Bike-A-Thon

Some local girls were planning a bike-a-thon to donate toward building an all-abilities playground last Saturday (May 12). I thought it would be fun to get involved. The event was several hours, but you could come ride your bike on the trail whenever and for however long you felt like it, and of course it was all ages. Vincent was so excited to collect money. First, he called my sister and went through the whole spiel, then he asked her to send $2. Next, he called G's mom and asked her to send $5. Then, my mom stopped by and he asked her for $10 (notice it just keeps going up?). Then, he called memaw back and told her to make sure poppa also sent $5. He had reached his $20 goal in...oh... 5 minutes.

Two days after he started collecting money, he lost a tooth. The tooth fairy brought him $2.

"What are you going to do with $2?" said Dada (who thought Tooth Fairy overpaid).

"I'm going to donate it to the bike-a-thon!" he said. My heart almost melted. He's been waiting for this tooth to fall out for weeks and when it finally did, he didn't think an instant before donating it to a cause.

In all, he ended up raising $30, completely by himself. On the day of the bike-a-thon, he had a blast. Man, moms are too freakin' lucky.

Getting ready to start.

  

Vincent has the dinosaur helmet on.

 

 Gary had to run to catch up to him.

 

Headed back.

Happy Birthday Goose!

On Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011, my "baby" turned 5. It's been the most amazing thing in the world to have watched him grow into the smart, quirky little man he is today.

We held a birthday party for him the week following his birthday. Since his best friend's birthday is one day after his, her mom and I decided to host their parties together. We've had parties together before and we usually just merge the two themes together. This year was no different. She was set on circus and princesses and Vincent was set on Transformers. I know what you're thinking... what a hodge-podge theme! And you're right. But hey, when you're 5 you know what you want!

My friend Heidi and I spent months thinking of fun games, collecting prizes and gathering things for the party. When we finally got together with all of it... it was insane. We had enough candy to rot out an elephant's teeth and enough prizes for a small army.

Vincent and Paige each invited children from their preschool classes. Vincent had two friends come and Paige had about 5. They both had cousins and other family members, which made for quite a crowd!

Paige felt like a princess in her dress!



Games before the kids arrived. We had a bean bag toss, made by Gary, ring toss, can knockdown, sand dig, face painting, tattoos, Plinko and a bounce house.


The cakes. Paige had a castle with people getting married in front. That was a requirement, which I love. Her aunt makes her cakes each year. This is the first year in awhile that I haven't made Vincent's cake, but we found this one and he loved the Transformers on top so we just went with it.



Same aunt that made the cake is painting faces! She's artistic.



When the kids first arrived they sat down to a table full of stickers and markers to make a goodie bag while the other children arrived. They used their bags to collect prizes from the games. And yes, I just glued pipe cleaners to lunch bags, but they held up awesome and I didn't see one broken bag!



Vincent got a tattoo and his face painted.


Paige tries her (left) hand at the bean bag toss.



Bouncin' fun!

Dada enjoying himself with Memaw and Popa in the background.



I know this is blurry, but I loved how you can see his 'tude in this one.



Vin with his two school friends.


Checking out their prizes.


Then, everyone got a chance to try to demolish the pinata!


Because really, who doesn't love hitting things?



Everyone got a chance to try to break the Transformer and free his candy.


Luckily we had some bigger kids to help out.



Ah! Finally! They all go for the candy!



Blowing out the candles. So dramatic, he is.


Now to open presents! I loved how Vincent opened his so slowly and looked at each one.

He was SO excited to get a bag of Kit-Kats from Paige's family. Why? Because they're Popa's favorite and he wanted to share. He had to get up and go show Popa.



This is after he opened Paige's present.


Aunt Kristy's present. He had such a reaction to each gift. I love it.


Oh, and while the kids were opening presents, we gave everyone a fresh bag of popcorn. Aren't the bags cute? This is the only picture I had of one, courtesy of a guest who didn't want her photo taken.



See? He's in shock.



Having such a good time!



After the party, Dad went to help his sister move and Vincent want to play with his cousins. We didn't get home until pretty late and he really wanted to play with some of his new stuff, but fell asleep in the car. I woke him up for a bath (I wasn't going to but he was really grimy from all the playing all day) and he went straight to sleep.

Sunday morning the first thing he said was "Is it time to play with my new toys yet?" He literally spent all day Sunday from when he woke up until he went to bed playing with all his new stuff and only really stopped to eat.

I'm so glad Gary, Heidi and I were able to make Paige and Vincent's 5th birthday as special as they are. I couldn't love two children more!

Growing Up!

Two weekends ago (Halloween weekend), Gary, Vincent and I visited the botanical garden (more about that later). When we were finished there, we decided to take a trip to Toys R Us to look for ideas for birthday presents for Vincent. I can't believe he will be 5 in just a few short days (8 to be exact!).

After testing out literally every bike that was his size, Vincent fell in love with a bright, gold bike. Yep, he skipped over the Spider Man, Transformer, Toy Story and all other themed bikes in lieu of a gold bike. You see, thought he could go faster on it, as well as learn to do tricks. He was standing up on it as he was riding it in the store! I think he really could go faster on it, but the frame is made from something lightweight.

The bike features alloy wheels, front and pedal brakes and pegs...yes, pegs.

The next morning (we got home late), Dad put the bike together and we "went for a spin." We went down to the track where Vin zipped around half a mile, no problem. Then he rode over to the park and back home. The past couple of times we've only gone about half a mile before coming home, but he's working on body strength to go up hills (he can't really even do tiny ones yet) and is figuring out the brakes.

Check out this little soon-to-be stuntman.

Putting the bike together.

Excited helper.

First ride.

Tiny incline...

Riding over to the track... nice, flat surface!

And away he goes!

First crash...

He's ok!

That's it for tonight. Happy Monday!

Circus Time!

Last Sunday, my G, V and I went to the circus. We went to the Kelly Miller Circus last year, but this year's acts were different. Here are a few photos. They're copyrighted so no stealing!

Doesn't he look so happy?

This is one of my favorite acts... child juggling... kind-of.

And finally... the closing act. Pretty cool if I do say so myself!