of the clear blue about 8-10 months ago and that kind of stuck. These two are truly inseparable, and it's no secret why if you spend ten minutes around them.  She just loves him to death and the feeling couldn't be more mutual from him back to her. Amen for the people who come into our lives and take such great care of me, the middle dog and the little duck.

And we'll wrap this thing with Pax unwrapping a few things.

Happy Birthday to my best little buddy in the whole wide.

Break

Sorry, we've been taking a little break.

No, not that kind of break - a Spring Break. More to come but didn't want you to think I pooped out on this blog.

Birthday Week... Interrupted

Well, you're probably wondering what happened to Birthday Week, it was going so well.

Leading into it everyone was having such a blast.

I was getting treated like it was my birthday week...

So the night of my actual birthday mom gets summoned out of town for work, but alas I still really wanted to go to Rosebud so Dad took me, Mae, Pax and my bestie Shea.

What is Mae wearing in that photo, you ask? I have no clue. Before she left she asked Dad to take a picture of her and we all thought when she came downstairs she was Olivia Newton John.

Anyway, I started not feeling well at Rosebud, so much so that I didn't even eat my spaghetti, so you knew something was wrong with me. We came home and did some cake and I tried to tough through it. Oh, and at this point Olivia is hating life and making a solid effort to sabotage my birthday with her version of nastiness.  (it's working)

Then we opened gifts. As you can see, Olivia recovered briefly and was stoked at the Shopkins Season 4 present I got from mom and dad...

And then there was a serious huddle around them.

And then, just like that, it all went to pieces. First I got sick, then Mae decided to come along with me the next day and we spent the next 8 days sicker than dogs. In the meantime, Mom came down with it as well and then this happened...

Pax goes into the ER for croupe (or however the hell you spell it. Yes, I said hell, it was a frustrating week). Dad manages to tread water and actually is secretly wishing the whole time that he got it so he could just climb into bed for three days... instead he's the ringleader of this whole circus.

So here we are, almost 13 days later. Some of us are still coughing (Mom, Mae), some of us are finally better (me) and some of us need a room with a straightjacket and rubber walls (Dad).

So that was the Birthday Week... interrupted.

Oh, and then we found an awesome app on Juliana's phone and this happened.

Twick o Tweat

That's how Pax puts it, thought it was an appropriate title. So let's get right to it.

Geared up for Halloween by spending about four and a half hours on my haunted house drawing, complete with four pieces of paper taped together.

And then it really got going on the big day. I know you're going to be really really surprised, but I wanted to go as Jonathon Toews this year. I actually wanted to go as Patrick Kane but dad said something about how you have to treat women nicely or something so we pivoted and went with Toewser. With a little help from mom and dad's friends and their hockey gear, we really knocked this one out of the park.

And not surprisingly Mae waffled back and forth about 751 times before landing on a raccoon, but I gotta say it was a really good choice because she made a pretty darn cute one.

So we headed out to Nana's because there was only one group we wanted to spend Halloween with - COUSINS!!! It was a mess of a rainy day so our strategy was to get all dressed up and then wait for some holes in the rain, then we'd sprint out the door to GET CANDY! First ones out there were our boys Eli and Isaiah. Eli made for an awesome ninja and Isaiah was supposed to be a magician but once he added some fake glasses he found at Nana's he was starting to get called Harry Potter, so as is the case with Zaya, he just rolled with it.

And without further ado, there's Pax in his construction worker outfit. What was significantly better than his actual costume was the fact that you could keep asking him what he was and listen to him say the word "construction." Classic Pax.

So after a couple rounds of GETTING CANDY and then taking a break, our next wave of cousins came so we hit the streets again with Sophie and Luke.

Oh, and there was a quick outfit change as well. As you can see, Eli took on the Harry Potter costume for trick or treating round 2 and Isaiah is that black blob standing next to Luke, who is the Incredible Notre Dame Hulk or something like that.

Okay, other big Halloween news is that we got to meet Nana's new puppy that she got earlier that week. Her name is Lily and she is so stinking cute it's not even funny.

And yet, in true Mabel fashion, she was really worried more about not letting Buddy feel neglected so she stayed close to her best buddy, Buddy.

Even brought him with for trick or treating.

At the end of a long day, Lily fell asleep right where I was hoping she would. On the way home from Nana's Mae and I proclaimed it the best Halloween ever.

Oh, and not to be outdone, say hello to the center forward (Mom) and right midfielder (Dad) of the Croatian national soccer team.  HRVATSKA!

Oh, and one more thing for this post, which is not necessarily related to Halloween or costumes. Nana was making a couple cakes and decorating them and Pax was sitting up at the table and wanted to try, so he took a stab at decorating the cake and here's how it looked. Go Pax! Squeeze that cake frosting dispenser with all your might, buddy!

The Protege

And then, just when I thought I was getting good at hoops, along comes this guy.

At only 2, he can legitimately dribble the ball...

And then out at Papa's last weekend, this happened.

By the way, love Papa's reaction. Though in all seriousness, that was a pretty sweet jump shot from 4-5 feet out, and I'd have to say after two weeks of hoops camp they would be pretty impressed with his form.

Grandpa's Bday... Pax's Bday Suit

So Grandpa and Grandma came yesterday to pick us up and take us back to Nebraska for the week and specifically the July 4th celebration in Arapahoe (Mom's hometown, where Gma and Gpa still live).

But we wanted to do a little celebration for Grandpa because his birthday is coming up.

So we got a few pies from Hoosier Mama and got ready to sing.

And then Grandpa blew out his candles...

And then the party got a little rowdy. And by rowdy I mean Pax was, of course, already in his birthday suit because of his general disdain for having clothes on of any kind. So well dressed in his birthday hat... and only his birthday hat... he joined us for the rest of the celebration. Last minute someone snagged a paper towel to make this photo legal.

It was, as is always the case with Pax, hilarious.