Recently in Celebration Category

It’s the scariest Halloween yet. Daniel, Will and Sean (as shown to the left) got the costumes they wanted, and they had a load of fun tonight. 90+ minutes around the neighborhood, and they really loaded up. Wow. They’re at home, getting ready for bed, but I think we’ll have plenty of candy for them.

Particularly because we hardly handed out any candy this year. The neighborhood was much less busy this year, even less than last year’s rainy adventure. So we have plenty left over for the adults, I guess.

I’m starting to think that maybe we should be calling her HIllary instead. You know — Sir Edmund Hillary?

She’s shown quite the penchant for high-risk adventure. There was the time (witnessed by the kids, but not Kellie or me) that she was supposedly hanging from the stair landing on the second floor, by her front paws — like a rock climber. (We think she lost her balance while walking on the outside of the banister.) She was able to get herself back up, apparently. There was no crash.

But she has also enjoyed herself, climbing inside our Christmas tree. Until this morning, she didn’t go more than halfway up (at least, while we’re around). But this morning, she started scaling to the heights of the tree, as you can see in the photos. Not sure what she is after - she doesn’t knock down the ornaments (though occasionally one may fall off from the shaking). But getting that high up, the ornaments were removed quickly. Don’t want them to come with a tree falling over.

She is a frisky little kitten, without much fear. Hopefully, she’ll mellow out as she gets older, like most cats do. She certainly is one-of-a-kind.

With apologies to the author/illustrator of Inherit the Mirth, we wish you all of the joy and blessings of this Easter season with some samples of his creation.

And if you haven’t seen the Inherit the Mirth and aren’t offended by finding the humor in the Bible, do check it out. Nana and Grampa had sent one of his books (Get Me To The Ark On Time) to Sean and Daniel, and they love reading it. Very silly, but a great lesson.

As for his other humorous posters, I like many of them, like these. These even still tie into the Easter story. Good stuff all around. It’s good to support those who spread the message and stories in a way that makes one smile.

And back in the home, the kids had a blast today. They survived church (or was that Mommy and Daddy survived church with them), and because it was so hot this afternoon (near 90 — the highest temp so far this year), they got to run through the front yard sprinklers. Topped it off with a visit to Brusters.

We hope your Easter was as fun as ours. Now, it’s back to work for me — weekend fun is over.

Four years ago today, I was driving on a rainy highway to get Kellie to the hospital so that Daniel (5 minutes older) and Sean could be born. How lucky we have been and are. Such a wonderful year this has been, and they really are turning into little boys now. They are not anything I would call a toddler any more.

They have had quite a weekend for celebrating their birthdays — 3 days of different events with variations on the family. I think (hope?) that’s all of the presents for now. After all, Christmas is only a month away. (Yikes!)

OK, so Kellie got some pictures of the boys with their Iron Man masks. (They actually like to dress up in them after dinner.) She did a good job getting a nice progression. I really love the fake muscles in the costumes, buffing up their young bodies.

Now everyone don’t rush out to order your own costumes.

The kids had a great time with Halloween this year. Getting costumes for Sean and Daniel was relatively easy. Even though they’ve never seen the movie, they both wanted Iron Man costumes when they saw them at Target. Luckily, they wanted different styles/colors, so it makes it a bit easier to keep track of them. (Unfortunately, I never got any pictures with their masks on. Sorry.)

Will was a bit more difficult. He’s not a big character guy, so in the end, he settled on a hot dog costume. I think it’s cool, and if I had more time (I didn’t brainstorm this until about a day before Halloween), I would have created a potato chip bag for myself to wear (green trashbag base, so probably sour cream and onion flavor). How very self-referential. Maybe next year (if Will does the costume again — it’s certainly big enough).

Hope everyone else had a great Halloween of trick or treating.

OK, so I’m a slacker, being 10 days late with this. Will’s birthday was last month, and he had quite the birthday weekend. I hope it was as fun for him as it was for us.

It’s hard to believe he has already turned 8 years old. As I told Kellie that Saturday night, in one more decade, Will will actually be off at college (if that’s the direction he goes). Keep growing up, Will. We’ll always be with you along the way.

Yes, we did wind up with a White Christmas. OK, technically it’s not snowing now, and the snow on the ground is almost a week old. But there is snow still there, so I think it counts.

The kids were wild this morning, tearing into their presents. They were really happy to see what Santa and family gave them. But things have now settled down a bit, though you certainly wouldn’t know it by looking at the floor.

But let’s also remember what this season is all about. And Linus and Charlie Brown really seem to have it down. (Yes, this is a repeat from last year. It’s still as relevant.)

Yup, the kids are really feeling it, too. Even Sean and Daniel are antsy about when Santa is going to get here. They really are itching to know that Santa will be here, even if they really don’t know what to expect. All three of them cannot wait for Christmas to be here.

That’s not to say that they don’t get the religious significance of tomorrow, either. We’ve been reading lots of Christmas story related books, and they know that we are celebrating Jesus’s birthday. (Will’s understanding is a bit deeper, as it should be with an older kid.)

But in honor of their antsyness, I give you this little Sesame Street ditty. Kinda cute, if you can stand Elmo and Cheryl Crow. (And yes, Sesame Street has lots of official short videos on YouTube now. Plenty to distract kids with, if they want to sit in your lap and share some computer time with you.)

Yes, it’s that time of year again. I hope she had a good birthday, although probably not as relaxing as she would have liked. Daniel had to see the doctor this morning about a cough. We seem to have caught it in time. There went much of her free time she had planned on today.

(The photo is one from October, when we visited Aunt Iris and Debbie at their farm. Yes, from an event I haven’t written about.)

Then, it was off to see Legendary Santa. All 3 boys actually sat still (no crying or shyness) for Santa — a first as a group. (There has always been at least one before this time.) More on that later. After all, this is about Kellie’s birthday.

Which meant a birthday dinner out — at O’Toole’s. This one was kind of cool, in that her brother Tim was also in town, so they got to celebrate their birthday together for once. (I guess I should wish him a happy birthday, too.) Of course, 3 kids don’t last forever in a restaurant, so we were the first to leave, while the rest of the Padgett clan stayed behind.

I know she’s tired, but I hope she still enjoyed her birthday. Now, for that backrub she was asking for…